This is only a draft of a future submission to the site. I don't like writing all this on-spot, so I want this to be a cumulative ordeal. That's why I'm posting it here.
Judges and publishers/encoders: please read the note at the bottom of this submission. It's a very important request.
Here is a temp encode of the run. The encode is not very high quality, I know, but it will only be kept up until the movie is published.
Introduction
After several years of working and putting it off a lot, I've finally finished the two That's So Raven TASes. This is the 100% TAS of the game; the any% TAS submission can be found [<>|here]. That TAS was submitted on the same day. This is one of those games I've had ever since I was a kid, so I remember it from my childhood.
As this is the 100% run, please consult the [<>|any% run's submission comments] for most details that would concern both any% and 100%. This page only documents the different gameplay, etc. I am doing this because repeating this can get lengthy and redundant, and if I make a mistake here or there I would have to edit both pages. Anyway, I very highly recommend you read and watch both.
Extra movie information
- Core: mGBA
- Left+Right/Up+Down allowed
- The input file ends on the last frame where input is needed to skip to the ending credits (that would be, the frame when the last story text is skipped).
- To verify that 100% has indeed been completed in this movie, you can see that all yearbook items are unlocked, and the credits were reached. That alone defines 100% completion, but if you really want to be absolutely sure, play the input, then go back through the menuing to the slot select screen. There, it should say "RAE - 100%" on the first slot.
Goals
- Aims for fastest time
- 100% completion
- Heavy glitch abuse
- Takes damage to save time
- Genre: Action
About the game
That's So Raven is an overworld action game released in 2004 that is based on the popular American sitcom of the same name. The game was developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Disney Interactive for the Game Boy Advance. This game is the first of two other video games based on the sitcom, including another one for GBA and a DS game. The game follows the storylines of a few of the episodes of the show.
Most of the game takes place inside various parts of Raven's high school (mostly hallways), though a few levels are set in a shopping mall. It's your typical American sitcom scenario where everyone in the high school are total brats running around causing all kinds of havoc. Yeah, people throwing books at random people, muffins, pizza, and all kind of shit. Trash cans lying in your way. Yeah, very dark. The player's speed in the game when running is pretty quick, but the game is still pretty repetitive in nature.
100%
In the file select menu, a percentage of completion is shown after the file is made. The goal of this TAS is to make it so that the file name would say 100% if you looked at it. In order to do this, you must do the following:
- Beat all levels (including the minigames which are also required for any%).
- Do all the bonus requirements for each of the first four levels in each episode.
What do I mean when I say "bonus requirements"? Well, in each of the first four levels in each of the four episodes, there's a minor character that wants help with something. This is not an actual requirement for beating the game, and doesn't even contribute to the game's storyline, but is just something you can do as an extra feel-good kind of thing.
There are four people that need help in each of the first four levels: one per episode.
- Dory wants you to find a certain amount of CDs throughout the level. Once you collect all of them, you go back and talk to her, and then you're cleared to go complete the level as normal.
- Selene needs to be woken up for something. Go and talk to her to wake her up, and then you're cleared to go complete the level as normal.
- Horatio is very hungry, and wants you to find a certain amount of hamburgers for him laying around the room on the floor. Hmmm... hamburgers that have been laying on a floor at a public high school. That means they're probably been trampled by feet and are probably cold by now. Why would you eat that shit?! Anyway, once you collect all of them, you go back and talk to him, and then you're cleared to go complete the level as normal.
- Freddie has lost all the papers to some assignment he was working on, and he wants you to find them. Once you collect all of them, you go back and talk to him, and then you're cleared to go complete the level as normal.
Also, once you complete every one of these tasks and beat their respective levels, you can go back to the main menus of the game and look at the "yearbook" to see that all the entries have been unlocked. Each entry is represented by an anonymous face with a number over it. There should be 16 of them, and no entries represented by a lock. Clicking on yearbook entries takes you to pictures snapped (and compressed) from actual episodes of the TV series. You unlock one of these entries per level that has been completed in its entirety, and obviously the goal is to unlock them all.
I should also mention that talking to the respective bonus person after completing the level's bonus task actually regenerates your health, which can be done by no other means in the whole game. This is interesting because there are no other ways to increase health while playing the game. What makes it even more interesting is that when you start any level, your health defaults to 19, but when you complete a bonus, it regenerates your health to 20, so this is the only way you can ever have actually full health in the game. This feature is irrelevant to the TAS, though.
Mechanics abuse, tricks, and glitches
To see these, again, see the [<>|any% submission].
Useful RAM addresses
In all instances, I used Combined WRAM to find the RAM addresses.
- 0028C8 (1 Byte) - CD count (for Dory levels). Poke this value to 42 to see the HUD say "OK", which is the indicator for that the bonus is completed.
Stage-by-stage commentary
Text and menuing
There is actually a lot of menuing in the game done between each level, but in the TAS, it's skipped so quickly you don't see any of it. Usually, the player has to wait a moment to watch the clip of Raven's eye zooming in a whole lot, but by pressing Start on a very specific frame I skip having to see that clip.
In the levels, when you press A and go up to someone you talk to them. Instead of scrolling through text by pressing A through it, you can press Start, so you only have to see the first text block, thus saving time. When text begins a level, you should actually start moving BEFORE the text appears, because it moves you for one frame thus saving time.
