When I first discovered this website in mid-2006 I immediately went for the runs of the games that I was had grown up with. Like many, I was thrilled by Spezzafer's 16 star Super Mario 64, confused by Guanobowl's Ocarina of Time and dazzled by Quietust's Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but one of my favorite runs of all was Trazz's Golden Axe run. As I watched it I was amazed at the fantastic strategies to lure all enemies unwittingly into flurries of iron and dark chasms. When I started making TASes of my own I knew that I would want to take it on, but I was far too inexperienced back then. Trazz's run was, and still is, very well played and very well optimised.
This is, by far, my longest and most difficult project to date. I began recording in November 2008 and have been working on this consistently ever since. Back then I felt that I had the experience to cross over into a type of TASing that I had long relished, but was wary of becoming heavily involved in. I had a few publications of games with no original publications and I had obsoleted a few dated runs with large known improvements, but that really is quite a different discipline to trying to improve a run that had no known improvements, a run that was known to have a very high standard of play, a string of previous iterations and one that was well respected throughout the community. I feel privileged to contribute something to the knowledge and optimisation of a game that I love.
In total, this run improves upon the currently published run by 386 frames (6.43 seconds).
LevelFrames GainedTotal
15454
264118
337155
480233
52235
653288
794382
84386

Comments

I will replace this section with in depth, screen-by-screen, comments when I have organised my notes, but this should give an overview
  • Most of the basic tricks in this game are already explained in Trazz's submission text.
  • The largest singular improvement comes from a change in route. When the thief takes your magic pots at the start of a bonus round you have to hit him to win back your pots in addition to the pots he is carrying. I deliberately avoid picking up pots before the Level 4 bonus so that I can end it two hits earlier saving 62 frames. Thanks to Trazz for pointing this out. This is the only place I was able to find a use for this as magic rations are very tight throughout the run.
  • I enjoyed making this run, but I am also very glad to be done with it. I tried to squeeze every frame out of this game, however I think it is good to know when you have given your best. Many levels in this run haven't been improved in months and I got caught up trying to improve parts further that I was unable to improve. I'm creatively burnt out on this game and so this is as good as I can give. This may be improvable by a few more frames and I may come back and shave them off in a year or two once I am rested.
  • Much improvement comes from different strategies. Having one character optimally dispose of up to four enemies is very difficult to optimise and the possibilities are almost endless. The interesting thing is that a strat can be wildly different with very little time gained. I tried to vary the gameplay as much as possible from the previous run.
  • Large improvements come from a new trick I found to manipulate enemies. Swinging your sword in mid air can manipulate enemies to move closer to you. For example, if Tyris jumps on frame 200 and lands on frame 300, moving right the entire time, and the downward stab fails to connect I thought that this meant I would then have to test jumping from frame 201 to see if I was then close enough. However, if while in the air the sword can be swung left and right before settling in the downward stab and this may manipulate the enemy AI into moving into range. This is very difficult to optimise and accounts for most of the rerecords used making this run as even one swing out of place causes it to fail. It is difficult to know when you have maxed out the pixels that you can manipulate the enemy.
  • The screen scrolling has been optimsed in places to allow some enemies to spawn in more advantageous positions.
  • Certain tall enemies (e.g. Death Adder, Big Bud) can be hit with a Downward stab while Tyris is ascending, therefore you don't have to wait until the top of the jump. This has limited use, but is used against the end of level 1 Big Bud and the Level 6 Death Adder. I was unable to get it to work against Level 8 Death Bringer, but I may try again.
  • If Tyris has a ravine one pixel below her you can press diagonally down away from her to drop into the ravine and then double tap in the opposite direction while falling to regain the ability to jump while falling into the ravine. This looks cool but doesn't save any time. It should have saved 26 frames in Level 5 but I lost it all due to screen scrolling.
  • I'd like to thank Trazz for his amazing run. He was right in that it certainly wasn't easy to beat and I hope he enjoys my take on this game. Since I was such a fan of his movie I didn't want to ruin some of the great stylistic choices where I felt that I couldn't do better. Some of the stylistic choices are inspired by his run and serve as testament to it, but I've also tried to mix this in with some style of my own.

