This run is 4144 frames (1 minute 9 seconds) faster than the current published version. This is due in part to some new glitches/discoveries, some shortcuts, lag reduction, and better precision.

New Glitches & Tricks

  • Up+Down while jump attacking
This is a weird one. While jumping in the air press up+down and attack with the normal weapon. The turtle sprite will be replaced by an enemy sprite briefly. Also a "flying weapon" will appear on the screen that can damage enemies. With don, this is a sprite of Leo's sword. This can be used to strategically hit bosses earlier and speed up fights (particularly the technodrome).
  • Under %50 health bonus
This isn't really a glitch but weapons do more damage when you turtle is under %50 health. I take damage intentionally in order to do more damage. This saved time on every boss in the game.
  • Scrolling glitch
This glitch was discovered by Spider-waffle and allows you to scroll down to the screen below by jumping up a near a ladder and attacking with your weapon at the right time. For this to work you have to a) be able to reach the top of the screen b) there must be two tiles of roof next to the ladder. This was used in level 5 to save about 150 frames and level 6 to save about 13 seconds.
  • Skipping rope animation
In level 4, I was able to manipulate the skull knight enemy to appear before the rope section. I used this enemy to allow me to make 2 jumps that are normally impossible saving significant time.

Summary

  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses FCEU .16 (Luke's latest release + Miau's macro patch)
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses deaths
  • Abuses programming errors in the game.
I hope you enjoy. I might make a more detailed description of each level at a later time.

Special Thanks

  • Spider-waffle & Baxter for ideas & glitches, and Baxter for inspiration to work on this run
  • JXQ & Brushy for encouragement & motivation
  • Walker for his previous contributions to the game

