This is a 1322 frames, or 22.03 seconds, improvement over the published run. Most of the improvements come from keeping the airplane through the entire last two flying levels, using a stronger form to kill the last boss and avoiding the "shortcut" bag in 6-1. I also reduced lag and optimized movement through the entire run.

Game description:

Felix the cat is a simple platformer. The goal in each level is to reach the end of the level before the time runs out, and without getting killed along the way. Felix dies when he touches an enemy or falls into a hole. He can jump, duck, and also attack. You can also pick up cat-coins in the game, just like coins in Super Mario Bros. Every 5:th, 15:th, 25:th, etc., coin you pick up will turn into three milkbottles. These will give you some extra points, as well as restore hearts if you have transformed. Every 10:th coin you pick up, will turn into a heart. If you pick up this heart, you will transform. Each new transformation has a better attack power than the previous.
Besides normal "land-levels", there are also some water levels, boat levels, flying levels and a space level in this game.

Improvements over the published run

This run was entirely made with a Lua script that kept track of my current pixel and subpixel positions, and compared this to what position I should be at, given that I'm moving at top speed. This means that whenever I lost or gained any subpixels at all, be it to lag or something else, the script would let me know. This way it was easy to reduce lag and get maximum boosts from platforms, as well as making sure I never bump into something.
Besides these minor improvements, there are some visible changes in this run. One major difference is that I keep the airplane form through the entire level 2-1. Although this makes me lose some frames at the score countdown, due to having a few hearts, the higher speed of the airplane makes up for it. Also, by ending this level with the airplane, I start with the airplane in the next flying level! This saves a lot of time, and I make sure to end all flying levels in the airplane form is there if another such level is coming up.
I also often chose different coins to pick up compared to the published run, either to reduce lag or to get a better coin to give me the transformation heart. On level 1-3 for example, I chose a better coin to give me the transformation heart.
The raft levels need some explanation. Normally when you enter the water you slow down a bit. If you fall into the water at the right angle, you won't slow down at all. By trial-and-error, I managed to save a lot of frames by making sure that I don't lose any speed when jumping on the water. Although the speed loss is very small, all those small savings add up.
I skip the "shortcut" bag in level 6-1 used in the published run, since it's actually about 1.5 seconds slower than walking right by it.
I end level 9-2 in the second form, making the score countdown a bit longer. This is intentional, because by doing this I can get the strongest transformation for the last boss, allowing me to kill him in two less hits, saving about 3 seconds.
You can actually become invulnerable to enemy attacks if you attack right before you're about to get hit. This doesn't save any time, but is quite a nice trick. This is why I sometimes attack without hitting anything - if I didn't attack, I would get hit and die. This trick is present in the published run.
Another small quirk in this game is that many objects that you can move on, for example birds and snowballs, that are moving in your opposite direction, won't slow you down when you run on them. This is to compare to normal platforms, which would slow you down if they were moving in your opposite direction.
Some notes on boss fights: All bosses except the last one has 41 HP. Your first form deals 5 damage, the second 6, third 7, and your final form 8. I usually kill a HP boss in 7 hits (6 hits in form 2 = 36 damage, then a hit in your normal form, = 41 damage), and the only way to kill them in 6 hits is to use the fourth form. Getting the fourth form before a 41 HP boss wastes more time than the 91 frames saved by one less hit. The last boss has 100 HP, which allows me to kill him in two less hits with the strongest form, making it worth the extra time to get it.

Final thoughts

It was fun to make this TAS, in particular since it was one of the first games I TASed. I enjoyed competing with myself, seeing how much lua-scripts and much more RAM viewing would help out, and how/if my TASing skills have improved. There is still some lag left in this run that I could not get rid of, no matter what I tried. This leaves a door open for potential improvements to this run, so I'm eager to see what the future holds. In any case, I hope you enjoy this end result.

Flygon: Added YouTube module.

