For the guide, please see RTABC Guide

Real Time A Button Challenge
Abbreviation RTABC
Individual stars collectible 87
Overall stars collectible 53
Is beatable Yes
Presses required for Any% 0
Presses required for 120-Star 58
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 RTABC (Real Time A Button Challenge) is a variation on the popular A Button Challenge, where all gameplay must be done in real-time.

Completed Runs

The current RTABC 70 Star world record, achieved by Marbler, finishes with a total of 2 A Presses and with a time of approximately 28 hours, 18 minutes, and 22 seconds.[1] The current RTABC 120 Star world record, achieved by BillyWAR1, finishes with a total of 216 A presses and with a time of 8 hours, 36 minutes, and 6 seconds.[2] The current RTABC "Max Stars 0xA" world record, achieved by Zyon, finishes with a total of 37 stars and with a time of 4 hours, 41 minutes, and 36 seconds.[3]

The RTABC spreadsheet contains leaderboards for individual stars, stages and full game categories; optimal routes for 70 Star, 120 Star, and Max Stars 0xA; conjectured improvements, and many other useful references.

A Presses Left

A unique A press refers to a single circumstance under which the A button must be pressed during a run. This 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.

Currently, a theoretical 120 star run would take 64 A presses, a theoretical 70 star run would take 2 A presses on N64 (1 in BitFS and 1 in BitS), and 53 stars are possible without pressing A. Out of the 64 A presses left in the 120 star run, 45 of them (give or take) are unique. Below is a table listing all of them:

A Press # Multiplicity Stage Purpose
#1 1 BoB To shoot from the cannon
#2 1 JRB To collect the chest star
#3 1 JRB To ground pound the blue coin switch
#4 2 BBH To get to the third floor
#5 1 HMC To jump from the pole for reds
#6 1 HMC To get to the Toxic Maze star
#7 2 HMC To jump dive from dorrie's back
#8 1 HMC To ground pound the blue coin switch
#9 1 LLL To collect the elevator star
#10 2 SSL To get out of the pyramid elevator (Tied with TAS)
#11 1 DDD To jump off one of the back pole for 2 red coins and to clone poles
#12 1 SL To shoot from the cannon
#13 1 THI To double jump to a higher platform and collect red coins (Tied with TAS)
#14 1 THI To dive to the upper platform and grab the high red coin (Tied with TAS)
#15 1 TTC To jump up the cogs for bob-omb glide
#16 3 TTC To double jump off the lower hand
#17 3 TTC To wall kick to a higher platform
#18 3 TTC To get off the elevator by the pole
#19 1 TTC To jump past the moving bars
#20 1 TTC To wall kick to the moving bars star
#21 1 TTC To get on to the first rotating block
#22 1 TTC To double jump off the second rotating block
#23 1 TTC To triple jump off the platform above the rotating blocks
#24 1 TTC To wall kick up to a higher platform
#25 1 TTC To get on the whomp
#26 1 RR To get on the ship
#27 1 RR To get past the second wide blue block
#28 1 RR To collect the Swingin' in the Breeze star
#29 1 RR To jump on a fly guy and fall slower
#30 1 RR To hyperjump onto the chuckya platform
#31 1 PSS To collect the box star (Tied with TAS)
#32 1 WMotR To shoot from the first cannon (Tied with TAS)
#33 1 WMotR To shoot from the second cannon (Tied with TAS)
#34 1 BitFS To get past the pole (Tied with TAS)
#35 1 BitS To jump up the first platform (reds only)
#36 1 BitS To jump up the second platform
#37 1 BitS To grab the red coin on the sloped platform
#38 1 BitS To get past the pole (reds only)
#39 1 BitS To get past the pole with the red coin (reds only)
#40 1 BitS To jump from the last red coin's platform
#41 6 Castle To enter THI
#42 6 Castle To enter TTC (Tied with TAS)
#43 1 Castle To go to RR (Tied with TAS)
#44 1 Castle To enter SA
#45 1 Castle To go to WMotR (Tied with TAS)

Some A presses require A to be held, but not pressed. These A presses are called Half A Presses and can come from a previous A press instead of a new one, so saving one wouldn't actually lower the A press count.

The half a presses are listed below:

Half A Press # Multiplicity Stage Purpose
#1 1 DDD To outswim the whirlpool
#2 2 DDD To swim with a shell for cloning (Tied with TAS)

Possible A Press Saves

Jolly Roger Bay

It may be possible to get speed from the pillar and reactivate it some other place to ground pound the blue coin switch 0x for 100 coins, and would save A press #3. Ivan178 has shown that it is possible to get speed from the pillar to get Blast to the Stone Pillar 0x.[4]

Dire Dire Docks

Theoretically, you could collect the chests star using Hyperspeed punching, or the shell, to get enough speed to outrun the whirlpool, then preform frame perfect B swimming using frame counting (a method where you pause buffer, then use the sound of the pauses to determine how many frames have passed) to open all the chests and collect the star.

Bowser in the Sky

Currently, the A press count for Bowser in the Sky and BitS reds is 1 and 6 respectively. All of the improvements made in the Bowser in the Sky 1x video can be replicated in 6x to get BitS reds down to 2.[5] The Chuckya Wrong Throw setup is also repeatable, meaning you can do it however many times you want. This leaves the final count for BitS to likely be 1 for both reds and no reds.

See also

List of RTA Tricks

References