Freaked the foots, mangled the mousers and totalled the technodrome.
That's .. Turtle power!!
  • FCEU 0.98.16
    • Desyncs with FCEU 0.98.12, works with FCEU 0.98.13 or higher
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes no damage
  • Genre: Fighting
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses programming errors in the game

This movie is 14705 frames faster than my previous version, which is about 4 minutes and 5 seconds. The previous movie was the first TAS I ever made and it was made with Famtasia. This means I had both less experience and many tools were unavailable at the time. The following things helped me greatly in making this improvement:
  • A frame counter
  • Frame advance
  • Luck manipulation
  • RAM addresses
  • Glitches

A frame counter and frame advance speak for themselves and helped on the other three points. I'll comment on these other three points:

Luck manipulation / RAM addresses

I used the following RAM addresses:
  • 00B1
    • Gives you the level X position. After you beat a group of foot soldiers you can easily check at what frame you are able to scroll the level again. You also know exactly how far the level will scroll, which both is very handy.
  • 056F, 0571, 0573, 0575, 0577 and 0579
    • Give you the enemy HP of the enemy #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6. Since a boss is also an enemy, it will also give you the boss hp. This is of course helpful in getting the boss optimally.
  • 0581, 0583, 0585, 0587, 0589 and 0591
    • These give you the randomness of enemy #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6. The first frame you are able to hit an enemy, this value will turn 1.

Every enemy entering the screen is random. The spot where it enters, and the frame you are able to hit it are determined by the frame you complete the scrolling of the screen, and the frame the last enemy died (there can three foots at most on screen). I constantly had to try lots of situations in killing enemies at different times, and intentionally waiting frames when scrolling the screen. This process was very frustrating! Since I knew more about luck manipulation, I was able to get better bossfights as well this time. The snow level boss might still look a bit random, but even this fight follows a certain pattern if you watch closely.

Glitches

When testing some stuff, I stumbled on the following:
  • Pressing left+right (on the ground or in the air)
    • Makes your turtle walk on the same spot. This is useful to make the screen scroll while you are keeping your position, so you'll move left.
  • Pressing up+down in the air
    • Makes your turtle move really fast to the upper left.
  • Pressing left+right+up in the air
    • Makes your turtle move really fast to the lower right.
  • Pressing up+down+left in the air
    • Makes your turtle move instantly to the lower left.
  • Pressing up+down+right in the air
    • Makes your turtle move instantly to the lower right.
  • Pressing up+down+left+right in the air
    • Makes your turtle move instantly up.

I use these (and maybe a few other less important ones) to move around the screen with high speeds, which greatly helped making the movie. It might even look easy, but this isn't true. You are still limited in what direction you can zip, and you can also zip twice if you want to to a A+B attack with it. Every screen was like a puzzle that needed to be solved, to get the best randomness, and the killing the enemies as fast as possible. The glitches were also used to create some cool effects. It enables you stuff like moving from the left side of the screen to the right side and other things. Too much to explain everything, just try around with it a little yourself!

Other stuff

I tried to keep this entire movie high paced, which was sometimes pretty hard. You always have some free time to spend after killing the last foot at a screen, or while scrolling. I tried to make those moments as well as the moments where I actually fight to look as interesting as possible, without doing the same things over and over.
I'd like to thank everyone who showed interest in this movie, it's always motivating to hear people are looking out for it!
Special thanks to AngerFist, who after I showed him a preview of what was possible with the glitch insisted to put everything else aside to work on this movie. He watched my wips and motivated me to keep at it.
Enjoy!

adelikat: HUGE improvement over the author's previous run in both time and entertainment value. Accepting


Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada
I discovered this site after I saw Morimoto's SMB3 run and couldn't tell if it was "real" or not. I've always considered a TAS video to be an example of what can be achieved with perfect play. In other words, it shows off what could be done without the limitations of reflexes and skill, like if Data were to play a game, or the guy in that movie where the kid is a robot and kicks ass at Pole Position. For me, a really good TAS run should have people standing around and wondering whether it's a TAS run or not. It leaves people in awe because it looks possible, if only someone was insane enough to memorize the route and practice long enough. My motto is WWDD (What Would Data Do?). And that doesn't mean, What Would Data Do If He Took A Screwdriver And Opened Up His Controller So That He Could Press Left And Right At The Same Time? (WWDDIHTASAOUHCSTHCPLARATST). I've generally overlooked runs where Up+Down or Left+Right was used a couple of times, but an entire run of it? After a few seconds the WTF-factor wears off and the constant teleportation just seems cheap. You don't have to watch this run for more than 30 seconds to realize that this wasn't played by a human being; no one would be fooled into thinking that this was achieved by skill. It's a great example of a "glitch run", like SNES Zelda: ALttP in 3:48, but I don't believe that it can obsolete the existing run. As in the Zelda run, this game is too "broken" to make that comparison. I voted No because I didn't find this entertaining, but I think it makes a fine example of a glitch run and deserves to be published in that context.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Skilled player (1409)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Not liking the use of left+right, or not being impressed by the way the movie turned out is your opinion... I won't argue with that. I do think you comparing this with the zelda ALttP 3:48 is not right. Inspite of what you might think, this improvement isn't based on the glitch (or left+right). The main improvement came from luck manipulation using ram adresses, not the warping.
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 804
Location: Canada
I can see that. The run is very clever, but the teleportation drives me nuts. Glitches can be fun, but overuse can be too much of a good thing. The wrap-around was interesting once, but within a few minutes the opposite direction glitch, in all of its variations, was just boring and repetitive. It reminded me why I have never liked left+right. The reference to Zelda: ALttP was a reference to an extreme example. Obviously using left+right didn't allow you to skip to the end of the game and turn a 1 hour+ speed run into a 3 minute speed run. You masterfully manipulated the game, but the teleportation just came off as too ridiculous to make a direct comparison to the existing run. I guess most people like it, but I can only appreciate it as a glitch run.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 5/27/2005
Posts: 465
Location: Turku, Finland
Wow! I had now idea TMNT2 could be glitched so much. In fact a little bit too much for my taste, but still I liked it ;D (yes sounds somewhat confusing). Voting "yes" because there is so much imrovement to the previous one, plus this is at least as interesting. When I hadn't seen Baxter's new run, I was thinking that 2-player run would be more interesting because then there would happen more on the screen. But now after seeing this, there's alredy pretty much happening so I doubt 2-player run (with these glitches) would look drastically better. While watching the run, I recorded and encoded it, so when someone wants to publish this, contact me to get the .avi ;).
Which run should I encode next? :)
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15527
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [571] NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game "1 player" by Baxter in 27:03.42
Post subject: Raphaello?
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5775
Location: Away
movie description wrote:
TMNT2 is a classic beat-em-up game with 4 classic main characters: Raphaello
What?
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Post subject: Re: Raphaello?
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
moozooh wrote:
movie description wrote:
TMNT2 is a classic beat-em-up game with 4 classic main characters: Raphaello
What?
Its written with Italian accent.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5775
Location: Away
Oh, that probably explains everything. :D Wait, it doesn't.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 8/1/2006
Posts: 428
Now I'm cursed. Every time I play this game I'm doomed to [relatively] slow and unresponsive controls.
Trying 127.0.0.1... telnet: connect to address 127.0.0.1: Connection refused telnet: Unable to connect to remote host
Joined: 8/10/2006
Posts: 7
In terms of getting a fast run, the teleport glitch is great. Personally, I'd rather see a run that *looks* humanly possible (a.k.a. perfect reflexes + luck manipulation). I still found it quite amazing how quickly you destroyed Krang...that guy ALWAYS kicks my butt!
Site Admin, Skilled player (1250)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11468
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.