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Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.12.2
  • This TAS aims to beat The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time as fast as possible while also acquiring every Medallion in the game.

Comments

I've been watching Legend of Zelda Speedruns for years now, but the one that really peaked my interests was the All Medallions Speedrun by Nacrissa Wright back in 2013. Since then, numerous improvements have been made to the run. As a TASer, I've always done projects on a smaller scale, like getting the Master Sword as fast as possible for example, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone a little bit and try to make something much bigger, and thus, the All Medallions TAS was born.

General Tricks and Glitches

Extended Super Slide (ESS)

This trick allows you to extend a regular Super Slide, which gives you full control of the slide. This trick can be done in various ways, such as entering water with high speeds, then instantly leaving it.

Z-Slide

This slide works by constantly pressing Z to maintain links recoil speed. The only problem with this form of movement is that changing your angle will decrease Link's speed by 2 (the fastest you can go with a Super Slide is -18.)

A-Slide (Analog-Slide)

This slide works by constantly alternating between holding a direction on the control stick for 3 frames and holding nothing for 3 frames.

Megaflip/Megasidehop

This trick allows you to keep recoil speed during a backflip or sidehop. How it's done is you roll into a bomb as it explodes while holding Z and R to shield, and when Link stands up, holding down on the control stick and pressing A to backflip, then Link will go twice as far than he normally would.

Mid-Air Angle changing for Sidehops/Backflips

This trick allows you to save a few frames by skipping changing angles after sidehopping/backflipping, as each angle change costs 6 frames. This was used a couple times in the TAS.

Quick Backwalking

This is a trick that allows you to start a backwalk immediately after an angle change. This saves 6-9 frames for each backwalk after an angle change. You need to hold specific angles each frame the camera turns. This is easier to do with a certain memory address.

Ocarina Items (OI)

This is a glitch that allows Link to play basically any item as an ocarina. It is done by emptying the contents of a bottle (bugs or a fish, a fairy cannot be used if already caught in a bottle), recatching them, and while Link is holding the full bottle in his hand, performing a jump/sidehop/backflip, and while in the air, pressing the bottle button followed by the button for the item that you want to play, or by holding ESS position and pressing the bottle button and 3 frames after, pressing the button for the item that you want to play.

Power Crouch Stabbing

The Crouchstab has no assigned damage value, but it does use a value of a different attack (Slash, Jumpslash, etc.). So if you jumpslash with something like a Deku Stick, the damage value of the jumpslash with the Deku stick is 4, so if you Crouch Stab, the Crouch Stab value will be 4 as well.

Wrong Warping

This is a glitch which allows Link to warp to places completely different from where he's actually meant to go, or can also be used to warp into another cutscene. You can achieve this by doing OI at the edge of a Blue Warp, which allows you control link after the cutscene where Link would normally float to the ceiling, and a normal cutscene would play. If the room is left at a very precise moment, the game will warp you to a certain location, which is determined by the last cutscene viewed prior to doing the trick. You can also use Farore's Wind at the edge of a blue warp after setting it at a very specific location and warping at a specific time.

Reverse Bottle Adventure (RBA)

This is a glitch whereby placing a bottle item on B allows you to write items into your inventory, such as songs, medallions, etc. You can also use this glitch to put bottles over different item slots (for example, in the TAS, a bottle is put over the bomb slot in order to get bomb drops from grass). This only happens if the item you want to RBA is on the C-Right button.

Area by Area Explanations

Child Section

Kokiri Forest

The run starts off by collecting 10 rupees to buy a Deku Stick from the shop, as this is faster than getting the Kokiri Sword.

Lost Woods

Link can clip through the Stone leading to Zora's River by jumpslashing on a precise spot that makes him enter in the water right when Link is through the stone.

Zora's River

40 rupees are collected before leaving Zora's River.
More Rupees will be collected to buy the Hylian Shield later on.

Hyrule Field

A WESS is done with the stick, allowing Link to cross the field faster.
The owl's text is skipped thanks to ESS position which prevents it from talking to Link.

Kakariko Village

RNG Manipulation is used here to make the Cuccos move to very specific spots so they can be collected much faster.
We catch bugs with our bottle for RBA later on.

Hyrule Field #2

40 more rupees are collected outside the Market entrance, giving us enough rupees to buy the Hylian Shield.

