Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Tompa

- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses a game restart sequence
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Genre: Action
- Genre: Adventure

About the run

Long ago I had the idea of TASing ALttP as my first TAS. But after I looked at Flagitious’ run several times, I realized that it would be pretty much impossible for me to do it, because I had no experience and I would never be able to handle the manipulation and movement so I gave up the idea.
But here it is anyway. This is 14,705 frames, or 4 minutes 4.68 seconds faster compared to the previous run.
An encode can be find here, http://shynee.ath.cx/~doofy/sneszelda-tas-tompa.mkv , thanks to ShinyDoofy for it.

Tricks used:


Wobbling

While going left or up you can wobble (Holding left/up and pressing right/down every second frame) to increase your movement by 33%. Can also be used while swimming after a certain speed has been reached.

Pixelporting

While being pressed between two walls while going up/down, face the wall to either left or right and press <^> or <v>, depending on if you are moving up or down. This will make Link move up to 6 pixels at once in a mysterious way...
This is used a lot when going through narrow passages such as doorways and stairs that will take you between different ground levels, not floors. This won't work with all doorways and stairs however; some stairs make you go out of bounds and some doors are Link walking through automatically.

Floating

By using Turbo A, once the Pegasus Boots are collected, you can float over holes. While floating you can also go through small walls, see Palace of Darkness…

Shooting stuff through moving blocks

No comments.

Frame Rules:


Items

Items such as small keys, rupees, heart etc. can only be obtained every 4th frame which will sometimes force you to lose a frame or two (or three) if you are unlucky.

Taking/dealing damage

Most enemies that damage Link can only do that every 4th frame. This is abused to walk/run through enemies without taking damage.

Enemies

There are a few enemies that will only react a specific way depending on what frame you enter the room, such as the Cyclops and the "desert enemy" Swamola.

Manipulation:


Enemies

Many of the enemies can be manipulated. This is abused a lot to be able to kill them faster and not having them blocking my path.

Items

The items received from enemies aren't random, just if I get an item or not. Enemies have different prize packs that follows a specific item drop order. Skeletons for example, are always dropping a small magic as their first item, the second one is a green rupee and then a heart etc. Other enemies, such as the cyclops, have different prize packs.
If I want to get a specific item I'll have to kill the right amount of enemies until that item appears.
Enemies will not drop any items if they are killed by a dash attack.

The run itself:


BLA BLA BLA faster to do BLA BLA because of BLA BLA.
No Super Bomb BLA BLA, can kill Ganon anyway BLA BLA, saves around 2 minutes BLA.
BLA, need to BLA BLA wait BLA BLA a few frames anyway BLA BLA BLA.

Thank you...

erokky: You helped me get started with this, teaching me Link's physics and how the item manipulation worked etc. I would probably not have started seriously with this run if it wasn't for you.
flagitious: Your awesome run was a very good guideline for me to use. I was often very impressed how you had solved the enemy manipulation in many cases, which I have had many problems. Also a good WIP watcher.
dezbeast: Helping out with different things in the earlier parts of the run and given me comments on my WIPs.
Desbreko: You made me hate Mothula, but thanks for explaining how to kill him quick enough :D.
ShinyDoofy: Thanks a lot for encoding my WIPs!
Comicalflop: For proofreading the submission text.
Thanks to all the WIP-watchers and those who kept me going with this run! I hope you know who you are.
Enjoy!

adelikat: Accepting for publication as an improvement to the published movie.
ShinyDoofy: Processed, will publish...