Truncated: Accepted as an improvement to previous movie.
Bisqwit: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1335: adelikat's NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 16:56.00
Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Very nice movie :) nice optimizations + new glitches. I don't know when I suggested this TAS to be done... but I never dreamed of it being completed already :)
Active player (432)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Holy Gin-Gi-Vi-Tis! Certainly did not expect you to be finished so soon. Brilliant run and I really like the music in the water stage but hate the stage itself because I died so many times (when I was a kid) by the pressure of time and those blasted water grass thingies. Voting yes. So how about a break? :)
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
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (968)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
I'm watching this as I write. I just saw the water level and it looks mysteriously unoptimized, hitting corners and losing speed and whatnot. I'm sure that this is not the case, so perhaps you should explain what's going on in the submission. I think more people are likely to have the same question.
JXQ
Experienced player (750)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
I don't like this game, but a TAS is far from trivial, much farther from it than I thought before watching. Not the most entertaining, but I wasn't bored either. Level 6 was pretty cool, and the rope skipping in Level 4 was neat.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Former player
Joined: 8/20/2005
Posts: 643
Location: Mikkeli,Finland
This is one of games what I play when I was a kid. Good game and great TAS ;)
Current Projects: ???
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Hurr. Desynchs for me on the screen right before the Rocksteady fight. Using the right rom, emulator, and settings too. Guess I'll hafta wait for this one to be published. :/
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Wow. I remember trying that rope-skipping thing in realtime, years ago. I didn't think it was actually possible to get enough distance. Very impressive.
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Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
Aaah, TMNT. Also known as ridiculously hard game with awful controls. Especially since it was my first own NES game, I still remember how frustrating it was to play it without savestates and such. The technodrome level alone was already enough to drive even a skilled player crazy. So yeah, I like it being destroyed in under 17 minutes. Easy yes vote. A few notes/questions about the run: 1. Was it possible to take a damage boost in the tall shaft just before the exit to the roof (level 2)? 2. Was it possible not to hit as many corners and such in the underwater level (I guess not, since the controls SUCK, but it's still worth asking)? 3. Is it generally feasible not to try getting more horizontal speed while falling under the corners? 4. The flying weapon glitch was doable on the console because I remember getting it a couple of times on my own NES after trying to mash buttons in deep frustration, much like the teleport glitch in TMNT 2. 5. At least at one point in level 4 (I think), it looked like taking a damage boost would be faster. 6. Why didn't April turn to her human form as well?
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Neat stuff. This was one of my childhood games. Good improvement, funny new tricks and glitches.
Former player
Joined: 9/20/2006
Posts: 287
Location: Singapore
I didn't quite like it... not the run, but the game itself. Most of it was too slow moving and forced me to fast forward through about 20-30% of it (most of it was on the surface map). The damage boost on stage 4 was nicely done though. I am YESing it for better optimization over an existing run
Truncated wrote:
Truncated is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. -- xoinx
Joined: 11/30/2004
Posts: 83
Location: Basement
It's an improvement, so yes-ness on this. The only thing that I had to wonder about was in level four: I believe it was on the screen right after the rope-throwing part where you wait for a laser to pass before climbing down a ladder. Is there no way to manipulate this to prevent the laser from being fired? Otherwise I'd assume there's a reason you don't take damage from it, whether it's slower or whether you needed the health for later.
Joined: 10/16/2006
Posts: 174
Nice movie. But I think it's safe to say this game has the worst ending ever. It's so horrible, I actually laughed at it. I was never able to beat it when I was 5 so it's so funny to see it beaten so easily...or should I say precisely? Yea, that one.
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3596)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4738
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I guess I should have expected many questions about this run. Though I find it interesting that there was very little brought up in Walker's run.
moozooh wrote:
A few notes/questions about the run: 1. Was it possible to take a damage boost in the tall shaft just before the exit to the roof (level 2)?
No. Someone else also mentioned if I could jump up there since it was the same height. The reason it is not possible is because it is more than one tile thick. All the jumps I do make were to 1-tile width ledges. And damage will not boost vertical height.
2. Was it possible not to hit as many corners and such in the underwater level (I guess not, since the controls SUCK, but it's still worth asking)?
This response is to Truncated as well. This level is suprisingly simplistic TAS wise. There is no horizontal acceleration so bumping into corners is irrelevant. Pressing up or down changes the turtle sprite but affects NOTHING about his movements or even his collision detection. I assure you this part is optimal. In fact it is identical to Walkers (which is also optimal) except for getting to the center of two bombs quicker. Also, taking damge does cost 1 frame. I do take an extra hit near the end for a quicker death in lv 3.
3. Is it generally feasible not to try getting more horizontal speed while falling under the corners?
Nope. Makes no difference in this game, simply because there is no horizontal acceleration.
5. At least at one point in level 4 (I think), it looked like taking a damage boost would be faster.
Where? It is possible, but also keep in mind that minimizing lag (which can be bad in this game) dictated much of my actions.
AceofShades wrote:
The only thing that I had to wonder about was in level four: I believe it was on the screen right after the rope-throwing part where you wait for a laser to pass before climbing down a ladder. Is there no way to manipulate this to prevent the laser from being fired? Otherwise I'd assume there's a reason you don't take damage from it, whether it's slower or whether you needed the health for later.
There is a way to manipulate that but it would a) cost more in lag b) manipulating a different enemy group, but that would be way slower. Also, taking a hit was slower in this instance. Actually, the delay is quite minimal there. I hope that answers all questions brought up.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Experienced player (612)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 612
This is great, I never thought such an improvement could be made with all the glitches and shortcuts. I use to watch my brother play this game for some reason he could never get far enough to beat it but with this said I am familiar with this game and I know quite what it's like. Yes Vote.
Joined: 8/13/2005
Posts: 356
Location: Canada
The ladder scrolling glitch reminded me of Rockman. The rope skipping was also pretty cool. Nice new tricks, and I didn't consider this a hard watch in general either. I'll vote yes.
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Graphics glitch at chainsawman. Does Donatello do metamorphosis? Another graphics glitch at the girl's guardian monster, and since when did Donatello do telekinesis?? The turtles make air bubbles in the water. This I can't credit you for, though. Cleverly executed suicide. Nice job with the ladder trick. That's exactly the same as in Rockman 1. More metamorphosis. This game lags by default. It runs at 30 fps, except when it really lags which is even slower than that (15 to 20 fps).
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [716] NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by adelikat in 16:56.00
Morrison
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Former player
Joined: 8/2/2006
Posts: 195
Location: USA
I love seeing this game destroyed. I remember spending a summer trying to beat it with friends, but we finally got it.
twitch.tv/Retrogaming2084
Fihlvein
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Joined: 7/28/2004
Posts: 135
Location: Finland Realms
Very nice, enjoyed a lot. The part where you skipped ropes was awesome. Thank you for this movie! Edit. Ok I saw there will be more glitches and new version being under its way, nice!