Hyrule Market

The Hylian Shield is bought from the Bazaar.

Temple of Time

By performing an ESS sidehop, we can clip through the Door of Time with a precise angle so that Link is able to target the side of the door after in order to not fall and skip the door without a sword.
After becoming Adult, there is currently no way to skip the Door of Time from the other side without the Hover Boots, so saving and resetting is the fastest way to get out.

Adult Section

Hyrule Field #3

We don't have any explosives at this point to speed up movement, so a backwalk is done to get to Kakariko.

Kakariko Village #2

We talk to the Cucco lady to get the Pocket egg, as it will be useful later on.
A save warp is used to go back to Temple of Time.

Ganon's Castle

We have to go this area because for 2 reasons. The first reason is the time is always 6:29 pm, no matter what time it was before you enter the area. So when going back to Hyrule Field, it will automatically be night.
The Second reason is that we need to wait for the Pocket Egg to hatch, so we have to wait an entire day for it to hatch, but going to Ganon's Castle speeds up that process.

Hyrule Field #4

At this point, we just have to wait for the Pocket Egg to hatch, which requires waiting for day, so there's no worry of wasting time here, we can just play around until the Sun comes up.
One thing we have to do while we're waiting is get our bottle on our B button, the way that is done is to drop our bugs next to the water, jump into the water with the bottle in our hand and pull out the sword right before landing in the water and resurfacing, and then pressing Z, R, and the C button the bottle is on at the same time, then letting go of are will make Link swing his bottle an catch the bugs, which will put the bottle on the B button.
We also collect 10 rupees for the horse mini-game in Lon Lon Ranch later on.
The bugs are dropped with bombs on C-Right, putting a bottle over our bomb slot, which will give us bomb drops.

Kakariko Village #2

After the Pocket Egg hatches, we have to wake up Talon with it, who is located in the house closest to the stairs leading to Death Mountain Trail.
We then take the Pocket Cucco to the Cucco lady and give it to her in exchange for Cojiro.

Graveyard

We catch bugs from the rock at the entrance of the Graveyard with Cojiro on C-Right, which will give us the 40 Bomb Bag. The rock was manipulated to drop a bomb when landing on the ground.
When opening Dampe's Grave, there's a specific place where you can grab it and cancel the pulling animation quicker, allowing Link to get into the grave faster.

Dampe's Grave

Before starting the race with Dampe, we make a quick detour and grab some Deku Nuts from a Pot, which will be used later.
A time of 0:42 was obtained, which is the fastest time for Dampe.
The Hookshot is acquired, I then go through the door that closes, then allow it to close on top of Link which will make him void out and put him back at the entrance.

Leaving Kakariko Village

Before leaving, we need to get more bombs for faster movement. RNG Manipulation is used to get 3 bomb drops from the grass in the Graveyard.
From there, a HESS in performed to get out of Kakariko Village faster.

Hyrule Field #5

A Super Slide is done at the entrance of Kakariko Village, which quickly transitions into a WESS all the way to the Lost Woods.

Lost Woods #2

A Megaflip is used to get over the railing of the bridge, followed by hookshoting the ladder to climb up faster.
We then show Cojiro to the old man and get the Odd Mushroom.
A HESS is used to get to Goron City.

Goron City

A Bomb is used to blow up the rocks, followed by a HESS to get to the Hookshot Target faster. A HESS is done through Death Mountain Trail to get back to Kakariko Village.

Kakariko Village #3

A Jump is done to get on top of the Shop and get to the Potion Shop faster.

Potion Shop

The Odd Mushroom is given for the Odd Potion.
When Leaving Kakariko Village, another bomb drop is obtained.

Hyrule Field #6

The same Super Slide is done, followed by the WESS.

Lost Woods #3

The same Megaflip is done, only this time, we trade the Odd Potion for the Poachers Saw.
We RBA the Poacher's Saw, which gives us the Serenade of Water, and Zelda's Lullaby.
The Serenade of Water is used to warp to Lake Hylia.

Lake Hylia

A WESS is done to get out of Lake Hylia faster, and more RNG Manipulation for Bombs is performed.

Hyrule Field #7

A HESS is performed to get to Gerudo Valley faster, as we need to trade the Poachers Saw for the Broken Biggorons Sword.

