(Link to video)
Well hey! aranDUMgametaser here with another hot hot movie improvement. This time around, I improve mmbossman's nearly 8 year old SM3 movie by 7109 frames via optimization, minor route changes, and better emulation resulting in faster strategies and a lot less lag.

General Run Whatever

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.11.6
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time

General Game Comments

Spider-Man 3 is an interesting enough game, especially considering its source material. It uses the same engine as Ultimate Spider-Man for the GBA, but luckily removes most of that game's padding.
Movement in this game is crazy fast thanks to a quirk in the game engine that lets Spidey preserve momentum if he does an aerial attack before hitting the ground. Combined with any form of web zip, and he can move at incredibly high speeds for long periods of time.

Level Comments

Search and Rescue

Minor timesaves on the walls thanks to climbing diagonally, and also at the very end where I kill the guy with the key in a different way.

Goblin Hunt

Time saved on Green Goblin by hitting him onto the truck so his death animation starts sooner.

Spidey Saves

Extreme optimization with the camera and wall climbs saves a few frames here.

Sandstorm

Time lost to the second train, since in Bizhawk it's unavoidable.

The Dark Side

mmbossman optimized the heck out of this level, so it's generally the exact same.

Court Disorder

Optimized the heck out of the second section to hit the switches as quickly as possible, saving a half second or so.

Follow That Limo

Small bits of time getting enemy boosts and optimizing climbing. I saved about 100 frames on the limo section by killing enemies quickly enough that the limo doesn't lag.

Kingpin's Mansion

Small bits of time was saved getting the key quicker in the first section, and doing something completely different to hit the third and fourth cameras in the second section.

Totally Amped

Mild time saved on the route to getting the black suit. Saved about 4-5 seconds on Shocker by finding the quickest possible way to get him into the conductors.

Subway Rumble

Minor time saves hitting the bombs and switches faster, and by getting some enemy boosts.

Toxic Shock

Very minor timesave not getting stuck behind a box in the second section.

Bombs Away

Minor amounts of time saved reducing lag and optimizing climbs. Fun thing to note, you can end the first section by landing on the ceiling, which saves time.

Copter Chase

Saved time in the second section by getting my black suit meter up higher, which means I only needed to stop and hit one enemy instead of two at the end. The Bomber boss fight was optimized by reducing lag and getting him into positions to start his attacks sooner.

Sand Hassles

New route at the very end saves a few seconds by having Spidey bypass the trains via damage, at the cost of not having the black suit for the first two phases of the Sandman boss fight, which wastes about 15 frames. Still, about a second saved on the last phase by stopping Sandman from attacking.

Quick Sand

Large amount of minor time saves in the first two sections, including an enemy boost, added up to about two seconds. Venom was optimized by doing aerial kicks and uppercuts on him, which saved about 4 seconds in total. Additionally, I ended the Venom fight with him as close to the wall as possible, unlike the last TAS which required him to move all the way from the left side. This lets me knock him off the building as soon as its available.

Screenshot Suggestions

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Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: Swift run and a good improvement. Accepting as an improvement to the published movie.
Spikestuff: Publishing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5137: arandomgameTASer's GBA Spider-Man 3 in 13:44.01
Experienced player (670)
Joined: 11/23/2013
Posts: 2206
Location: Guatemala
oh weee more spidey TASes from a aspideygameTASer, pretty good movie, yes vote!!!
Here, my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/dekutony
Joined: 6/30/2010
Posts: 1093
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
This TAS surprised me, I didn't expect this to be such a good game for an entertaining TAS. I guess you you can never judge a movie game based on the quality of the movie, I should have learned this from Star Wars Racer. Yes vote!
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
XYZ
Joined: 12/9/2006
Posts: 165
Location: 2bastuz
Hey, Sonic, there is new SuperSpeedHero on GBA. Yes vote.
Active player (440)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
"Never a dull moment..." indeed! Big yes vote from me. This was a really nice watch.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 11/26/2010
Posts: 444
Location: New York, US
This run was very entertaining, Yes Vote!!!
My name is 4N6/Forensics.
EgixBacon
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Joined: 4/15/2013
Posts: 331
Location: In the attic
Kurabupengin wrote:
aspideygameTASer
Darn, I was about to make that joke... ;) That Spidey was definitely on... something right there. Yes vote.
FanFiction|Youtube Still on Win7! Take that, Microsoft!
Post subject: Re: #5137: arandomgameTASer's GBA Spider-Man 3 in 13:44.01
Noxxa
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Expert player, Moderator (4131)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4083
Location: The Netherlands
TASVideoAgent wrote:
  • Contains speed/entertainment tradeoffs
Elaborate? (This goes for anyone - if you're doing speed-entertainment tradeoffs, please list them in the description when submitting your run, so that judges can tell when something is a deliberate tradeoff and not just suboptimal gameplay. Any time I see this line without any specification, I will assume that it is just being used as an excuse for any sloppy gameplay).
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Editor, Skilled player (1998)
Joined: 8/25/2013
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Whoops, that's mislabeled actually. I didn't do any speed/entertainment business. I'll edit that out.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
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. ---- [3158] GBA Spider-Man 3 by arandomgameTASer in 13:44.01
Editor, Player (120)
Joined: 8/3/2014
Posts: 204
Location: USA
Shouldn't this get a lightning for notable improvement?
* http://tasvideos.org/ReadySteadyYeti.html - my user page on the TASVideos site * https://www.youtube.com/ReadySteadyYeti - my YouTube channel * My Discord username is "RSY#3799".
Editor, Skilled player (1998)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1198
Ready Steady Yeti wrote:
Shouldn't this get a lightning for notable improvement?
^
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Experienced player (821)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
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Wow, I didn't see this when it was submitted/published, and I missed out! I haven't watched my movie in probably 4 years and I could still tell some of the spots of lag reduction and optimization, since I spent more time optimizing this game than any other TAS I created. Very good job, and a big thumbs up from me!
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