Beetlejuice - NES

Based on the 1988 film (not the animated TV series), this game combines side-view platforming and top-view based action. It was made by RARE.
The premise of the film follows a ghost named Beetlejuice as he helps a newly-dead couple to scare a new family from the now dead couples former home. The game doesn't match this very well.

General notes

  • This game is very hard to play normally!
  • Optimizing the TAS itself was difficult as multiple route options exist for most stages, and enemy spawn points are RNG based (more obvious on top-down levels).
  • Side-scrolling levels are basic platforming consisting of timed jumping and the occasional attack. Sometimes the goal is to simply reach the exit. With others times, items need to be collected in the level to finish.
  • Top-view levels often have a mild adventure element in that you must find various objects to give to other people before a route will open to the exit. On a few occasions all the enemies must be scared (killed) before you can exit through the door.
    • This particular run utilizes warp glitches during the top-view levels to save a significant chunk of time. More details in the stage descriptions. Details on how to perform the glitch are below.

Warp Glitch - Only works on top-view levels.

This glitch is performed by pressing all four directional buttons on the same frame. Doing so immediately adds 256 to Beetlejuice's horizontal coordinate position instantly transporting him approximately one screen width to the right. While minor out of bounds can be obtained, limited motion is available when you get out of bounds. In most cases the glitch is only beneficial when there is normal walkable ground at the resulting x-coordinate. If the resultant position is on the room exit point, the glitch will immediately exit the room without any more necessary movement. As this glitch requires all four directions to be pressed at once, it is not possible on a standard NES controller. Other combinations of movement buttons not possible on the standard controller also affected horizontal and vertical position coordinates, but none were beneficial.
To my knowledge, this is the first known beneficial use of this glitch. It may even be the first known mention of the glitch in general.

Stage Specifics

What I call a stage is the given portion of the game between views of the in game map, not on the breakdown given in the game manual. I further subdivide stages into multiple parts by how many screen blackouts there are for the stage (with the exception of shops/beetle holes).
Stage 1 - The town.
  • Part 1 - Get the key. Unlock the building.
  • Part 2 - Run through the building turning off switches and searching for the Book for the Recently Deceased.
    • While it's possible to get through the light beams at the beginning in one pass with properly timed input, I opted not to do this for multiple reasons.
      • Obtains the invulnerability flower near the first switch. This allows for quicker movement through the rest of the building. A second flower is obtained near the Book for the Recently Deceased protecting from the enemy at the exit.
      • The timing with this method yields more optimal position of the cloud lifts.
  • Part 3 - Traverse the rooftops and clouds to reach the garage.
    • A brief dip into the beetle hole is used to obtain vouchers to purchase scares.
  • Part 4 - BOSS - A man (gardener?) with a bug-sprayer is in the garage.
Stage 2 - The Sewers.
  • Part 1 - Platforming through the sewers.
    • A damage boost is used to reach a platform at the far left edge of the level (frame 6424) which also stops the beetle's motion allowing for faster screen scrolling than hopping to the platform and hopping again to doge the beetle. The screen only scrolls vertically when you're standing on something.
  • Part 2 - BOSS - A football player kicks balls at you. (Why is there a football player in the sewer?)
Stage 3 - The Basement. This is the first top-down scene and is only one screen.
  • Part 1 - Get a scare. Get the key. Exit room.
Stage 4 - The House.
  • Part 1 - The first warp glitch is here. After obtaining the key, warp back to the right. Get scare. Exit
  • Part 2 - Get to end of path. Avoid floating door to the Netherworld.
  • Parts 3 & 4 - Warp glitch is used to exit the room.
  • Part 5 - Gotta kill the enemies with the hammer.
  • Part 6 - Get to end of path.
  • Part 7 - Gotta kill the enemies, get the key, and exit.
    • The toilet paper can be acquired, but I have no idea what it is supposed to be used for.
Stage 5 - The Attic.
  • Part 1 - Warp glitch to the exit.
  • Part 2 - Get to exit.
  • Parts 3-5 - Warp glitch to exit the room.
  • Parts 6-8 - Get key. Get out.
  • Part 9 - Warp to get the mouse. Leave room by scaring kid.
  • Part 10 - Get through.
  • Part 11 - Warp glitch to get ring. Warp glitch to get key. Give ring to open path. Get Glasses. Do a little dance to avoid getting hit by bug. Exit.
Stage 6 The Graveyard.
  • Part 1 - Platform to tower entrance.
  • Part 2 - Platform up through the tower to get the chalk.
  • Part 3 - Platform to 2nd tower.
  • Part 4 - BOSS - Wizard who shoots lightning at you.
Stage 7 Back in the Attic.
  • Part 1 - Give glasses to guy to exit.
  • Part 2 - Use teleport and warp glitch to reach the exit.
Stage 8 The Waiting Room to the Afterlife.
  • Part 1 - Collect the numbers 1-6 and exit.