Gerudo Valley

An A-Slide, followed by a Z-Slide with an angle change is done to get to the bridge faster.
An insanely precise Megaflip is used to get to the other side of the bridge. The Poachers Saw is traded for the Broken Biggoron Sword.
We RBA the Sword, which gives Link the Forest, Water, Shadow, and Spirit Medallions. Nocturne of Shadow is played to get back Kakariko Village. After that, simple HESSes are used through the Graveyard and Kakariko Village.

Death Mountain Trail #2

A HESS is used to climb all the way back up to Goron City.

Goron City #2

The Goron Tunic is skipped completely by throwing a bomb on to the ropes and doing a Megasidehop into the wall next to Darunia's Room. Because of Links speed, he just clips through the ground into the room.
A HESS is done to skip moving the statue, and all of this combined saves about a minute.

Death Mountain Cater

Using a precise sidehop on the edge of the bridge, we can make Link grab the floor instead of the bridge while the cutscene plays. Releasing the ledge will then void link and skip the Bolero of Fire cutscene.
We head to the grotto near the entrance, where Deku Nuts and normal Bottle are equipped.

Death Mountain Crater Grotto

We drop our bugs from out B bottle with a bottle on C-Right, which writes another bottle into our inventory.
A fish is caught in the C-Right bottle, followed by a trick where you sidehop, press the button with the bottled fish, then the B button with the empty bottle, Link will start drinking the fish.
This gives Link 20 Deku Nuts, and we need to lower that to 13, which sets up something that will happen after the Light Arrow cutscene. We then leave the Grotto to get Magic.

Great Fairy Fountain

Ocarina Items is used to play Zelda's Lullaby to summon the Great Fairy so magic can be obtained.
We warp to Temple of Time to watch the Light Arrow cutscene after Magic is obtained.

After the Light Arrow Cutscene

Farore's Wind is now on B, which gives Link the ability to set it anywhere and warp to that point.

Hyrule Field #8

An A-Slide is done to get to Lon Lon Ranch faster.

Lon Lon Ranch

We enter Lon Lon Ranch and leave immediately after, the reason we leave is that we need to set Farore's Wind outside Lon Lon Ranch.

Hyrule Field #9

Farore's Wind is set right at the entrance of Lon Lon Ranch.

Lon Lon Ranch #2

A HESS is done to get to Ingo faster, we talk to him to get into the horse mini-game. This is why 10 rupees were collected at the beginning of the Adult section.
Once the mini-game starts, Link gets onto a Horse and then gets off, this dims the C-buttons, which means they can't be used, but the B button is still usable, meaning we can warp out of the mini-game.

Hyrule Field #10

Now the C-buttons are unusable, and the timer from the mini-game is still on screen.
From here, we need to go to Kokiri Forst to set Farore's Wind in the Twins House to set up for a Wrong Warp in Fire Temple. An A-Slide is done with a Poe to get to Kokiri Forest faster.

Kokiri Forest #2

More damage needs to be taken because Link needs to die shortly after setting Farore's Wind, which will give Link control of the C-buttons back.
Farore's Wind is set in the Twins House, and we leave and die from an octorok.
After respawning, RNG Manipulation is done to get more bombs from the grass, and Bolero of Fire is played to warp to Fire Temple.

Death Mountain Crater #2

Because half a heart was lost from the explosion, we need more health to be able to survive in the Fire Temple without the Goron Tunic, so heart drops are manipulated from the rocks outside the Fire Temple.

