Game Boy Weekly Contest Round 1: Super Mario Land

[Splain | 2,565]

138,510

https://i.imgur.com/SzxLEXS.jpg

[bertsampson | 345]

23 hours ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

The general rules say, "It is highly encouraged to play with original software on original hardware, if possible." Since it's not possible for you, I think that's fine. Looking above, you'll notice that Bertsampson is using an emulator.

Yeah, and it's definitely not ideal.  I am using a Super Nintendo controller though, so that's something.  Game room is still in boxes since moving, or I'd be on my original Game Boy.  I'm sure I'd have a much higher score too.

[Gloves | 11,776]

A wild entry appears.

Score: 134,540

 

[Red | 437]

4 hours ago, Gloves said:

A wild entry appears.

Score: 134,540

In the future, please don't forget to include your user name in the picture.

[Gloves | 11,776]

22 minutes ago, Red said:

In the future, please don't forget to include your user name in the picture.

Oh right. Sorry! 

[arnpoly | 198]

166,540

Not quite optimal but pretty close.

[acromite53 | 337]

161,370

Its hard getting any higher at this point. But I'll keep trying.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

9 hours ago, arnpoly said:

166,540

Not quite optimal but pretty close.

Damn, I was hoping I'd be able to coast out into the lead, and acromite53 is nipping at my heals too. I would be interested to know your route when this is over. Well back to grinding. 

[Splain | 2,565]

Wow. I'm just happy to be here, lol

[arnpoly | 198]

1 hour ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Damn, I was hoping I'd be able to coast out into the lead, and acromite53 is nipping at my heals too. I would be interested to know your route when this is over. Well back to grinding. 

I’ll discuss in postmortem definitely. I think one of you guys will beat this score though. Or maybe I’ll try again...

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

167580

[Was old high score picture]

I was getting bored of the standard palette, so I decided to change things up with some good old Right+B. I made a couple minor adjustments. I found an easy way to chain  two enemies in 1-1. I messed up a run in 2-1 and happened to hit a hidden block I didn't know about. Afterwards, I looked up all the hidden blocks and found another in 2-1. All together this adds up to 2100 points I wasn't going for previously. I still made some minor mistakes in this run, so there still is a little room for improvement.

I also put together a human possible TAS of my route to see what the max score was. It ended with 176810. I don't expect to ever reach that but it sets an upper bound on my current route.

Edited December 9, 2019 by 0xDEAFC0DE

[koifish | 555]

UPDATED SCORE: 169960

 

Wow! Somehow I did it, I came very close to hitting my dream number. Indeed, I still made some nagging errors, like taking damage on 2-1 and thus missing some fireball-only strats. I think I could actually go above 170k on a still more improved run! Still, I am shaking with excitement. I worked quite a lot to get this score and I'm happy to finally see it pay off after a number of painful setbacks and almost-made-it runs.
 

Edited December 9, 2019 by koifish
corrected my post which I had not edited correctly

[koifish | 555]

23 hours ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

167580

I was getting bored of the standard palette, so I decided to change things up with some good old Right+B. I made a couple minor adjustments. I found an easy way to chain  two enemies in 1-1. I messed up a run in 2-1 and happened to hit a hidden block I didn't know about. Afterwards, I looked up all the hidden blocks and found another in 2-1. All together this adds up to 2100 points I wasn't going for previously. I still made some minor mistakes in this run, so there still is a little room for improvement.

I also put together a human possible TAS of my route to see what the max score was. It ended with 176810. I don't expect to ever reach that but it sets an upper bound on my current route.

 

That's interesting, the human-possible TAS. How did you put that together? I'd like to try it for my route and see what it gets.

[Link | 2,709]

Dammit. I really thought I would be able to break 150000. I couldn’t. Just kept making mistakes. I didn’t even bother continuing on. Abused my reset switch for an hour and a half.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Link

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

170400

Finally did it with 400 to spare. This was a pretty good run. Still some minor mistakes, but not much room for improvement.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

1 hour ago, koifish said:

That's interesting, the human-possible TAS. How did you put that together? I'd like to try it for my route and see what it gets.

I used BizHawk (http://tasvideos.org/BizHawk.html). I didn't go frame by frame for the whole run to make "the perfect TAS". I just rerecorded small sections with occasional frame adjustments. I've encoded a video of it that I'll release after the deadline to compare routes with.

[acromite53 | 337]

165,760

I think Im hitting almost everything on the path. I've got to say this challenge has been a blast.

[koifish | 555]

damn, thought I would ride that 169k. Might have to revisit in the last hour and see if I can top that. Don't expect much though, that was rough for me.

[acromite53 | 337]

167,100

did slightly better. Still going. Wish I had more time.

[Splain | 2,565]

Great Scott, deaf. Well done.

[ecmyers | 97]

77,110

Alas, I didn't have much time to play this week, and my first run (the first time I've played this since I was a kid!) was my best. Played on Game Boy Player with a CARBY video adapter for HD output. (The first photo is from captured video, because I didn't know about the Post-It requirement, and the second is from the actual TV.)

 

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

With the final minutes ticking away here's my video. I'm interested if anyone had any strategies that I missed.

