A Button Challenge

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A Button Challenge
Abbreviation ABC
Individual stars collectible 111 (Most versions), 109 (Wii VC)
Overall stars collectible 98 (Wii VC), 67 (Other versions)
Is beatable Yes (Wii VC), No (Other versions)
Presses required for Any% 0 (Wii VC), 1 (Other versions)
Presses required for 120-Star 13 (JP 1.0), 16 (Most versions), 19 (Wii VC)
Star Details
BoB

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WF

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JRB

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CCM

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BBH

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HMC

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LLL

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SSL

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DDD

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SL

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WDW

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TTM

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THI

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TTC

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RR

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Secret

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Castle

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Bowser

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The A Button Challenge (initialism: ABC) is a challenge in which the number of presses of the A button is minimized, whether on a per-mission or a per-file basis. Because pressing A makes Mario jump, which is intended to be the main gameplay mechanic of Super Mario 64, great creativity and precision are required to progress in the game without using this "vital" function. The ABC is often connected to the discoveries of new glitches and techniques that can be used more generally throughout the game. Much of the material on the pannenkoek2012 and UncommentatedPannen channels is related to the A Button Challenge, with only 13 remaining A presses (10 unique A presses) left to optimize.[1]

History

Main article: History of the A Button Challenge

Although much of the progress in the ABC has been made since 2013, the challenge existed for over a decade earlier. Pieces of what would become the ABC were present in different terms, as early as 2001 on Walton Dell's site on multiple level pages.[2] Curtis Bright, who runs sm64.com, was keeping track of the ABC at least as early as December of 2006.[3] Thiago Trujillo had what is the earliest, nearly complete count for the game (that we have access to) with a total count of about 263 presses.[4] (This list is missing all navigation presses, two of the DDD stars, three of the TTC stars, one star in RR, and BitS.)

Pannenkoek's first ABC video was for 5 Itty Bitty Secrets, and was released in August 2013.[5] The count at this point was about 212 presses, although this number dropped fairly quickly. Within the first 4 months, the count had fallen nearly 100 presses, and was down to 118. Over the next five years, many different people have worked on removing as many A presses as possible, and the number has dropped to only 13 A presses in a 120 star run, as well as 0 in any% on WiiVC.

Remaining A presses

A unique A press is a single circumstance under which A must be pressed to progress during a run. The same circumstance may occur multiple times, leading to multiple A presses; if a workaround is found for the unique A press, all of those individual A presses may be saved.

For example, if entering a course requires an A press, the case of entering the course is a unique A press, even if said course must be visited multiple times over the course of a run.

Unique A presses
# × Course Purpose
1 2 SSL Get out of the pyramid elevator / Get past the pole
2 1 THI Double jump to a higher platform to collect red coins
3 1 Dive to the upper platform and grab the high red coin
4 1 PSS Collect the Power Star
5 1 WMotR Shoot out of the cannon after talking to the Bob-omb Buddy to reach the next cannon
6 1 Shoot out of the second cannon to fly around and collect the seven remaining red coins
7 1 BitFS Get past the pole. Saved on Wii VC.
8 3 Castle Enter TTC. Without spawning displacement (all versions but JP N64), this must be done 6 times.
9 1 Go to RR
10 1 Go to WMotR

Also, some levels require A to be held, but not necessarily to be pressed within that specific mission. These can be held from presses in previous levels, but take an extra press in single-star runs. Such A presses are notated as half A presses, and result in A press counts such as 2.5×.[6] Only one half A press can be required per star.

Half A presses
# × Course Purpose
1 1 JRB Gain hyperspeed from kick landing
2 1 DDD Clone the pole
3 1 Clone coin spawners for 100 coins
4 1 TTC Kick the wall and get spawning displacement on the spinner, for 0× re-entry after Get a Hand

Version differences

There are many different versions of Super Mario 64 that have slightly different physics or glitches. These can change the A press and star counts.[7]

Version A press count Stars obtainable
120 Star 70 Star Individually Overall
N64 JP 1.0 13 1 111 67
N64 US 16
N64 PAL
N64 JP 1.3[lower-alpha 1]
iQue[lower-alpha 1]
Wii VC JP[lower-alpha 1] 15 0 112 98
Wii VC US
Wii VC PAL
Wii U VC JP[lower-alpha 1] 16 1 111 67
Wii U VC US
Wii U VC PAL
3D All-Stars[lower-alpha 1]
NSO JP[lower-alpha 1]
NSO US
NSO PAL
Notes
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Shindou version

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SM64 120 Star ABC Route" spreadsheet
  2. ↑ An archive of A Button Challenge on Walton Dell's site
  3. ↑ An archive of A Button Challenge on sm64.com
  4. ↑ A Button Challenge on oocities.org
  5. ↑ "SM64 - Five Itty Bitty Secrets - 0x A Presses (OUTDATED)" by pannenkoek2012
  6. ↑ Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses
  7. ↑ The 14 Remaining A Presses
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Challenges
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Insane Challenges
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Other Challenges
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