Submission #698: MattyXB's GB Catrap in 59:21.57

Game Boy
baseline
VBA-rr v23.5 svn421
213694
60
1959
Unknown
Catrap (U) [!].gb
Submitted by MattyXB on 6/5/2005 12:13:00 AM
Submission Comments
Used: VBA-rerecording-9
  • No Passwords used
  • No Warps used
  • No Programming Errors used
  • Aims for the fastest possible time to finish all 100 Stages
Catrap is a nice puzzle games with Cats. You must solve 100 Stages, where you must walk over enemies till all are gone. You can only walk, climb ladders, falling down, push stones or dig moat. So you can't jump and must clear all 100 Stages this way.
Later Stages get much harder and you have too sometimes 2 characters which you must both control to solve some Stages. You can only control one character at the time, so you must push select to switch to the other one which cost too some time.
You will later see, that some switches takes much longer then others. The reason is, you can't switch fast after you defeat an enemie on the screen. Cost much more time. So I try sometimes to switch before I defeat enemies. But I try to switch as less as possible, because it cost to time. So in some Stages it is not possible to switch before defeat an enemie. You can't too switch not so fast after you dig moat. But much faster then defeat an enemie. I have always try to switch as fast as possible and test every frame for this movie. So sometimes when I can't switch so fast I do other things, like push a stone or walk a bit. I have the time to push the stones, walk or turn around, so I lose no time here and switch as fast as possible again when it work.
Some other things which I have notice while making this movie: You can walk faster then jump from ladder to ladder. You can climb down ladders faster then just fall down, strange but I test it. You can defeat enemies faster when do it from a ladder and go back then from normal way. You can defeat enemies faster when do it from normal way then from moat which you dig. So I try always to get the fastest way to all enemies and finish each Stage.
Sometimes after I finish some Stages I watch the movie again and again to find faster ways to finish these Stages. And sometimes I found faster ways after I already done later Stages. So I have redone all Stages again to finish this game as fast as possible. Now its under 1 hour, which is great I think. I need only by 2 Stages over 1 minute to finish them. All others are under 1 minute. But it cost too always time to select the Stage and wait while the intro for every Stage is playing. But I selected every Stage as fast as possible and test when I must push the button to Start the Stages as fast as possible. I have try too when I can stop the movie, so it stops at the last possible Frame which you need for enter the last comand.
I have make some SaveStates to select faster the later Stages: http://home.arcor.de/mattyxb/CatrapSaveStates.zip
F1 - begin Stage 11 F2 - begin Stage 21 F3 - begin Stage 31 F4 - begin Stage 41 F5 - begin Stage 51 F6 - begin Stage 61 F7 - begin Stage 71 F8 - begin Stage 81 F9 - begin Stage 91 F10 - begin Stage 100
At last I can tell you, that I finish all Stages by myself. I have not look into FAQs or see tricks for the Stages. So some Stages takes me more days and some more hours till I have finish them. But all without help. So now enjoy this great puzzle game and see every Stage from this maybe as fast as possible. Not sure, if some Stages can maybe done faster, but I found no other ways.

Truncated: Looks like a nice little puzzle game, and it even has an undo function several steps back! Which we don't get to see of course...
The movie seems well played, but the game is just not a good idea:
  • The stages are very similar to each other, just boulders, enemies, ladders, and sand. I watched some 30 levels before going up to 300% speed, and even then it was long (and not at all hard to follow).
  • The 2-player levels were a nice change, but it didn't manage to break the monotony.
  • It's not very impressive because with some training (and after seeing the best solutions here) a player could do the same thing real time. It's a game which doesn't take any playing skill, just thinking skill.
I can imagine this movie being informative for someone who wants to know the solutions to all the puzzles, but it's not at all entertaining to the average viewer. Most people didn't even take the time to watch and vote. Therefore I have decided to reject it. Sorry.

adelikat: Unrejecting and accepting for publication to the Vault

nanogyth: Processing for publication...
Last Edited by adelikat on 8/21/2023 5:05 PM
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