Hi, I'm Blueeighthnote, a Pannenkoek2012 fan and ABC enthusiast, fascinated by the effort of reducing A button presses required to complete Super Mario 64. As I am not an expert on such esoteric knowledge on TASing and glitch usage, I might not be the right person to ask, so if you have very complicated questions, it might be best to comment on the videos of the authors instead, all of which are linked below.
As my first post, I will briefly go through the Secret Aquarium Entry Plan, which is very highly anticipated to work, and it is also very complicated.
SA Entry Plan[]
- Main Discovery (GLG at SA Entrance via Floating Point Rounding Error): https://youtu.be/XIgildKWprM
It all begins with a floating point imprecision, allowing Mario to seemingly grab onto a very high ledge inexplicably.
This blueprint, if completed, will earn its title as the most complicated route required for Mario to enter a course with 0 A presses. The discovery leading to this plan is a Glitchy Ledge Grab (GLG) at the entrance of Secret Aquarium due to floating point imprecision. Basically, the game assumes Mario is touching the lower part of the wall triangle but not touching the upper part of the wall triangle, triggering a ledge grab check. Due to this, Mario is able to grab a ledge at a very precise spot.
The ABC crew worked backward from this spot and found a method on how to navigate in the castle in order to reach this spot from afar, with hyperspeed. With Sliding Speed Conservation, the speed Mario stored can be reactivated by crouching on the first frame within the castle. A method was eventually found, but the requirements are very unorthodox......
- Technique 1, Ledge Grab for SA Entry (0 Star SA Ledge Grab at 1k Speed): https://youtu.be/Tti6oQb6qQM
Mario can reach that spot with hyperspeed, but only when he has 0 stars.
It was quickly found that Mario can reach the spot using 1000 speed, but redirecting his angle sharply with stardoor-text activation is required. It turns out that Mario needs 0 stars to utilize the redirection of the door leading to the Secret Slide. Ultimately, this means that the usual courses known to generate hyperspeed quickly cannot be used. For example, the shell in Bob-omb Battlefield cannot be used since it is only unlocked when Star 1 and Star 2 are collected. Hazy Maze Cave is not reachable without MIPS, which only appears after 15 stars are collected. Unfortunately, having 0 stars means there are many courses still inaccessible.
- Technique 2, Entering BitDW early (BitDW Entry with 0 Stars (0xA)): https://youtu.be/58rxoSSshw4
We need more courses to work with!
Fortunately, even with the limited selection of courses that can be entered in the beginning (Bob-omb Battlefield and Vanish Cap under the Moat, precisely), Bob-omb Battlefield is still enough for around 220 speed to be built, sufficient for clipping through the 8-star door that normally blocks Mario from entering Bowser's first fight early.
This technique allows Mario to access Shifting Sand Land and Lethal Lava Land with no stars, and a new speed-building technique was found in the former course.
- Technique 3, Hyper Speed Punching (QPU Speed in SSL via Hyperspeed Punching): https://youtu.be/huThIB5Uc6A
Building up Speed in the Sand by punching!
By punching on certain slippery floors of narrow slope range, Mario can increase his speed by continuously punching, instead of losing them. In Shifting Sand Land, many such floors exist. In fact, the specific floor shown in the video allows Mario to build up QPU speed, and so it can allow Mario to visit Parallel Universes. Unfortunately, the built up speed is forward, and at the time of discovery, there were no known ways of converting it into negative speed without navigating the course a fair bit.
- Technique 4, Clone a Shell (SSL Shell Clone 0x): https://youtu.be/xL9HV6XyDBo
Cloning a Shell.
Viewers who haven't followed Tyler Kehne might be very confused as to why Pannenkoek suddenly uploaded a video on cloning a Shiny Shell in SSL with 0 A presses and 0 Stars, seemingly out of nowhere. This should clear things up! Using a preset HOLP from Bob-omb Battlefield on the island, Mario can activate the Shiny Shell block from afar by remotely throwing a Bob-omb.
Initially, this serves as a backup plan in case methods of exiting Hyper Speed Punching (HSP) state cannot be found and alternative methods must be used. However, it turns out that instead of using the cloned shell to keep Mario in place (which does not work), the cloned shell allows Mario to interact with it and cancel riding it with crouching, and the resulting action can drastically vary his speed with a newly discovered 10k glitch. The method was originally discovered as means to multiply Mario's speed so that he can navigate Parallel Universes with greatly increased speed potentially leading to more efficient PU movement, but it can also divide Mario's speed.
- Technique 5, Exit Course and Castle Navigation (0xA SA Entry (assuming SSL PU route)): https://youtu.be/91lJ6eUeyWU
A way to leave HSP with desired speed and exit the course with perserved speed.
An exit route was finally completed with the assumption that Mario can successfully exit the course with hyperspeed. At the time the video is uploaded, it is thought that Mario can only do so with QPU speed, but the ABC crews hopes to rely on a technique that does not require PU movement.
The main technique is to use a Shy Guy to allow Mario to start twirling. This allows Mario to not kill his speed due to bonking. Moreover, Mario can exit the level with the speed on the first frame he lands.
The difficulty of controlling Mario with high negative speed makes the movement in the castle very difficult, as he must use the stairs to get upwards and use the 8-stardoor text to redirect to the secret slide 1-stardoor. This finally bridges the techniques together.
- Main Video (Exit Plan): https://youtu.be/svuSVSUsi74
Bonking at a wall or an out-of-bounds area kills speed, which is what makes exiting HSP so difficult. Eventually, it is found that with the Shell Clone and a Fire Clone, Mario can exit his HSP state.
The main problem is finding a way for both clones to be set, as without the Hat in Hand Glitch, it is difficult to manipulate objects - specifically how to get the fire clone into position.
The following steps were done in the video:
- Build up 45000 speed.
- Crouch to change Mario's angle to face the fire clone in bounds.
- The following happens in one frame:
a. Mario would bonk, but is canceled by a fire burn from the fire clone.
b. Mario hits the shell, canceling his burn.
c. Within the said frame Mario crouchslides, canceling the shell ride immediately while the speed cuts down to 2191 using 10k glitch.
d. The lower speed allows Mario to move one more quarterframe without bonking, putting him in the air. - On the next frame, Mario comes in contact with out of bounds during his quarterframe movement, which would make him lose speed, but only on the next frame.
- Instead of losing speed, however, he bounces on a Shy Guy, which cancels Mario's knockback that would otherwise occur, and Mario begins twirling.
In Summary[]
All of the following will eventually happen in the final video of Secret Aquarium Entry in 0 A presses.
Requirements: 0 Stars (exactly!)
- Step One: Enter BoB, build speed for BitDW Entry with 0 stars.
- Step Two: Enter BitDW and complete it (collecting no red coins).
- Step Three: Enter BoB, set the HOLP on the island.
- Step Four: Enter SSL, throw a Bob-omb using PBH and obtain a shell clone.
- Step Five: Clone a Flame Chomp's flame, and place them in a desirable location.
- Step Six: Begin Hyper Speed Punching.
- Step Seven: Convert and Exit the course with a little over 2000 speed.
- Step Eight: Navigate to the entrance of SA.
The obstacle now is to complete Step Five while also creating a Shell Clone, but with so many advancements in the ABC progress, the impossible would soon be conquered in the end.