Submission #8774: LoganTheTASer's Genesis Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics! in 05:43.93

I accidentally uploaded the wrong BK2 file for the submission. Here is the correct version that is 64 frames faster: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638376586775831204

Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics! is a platformer loosely based on the 1992 movie “Tom and Jerry”, which is in turn based on the world-famous titular characters. Your mission is to stop Aunt Figg from keeping Robyn Starling hostage and return her to her father. (Robyn, not Aunt Figg)

This is an improvement of 1:07.20 (1:08 in IGT) over the previous TAS made by SpeedyTheHedgehog.

Most of the improvement is from 2 big new skips in The Basement and The Attic, which were both discovered by Ukrainian speedrunner Pikachu. More on those skips later. But for now, let’s talk about all the other…

By jumping every frame we land consecutively, we can shift Tom/Jerry to the far sides of the screen. This saves a considerable amount of time over the course of the run. The characters’ jump will be slower if you don’t wait before the acceleration has finished.

If you jump, then throw an item after letting go of B, then jump again in a relatively short window, it’s possible to jump off of an item to gain more height. This can be used for some big shortcuts, especially in The Alley, where it saves nearly 2 minutes over taking the intended route and the level is finished in well under 20 seconds.

For some reason, some of the walls weren’t coded to stop the player moving when hitting them, and as a result, we can run out of bounds and perform several more shortcuts.

By landing on the very edge of a step, we can fall right through it. This is used in The Control’s new route.

No time saved here (both IGT and real time) as there isn’t any time to save.

Saved 1 second from more consistent scrolling and changing a couple minor details in the vertical sections.

Saved 1 second from better scrolling and a faster route. Speedy didn’t test if the screen scrolling trick worked with Jerry and missed the staircase when trying to jump on it. I just avoided the staircase altogether and focused on finding the most straightforward route.

No in-game time saved here but about half a second saved in real time from better scrolling.

34 seconds saved from the new route. On one of the platforms near the start, we can collect a few pipes. These can be used to jump off of to gain height. After jumping off of said platform, we use a precise item jump to land back on the platform and accelerate as fast as possible, saving about a second over the current RTA record. Then we jump onto the highest and leftmost platform and use an item jump to reach the platform above. Then we hit the control panel and head to the right. Here we find a hole in the ground to fall through. Down the hole and to the right is a staircase. Then we keep heading to the right until we find another platform with some pipes on. Above said platform is another hole. Here, we can use our new-found pipes to jump off of and tunnel through the hole to reach the end. Speedy’s TAS was 52 seconds, this is 18 seconds.

26 seconds saved from the new route. We start this level by going to the right until we see a wall in front of us. Then we use 2 objects to jump into the top corner of the wall and run straight through it. Then we head further to the right towards another wall to run (or hop) right through. Then we collect 4 more objects. To the right is a ladder, but we don’t go up the ladder - we use an object to jump onto the ledge. Going on the ladder would be slower because it stops all of our acceleration. Then, much further to the right, we collect Robyn’s backpack and go back left. Next up are a couple of vertical sections. We use an object to get onto the hat stand and then we jump onto the nearest platform. After this, we use 2 more objects to jump onto 2 cranes, then we jump off the 2nd crane onto a ladder. After going back and forth a bit on the ladder to gain height, we use another object to land on the windowsill. From the windowsill, we use another object to jump onto the ledge directly above us. Finally, we jump over the boxes and head left to return Robyn’s backpack. Speedy’s TAS was 58 seconds, this is 32 seconds.

Same as The Street - no time saved here (both IGT and real time) as there isn’t any time to save.

6 seconds saved from a better boss fight, better scrolling and a faster route involving items. The slight detour to get the first set of items loses about 2 seconds, but it actually ends up about 2 seconds faster than Speedy’s TAS after executing the new route. We also make another slight detour near the top to get another set of items. This saves about 3 seconds on the Aunt Figg fight as we can get in our first hits more quickly. The remainder of the time saved is from the better scrolling. I used Speedy’s TAS as a reference for the first half of the level, and the RTA record from getting the first set of items.

Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics! is a platformer released for the Game Boy and Sega Genesis in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Based on the 1992 Tom and Jerry movie, this game follows the popular cat and mouse duo as they help the young girl Robyn reunite with her father. It is a mostly linear platformer.

LogansGamingRoom saves 1:07.20 over the previous publication due to two new skips in The Basement and The Attic, as well as an improved boss strategy, more consistent screen scrolling and other minor movement optimisations.

Speedy’s original TAS of this game, clocking in at 8:55, was one of the first TASes I ever remember watching when I was 11 years old, and I was very impressed. I dreamt of improving that TAS myself back then. 4 years later, that dream has come true, in a way I never would’ve expected.

There are a couple people I’d like to thank for this project:

That’s all from me. Thanks for reading.

ThunderAxe31: Claiming for judging.

ThunderAxe31: File replaced with a fixed version, and accepting as improvement over the current publication.

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