Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A Cave Story mod by MintiFreshFox where the objective is to jump into the spikes in each level. You can download it here: doukutsuclub.knack.com/database#search-database/mod-details/67c61be201b23c0311510c7f
Sub-5 is theoretically possible with good RNG (birds in level 12 and Doctor spawns in level 20) and clean execution, but I'll leave that to someone else.
Watch me live on Twitch: twitch.tv/periwinkle9
A Cave Story mod by MintiFreshFox where the objective is to jump into the spikes in each level. You can download it here: doukutsuclub.knack.com/database#search-database/mod-details/67c61be201b23c0311510c7f
Sub-5 is theoretically possible with good RNG (birds in level 12 and Doctor spawns in level 20) and clean execution, but I'll leave that to someone else.
Watch me live on Twitch: twitch.tv/periwinkle9
![[TAS] Super Mario Bros. coinless in 4:59.057 (4:55.780 RTA timing)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cQ3c-KhT74Q/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Bros. coinless in 4:59.057 (4:55.780 RTA timing)
This is a 21-frame improvement to my previous TAS of this: https://youtu.be/57xPZ9SF8BA
The improvement comes from a faster 1-1 underground strat. Thanks to Kriller37 for informing me (over 2 months ago at this point) that, in fact, I suck at walljumping.
I have a couple of other SMB1-related TASes that Ive had in the pipeline for quite a while now, but never bothered to finish polishing them up and uploading them. I should probably get around to doing that at some point....
FM2 download: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/472441778/coinless_v2.fm2")
![[TAS] Desert Cave in 7:36:02.74](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cnIvaT_wkDE/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Desert Cave in 7:36:02.74
This didnt need to exist.
Link to the mod if you want to play this yourself for some reason: https://doukutsuclub.knack.com/database#search-database/mod-details/61798796822a84001fb419d1/
The timing in the title is from power on to the start of the final screen transition. If timing from pressing New, it would be a 7:36:01.96.")
![[TAS] Super Mario Bros. Flow (Hyper) warps in 2:09.919](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/crrkCUUICac/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Super Mario Bros. Flow (Hyper) warps in 2:09.919
Made by myself and Kriller37. RTA timing is 2:08.888.
Super Mario Bros. Flow is a romhack that removes most cutscenes and waiting periods, allowing you to run from one level to the next seamlessly. You can download it here: https://github.com/UnknownJoe796/SuperMarioBrosFlow
Kriller37 and I started this TAS pretty much right after Kosmics playthrough of the hack (https://youtu.be/fmR97uf-7No), but then it sat in limbo for over a year until recently we decided to finally release it.
This is the Hyper variant of the romhack, which introduces a few additional changes/mechanics:
• Increased top speed (both on the ground and underwater) to 4px/frame instead of the normal 2.5px/frame
• Higher bounces off of enemies by holding A (just like newer Mario games)
• Quick drop: Pressing down while in the air sets you to downward terminal velocity instantly.
There are also several quirks that we noticed that are probably unintentional, but are nevertheless abused to no end in this TAS:
• Faster fast acceleration: When accelerating from a standstill, its faster to use quick drop to land on the ground very early and then use L+R on the ground to accelerate. (This would also be true in vanilla SMB1, if it were possible to do a jump smaller than a 1f jump.)
• A+R is weird: For whatever reason, pressing A+R in some cases preserves the acceleration amount from the previous frame, so the fastest method of accelerating actually ends up being L+R, R, A+R, D+R, repeat. This saves over a pixel compared to doing a simple backwards jump.
Also, A+R when doing a backwards jump causes Mario to drop to walking speed, but this can be avoided by not pressing R on that frame.
• Underwater acceleration: spamming A+L+R, R makes you accelerate extremely quickly (maybe for the same reason why A+R is weird on the ground?).
• Instant turnaround: Pressing left when in the air with 64 speed and 0xE4 or higher subspeed causes Marios speed to instantly become -64. This is quite convenient for turnarounds in warp zones.
• Ground clips: Quick drop allows you to clip into places that wouldnt normally be possible to clip into (see: the ground clip at the end of 1-2). It also lets you spam backwards jumps to accelerate with running speed acceleration (1.A0) while staying inside the floor.
• Death warps: At the end of some levels, the level counter increments early making it faster to die and respawn at the start of the next level instead of just running through. This comes up more often in warpless but you can still see it here in 1-1.
• Level loading limit: Marios top speed is set at the maximum that the level loading routine can keep up with. In some cases, though (most notably in 8-3), the level loading still cant keep up and so the level glitches out and starts looping parts of it. This is a bigger issue in warpless but ends up not mattering in any% (see 8-3 notes below)
Individual level notes:
1-1: Using quick drop in the underground lets you land on the center platform to get running speed a frame earlier. Also, pressing A+D on the frame before running off the edge lets you land a frame earlier.
At the end, instant turnaround is used to die on the goomba after scrolling the screen far enough to trigger the level transition.
1-2: Quick drop makes it possible in some cases to stomp a koopa and then kick its shell without slowing down.
4-1: It would be possible to save time by death warping to 4-2 if the lakitu reappeared early enough and dropped a spiny shell (see: https://youtu.be/oCcAcfdtu0A?t=58). Unfortunately, this doesnt seem to be possible here.
4-2: Shoutouts to Kriller37 for TASing this whole level. The pipe transitions are short enough that you can enter the pipe with speed and successfully wrong warp before the screen scrolls too far. Kriller also found out that the wrong warp can still work even if the screen scrolls over on the last frame before the transition, which means you dont have to gain as much xpos.
8-1, 8-2: Nothing particularly unusual. Parakoopas can be stomped twice with quick drop, which is pretty cool.
8-3: This level has undergone the most revision over time. You can see a bit more about its history here: https://youtu.be/cpDFYxlv65Y
It may seem like allowing the level to loop is unoptimal, but actually I tested several different strategies and this was the fastest.
8-4: No need to walljump when you can just make the jump. :)
That combined with quick turnaround for the wrong warp made this level pretty simple to TAS.
FM2 download: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/475140850/SMBFlowHyper-warps.fm2")
![[TAS] The 2000 IQ Cave Story Quiz: Time Trial in 0452](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eoI9b1rP3aQ/mqdefault.jpg "[TAS] The 2000 IQ Cave Story Quiz: Time Trial in 0452
Only minor quiz spoilers here. If you want to test your own Cave Story IQ first, go here: https://doukutsuclub.knack.com/database#search-database/mod-details/5ce12d882acb7100072dc926/
The time trial mode of this mod is unlocked after completing the normal quiz and features only the questions that have non-trivial execution (i.e., more than just pick the correct answer).
The spikes are _supposed_ to hurt you, but with subpixel-perfect precision (1/512th pixel) you can slip in between them without taking damage. (Dont try it at home, youll never get it.)
I deliberately answered Q45 incorrectly because it would have been much slower to get the correct answer. Thankfully, its not required to complete all of the questions perfectly in order to finish the time trial. :P
Fun fact: I realized after making this TAS in Hourglass and then trying to encode the video that there were some...issues with using Hourglass for this (mostly with the weird framerate of the game, and that I had mistakenly specified the wrong framerate for the movie). So I had to make a Linux port so I could dump the video through libTAS instead.
btw Enlight, wtf is that MOD command, it makes no sense-")
