Emulator used: FCEUX 2.1.4a
Settings used (important for the movie to play correctly): Config -> PPU -> Old PPU
I actually started this movie file on the ROM "Action 52 (USA) (Unl).nes", despite the fact that in order to play it back, it must be played on "Action 52 (USA) (Unl) (Rev A).nes". This was the only way I could get it to work, so I hope that's not an issue. When it says the ROM checksums don't match, just play it anyway, it will work. Also, make sure to close and reopen the emulator before each subsequent playthrough of the movie, because otherwise, it will desynch at the game selection screen.

Common Tricks and Glitches

Infinte Jump

This only works as the first cheetahman. If you jump and then attack in the air, you can jump again after attacking. You can do this as many times as you like. It only has 1 use in this run, and that's at the start of level 2 to get to the bottom of the first screen quicker. Whenever you're in an area where the screen is moving horizontally, doing this will kill you.

Screen Merging

This has no use in the run, although it might seem like it should have after you read what it is. On level 2, when falling down from the start, it's possible to be even more to the right when the screen starts moving. This allows you to walk over the pits that are in your path, but eventually, you get stuck, and the only way out of it is to keep jumping, and go left a bit to calibrate the screen, which ends up being slower overall.

Ladder Boosting

When climbing a ladder, if you jump at a certain point, the cheetah will boost up, skipping a large portion of it very quickly. This is actually useless a lot of the time because you need to wait for the screen to catch up before you can get off the ladder anyway, but it does see some use in this run. It can be done any number of times on a ladder as the second cheetah, but only once per ladder (at the start) with the third cheetah.

Taking Damage

In this game, taking damage from an enemy doesn't slow you down at all. Jumping, however, does (by 2 frames). It's therefore fastest to take as many well-placed hits as possible while still remaining alive (you can take 4 hits before dying, and bosses kill you in 1 hit no matter how much life you have when you fight them). Killing the enemies is also slower than just taking damage from them.

Area-by-Area Details

Opening and Cutscenes

It's possible to end some of the cutscenes right after the text has finished displaying, but it seems the only ones it works on are the ones that talk about the cheetah you're about to play as. All the ones from the opening can't be sped up at all.

Level 1

Not much to say here. I took the shortcut in the second waterfall that takes us to level 9, and then to the start of level 2.

Level 2

I use the infinite jump to get to the second area quickly since it's a bit faster than just falling down there normally. The rest of the level is straightforward. Towards the end, I head left very slightly to calibrate the screen so that the boss didn't instantly kill me when he appeared. This was the fastest way to do this level because had I been any more to the left prior to that point, I would've gotten killed.
I kill the boss really quickly in 5 hits by jumping with him so I don't have to wait for him to land.

Level 3

I minimised the amount of jumping while maximising the amount of damage taken. I took the shortcut in the second hole that leads to level 9 again, and then to level 3 (which I'll refer to as "level 4").

Level 4 (Level 3)

I ladder boosted twice here. Had I done it a third time, I would've shot off the top of the screen and died. Ladder boosting was faster in this case because it meant I was higher up when the game let me move to the right, meaning I could land on a further away platform. The conveyer belts and water boost me slightly to the right too.
I kill the boss in 4 hits. Using the method that the Angry Video Game Nerd recommended, it would take 8 hits, but by jumping over him and attacking him as soon as possible each time, it's possible in 4 hits.

Level 5 (Level 4)

This was the only level that required any real sort of planning. I had to carefully select which enemies to kill and which to take damage from. Remember, you can only take 3 hits and the next one kills you. Fortunately, killing enemies with arrows isn't nearly as slow as killing them with the other two cheetahmen.
There's another shortcut that leads to level 9 in this level by jumping down any of the pits before the end of the level, but this one takes you to level 10, which is just a garbled mess that can't be completed, so it's avoided.

Level 6 (Level 5)

Not much to say about this one, just a straight route to the boss. Ladder boosting only saved time on the final ladder here.
I stayed next to the boss during the entire battle to minimise the distance the arrows had to travel before he died. It takes 18 hits to kill him. As far as I know, there's no way to reduce this number, but this seems to be the best strat anyway.
The game ends when the boss dies, so the last input on this run is the last arrow shot at him.

Thanks to...

  • Bloobiebla, LinksDarkArrows, and Tompa for "critiquing" some WIPs I showed them.
  • phantom321, for his TAS of this game which reminded me that I wanted to make one myself.
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd, for bringing this amazing game to my attention in the first place and inspiring me to TAS it.

adelikat: What's wrong with you people this is the worst game ever made! I guess it is one of those its so bad its good for a TAS. Accepting due to very positive viewer response.
fsvgm777: Processing...

