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Is 4:55 the perfect speedrun? Super Mario Bros. World Record Explained

Feb 27, 2020
On September 24, 2018, Super Mario Bros. made history. - I can not believe it! The match was won in 4 minutes and 55.913 seconds in what could be the last second of rest in history. Let's see how the streak was achieved, how it could be beaten and if the legendary 4:54 is possible. - I'm very good at that. In February, Darbian held the

world

record

with 4:56.528, when Kosmic beat it with 4:56.462. The third-place runner attempted to beat that

record

and on May 11 he set a new personal best of 4:56.495, two frames behind Kosmic. - Yeah! My God! A PB! How long has it been?
is 4 55 the perfect speedrun super mario bros world record explained
He continued playing and two weeks later, on May 25, he set a new

world

record with a time of 4:56.245. At the time, Somewes had one goal in mind: to be the first person to run a 4:55. He tried and tried for four months, but there was a problem: 4:55 is difficult. It's really very difficult. This is what happened during those four months. Somewes recorded a total of 6022 attempts. 2,141 of them beat 1-1. 795 attempts were better than 1-2, but only 442 of them were fast enough to enter World 4 with a pace of 4:55. This means that World 1 alone is so difficult to do fast enough that it had a 7.3% success rate.
is 4 55 the perfect speedrun super mario bros world record explained

More Interesting Facts About,

is 4 55 the perfect speedrun super mario bros world record explained...

Of those 442 races to World 4, 271 of them reached 4-2 and only 81 of them reached World 8. In other words, for every 75 attempts, a single race would reach World 8 at a pace of 4:55 . 43 runs went from 8-1, 12 runs went from 8-2 and only two runs reached the final level. Both attempts ended in the same place: in this pixel-

perfect

, frame-

perfect

wall jump. The first missed the pixel and the second hit the correct pixel, but in some cases he didn't time his jump correctly. And that's how, more than 6,000 attempts later, 4:55 still eluded him. Meanwhile, Kosmic had also been playing, but he was only playing to beat Somewes' record, not by 4:55.
is 4 55 the perfect speedrun super mario bros world record explained
He was also on the verge of achieving it, but so far he had not been successful. This brings us to the night of September 24th. After about an hour of attempts, Kosmic managed to tie Somewes' world record with a 4:56.245. - I don't know! I don't know how fast it is, I hope the spin doesn't kill me. After celebrating his newly acquired tied record, he decided to take a few attempts at 4:55, just for fun, with no expectations of even making it to World 8 once. And that's when this happened. This time we'll only look at the highlights of the race, but the full unedited sprint race is available here.
is 4 55 the perfect speedrun super mario bros world record explained
I am also not going to explain in full detail most of the tricks used in the race, as they were already

explained

in detail in my previous video. If you've never seen a Super Mario Bros.

speedrun

before, you should watch that video first, because although it covers Kosmic's 4:56.462 from February, all the information is still relevant to the 4:55. Here's a quick summary of the main things you need to know. First, the game runs at 60 frames per second, so one frame is equal to 1/60th of a second. The game will only load the next level every 21 frames, or 0.35 seconds.
That amount of time is called the framework rule. For the first seven levels, the goal is to always stay on the fastest frame rule, since losing a frame rule means losing 0.35 seconds. In the last level, each square counts because time stops when you touch the axe, which is not influenced by the square rules. It is possible to crop it on walls, but it requires a position even more precise than a pixel. Distance units smaller than one pixel are called subpixels. These clips allow tricks like the flagpole glitch, the bullet bill glitch and also save time on 1-2 and 4-2.
They are all extremely difficult to perform and usually require several presses of perfect buttons to work. Sometimes you can trick the game into sending you to a different room than intended by scrolling the screen past a certain point. It is used in 4-2 and 8-4. You can also perform a wall jump by hitting the wall exactly between two blocks and jumping on the same frame. Finally, Mario accelerates faster in the opposite direction that he is looking, so looking back is faster when he accelerates from a standstill. That should cover the most important things. For all the details, my previous video covered it. - That's a good start.
Then, Kosmic managed to get the flagpole ruling 1-1. Then he brought out the latest addition to Super Mario Bros.

