I've been preparing to do this speedrun for about the past 16 years. Not that I knew I was going to do this run all that time. However, when my parents bought Dr. Mario for the NES, I played it over and over until no one ever wanted to play against me, since I'd always win. I realized one day not too long ago while playing this for fun on the N64 that I could do a speedrun on classic mode from level 0 to level 21 without too much extra practice. (If you're wondering why I go to level 21 instead of 20, it's because the N64 version shows credits and a congratulations screen after level 21, which is pretty much an ending.) So here is the result.

Since there is so much randomness in this game, it was almost impossible to use luck manipulation on a single-segment run. So I performed many runs and took the one with the best time. I ultimately wanted to get under 40 minutes without losing on any level. This run was the only time I was able to manage under 40 minutes, but unfortunately I lost once on level 21. Even though that cost about 20 seconds, I'm still very happy with the time on this run considering my next best time was about two minutes slower. I think this time is due to a combination of luck and my not having any major dyslexic moments.

I have several techniques that I use in order to save time. I set the speed to high, so that the pills will drop faster. I try to limit the amount of time I'm waiting for pieces of pills to drop after clearing something; hence, I don't always clear things in the most efficient way (e.g. clearing a virus with a column of five of the same color instead of four). I also try to clear multiple viruses at the exact same time with one pill. Do I always follow these techniques? No, because when you're going fast you don't see every possibility.

Now onto individual level comments.

0. This went perfect. As a side note, the fastest I've ever done this level is 10 seconds; it's one second slower here.

1. No problems on this one.

2. Watch out for a nifty in-between move.

3. Here's my first mistake, of which there are very few in the entire run. I find that most of my mistakes happen in the earlier levels, probably for two reasons: I'm trying unusual maneuvers to clear the very sparse viruses, and it takes me a while to get into my groove.

4. Another mistake near the end, but the rest of it is fine.

5. I had a lot of combos at the start, which isn't really useful in classic mode, but it's a habit I have from doing multiplayer. At one point, I couldn't make up my mind where to put a pill, and so it wound up going nowhere useful.

6. The double blue pill at the beginning was a mistake, but the rest went well.

7. I love clearing viruses from underneath!

8. Lots more combos in this level. At the end when there's only one red and one yellow virus left, I changed my mind on the order I was going to clear them when I saw the pill coming next.

9. Bet you didn't expect me to clear the two blue viruses on the bottom sideways!

10. I had a nice 3-combo at the beginning--too bad I wasn't doing multiplayer! (That's a good way to get them piled up at the beginning). I also managed to get rid of 4 yellow viruses at once in a pretty cool way.

11. I should have done the beginning of this level differently, and at the end it would have been quicker to clear the red virus before the blue, but I didn't know that at the time.

12. I had an obvious indecisive moment near the end of this level.

13. Combos again--my multiplayer habits die hard! The combo of blues vertically and horizontally at the same time was an unexpected surprise. I wanted to get the bottom red viruses sideways, but oh well.

14. Likewise, I should have cleared the bottom blue viruses sideways, but I unfortunately messed it up.

15. The middle got stacked up for a while, but it all worked out. I accidentally cleared some extra stuff at the end, which wasted a bit of time.

16. The levels is starting to feel claustrophobic... I had one small mistake where I flipped a pill too late.

17. This is the first level where you hear the annoying siren that means you're stacked too high (although it's unavoidable now). There were a couple near misses close to the end--I blame the controller.

18. It's funny, when I watch my run, I know almost exactly what I'm going to do; it's not that I remember what I did, but that I'd do the same thing if I were playing again. Anyway, I don't know if it really saved time to clear the red viruses sideways near the end.

19. Major claustrophobia here! This is where I first use the top cutoff trick (my name for it): if part of a pill is outside the top of the jar when you place it, that part disappears. I use it to my advantage on this and the next level. Somehow things got piled up near the last red virus, which made clearing it kind of annoying.

20. I moved a little faster on this level, because I really wanted to beat my previous fastest time for this run. However, there were a lot of things I could have done more efficiently, especially all the red viruses that I could have cleared sideways but didn't.

21. It's really annoying on high levels when it gives you blue pills and there are no blue viruses available! I might still have been fine (would have needed to clear things sideways), but then I made a couple more mistakes right after that. So I ended up losing the first time on this level, which cost 20 seconds. However, the second playthrough worked out just fine. There was a mistake with a double red pill near the end, where I didn't have time to move it over as far as I wanted, but when you've been doing a level for that long the pills are dropping pretty fast. Despite losing once, I was very pleased with the final time.

