My 4:59 is improvable (sorta), but I'm working on some other projects for the moment. Though, I've been playing occasionally trying to improve my run. The warpless run is definitely way more improvable. I think I could get around 19:15 if I spent more time with it. A 2-1 walljump would save about a second, the warpless has plenty of mistakes.
Hello everyone! Sorry to disappear like that. Glad to be back I am a bit lost when I haven´t followed the forum with exceptions for a few ocassions.
For a warpless run. what would be best, fire-flower or not? I would say fire-flower would be tricky and random mostly because of Bowser King Koopas fire. Any comments on that?
One difficult thing with using the fire-flower would be how to practice the levels with fire flower. Running as small Mario is easy to practice if you use the 1-up trick in 3-1 to get 99 1-ups or so. It would be possible to practice on an emulator but the controler lag makes it hard to practice the parts of the game when tight excecution is necessary. Question: do anyone knows about a solution so it would be possible to practice with the fire-flower? For example: If someone know some kind of Action-replay or other cheat machine to get instant lifes and instant fire-flower in SMB. That would help a lot.
Haven't personally tested Frezy but I found some possible game genie codes for starting with fire flower and unlimited lives
Stay as Fire Mario: PZTLLX AATLGZ SZLIVO
Unlimited lives for both players: SXIOPO
The fire flower one says something about losing it if you fall to your death though, so it may not make you come back with it after you die, I'm not sure.
Small mario is likely faster just because in the end, the luck involved in perfecting the bowser fights is annoying. However, many runs have been made and have incredible luck and skill (Mario 3 ;)). It would be harder to navigate some areas as big Mario though.
There's a much larger possibility that you would get hit by accident somewhere. If you get hit before world 6, it's likely you will end up losing time than if you just were small Mario the whole time.
I'd have to do some tests, but think being big Mario would probably save around 12-15 seconds if all went perfectly. ((~3 seconds*7 bowser fights) - (~5-7 seconds to get the mushroom + fire and time lost being big)).
I would say playing as fire flower would eliminate a lot of tight execution when jumping over phirana plant pipes because of the possibility to shot the pirhanas. It would even save time at one or two spots on the stages that I have found. The swim levels that is hard to perfect as small Mario might be easier too when you can shot down fishes and octopus type. I haven´t exprimented a lot with the bowser fights so that might be annoying. a couple of fireballs seems to be a lot of trouble some times. It is also possible to duck-jump to be smaller. I think I do that mostly without loosing speed.
however Game genie might be a good idea to try out.
Initial testing = fire is very easy for me now. Pretty sure I can beat my run given a week or so. Pretty sure I can destroy my run given a month or two.
I have been using fire a lot more the past year or so just messing around and whatnot. I'm very good at maneuvering in most situations. There are still a bunch of things I need to test though. I'd like to make a pretty solid run if I can.
I'm having some doubts that I can even get 19:15. haha. It won't stop me from trying though.
EDIT: Based on how many times this TAS got fireworks, I estimate that 19:15 is basically a perfect time without getting power-ups. I don't see breaking 19 minutes as a possibility.
EDIT2: progress: no progress. This requires a bit of luck to get down.