#1614: emu's Genesis Taz: Escape from Mars in 16:17.27

Emulator used: 9Z (also plays back fine with 9.5b)

Emulator settings:

Controller 1: 6 button
Controller 2: 6 button
Allow Up+Down: Yes
Sound: Enabled, 44100KhZ Stereo, YM2612 High Quality enabled

About the game

Taz:_Escape_from_Mars is a fast paced game for the genesis released 1994 starring the Tasmanian devil Taz and is the successor of TAZ Mania (tased by Truncated). The story is about his escape after he has been captured and put into a zoo by Marvin the Martian. Except for a few parts, the game also runs only at 30 frames per second, but has slightly better music than its predecessor.

About the game play

velocities
with the address for the horizontal speed being 00FFCC52, the different velocities are:

13: spinning in the air (instantly)
10: spinning on the ground (instantly)
4: jumping, digging through dirt, hovering with umbrella
2: walking, ricochet of enemies and items, spinning with umbrella, hurt animation

vertical speed (00FFCC54):

10: max falling speed
8: while spinning in the air (instantly)

this leads to the following rules:

due to faster movement in the air, alternating spinning and jumping is slightly faster than normal spinning (however not always used, when not necessary or creating lag)
spin for a frame before falling to get a higher starting speed before accelerating
jump instead of walking (in case one cannot spin, e.g. holding an umbrella, inside enemy)

enemies and items
Both are destroyed upon spinning. In this case Taz bounces back, losing a lot of time. Thus it is mostly faster to jump over enemies and items.
The animation of picking up items lasts too long to compensate the use of it.

bosses
They are the boring part of the movie as they are only vulnerable once after specific pattern.

Level notes

Mars

2500: these enemies don't hurt Taz by collision
3800: going over the platforms would have been slower due to waiting times

Moleworld

In the second level Taz is actually chased by a drilling machine (similar to Kid Chameleon). It only makes it on the screen after exiting the level.
Boss: After being hit twice the machine would retreat to reappear later. By falling down one level, this process is sped up.

planet X (this stage has parts with 60 frames per second)

The wobbling technique allows faster movement on water slides.
Since movement speed with the umbrella is very limited, I try to go as much as possible by foot.

Mexico
First level: Normally contacting the ground damages Taz, but jumping at the right moment prevents being hurt. Normally going along the ground is slower this time, except when items would block the upper route and if other issues (like height) would waste time.
Second level: There are several shortcuts used:

37250: Hitting the enemy and the bomb gives enough height to skip some stairs
37455: This jump might not have been intended by the programmers
37640: The only in-game shortcut
37816: A glitch lets me clip through the wall
38245: going around this wall, allows to skip a bigger part of the level

Boss: Only the first three attacks, the bull turned around instantly, without making a pause. So the later attacks needed to be guided to the opposite wall and could not be manipulated.

Haunted Castle
Even when Taz is invincible, he cannot spin while contacting bees, knights and witches.

42370: The bats would have cancelled the lever animation, unless Taz is invincible
42817: Again, the eye would have hurt Taz, while activating the switch
43170: A glitch allows to trigger the exit on the other side of the wall, skipping half of the level

Second level:

45605: Only by exiting the door on the right side, the knight is blocked, thus not hurting Taz after turning around
46110: Taz can not use the spirals, while being invincible, still, being hurt earlier clears that part faster

Third level:

47234: This glitch skipped more than a third of this level
47920: Being hit gives enough vertical boost to reach the platform and enables to pass the bee

Boss: Gossamer walks a fixed number of frames and will wait then for some time, in which he can be hit. After three hits he needs to sit down. If that happens in from of the chair, he will sit on it giving the possibility to activate the mind transfer machine.
In the tas the standing animation is not seen, giving the impression, that Taz wastes time, what is not the case. Since the laser to be destroyed (9 HP) happens to stop over the chair, Gossamer gains additional height making it possible to hit it twice per jump.

Marvin's House (has parts with 60 frames per second)

The position of the moving blocks is determined long before I reach them. So there is no hurry to reach them, when Taz has to wait anyway.
The spiked enemies can not be destroyed and do not allow spinning upon contact.

First Level:

The dog can be calmed down, by giving him a bone, which would have to be found. Since he can easily be avoided, when being passed by fast enough, this is skipped.
The cloning machine creates clones, which imitate Taz` input with some time offset and can be jumped onto to reach higher platforms
54860: This is the only door, which could be warped through due to the stair in front of it
55800: The sound bug, was implemented once to show what it looks like

Second level (my favourite):
Taz has to destroy 4 laser generators which block the exit door. The gravity can be changed in all 4 directions by either touching an arrow pointing it that direction or spinning along a corner.

I tried to get past the blocking laser, but to no avail (they are different then those in the level)
I also tested different routes, but the one intended by the game seems to be the fastest

Boss: The final boss happens to be the fastest, as he has no major invincibility time (except for the spinning time of the vulnerable part)

Credits

Truncated (his run of TAZ mania, reviewing WIPs, advises)
Mukki and upthorn (reviewing WIPs)
my friend Roland, who despite never having played this game, provided clever solutions, when I got stuck
The programmers who spend way more work and time into the rerecording version of gens, than I did in tases. This as also your run

Truncated: The people who took the time to watch it seems to find it okay, and I do too. Accepted.

adelikat: Processing.

Submission #1614: emu's Genesis Taz: Escape from Mars in 16:17.27

Status: Published