Submission #8139: PoochyEXE's GBC Pokémon Puzzle Challenge "maximum score" in 03:10.84

This aims to max out the score counter in Pokemon Puzzle Challenge as quickly as possible.

There are 2 key differences from other Puzzle League games, namely that the score counter is 6 digits, and PPC has a Scroll option (later named "Exploding Lift" in Planet Puzzle League) which, when turned on, allows using the B button to spawn new panels even while a chain is exploding, meaning the length of chains are no longer limited by the size of the playfield.

The movie starts by going into the Options menu, and setting the score counter to 6 digits and turning on Scroll, which allows manually raising the stack with the B button even while panels are popping.

Unlike score attack runs on most other Puzzle League games, Scroll On means the number of panels I can use is no longer limited by the size of the playfield, so I don't have to try and conserve ammo by starting the initial chain with minimal clears.

Like other Puzzle League games, while a chain is popping, creating another unchained match scores the same as the previous hit in the chain, and if that match results in a chain before the first chain ends, they count as one big chain. I use the latter to reach x14 chain as quickly as I can, then the former to rack up tons of points since the per-hit value is capped at 2100 points per hit from x14 onwards. But for extra entertainment value, whenever it doesn't cost any time, I try to get chained hits anyway to drive up the chain counter.

However, wven with Scroll On, you can't keep raising the stack if any panel is already at the top of the screen, so I also have to manage the stack to avoid single tall columns. These not only waste screen space, they also waste time to flatten out, since pulling a panel out of a stack causes all panels above the empty cell to hover in mid-air a la Wile E. Coyote for a few frames, and panels can't be swapped or moved during coyote time. This means trying to get a lot of vertical clears in the leftmost and rightmost columns.

Also, certain things cause the stack to briefly stop rising for a couple frames even while holding B, including making a swap and any tile entering coyote time, so sometimes making a swap on the first possible frame isn't the quickest.

For comparison, by community timing standards for RTA runs, the timer would start on frame 793 and stop on frame 11437, for a time of 2m57s400ms. As of this writing, the RTA WR for Hard difficulty is 1h39m55s and the overall RTA WR on any difficulty is 26m32s.

ThunderAxe31: Claiming for judging.

ThunderAxe31: Branch label changed to "maximum score", as for Tetris.

All right, this movie achieves the maximum score and it also triggers the ending credits. Accepting as full completion.

Spikestuff: Processing...

Spikestuff: Added CycleCount and ClockRate values.