Submission #9080: Winslinator & TheRandomPie_IV's Genesis Kid Chameleon "warp code" in 01:22.04

Please replace the submitted movie with this one which (hopefully) has the correct time: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638517412531524398

Kid Chameleon is a platformer released for the Sega Genesis in 1992. The story is that a new virtual reality arcade game comes to town, equipped with a sentient AI which captures all the kids who couldn't beat it. The protagonist, some badass with a leather jacket, is the only kid in town who is "too tough to beat", and sets out to free the kids by beating the game. Kid Chameleon is infamous for its difficulty, sheer length, and lack of a save feature. To quote an advertisement, "There's over 100 rounds to slam your head against, 1800 screens with eye-popping graphics, and so many secret passages you'll be whacking your brain to find 'em."

This TAS completes the game using what is known as the "Plethora Cheat", which as the name suggests, warps you straight to the final boss, Plethora. Many cheat guides will tell you it's done by standing on the last P block of the 2nd level, Blue Lake Woods II, and holding Down + Right + B + C. However, all you technically need to do is press Down, followed by B on the next frame at least, at X,Y coordinates 2515,95 in Blue Lake Woods II.

This saves 1 frame over the previous submission I made for this category about 7 years ago, the improvement being found right at the start of the first level, which I'll explain later. Back then, this branch was rejected solely on the grounds that it used an in-game cheat, something the movie rules at the time strictly prohibited. Since then, the rules on the subject have relaxed a bit, and cheat usage can be acceptable if using the cheat adds enough new content or is entertaining. So we will see if this submission is up to the task this time!

(Speed values mentioned henceforth will be reported in a pixels:subpixels format)

Airwalking is performed by repeatedly crouching and standing every other frame. This saves the horizontal speed and vertical position of both you and the platform from when you entered airwalking state, which will be reapplied when the "airwalking chain" is broken. While in the airwalking state, your de facto speed is calculated by taking your speed from when you entered the "airwalking chain", truncating any subspeed component, and then halving that. So a speed of 3:128 when entering an airwalk would translate to 1:128 speed during the airwalk.

Air drag reduction (highly technical explanation so skip reading this if you don't care). If Kid's horizontal speed while in air is above 2:95 and you are holding the d-pad in the same direction as your speed, an air drag factor of -0:1 speed per frame will be applied. This increases to -0:4 if there is no d-pad input, and to -0:43 if the input is in the opposite direction from your speed. For Kid, if your speed goes below 2:95 due to air drag, it will wrap back to 2:160 the next frame. Manipulating these rules to our advantage is the reason you often see Kid turn around for single frames while jumping in the TAS. The ideal way to handle air drag in theory is once Kid's air speed reaches 2:150, we hold the d-pad neutral for 3 frames till speed reaches 2:138. We then turn around for one frame, which decreases our speed to 2:95, and wraps back to 2:160 the next. This air drag reduction technique allows for a higher average air speed, around 2:149 as opposed to 2:128. It is a very tedious process, that could be dampened with the help of an automated script, though I've thus far been unsuccessful in my attempts to make one.

The values above are slightly different for Red Stealth (the Samurai guy in the TAS). Namely, Red Stealth's air speed must reach 2:64 instead of 2:95 before wrapping back to 2:160. Also, holding the d-pad in the direction opposite your current speed will lose 0:64 speed instead of 0:43 speed. As such, the theoretical best air drag reduction for Red Stealth goes as follows: at 2:144 speed, hold the d-pad neutral for 4 frames till speed reaches 2:128, then turn around for one frame to decrease speed to 2:64, which will wrap back to 2:160 the next frame. Average air speed with drag reduction is 2:146 versus 2:112 without.

At the very beginning of the level, we collect a diamond, which reduces our score by 5000 points, something that will be very important (and referenced again) at the end of Blue Lake Woods 2. When turning around from facing left to facing right as this diamond is collected, I duck for a single frame to stop all leftwards speed on a dime. This faster stop is what saved the 1 frame over the previous submission.

With the exception of collecting the diamond at the beginning of the level, the rest of BLW1 plays out pretty much the same as it does in the latest published TAS, with two additional 1-frame timesaves. One frame is saved at the level's second upwards incline, and the other is saved through better momentum preservation near the end of the level.

