This is an any% run of the playstation platformer 'Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back'. Originally I wanted to make a 100% run of Crash 1, but after I switched to any% I chose to use my extra motivation to make a run of this game.
Aims for Fastest Time
Heavy Glitch Abuse
Takes Damage to Save Time
Any%
Genre: Platform
NOTE: I didn't experience any desync while recording this movie because I used the TAS sound plugin. However, this plugin is not particularly good for this game. The music is fine, but the sfx is almost completely lost. Eternal emulates the sound perfectly, but it may be a massive pain in the ass to edit in for whoever encodes this. Unfortunately I lack the experience to do it myself so hopefully it is not a huge problem either way.
Notes on Tricks, Glitches and Optimisation
Movement: Crash's fastest movement speed is on ice (v=15), but under normal circumstances it is when sliding (velocity = 18), however due to the pauses after each slide a mask is faster over all (v = 12). The game removes your masks for each boss and 'Boulders' style level so collecting them is not as fast continually sliding. Spinning is the same speed as walking in this game (v=10).
Gripping: This trick can be used to clear normally impossible gaps. Crash's grip of platforms is very buggy and he can be surprisingly far into a ravine while still having an active ground flag. This is used in many places, but it is not particularly obvious in real time.
3rd Dimension Abuse: This game has many 2D levels and the designers attempted to have these within 2D parameters, however in some 2D levels it is possible to jump towards the camera and bend around normally impassible objects.
Traction Glitch: A very cool glitch that I stumbled across. Crash's speed when on ice is 15. When crash comes off the ice this reverts back to 10 usually, however on the frame of landing it is possible to press X and preserve the 15 velocity. This velocity can be held for as long as you can proceed without landing for more than a frame.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
I've looked into the ending thing and I seem to have gotten an ending glitch. I've tried putting the final hit into Cortex at various points in the level, but the same thing happens. Crash is frozen in his position and you have to Start -> Warp Room to get out. Hopefully it is a game bug and can be worked around. I don't know what the stance will be if it is an emulation bug as the game has been 'beaten' (you can hear Cortex's "No"), it just doesn't 'end'.
I should have picked up on this earlier, apologies.
EDIT:
Okay, I've looked into it and it seems to be an emulation bug. I've tried hitting Cortex at different places and having each hit take different parts of his life. I've tried leaving the fight and beating him again, but nothing works.
I see the courses of action as follows:
1) Accept and publish as is with a subtitle explaining the emulation bug.
2) Accept and publish with an externally captured ending appended to the encode. (As this bug only affects parts of the game outwith that which is included within the movie file this shouldn't be a direct rules violation).
3) Accept and publish having found a code/RAM poke to force the ending, or some other bug fix (don't know how feasible this is).
4) Reject
Thoughts?
It seems the cooldown between dashing on the bear riding levels is a bit longer than I remember, but then I've only played the PAL version which might be different. There also seems to be places (especially across ice patches) where dashing should be used more.
Also is it not faster to dash/spin through the trellis barriers in Unbearable!, rather than high jump over them?
I've looked into the ending thing and I seem to have gotten an ending glitch. I've tried putting the final hit into Cortex at various points in the level, but the same thing happens. Crash is frozen in his position and you have to Start -> Warp Room to get out. Hopefully it is a game bug and can be worked around. I don't know what the stance will be if it is an emulation bug as the game has been 'beaten' (you can hear Cortex's "No"), it just doesn't 'end'.
I should have picked up on this earlier, apologies.
EDIT:
Okay, I've looked into it and it seems to be an emulation bug. I've tried hitting Cortex at different places and having each hit take different parts of his life. I've tried leaving the fight and beating him again, but nothing works.
I see the courses of action as follows:
1) Accept and publish as is with a subtitle explaining the emulation bug.
2) Accept and publish with an externally captured ending appended to the encode. (As this bug only affects parts of the game outwith that which is included within the movie file this shouldn't be a direct rules violation).
3) Accept and publish having found a code/RAM poke to force the ending, or some other bug fix (don't know how feasible this is).
4) Reject
Thoughts?
I got a better solution. I found if I use Eternal SPU to play the end part, it doesn't glitch out and the ending DOES show! I was about to stop working on this run for an official encode until I thought I might as well try this.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
For some reason, I liked this run better than the first one. Yessed and thank you for your christmas gifts :)
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
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
Mukki wrote:
Okay, I've looked into it and it seems to be an emulation bug. I've tried hitting Cortex at different places and having each hit take different parts of his life. I've tried leaving the fight and beating him again, but nothing works.
Aktan wrote:
I found if I use Eternal SPU to play the end part, it doesn't glitch out and the ending DOES show!
Problem solved. Leave the run as it is; we'll need to add a note to the submission (and/or publication, if applicable) to that effect.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Voting No on this one.
Yeah, it's completed really quickly, but it just isn't that interesting/impressive/rewarding. It just seems more like this game is a big chore, rather than a fun time. Granted, I've never really liked the game's setup compared to, say, Spyro, but that doesn't change the fact that this didn't work for me. Chalk this up to bad game choice.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Toothache wrote:
There also seems to be places (especially across ice patches) where dashing should be used more.
The cooldown should be fine. I always used it on the first possible frame, and tested the surrounding frames, so there's not much else I could've done.
You do not lose (or gain) velocity on the ice in these levels so there would be no benefit from 'saving' the dash for these parts.
Toothache wrote:
Also is it not faster to dash/spin through the trellis barriers in Unbearable!, rather than high jump over them?
Nice spot there! It is indeed four frames faster to spin through the trellis fences, however it puts you in a really bad position for sliding on the other side and ends up being around 6 frames slower overall if I remember rightly.
