When I set out to improve my published movie, my goal was to get a nice sub-40 time. Well I obliterated that goal with a 4 minute 8.7 second (14919 frame) improvement!
New Tricks/glitches
In addition to better precision, I found a multitude of new shortcuts and tricks. I also exploit several programming errors. Most noticeably is the ability to pass through solid objects. This allows me to skip the boss fight of world 3 completely!
Also, I used a speed potion in 1-3 as well as better abuses of speed & beachball potions. It seems that there is a slight bug with them. If you get ahead of the camera and move at the right angles you can get ridiculous speed boosts. With the beachball I am able to completely move out of view of the camera.
More abuses of the height boost by hitting corners. If you dribble the ball into the edge of a platform you get a nice height and speed boost. I use this numerous times to make jumps otherwise impossible or to cut corners more tightly.
The results of these tricks are quite apparent; leading to a much faster completion time and a much more entertaining movie.
I found that to return to a checkpoint, I don't need both glover and the ball resting on the ground before pausing. I simply need the ball to be touching the ground on the frame that the game pauses. This saves a load of time in a number of levels.
Summary
- Aims for fastest time
- Manipulates luck (the slot machine in the carnival game mostly)
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Take damage to save time
- Genre: Platform/Puzzle
Level by Level Highlights
- 1-1 99 frames
Not much here. Just more precise angles and frame precision.
- 1-2 282 frames
Again, nothing too notable. More precision.
- 1-3 731 frames
Most of this was from the use/abuse of the speed potion. I used it to get ahead of the camera and make a jump that is normally impossibly long and high. I hit the edge of the platform as well to get the height boost. This combined allowed my to make the large jump next to the X shaped gear.
- 1-4 258 frames
This is the world 1 boss fight. Most of the time saved came from getting onto the level end platform sooner. And of course more precision with the boss fights. Notice that I smack the flying creature with the bowling ball just before hitting the crab creature. This was to get him to recoil higher in the air. This results in him attacking sooner after the crab is defeated.
- 2-1 977 frames
This is my favorite level of the game, the carnival.
I saved a lot of time with a rather obvious route changed on my way to the chicken. I used the famous "chicken glitch" again, only with quicker results. I abused the pause+return to checkpoint to avoid the cutscene animation of smashing the button after the whack-a-mole game. This also meant I didn't have to die, which saved some time.
I used another return to checkpoint after the plinko game as well, which saved a few frames.
- 2-2 402 frames
I did the huge fall from an earlier location and saved a good bit of time.
- 2-3 445 frames
I found a nice trick here. I found that with good timing, I can smack the ball into the blue bouncy guy's head. If he jumps as it hits, it will rebound the ball high into the air. I manage to get it to land on the wall (which is normally too high to get up to). Then I use him to bounce glover up there. This saved 1 cutscene. It also meant skipping the hand wall much quicker. Note: the reason I didn't get the ball onto the right side of the wall is because it is angled and the ball would roll off.
- 2-4 50 frames
This boss fight was pretty good before. The improvement comes from using the piano to get onto the level end platform sooner. Also, I used the glitch that causes it to fall through the floor. (I didn't discover this until the later levels of the published movie).
- 3-1 340 frames
Better handling of the water segment. Which is nice, since it is the most dull moment of the game. Later, I take a nicer route on the shortcut.
- 3-2 19 frames
Time-wise this level can't be improved until the very end. There is a moving platform that has a fixed timing. Knowing this, I try to collect all the garibs since it doesn't cost time.
- 3-3 1374 frames
Big savings here. A lot came from handling the rooftop segments a lot better. I also used a return to checkpoint to save cutscene animation. The big timer saver though is that I found out I don't need the big potion in order to move the big wooden box. Glover can't move it himself, but for some reason, hitting the ball against it moves it! I think this is a bug in the game.
- 3-4 1932 frames
I saved time by.. .just completely skipping the boss fight :P This is the only boss fight where the level end platform is already in the level (usually it floats down from the sky at the end of the fight). It has a wooden box covering it. I hit it at the right angle in order to pass through it and trigger the level end.
- 4-1 201 frames
Just better precision
- 4-2 1598 frames
Big shortcut. I found with perfection timing (I mean perfect, 1 pixel off and it fails), I can make the jump over the lava. This saves several cutscenes and a good big of gameplay. This was the hardest trick to pull off in the entire movie.
- 4-3 1356 frames
Here I exploit the speed potion to its max. At the end, I managed to get enough speed to land on the platform during the cutscene! Normally I have to wait for the platform to come back down and ride it up again. In this case, glover was already at the top and the end of the cutscene :)
- 4-4 80 frames
Better precision, nothing too special.
- 5-1 654 frames
Beachball + helicopter abuse. I manage to make a huge jump with the combo of these two potions. Most of the savings were from this.
- 5-2 340 frames
I manipulated to the dynamite guy much better this time. I got him to explode at the earliest frame possible and got glover in much better position in order to skip more stuff from the resulting explosion.
- 5-3 139 frames
Beachball abuse, I managed to get to the end of the level before it even wore off! Unfortunately you can trigger the level end until it wears off though, so I had to wait at the end.
- 5-4 186 frames
A tough level to optimize since the camera is overhead. Very annoying. I managed to get better angles with my jumps and get the ball onto the rolling button sooner.
- 6-1 624 frames
Better precision mostly. Hitting platforms at quicker angles. Lots of little savings that added up.
- 6-2 861 frames
New shortcut! I noticed this time that he door at the end is not covered at the top. So rather than trigger the door open button I simply roll to the end and jump my way up the wall and over it! This saved 2 cutscenes and some backtracking. Note: in this version not a single button was triggered in this level :)
- 6-3 378 frames
Abusing the height boost from hitting corners. Gravity is lighter in world 6, so this is a whole lot more profitable. I also took a different route right after going across the giant fan. It avoided a cutscene. The jump is very difficult to make and requires the height boost + near perfect timing.
- 6-4 1539 frames
MUCH MUCH MUCH better boss fight.
I used ram addresses to find the boss HP. It turns out his arms have 3 hp each and the body has 3. But the body can't be damaged until the arms are destroyed. Each has an invulnerability time as well. So I crisscrossed hitting the arms to avoid having to wait for the invulnerability time. I made each hit count this time and didn't miss a ton of shots. The results is a lot cleaner looking and much faster.
Thanks
- L-Spiro for his MHS (Memory Hacking Software). With it, I was able to monitor glover's coordinates, as well as the HP values on the final boss
- Vidar/meepers for support & ideas
- AKA, comicalflop, Lag.Com, and anyone else who encouraged me and helped with motivation.
Enjoy.
adelikat: I guess I'll handle the encoding for this one :)