Someone asked me a question about my run on Youtube, which brought me here where I saw the WR progression history.

I've got some info about the TG SMB speed run times that preceded my 5:17. When I started going for the WR in late 2003, the official TG timing rules stated that timing started when you gained control of your character, NOT when you press start on the title screen. Cam Allen and Aaron Collins both had their runs timed this way. Cam told me this himself and also posted it on the TG forums.

My 5:17 run was the first to be verified by the new timing rules. Here's a link to the relevant discussion topic at TG.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/111080-Super-Mario-Brothers-(NES)-NEW-WORLD-RECORD-!!?p=570727&viewfull=1#post570727

Just read my post and Cam's (cpa68) to understand what I'm talking about. He said his run would have been 5:22-23 if it had been timed from pressing start. As I said, mine was the first to be timed from pressing start which makes the older times 2 or 3 seconds slower than listed.

EDIT:

Also, I should mention that Mike Morrow had the record at 5:27 before Cam Allen took the record in late 2003. I clearly remember seeing it on the TG scoreboard because Mike had the record at 5:27 when I first decided to go for it, and here is a post where I reference it:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/111080-Super-Mario-Brothers-(NES)-NEW-WORLD-RECORD-!!?p=570944&viewfull=1#post570944

Cam (cpa68) & Mike (MKM) talk about it:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/110329-SMB-world-1-1?p=564045&viewfull=1#post564045

If I remember correctly, Mike asked to have his time taken down because it was timed from when you gain control of Mario. He did not want his time co-mingled with others as a 5:27 when it was really a 5:29 or 5:30 with the new rules that were applied from my 5:17 onward.

I'm not sure that Aaron Collins actually ever held the record officially because I think Mike's 5:27 was verified first, but I don't know for sure. I would be nice if there was some way to see what the listing was before Mike's time was taken down to confirm everything, but I didn't have much luck finding it.

Thanks for the information! I took all that info for that part from http://speeddemosarchive.com/Mario1.html#norm and a lost TG news article (http://www.twingalaxies.com/content.php/2577-Scott-Kessler-Attains).

While Aaron Collins may have never been ranked first, he would have been first if Mike Morrow's time had been adjusted, right?

So the history would be like this:

[small]Time gets rounded down to full seconds. Glitches are banned. Twin Galaxies was the primary leaderboard outside Japan until SDA got more popular and then speedrun.com got more popular.[/small] 5:27 by Mike Morrow [small]TG changed timing rules to start from pressing Start.[/small] 5:28 (~5:25) by Aaron Collins [small]officially ranked below Mike Morrow's 5:27 but faster[/small] 5:20 (~5:17) by Cam Allen 5:17 (~5:14) by Scott Kessler

?

Do you know the approximate dates for any of those runs? Even the year would be nice to know...

Cam's 5:20 was done on 07/30/2003. He sent the tape in to TG not long after that, and it took a few months to get verified.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/110329-SMB-world-1-1?p=564403&viewfull=1#post564403

TG has Aaron Collins' run verification date as 06/25/2002. I was able to confirm that Aaron's 5:28 was indeed a new world record (from an old email that I have from Mike), and that it was verified by Mike, who later beat it with a 5:27.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/110751-SMB-(NES)-Another-Fast-Completion-Submission-!!?p=567611&viewfull=1#post567611

Aaron, Mike, Cam, and every speed run prior to mine at TG were all timed SDA style from the moment that you could control Mario. That is how the rules were stated on the TG site, and that is how Mike, Robert, and everyone else timed the game until I submitted my run. Robert attempted to save face later in my WR thread after this was pointed out by saying that only (1) run was timed that way. I like Robert, but he was flat out wrong. I believe that AndrewG would back me up on this if you ask him, because he pointed this discrepancy out as well, but it fell on deaf ears.

Basically, if you ask me, and I would also absolutely get AndrewG to confirm, the times should read as follows (with dates I was able to find):

5:28 (5:28) by Aaron Collins on June 25 2002 5:27 (5:27) by Mike Morrow in July 2002 5:20 (5:20) by Cam Allen on July 30 2003 TG changed timing rules to start from pressing Start. 5:17 (5:14) by Scott Kessler on February 18 2004 5:14 (5:11) by Scott Kessler on February 26 2004 5:13 (5:10) by Scott Kessler on April 23 2004 5:10 (5:07) by Trevor Seguin on October 9 2004 5:09 (5:06) by Trevor Seguin on November 7 2004 5:08 (5:05) by Scott Kessler on September 14 2006 5:07 (5:04) by Andrew Gardikis on October 16 2015

I removed the "" either. I just duplicated the times.

I will reach out to Mike to see if he has a date for his run and to see if he can confirm this info.

I also added Andrew's 5:07. I put the verification date. I don't know when he got the time, but it was significantly earlier than the verification.

EDIT:

Heard back from Mike Morrow. He didn't have an exact date, but was able to determine that his run was done in July 2002.

Hey Scott! Great to see you post, and I hope you're doing well. Where's your Bionic Commando avatar!? The timing you're referring to is correct. TG started timing from "start" from your 5:17 onward.

I felt like digging back through history a bit. I like to give credit where it's due, and so I wrote the names of a few key people and speedrunners who achieved great times way back in my SDA descriptions. Here's what I found:

https://web.archive.org/web/20060319063339/http://www.re-retro.com/2006/02/26/mario-race-hold-the-karts/

This video was posted in 2006, but this race was done sometime in 2002. They are surprisingly good for when this took place. I'm not sure their exact times, but I would guess these are oldest recorded Super Mario Bros. speedruns available.

Wow, more digging and some cross-referencing and I'm realizing that Jason Harmer's old Super Mario Bros 5:09 claimed time was actually recorded. Which he said he achieved sometime in 2006. I would use the race video as a date reference... 4/3/06

So Jason Harmer got a ~5:12 in Super Mario Bros. before 4/3/06 (if you're going off his claim from the interview about the super mario bros race):