Super Mario Bros. Any%

A draft I found from August 2017:

It's time.


I have taken a break from any% long enough, and it's time to revisit my old friend. It's time to destroy this game once and for all. Super Mario Bros any% has been by far the project I have spent the most time on. It's been quite a journey thus far, and has brought me many opportunities that I'm grateful for. I'm happy with what I've accomplished in gaming up to this point, and if I achieved nothing else I would still be satisfied. Everything at this point is icing on the cake.


I look back at my gaming over the years, and sometimes it feels like I accomplished very little given how long I've been in the competitive gaming scene. I'll be honest in that I compare myself to others and wonder why I don't have nearly as many speedruns or variety in my gaming. However, on second thought, I've accomplished most every goal I've seriously sought after.

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It's been nearly NINE years since this thought. I did in fact go back to Any% and play periodically up until 2020. My best time still stands at 4:56.695 done on January 11th, 2019, which was somehow over 7 years ago.

Time has been flying by. The draft from 2017 is still how I feel about Super Mario Bros and my gaming. I have finally started to make an effort to improve my time again, but I'm indecisive about what i want to do going forward. Heck, that's partially why I'm finding myself back writing on this blog. Writing a healthier way to express my thoughts in a more concise way than the long rants I tend to do on discord and otherwise.

Looking at my blog and thinking about how I'd like to create more videos, maybe I will translate my blog posts into video form with more up to date information.

March Toward Victory!

Hey again! I thought I would write a quick update on what's been going on with me.

I have been trying to find more time to stream on Twitch. I have not been streaming nearly as often as I would like to. With our fiscal year end going on at work, I have had to work more late shifts than I expected. Thankfully, we just finished with inventory and my schedule should return to normal. It's been an exhausting few weeks. My time management has been pretty poor the past few months and I'd like that to change. Primarily, I need to fix my sleep schedule. It's been hard to find time for all my gaming projects. I have huge goals for this year, and I'm seriously frustrated with my lack of progress lately.

I'm currently focused on my Super Mario Bros warpless (all stages) speedrun. My goal has been to beat the 19:04 world record time darbian achieved just a few months ago. I managed 19:10 on the category last month, but haven't improved since. While I'm still 6 seconds off the world record, I am definitely closer than it appears. My consistency has improved dramatically this month. It seems like I have a serious shot at the world record a few times each stream. I am consistently tied or ahead of darbian's pace, but I have had trouble keeping that momentum. It's discouraging to have so many good runs fall apart near the end, but it means I'm getting closer to what I want.

My goal with warpless was to break the world record by the end of March. I only have one full week to meet that goal, but I'm still going to try my best to make it happen. In the end, I never really know when the run is going to happen. However, what I do know is that the run WILL happen. I won't give up until it happens.

Stream Announcements

1) I can no longer stream on Wednesdays.

I am volunteering my time every Wednesday night, and it the timing makes it impossible to do a good stream unless I decide to stream very late those days (but this is unlikely).

2) WedNESdays is changing because of the above.

I think the goal with it now is to get a speedrun time on a large portion of the NES titles. It's not happening on Wednesdays, but I think these projects will pop up from time to time. They're fun!

3) My new schedule times: (All EST)

Mon: 4:30-7

Tues: 4:30-7

Wed: Off

Thurs: 4:30-7

Fri: Might stream after 4:30

Sat: Might stream any time

Sun: Likely not streaming, but you never know

This is my general schedule, but sometimes things pop up that allow me to stream more or less often.

I am trying extremely hard to maintain a consistent stream schedule. I should always be streaming Mon, Tues, and Thurs unless I say otherwise. I am also trying to find time to stream at some point during the day every Saturday.

4) Warpless Super Mario Bros continues strong. 

This is my main project until I break darbian's world record time. I've got a good game plan to beat it by the end of March, so I'm hoping that happens. I also have a few ideas I need to test out still regarding the speedrun route.

5) Next Project is Super Mario Bros 2 (USA) Warpless

I am in the process of routing the game.