Fire Temple

The timer before Link gets burned in hot rooms can be frozen by pressing a cutscene item (bottle with a content, fairy spells, Ocarina...) while in mid-air. It will be used a lot in this temple.
The Time Stop glitch was used in the first room in order to have the camera not look at Darunia when entering in the next room, so the cutscene is not triggered, resulting in a big time save.
In the room with the giant blocks, a megaflip is done with the Torch Slug to avoid grabbing the ledge.
Immediately after that, a bomb is taken to clip between the the block and the wall by having a precise angle at the corner without activating the switch.
In the room above Darunia, an A-Slide is first done to get past the fire walls, and also goes through the fire without taking damage, since the A-Slide and the roll makes Link invincible for a short amount of time. This A-Slide is followed by a Z-Slide to change the angle and reach the bigger fire wall where a bomb is pulled to megaflip through it and skip the switch that deactivates that walls. This is followed by a third bomb that is used to blow up the fake door.
During the Flare Dancer fight, we don't have a sword to deal damage, so the Hookshot has to be used.
In the room with the hammer chest, a bomb is thrown to HESS and climb to the chest faster while taking another bomb to do a weirdshot that puts link underground and moves him closer to the chest to open it once in the ground during a very short amount of time while it's on fire.
By performing an A-Slide or whatever method that results in a speed of -18 (SuperSlide, HESS) on a corner with a precise angle, we can clip through it. Facing the Boss Room loading zone, Link can jumpslash to it and load the boss room.
Before the fight, a jumpslash is done to deal more damage to Volvagia with Crouch Stabbing. Volvagia has a hitbox located under the first fire hole that can be reached either by dropping a bomb on the corner of that hole, or either by weirdshoting. The weirdshot is a better way since it saves many bombs and can deal damage faster. Unfortunately, the hammer has to be used at least once to kill Volvagia.
A Wrong Warp is then performed with Farore's Wind that warps o link into the Light Medallion cutscene again. This is good though because when RBAing the Broken Biggoron Sword, it actually deleted the Light Medallion from our inventory, and the only way to get back is to watch the cutscene, plus you get the Fire Medallion without having to watch the cutscene.
Once the cutscene is done, Link spawns in Temple of Time, but we need to warp back to Kokiri Forest.

Kokiri Forest #3

We use and Octorok to do an A-Slide to save a few seconds.
A Fairy needs to be obtained for a trick in Dodongo's Cavern.

Lost Woods #4

A HESS in done to get to Goron City faster.

Goron City #3

Another Hookshot to the top is done.
Death Mountain Trail #3
Link leaves Goron City and re-enters to set Farore's Wind.

Goron City #4

Farore's Wind is set at the entrance of Goron City and Link leaves again.

Death Mountain Trail #4

Now we make our way to the final dungeon, Dodongo's Cavern.

Dodongo's Cavern

The Megaton Hammer is used to break the wall that blocks the entrance.
We take damage by walking across the lava to do a trick where we hookshot the ladder on the exact same frame Link dies from standing on the lava, causing Link to shoot straight up into the air and land on the bridge above, then being revived by a fairy to continue on.
A Megaflip is performed to clip into the Dodongo Statues mouth, followed by a twisted jumpslash with the Megaton Hammer to get to the next room.
Another trick is used in the next room which involves stepping on the switch, and interrupting the cutscene with Navi's text box, allowing us to reach the boss room without having to push the block.
Before the King Dodongo Fight, a jumpslash is done to deal more damage to King Dodongo with Crouch Stabbing. King Dodongo is defeated with 2 bombs and 2 Power Crouch Stabs.
Another Wrong Warp with Farore's Wind is done to warp straight to the End Credits, skipping the fight with Ganon altogether.

Potential Improvements

There is only really one thing that can really improve this TAS, and that is the version that this was played on. This TAS was made on version 1.0, but there is a glitch called Bomb OI, which is exclusive to versions 1.1 and 1.2. How it works is you pull out a bomb, wait for it to explode, allow Link to take damage from the explosion, and walk forward as Link takes damage so he is still holding up his hands, and then pressing the bottle button a few frames afterward, causing the Ocarina animation to play. Using this glitch could have saved about 10 seconds for each time I had to do OI. I had not realized that until I was halfway done with the TAS, but fortunately, there were somethings done with RBA in this TAS that helped compensate for the little time loss, so I saw it fit to leave it as it was.
The floor in the boss room of Dodongo's Cavern can be broken with the Megaton Hammer instead of a Bomb on versions 1.1 and 1.2.