Joined: 3/11/2008
Posts: 583
Location: USA
Mukki wrote:
P.S. I've spent 17 years trying to get the dark overworld theme out of my head, damn you Tompa! No idea why I find it is so catchy...
hm hm hm-hm-hm hmm~ Hm hm hm-hm-hm Hmm~ With or without the Christmas remix?
Active player (324)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Marvelous! It's been too long since I've watched the last run, and this amused me to no end. My favorite part was how fast you took out all the bosses! And the enemy manipulation was very impressive, too. I thought I saw one possible mistake, but I can't remember it! I'll have to re-watch the movie again sometime. Now, what I'd really like to see next, rather than a 100% run (Which would be nice, too...) is a playaround run. LttP has an endless pile of crazy glitches that I would love to see compiled into a single run by somebody who is intimately familiar with the game. Things like the death mountain descent to beat some dark world dungeons with the L1 sword, or taking the princess out for a walk in the rain and beating some dungeons with her... that sort of thing. Overall, awesome movie, congrats on finishing it!
Joined: 5/9/2008
Posts: 35
Location: USA
The sodomy after the second Aganhim fight made me laugh out loud : )
Tompa
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Sami wrote:
Nice movie, really entertaining =) What next Tompa? maybe 100% ;)
I would like to do DKC any% and 101%, but that's a project I want to do with Arne and the process kinda depend on him. Sadly he has a lot of stuff to do in school (And is also lazy), but we'll see how it will go. I have got a few ideas of runs to do, which I might pick one of them. I would love to TAS Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi once that's possible to do, right now I can't stand all the random desynchs. ALttP 100% has been an idea, might be a later project... Thanks.
Active player (405)
Joined: 3/22/2006
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Great run. 7.5/8.5 The reason I only gave it 7.5 for entertainment is because hour long runs are a bit hard to keep you entertained. I had to watch it in chunks. But really great job and some seriously nice glitch abuse.
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Joined: 7/7/2008
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Location: Utah
[quote="Tompa"] I would love to TAS Super Star Wars Return of the Jedi once that's possible to do, right now I can't stand all the random desynchs.[/quote] Hey, I was thinking of doing The Empire Strikes Back.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
All of the SNES Star Wars games suffer from random desynchs, as Tompa noted. If they didn't, they'd've been TASed long ago.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 5/17/2008
Posts: 212
Location: Virginia
Sorry for keeping the off-topicness going, but I recall there being Game Boy versions of the Star Wars games. Are they at all similar, and do they also have the random desynchs? Also, this is an amazing run from what I've watched so far. I haven't watched through it all yet, I'll edit this when I finish.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
Joined: 5/22/2004
Posts: 462
Very nice run. I've played this game to death recently and enjoyed watching you demolish the bosses. I'd vote yes but I guess I can't anymore... :P
Joined: 10/15/2007
Posts: 685
This is likely to be attributed to my inexperience with TASing the game weighed against my experience with playing it in realtime without a care in the world, but I do share Upthorn's opinion that a few rooms look ever so slightly slower than they could be. My assumption is that these instances are for the greater good of manipulation, however. The boss fights are wonderfully entertaining, enemies manipulated well, and the glitches abused seemed to wind up with a nice balance of prevalence so that their usage was interesting and never really became tiresome. You have yourself an entertaining movie, here.
Kirby said so, so it must be true. ( >'.')>
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Joined: 5/23/2006
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Wow, this is a really great TAS! I can't understand how you would have the patience to perform the wobbling/pixelporting tricks so many times throughout the run. The pixelport-in-a-narrow-vertical-passageway was very fun to watch because of how fast Link moves. I really enjoyed dark world dungeons 2 and 6 because of your clever use of their items. It was also fun to see you use the Cane of Somaria so much (I tend to forget about that item, usually). I'm giving this a 9/9.5. Edit:
Tompa's Submission Text wrote:
Taking/dealing damage Most enemies that damage Link can only do that every 4th frame. This is abused to walk/run through enemies without taking damage.
