The Simpsons: The Arcade Game is Konami's 4-player beat-em up based on the ultra-hit TV show, the Simpsons. The Simpsons cartoon has now spanned 21 seasons, a world-wide movie, and licensing from here to kindgom come. In this TAS, adelikat and DarkKobold use four of the five Simpson family, to track down the missing 5th member, Maggie.
  • Uses 4-players
  • Takes Damage to Save Time
  • Speed vs. Entertainment trade-offs
  • Used Lua
This was done with a custom FBA 4.2 build that I made. Included in that download is the multitrack script, written by DarkKobold, used to create this TAS.

The Characters

All characters have a normal attack (4 dmg), a jump-attack (4 dmg), and a special attack (12 dmg). Additionally, each pair of characters can create a special attack, that is controllable by both players. It is initiated by having two characters stand next to each other without moving for about 40 frames.

Homer J. Simpson (The J. stands for Jay!)

Homer uses his fists and feet to deal damage. Additionally, he gets more fun animations when throwing a bowling ball. Watch for his wind up throw against the first boss! Also, when pairing with the kids, homer can deal 12 damage per punch. This is a faster attack than the special attack, but doesn't provide a great amount of benefit, so it is not used extensively. When homer pairs with his wife, they go for a lil' roll... not in the hay, but around the screen, causing 4 damage per hit.

Marjorie "Marge" Simpson (née Bouvier)

Marge uses her vaccum to deal damage, except when her flying butt would do a better job. Meanwhile, she figured out that the key to good parenting was to throw her children around. This attack does 8 dmg, and can help keep the screen moving forward by hitting enemies at the back of the screen. However, all credit for kills is given to the children, so Marge's score stays low the entire game. All right now, play friendly!

Lisa Marie Simpson

Lisa decides to use her jump rope to help save Maggie. A few whirls of her rope take out many of Burn's goons. When she pairs with her brother, they play a deadly game of red-rover, sending the enemies all over, to the tune of 4 damage!

Bartholomew "Bart" JoJo Simpson

Bart uses his skateboarding ability to a new level. He knocks Burn's baddies about with reckless abadon. Aye Crumba!

About the Run

One of the two biggest difference between this run and the TMNT run is the inability to scroll enemies off the screen. Thus, we needed to use Marge's heave ability, as it allowed the children to hit the back of the screen, but end the throw at the front. Also, thrown objects do 8 or 12 dmg, and make it easier to hit enemies from the back. The other big difference is synchronized hits cause extra damage. This means that all four simpsons hitting simultaneously causes 48 damage!

Downtown Springfield

The intro level brings us by noiseland arcade (featured in many episodes), the firehouse, and the rusty barnacle. Also watch for a cameo by Principal Seymour Skinner and Martin Prince. The boss of this level was taken down in two rounds, due to his extremely-high knockdown value. Each boss has an amount of damage they can take due to knock down. Does anyone know what episode the boss came from?

Krustyland

KrustyLand is both part of the Simpsons Universe, and in 2008, our world as well, at Universal Studio, Hollywood. This level features enemy rabbits, based on the character from Matt Groening's initial comic, "Life in Hell." Ironically, the Simpson family was sketched in minutes, due to Matt Groening not wanting to give up ownership of said rabbit. The boss is simply Krusty's face on large balloon. While the knockdown value for this boss is higher than used in the run, it didn't save time to use normal hits over coordinated specials. Also, note that Snowball 2, the cat, and Santa's Little Helper, Bart's dog makes an appearance as weapons in this level. Strangely, Otto the Bus Driver hands out deadly shakes. Must be a summer job.

Springfield Graveyard

Luckily and tactifully, Maude is not one of the zombies that infest this graveyard. (Additionally, she was still alive at the time this game was made). The graveyard is featured in many Treehouse of Horror movies. Additionally, the twofer boss are not actual mobsters from the series. However, the generic 'skinny' mobster that appears hundreds of times in the run is based off of the sidecharacter "Legs" who works for Fat Tony.

Moe's Tavern

Note that in the TV Show, Moe's Tavern is not hidden below a crypt in the cemetery. Also note that Homer enjoys exotic dancers a lil' closer than he should. The boss of this level is a random drunk, who makes no appearance in the TV show.

