Menu timer storage
Menu Timer Storage (also known as Fast Menu Glitch) is a technique that allows you to scroll through menus faster than you would be able to under normal circumstances.
Explanation
There are 5 types of menus throughout the game:
- Star Select
- Save Screen
- Pause Menu
- 100 Coin Star Textbox, Secret Star Textbox, and Cap Switch Textbox
- Penguin Race Textbox, Koopa the Quick Textbox, and Ukiki Textbox
Each of these menus share a timer, this timer activates the first frame you begin scrolling. The timer will start at 0 and will increment by 1 every continuous scrolling frame. When the timer passes 10, the cursor will scroll to the next option in the menu and will restart back to 8, it will continue in this fashion until you stop scrolling. The only way to completely reset this timer to 0 is if you hold neutral in any of the menus.[1]
Uses in RTA
After collecting a star or a key, the player will encounter the Save Screen. This menu forces the player to wait 10 frames before they can select an option. Selecting 'Save & Continue' will cause the N64 and emulator to lag so it would be more beneficial to select 'Continue, Don't Save'. However, scrolling down to the bottom option to select 'Continue, Don't Save' within 10 frames can be difficult for some players. Using the Menu Timer Storage technique, it would allow players to easily reach 'Continue, Don't Save' with more than enough time before the 10 waiting frames are up and potentially avoid accidental 'Save & Quits'.
To do this, you would have had to already activated the menu timer before the Save Screen appears. There are a number of ways this can be achieved; either by holding the joystick to the left or right during the previous Star Select, or holding left or right during the previous menu textbox (ie: 100 coin star textbox, penguin race textbox, etc). If you're entering a stage that doesn't have either a Star Select or a menu textbox beforehand, you would have to make sure you were holding a scrolling direction in the previous menu as you selected an option.
Uses in TAS
Since a TAS can menu frame perfectly, it doesn't benefit the same way RTA can from the 10 waiting frames in the Save Screen. However, there is one instance where a TAS can save time using the Menu Timer Storage technique. That is, when making the switch to Fixed Cam from Mario Cam and vice versa.
To do this, you would have to make sure the menu timer is at 10 and the last direction the joystick was held in the previous menu was either up or left. Doing this would force the cursor to scroll 2 options in 2 frames and therefore save one frame over the conventional method of switching camera settings. If the last direction the joystick was held was either down or right, the menu timer will take an additional frame to activate therefore losing you the frame.