The very start of this level is done a bit differently from the latest published TAS. Instead of triggering the cannon blocks sequentially, the second block is revealed, followed by first, and both are triggered at once. While this saves one whole jump, your horizontal movement is delayed for a few frames longer than it would have otherwise. As a result, this deceptively only saves 2 frames overall.

The section from the rock block wall to the Red Stealth helmet is done identically to the latest published TAS.

Once attaining Red Stealth (the samurai guy), it is very important we have 2 HP for the final boss, so we can't just run through the second-to-last tank in this level. Furthermore in RTA runs, it's normally impossible to bounce from him to the top of the next incline. It would be nice if we could clear the incline because Red Stealth cannot walk up slopes, unlike Kid. So thanks to our knowledge of air drag reduction, bouncing from the tank to the top of the incline is barely possible.

Our total score at this point is 10000 + 2440 + 10000 + 25000 + 2460 = 49900. Every 50000 points, you are awarded an extra life, which if earned on the score tally screen, plays an extra unnecessary 3-second animation. In both Blue Lake Woods 1 & 2, we purposely failed to get the "No Hit" and "No Prize" Bonuses, each worth 5000 points. Notice how we barely miss getting this extra life due to the suppression of these bonuses.

Airwalking off a vertically-moving platform will place you at its current Y-coordinate when you break the ducking chain. The first instance of this is purely for entertainment to make it look like we phased right through some blocks! But the second is unexpectedly advantageous. This second platform I walk off rises up once you touch it till it despawns at a certain distance off-screen. By manipulating the height at which we walk off this platform, we also manipulate its despawn point, and thus the point we instantly teleport to. This point is perfectly calculated to inflict the exact number of hits we need on Heady Metal so the rest of the fight goes smoothly.

So why couldn't you just jump up to him? Why is the whole fancy teleporting thing necessary? Whether Kid is above or below the boss's midpoint determines whether Heady Metal will move up or down. When jumping up to him, there is a very small period of time during which Heady Metal will move up before you even get a chance to inflict a hit. Simply teleporting up to him effectively minimizes this.

I experimented with like 10 different methods for beating the final boss, and while there would have been a different method when going for RTA time, the focus on TAS time presented a couple complications:

The fastest way to actually defeat Heady Metal is to do two passes on him: both passes wedging yourself between the lower then higher middle ceilings to inflict a fast amount of hits. However this won't work when using TAS time, as we must get over to the flag effectively, and the lower ceiling (as well as some other obstacles) are inhibiting us from getting over there quickly. For this reason, we only use a lower ceiling on our second pass, coupled with defeating Heady Metal even further from the flag than normal.

Notice how the position we defeat Plethora in launches us across the level to the flag, effectively avoiding all the obstacles along the way. Since the last input is made when 22 of 37 hits have been inflicted on the boss, another difficult challenge was attaining the correct launch speed to the flag. Every time you bounce off an enemy, your horizontal speed increases by a factor of 1.5, so our leftwards speed must be super tiny on that 22nd hit such that our speed is perfectly set 15 hits later.

I'd like to thank TheRandomPie_IV and Truncated for their enormous help in teaching me about TAS tools and the movement intricacies for this game back in 2016. This was the first TAS project I started work on, so the help was greatly appreciated. I am also citing RandomPie as a coauthor, as the majority of BLW1 and first half of BLW2 is their input, while I did the rest of BLW2 and Plethora.

Suggested screenshot: Frame 2800

feos: Claiming for judging.

feos: Replacing with an improvement.

feos: Indeed this cheat code does not add gameplay, so it's not eligible for Standard, but there are other requirements for Alternative than just entertainment: in addition to being entertaining and well-defined, an Alt goal needs to be different from existing goals.

The only difference in this movie compared to [1483] Genesis Kid Chameleon by TheRandomPie_IV in 12:47.52 is taking a few extra frames to pick an armor, all the rest either looks the same or is skipped. And since skipping most of the game is the only goal of this movie, I can't see how it adds any entertainment to this game that's not already provided by the main branch.

For well-defined and well-executed, but still obscure goals, we now have a special class called Playground, and I think this movie fits perfectly into it.