Uploaded November 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
THIS VIDEO IS OUTDATED - SEE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS VIDEO HERE:
youtu.be/2irYbgBSppU
I collect the star Pole-Jumping for Red Coins in Dire, Dire Docks using 2 A presses. The A presses are as follows:
A Press #1: to jump from one pole to another pole, to swim to the shell, to swim with the shell to clone a pole, and to swim with that pole clone to a desired spot in the water
A Press #2: to jump off of the pole clone onto the platforms above and to swim to shore
This video is an improvement from my previous video in which I collected this star in 2.5 A presses. You can find that video here: youtu.be/NUSnl0F4d_4. Since then, I was informed by Tyler Kehne that a technique known as the 207 dive recover might very well be able to ascend the cork boxes in the submarine room. Thus, I tested it and eventually got it to work!
If you're wondering about the 207 dive recover, it is a technique to use a dive recover to ascend at most 207 units by taking advantage of poor object collision testing. Essentially, the sides of the cork boxes push Mario outwards, but these walls are misaligned at the corner. Therefore, Mario can do a dive recover into this misalignment, allowing him to get under the top without being pushed away by the sides. The top then clips Mario upwards onto it.
If you're wondering what a half A press is, read this before commenting to ask. I use a special notation that allows for half A presses. Specifically, if you enter a level already holding the A button, then that A press only counts as half. It's actually pretty important to distinguish between the A button being PRESSED and the A button being HELD. While pressing A allows Mario to execute several kinds of jumps, the holding of A allows Mario to swim in water, do little kicks up slopes, grab the owl, and twirl slowly. So if a star requires the A button to be held, the pressing of the A button could have been done at some point in the past, and just held until that moment. For instance, let's say there are two stars: one that requires the A button to be pressed (x1 A presses), and another that only requires the A button to be held (0.5 A presses). Individually, these stars would both require a full A press. But if these stars were collected one after the other, then the A button could be pressed during the former, and held all the way through to the next star to be used in the latter. In this manner, these stars together would only use 1 A press, whereas they would take 2 A presses if done individually. So during a 120 star run, you would round these half A presses down, but on a star-by-star basis you would round them up.
ABC Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvvhlevqC2d6vis077yFHuLJHYtTtqe_
ABC Routes: docs.google.com/document/d/1ypRVVRyf4x-v8GqCSmKYnicrfKSIjao3Y1ZVl52RIyM/edit
THIS VIDEO IS OUTDATED - SEE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS VIDEO HERE:
youtu.be/2irYbgBSppU
I collect the star Pole-Jumping for Red Coins in Dire, Dire Docks using 2 A presses. The A presses are as follows:
A Press #1: to jump from one pole to another pole, to swim to the shell, to swim with the shell to clone a pole, and to swim with that pole clone to a desired spot in the water
A Press #2: to jump off of the pole clone onto the platforms above and to swim to shore
This video is an improvement from my previous video in which I collected this star in 2.5 A presses. You can find that video here: youtu.be/NUSnl0F4d_4. Since then, I was informed by Tyler Kehne that a technique known as the 207 dive recover might very well be able to ascend the cork boxes in the submarine room. Thus, I tested it and eventually got it to work!
If you're wondering about the 207 dive recover, it is a technique to use a dive recover to ascend at most 207 units by taking advantage of poor object collision testing. Essentially, the sides of the cork boxes push Mario outwards, but these walls are misaligned at the corner. Therefore, Mario can do a dive recover into this misalignment, allowing him to get under the top without being pushed away by the sides. The top then clips Mario upwards onto it.
If you're wondering what a half A press is, read this before commenting to ask. I use a special notation that allows for half A presses. Specifically, if you enter a level already holding the A button, then that A press only counts as half. It's actually pretty important to distinguish between the A button being PRESSED and the A button being HELD. While pressing A allows Mario to execute several kinds of jumps, the holding of A allows Mario to swim in water, do little kicks up slopes, grab the owl, and twirl slowly. So if a star requires the A button to be held, the pressing of the A button could have been done at some point in the past, and just held until that moment. For instance, let's say there are two stars: one that requires the A button to be pressed (x1 A presses), and another that only requires the A button to be held (0.5 A presses). Individually, these stars would both require a full A press. But if these stars were collected one after the other, then the A button could be pressed during the former, and held all the way through to the next star to be used in the latter. In this manner, these stars together would only use 1 A press, whereas they would take 2 A presses if done individually. So during a 120 star run, you would round these half A presses down, but on a star-by-star basis you would round them up.
ABC Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvvhlevqC2d6vis077yFHuLJHYtTtqe_
ABC Routes: docs.google.com/document/d/1ypRVVRyf4x-v8GqCSmKYnicrfKSIjao3Y1ZVl52RIyM/edit






![SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 1x A Presses [OUTDATED]
THIS VIDEO IS OUTDATED - SEE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS VIDEO HERE:
https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A
I collect the star Watch for Rolling Rocks in Hazy Maze Cave using 1 A press. The A press is to do a hyper speed double jump up to the star from the underground lake.