adelikat: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2604: Mukki's Genesis Golden Axe in 07:01.95
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
One of my favorite runs of all time, improved. God damn right I am encoding this in HD! Mukki, I assume my statements towards you in the IRC channel show my excitement.
Skilled player (1305)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 1354
Location: U.S.
Grunt wants me to post this screenshot for some reason: This was an incredible run. I was a little dissapointed that it wasnt 2-players but it was great none the less! Yes vote
honorableJay
He/Him
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 104
Location: Albany, NY
Very nice and tight run. Playing with the ravines was the best part :)
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
I optimized Sonikkustar's screenshot because it is that awesome. Also, Yes voted after finally watching it. This run is far more entertaining than the previous one, a difficult feat.
sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
We praise your acts of optimisation and deeds of TASing! I'm astonished that there was this much improvement in such a tight run. This gets a clear Yes vote from me. I'm in the process of encoding this. EDIT: http://www.archive.org/download/GenesisGoldenAxeIn0701.95ByMukki/goldenaxe-tas-mukki.mp4 That version can be streamed at http://www.zexsoft.com/aktan/?GenesisGoldenAxeIn0701.95ByMukki/goldenaxe-tas-mukki
Expert player (2578)
Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
I also have a crush on this game, and it's a pleasure to see it played so carefully. Yes for your excellent run Mukki, it's already added to my favorite runs collection.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User, Experienced player (531)
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
I've decided to drop another 'yes' vote.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Wow! Although there are certain things I do miss about the old run (more Meat Slalom, throwing an enemy over the shoulder), there were some really awesome stylistic choices in this run too. The air swinging technique is really awesome, and overall the quality is top-notch. Great job Mukki!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Limne
Any
Joined: 2/24/2010
Posts: 153
The last run was awesome, but to go and do this? Beautiful.
Joined: 5/2/2009
Posts: 656
.....wow, this is way awesome yes vote
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
Active player (275)
Joined: 4/30/2009
Posts: 791
Wow, this was a definite surprise, and very awesome indeed. My favourite part has to be Stage 7, was just all dealt with so well. Obvious yes vote!
Active player (432)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3516
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Great work as always Mukki. It was a pleasure seeing this. Yes vote.
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
Warepire
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2174
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
Yes vote. It's and improvement and the suicidal enemies made me laugh.
Joined: 2/20/2010
Posts: 209
Location: I'm in space
Oh hell yes. The bad guys' inability to notice gaping holes in the ground never gets old.
Oh, play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the space cops.
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
Dailymotion Playlist Part 1 Part 2 (This half is just credits so... don't bother watching it)
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Posts: 14776
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. ---- [1493] Genesis Golden Axe "1 player" by Mukki in 07:01.95
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
I don't know how the hell you got Death Adder's axe to land on his junk, but I salute you for it. :P
honorableJay
He/Him
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 104
Location: Albany, NY
?? When did this happen?? I thought the axe landed in his right arm.
Joined: 7/8/2009
Posts: 43
Location: Catalonia
It was fun watching! I love when u attack the citizens at level 2 xDDD
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
This run was awesome! Yes vote post-publication.
No.
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User, Experienced player (531)
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
honorableJay wrote:
?? When did this happen?? I thought the axe landed in his right arm.
I thought the axe land in his heart, although he was it didn't look like it had impaled him that much. The fact he was wearing heavy armor might give reason to believe it was only a ceremonial death blow and that he was already dead before it happened.
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
This run feels very well suitable for TASing. It's short and sweet, and watching it is quite entertaining. (Maybe I am somewhat biased because I have played the game in the past, but still...)