Submission #2534: Equinox's Genesis Puggsy in 26:10.87

Needs to have SRAM disabled from the beginning to stop desyncing, and piracy protection past level 5. (This was annoying as each time the game was loaded, or movie reloaded, it forgot to keep it off.)

The game play is mostly a cross between a normal platform game, with the usual style of platformer enemies and a variety of means to kill them, and a puzzle game of sorts where Puggsy is often required to find objects, and either carry them to a specific location or somehow use them in order to complete levels. There are also a variety of objects that have power-up effects, such as allowing Puggsy to be hit once or twice without dying, speeding him up or making him temporarily invincible, and objects that while not necessary, can be temporarily helpful, such as a variety of guns.

Objects react on a clever physics based system, which was an innovative feature at the time and was a rarely used feature in games until two console generations later with the release of games such as Second Sight, Max Payne 2 and Half Life 2. The system allows objects to be thrown, or to topple if stacked without care. Each object also has a different weight. Another effect of this is that Puggsy can carry stacks of objects along a flat surface, but a slope will often cause all items except the bottom one (held by Puggsy) to topple and scatter. Also, any objects carried out of the level exits give different score values, or in the case of the heart object, an extra life.

This will be my first TAS submission, so I hope you like it. The run you will be watching is over a week of work, practicing, looking for errors/bugs, rerunning levels and splicing.

Level 1

Simple jump and move, and tried not to lose momentum when jumping up the blocks.

Level 2

Moving with the gun turned out to be quicker than throwing it and retrieving it later then jumping over or on the enemy. The gun dropped correctly giving me the height to jump up and over the obstacle.

Level 3

First use of physics abuse, using just one barrel thrown with power up and jumping on it after the bounce gets me high enough to jump over without needing to pile barrels. Note: Switches need to be activated with items and not the character.

Level 4

Jumping over the enemy was not possible, so one barrel was used with power diagonally up, I stopped the character momentarily to not be hit myself, then raced to the end using the contents of a mug to pass the enemy near the exit.

Level 5

I use the 'hint' box to drag my way to the top of the wooden structure and then I threw the parrot beak ahead of myself into the statue opening the path to the exit.

Boss: Polly Pirate

When the fish on the deck is 'used' it will fly in the direction the boat the tipping, there is a set amount of time between the fish reappearing after being 'used' and will not hit the boss when he is jumping.

Level 6

Physics abuse allows me to avoid the fire that would normally require a water gun found at the end of the level, and then refilled once out of ammo at a water pump. The first 7 seconds were possibly rerecorded more than any other point in the game, the gun needed to land on the edge of the tree branch, the box needed to be thrown and land in such a way that when I jumped from the barrel I didn’t hit the butterfly. The exact moment I grabbed the gun I fired then dragged myself up, and then further physics abuse to make my way to the exit.

Level 7

The switch at the beginning is used to drop the key into the tunnel below, and second switch (while held) turns on a fan that blows the key out of the tunnel. I used the shield as late as possible so I could make it to, and remove, the bear near the axe, this clears the path back. The axe is used to drop the ball that breaks the floor and allows the weight to drop and open the path to the exit.

Level 8

This is the first and last pair of glasses he will ever wear, throwing the case with power at the correct time hits the enemy so I can take the 10 ton weight, this is used to weigh me down and allow me to pass the fan at the end of the corridor. The ball thrown up hits the angled floor and launches at the enemy. Then it’s just a few shots and jumps to the exit.

Level 9

I toyed with the idea of using just the balls already available, but these kept dropping down to where the balls got released anyway, it sometimes left me stuck with no quick way out as well. The key you see disappear bounces and lands in the lock for the balls at the bottom of the level, these along with the key are placed on the switches to make a route for one of the balls to make it to the switch that opens the path to the exit.

Boss: The Emperor’s Old Clothes

The brown balls fall through the openings in the ceiling, only once the ball has completely disappeared from the screen with a new one spawn. Since the first ball can never hit the boss I dump it out of the first hole to I get a new ball as quickly as possible, this syncs the bosses actions with all but the one before last ball so they all hit, so he is killed in the fasted possible time.

Level 10

Nothing special, I know I throw the shell twice at the second fish but this turned out to be my quickest run so it was kept.

Level 11

After a few stepping stones/duck were in place I could use physics abuse to stay above the water by forcing the log in my hands down and letting me land on the duck and leave the water to the exit.

Level 12

There is an enemy, not ever seen during this run, which holds a key, this enemy cannot be jumped on or shot and needs to walk over the opened floor to release the key. In the time it take him to walk over the opened floor I cleared the path and when I jump down myself the key is still bouncing from being dropped.

Level 13a

The aim for myself was to obtain the shoes, these speed up many of the levels after this point. There are two exits that lead in two different directions, I go for the main exit this time.

Level 13b

Now one direction is opened, and I have the shoes, it’s possible to quickly make my way to the second exit. Small slowdown on the roof top to avoid being hit by smoke.

Level 14

The torch on the wall is lit in the fire near the start, I like my new shoes so much I show them to the heads of some enemies and gain some height, enough to burn through the rope holding the weight over the seesaw that launches the key across the level, I grab the key and make my way to the exit.

Level 15

I believe my perfect aim is called 'scumming', reload if it never landed correctly. Once past the first room I through a coin up and it travels down a tunnel, what you don't see is the coin is hit when it reaches the bottom by a bag of flour, the coin is then pushed onto a switch which opens the door to the exit.