Active player (277)
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So the title of the 52nd game is neither "Action GameMaster" nor "Cheetahmen", but "Animation"? Good to know!
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Yes, but what is the proper name of that title?
No idea. How about That Dumb NES Game with the Cheetahs ?
Oh, play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the space cops.
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goldfish wrote:
wekhter wrote:
isn't this game technically titled "Action Gamemaster", not Cheetahmen? I know the menu says Cheetahmen, but the start screen and manual say otherwise
It's the flagship title on a NES cartridge filled with 52 of the worst games ever made: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_52 And welcome to the site. =)
Oh, I know what "Cheetahmen" is and where it's from. Perhaps I should refer to it as a mini-game, if that makes it clearer. What I mean to say is that although within Action 52's game selection menu this mini-game is listed as 52. CHEETAH MEN, when you get to its start screen (1 or 2 player selection screen) the title is ACTION GAMEMASTER. Many of the Action 52 mini-games have titles that deviate from the main menu because of the tiny character limit they tried to squeeze the text into (for whatever reason). It's also listed as both ACTION GAMEMASTER and THE "ACTION GAMEMASTER" in the manual, so I was wondering if that should be the proper title for the TAS as well. And thanks, I'm enjoying being able to get notifications. :>
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That's interesting and all, but no one knows it by that name, whereas everyone knows what "Cheetahmen" is thanks to the Nerd. >_>
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Sexy as hell and totally optimal. Boss fights were hilarious. Definite yes
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Not to mention the existence of a game called "Cheetahmen II".
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
mklip2001
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I actually sort of like this game. Yes, it's horribly coded and looks cheap, but there's some reasonable variety for how short the game is. The boss fights look great this time, and that makes a big difference. I think the boss fights push me over to a Yes vote. Back in the day, I also maybe would've been in favor of a Cheetahmen II publication, but there are two things that this game has that II doesn't. II only has the horizontal scrollers, for one. Second, the ending of the II runs we've seen don't feel satisfying given that the game basically just freezes.
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.
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I was accepting this because it was much more entertaining than King's Bounty before I realized that I hadn't watched it from the movie input file yet. EDIT: I am not judging this submission at the moment. EDIT2: Nothing was wrong with my original statement in spite of being confusing. Reverted.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
NitroGenesis
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klmz wrote:
I was accepting this because it was much more entertaining than King's Bounty before I realized that I hadn't watched it yet.
Nothing wrong with that statement. King's Bounty is the worst published TAS imo, so any TAS is better automatically. Not that this TAS sucked or anything. The bosses were funny, and my suggested screenshot would be in lvl 2 when you humped the boss.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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I was accepting this because it was much more entertaining than King's Bounty before I realized that I hadn't watched it yet. I don't get what you mean by this. Are you saying you aren't going to accept it now?
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I'm also confused about that... ._.
sgrunt
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I read the comment as, "I was about to accept this, then I remembered I'm supposed to watch the movie from the input file first, and I haven't done that yet".
NitroGenesis
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It made perfect sense to me (not joking)
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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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. ---- [1584] NES Action 52: The Cheetahmen "warps" by SwordlessLink in 03:56.06
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YES!!!!!
MarbleousDave
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1 game down, 51 more games to go.
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Glad to see this published. Love how the game just abruptly ends after the final boss is killed, definitely an entertaining run.
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Arjin wrote:
Love how the game just abruptly ends after the final boss is killed,
I think all the Action 52 games are like that, as if it were too much trouble to program in a little tune or "You won!" message.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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just terrible game, nice run
NitroGenesis
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Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Arjin wrote:
Love how the game just abruptly ends after the final boss is killed,
I think all the Action 52 games are like that, as if it were too much trouble to program in a little tune or "You won!" message.
Most actually loop to the first level. also, Im currently TASing the Slashers game.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Joined: 8/8/2010
Posts: 1
Thanks for this run (and thanks to the Nerd for fun review and Ze6ypo for translate this AVGN review to my own language). I hope this bug will help you to complete this terrible game faster. Billy Bob Bug in Action 52 (Used ROM: Action 52 (U) [!].nes. Does not work with Action 52 (USA) (Unl) (Rev A).nes). When you try to complete Level 2 of Billy Bob game... P.S. Billy Bob in the... Future? Or Mutated? Or what happened to him? 0_o Anyway the strong cheetahmen has name Billy Bob... He-he...