speedrun

s: the 1-2 tube clip. Come on! I hope it's quick! This trick was the last piece of the 4:55 puzzle. To achieve this, you must first beat 1-2 without slowing down, which is difficult enough. This is crucial because any deviation from the optimal strategy will change Mario's sub-pixel position, which in turn can make the clip more difficult or impossible. Then you need to land right here, release B to slow down to walking speed, and perform a 1-frame jump.
To finish, you must go far enough to the right to load the warp zone correctly and go to World 4. If you don't, you will end up in World 36, or World Minus. This jump to the pipeline is particularly important. Because Mario accelerates faster backwards, Kosmic wants to look to the right while holding his left. Jumping onto the same square he lands on, Mario doesn't have time to turn around and keeps looking to the right. This extra acceleration speed is usually the last little push racers need to get to the pipe in time to save the frame rule.
There are two main reasons why this trick is the most difficult of the entire course. First, because you need to play A for 1/60 of a second. Secondly, because you need to do everything in a few frames from perfection. On top of that, due to the detour to load the warp zone, this trick only saves a frame rule at best. That's why runners never included it until it was the last possible way to save time. - Free. Here, Kosmic fixes the flagpole mistake again and goes in 4-2. - This is 4:55. Tell your friends. He did the same wall clip as always, but this time he was a little slow.
But thanks to some really precise movement in the rest of the level, he managed to save the frame rule and stay on a 4:55 pace entering World 8. He got the good judges at 8-1, so he only had to hit the star block. To not waste time. At this point, he was already excited at the prospect of getting a 4:55. - Am I about to become the most decisive player alive? But then, he had the bullet ticket problem at the end of 8-2. - This is crazy! This time, he avoided the frame lag that can be obtained from getting Bullet Bill Glitch.
At this point, the race was getting really serious, because Bullet Bill Glitch is an important trick that many attempts fail at. - It's too slow! In my previous video, I

