This can be a terrible game, but it can be entertaining due to how short it is and how diverse each event can be made.
Here is a High Score/Playaround TAS I made (which needs to be improved slightly) that I plan on submitting once I improve it in the same vein as
[970] NES Track & Field "max score, playaround" by Phil in 12:55.43 but at less than half the time.
Here is a breakdown of each round of the TAS. Format will be:
Event (Previous high score saved to the NES game, New High Score)
Description
Possible Improvement
Weight Lifting (180 kg, 450 kg)
Snatch
1) Hold Max Weight too long and fall through floor (fault)
2) Immediately make a mistake picking up the weight causing him to drop it (fault)
3) Correctly pick up maximum weight of 225 kg
Clean and Jerk
1) Immediately make a mistake picking up the lowest possible weight causing him to drop it (fault)
2) Hold 5 kg over lowest possible weight for too long and fall through floor (fault)
3) Correctly pick up maximum weight of 225 kg
I don't see a way to improve this one. It shows all of the results I know of and gets the maximum possible weight. There is a glitch on the original version of the game (Commodore 64) where you could
glitch the weight to get up to over 800 kg but I do not know if it is possible to TAS that system and if it is do not know how to work the emulator.
Barrel Jumping (10, 15)
1) I get up to maximum skating speed very quickly, jump early barely passing the minimum number of barrels (3) but then crash and fall through the ice instead of landing.
2) I use the glitch shown in t3h Icy's video where as long as you slide past the barrels upon landing you can slide through the barrels and be considered successful. The maximum number of barrels that you can glitch in this matter and succeed is 9 so that is the number of barrels I do.
3) I cause the game to hit a maximum speed of 255 on the furthest possible frame that you can jump from and for some reason when they caused it that the maximum number of barrels that can be successfully jumped is 15 out of 19.
I am happy with the first two results as they humorously fail and show off a glitch to its maximum ability. The aspect I am unhappy with is that the maximum number of barrels is only 15 instead of 19. This is again a negative to not using the C64 version of the game as you can jump at least
18 barrels in that version and probably with TAS abilities 19 barrels. Also I know 15 is the maximum number in NES unless another glitch is found as I jump with the maximum velocity at the last possible frame and I cannot even get close to clearing 16.
Cliff Diving (70, 99)
1) I jump from the lowest possible height, land as far away from the cliffs as is possible, have a low water level and enter the water for a single frame before beginning to turn up out of the water resulting in the lowest possible score that does not simply display fault which is a 01.
2) Use the glitch shown in t3h Icy's run where you can fly all the way to the left and loop around the screen. Fails spectacularly.
3) Jumps from the highest height, stays as close to the cliffs as possible, actually clipping through the rocks, staying in the water until the lowest depth before hitting the bottom and finally having the highest possible water level which gives you the highest possible score I could achieve.
I am happy with these three. Again it seems that the C64 version had quite a few glitches that didn't make it to the NES as they manage a
101. I get the water to the maximum height it achieves without cheats (it can artificially be raised another pixel with cheats). My score stays 99 no matter how much closer to the cliff I get without crashing and if I go further to the left it drops to 98. If anything I guess they overcompensated the NES version to prevent some of these glitches and allowed for only sub-optimal scores.
Slalom Skiing (1:24:7, 0:23:9)
1) Crash quickly into the wall on the right.
2) Crash quickly into the first flag
3) I go as fast as I could find not missing a single flag which is extremely difficult to accomplish.
I actually finally beat the fastest C64 version I have been able to find which is
41:52. There is a chance this can be improved slightly but most of the rerecords in the movie were spent optimizing this one.
Log Rolling (15 , 49)
1) I lose as fast as possible.
2) I beat him as fast as possible.
3) I basically beat him as fast as possible.
This is one I am definitely going to improve before submitting. There is a C64 version that gets
742. In the games manual it says "The winner is the last lumberjack to remain on the log. A scoring bonus is awarded to the winner based on the balance of the two contestants. Scoring also depends on length of the event. If you take too long to finish off your opponent, you'll receive a lower score." I am not sure what that means so I need to experiment more with this. If I can figure this out I will try to get a perfect score (which I assume is 999) but if anyone wants to help me figure out an event this is the one to try.
Bull Riding (31, 99)
1) Choose the most difficult bull and fail in the shortest amount of time I could which is 2:14 seconds.
2) Continue with the most difficult bull and fail at the last possible moment.
3) Ride perfectly with the hardest bull which results in the max score.
Happy with this event. It is diverse and beats the best score I have found on any game version which is a
91.
Caber Toss (14' 10", 46' 11")
1) Fail quickly by throwing the log straight up to have it land on my head bashing him into the ground.
2) Fail quickly by dropping the log onto his toe.
3) Achieve the highest score I could by having him walk at the fastest possible pace for the longest time and throwing at the ideal angle.
Happy again. Beats the best score I have found on any version which is
39' 6"
Sumo Wrestling (63, 144)
I glitch the game and run backwards as fast as possible and loop around the screen. There is only one round in this event and I believe this will be the one I keep but I am not sure. I could go for a much higher score like is shown in this
video, but I prefer my approach. I like my approach because not only does it show a glitch, but it also technically shows my character as the loser on the screen but I still get the gold (because there is only one player so there is no one to lose to) and I still absolutely crush the record programmed in.
Finally because the game is beat and I make it to the WR screen in barely over 4 minutes I have decided I am going to edit the run so that it adds in some time to show the scores achieved on each event for longer than a frame so that the terrible scores can be appreciated. Even with this extra time and the extra time that will be needed to get a higher score on log roll the run will still be 5 minutes or less which I am hoping would be short enough to remain entertaining.
If you have any advice about stylistic changes, or help on how to improve the log roll or any other event I encourage you to let me know.