Final Thoughts

The last input is the last frame of input necessary to exit the final stage.
I will also be submitting a run that does not use this glitch and will update this description when I have a link to that submission. I have also submitted a run without the glitches. It can be seen here for comparison: #5280: DrD2k9's NES Beetlejuice "No Warp Glitches" in 11:01.71

Samsara: Judging.
Samsara: Resetting.
GoddessMaria: Judging.
GoddessMaria: I have to say, this is quite well done! This movie manages to take what would normally be flaws in the game design and makes it into something great. I see little to no issue with optimization and the audience response was mostly positive, so with that being said...
Accepting for Moons.
Fog: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5279: DrD2k9's NES Beetlejuice in 08:40.96
Joined: 5/27/2012
Posts: 70
Location: Wisconsin
so this is a unique game to begin with, very hard with no surprise that there are jumps of faith in this game, the glitch is very helpful for the top view stages, which im sorry drag on way too long, call me crazy but to get this glitch you would have to break the controller but hey its nice to exploit what would be otherwise impossible in real life, downside to this while I give this a yes vote the warpless one im gonna say no for 2 reasons, 1 other then the warp its identical to this run in every way with longer time, 2 the glitch makes this rotten hard game bearable, is there maybe a way to manipulate the rgn on those bugs some where else to not have to do the dance? possible improvement? very good work on finding and using the glitch
DrD2k9
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As best as I can figure out, the initial location of the bugs in the top-down levels is determined to some degree on the frame timing of which you leave the previous room. I did some manipulation of this to get favorable positions. However, with the few times I do the 'dance,' I could not find a worthwhile frame within a reasonable distance on the previous room before exiting that would yield an enemy setup that didn't require some delay. Those enemies have a combination of predetermined movements and chasing the player. So to simplify that explanation: As best as I could figure, the option became a trade-off between a delay before leaving a room, or a delay in the next room. I simply chose the later delay and spun Beetlejuice around in circles to have some character movement happening.
Post subject: oh yeah, temp encode in this
Samsara
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Temp encode: Link to video I liked the run, even if the game's a bit clunky and awkward (the vertical screen-scrolling is a particular, er, "highlight"). The glitchy top-down sections were an actual highlight, though! Voting yes.
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Thanks for the 60FPS Youtube clip.
Ryzen 3700X, ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard, 32GB 3600MHz RAM, MSI Geforce 1070Ti 8GB, Windows 10 Pro x64 http://tasvideos.org/Nach/FranpaAlert.html
DrD2k9
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As noted by Feos in the rejection details for the non-warp version of this run, this submission may be better labeled as "Any %" instead of "warp glitches." As a relative newcomer to the site, I didn't fully realize the depth of memory/code manipulation necessary for something to be a "warp glitch." Anyway, I still think this is at minimum a vaultable run (if not moon worthy) for an "Any %" run. And with that consideration, it would be faster than the run rejected by Feos.
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This run could be said to be slightly psychedelic thanks to the warping glitches, not to mention the game's own oddball art direction with the twisted furniture and other weird stuff going on. The gameplay seems simplistic and medium-paced, but on the other hand it has its quirks too because of the slow moving camera that the player has to constantly struggle against. Music is also quite good. Overall, I was moderately entertained while watching the run, so let's say it gets two Beetlejuice out of three (i.e. a slightly reserved 'yes' vote).
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. ---- [3280] NES Beetlejuice by DrD2k9 in 08:40.96