explained

that one of the biggest possible time savers was in 8-3. Because the setup for the flagpole miss is more difficult in 8-3 than in 1-1 and 4-1, he decided to skip that trick back then. However, to get the 4:55, he had to do it. Fortunately, HappyLee discovered an easier way to set up the 8-3 flagpole glitch than the one I mentioned last time. Instead of starting the level by walking and pressing B on a specific square, you can start by pressing right, A, and B at the same time.
This causes Mario to jump at the beginning of the stage and slows him down enough to reach 242 on the timer and avoid the fireworks that would cost him time. Once this is done, you must also release it while in the air for 1 to 3 frames at some point during the stage. How long you have released correctly affects how you will need to perform the flagpole glitch. If you released it during a frame, you'll have to land on the first pixel of this block without holding B. On the same frame you land on, start holding B. Exactly two frames later, jump.
This aligns it perfectly to hold it inside the base of the flagpole. Now, if you successfully released for 3 frames, you should do this: land on the second pixel of the block instead of the first. After you start holding B, it jumps only one frame later, not two. Fortunately, if you released correctly for two frames, you can make any of those settings and it will work. This means that runners must be aware of how long they released correctly and adjust their game accordingly. In this run, Kosmic threw correctly for two frames, meaning he could do either setup and still suffer a flagpole error.
At this moment, Kosmic was shocked. - There's no way this is happening right now! According to Somewes' attempt count, the probability of reaching 8-4 at 4:55 pace after a successful 1-2 clip is on the order of 1 in 400, and Kosmic had just achieved it on his first attempt. But he still had some tricks ahead at 8-4. In the second room, he lost 3 squares in the wall jump. The reason cannot be pinpointed to anything specific, but his entry into the pipeline could have been quicker. In this room, he tried a different strategy. Instead of stopping at the exact pixel where the game changes the destination from the pipe to the water room, it decided to scroll the screen 6 more pixels.
This allows you to accelerate enough to reach racing speed and enter the pipe faster. This strategy does not save time in most cases, but it is much safer. If you stop a little early, you simply won't be able to reach running speed and will lose a couple of frames, rather than ruining the entire run by going to the wrong room. It's also quite forgiving, as you can go much further and only lose a few frames. The main risk with this strategy is jumping onto the pipe too late and crashing into it. Kosmic was afraid to do just that, so he jumped early, which didn't allow him to reach the running speed he wanted and cost him 7 frames.
However, fortunately, he knew that he was fast enough to make it to 4:55 anyway. - Anyway, it's slow, set 4:55. - Please finish. - I can not believe it! - As? That was my first race! Kosmic was lucky enough to get a pattern where Bowser jumps forward, making it trivial to get past him. And just like that, he had beaten the game in 4 minutes and 55.913 seconds. The Kosmic speedrun is perhaps the biggest achievement of the year in speedrunning. The previous world record holder, in some cases, recorded 6,000 attempts since he achieved the world record 4 months ago. A moment like this might have taken 20,000 attempts from Kosmic, but he got it on his ninth attempt, and the first attempt to successfully latch onto the pipe at 1-2.
However, as amazing as the 4:55 is, Kosmic's speedrun is still not perfect. He could be defeated if he performed better than 8-4. And that's exactly what some did. - Alright! Let's do it! Gotta get that quick acceleration! By the way, I have no idea why I went through that hammer. I've never done that in a race or practice, I don't think, under this rule. - Uh oh. - 4:55! There is! Oh my god, is it disco? While editing this video, Somewes reclaimed the world record with 4:55.796, after just 132 additional attempts, including a new personal best along the way. But even though he saved 7 frames on Kosmic, some didn't play perfectly 8-4 either.
Compared to a perfect 8-4 without fast accelerations, he lost 3 frames in the wall jump room, 3 frames in the spin room, although he regained 4 frames with a fast acceleration and 2 frames in the water room for a total of 4 frames. But if we take the fastest 8-4 ever done in training, which is a time recently set by GTAce, his time would be 4:55.563. GTAce used fast acceleration in three different rooms, allowing it to save 10 frames in a perfect 8-4 without fast acceleration. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to achieve this rapid acceleration perfectly over an entire game for one simple reason.
When practicing, racers use a save state that allows them to restart the level at will. This allows them to have a very quick way to retry this quick acceleration and also use the save state to their advantage. Quick acceleration requires very quick actions immediately upon taking control of Mario. In a typical setup, this occurs after this long black screen, with little time to react and press the button correctly. However, by using a saved state you can make inputs much easier to time and, combined with the ability to make dozens of attempts in a short period of time, makes this quick acceleration much easier in practice than in a real race.