I didn't notice any obvious places where you used this trick. Is it fairly limited in its applications, or is it just really hard to see when watching at full speed?
Tompa
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Chef Stef wrote:
Tompa's Submission Text wrote:
Taking/dealing damage Most enemies that damage Link can only do that every 4th frame. This is abused to walk/run through enemies without taking damage.
I didn't notice any obvious places where you used this trick. Is it fairly limited in its applications, or is it just really hard to see when watching at full speed?
If you check at 1:08:20 you will see two places where I run through enemies without getting hurt. Apo: Haven't played more than the first level of Return of the Jedi, but if I'll TAS the game it will be on SNES, no matter what=P. Jupi (And Upthorn): Are there any specific rooms you think of? There might be an explanation to why the rooms sucked.
Joined: 4/2/2008
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Derakon wrote:
All of the SNES Star Wars games suffer from random desynchs, as Tompa noted. If they didn't, they'd've been TASed long ago.
A SNES game desyncing? How is that possible? (SNES emulators may not all be completely accurate, but they should at least be consistent in their inaccuracy.. they must be failing to save or restore some emulation-critical things.. which is a bit worrying)
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Ver Greeneyes wrote:
A SNES game desyncing? How is that possible? (SNES emulators may not all be completely accurate, but they should at least be consistent in their inaccuracy.. they must be failing to save or restore some emulation-critical things.. which is a bit worrying)
Poorly emulated features or addons. Tangently related is (iirc) Wheel Gator's stage in MMX2, where the septic sludge at the bottom of the boss room's height/state wasn't saved in savestates, making any savestates there desync. That kind of thing.
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Player (200)
Joined: 7/6/2004
Posts: 511
This run is very well done. I never thought I'd see myself beat by this much. Thanks Tompa for making me remember to keep an open mind to what is possible.
g,o,p,i=1e4,a[10001];main(x){for(;p?g=g/x*p+a[p]*i+2*!o: 53^(printf("%.4d",o+g/i),p=i,o=g%i);a[p--]=g%x)x=p*2-1;}
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1269] SNES The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (USA) by Tompa in 1:16:11.05
Post subject: The best part withouth a doubt
Joined: 4/29/2006
Posts: 70
is how you stick it to Agahnim as he lies dead :D I rofled! Awsome run! Well done
Joined: 8/30/2008
Posts: 55
Location: Seattle, WA
awesome job! its good to see that it got published congrats
Joined: 4/24/2009
Posts: 9
My personal favorite among tases. Would any one mind uploading the mkv to megaupload or somewhere that doesn't require torrenting (I cant torrent here)? I've dled the flv from youtube and its of decent quality but I'd like the mkv (flv skips alot).
Tompa
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Rapidshare Megaupload Two mirrors for ya.
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thank's tompa do you think you can improve the 100% run ?
Joined: 5/2/2009
Posts: 656
...we have a 100% run?
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ
Tompa
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Only 100% run I know of is the one up at SDA, and yes, I can improve that with a TAS... I have been thinking about a 100% run, would be fun to do. I'm not getting anywhere with my other projects so it doesn't hurt to start testing some. All heart pieces and heart containers. All inventory items. Blue mail and Red Shield can be skipped. Upgraded magic. And then it comes to the upgrades for arrows and bombs. You need 1800 rupees to upgrade everything. I'll have to visit the fairy at least twice, collecting all the rupees will take a long time as well as upgrading everything. And it will also be extremely boring to watch. Those are the reasons why it's skipped at SDA, more or less, and that's what I'm going for as well. Should probably write this in the ALttP topic...
Joined: 4/24/2009
Posts: 9
Thanks! Will definantly snag that 100% if its ever completed.
Post subject: Re: #2204: Tompa's SNES The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past in 1:16:11.05
Player (48)
Joined: 3/11/2007
Posts: 94
Location: Japan
NesVideoAgent wrote:
While floating you can also go through small walls, see Palace of Darkness…
One question: Would it be possible to use this trick in the centipede room in Ganon's Tower to go through the left lower walls as a shortcut? It seems to me that it would be faster than the current way because you can avoid the two blocks that you must push. Nice run, by the way. The instant Mothula fight is my favorite part. I'm also looking forward to a 100% run. :)