Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
(RTA timing: 18:43.263)
Here's the second installment of my "Rough Drafts" series, where I publish TASes that I made for fun but don't care enough about to fully optimize and/or make entertaining.
Here's a warpless TAS of the European (PAL) version of Super Mario Bros. Compared to the NTSC release, this version runs at a slower framerate (~50 fps as opposed to NTSC's ~60.1 fps); however, the physics are scaled up to compensate, so that the overall feel of the game is (more or less) similar-ish to the original. This rescaling of the physics does introduce a unique set of glitches, most notably the ability to perform the "full flagpole glitch" (FFPG) on every flagpole in the game, without the need for clipping into the floor or bouncing off of an enemy like you'd need to do in NTSC SMB1.
This TAS improves chatterbox's TAS (youtu.be/oYiJDBOYX-8) by 137 (138?) frames. The improvements come mainly from using a faster method of accelerating from a standstill, and a faster powerup route (the 1-3/1-4 route is two framerules, or 36 frames, faster than the 1-2/1-3 route, in my testing). I didn't analyze their TAS so I don't know the precise breakdown of which levels the time saves/losses came from. (Hopefully I didn't lose a framerule in any level?)
By the way, I'd just like to point out how insane the 1-4 fire flower grab is: Grabbing the fire flower with running speed was one of the most recent improvements (2018) found in the NTSC warpless TAS, but PAL SMB1 physics are different so I wasn't sure if this was even possible here. So, I'm pretty amazed that I was somehow able to pull this off! What's more is that, if you subtract out the length of the powerup animation, I actually managed to finish the level on the *same exact framerule* as if I already had a fire flower and just ran straight through the level (note, the framerule timer pauses during powerup animations). In other words, grabbing the fire flower here doesn't lose any time besides the powerup animation.
Some things to test if you're looking to improve this TAS (not an exhaustive list):
• Whether score/coin count affects the amount of lag (3-4 in particular has an awful amount of it)
(Update: apparently duck-jumping magically removes all of the lag in the castle levels. Epic WTF moment.)
• Alternate 4-4 clip strategies (the level is currently 2 frames away from another framerule)
• 8-4 turnaround room is 1 subpixel away from another frame
• Several other levels are 1 or 2 frames away from another framerule (I don't remember which ones).
FM2 movie file download: dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1965593719/PAL_warpless.fm2
(RTA timing: 18:43.263)
Here's the second installment of my "Rough Drafts" series, where I publish TASes that I made for fun but don't care enough about to fully optimize and/or make entertaining.
Here's a warpless TAS of the European (PAL) version of Super Mario Bros. Compared to the NTSC release, this version runs at a slower framerate (~50 fps as opposed to NTSC's ~60.1 fps); however, the physics are scaled up to compensate, so that the overall feel of the game is (more or less) similar-ish to the original. This rescaling of the physics does introduce a unique set of glitches, most notably the ability to perform the "full flagpole glitch" (FFPG) on every flagpole in the game, without the need for clipping into the floor or bouncing off of an enemy like you'd need to do in NTSC SMB1.
This TAS improves chatterbox's TAS (youtu.be/oYiJDBOYX-8) by 137 (138?) frames. The improvements come mainly from using a faster method of accelerating from a standstill, and a faster powerup route (the 1-3/1-4 route is two framerules, or 36 frames, faster than the 1-2/1-3 route, in my testing). I didn't analyze their TAS so I don't know the precise breakdown of which levels the time saves/losses came from. (Hopefully I didn't lose a framerule in any level?)
By the way, I'd just like to point out how insane the 1-4 fire flower grab is: Grabbing the fire flower with running speed was one of the most recent improvements (2018) found in the NTSC warpless TAS, but PAL SMB1 physics are different so I wasn't sure if this was even possible here. So, I'm pretty amazed that I was somehow able to pull this off! What's more is that, if you subtract out the length of the powerup animation, I actually managed to finish the level on the *same exact framerule* as if I already had a fire flower and just ran straight through the level (note, the framerule timer pauses during powerup animations). In other words, grabbing the fire flower here doesn't lose any time besides the powerup animation.
Some things to test if you're looking to improve this TAS (not an exhaustive list):
• Whether score/coin count affects the amount of lag (3-4 in particular has an awful amount of it)
(Update: apparently duck-jumping magically removes all of the lag in the castle levels. Epic WTF moment.)
• Alternate 4-4 clip strategies (the level is currently 2 frames away from another framerule)
• 8-4 turnaround room is 1 subpixel away from another frame
• Several other levels are 1 or 2 frames away from another framerule (I don't remember which ones).
FM2 movie file download: dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1965593719/PAL_warpless.fm2
