Submission Text Full Submission Page Publication Page
  • VBA 19
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Genre: Action
This run is 162505 frames (45:08 minutes, according to VBA) long, 4139 frames (68.98 seconds) faster than my old run, and the majority of the gained frames (Approximately 2566 frames) comes from improved Metroid battles. The rest comes from better use of Spider Throw, Corner Cutting, Damage Boosting, and the faster ways to cross 2 * 1 "block" pits etc. The only "route change" is leaving the Gamma Metroid guarding the sector with Zeta Metroids, and killing him as I leave instead.
Every shot and bomb is there for a reason. Either to create lag, manipulate luck or just "Oh I have to wait so I might as well fire off a few rounds to make it look less boring".
Thanks to moozooh for pointing out that a couple of battles were improveable, and the impossibility to hex-edit led to... a few more improvements. Thanks JXQ for making my re-record count look a bit more truthworthy and humble.
Also thanks to adelikat, Rick, meepers' brother, Randil, AngerFist, evilchen, herooftheday, Raiscan, Lag.Com, upthorn... eh, the usual. Also Maximus, since your TASeditor saved me about 200 years of redoing in desperate times.
Suggested screenshot (Until I find a better one), frame 31416:
adelikat: Accepted and encoding.
NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also replaced the ROM name.
  • You indicated Metroid 2 - Return of Samus (UA) [!].gb
  • I updated it to Metroid II - Return of Samus (UE) [!].gb

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Posted: 8/19/2007 11:39 PM
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Alter
Former player
Joined: 1/29/2007
Posts: 116
moozooh wrote:
TGPrimus wrote:
Color would be better imo if possible, but sometimes i think the sleek black and white is more attractive than some mesh of red and blue.
Actually, the color information already exists in the ROM, and is identified autimatically when played through SGB. The color palette I showed in the previous run's submission thread was merely a tweaked version of the original colorization.
Well, but only 8 colors work for us. If the GBC-level colors are activated via patching the rom the run desyncs :(
Posted: 8/19/2007 11:48 PM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
Well that was more for the point that colors aren't actually taken randomly and that the "official" color palette exists. Of course it's better to have them tweaked to accomodate for better viewing experience and lesser amount of H.264 compression artifacts (color smearing, etc.).
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 8/20/2007 5:45 AM
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Chamale
He/Him
Player (178)
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1352
Location: Canada
Tom and Jerry also has an official colour palette. If this gets modified colours, I demand that my run get modified colours too! Note: I'm half-joking here. I really don't think runs should be "embellished", so I am quite against the colour change. But T and J does have an official colour set.
Posted: 8/20/2007 6:01 AM
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Cardboard
Skilled player (1671)
Joined: 6/11/2006
Posts: 818
Location: Arboga, Sweden
NES TAS of 2008 Rookie of 2007 GBx TASer of 2007
Sorry, just had to.
Warp wrote:
omg lol this is so fake!!!1 the nes cant produce music like this!
Posted: 8/20/2007 7:58 PM
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hero_of_the_day
Player (88)
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1057
Location: United States
Your dedication to this game is amazing Cardboard. Everything looked so damn smooth and optimized. Great job.
They're off to find the hero of the day...
Posted: 8/20/2007 11:38 PM
Post subject: Movie published
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14909
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. ---- [949] GB Metroid II: Return of Samus by Cardboard in 45:08.42
Posted: 8/21/2007 9:20 PM
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Xkeeper
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
* Xkeeper inserts typical griping post about how this movie went from submitted to published in 3 days with no discussion at all about the color problem Oh wait, it's Metroid, hur hur hur
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Posted: 8/21/2007 9:29 PM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
There was a discussion, though. We settled on the point that a nicely colored version may be published alongside the b/w video, just it won't be adelikat encoding it. Anyone else who's up for the job can take it.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 8/21/2007 9:37 PM
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Xkeeper
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
In any case, this is the palette I used for it. Shrug.
