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This is my first TAS run. I decided to do it on one of my favorite games: Pokemon.
I used the VisualboyAdvance version 1.7.2 that the site required me to use. The only things I adjusted was screen size (to 2x), and made hotkeys for quicker save-stating.
The idea around this TAS is the use of luck manipulation to make my opponents miss, have my attacks be critical hits, or sometimes, to take _enough damage_.
There were no actual glitches to take advantage of in this game :(
For any R/S/E players, the starters have the ability as to when their HP falls below 1/3, their Fire attacks get a 1.5x boost. I needed that to score OHKOs, so sometimes, I was simply asking for damage!. Therefore, I took damage to save some time!
I chose Torchic over Mudkip because Blaziken destroys the Elite 4 better than Swampert, and the only true advantages for using the Mudkip family comes from the 1st, 3rd, and maybe the 7th gyms.
The reason I backtracked to capture a Sharpedo was because:
1). It already knew Crunch, a Psychic-destroyer 2). It was fast, and had enough power to make a difference in the 7th Gym Leaders' battle.
The only time I ran into wild Pokemon was to raise Blaziken to the next level, instead of waiting for trainer battles.
Finally, I limited the amount of Pokemon Center visits to save time, and the reason I used Mauville's was because it was the starting point to many quests (Mt Chimney invaded by Team Aqua, returning to battle Norman, going on to the 6th Gym Leader). So my friendly Abra could teleport back to that Pokemon Center, savign seconds, even minutes off my time!
However, I have noticed that the play quality is quite subpar, so I will be working on a new run!

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1131: blackshellbowser's GBA Pokemon Sapphire in 2:50:56.48
Editor, Skilled player (1939)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247
Only 2-3 days and 1216 rerecords? Is the game that easy? I was thinking that if you needed critical hits, you would need more rerecords. I haven't gotten the movie to work yet. It might work if hex-edited to use 128K save.
Joined: 5/27/2005
Posts: 465
Location: Turku, Finland
w00t!? It's already finished? I myself have only reached about half way of the game and started playing it about the same time you created the Pokemon R/S/E topic :D. So I'll watch the run to the part which I have reached and continue from there after I have finished the game. That's because you don't get as much from the run unles you have playd the game yourself. I'll edit my comments on this post after i have watched the first half. EDIT: It would be nice to know which rom you used. Otherwise, watching the movie could prove to be quite difficult ;). I have tried following roms: 0757 - Pokemon Sapphire (J)(GBANow), 0898 - Pokemon Sapphire (U)(Intro Hack)(Mugs), 1237 - Pokemon Sapphire (U)(1.1)(Independent), 2011 - Pokemon Sapphire (E)(1.2)(Independent) and none of them works. The 0898 - Pokemon Sapphire (U)(Intro Hack)(Mugs) seemed to match with your movie file but it also desynched before the game even actually started. So any ideas what I might have done wrong or why the movie desychs in the very beginning?
Which run should I encode next? :)
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
I'm voting no on this one for a few reasons. First reason would be because of a rather important lack of information about rom used ('pokemon_sapphire.gba' is extremely vague), and also due to other things missing, such as vba rerecording version, and other important options enabled (realtime clock for example, without that it desyncs really fast). The second reason is because it desyncs a little bit into the run. only once did I manage to get it to go past the 'name torchic? y/n' screen. after that it desynced on the way to the next town on your way to getting a package. The third reason is the most important reason by far: the play quality was poor. An example is a mistake while you were choosing your name, as you didn't choose it on the first oppurtunity, moved past it and had to move back to select it. Having input display on showed the button presses being input at not-exceeding-human-reflexes speed. This was somewhat obvious even without input display on as text windows stayed up longer than they needed to (alternating a and b appears to be the fastest method of text removal, so to speak). I'd say choosing the boy over the girl would work better, as she has a shorter rival name (rival names cannot be changed in this game, thus the shorter name is more effective). Slightly offtopic but relevant, should you read this nitsuja, is there some reason why lag reduction seems to be turned off in this game (I tried recording a quick 2 minute movie, and it desynced after less than 300 frames with realtime clock being enabled, when i checked, lag reduction wasn't checked in the menu despite being checked prior)?. edit: here is a little bit I did just to show a roughish comparison between the two. rom used was 0898 - Pokemon Sapphire (U) [-].gba although it will sync on 1237 - Pokemon Sapphire (U)(1.1). I didn't put that much effort into it as I don't know the game mechanics, otherwise I would've gotten a high attack IV torchic and better criticals and attack avoidance against mudkip.
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
Atma wrote:
I'd say choosing the boy over the girl would work better, as she has a shorter rival name.
Wait, which is it now, is the boy better or the girl?
Former player
Joined: 9/1/2005
Posts: 803
KDR_11k wrote:
Atma wrote:
I'd say choosing the boy over the girl would work better, as she has a shorter rival name.
Wait, which is it now, is the boy better or the girl?
In terms of you picking them, I don't believe there's any apart from house. Since the opposite of the one you pick is your rival, picking the guy is faster I believe (her name defaults to May, his name defaults to Brendan), which would save frames here and there. Although now that I think about it, the mother has to walk two extra tiles if you chose the boy, while she walks 2 less if you choose the girl I believe (closer positioning and whatnot to the door). It'd surely save more than 24 (or was it 32?) frames by choosing the boy though.
Editor, Skilled player (1939)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247
Atma wrote:
In terms of you picking them, I don't believe there's any apart from house. Since the opposite of the one you pick is your rival, picking the guy is faster I believe (her name defaults to May, his name defaults to Brendan), which would save frames here and there.
There was a topic on SDA saying that the girl was faster because Brendan says less. I don't know by how much. blackshellbowser, could you post more WIPs (1 is not enough) in the forum topic and take more time so we can help your run and verify that it works?
Player (87)
Joined: 1/15/2006
Posts: 333
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Aww... I was looking forward to watching this. A rom version would be nice to have, even if it has been cancelled :(
print reduce(lambda x,p:p/2*x/p+2*10**1000,range(6643,1,-2))
Player (36)
Joined: 10/8/2006
Posts: 284
I'm working on one, and I'm at the 6 gym with some problems. I chose Mudkip as my starter because it has advantages against lots of gyms.