So that's it. I hope that at least some of the moves in this are entertaining. I had fun making this run, and I hope you have fun watching it!

Story mode requires different techniques from classic mode. In story mode, the fastest way to do things is to get the computer player so piled up that they lose automatically before you clear all your viruses. Consequently, my strategy was to perform as many combos as possible in the hopes that it would cause the computer to lose. This didn't happen as often as I would have liked, but it was often enough that it saved some time.

Story mode runs are probably more entertaining to watch than classic mode runs, because they're a lot more unpredictable.

Individual battle comments:

• Wario: I got him to lose by piling up too much. When I watched this later, I found it ironic that it would have been faster if I hadn't dropped on him that last time.

• Spearhead: If some of the things I do seem strange, well, the computer players do even stranger things... Seriously, it's because I'm trying to set up combos so I can drop on him. It worked pretty well, too.

• Webber: My first mistake is here, but I was able to make a combo out of it, so no harm done. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get him piled up, so I had to win the longer way. I have no idea what I was doing with that one blue/red pill, and I don't think I had any idea then either.

• Silky: The double red pill at the beginning was not a mistake. I suffered from some minor indecision on this level. I love it when I clear the last virus right as I'm about to get dropped on.

• Jellybob: There was a mistake on this one, but I think it was the controller's fault... There's also some nice sideways-clearing action near the end.

• Helio: It seemed to take me quite a while to get a combo here. Another small mistake is near the end.

• Wario/Scienstein/Hammerbot: I despise this battle because it makes the viruses so small that it's hard to see. (I think I need to get glasses.) I was really disappointed that I wasn't the first to drop. Again, what was I doing with that red/blue pill?! Despite that, I was able to get Scienstein and Hammerbot to retire before I cleared everything.

• Rudy: My first combo here was really nice. Surprisingly, it took him a while to drop on me--usually he does it right away--but at one point he dropped 4. (Ouch!) My main regret in my Dr. Mario runs is that I never got a combo of 4...

• Vampire Wario: He barely beat me to dropping first, but I was lucky that he didn't get me really piled up. One pill I flipped too late, but later on I dropped 3 by accident. I should have cleared that last blue virus sideways.

Have fun watching!

Like my normal difficulty run, my highest priority was getting combos in order to make the computer player pile up and lose. It seems that it's more likely for this to happen on hard difficulty since the viruses are higher to begin with. However, the computer players are smarter (a bit), and so it didn't happen as often as I would have liked. On the other hand...well, watch the battle against Vampire Wario, and you'll see.

Individual battle comments:

• Wario: I was able to set up lots of combos right away, which allowed this battle to end more quickly.

• Spearhead: Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky with combos here, so it was the longer route on this one. I find it kind of funny that that one column got really piled up, but it didn't matter at all.

• Webber: Here's my first mistake, where I flipped a pill too late. Luckily I dropped on him in just the right places and ended this battle early.

• Silky: It seems that you always get dropped on in the worst possible places, but I made it work to my advantage. The end was annoying with everything that was stacked up.

• Jellybob: I had lots of combos at the beginning, and there's some cool stuff at the end.

• Helio: He dropped first, which hurt my ego but nothing else. At one point I flipped a pill the wrong way, and you can tell that I lose my concentration for a little bit after that mistake. Then I had a dyslexic moment later on. The one good thing about being so piled up is that you can make a lot of combos out of it.

• Wario/Scienstein/Hammerbot: I really like dropping on two people at the same time, but it came back to me when I had to wait for 3 drops in a row on me. I got a pretty nice combo with 2 yellow viruses sideways, but then I made a mistake with a blue pill near the end.

• Rudy: This guy's music always psyches me out... Anyway, I got a good first combo on him, even if it took a while, but at least he took even longer to drop on me. On this battle and the next, my priority is clearing the highest viruses rather than getting combos. I had to wait a little bit to get one blue pill at the end, which was a bit annoying.

• Vampire Wario: Just like Helio, he dropped before I did, but I got him back for it! I have to say that this battle's abrupt end (to me at the time, since I wasn't watching Wario's side) was the most surprising thing in this run. I even got a new high score, which was subsequently saved by the game.

I hope you enjoy watching this!