Cutting the track in such a blatant manner counts as a record holder? Nonsense.
Just exploiting the game bugs/mechanics. In my eyes it doesn't count.
Hi guys,
I just found this thread, so I thought I would write. Shame I didn't find it towards the end of last year when you guys were active. But not to worry. I saw you found some of my videos and our Time Trial World Ranking at
www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/
We play on the original SNES consoles only, as the SNES mini's have a save state function making them like emulators so they were not suitable, same with the Wii U virtual console and the 3ds virtual console versions.
I just thought id help answer some questions here for you when I looked through the last 3 pages.
1. The PAL and NTSC difference; NTSC is just a little faster on SMK by a few seconds on a medium length track, rather than the 16.666% value that is seen on some other games on N64 or F-Zero snes. The reason for this was that the PAL version was reprogrammed slightly, it would have been way too slow anyway if they had done the actual 60hz to 50hz speed conversion. Some cornering mechanics and off road slowdown is different as well. So we have had to split our rankings into PAL and NTSC sections.
2. The SNES Mini: All of the SNES Minis globally, even though they look like their PAL / NTSC and Japanese NTSC SFC versions, all run on the NTSC timer. I think they didnt want to reprogram it all twice into there as modern tvs can all run NTSC fine anyway. Therefore all of the times you were doing on the thread are comparable to the NTSC record lists. I would be keen to know if any of you have an original SNES console to play on as we are always looking for new players to join our rankings and you have set some great records!
3. The Off road boosting; it may look like a bug or glitch but it is not something that was just recently done. A bit of history.. the off road boosting was utilised by the Japanese testers and early record holders there back in 1992 / 1993. There was an old tv show and at one stage in 1993 a young player had demonstrated his record. Many players around the country were then using this technique to set times well below sub minute. The NTSC record has now gone down to 55.97 seconds and in Japan and other countries they reached 56. In Europe and the USA as we hadnt communicated to them this was not discovered till much later But around 15 years ago once discovering the techniques, hundreds of players around the world have been using off road boosting to lower their times. This is very similar to the mini turbo mechanics in all of the other Mario Karts. As another member here mentioned about snaking on MKDS, there is also a PRB technique on MKDS (Prolonged boosting) where you can do mini turbos really fast from the start and go through a patch of grass without slowdown. The Figure 8 circuit and I believe Mario Circuit tracks on that are examples if you would like to find those videos. Mario Kart 64 also allowed players to gain some time with mini turbos off road that help maintain some speed. These are not considered shortcuts, but corner cutters so they are still a Non-Shortcut route. The actual shortcuts in the Mario Kart games are the real lap skip tricks which exist, and arent as fun to play as you are not using a route round the length of the track. These involve tricking the kart at the finish line sometimes to complete a lap in a second or a few seconds. To basically understand the mini turbo in super mario kart, when you hold R around a hairpin turn, then countersteer and release at the end, you will notice the engine sound go up for a moment and the kart twitches to the side? That is your mini boost, if you trigger this before some grass / sand etc you will drive through it at speed for a moment. You can counter steer jump to get air time before releasing it to gain bit more distance. There are also other techniques like long boosting used in multiplayer mode with a mushroom, that is something else but fun to do. Again a fast racing technique and not a bug. They actually introduced the exact same off road boosting and the mushroom long boost technique into Mario Kart Super Circuit / Mario Kart Advance for the Game Boy advance. So being that it was reprogrammed in to a fresh game, it was intended. We also keep records for Non-boosting times; one of our favorite tracks which just has jumping only was Vanilla Lake 2, check out some of our other track vids as we cover all techniques.
4. World Championships - As you have seen we have yearly World Championships where 40-50 of the best players in the world attend each year. This year's event will be between 14th - 18th August at Alphen Aan den Rijn in the Netherlands and live streamed as per the previous years. All of the players use the techniques described above.
5. National events - if any of you are in the UK, I attend events run by Replay a few times a year with my niece Leyla Hasso who is the 2nd fastest player in the UK. We just got back from Play Expo Glasgow this weekend, and often attend one in Blackpool and Manchester, though the Manchester one is getting moved to next year. There will be something in London next, where I am just before the World Championships abroad. If anyone is London based and would like to see some live demonstrations please let me know.
6. Joining the Time Trial World Rankings - Again if anyone has an original PAL SNES (or NTSC if you are abroad) you are more than welcome to join our Time Trial World Rankings with a full timeset. Joining information is here:
http://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/join.php
I look forward to hear from you soon,
Best Regards,
Sami Cetin
E-mail: samicetin <at> yahoo <dot> com
Twitter:
@SamiCetinSMK