Emulator: Snes9x 1.43+ Improvement v9
Settings: Use WIP1 Timing
NOTE: The ROM used in this TAS is different from the previous one, which used Hook (U) (29252). Hook (U) (29252) is now considered a beta in NSRT--Overload and I dumped our US Hook carts and both got Hook (U) (2648), which is used in this run. I only noticed one time saver that was obviously due to ROM differences: in level 4, after killing the boss, the screen starts scrolling to the right 70 frames faster than in the beta.
This TAS saves 2726 frames off hero of the day's run.
  • Aims for fastest possible time.
  • No warps or passwords used (there are none in this game).
  • Takes damage to save time.
  • Manipulates luck.
Hook is a somewhat slow platformer game based off the movie of the same name. Peter Pan has grown up, and is now a successful lawyer named Peter Banning. His children, Jack and Maggie, are kidnapped by the pirate Hook. The fairy Tinkerbell transports Peter to Neverland, where he has to go through 10 levels to save his children. Note that I think the current movie description is fine, especially since I do more flying than hero of the day did.

General Timesavers

In the case of these being used, I won't bother to mention them in the level-by-level breakdown.
  • I try to use flying a lot more than in the previous run, because flying is somewhat faster than running.
  • I minimize hovering while collecting pixie dust, because Peter Pan collects pixie dust slower if he is in a flying state. In cases where I can't simply stand on the ground, and for some reason jumping wouldn't work well, I switch in and out of a flying state. This is to take advantage of the fact that after switching out of a flying state, Peter Pan's falling speed is very slow at first. This way I can still spend most of my time collecting pixie dust at the faster non-flying rate.
  • The less life Peter Pan has at the end of a stage, the less time it takes to tally up the score. So I try to reduce my life to the minimum by the end of levels if I don't lose too much time as a result.
  • When Peter Pan attacks on the ground, jumps, or falls off a ledge, there is a slight delay in forward movement. So I try to minimize the number of times these actions are executed.
  • Greater precision
  • I used the same pause trick as hero of the day to start running without doing a sword slash, although I was occasionally able to execute it faster.
  • Occasionally was able to hit the bosses slightly faster
  • Occasionally was able to get into Peter Pan's end-of-level pose faster.
  • Sometimes the levels have sloped floors that are steep enough to either make Peter Pan slower or faster than usual. I try to run along the downward slopes as much as possible, and go around/jump over upward slopes.

Level 1

  • Instead of doing "walking jumps" up the cliff that comes after the lake, I do "running jumps", making sure to release the B button when I'm high enough, so that I don't bump into the cliff.

Level 2

  • Went through the section just before the boss faster. My best attempt at this section didn't execute the bare minimum of jumps/attacks, but instead kept the number of enemies relatively small, so I suspect there may be some lag here due to the large number of enemies onscreen.

Level 3

  • A new strategy for the first part of this level that saves some time and doesn't involve getting hit like hero of the day's strategy. This is good, because there are two timesavers later in the level that involve getting hit, and getting hit three times in this level would've killed Peter Pan.

Level 4

  • Normally, Peter Pan can't manage a running jump off the small platforms in the section of this level after the first tiger. However, if Peter Pan lands on the left edge of a platform from a jump, he can barely manage a running jump. This is used shortly after the second pixie dust collection point.

Level 5

  • Instead of killing the 2nd fish, I go around it
  • New trick to get past some of the falling icicles faster. If Peter Pan goes into a crouch while running, he will "slide" while in the crouching position. There is a window of a few frames where doing this "crouch slide" while running under an icicle will cause Peter Pan to not get hit by the icicle.

Level 6

  • When I get hit by the pirate at the bottom of the switchbacks just before the boss, I turn around just before I get hit so that I'm launched forward instead of backward.

Level 8

  • A rather... interesting level to TAS. Normally you would wait for the will o' the wisp to keep up with you so that you can actually see where you're going. Of course, I couldn't do that since this is a TAS. So I took the time to make a map of the level from putting together screenshots.
This was immensely helpful in keeping track of where I was in the level and planning a route.
  • It turns out you can fly through the platforms with stalactites. This saves an enormous amount of time.
  • When coming up to sections where falling speed makes a difference to how fast I go through the level, I jump so that by the time I'm over the pit, I'm already falling relatively fast.

Level 9

  • Boss time savings in this level too, but I'm bothering to mention it because the savings were quite substantial in comparison to the other bosses. It's quite difficult to hit this boss as quickly as possible after he recovers from a hit, but I was able to improve on hero of the day's attempt by quite a bit.

Level 10

  • A different strategy in the second room of this level where I get hit by the spikes instead of the barrel-thrower.
There may be other small time savers I forgot, but these are the substantial ones.

Suggested screenshot (if it's decided that it should be changed): Anything from the section of level 6 where Peter Pan is being chased by a giant snowball. Perhaps frame 23586?

Special Thanks

stickyman05 - For his encouragement, and tips that led to time savings.
ZeXr0 - For the suggestion on how to improve level 1. It didn't directly lead to an improved time, but it did inspire me to look a little closer at how to go through the relevant section of the level, resulting in some frames saved.
And especially... hero of the day - His TAS was invaluable in making my own TAS. I had something to compare my own run against, and I picked up some strategies from his TAS. *Bows at hero of the day*.
Everybody else that made comments or suggestions about my WIPs.

