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ZeldaDS is a short and sweet homebrew where Link jumps, doublejumps and throws a boomerang to rescue a green shell from a floating cape dude, then jumps into a warp and whoops - the quest's over. Also features ripping off some Megaman engine and having the most out-of-place boss of all time.

Sync settings

  • Config -> Emulation settings -> (uncheck) Enable Advanced Bus-Level Timing
  • Config -> Emulation settings -> (uncheck) Use dynamic recomplier

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: DeSmuME 0.8.11
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Colors a floating dude red

Gameplay elements

ZeldaDS is your typical - not so typical platformer. It is unusally complex and offers a wide range of movement options and attacks that Link can do.

Movement

Walking makes you go towards a direction, and is the same speed as jumping.
Jumping is extremely complex.. When starting a jump (by pressing A), you will not have a fixed upward velocity (AKA going upwards), but instead going in three phases: fast upward ascent, moderate upward ascent, and slow upward ascent. If we need to go up something as fast as possible, it is best to execute a double jump (and input 2 frames before, because of input lag). If I don't do that, I need to corner boost or don't need the height.
Double jumping resets your upward velocity when going upwards, but after that is exactly the same as doing a normal jump in terms of mechanics.
Spindash jumping is executed by pressing ^ + B. It is the same as doing a normal jump, but hurts ennemies. After doing it, you cannot jump, no matter if it was your first or second jump. It is also the only move you can do when jumping off mushrooms, but is not used except in places we need the extra speed.
Vertical mushroom jumping is the fastest form of upward movement in the game. You can't land in a vertical mushroom from the ground: you have to be in the air for it to work.
Diagonal mushroom jumping is the fastest form of horizontal movement in the game. You can actually go faster by holding > after landing on a diagonal mushroom. There's only two in the game, by the way.

Combat

Link has a quote-on-quote "wide" arsenal of "combat" tools, most of which waste a lot of time.
Spindashing (^ + B) is Link's greatest weapon. It costs no frames to use and attacks all around you; best of all, it has no recovery!
Bow (R) is Link's uh, second greatest weapon. It costs 1 frame to use if you're NOT going left (for some reason, you can't do R + >, go figure) and can be charged to make the arrow go faster (useless.) Used where spindashes don't reach and because it looks way cooler than the sword to snipe 4 pixel wide ennemies. Can shoot at eyes.
Master Sword (B) is pretty bad, actually. It costs no frames to use and attacks in whatever area you're looking at, but we only use it to look cool or where the spindash cannot be used. Also is the only thing that can hurt the boss. Has a 26 frame recovery.
Boomerang (X) is bad. Actually really bad. Always wastes 1 frame, only stuns ennemies, and a pain to control where it goes (can waste up to two frames.) Also cannot be fired down, from what I know, while you are in the air (which is problematic, for like, the ACTUAL FIRST room of the game.) Worst of all, it has two recovery: one when you launch the boomerang, and one when you recieve it (both 26 frames). Very hard to optimise.
Bombs (Y), you want it? It's yours, my friend, as long as you have enough rupees! .. They would be useful if they didn't explode in your face and do damage to you. Every single other combat option is better.

Tricks used

Fast recovery
All combat tools have a 26 frame recovery (except for the boomerang, which has 26 x 2, once when you throw, once when you recieve.) However, while the recovery makes you unable to move on ground, you will still be able to move while in the air.
Throw-slash
The aptly named 'throw-slash' is exactly that: throw, slash. Use a weapon, apart from the bow, then use the Master Sword one frame later. This does a cool visual glitch (the sword slash graphics stay stuck on Link until you do another) and most importantly, it advances the boss's RNG.
Corner boosting
.. if you watched the You Have To Burn The Rope TAS, you know what this is. The act of 'cutting corners' will boost us off that corner and push us a bit in a desired direction (usually forward).
Spindash cancel
You can cancel a spindash by bonking a wall and falling. Is used at the start of stage 1.
Astro jump
By doing a double jump then spindash jumping and going in a direction close to a solid platform for 1 frame, the collision of the platform moves in the opposite direction. This allows you to stand further on a ledge than you should.
Door opening
Between door opening and actual going in, you have 3/4 of a second to play around. I use it to the fullest of its extent. You can also not open a door while airbone, sadly.

Stage by stage comments

Title Screen

We aptly press a button really fast. Changing the dialogue to Spanish makes it slower (no red tunic for us :( )

Space Case

Link awakens from his long slumber into.. space? It's not protected and is made out of dirt, thankfully Link picked up that astronaut suit, hidden aptly under his cloak, practices some hardcore parkour and goes in without worries into the wormhole of 'Wind'.