Truncated: Accepting this improvement.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2831: Randil's NES Felix the Cat in 22:29.01
Joined: 4/29/2006
Posts: 70
Run looks great, also neatly done with the lua script. Yes vote and working on an unofficial encode. http://undie.no-ip.org/felixthecat-tas-randil.mkv
Skilled player (1305)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 1354
Location: U.S.
I liked the occasional reverse kills. They add some style to a somewhat bland run. Yes Vote. Speakingof things, werent you working on this with Kyman?
Skilled player (1882)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Sonikkustar wrote:
I liked the occasional reverse kills. They add some style to a somewhat bland run. Yes Vote. Speakingof things, werent you working on this with Kyman?
I didn't hear much from Kyman during this project. He made a short WIP on one of the water levels, but it was more of a test run. I got the impression that he was either busy with something else, or not very interested in this. I sent him a PM recently, asking if he was still interested in this, in which he replied that he had now started high school and didn't have time to TAS. School is a very good reason to take it easy on the TASing, I know that first hand. Me and Kyman were discussing some other games we might do together, so perhaps you'll see a team submission from us in the future.
Skilled player (1305)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 1354
Location: U.S.
School is indeed a good reason. :) Thanks for the info.
Onyx3173
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Joined: 5/30/2010
Posts: 76
Location: Oregon, USA
This is a pretty entertaining TAS, voting yes.
I am a figment of my imagination.
mklip2001
He/Him
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Pretty nice improvement! The game looks fairly slow, though I guess that makes sense if it's a game where one hit kills you if you're not powered up. (So, in fact, going for as long as you do with just the basic suitcase is fairly cool.) Also, this time around, it was a little more interesting since you could jump on birds and such. I'm a little surprised at your vehicle choice for bosses though. You didn't use the car on the first two land bosses and didn't use the tank until the very last boss. Is there not enough extra damage from these vehicles to be worth it to use them?
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.
Skilled player (1882)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
mklip2001 wrote:
Pretty nice improvement! The game looks fairly slow, though I guess that makes sense if it's a game where one hit kills you if you're not powered up. (So, in fact, going for as long as you do with just the basic suitcase is fairly cool.) Also, this time around, it was a little more interesting since you could jump on birds and such. I'm a little surprised at your vehicle choice for bosses though. You didn't use the car on the first two land bosses and didn't use the tank until the very last boss. Is there not enough extra damage from these vehicles to be worth it to use them?
I'm glad you asked! I should probably add this into the comments too. All bosses except the last one has 41 HP. Your first form deals 5 damage, the second 6, third 7, and your final form 8. I kill all 41 HP bosses in 7 hits (6 hits in form 2 = 36 damage, then a hit in your normal form, = 41 damage), and the only way to kill them in 6 hits is to use the fourth form. Getting the fourth form before a 41 HP boss wastes more time than the ~90 frames saved by one less hit. The last boss has 100 HP, which allows me to kill him in two less hits with the strongest form, making it worth the extra time to get it. EDIT: Another problem is that your invulnerebility time in this game is quite long, about 3 seconds. If I use form 4 to kill the boss in 6 hits I don't have enough time to revert back to my first form. Basically, if I kill the boss in 6 hits with form 4, I end the level with several hearts left, which wastes some time at the end of the level. Also, if I want form 4 for the boss I would have to transform to form 2 on the previous level, which in turn will give a heart countdown at the end of that level, so that's two levels with longer score countdown, which nullifies the 91 frames saved by 1 less hit.
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
Link to video Not bad! Yes vote. ... I'd add more comment about the run, but I don't have anything to say, it's clearly optimized and while the entertainment was average, it was a clearly good run. Also, hope no one minds the blur, this is the first video I've successfully uploaded that uses 30fps down-conversion (Apart from MURDERA, but that isn't a TAS).
Active player (275)
Joined: 4/30/2009
Posts: 791
Felix is such a dapper gentleman, with his hat and cane and carpet bag. Yes voting here, it is an improvement and good looking run overall.
NitroGenesis
He/Him
Editor, Experienced player (550)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
I was bored with the previous movie. This would still be boring probably, but there's no way Im gonna watch this game again. But still, good work with the improvement.
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. ---- [1625] NES Felix the Cat by Randil in 22:29.01