Truncated: Accepted as an improvement to the current run.

adelikat: Processing. Seems I am unable to record .avi's in SNES9x. Someone else will have to handle this one.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15585
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1516: zidanax's SNES Hook in 14:27.98
Joined: 3/15/2007
Posts: 131
Just finished watching it, yes vote from me. It's an entertaining speedrun that improves upon an existing run. Also, not that it's related to the TAS itself, but I really like the music in this game :P Good job edit: or it would be a yes vote if I wasn't a lurker. Alas
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
You actually liked the music? I found it to be annoying, along with the sound effects, the game's pacing and pretty much everything except the graphics. Ending every level with that annoying pose, augh. It's probably not the player's fault, but I didn't enjoy the run at all.
Player (89)
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1058
Location: United States
Very nicely done, zidanax. This run is well played, entertaining, and crushes my run in time. Voting yes.
They're off to find the hero of the day...
JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
You have 15 pans at the end of this game! That's way more than my kitchen. The only thing about the run (game) that I didn't like was how slow taking damage was. Even when it is optimal, it doesn't look optimal just cuz it's so...lame looking, I guess. Anyway, well done. Hoping to see more from you Z!
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2006
Posts: 138
Location: Fort Collins, CO
I voted yes.
Reviewer, Active player (287)
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
It was interesting enough, and it was an improvement, so yes.
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1365
Location: Minnesota
I am so proud of you, boy ;_; *wipes away tears* Definitely (sp?) a yes vote, for utter-awesome... i cant think of anything you weren't able to improve from an already great run. Good work, man. Good work.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Hmm not bad. Was it necessary to jump over that skeleton boss and hit it from the back? Couldnt you have ducked and then swung your sword in front of him? Edit: Okay then, voting yés.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
Certainly I could do a crouch and slash, but it has no effect from the front. You have to be behind the enemy for a hit to actually do damage. I thought of trying to intentionally get hit, then using Peter Pan's invincibility period to go behind the boss, but there are some snags: If I simply run forward so that I get hit by the skull, the invincibility period doesn't last long enough for me to get behind the boss. If I try to hit the skull to get it out of the way, the skull returns to the body before I can reach the other side. Once this has happened, the boss goes back into it's normal walking state.The boss then turns it's body around very quickly when you reach it's back. Moving frame by frame I can barely manage to hit the boss 's backside while it's in this state, but it doesn't seem to actually do damage.
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
The game is slow and really uninspiring. Really. There was nearly nothing in it to be entertained by, except totally pathetic postures Peter takes when jumping, ending a level, or even simply running. But the movie kept me watching to the end, so I guess it's a borderline yes.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Skilled player (1099)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
I watched this and will vote yes. I hadn't watched HotD's run yet so I can't comment much on improvements etc., but everything looked pretty highly optimised. The flying in places looked a tiny bit off (that's just me saying and i've never played it) and worst of all was the slow damage taking, which was made worse by the fact that in the auto-scroller level you seemed to do it for no reason. I also spotted similar examples and (perhaps they were the fastest way, I don't know) that annoyed me slightly. The game was OK, nothing spectacular, but colourful and (mildly) interesting enough to hold my interest. Overall this was well played and not overly boring, which is why I vote yes. Good job.
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
The reason I get hit in some places even if I don't have to is because I save time at the end of the level as a result--it takes less time to tally up the score. So all the hits I take are intentional, either to save time at the tally screen or because the way the enemy hits me somehow saves time. You may have noticed that I don't get hit in some levels. That's generally because the amount of time I would have lost by being hit in those levels would have been greater than the amount of time saved in the tally screen. EDIT: What about the flying seemed off to you? I could probably tell you why I did what I did.
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
The only thing that seemed sloppy to me was that flying boss at the end of the auto-scrolling level. It seemed like you could have hit the blimp thing faster, but of course having not played the game, I don't know how that boss works. If I'd vote it would be a 'no' because the game is so boring and lame IMO, but there isn't a real point in such a vote from what I see, as it's an improvement over an existing run.
Skilled player (1099)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
zidanax wrote:
What about the flying seemed off to you? I could probably tell you why I did what I did.
In the third (?) level ~ frame 13650 you hugged the ground quite closely as you descend. Whilst watching I thought it may perhaps have been faster to continue straight and then drop rather than descend so tightly. Your method was likely faster due to the shorter drop from being closer to the ground, but it is the only moment in your run that I really thought twice about. Also, good explanation on the damage.
jaysmad
Other
Experienced player (932)
Joined: 12/1/2006
Posts: 629
Location: Mom's
Nice run, good improvement, voting yes!
Player (217)
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
Mukki wrote:
zidanax wrote:
What about the flying seemed off to you? I could probably tell you why I did what I did.
In the third (?) level ~ frame 13650 you hugged the ground quite closely as you descend. Whilst watching I thought it may perhaps have been faster to continue straight and then drop rather than descend so tightly. Your method was likely faster due to the shorter drop from being closer to the ground, but it is the only moment in your run that I really thought twice about.
It is indeed faster to stay close to the ground, because when Peter Pan switches out of a falling state, he drops very slowly at first, a fact I use at some points while collecting pixie dust. Here, of course, it's better to get Peter Pan back on his feet again as soon as possible so that he can start running again, now that he's out of pixie dust for flying.
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
I'm very pleased that people have taken an interest in this, to create a good first published run, and now a second, even better one. Thank you for your interest, both of you, and of course, everyone who voted, even if you thought the game was boring.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15585
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [870] SNES Hook by zidanax in 14:27.98
Guga
He/Him
Joined: 1/17/2012
Posts: 838
Location: Chile