North Carolina, USAYes, that post summarizes what I know about the first verified SMB speed runs. I don't know of any verifiable console SMB speed runs prior to Aaron Collins, but there were speed runs being done before that. Here's a little more info for those that might be interested in the speed run "dark ages".
It's hard to remember, but Douglas Hawkins (dougqh) wrote a SMB FAQ in 2001 and posted a speed run time at the GameFAQs message board at some point. I don't remember his exact claim, but it was around 5:20-ish. No proof was provided, but it was a claim just the same. I remember learning about lip jumps from a discussion with him. It's possible that he was the true WR holder at some point before I came along, but it's impossible to verify.
The first speed run videos that I ever came across were at the NESticle Movie Archive. It was originally hosted on Geocities and was created on May 21th, 1997 by NEVERMIND8. I also had a gaming page on Geocities back then and found the site not long after it was created. The NESticle Movie Archive site had several people submit SMB speed runs in 1999 with times from 6:30-ish to 10+ minutes. It may have been part of a contest. These videos are still online at Zophar's Domain.
Lastly, Wolff & Mike Morrow deserve credit for convincing TG to start tracking speed runs around 2002. Back then, it was quite difficult to publish and distribute your own console videos online so it was good to have a place like TG to verify legit console stuff. TG missed a golden opportunity with all of the gameplay footage that they once possessed. They blew it.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