March 2017

Another post I guess?

I haven't put as much time as I usually do into my posts, but right now I just wanted to post some more information.

March:

My stream for March is going to be all about world records! Every stream I do will be some world record attempt (high score, speedrun, etc). My main concentration is going to be reclaiming the Super Mario Bros warpless speedrun world record. I am going to be spending the majority of March on that project. However, March also has 5 WedNESdays! Which means 5 streams of world record attempts on 5 NES games I haven't touched yet this year.

I want to open an arcade...

This might be a bit of a rant, but I wanted to just get this off my chest. It's about where I am now as far as gaming is concerned and what I am planning for the future:

I have always been a very competitive person. I don't think I exactly come across that way, but I guess it's more that I am just interested in seeing how I compare with "The Bests" when it comes to just about everything. How do I stack up against the competition on X? Sometimes it's fun to try and compete on something you have no business competing on. Participating in speedrun competitions has given me a real appreciation for how good the top players are on a given game. I can't tell you how many times I have said "I wish I could do that!"

I love competing for speedrun/high score world records, and I wish I had the time to try my hand at more games. I have been playing for quite a few years now, and the majority of my world records have been broken. I used to think that was a bad thing, but I am actually glad to see these games pushed further than I expected. I obviously can't be the best in the world at 20 games and expect that none of those records will ever be broken. Whenever I hear about one of my records being broken now, I immediately want to pick the game up and reclaim my title. Of course I'm not happy about losing a record, but it doesn't really bother me like it used to.

I realized that I don't have anything to prove, and that I never really did. I like competing on games whether I'm the best or the worst. I like playing games, and I love being able to connect with the people who share that interest. That's what is important to me now, the people in this community. Setting records is definitely great, but it's nothing compared to the friendships and impacts that I've made while gaming. I hope that things only get better from here.


With all that said, I have really been thinking about how I want to spend my time. I want to do more for the gaming community. I am considering opening up an "arcade" or sorts. I need to sort out the details of what this would mean. I am trying to work this all out, but I think in the next few years, I may try and open up a "speedrun arcade." I don't want to say exactly what I have in mind, but just that it would definitely be unique. I will be researching many things in regard to this, and I hope that this idea becomes a reality.

My Blog

Not a real post. Just wanted to say that I'm going to update the other sections because they are incomplete and outdated.

My Schedule and Such

So here's what I wanted to do:
Tentative Stream Schedule: Dec 26 - Jan 31
Super Mario Bros. - Warpless
Super Mario Bros. - Any%
The Lost Levels (FDS) - Any% 8-4
Super Mario Bros. - High Score Attempts
The Lost Levels (SNES) - Any% D-4 (Mario)
The Lost Levels (SNES) - Warpless D-4 (Mario)

That didn't really pan out exactly. I do want to get personal bests on all of these categories this year.

This year is already flying by, and there are a ton of gaming projects I want to do still!

The first WedNESday game in my weekly series was Kung Fu, and I have grown an appreciation for the speedrun. I was planning to do a high score run as well, but got wrapped up trying to see if I could get under 4 minutes (and I did!). I spent last night trying to improve that even further and lowered my time to 3:52. I decided that I want to get the any% speedrun world record for Kung Fu. This will be my next dedicated project following SMB warpless.

February Schedule:
Feb 6 - SMB Warpless
Feb 7 - SMB Warpless
Feb 8 - WedNESday- Slalom
Feb 9 - SMB Warpless
Feb 10-12 = Ninja Gaiden Any% (12 hour challenge)
Feb 13 - SMB Warpless
Feb 14 - SMB Warpless
Feb 15 - WedNESday - Urban Champion
Feb 16 - SMB Warpless
Feb 17-19 = Mystery Box
Feb 20 - SMB Warpless
Feb 21 - SMB Warpless
Feb 22 - WedNESday - Golf
Feb 23 - SMB Warpless
Feb 24-26 = Mystery Box
Feb 27 - SMB Warpless
Feb 28 - SMB Warpless