Very Early Runs...
6 years ago
England

Are there any recorded Earlier Runs than 5:28 by Aaron Collins?

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Oklahoma, USA

In guessing you already saw this post - - > https://www.speedrun.com/smb1/thread/62cc1 but if not that's the history

North Carolina, USA

Yes, that post summarizes what I know about the first verified SMB speed runs. I don't know of any verifiable console SMB speed runs prior to Aaron Collins, but there were speed runs being done before that. Here's a little more info for those that might be interested in the speed run "dark ages".

It's hard to remember, but Douglas Hawkins (dougqh) wrote a SMB FAQ in 2001 and posted a speed run time at the GameFAQs message board at some point. I don't remember his exact claim, but it was around 5:20-ish. No proof was provided, but it was a claim just the same. I remember learning about lip jumps from a discussion with him. It's possible that he was the true WR holder at some point before I came along, but it's impossible to verify.

The first speed run videos that I ever came across were at the NESticle Movie Archive. It was originally hosted on Geocities and was created on May 21th, 1997 by NEVERMIND8. I also had a gaming page on Geocities back then and found the site not long after it was created. The NESticle Movie Archive site had several people submit SMB speed runs in 1999 with times from 6:30-ish to 10+ minutes. It may have been part of a contest. These videos are still online at Zophar's Domain.

Lastly, Wolff & Mike Morrow deserve credit for convincing TG to start tracking speed runs around 2002. Back then, it was quite difficult to publish and distribute your own console videos online so it was good to have a place like TG to verify legit console stuff. TG missed a golden opportunity with all of the gameplay footage that they once possessed. They blew it.

England

does anyone have any dates for the old runs? i have found them, but there aren't any dates on them

Pennsylvania, USA

There were 5 NSM contests that I personally oversaw on ZD with the following dates, times and winners:

  1. Metroid by Blazemore in 00:42:50 on May 8, 1999
  2. Castlevania 2 by Chris Sande in 00:47:56 on June 30, 1999
  3. Ghosts 'n' Goblins (1 cycle, $50 prize) by Alfred Monico on August 9, 1999 - unknown time at moment, will need to view the NSM with the right version of NESticle
  4. Faxanadu ($75 prize) by Bors in 01:01:15 on October 9, 1999 - NESticle 0.42 required
  5. Solstice ($75 prize) by Dalamar in 00:09:45 on February 5, 2000

I do have all of the NSMs still, but need to match them up with the right version of NESticle.

threecreepio likes this
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Requirements for High-Level Any% Runs

Any% (NTSC) runs below 4:57.000 must now fulfill additional requirements in order to be verified.

  • The run's full session must be included in the submission description.
  • For emulator runs below 4:57.000, some form of input display must be visible for the duration of the run. A hand-cam or input
3 months ago