Aktan wrote:
I found if I use Eternal SPU to play the end part, it doesn't glitch out and the ending DOES show!
Wow, it's really strange that that should fix it. Also, thank you for encoding this using eternal, it must be really tough and your efforts are really appreciated.
Actually, I don't. The fact that just using another plugin would desync it means it has an effect on something internally. This change is probably what is needed to trigger the ending.
IMO, not as enjoyable to watch as the first game but still a good run. I say yes. Watching Crash sliding around everywhere got kind of annoying though.
Probably voting no here.
There are just too many spots that look like they could've been faster. For example, in the big pit areas in Level 1 and Level 4, you don't need to jump around as you did - you can simply use the SS Jump from the speedrun to hop out from inside them while still heading forward. It can also probably be abused in other places. You also don't use the run-jump cancel in there for that matter (I definitely noticed Level 15 being slightly slower; if not only slightly faster for the glitch he had)
Also, a different level order that allows for invincibility mask abuse could also be implemented. The worst case of not doing this was Level 12 - they're everywhere there, and yet you did all you could to make sure you never got any.
And in some of the levels, I noticed you didn't jump around crushers when possible, even when it could've saved time. Any reason behind that?
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Hello System Error, sorry for the late reply, I have been busy with New Year etc. and I had to go back through this movie and test some things to answer your questions properly.
System Error wrote:
in the big pit areas in Level 1 and Level 4, you don't need to jump around as you did - you can simply use the SS Jump from the speedrun to hop out from inside them while still heading forward.
Yes you can do this and I tested it in the first pit in Turtle Woods. I found it to be quite considerably slower (about 12 frames if I remember rightly). I attributed this loss to the fact that sliding optimally into the pit moves you too close to the wall and so when SS-jumping Crash is obstructed. To avoid this obstruction you would have to delay other slides so as to land in the pit in a more favorable position, which due to loss in velocity before the pit results in a huge loss overall. Also, the SS jump brings Crash to high over the pit and so it is an extra few frames before he can slide again. While moving around the side of the pit crash can still slide, therefore maintaining maximum velocity, if you land on favorable terrain.
System Error wrote:
You also don't use the run-jump cancel in there for that matter
I tested this trick while TASing "Bear It". I tested it between two points; using the jump-cancel allows you to initiate a new dash 24 frames faster than in the method that I used, however because of the air momentum issue that I described in a post earlier in this thread it ended up being 2 frames slower between the points that I tested it. It is a very good trick for real time speedrunning because of the cooldown advantage, but in a TAS where you can initiate dashes at the earliest frame possible while on the ground I couldn't find a use for it. In hindsight it could perhaps yield a few frames if tested with different patterns across a level in accordance with slope gradients, but that would be quite a strain on a TASer and the gains would be very small indeed.
System Error wrote:
a different level order that allows for invincibility mask abuse could also be implemented.
A different level order couldn't yield any improvements due to a mask advantage. Invincibility doesn't give you much of a speed boost, only about a second per use and the time to bypass one level to get to another and back again would be more than this.
System Error wrote:
And in some of the levels, I noticed you didn't jump around crushers when possible, even when it could've saved time. Any reason behind that?
It is faster to go under the crushers with maximum velocity rather than jump around them and be in the air when they come up.
hi,
i enjoy this game, and enjoyed the run, the ice momentum keeping is definitly a highlight in this tas.
yes vote from me,
but one question,
can you quit the "secret stages" without finishing it ?
So I think I give up on trying to make it work with Eternal SPU. Here is a link to my current progress:
http://aktan.site90.com/?vid=Mm4TestStream/CB2outF
That small clip itself had 37 desyncs. Estimating from that, the total amount of desyncs when I get to the end would be ~472. That's just way too many desyncs to work on.
What I'm going to do is, for the intro movie and ending credits, use Eternal SPU, and for everything else, use Pete's Midas.
Well you're within your right to say what you like about the play, but voting no because of emulation issues is completely insane.
I'm voting yes, because it is not only a huge amazing nostalgia trip for me, it used a lot of techniques I wasn't familiar with through either the speedrun or the large amounts of time I wasted on the Crash Bandicoot trilogy as a kid :P
Great job Mukki. You deserve this yes vote, from me at least.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!)
My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 4/1/2009
Posts: 245
Location: Countryside of anywhere
theenglishman wrote:
SDR wrote:
voted no!
bad emulation and boring play
but voting no because of emulation issues is completely insane.
hahah ...guess what....I don't mind with yours opinion...ain't that funny>= )
cool game but play boring and watching with bad emulation.. sorry me but i can't vote yes
And Aktan thx for encode =D but my opinion about the movie is NO! oO
Play games that are emulated well
Emulation of several platforms such as Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and Sony Playstation are still far from perfect...
SDR is not insane at all, its perfectly understandable (not saying here i agree anyway)
I remember theres a psx run that got canceled due to poor emulation (Azure Dream IIRC)
Voting yes! This run was very entertaining and well made. I still can't help but wonder if some places can be done faster because I'm a somewhat speedy when playing this. Maybe I'll try to TAS this when it's possible for me :P
100% run would be impressive for players who have achieved that theirselves, but to others it would probably be too repetetive and long.
Ill trow another yes in the pile, i did abstain for long to vote this, mainly my problem was to vote this yes and no to crash1, in crash1 everything is slow paced (not saying its not optimized, just what the result look like), here in crash2 the ice things did compensate this slowness, and made it more enjoyable to watch overall for me.
I think the emulation problems are low, despite been troublesome for encoding, they dont seem to realy affect the gameplay itself. (except for last boss apparently lol, that was quite unlucky hahaha)