This quick speedup can save up to five frames, but someone trying it in a real race will probably save a couple of frames at best. As a result, thereal human limit is estimated between 4:55.613 and 4:55.646. There is something else that could be done to reduce the record even further. On March 4, 2018, StuckInAPlate managed to complete a framerule 8-1 faster than what is currently done in speedruns. He did this by accelerating rapidly at the beginning of the level and performing a flagpole glitch. If you remember my previous video, the flagpole glitch only saves 15 frames. This is true with the normal setup which involves releasing B and jumping off the stairs.
However, there is a way to do it faster. If you hold B and right throughout the setup, you can save 19 frames with the trick. Of course, there is a catch. The way to do it and save 19 frames is significantly more difficult than the normal flagpole error. The simplest method found so far requires you to drop exactly two squares at a specific point in the level. The time to make that release is just over a tenth of a second, but releasing exactly for exactly 1/30th of a second is very difficult. If you did it correctly, you can perform the flagpole glitch by jumping on this exact frame and holding A for exactly three frames.
From there, you will cut out the inside of the block. Sometimes you can jump a frame late and still have a problem with the flagpole. In this case, however, you can't afford to do that, because it would cause you to bypass the framework rule. As a result, the final jump to the flagpole is also perfectly framed. Now, the frame rules are 21 frames, and again, as I mentioned in my previous video, you usually finish this level with 0 frames left. This means that there are two more frames that must be saved before a frame rule can be saved.
This comes from doing a quick acceleration at the start of the stage. On flat terrain, doing a quick acceleration will save two frames, but in order to save that time, you need to have absolutely perfect framing. At the exact moment you can control Mario, you need to do this: hold B and left for one frame, hold B and nothing else for one frame, hold B, right and A for one frame, and then hold B and right in the next frame. This means that you must be able to perfectly shift the frame from left to right on the D-pad with exactly one frame with no input in between, and you must also tap a frame perfectly and tap it for exactly one frame.
StuckInAPlate was using a romhack of the game that allowed him to have additional information about the game's hidden values, specifically the position of Mario's subpixels. This additional information didn't affect the game itself, but it allowed him to get a better idea of ​​how well he was doing and let him know in advance if he had a chance to save the frame rule. Obviously using a romhack for a speedrun is against the rules, so it's only used for practice. A real speedrun would use the original cartridge, meaning this information would not be available to the runner. Succeeding or failing at this trick would almost seem like a fluke, because you would have no information about what exactly went wrong.
Again, like the best 8-4 ever done in practice, this can be done by quickly recording dozens of attempts and timing the inputs correctly. This trick has not yet been performed under normal circumstances, which comes from 4-2 with the usual 3 second wait and no signal to correctly time rapid acceleration. That is why it is currently still considered not possible or, at least, not with a success rate greater than 1/1000. If this trick was somehow implemented in speedrun, it would save 0.35 seconds and the best possible time would drop to 4:55.214. So is this the end of Super Mario Bros.? Is 4:55 the definitive speedrun?
Is 4:54 really impossible? Well, the truth is that 4:54 is actually possible. Using an emulator with slowdown, save states, memory monitoring, and many other tools, it is possible to create a sequence of button presses to finish the game faster than humans can do with their hands and a controller. This is called tool-assisted speedrunning, or TAS for short, and is a completely separate discipline from normal speedruns. Tool-assisted speedrunners deconstruct the game and attempt to solve the puzzle of finding the most optimal way to beat it. And the best solution ever found is that of a man named HappyLee, with a time of 4 minutes and 54.032 seconds.
No one knows for sure if he is the perfect speedrunner, but in the last 9 years, only one time saver frame has been found, and that was in 2010, so this is as close as we can hope for. So where does this time difference between the tool-assisted speedrun and the real-time world record come from? We'll take it level by level, but first, there's one detail about HappyLee's TAS that needs to be clarified. At certain points, he uses both left and right at the same time to accelerate faster. As far as the console is concerned, those are valid inputs and can be processed, so it's fair game for a tool-assisted speedrun.
However, it is impossible to press both left and right at the same time without breaking the D-pad, modifying the controller, or using a third-party controller. For this reason, pressing left and right at the same time is prohibited in real-time speedruns, as it is considered a form of hardware manipulation. To solve this problem, HappyLee created a separate TAS that follows real-time rules for controller inputs and never presses left and right at the same time. This TAS goes into 8-4 with the same rule as normal TAS, but loses some time in 8-4. Complete the game in 4:54.282. This is what we are going to compare with because comparing with 4:54.032 would be unfair.
At 1-1, the TAS and the real-time race finish the level with the same rule, so they are tied. Kosmic and some barely make it on time, and TAS has plenty of time to spare. In fact, if someone found a way to save just one more frame at this level, it would shave 0.35 seconds off the TAS using left and right at the same time. That would reduce his time to 4:53.68. At 1-2, TAS and real time are also tied, thanks to the tube clip that made 4:55 possible. There is no more time to save at this level, unless something important is found.
