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The run was alo streamed with commentary by Lord Tom, Tompa and the console record holder Kirua: http://www.twitch.tv/tompa/b/650076566

This TAS aims for 100% completion of Super Mario Bros. 3, as defined by: %%%
1. All regular levels entered and completed %%%
2. All World-Map Hammer Brother and Pirahna Plant levels completed %%%
3. All World-8 Auto-Scrollers and Hand levels completed %%%

In practice, this means we play every level skipped in the Warpless run by using a Jugem's Cloud, RNG manipulation or simply walking around it.
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For comparison, the realtime speedrun record for the same goal is currently 1:11:02.

!! Lord Tom's Comments

It's been quite a ride. We started working on this in 2013, doing simultaneous planning/testing for an improvement to the Warpless run. Progress came in fits and starts, with Tompa TAS'ing most of the levels first and me trying to improve them. Progress stalled, but in a good way, about a year ago with the discovery of the game-end glitch which ultimately led to an entirely new TAS in its own category.

Major props go to Tompa for managing to stay motivated over such a long period of time, cranking out and optimizing relentlessly.

Overall, I'm very happy with the quality of this run, both in terms of macro and micro optimizations. Aesthetically, I slightly regret that even a 100% will still include in-level skips that let Mario avoid the meat of certain cool levels (e.g. non-game-end-glitched 7-1). But it was difficult to envision how to non-aribtrarily justify that goal-wise absent a "no major glitches" run which didn't really interest me.

At times I got a bit burnt out on this game the past two years, but much less so recently -- good thing, since I have 2 more SMB3 submissions in the works for after we get the Warpless in! Enjoy!

!! Tompa's Comments

Another fun SMB3 run to work on! Despite TASing this game several times, there are still new things to find, new ways to optimise and it's just as enjoyable to work on as ever before.
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Working with Lord Tom is always great. It's nice to have someone to point out my silly mistakes. He also does a good job looking into the game's code to figure out a couple of things. Something I'm personally pretty bad at...
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And there is still the new Warpless TAS we have yet to finish. I should stop writing this and get back to work!
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!!!! New and Newish Strats (In descending order of approximate time saved)

! Wall-Jump Wand Grab

Discovered by GlitchMan, this strat involves Mario using a wall jump at the end of Airship boss battles to get on top of the right-hand wall and then jump back to the left to grab the wand from mid-air. It's not possible to stand on top of the left-hand wall. Crucially, the wand is grabbed above the top of the screen, which saves a few seconds of animation time, both of the wand falling and later of Mario falling to enter the King's room.

The major optimization we discovered by reviewing the game's source code is that the boss's shell actually follows a computed trajectory when it flies offscreen; at the end of this trajectory, the shell changes into a wand, which then falls down toward Mario. This trajectory is computed according to a somewhat hackish formula; the best trajectories are those where the boss-wand transformation takes place as close to the ground as possible. Generally, having the boss closer to the middle of the screen is better, but the strange formula used means that some boss positions may be unexpectedly good (or bad).

! Ducking into Water

When Mario runs off a ledge that is just underwater, he can preserve x speed by ducking just as he falls off the ledge. This trick has apparently been known for some time in the realtime speedrunning community, and saves quite a chunk of frames due to Mario's pitiful swimming skills.

! Power-ups from the Map Hammer Brothers

Fighting Hammer Brothers on certain World Map locations makes power-ups available from what would otherwise be ordinary blocks. This can be useful both in providing a leaf or flower not otherwise available, and because the 30 frame power-up animation can be avoided by grabbing the power-up just as the Hammer-fight sequence ends. This is used in World 1 to get a flower and in World 6 to get a leaf.

! Running Through White Blocks

Mario normally stops moving when he grabs a white block from the side. We found that Mario could avoid getting stopped with the right x pixel value. This is useful in a few places, but most dramatically with the "Buzz-saw" in 6-5, where Mario grinds through an entire row of white blocks to avoid jumping (which impacts P-meter expiration when Mario has the racoon suit).

! Hammer Triple-Team

In World 4, we discovered we could save a Map Hammer Brother's walking step (32 frames) by lining all 3 Hammers up in a row and fighting the middle one first. Afterward, the remaining two Hammers are manipulated to walk onto Mario at the same time, saving a turn of Hammer movement. I was kind of hoping based on the game's treatment of other situations that both Hammers would be killed with a single fight, but we still have to fight both. That's probably for the best in any case, as if only one fight occurred it would arguably violate the run's goals.

! Lakitu

There are a few water levels where optimizing Lakitu's movement is useful. Within limits, Lakitu continuously accelerates toward the player. Therefore, we discovered, if you need Lakitu to go right as quickly as possible, the fastest way is to have Mario get to the right of Lakitu as quickly as possible -- even if that requires a path that otherwise would be slower for Mario moving right.

! Water Corner Boost

Tompa discovered that various small boosts are possible while swimming. These are mainly used in World 3's 2nd fortress.

! Air-Walk

This odd glitch was independently discovered by Producks and Lord Tom. On some auto-scrollers it is possible to invoke a glitch by pressing against the left side of the screen. When the glitch is activated, Mario's walking surface rises into the air, allowing him to (briefly) run and even jump/land in thin air. The pattern Mario's surface follows leads us to suspect that some value is being overwritten by a thrown wrench causing the glitch. Look for usage of this glitch in the World 7 Airship and the World 8 Ship.

The Air-Walk is listed last because it doesn't save ANY time, nor does it have any known or theoretical use apart from entertainment.

!!!! World/Level Comments
!! TODO
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!! Thanks %%%
GlitchMan - his WIP of a warpless improvement through 2-F introduced some useful strats, most notably the "Wall-Jump" Airship strat used for all Airship bosses and which saves many seconds. He also posted useful strats on certain later levels, notably 5-1 and 6-6. %%%
Kirua - for helpful suggestions including getting the leaf from a World 6 hammer brother and generally being great. %%%
The rest of the SMB3 speedrun community for continues support and sharing ideas.