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This is a TAS of Takeshi no Chousenjou (たけし の 挑戦状, Takeshi's Challenge) which is a Famicom exclusive and cult classic developed by Taito Corporation and released December 10, 1986. The ultimate goal of the game is to acquire a treasure by traversing a group of unorthodox levels and gameplay styles until your goal is accomplished. This is an alternative goal to the already quite uncovential glitched run #2295: FractalFusion's NES Takeshi no Chousenjou in 03:53.58 that is published by finishing the game in an unnexpected but intended solution.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: fceux 2.2.0 with TAS Editor
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses warps
  • Glitchless
  • Pacifist
  • Throws 30720 punches

Comments

As stated in FractalFusion's published run this is a quite unconventional game created with the box cover even warning that it should not be approached with traditional gaming skills. I take that idea to heart and beat the game in a way that was intended but no the traditional way of completing the game.
There are two memory addresses in the game for recording the number of times that a punch is thrown 0060 which measures on a count from 0 to 255 and 0061 which again measures from 0 to 255. 0061 only iterates after the 0060 value has looped through meaning that to get to a value of "1" in 0061 requires you to have thrown 256 punches, to get to "2" you need 512 punches and so on. The animation for each punch takes 17 frames but in actuallity the punch value can be iterated every 4 frames.
It turns out that to go with the games quirky attitude of this game if you get the 0061 value to 120 or an equivalent of 30,720 punches while still on the title screen you will be warped to the final level eliminating the vast majority of the game. After that you simply have to finish the last short platforming level and you win.

Stage by stage comments

Title Screen (Frames 0 - 122889, 00:00.00 - 34:08.15)

In a twist from the vast majority of the runs on this site instead of trying to leave the title screen as quickly as possible the run actually spends 34 minutes, or 99.2% of the entire input on the title screen. This is done, as stated above, to achive the warp to the final level skipping the majority of the game.
Watching an 8-bit character punch 30,720 times is not something I would encourage anyone to take up as a hobby but as a one time experiment it truly is mind-numbing. Even at 6400% speed, which was the fastest fceux could theoretically meet and definitely faster than my computer could attempt to reach it would still take a little over 30 seconds which already is a bit too long.
This portion of the run was accomplished using TAS Editor inputting 5 punches, highlighting those 5 punches, clicking insert, then doing the same with 10 or 20 punches. I then simply held insert until frame 122889 was reached and this part of this level was finished.

Final Level (Frames 122889 - 123873, 34:08.15 - 34:21.17)

For this level I used some traditional platforming skills to try to reach the end of the screen and acquire the treasure. This level features a lot of "run right left for justice" but also contains an interesting mechanic of the menu screen. If you enter the menu screen all of the enemies de-spawn and then re-spawn in their original locations upon re-entering the game. This can be used to avoid having to fight or be attacked by an enemy during the level.

After input ends

After input ends you go to a screen of a disembodied head with the word End on the screen. Then after waiting around 4 minutes a message pops up on screen asking "Why take this game so seriously?"

Other comments

I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to read through this submission text, skipping through an encode if it is ever created, or if you are insane watching through the whole run.
I hope you enjoy did not hate yourself too much during this process.

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: I was going to say something witty about this, but then I realized I forgot the punch line.
Eh, whatever. Rejecting because it essentially uses a a cheat code.

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Even at 6400% speed, which was the fastest fceux could theoretically meet and definitely faster than my computer could attempt to reach it would still take a little over 30 seconds which already is a bit too long.
30 seconds? Are you high? That's insane! I get bored in a span of 10 seconds!
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jlun2 wrote:
30 seconds? Are you high? That's insane! I get bored in a span of 10 seconds!
You should be glad I didn't do this in Bizhawk. It only appears to go up to 1000%. You would have had to watch it for 3.4 minutes. And people claim it is a superior emulator. Don't make me laugh.
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Wow, I just learned another random fact about Takeshi no Chousenjou! 30720 punches, wow! What were they thinking? Oh right, Beat Takeshi was completely drunk during brainstorming... That said, I don't think the game nor the instructions booklet teaches the player about this trick, and if that's the case it's a cheat code and it should not be allowed. Even if it isn't, the quality of this run is pretty low, since it's just punching, walking left and pausing to despawn enemies, so I don't think it warrants a separate category. I'd be more interested in a full warpless/glitchless category, even if it means waiting one hour on a blank screen.
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SmashManiac wrote:
I'd be more interested in a full warpless/glitchless category, even if it means waiting one hour on a blank screen.
But that's 60 seconds of fastforwarding at 6400% speed! I'll be dead from boredom long before the run ends!
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Hm. While the concept of throwing 30720 punches to beat a game seems interesting, it seems like a cheat code of some kind. I don't think it should be accepted.
SmashManiac wrote:
I'd be more interested in a full warpless/glitchless category, even if it means waiting one hour on a blank screen.
I think the blank screen waiting can be reduced to 5 minutes, if I remember correctly.
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Now that I read the submission, I'm speechless. Someone actually programmed this game to warp you to the last level if you punch the air 30,720 times. this is insane. is it your discovery, goofydylan8?
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ
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FractalFusion wrote:
Hm. While the concept of throwing 30720 punches to beat a game seems interesting, it seems like a cheat code of some kind. I don't think it should be accepted.
SmashManiac wrote:
I'd be more interested in a full warpless/glitchless category, even if it means waiting one hour on a blank screen.
I think the blank screen waiting can be reduced to 5 minutes, if I remember correctly.
I still am not sure if it is a cheat code or a legitimate way to beat the game but I am erring like you on the side of cheat code because it doesn't make sense. At the same time I am not sure what distinguishes something from a cheat code from a weird set of gameplay rules. I am still looking for a copy of the game manual to find out if it was ever mentioned or if it was just hinted at in interviews. The blank screen can be reduced to only 5 minutes. I am looking into the route. It will probably be shorter than this run but only just. If this strategy does turn out to be legitimate there might be a chance it would be the shorter glitchless% time.
OmegaWatcher wrote:
Now that I read the submission, I'm speechless. Someone actually programmed this game to warp you to the last level if you punch the air 30,720 times. this is insane. is it your discovery, goofydylan8?
It was not my discovery, no, but I might be the first to actually do it or prove it exists (I am not sure). I can't find a video of anyone accomplishing it but there are mentions of it online. It is weird most of the mentions online say you have to punch 20,000 times, which is over 10,000 short of the actual number, and the vast majority of websites that mention it say that it is a hoax or rumor to create buzz about a game to make it a cult legend. As I said I am still trying to find a game manual (which I won't be able to read since I can't read Japanese) to see if they make any mention of this strategy. I am thinking they might because A) how would a rumor like this get created otherwise? B) from what I have seen it is a quite unconventional game and was marketed as such.
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I'm a little upset seeing this. A few years ago, I tried this out myself - except I had him punching only every 16 frames. Not sure how high the punch count was. Whatever it was, the little guy was punching for about three hours and nothing came of it. So, congratulations.
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