Video Description

Spoiler

This is a loosely optimized human possible TAS of my route for this competition

General Comments:
Always get everything to the right of the pipes before going down them
Always chain enemies when you can was the points double (mostly)
Running into enemies only scores 100 regardless of enemy, unless you fire a super ball into a higher point enemy and hold B. Then the base points will be of the enemy you hit. Do this whenever possible
It doesn't matter which exit you take. Extra lives don't matter (and neither do that hearts)
Empty blocks are worth 50 points so break all you can

1-1:
When two goobmas drop down a pipe together tried to chain them to score an extra 100 (I forgot to add this to the TAS)
Before entering the second pipe, move as far as you can and wait. Eventually, you'll see a bug enemy which will get you another 400 points
After collecting the star, its possible to chain two goombas after the floor drops again
You can you the super ball trick described in general on the bug enemies

1-2:
For the second half of the level there are two sets of flying enemies that go way above your head. I found two specific spots that would rebound the fire balls to hit them

1-3:
There are two secret elevators in 1-3. Both are beneficial to take
After the second elevator, you need to damage yourself on the koopa so that you can fit in the lower path
Make sure you kill the boss with the super balls to get its points

2-1:
The first two sets of fish can both be chained
There are two hidden blocks with power-ups in them
Use your super ball to get all the coins to the right of each pipe
Some of the fish chaining in this video stretches what I consider human possible but oh well
You can you the star super ball trick on the piranha plant

2-2:
It's possible to get more points out of the UFO enemies if you jump on their tops right before they return and them jump on them for double points. I decided it was to risky to go for in my runs though
Again use the super ball trick when you get the star to increase the points of two goombas and a koopa
The UFO tops respawn, so you can farm these for points. The best place I found was the last one. Just stand facing the wall and shoot your super ball when it starts to come towards you. Once I got comfortable I usually kept doing this until the timer was in the 80s which would give me around 20 seconds to spare

2-3:
You can do the same star trick with the torpedoes. Just hold the B button
Overall I didn't optimize this level as well as I probably could have

Sorry for the crappy encoding. I used to first thing I found to scale up the video.

Fun fact: My best score for 1-1 was only 20 points off of the video. I optimized one more coin out of the video then I've ever gotten in a run, but my best 1-1 was 8 seconds faster. I think I beat the score coming out of 1-2 as well.

I tried one last run. I got to 2-2 around I think 1-2k above my previous high score but then died. I'm happy with breaking 170k though.

Edited December 9, 2019 by 0xDEAFC0DE

[koifish | 555]

Nevermind, after another 30 minutes I threw in the towel. Good work 0xDEAFC0DE, you got me good on these score challenges. Hope I will be somewhat competent at the next game since I've never played it before.

[koifish | 555]

Also, ask me next weekend and I will go over that score video you posted, I watched a bit and I see some optimizations I can suggest.

[acromite53 | 337]

16 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

With the final minutes ticking away here's my video. I'm interested if anyone had any strategies that I missed.

Video Description

  Reveal hidden contents

This is a loosely optimized human possible TAS of my route for this competition

General Comments:
Always get everything to the right of the pipes before going down them
Always chain enemies when you can was the points double (mostly)
Running into enemies only scores 100 regardless of enemy, unless you fire a super ball into a higher point enemy and hold B. Then the base points will be of the enemy you hit. Do this whenever possible
It doesn't matter which exit you take. Extra lives don't matter (and neither do that hearts)
Empty blocks are worth 50 points so break all you can

1-1:
When two goobmas drop down a pipe together tried to chain them to score an extra 100 (I forgot to add this to the TAS)
Before entering the second pipe, move as far as you can and wait. Eventually, you'll see a bug enemy which will get you another 400 points
After collecting the star, its possible to chain two goombas after the floor drops again
You can you the super ball trick described in general on the bug enemies

1-2:
For the second half of the level there are two sets of flying enemies that go way above your head. I found two specific spots that would rebound the fire balls to hit them

1-3:
There are two secret elevators in 1-3. Both are beneficial to take
After the second elevator, you need to damage yourself on the koopa so that you can fit in the lower path
Make sure you kill the boss with the super balls to get its points

2-1:
The first two sets of fish can both be chained
There are two hidden blocks with power-ups in them
Use your super ball to get all the coins to the right of each pipe
Some of the fish chaining in this video stretches what I consider human possible but oh well
You can you the star super ball trick on the piranha plant

2-2:
It's possible to get more points out of the UFO enemies if you jump on their tops right before they return and them jump on them for double points. I decided it was to risky to go for in my runs though
Again use the super ball trick when you get the star to increase the points of two goombas and a koopa
The UFO tops respawn, so you can farm these for points. The best place I found was the last one. Just stand facing the wall and shoot your super ball when it starts to come towards you. Once I got comfortable I usually kept doing this until the timer was in the 80s which would give me around 20 seconds to spare

2-3:
You can do the same star trick with the torpedoes. Just hold the B button
Overall I didn't optimize this level as well as I probably could have

Sorry for the crappy encoding. I used to first thing I found to scale up the video.

 

Great video thanks for sharing. That's a great strategy on 2-2 getting the star and running through all those enemies. I wish I tried that instead of breaking all the blocks. Also nice use of the star in 2-3 that's something I figured out too late and didn't get a chance to fully utilize that strategy successfully. I didn't know you could grind off that enemy in 2-2 either. Also those flying 800 point enemies were hard for me to get all of. I would jump to the next platform and throw a ball to the left right before he would go off screen. Hard to pull off. Your way was better.

Edited December 9, 2019 by acromite53