In some older games there's a timing quirk known as the frame rule. It's a big deal in Super Mario Bros. speedruns! Eniko (our beloved programmer) included them in Super Bernie World as a joke, expecting that it would never affect anything. Then we crazy speedrunners came along. :)

Here's how it works: At the end of each level with a flag (1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, 3-2, 4-1, and 4-2) there's a frame counter running in the game, that tracks what frame you are on from 0 to 21 and then resets. The bus can only drive away with Bernie (and start the level transition process) on frame 21. This means that if you arrive at frame 0, you'll have to wait an additional 20 frames (or 1/3 of a second) before the bus starts driving. If you can find a way to arrive at the flag one frame faster, you'll save that much time.

So, this really only impacts runners who are pushing the limits of how fast Bernie can go. For those runners, there's two things you can do to squeeze out a few extra frames.

1. Minimize your score. The score countdown at the end is very fast, but if you collect fewer coins, hit fewer enemies, and grab lower on the flag, you'll save a small amount of time.

2. Turn off vertical sync. This one is pretty complicated, but turning off vsync will subtly change the game timing and can sometimes save you a frame or two. This isn't without consequences, however. You'll find that it changes your jump timing and jump arcs, and more importantly will lead to occasional dropped inputs. Runner beware!

To disable vertical sync, you need to pass the command line argument "-novsync" to the game. In Steam, you need to put that command (without quotes) into the launch options in the game properties. I'm not sure if the itch launcher includes a similar option, but give a shout in the SBW discord if you can't figure it out and we'll try to help. (There's an alternate method you can use in your graphics card settings to force vsync off, but I found it to be pretty inconsistent.)