I've been playing on an emulator and I want to get into the real thing so I have three questions: 1 - Does anyone know where you can get the original NES? 2 - What version of the game do people play on when doing runs? 3 - How do people do savestates and such when practicing on the original console?

1. You can get consoles from ebay or amazon or your local stores if they sell retro consoles
2. Play on the ntsc carts not the pal
3. They do savestates with a powerpak or everdrive

Craigslist is another option (although sometimes sketchy) to acquire a console. If you go that route, be sure to check it out pretty well before you buy, but you could find it cheaper that way.

Since you live in the US, you aren't likely to come across many PAL cartridges so you're good there. There's three NTSC versions. The standalone SMB1 cart, the SMB1/Duck Hunt cart, and the SMB1/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet. Any of these carts are perfectly fine and SMB1 is the same on all of them.

https://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?products_id=34 Heres a link if you are planning to buy a powerpak

heres the link to buy an everdrive: https://krikzz.com/store/home/31-everdrive-n8-nes.html

~ For getting a NES you can go to Ebay that's where a lot of the retro Nintendo stuff I look for is. (Amazon may have it too.)

~ Most people play on the American version as it is most recommended by me plus the Japanese & European versions are harder to find just go with the NES cartridge. (To be more specific the vast majority of the community play on the SMB1/Duck Hunt cart (And some play on the SMB1/Duck Hunt/ World Class Track Meet cart as well.) but the type of cartridge is your choice. :) )

~ Most people who speedrun this game use an emulator to use savestates, (The Wiiu (which was the first console I played the original on) also allows savestates but only one at a time.) but practically ALL runners who own a NES use either a PowerPak or an Everdrive. I don't own either but from what I've heard Everdrive is more recommended but more people play on Powerpak but the choice of cartridge/platform you use saves on is yours.

I hope I helped! Good luck and have fun speedrunning! :)