Super Mario Bros./Notable Runs

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The Twin Galaxies Days

The early history of this speedrun was dominated by Twin Galaxies, which started timing from pressing the start button (while today timing is started from control of the character), only tracked full seconds and banned several glitches. The times are given as Twin Galaxies timing with what it would be under current timing in brackets behind it, if it's known.

6:22 by Rodrigo Lopes

5:28 by Aaron Collins

5:20 by Cam Allen

5:17 by Scott Kessler

Former records on Twin Galaxies as taken from this article.

5:14 (5:11) by Scott Kessler on February 26 2004

Former World Record and the first run posted on SDA. The video seems to have disappeared from the internet.

5:13 (5:10) by Scott Kessler on April 23 2004

Former World Record and posted on SDA. Scott was unaware that it's faster to hit the top of the flagpole and always hit it in the middle instead. He did not do the Wrong Warp and the Walljump as these were banned. He slows down at some parts.

5:10 (5:07) by Trevor Seguin on October 9 2004

Former World Record and posted on SDA. Similiar to the previous run by Scott Kessler, but better executed.

5:09 (5:06) by Trevor Seguin on November 7 2004

Former World Record and posted on SDA. Similiar to his previous run, but better executed.

5:08 (5:05) by Scott Kessler on September 14 2006

Former World Record and posted on SDA. Was considered a perfect run at the time. Still stands as a (now tied) record on Twin Galaxies.

5:06/5:07 by andrewg on December 11 2011

This run was done several years after the last new Twin Galaxies record and the community now mostly follows SDA's rules. Andrewg went back to get a perfect run under Twin Galaxies' ruleset, because the competition started there. Andrewg's timing yields 5:06.99. Since Twin Galaxies uses stop watches to time runs and has no clear policy, if times are rounded to the nearest seconds or always rounded down, it is unclear, if this run would be accepted as a 5:06 or 5:07, if it was submitted. If times are rounded down and the timing is exactly accurate, this run is 5:06 and perfect. If times are rounded to the nearest second, this run is 5:07 and 5:06 may be possible with a perfect run and a bribe to the referee who uses a stopwatch to time it.

The Hunt For 4:57

Since SDA allowed heavy glitches and used to only track full second improvements the focus of runners was to reaching specific second boundaries, which were believed to be perfect, from 5:00 until 4:57, which is currently believed to be the actual limit.

5:00.6 by andrewg on April 10 2007

Former World Record and posted on SDA. The run uses a slow Wrong Warp method, because it was not yet known that the piranha plant can be despawned. Other subtle mistakes such as not hitting every flagpole at the top cost some framerules. There is a notable mistake in 8-4, where he pauses before going down a pipe, but it was believed to be irrelevant as far as reaching 4:59 was concerned.

5:00.4 by andrewg on December 23 2010

Former World Record

4:59.4 by andrewg on December 24 2010

Former World Record and posted on SDA. Slight optimizations allowed for 4:59, but the strats are still very similiar to the 5:00 runs.

4:58.89 by andrewg on December 15 2011

Former World Record and the current run on SDA. Improvements came from the discovery that it is faster to hit the top of the flagpole and that the piranha plant in 4-2 can be despawned by hitting the vine block. Andrewg was already aware that 4:57 was possible with a close-to-perfect run, but doubted it would ever be reached.

4:58.78 by andrewg on January 15 2013

4:58.56 by andrewg on January 19 2013

4:58.51 by andrewg on March 21 2013

4:58.34 by andrewg on May 19 2013

Former World Records. A year after achieving 4:58 andrewg started going for 4:57 and these are some of his steps towards it.

4:58.15 by andrewg on July 1 2013

Former World Record and the first run that lost no time until 8-4 besides not doing the bullet bill glitch, which was believed to be impossible at the time. It was on pace for 4:57 until a small mistake during the Wrong Warp in 8-4.

4:58.14 by andrewg on October 7 2013

Former World Record and a 1 frame improvement over the previous record. As the previous run it was on pace for 4:57 entering 8-4, but small mistakes such as hitting the pipe at the end of the swimming section too high cost it him again.

4:58.09 by andrewg on March 25 2014

Former World Record. As the previous run it was on pace for 4:57 entering 8-4, but small mistakes such as hitting the pipe at the end of the swimming section too high cost it him again.

4:57.69 by i_o_l on June 25 2014

Current World Record. He did not do the fastest possible 4-2 and did the bullet bill glitch in 8-2 instead to achieve the first 4:57.

Notable Personal Bests

4:57s

4:57 has been achieved by 1 person: i_o_l

4:58s

4:58 has been achieved by 4 persons: andrewg, Kosmicd12, i_o_l, darbian (in this order)

4:58.35 by Kosmicd12 on September 25 2013

The third best time currently and the second best time at the time it happened. A perfect run besides the 2 jump 4-2 and the bullet bill glitch. He was trying to achieve the first 4:57 and World Record, but couldn't complete a run before his 2 year break from speedrunning.

4:58.37 by darbian on November 14 2014

The fourth best time currently and at the time it happened. A perfect run besides the 2 jump 4-2 and the bullet bill glitch. He is currently trying for 4:57/World Record.

4:59s

4:59 has been achieved by at least 8 persons: andrewg, 蛍火 (Hotarubi), オホン (Ohon), ヒダリー (Hidari), Kosmicd12, DoorTK, i_o_l, darbian (in this order)
It was not common to archive video in the Japanese community at the moment, so the precise time of Hotarubi's, Ohon's and Hidari's runs cannot be determined; it is possible one of them would have been a World Record at the time it happened.

Warpless

World Record Progression

22:42 by Cam Allen

21:33 by Cam Allen on August 6 2004

Former Twin Galaxies records as taken from this article.

21:18 by andrewg on August 27 2005

19:57 by andrewg on February 16 2007

Former World Records and both posted on SDA. Played completely as small Mario and with several safety strategies. He did not enter the pipe in 1-1 or do the Wrong Warp in 8-4 as this was banned under Twin Galaxies rules.

19:40 by andrewg on March 12 2008

Former World Record and the current run on SDA. Played completely as small Mario and with several safety strategies.

19:34 by Kosmicd12 on November 28 2012

Former World Record. Played completely as small Mario and with several safety strategies. This run was performed on the Wii Virtual Console, which runs at ~99.5% speed, which cost him about 5 seconds overall.

19:24 by Hotarubi on January 13 2013

Former World Record. Andrewg has started doing Warpless runs with the fire power and achieved several runs believed to be World Records until it was pointed out that the Japanese player 蛍火 (Hotarubi) also did runs using the fire power and had achieved a better time previously.

19:20 by andrewg on April 6 2013

19:19 by andrewg on April 22 2013

19:17 by andrewg on June 22 2013

19:16 by andrewg on June 26 2013

19:15 by andrewg on August 24 2013

Former World Records. All performed using the fire power.

19:12 by andrewg on November 11 2013

Current World Record. The only major mistake is getting hit and losing the fire power in 6-4.

Notable Personal Bests

sub 19:10s

sub 19:10 has been achieved by 0 persons.

sub 19:20s

sub 19:20 has been achieved by 1 person: andrewg

sub 19:30s

sub 19:30 has been achieved by at least 6 persons: 蛍火 (Hotarubi), andrewg, aTallSkinnyKid, Kosmicd12, i_o_l, darbian (in this order)

Minus World Ending

2:35.99 by i_o_l on October 30 2013

The first notable run of this category and current World Record.