Level 16

Sorry, this is one of two completely boring levels, I could not find a way of speeding this up, I just optimized the order I would drop the flour bags onto the switches and used as little moves from the character as possible, and still I was waiting at the doors for a few frames waiting for it to open.

Boss: Flour Power

The first switch has 3 setting, left/right, up/down and stop, second switch toggles direction, third switch toggles the 'power' between the grip and the moving platform at the top. Each bag that was thrown was caught, moved to the top, dumped on his head, moved back to position and repeated.

Level 17

The mummy generally follows you position left and right, then after a set amount of time jumps (this was not controllable), the remote that was provided lets me see through the eye that is somehow attached to the mummy. Once the mummy is in the tunnel heading down to the switch I start making my way to the exit.

Level 18

The teleporter needs to have a ball thrown at it at a certain angle and certain speed so that after it has made it into the second chamber it gets teleported again to the switch instead of back out to the character. The ball thrown up the slope hits a switch that releases the two enemies you see drop down, they in turn release the switch that opens the door to the exit.

Level 19

Navigating while holding objects without those objects touching sides was possibly the only hard part of this level, I like the two jump path made by the bouncing "+" at the bottom of this level, it was completely an accident but I will take full credit for it.

Boss: So Pharaoh So Good

Running over the pressure pads on the floor fires a plunger at the boss, but can also hit you too if you aren't careful. Each plunger fired hit, and I fired every single time it was possible to land a hit.

Level 20

I tried some physics abuse the first 20 or so rerecords but the uneven floor prevented a bounce directly up. Once past the mutant octopus I used the bat to gain a boost in height, threw the orb that opened the door to the exit.

Level 21

Since this was a straight level, with nothing in the way, I just aimed to knock all the rocks from the trees, these are left in the path of the hooded character that is chasing you in this level.

Level 22

Physics were abused after getting the ball up the cliff, again a water gun is normally needed to pass the fire.

Level 23

Just a run to the end, avoiding all enemies that couldn't make the level faster.

Level 24

Because of the invulnerability flicker at the start of each level I could have passed unharmed the first enemy, but I jumped anyway. I jumped from the second hovering platform to the key bypassing the third. Because of the length of time between mine carts it doesn’t really matter when I got the dynamite into position as long as it was before the next one spawned, it was not possible to get them down before the previous cart had hit the obstacle, I am aware it looks a bit messy but the completion time was not affected.

Level 25

I take control of a hovering cauldron looking thing, it can move left and right but not up and down on its own. The left switch activates the first and last floor fan, and the right switch activates all the others. I then escape the level by standing on the cauldron and hovering over the fire.

Level 26

Snow balls chase me down the hills, not that you see them for very long, it’s a race to the end, no snowmen were hurt in the making of this level.

Level 27

I used the ball and aimed up at the angled ceiling killing two bird with one ball, there are places in the background that can hold these balls up, normally you would need 4 balls and place them in a path up to the exit. Further physics abuse was used to place only one ball in place and jump the rest of the way up.

Boss: Halitosis the Dragon

Quite boring, you head butt the dragon when his mouth is open, he was hit each time it was possible to do so.

Level 28

The flashlight is usually used to reveal hidden letter in the background, you then find those letters inside the ghosts and put them into the background to open the door to the exit. It was quicker to just wait for the 'e' ghost than using the gun and then picking the 's' back up.

Level 29

This one was the most planned level for the best order of collection and use of items, you mix up the ingredients into the cauldron to make a speed potion that allows you to get over an impassable gap, feel sorry for the frog but we really needed his leg.

Level 30

The statue head is used in the same fashion as the weight, and saves me from having to jump on the mouse at the dynamite. If the emerald is not held over the last section the floor doesn't disappear and you open a secret level by entering the other exit.

Level 31

What would usually take a while to get objects to block the moving stones, it made a just a jump because of the shoes, I liked the wheel and rope part at the end.

Level 32

As mentioned in level 16, this is just tedious and boring, each pipe can change an item into a different one, you need to alternate the pipe you put the item in or it will stay the same, you keep going till you get a six sided object as the roman numerals indicated.

Level 33

I used the height gained from the enemy to make it up the first part, instead of using the stool provided. The key landed on the uninflated balloon and is then blow-up and sent upwards, if any object is carried past the switch the floor will disappear making the level impossible.

Level 34

Again the shoes give me the ability to pass the gap between the two red objects, the match gets dropped at the correct time to light the fuse and launch the cannon ball and for me to jump on the enemy and grab it out of the air. Throwing ball onto the roof and picking it back up was quicker than trying to jump onto the roof and grabbing my way up.

Level 35

Positioning was everything on this level, the objective was to get the spiky object that you can't pickup back to the beginning of the level. I aimed the force down to make it bounce up and kept it in the air until after the first ramp, from this point on I pushed it when needed to the goal.

Level 36

If they let you fall through floors quicker it would have made this a good few frame faster, you need to be absolutely still and hold down. The shortest and only route was used.

Boss: If Looks Could Kill

Only his own lasers can kill him, I avoided everything else, let the eye lasers aim at the floor below him so it would bounce back up at him and move away to the right to assure I wasn't hit by the others.

1848 7797 31647

On the 31st of May 2004 'nifboy' listed this as a game he would like to see and 'Radio F Software' agreed, sorry its late.