"Run Raven Run"
1: Back to School
The goal of this level is to go talk to Chelsea. The bonus goal is to get 3 CDs and give them to Dory.
- In the first 3 rooms, the input is the same as in the any% TAS, because this is the fastest route:
- In the third room, it's faster to go up, do everything else, back down to get the disk, then go talk to Dory and go back up, mainly because this method allows you to do the slanted wall trick 2 times instead of just once in this room.
- In the fourth room, it's faster to go up to the classroom then go back down to get the disk behind the shelf, because it decreases the amount of frames that you're going vertical in only one single direction, which wastes time in the end
2: AV Cart Crash
The goal of this level is to go talk to Alana. The bonus goal is to wake up Selene.
- - Continuing to go up here, though it pushes you a little bit farther to the right (against how you want to go left), stopping a frame later and continuing to go up that way is four frames slower. The goal is to go enough vertical as fast as possible and then go horizontal, so stopping for that frame does waste time in several aspects.
- - The routing for this room is specific. I go down BEFORE the second janitor instead of AFTER for two reasons: 1.) Waiting behind the bench before starting to go down again wastes time. 2.) Before you can do vertical down + right, you have to do horizontal down + right while up against a downward slant, which actually wastes time too. | So though this has less vertical movement, technically, it still wastes time for those reasons.
3: Present Danger
The goal of this level is to collect the 8 presents and then go back and talk to Chelsea. The bonus goal is to collect 3 hamburgers and give them to Horatio. This level is one of several in the game that took a bit of routing work to optimize.
So, if you watched both the any% and 100% TASes (which I hope you did), you might have noticed that I did this level backwards from the way I did it in any%. Well, the left route IS faster in any%, but in 100%, I did a test of doing the level to the left, and a test to the right. I did the left test first (which any% used), with frame perfection on the left test. Then, I non-TASed the same test with the method of going to the right, making several minor mistakes, and I was able to save several hundred frames just by non-TASing it!!! So, the difference between the two major route choices is very, very clear.
- - For the second hamburger, I did some notable route testing actually. There are two methods I considered going about getting this hamburger: 1.) The way we did it here in the TAS, or 2.) At the beginning of the level (first room) we pass by a door, as you might have seen. This room leads to the room with the second hamburger, and in fact the hamburger is right next to the door. So the idea here would be to go into that door on your way, grab the hamburger, and go back in it. Well... Actually, method 1 is a LOT faster than method 2... about X frames faster according to my test... So, yeah, no.
- - Also with the second hamburger, here I go between the couches since I have to go up SIGNIFICANTLY less than otherwise.
HAMBURGER:
- LEFT: 1: Method: Between the two couches, saves 5 whole frames. 38 frames slower than going without hamburger at fastest. 2: Method 2 is DEFINITELY slower than method 1 because just walking up to the hamburger and stopping takes about 39 frames, let alone going back to the door. So we know no right there... 10542
- RIGHT: 1: Method: Behind couches, 2: Method: Between couches,
- RIGHT:
4: Eddie or Not
5: Chicken Chase
See the [<>|any% submission], because the minigames are exactly the same.
"Clothesminded"
6: Raven's Revolution
7: Protest March
8: Detention Dash
9: Cheesy Caper
10: Duct Hunt
"Smell of Victory"
11: Stinky School Strut
12: Bye-Bye to Ben
13: Supply Search
14: Sign Up Sprint
15: Dunk Tank Trek
"Four's A Crowd"
16: Date Expectations
17: Token Trial
18: Clean Up Crew
19: Backstage Debut
20: Pizza Pal Promenade
Conclusion
What a lot of work that took! I hope the work paid off quite well. I hope you enjoy this TAS.
Suggested screenshots
Special thanks to
- The TASVideos community, for being active and continuing to keep me motivated in doing my favorite hobby!
- Everyone who took their time to watch this TAS and/or read this lengthy submission text.
External links
- My YouTube channel, where you may find me uploading more videos of this game
- A playlist of other videos I uploaded of this game that are irrelevant to the TAS. - It is interesting to note that I found a very consistent out of bounds (OoB) glitch in this game that works in most of the levels. As cool as this is, it unfortunately is useless in a TAS, since most of the action can't really be skipped that way and very few times is it actually possible to escape from OoB (and once you have, you've already wasted quite a bit of time).
- For those of you interested in the game's soundtrack, here is a playlist containing all the tracks.
And just a little something extra...
Because you took the time to watch these two TASes that I made, here's a present for you! It's a remix I made of the hall pass monitor level theme that you heard so much throughout this run. If you want details about this, just ask.
Notes to judges/encoders/publishers
- Please include a shot of the yearbook at the end of the site encode. All of the yearbook items being unlocked is the result of 100% completion, whereas any% completion unlocks none of them. This requires no extra input.
- Please, if I may ask, make the accepting judgment for both movies (100% and any%) on the same day (meaning I'd prefer the same judge for both movies). Publication of the submissions can happen on a later day (and probably will), but please publish them both on the same day as each other as well, if this is at all possible.
These notes will only be up temporarily, and will be removed after the movie is published.