Submission #3394: MESHUGGAH's SNES Arkanoid: Doh It Again "final boss" in 01:04.23

Another "wallbreaker" classic for SNES, however you won't see this feature in this submission =)

I was about to search additional TAS projects and I saw this mentioning at the ListOfIdeas page. After some minutes of testing it looked like the game is too boring for a full TAS even with the use of warps and multiball explosions. I also tested that desyncing the intro won't let me to start there (IIRC Baxter or maybe Bisqwit did this in another game).

I used the J(apanese) rom to start the game faster than E and U.

I control 2 player because this way P1 pad will be closer to the boss and able to finish the game faster. This way I can also add more manipulation and entertainment.

Every level has multiple passwords, so I dumped around 50 "Level 99 2 player mode B" passwords and the fastest one (to input in the password screen) was XX3Z7632BLX7.

There's also a "difficulty" setting in the options but the game ignores that during final boss fight (I tested it). It can be set to 0-2-4 (easy-medium-hard). The default setting is medium.

The "final" boss has 20*3 HP (left arm, body, right arm). Notice that dying on the stage will refill both parts to 20 HP. After every 6th hit, he rotates the screen which also reverts the control of the pads. When he rotates, he won't get hit.

Now you think this was an easy job and just simply rerecorded a few times... NOT! Both the pads and ball has such a weird physic (in technical terms), sometimes the subpixels keeps increasing even at the end of the game (after the movie ends). That's why I couldn't finish the game earlier, also the final combo for the right arm was a very tedious attempt to get there. It looks clumsy, however I challenge you to shorten that part or more better: beat my TAS!

So mainly I used TAS Movie Editor v0.12.2 heavily, while I tried to keep up the entertainment as much as possible: -"unused" P2 pad in the beginning -"unused" P1 and P2 pad near the middle -"Donkey Kong" effect around 2350 (hitting the arms behind the body) -Ending the movie while the boss still has 20+4 HP -P2 Game Over when the game is over

The reason to accept/publish this TAS is mainly that how easily you can fool the boss. Also it's short and fast. Nuff said. However I would gladly like to ask everyone to tell what do you think not just vote, because if you think you would watch a full run, I could do it just for you =).

See you until my next SNES tas (which is already in progress, I hope I can submit it until 2012). =)

Baxter: It is not allowed to use a password to skip to the end, as explained in the rules. There are conceivable scenarios where using a password is warranted, but these are very rare. When you want to make such a movie it is a good idea to discuss this on the forum first, or ask a judge about it. Furthermore, the (U) version of the game is the preferred version by default, a shorter title screen is specifically listed as a bad reason to use a different version. Rejecting this TAS.

The audience seems rather interested in a full TAS of this game, so hopefully we will see that some day.