'Super Mario Bros.' speedrunner hits nearly inhuman 4:55 world record

'Super Mario Bros.' speedrunner hits nearly inhuman 4:55 world record
mashable.com

(This comment is in jest, but that has been my experience with the speedrunning community thus far.)

Incredible how many hidden tricks/bugs/calculations went into that world record.

It blows my mind how speed runners learn to exploit the inner workings of a game, from timing hacks of the RNG to positioning actors on the screen to unlock design weaknesses. While it takes a lot of skill and many hours of practice to pull off these exploits, advancing through a game at record speeds through exploits takes away from the experience that was intended for play. Speedrunning is not playing the game better but rather playing exploits better.

It means he can't physically get a better time, but it does not mean his inputs are matched up exactly with the TAS. SMB1 level transitions are based around the "frame rule", which means you don't advance to the next level until the number of elapsed frames from the start of that level is a multiple of 21. This means it's possible to have slightly imperfect input on all levels except 8-4 (the last level, so no waiting to advance to the next level there) and still get the same time as the TAS (unless the TAS reached the end of the level with no frames to spare). The TAS aims to reach the end of each level as fast as possible even if it would mean no overall time saving because of the wait for the multiple of 21 frames.

I think this mechanic has been very beneficial for speedrunning, because it gives clear sub-goals. When you hear runners talking about "saving a frame rule", that means reaching the end of the level in time for an earlier multiple of 21 frames.