Stage 1

It was all a dream, and Link awakens at the top of a sky fortress. Since the plot of this game is written in collaboration with Adam Sandler and makes a 5-year old the master of getting to the point, we won't pay too much attention to it. This is where the fun begins. We do a tight corner boost, and a spindash cancel against the first enemy of the game. It is frame perfect and only lasts 1 frame, but dispatches it really quickly. We do astro jumping (the only place where this trick is used) to get closer to the exit, and fire a single arrow. Because the boomerang cannot be fired downwards while we are in air, we have to go into the pit just enough, fire the weapon left, and do a double jump out of it. The diagonal mushroom is boosted off; we then go immediatly right to do a corner boost on the ledge and go back. Then, a bottomless pit is jumped across with a double jump + spindash.We kill the bat, do a corner boost on the way back, then jump up and do more corner boosts. The first use of the bow comes up: since we charge the bow while we're going to bounce on the mushroom, we don't waste any frames. Another tricky bow shot comes up. There is no other way to kill the Octorok apart from bombs, and they would hurt us, so we have to shoot him. We fall down and Stage 1 is down.

Stage 2

The very first part of this stage is very very precise jumping. Afterwards, the diagonal mushroom does not one, but TWO corner boosts in a row. Afterwards, one corner boost after the chest, one corner boost to get to the door, and.. yeah.

Stage 3

This stage features a rising platform (the only one in the run). We start off by bouncing up a bunch of mushrooms. The bow shot has a perfect animation cancel and wastes no frames. I play around while bouncing up the shrooms (wastes no frames). Another corner boost, slash at the air to breath easier, then get the key. The run then features the second most precise boomerang in the run: we shoot as soon as the boomerang can hit, and aim it right: this way, the boomerang comes back immediatly and we don't waste frames for recovery. More jumping, then another boomerang: this time, it is much harder to skip both recoveries. We open the door into the first, last and final boss.

Boss

The true antagonist of the game: a floating dude who is somehow able to explode into a multitude of bullets. Jokes aside, to hurt the boss, you need to hit him with a boomerang THEN use a sword slash on him.. twenty times. He can spawn in one of four positions: up-left, up-right, down-left, down-right, as well as teleporting in the exact same location. Him going down-right is faster because we can make the boomerang go out of bounds and as such, don't have to catch it. Throw-slash is used every single hit here, as each sword slash advances the RNG. You can't get him to go to the same position over and over. Twenty hits later, he dies into a flurry of green bullets. The shell is only grabbable when it's on ground, we jump into the warp, and bam, the end. Pretty anticlimatic.

Other comments

This was pretty fun to TAS until I got to the boss (this is the reason this submission took 2 days to make.) I was impressed by the quality of this game and will continue to tas low-efforts homebrews in the future. The main improvements I see are: - better boss fights. You can save up to a second with good RNG (maybe more) - better jumping. Can save a lot from just getting good jumps. - Stage 1 boomerang cancelling. I'm not sure if this saves times, but it should.

Suggested screenshots

Have fun watching!

ars4326: edit: Added in sync settings at the top of the page. Judging!
ars4326: Hello, xy2_. Technical quality-wise, this wasn't a bad run. The level design does have some interesting platforming elements (e.g. the spring-like mushrooms), while the final boss fight at the end was a bit lacking in entertainment value (although you had some nice sequences). Normally, such a run would be publishable under the Vault. However, being as this is a homebrew game, it is subject to a higher level of scrutiny than other runs.
As for notability, aside from the Zelda name, this game doesn't appear to have much of an exceptional following. The game itself also plays like an incomplete demo, where there was obviously more content intended for it at one time (e.g. the intro cavern containing a larger hallway to accommodate more stages.). Under the higher criteria standards for homebrews and hacks, there's just not enough that's exceptional here to warrant a publication.
Finally, I read where you posted that you spent two days working on this. I would recommend taking your time more to ensure that your runs are as polished and optimized as they can be. I spent some time making a brief test WIP of your first section and managed to save 40 frames due to better-timed jumping and use of the boomerang to activate that second door switch quicker. Keep at it, xy2_. I hope to see a publish-worthy run from you in the future!
Rejecting due to game choice (non-notable homebrew).

