Video Game Time Trials

On January 11th, 2005 I attempted to set a new World Record: The fastest time to beat Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. To my knowledge, there were no previous recordings as to how quickly one had ever beaten Super Mario Brothers.

On January 12th, 2005 at 12:53:36 PM, I submitted my world record attempt to the Guiness World Records website (link). I described, in detail, how I acomlished this feat: I played through stage 1-1 as fast as I could, the same for 1-2, using the warp at the end to get to world 4. I then plyed through stage 4-1 as quickly as possible, then used the beanstalk warp in 4-2 to get to world 8. Upon world 8, I went through all the stages as quickly as possible.

Besides myself, I had 3 witnesses present. Using a stopwatch, we started timing the game from the moment I hit start at the title screen, and stopped right when Mario jumped on top of the ax at the end of Final Bowser.

On January 31st, 2005, I recieved this email from Guinness:

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Claim ID: 128664
Membership Number: 118333

Dear Mr Regan

Thank you for sending us the details of your recent record proposal for 'Fastest Time to Beat Super Mario Brothers w/ Warps'. We are afraid to say that we are unable to accept this as a Guinness World Record.

Unfortunately, due to the vast number of different games, computers and consoles available, it isn't feasible to monitor game scores for all of them.

We appreciate that this may be disappointing to you. We are always keen to hear from people who wish to set a Guinness World Record. If you should need any advice regarding record breaking in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us, quoting the above membership number.

Once again thank you for your interest in Guinness World Records.

Yours sincerely,

Laura Baker
Records Research Services
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We believe that there should be records for feats such as Super Mario Brothers time trials. A set of standards could easily be developed for different video games and systems. All records could be organized by system, then game. For games with warps, there could beseperate warps records and non-warps records.

Guinness, give us videogame players a chance to accomplish something amazing and receive credit for it.