- Takes damage to save time
- Heavy Glitch Abuse
- Genre: Platform
- Genre: Adventure
First of all, about not actually finishing the game...
There's nothing we can do about it, we really would like to, but a stupid glitch in the final
boss battle that takes you back to the beginning of the game stops us from doing so.
This thread discusses the problem:
Forum/Topics/12816
Either way, it's horribly disheartening to encounter this so very late into this TAS, and we
decided considering we have completed the large portion of the game, it would be a shame to not
submit it, even if it may be more of a shame to have that feeling that we never actually
properly finished it. In the end we decided on categorising it as 'Entering the Sorceress' Lair
with 100 eggs'. It's not succinct, but it has clarity.
Glitches and Tricks
- The infamous Swimming in Air glitch, which can be activated either via the zombie glitch or managing to start the swimming animation without entering the water.
- The Zombie glitch is where you exit the level (by pausing) just as you lose your last hitpoint. This disables all water boundaries, which comes in handy.
- Spinning while jumping gives you a little extra height- used in Midday Gardens homeworld and Icy Peak.
- Gliding against a wall gives you extra height (though not to the extent that it does in Spyro 1)
Level Notes
Sunrise Spring
Sunny Villa
- The jumps from the sloping path may seem slow when stuck on the edge, but it's much faster than turning later and landing on higher ledge more cleanly.
Sheila's Alp
- For the swimming in air glitch before the level, you may think it may be quicker to just charge straight towards the end of the waterfall, and it probably is (if it is possible). But just taking this slightly longer route to get a better angle still took Crash 30minutes of work every day for 2 weeks to finally pull off, that's how hard this quicker version of the glitch is. As Sheila, turning via adjusting the camera is very helpful.
Cloud Spires
- We skip Moneybags, and get hit by a flame. Not much else to say.
Magma Crater
- More damage is taken progressively throughout the level (while losing the least time possible) to set up for the zombie glitch later on, while collecting those last few gems to make our only payment to Moneybags.
Seashell Shore
- A significant amount of time is saved using the swim-in-air glitch. Some time is lost in the speed swimming miniworld due to misunderstanding it's mechanics, and unfortunately we only realised this when doing the similar miniworld in Dino Mines when the TAS
was almost done. Not too much time is lost, so we hope Spyro unusual swimming techniques make up for this mistake in an entertaining way.
Buzz's Dungeon
- Standing right next to him means that he can't roll into the edge, and so cancels the animation, thus saving time. Thanks to Lapogne for the tip of adjusting the camera away from him so his fire wall doesn't pop up after getting hit.
Midday Gardens
Icy Peak
- Whole-level skips, strange enemy positions, superhuman stair climbing, spinjumping onto massive ice crystals... This level has it all.
Spooky Swamp
- We used a trick to skip the entire level, which makes the Sleepy Head egg a good choice.
Sgt.Byrd's Base
- We hope this level is made a bit more interesting by flying everywhere sideways (which is a little bit quicker).
Bamboo Terrace
- We make use of a skip only found two years ago that skips having to chase the thief.
Enchanted Towers
- Spyro likes to live life on the edge.
Spike's Arena
- Nothing much to say, magma balls/crystals fall at a constant rate.
Evening Lake
Fireworks Factory
- May seem weird to do this level first, but we need to unlock Bentley first, plus we don't have enough eggs to enter Charmed Ridge get. A trick to get hit by the bomb in the miniworld to get up to the egg ledge found by Crash (on a PAL iso) proved to be impossible after several hours of attempts between us.
Lost Fleet
- Even though we wait for a while, before getting the end of level egg, it's quicker to wait. The alternative to go over to the last egg first before returning to the ship is slower, we checked.
Bentley's Outpost
- We follow the intended route for the level!
Frozen Altars
- We were so very, very surprised when the proxy jump worked just like that on the very first attempt (you can't get the height required in less 'jumps' and falls than we did). Also, Bentley juuust about has the upper hand in his boxing match.
Charmed Ridge
- Flying close to a wall also maintains height in this game, and we use it to our advantage (that particular glide is not possible from that position otherwise).
Scorch's Pit
- It proved nigh on impossible to luck manipulate the first weapon to be red while also killing the crabs in the quickest amount of time. Sorry for perhaps not making it as entertaining as it seemed while we were making it. N.B. One of the hits was made ~5 frames late, as changing the frame we hit him, frame by frame, changed the amount of eggs that he spewed out.
Midnight Mountain
Crystal Islands
- That thief must be blind..
Desert Ruins
- We get the end level egg first, so as to avoid Moneybags, then do some acrobatics on the side of level to save some time.
Haunted Tomb
- Tank trouble ahead.
Dino Mines
- We follow the normal route, how boring!
We ended the movie on the first frame possible which meant that the screen going black when entering the Sorceress' Lair happened on the exact same frame as it would when continually charging.
Possible Improvements
-Egg route
We are very happy with our route, and doubt that some eggs could be done faster than the ones
we chose, but it is possible.
-Better gem collection before Molten Crater miniworld.
Not much room for manoeuvre, but a few
gems here rather than there will save a few frames.
-Manipulating the in-game character to shoot the ice wall at the start of Icy Peak.
We discovered this by accident, and tried for a few hours to get him to shoot it while
being right next to it simultaneously, but eventually gave up. Spyro going straight to the cannon
and shooting it himself is only a little bit slower.
-Use of analog-stick for greater accuracy, especially in the non-Spyro levels.
Thanks to anyone and everyone who has contributed to Spyro speedrunning or glitchfinding, as without them this run would be quite uneventful!
As a separate category (stopping right before the final boss), I cannot accept this either. This category would otherwise be way too arbitrary, and I cannot make an exception for this case, as it would set a very bad precedent.
This is a very unfortunate case, because other than this emulation issue, the run makes for a very nice TAS and it is clear that the authors have put a lot of effort into producing this TAS. I liked this TAS very much, personally. My compliments go towards the authors of the TAS. I hope a workaround or fix to the emulation glitch can be found, so the TAS can be finished properly.