At 4-1 the same thing happens again. TAS can save a handful of frames over Kosmic and some, but it's not enough to create the next frame rule. The 4-2, however, is not that simple. Here, the TAS completes the level quickly enough to save a frame rule over the current strategy. In fact, 4-2 is another level where TAS using left and right at the same time is one frame away from saving another frame rule. The TAS method is not possible to do in real time for many reasons, but it boils down to the fact that too many buttons are pressed too quickly.
For example, when latching onto this wall and turning in the crumple zone, the TAS uses a lot of 1-frame button presses in a way that a human simply can't replicate. On September 24, the same day Kosmic got the first 4:55, HappyLee posted a video showing a theoretically humanly possible method to go 4-2 fast enough to save the frame rule and tie the TAS on that level. At the moment, this has not yet been executed in real time. Some runners have tried it, but in the end it is too difficult. One of the main problems is the full combination of inputs needed to hook onto the wall, including a perfect one-box release to the right, which is as ridiculously difficult as it sounds.
The other thing it includes is a way to stop on the pipe faster, but again, the combination of button presses is very difficult to achieve. 8-1 saves a rule on Kosmic and, in part, with the flagpole error we talked about earlier. This is the least unlikely framework rule to be saved in the future, but that alone may not be enough to reach 4:54. 8-2 is the only other level where the TAS saves a frame rule over real-time logging. The main problem with the 8-2 frame rule is that, like 8-1, there are no frames to spare. Once again, the TAS resorts to rapid acceleration at the beginning of the stage.
After a ridiculous jump over this pipe, the cannon fires the bullet at the last possible moment to make this rule possible. This also means that the bullet bill glitch has to be executed even more precisely than usual, because it has to be done on the first possible frame it can be done on. As a result, 8-2 is considered the most unlikely level at which humans could match TAS. It can be ruled out from the possible ways to get 4:54. In 8-3, both TAS and real-time races have to wait for the timer to reach 242, so they complete the level at the same time.
Getting to the flagpole with 244 on the timer is impossible in a square unless you use left plus right. However, the flagpole glitch forces you to touch the flagpole six frames later than normal, making 244 on the timer impossible, even with left plus right. Getting 244 on the stopwatch and 242 with a flagpole fail finish the level with the same frame rule. In the first 8-4 room, HappyLee's TAS manages to perform a quick speedup that saves 6 frames over someone's 4:55.796. In the second room, a combination of another quick acceleration and a perfect wall jump allows HappyLee to cut another 7 frames. In the third room, a quick acceleration, a perfect turn, and a second fast acceleration save 13 frames on some occasions.
In the water room, the slightly imperfect game costs another 2 frames, and in the last room, a quick final acceleration saves the TAS another 2 frames for a total of 28 frames. 14 of those frames are actual time lost by someone, and the other 14 frames come from TAS playing beyond human ability. In conclusion, there are two ways 4:54 could be done. The first is this: FPG on 1-1, pipe clip on 1-2, FPG on 4-1, then do the faster 4-2 method which has not yet been done even once in practice, and also make the flagpole mistake. in 8-1 with quick acceleration to save a second frame rule, then BBG in 8-2, FPG in 8-3, and then play 8-4 better than anyone has ever played in a world record 3 frames.
That would be enough to get a 4:54.998. The second would be similar: do FPG on 1-1, pipe clip on 1-2, FPG on 4-1, do the current method of doing 4-2 with the wall clip, then do the flagpole glitch 8 -1, do BBG on 8-2, FPG on 8-3, and enter 8-4 just one frame rule ahead of the current record. So you'd need to play 8-4 an incredible 24 frames faster than anyone has ever done in a world record, or 14 frames faster than the best 8-4 ever played, even in practice, just one frame off the assisted by tools. speed race. Needless to say, the latter is impossible, because no one can play 8-4 with the kind of accuracy seen in a TAS.
This means that the only possible way to do 4:54 is this. But considering that 8-1 is a one in a thousand chance at best, and that 4-2 has never been done even once from a save state, it's very safe to assume that as things stand now, 4:54 is humanly impossible. . Here is a summary of the limits of optimization. At 4:55.913, it's Kosmic's first 4:55. With 4:55.796, Somewes' world record. Around 4:55.6 is the point beyond which the world record may never improve. At 4:55.213 is the sum of the best level times ever performed in any situation by a human, even in practice with a saved state at the beginning of the level.
At 4:54.798, that's the sum of all the tricks a human could theoretically perform, although 4-2 and 8-4 have never been completed so quickly. At 4:54.282, it's the fastest possible time that would respect the rules by not pushing left and right at the same time. And finally, at 4:54.032 is the theoretical limit, the fastest possible way to beat the game under any circumstances. Three years ago, 4:56 was a pipe dream, and 4:55 wasn't even a dream. For now, it looks like 4:55 could be the final frontier. But the good thing about speedrunning is that we never know what the future holds. Maybe someone will find a way to push the limits even further.
Maybe, one day, someone will achieve the impossible and reach the legendary 4:54. No matter how difficult or unlikely it is, if it is possible, it will be done.

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