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Posted: 8/21/2007 9:58 PM
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P.JBoy
Any
Editor
Joined: 3/25/2006
Posts: 850
Location: stuck in Pandora's box HELLPP!!!
lol, Samus is peeing. Here's the pallette I used
Posted: 8/22/2007 12:03 AM
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Dragonfangs
Active player (370)
Joined: 6/5/2006
Posts: 188
Location: Malmö, Sweden
GBA TAS of 2019 GBA TAS of 2013 GBx TAS of 2007
Ok, I remember being puzzled by this during the other runs I've seen of this as well, and I've somehow forgotten to ask every time... Do we know why the spider throw works? I mean it's not that hard to figure out how it works (activating the spider ball anytime the morph ball is moving upwards and to the left gives the ball a considerable amount of horizontal velocity). But why does that happen? Is it related to RAM addresses in some way? And why only to the left?
Even the best player is limited by the speed of his fingers, or his mind's ability to control them. But what happens when speed is not a factor, when theory becomes reality?
Posted: 8/22/2007 4:49 PM
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kwinse
Joined: 5/13/2006
Posts: 283
Just got a chance to actually watch this, and I must say, this is quite an excellent TAS, everything was so tightly optimized. Congrats Cardboard. :D
<Zurreco> if so called professional players cant adapt to every playing field, theyre obviously not that great
Posted: 8/22/2007 6:53 PM
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Fabian
Former player
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 1711
Xkeeper, Good luck changing an encoder's mind through discussion. Encoders spend their free time encoding movies they want to encode. If you want it done differently, why don't you try it out yourself? You seem to have the palette thing down.
Zoey Ridin' High <Fabian_> I prett much never drunk
Posted: 8/22/2007 8:38 PM
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primorial_soup
Player (87)
Joined: 1/15/2006
Posts: 333
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Fabian wrote:
You seem to have the palette thing down.
Agreed. The sprite palette is quite nice, although I do prefer P.JBoy's background; the objects are a little more defined, and the text seems easier to read as well.
print reduce(lambda x,p:p/2*x/p+2*10**1000,range(6643,1,-2))
Posted: 8/23/2007 12:42 AM
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Xkeeper
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
It's actually a lot better in 3x or higher, especially on a dark background, but can see your point. On the same thought, I think PJBoy's objects are a bit bright.
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Posted: 8/23/2007 3:14 AM
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Alter
Former player
Joined: 1/29/2007
Posts: 116
Dragonfangs wrote:
[...] Do we know why the spider throw works? I mean it's not that hard to figure out how it works (activating the spider ball anytime the morph ball is moving upwards and to the left gives the ball a considerable amount of horizontal velocity). But why does that happen? Is it related to RAM addresses in some way? And why only to the left?
Unfortunately we don't know, but now that you mention it I would be very interested in knowing this, too...
Posted: 8/23/2007 8:32 AM
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P.JBoy
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Editor
Joined: 3/25/2006
Posts: 850
Location: stuck in Pandora's box HELLPP!!!
Xkeeper wrote:
It's actually a lot better in 3x or higher, especially on a dark background, but can see your point. On the same thought, I think PJBoy's objects are a bit bright.
My monitor is a bit dark
Posted: 8/23/2007 10:37 AM
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Fabian
Former player
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 1711
P.JBoy wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
It's actually a lot better in 3x or higher, especially on a dark background, but can see your point. On the same thought, I think PJBoy's objects are a bit bright.
My monitor is a bit dark
Maybe try adjusting the brightness, might help if you find things too dark.
Zoey Ridin' High <Fabian_> I prett much never drunk
Posted: 8/23/2007 10:54 AM
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P.JBoy
Any
Editor
Joined: 3/25/2006
Posts: 850
Location: stuck in Pandora's box HELLPP!!!
Fabian wrote:
P.JBoy wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
It's actually a lot better in 3x or higher, especially on a dark background, but can see your point. On the same thought, I think PJBoy's objects are a bit bright.
My monitor is a bit dark
Maybe try adjusting the brightness, might help if you find things too dark.
I like it dark though
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