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4779: xy2_'s DS New Zelda in 02:41.05
Cooljay
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Not the most interesting homebrew I've seen. I'll be honest I wasn't entertained at all by this, No vote.
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I thought the game name was New Zelda. Anyways, I liked this short run... although somethings worry me a little bit. Yes vote nonetheless.
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Samsara
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World's most exciting bossfight, it's like actually watching a battle in a Fire Emblem game
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Vote: No This is a terrible "game" and I doubt that meets the criteria Vault notability (your GBAtemp wiki page has been seen only 9k times for ten years, not impressive for that amount of time, I'd bet probably because is the "Zelda" keyword only and people expect Phantom or train game, and Internet mentions is fleeting). In short, I would do not publish.
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This was pretty fun to TAS until I got to the boss (this is the reason this submission took 2 days to make.) I was impressed by the quality of this game and will continue to tas low-efforts homebrews in the future
You should try doing this. lol But seriously quite a bad game that reminded me more of those short flash games on newgrounds and various sites. Sorry voted no.
Spikestuff
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Can this be accepted?: Sure. Is this entertaining?: Bwahahahahahaha, No. Meh on the Vote.
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This felt more like a demo to me than a full game. Meh
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Wockes wrote:
This felt more like a demo to me than a full game. Meh
Well... the thing is...
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Kurabupengin wrote:
Wockes wrote:
This felt more like a demo to me than a full game. Meh
Well... the thing is...
I'd love to hear what the thing is, too bad it got cut off.
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I don't understand the negative response entertainment-wise. I found it short and interesting enough to vote yes.
mklip2001
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Personally, I thought this was pretty amusing. I like the gimmick with the mushroom bounces, although the level is still pretty bland. It does feel incomplete, like they wanted to make more levels and gave up. The boss is not interesting, but I do like the remix of Mega Man 3 music you get to hear during the fight. I'd say this game is ridiculous in an ok way. However, it's not a great homebrew for really showing off TAS tricks, it seems. (A TAS would be a lot better than a realtime run at that boss though.)
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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scrimpeh wrote:
I don't understand the negative response entertainment-wise. I found it short and interesting enough to vote yes.
Yeah, it looks better both in graphics and in level design than that syobon game that has two separate runs in Moon tier so far. Yes vote. Decent enough for a homebrew game.
NitroGenesis
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I voted no. Ugly and unsatisfying game, and I don't think runs of such cheap homebrew games should be encouraged. We already have the horrible Burn the Rope TAS filling our "DS shit" quota. I would object to this being published in the vault, because this game isn't notable at all.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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NitroGenesis wrote:
I voted no. Ugly and unsatisfying game, and I don't think runs of such cheap homebrew games should be encouraged. We already have the horrible Burn the Rope TAS filling our "DS shit" quota. I would object to this being published in the vault, because this game isn't notable at all.
A google searched showed that the Rope game has a wikipedia page, and rated 4/5 on average from multiple sites. What the hell...
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jlun2: I think Nitrogenesis is saying that the game for this thread, "Zelda DS", is the one which is not notable. Certainly, "You Have To Burn The Rope" is notable and has some good average ratings, but if we're honest here, it's a joke of a game. It's fair to say that a TAS offers little extra for that game compared to a realtime run... but anyway, that's another topic. Nitrogenesis: I see your point, but I don't agree with the idea of a "quota" or anything like that. The intention of the rules for Vault of homebrew games is to judge each game on its own merits, not to compare it to other unrelated homebrew games. I'd much rather have a few bad games show up in the list instead of missing out on a good game by discouraging submissions of cheap homebrews. I'd like to think that the community does a good enough job at keeping our standards at a good place.
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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jlun2 wrote:
But seriously quite a bad game that reminded me more of those short flash games on newgrounds and various sites. Sorry voted no.
^ This feels more like a demo more so than a full-fledged game, to be honest. While, as far as I can tell, this isn't a bad TAS technically on your end, the game itself offers extremely little in the way of entertainment.
Somewhat damaged.
NitroGenesis
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It's facetious. I don't really think there should be only ONE bad DS homebrew on the site. If we limited our bad game TASes to just one per system, the site would lose a lot of runs. Burn the Rope just seemed like the best comparison, because that TAS is recieved insanely poorly and it's a homebrew too. (At least that one seems finished...) I would still object to publishing this TAS under the notability guideline.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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NitroGenesis: Ok, thanks. Sarcasm is tricky to follow in these forums sometimes. Burn The Rope is a valid comparison, for sure, though a more serious post would have benefited (at least for me) for giving more detail behind how the comparison is made. That's what my post covered.
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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NitroGenesis wrote:
Burn the Rope just seemed like the best comparison, because that TAS is recieved insanely poorly and it's a homebrew too. (At least that one seems finished...)
Although arguably, Burn The Rope should have been run on its original platform (i.e. windows) since there's no significant difference between the win version and the DS version. Site rules, y'know. (yes, yes, site rules also say we can never change our mind on a published run, so I'm aware that's not going to happen)
NitroGenesis
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It's flash-based so I don't think that's possible. The first published movie was also made before hourglass.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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Let me chime in for a bit. I found this game by testing various homebrews. This one looked it had potential, so I TASed 20 seconds of it, then did the full game a little under two days. Is this submission interesting? Technicality-wise, I would say yes. It has enough little tricks and glitches (though most are invisible) to compete with other 'bad platformers' in this site. Entertainement-wise, I tried to make it as entertaining as possible. It was hard, but I can say I had success for a 2 minute run. So overall, I think this submission is interesting enough, even though the game is ugly and unsatisfying. Does it deserve to be published? That's up to the judges.
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om, nom, nom... *burp*!