Memory: Claiming for judging
Memory: Replacing file with lightly-spiked/trimmed blank input at the end.
Memory: Replacing file with 152 frame improvement.
Memory: The optimization of the TAS seems fine to me and seems to have looked good to another OOT TASer that I talked to, aside from one thing at the end that is now fixed. I believe at least at one point it actually beats runs published on the site, the Dampe race segment.
The most controversial thing surrounding this submission was the choice of goal. TASers are not only free to, but also encouraged to TAS whatever they like. We love to see unique and creative content on TASVideos, even when it involves outright goofy goals like No Doors, All Dungeons. However we must still consider the merit of any such unique goals when it comes to acceptance for publication. The major considerations for new branches are here.
This movie aims to collect all the medallions, and then finish the game. Medallions are typically rewarded for beating the dungeons in the adult half of the game, whereas stones are the reward for the dungeons of the child portion. This run does not elect to collect the stones, which can be considered as equally important as the medallions in terms of game progression. No real reasoning is given for this decision, just the fact that RTA players have run the category. Additionally the method this TAS uses to "collect" most medallions is a glitch called Reverse Bottle Adventure (RBA). For those that don't speak OOT, it more or less allows you to write items to your inventory with setups involving a bottle. The reward for collecting medallions only actually requires two of them, the rest are collected for the sake of completing the goal. This run does not actually use the reward from collecting the medallions, nor does it even show the medallions are indeed in inventory at all (I manually checked that they are in inventory). It instead sets up a wrong warp to the credits when it is done collecting them.
The combination of all this makes the movie feel incredibly arbitrary and the audience response reflected this. Not collecting the stones makes it seem like the TAS is choosing to complete a seemingly random portion of the game, but the bigger concern comes with the usage of the RBA glitch (inventory manipulation). The RBA glitch changes the method of gathering medallions from completing dungeons to what would appear to be effectively doing random tasks on the overworld. There is obviously meaning to these tasks, but the process makes the movie very hard to follow, greatly hindering the entertainment value. Additionally, the usage of wrong warp completely bypassing the usage of medallions altogether makes them feel like random trinkets rather than a valuable item. The items obtained through RBA might as well be quiver upgrades or basically any other item in the game when it comes to the content of this movie. Using all known glitches to collect the medallions, a specific subset of items, is not a particularly sound branch for TASVideos. Major skip glitches are to be used efficiently, not to skip arbitrary portions of the game. Additionally if the medallions are to be collected through this method, they should be used.
This TAS also suffers from significant content overlap. The defining feature of this TAS, the RBA glitch is not unique to this category. RBA was previously demonstrated in older any% TASes and the route for this category somewhat resembles them. It is also demonstrated in the All Dungeons, No Doors TAS with much more interesting and diverse applications. A large number of other segments also feature overlap. The entire start is pretty much identical to the start of every other OOT TAS, going from Kokiri Forest to Kakariko Village to obtain a bottle. Then it goes to castle town and does the door of time skip that is also present in [3463] N64 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "All Dungeons, Temples & Ganon Trials" by homerfunky in 1:42:29.53 and [3537] N64 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "No Doors, All Dungeons" by NEVERDOORS in 2:24:37.03. Once the RBA stuff is done, then the movie completes the Fire Temple in a manner similar to that of the MST TAS, with the relatively minor exception of having to kill the miniboss with hookshot. After that, it completes Dodongo's Cavern and performs the wrong warp to credits. The trip through Dodongo's Cavern itself is fairly similar to other OOT TASes. This means about 98% of the movie with overlap in content. Only the "Ganonless" Wrong Warp that allows one to warp directly to the ending instead of fighting ganon as the biggest thing setting it apart. Given that this is only done at the very end of the TAS, we pretty much have only 2% unique content, which is not enough for acceptance. Obviously there are some other differences throughout the TAS due to route, but they feel minor at best to someone not heavily invested in OOT speedrunning. At TASVideos we need branches to feature unique content in order to be accepted.
Due to all the pitfalls introduced by the goal of this movie, I must reject it. While this TAS's goal was deemed too arbitrary, that is not to say that all TASes with new goals will be rejected, but considered on a case by case basis. We have 3 OOT branches at the moment, so any new branches need to stand out from those 3. I encourage you to keep TASing however, and if you find a movie of yours that is more suitable to TASVideos to please submit it.


