Shygon Asks...

[alek]

I have a little ad for Systemcrash on my NG Blog and I have a comment from a user named Shygon. Here's his problem:

ok theirs only one glitch i dont get. in SM64 to get to final bowser without solvingthe endless staircase. PM me the info. It drives me nuts just thinking about it!

Anyone want to answer it for me? I haven't looked much into the SM64 glitches and I definitly want to keep his interest and possibly introduce him to the forum.

[DavidJCobb]

I believe it involves the backwards long jump (BLJ).

In SM64 there's a glitch where rapidly and repeatedly backwards-long-jumping up a staircase allows you to accelerate so fast you can glitch past the invisible staircase. I think you BLJ by doing a normal long jump, but holding the joystick backwards the moment the jump starts; I think you chain them by holding the joystick backwards and repeating the button combination.

My knowledge is a little rusty, I'd recommend googling "super mario 64" backwards "long jump" (does Google support searching for multiple exact (quoted) strings?).

[Franklint]

Hi guys,

Ooh, a new member possibility! In this (rather extended) period where we're just trying to gain momentum, I agree that every member counts.

Dave (I've actually never asked if you're happy to be called that, DavidJCobb. Is it a problem?) has got it pretty much right. Considering SM64 is my favourite game of all time, I shall take it upon myself to nail this one.

He's right about the fact that it is the BLJ that is used to pull off the trick, and the fact that it is used to manage insane speeds, which allow several major obstructions to be bypassed.

To pull it off, start a regular long-jump. Continue holding Z and tapping A when Mario nears the ground (to ensure you don't miss a jump, as this will screw you), while moving the control stick in the direction of Mario's back, so he starts jumping backwards (you can also get him to "long-jump" on the spot. Quite amusing).

In order to get to the final Bowser level without 70 stars, face Mario away from the endless stairs, and start a BLJ. Move the control stick towards the stairs, and Mario should start to jump up them.

Here's the hard part. Hammer the A button, while holding Z. Seriously. Hammer it. Your aim is to get Mario to long jump off every step as he passes it by. As you're on an "endless" staircase, you don't have a time limit, but you'll want to keep tapping A until Mario just about teleports to the top of the stairs, he's that fast. You'll know when it's happened. From here, simply jump into Bowser's hole.

By slightly altering your angle at which you start your BLJ, you can pull off other tricks such as shooting through the side walls of the staircase and landing, say, straight in Wet-Dry World.

The way the glitch works is this: There is an invisible wall about halfway up the (actually quite short) stairs that immediately warps Mario to the bottom when he touches it, more or less seamlessly. With the crazy speeds acheived by the BLJ on the stairs, Mario simply clips through it (one frame he is on one side, and the next he's already on the other, meaning no collision). The same is true for regular walls.

This trick has been used to bypass the Jolly Roger Bay door, the door to the second Bowser level, the Dire, Dire Docks water wall, the 50-star door, the first Bowser level door and even the glass in front of the aquariums near Jolly Roger Bay, rendering the game completely smashed to bits. Note that lots of these (JRB, Bowser 2, DDD, Bowser 1) have only been done using frame-perfection and other such techniques.

Holy hell, that was a lot of typing. Sorry guys. I guess DavidJCobb and I answered your guy's question, though, alek.

Also, Google does indeed support multiple exact strings, as far as I know. It's done with "super mario 64" + "long jump". If you wanted backwards in there, I suppose it would just be "super mario 64" + backwards + "long jump".

Cheers,
Franklint

[DavidJCobb]

Yeah, I'm fine being called "Dave" or "David".

Didn't know you can get into the aquariums using BLJ. Nice.