If you follow the retro gaming scene on Twitch, it's likely you spend a decent amount of time watching speedrunners. It can be fascinating to see how older titles are manipulated, streamlined and mastered over hundreds of hours, and if you happen to catch a world record live it can be an exciting community moment.
One of the true golden standards in speedrunning, Super Mario Bros., has been a focus of attention as players looks to shave individual frames off the record. Recently a major landmark was hit, and so strong is the optimisation of the speedrun for the game, it may never be broken again.
Niftski set a time of 4:54.948 for Any%; that's the first sub 4:55 time ever, and at this point it looks extremely difficult (perhaps impossible, but the community may keep trying) to ever record a 4:53 time. You can see the run below, just be aware that there's a lot of excitement so the video gets loud when the run ends.
Some of you may be wondering about the fact this is being played through an emulator with a keyboard. It's worth noting that this run has been verified by speedrun.com in the main category, though as you can see those that don't use original hardware have an 'EMU' under platform. When it's a hardware-accurate emulation the records do stand, so it's all above board.
Of course, others can chase to improve the record by a matter of frames, but we may never see it go as low as 4:43.
[source youtube.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 20
He did it?! That’s amazing! Great news.
NINJA APPROVED
Still speedrunning after all these years?
Sub 4:45 sounds impressive to me!
As much as there is always that one more trick, this is getting insanely optimised. It could be the most perfect a human can get.
The whole framerule system makes this game particularly optimized as a speed game, perhaps one of the most optimized in all gaming. I wouldn't be surprised if someone managed to match TAS
I'm sad Prince Philip didn't get to see this
Didn't know glitching a game was speed run.ill settle with my 6 min run on my original nes
@Darkyoshi98 I take it you don’t watch too many speed runs. Glitching is very much a part of speedrunning and in most cases, makes the run more interesting and difficult to pull off.
@Darkyoshi98 "Any %" pretty much always includes glitch exploitation.
@Chrysologus It used to be, but since playing on original hardware becomes a major cost barrier to new runners over time, people adjusted. Especially since official emulation (VC) tends to not be accurate enough to be on the same boards.
I wish there were an altogether different category for heathens who choose to play with a keyboard. It repulses me.
@KJW90 FS Brilliant 😂
@Chrysologus It depends really. The most hardcore and respected speed runs and records are set with original hardware being a requirement. The type of record that this was is probably the type of speed run with the least and most lenient requirements possible.
@Darkyoshi98 You wouldn’t like the credits wrong warp any% Mario 3 run, then.
I didn’t know you could clip through the pipe like that in 1-2. Back in my day we had to go through the blocks at the top the way Nintendo Power told us to.
Billy Mitchell is innocent!
I was transfixed by the chat going wild as he was approaching the end and I missed it.
@ST3 Didn't that lead to the minus world?
@Cia It sure did!
In few ten years when people will have robotic arms and will be able to do TASes this could be possible... ))
@JayJ While any% is 'lenient' in that it has no restrictions on glitches, it is actually the 'most hardcore and respected' speed run in SMB1. It is much more difficult to do several pixel perfect maneuvers than just playing the game regularly. Also, all official categories permit approved emulators.
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