Springfield Gorge

Probably one of the more interesting levels of the run, and also features many enemies from the TV show. Note that Homer is technically beating himself up, when he kills the mud covered ape creatures. Both this creature, and the boss bear taking maggie, come from the episode The Call of the Simpsons.

Dreamworld

This is one of the most dreaded levels in all of the game, as the enemies routinely have large amounts of health. The bowling ball boss is based on the Simpsons episode Life on the Fast Lane. Also note, care was taken in this level to have each Simpson character do their idle animation, without costing time.

Channel 6 News

Homer carries E.T. further than he should. No idea where the bosses in this level came from. Help me out!

Nuclear Power Plant

Burns and Smithers. etc....

Suggested Screenshot

Actual Suggested Screenshot


Nach: Great movie for showing off four players at once. Accepting.
Spikestuff: As a warning. Compared to other FBA Movies there is notable a/v desync after dumping. Be sure to resync it.
EZGames69: Also as a warning, this movie will desync if you don’t set the audio rate to 44100 hz, setting it to 48000 hz will cause a desync in the 2nd stage.


TASVideoAgent
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Sure, why not Yes vote. Twas fast and entertaining. It's worth nothing that the YouTube upload truncates the credits, this is due to the fact that including them breaks the 15:00 limit... and that nothing particularly interesting was past there anyway. But for those that really want the score screen, a screenshot is below:
GabCM
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ALL RIGHT, NOW PLAY FRIENDLY! Anyway, I was waiting for this TAS to come, and it was worth the wait. Voting Yes! Can I claim SD encode?
Skilled player (1328)
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Alright now, Vote Yes!
GabCM
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It seems I can't make this movie to sync with the rom. I'm using the custom FBA build, but the family gets pummeled at the beginning of the 2nd stage. Am I doing something wrong? Edit : Nevermind. The problem is solved now. Thanks to adelikat!
NitroGenesis
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!seY detov I See how cryptic I can be?
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
fruitbane
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So, why is Marge's score so low? Does she do less damage or move more slowly?
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I think she's too busy scolding her children to fight.
Player (206)
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I take that to mean that the kid she throws gets the point for beating something, not Marge herself.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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This is probably the easiest yes vote I've ever made.
Joined: 5/13/2009
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fruitbane wrote:
So, why is Marge's score so low? Does she do less damage or move more slowly?
Probably because she spends the whole movie heaving people around! fantastic, yes vote!
Dwedit
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Did this play at the highest difficulty level? Isn't that supposed to be one of the site's requirements?
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As a fan of The Simpsons, yes vote :)
Recent projects: SMB warpless TAS (2018), SMB warpless walkathon (2019), SMB something never done before (2019), Extra Mario Bros. (best ending) (2020).
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I really liked this game in the arcades, yes vote
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13:37:73? Yes vote for that alone. :p (Seriously, very nice run. I never played the game and I was entertained - that's what all TASes should achieve.)
I lurk, okay?
GabCM
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I will take care of Sonic 3 & Knuckles before I encode this one.
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It's got some entertainment. I played TMNT arcade decades ago at a Pizza Hut, but I never seen anything like this! [Y]
Do I look like someone who really cares what God thinks?! "GI Joe: The Atlantis Factor" - May be improved in the future.
Mitjitsu
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miseiler wrote:
fruitbane wrote:
So, why is Marge's score so low? Does she do less damage or move more slowly?
Probably because she spends the whole movie heaving people around! fantastic, yes vote!
Much like in Streets of Rage where Blaze's score is much lower than Axel's, despite the fact she should be getting 75% of the credit. Did I mention I voted yes?
Joined: 8/30/2008
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yes! yes!! yes!!! i love this game so much!! i remember beating it with my friends on a school field trip to skate king :) awesome job adelikat and DarkKobold!
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Ironically, friendly was the exact opposite of what you played. Very nice run, and a pretty obvious yes vote.
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I've never thought the Simpsons could appear in a beat-em up game. A lot of actions with a wide variety of movements: Yes vote!
Player (206)
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This is one arcade game I've actually seen in real life, I think at a Chuck E. Cheese's...
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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Voting yes. Played this many years ago in the arcade and very much enjoyed watching it get a thorough whipping. The bonus stages made me smile.
Patashu
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The speed at which bosses go down to synchronized attacks is simply staggering! Yes for sure.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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Okie-dokie, I gotta vote yes for this!