This video is an improvement from my previous video in which I collected this star in 2 A presses. You can find that video here: https://youtu.be/DZxaWsnucGM. To understand the improvement since then, were going to need some background information:
Originally, Plush figured out we could accumulate hyper speed in the underground lake using hyper speed water sliding, which can be seen here: https://youtu.be/69NMgKGFKC0?t=1m29s. This technique involved using Z to conserve horizontal speed out of water, and C^ to slide down steep slopes while gaining speed. Soon after this, I realized that with enough hyper speed, we could do a very high double jump all the way to the Watch for Rolling Rocks star [https://youtu.be/DahyjxZzRIs]. Unfortunately, this technique required ~1500 horizontal speed, whereas hyper speed water sliding could only accumulate ~500 speed, and this was simply not enough [https://youtu.be/hipaBm6UWUM]. All hope seemed lost, until today when Tyler Kehne discovered that hyper speed walking could be performed in the underground lake as well [https://youtu.be/EX2CCKfXBpc]. With this technique, we could accumulate 1700+ hyper speed, which was more than enough to collect the Watch for Rolling Rocks star using 1 A press.
So how does hyper speed walking work? It involves a steep slope that descends into water. Normally, Mario wouldnt be able to stand on a slope this steep, but the shallow water gives the ground special properties that allows him to do so. Furthermore, if Mario tries to run uphill on this ground, he will end up running backwards at an increasingly fast rate. Usually, this walking cant be used to accumulate all that much speed, because (1) the slope runs out, (2) the slope connects to a wall at angle that isnt 90 degrees and so running backwards into it moves Mario either uphill or downhill, or (3) Mario gains too much speed and can no longer properly follow along the shallow water. Of course, all of this was already known. What wasnt known (and what Tyler discovered) was that the red wall stops Mario from moving while allowing his backwards speed to increase. With this observation, the Watch for Rolling Rocks strat became 100% doable.
ABC Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvvhlevqC2d6vis077yFHuLJHYtTtqe_
ABC Routes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypRVVRyf4x-v8GqCSmKYnicrfKSIjao3Y1ZVl52RIyM/edit SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 1x A Presses [OUTDATED]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yGic8wwhm6g/mqdefault.jpg)


![SM64 - The Pit and the Pendulums - 2x A Presses [OUTDATED]
THIS VIDEO IS OUTDATED - SEE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS VIDEO HERE:
https://youtu.be/3UW5KSvtBcU
I collect the star The Pit and the Pendulums in Tick Tock Clock using 2 A presses. The A presses are as follows:
A Press #1: to jump onto the platform preceding the cogs with the bob-omb
A Press #2: to jump off of the pole
This video is an improvement from my previous video in which I collected this star in 3 A presses. You can find that video here: http://youtu.be/q9HFvjwMtFg. Since then, I worked out a way to get from the up-and-down elevator to the pole platform without having to press A. Specifically, I bring a bob-omb all the way from its starting point to the elevator and collect its coin there to activate the 100 coin star. I then combine vertical speed conservation, a ground pound, and a star dance clip to get up to the pole platform.
So what is vertical speed conservation? When Mario does a dive recover and lands, the variable that maintains his vertical speed does NOT reset to zero. So, if Mario lands while he is falling, then this vertical speed will be negative. But if Mario lands while he is still ascending (as is the case when he dive recovers on a rising elevator), then this vertical speed will be positive. This vertical speed WILL reset to 0 if Mario moves at all, but punching and breakdancing will not affect it. Anyway, once Mario becomes airborne, then his vertical speed takes instant effect. So by storing a positive vertical speed and not resetting it, I am able to have Mario pop up when he punches his way off of the elevator. The reason I needed this vertical speed bounce instead of a regular dive recover is because Mario is able to ground pound with the former, and so the combined height advantages of vertical speed conservation, a ground pound, and a star dance clip were just enough to make it up to the pole platform.
So what is a star dance clip? The star dance clip is a technique where Mario collects a star, thereby allowing him to get onto ledges he wouldnt normally be able to get on. You see, when Mario collects a star, he enters a state where he is able to grab onto ledges. But when he grabs on in this state, instead of entering the grabbing on animation, he just appears at the top of the ledge and does his star dance.
ABC Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvvhlevqC2d6vis077yFHuLJHYtTtqe_
ABC Routes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypRVVRyf4x-v8GqCSmKYnicrfKSIjao3Y1ZVl52RIyM/edit SM64 - The Pit and the Pendulums - 2x A Presses [OUTDATED]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/z5-jeg3di9E/mqdefault.jpg)