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Warp wrote:
It just baffles me that OoT seems to be the only game in existence for which this is happening. Why OoT in particular?
You could say that majora's Mask too had this. Low% got published before an update to any% and apparently an update to the low% is already in progress. I was entertained by the movie. Thanks on making it! I hope to see more of your work.
Memory
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Since there is no visual confirmation of actually collecting the medallions in the TAS itself since the light arrows cutscene only requires 2 of the 6 medallions, I made sure to check the pause menu towards the end of the TAS to confirm that all the medallions were indeed collected. I can't say I like not having visual proof in the TAS itself to show people that the glitches do what it is claimed they do. With this TAS you need to already know how the game works to know that he got the medallions, just take the author's word for it or do what I did, which was interrupt the TAS in the emulator to check the menu. There have been at least one submission in the past where it did not actually do what the author said it does, so verification of these kinds of things is important.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
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feos wrote:
So let's talk about the glitch used here to get the medallions. I was told that it can easily be considered a major skip glitch, without it the run with the same goals would be more than twice as long. Recently there was a common decision at tasvideos to forbid memory corruption, ACE, and some other glitches from "full completion" actions. http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#FullCompletionRules Note that all these techniques can still be used throughout the whole run, they just can not be used for things that represent full completion requirements. For example, in a Super Metroid 100% run, you can activate ACE and use it to speed you up, but not for writing the items into your inventory without actually collecting them, and not for displaying the false item count percentage in the end.
There is another aspect that has to be considered: The goal itself is already very arbitrary. "All medallions" doesn't obtain the Spiritual Stones, unlike the currently published MST TAS and its obsoleted predecessors. Since MST is clearly an established category on this site by now, it would seem strange to publish a TAS that only partially fulfills the goals of that category. If this TAS got both the medallions and the stones, you could at least make the argument that it is some less arbitrary variation of MST's concept. That's because despite its name (Medallions, Stones, Trials), MST really defines itself not by collecting specific items, but by completing specific events (the dungeons with blue warps and the trials in Ganon's castle). But as it is, "All medallions" just sits inbetween all established categories without offering enough unique content to justify its existence.
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.
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andypanther, I know it's arbitrary, it will be duly addressed. I just think we need to discuss this rule proposal as a community, because we have a nice example of why we'd want such a rule, which is this run.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Memory
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feos wrote:
So let's talk about the glitch used here to get the medallions. I was told that it can easily be considered a major skip glitch, without it the run with the same goals would be more than twice as long. Recently there was a common decision at tasvideos to forbid memory corruption, ACE, and some other glitches from "full completion" actions. http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#FullCompletionRules Note that all these techniques can still be used throughout the whole run, they just can not be used for things that represent full completion requirements. For example, in a Super Metroid 100% run, you can activate ACE and use it to speed you up, but not for writing the items into your inventory without actually collecting them, and not for displaying the false item count percentage in the end. So I want to ask, do we want other goals that form branches to also forbid such techniques, not just "full completion"? For example, do we want to consider a legit TAS a run of Super Metroid aiming for "100% map" that simply uses ACE to color all the map as visited, while only visiting, say, a single room for real? Or do we want Contra: Hard Corps "best ending" to go the "secret ending" route instead, and then glitch the game into showing us the best ending? Or do we want Tetris "fastest 999999" to glitch the game into showing that score instead of actually obtaining it in-game? I think that any goal that forms the TAS branch should be accomplished for real, instead of tricking the game into thinking it was accomplished. And I think the exception should be demonstrating the glitchy technique itself, like "box glitch" in Crash Bandicoot. If we agree on such a rule, it becomes clear that this run doesn't aim to collect all the medallions. It just showcases a glitch that tricks the game into thinking they have been collected. Something like "all medallions glitch". Or "item glitch". You name it.
I feel it should at the very least be a guideline because usually this kind of thing really hurts entertainment and cheapens the experience so to speak. "Box glitch" etc. are usually fastest completion, a variant of fastest completion with a restriction, or ACE playarounds. I'd have a hard time seeing movies where the only goal is to demonstrate a suboptimal glitch be seen as different enough to warrant a separate branch as opposed to fastest completion with a restriction (EDIT: note that the branch doesn't need to be labeled with the restriction, it can be implied as well) or completing some ingame goal.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
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feos wrote:
I think that any goal that forms the TAS branch should be accomplished for real, instead of tricking the game into thinking it was accomplished. And I think the exception should be demonstrating the glitchy technique itself, like "box glitch" in Crash Bandicoot.
I think the spirit of "complete thing X" in a game is indeed that the thing is actually done via normal gameplay. If in real life you had a goal to visit all cities in your country via train, nobody (including you yourself) would accept you having achieved that goal if you simply forged train tickets to make it look like you have visited all those cities. I suppose in any% any glitches are allowed because there is only one goal: Reach the end of the game as fast as possible. Actually playing the game through the "normal" way isn't a stated goal in that category (something I readily admit regardless of my personal feelings about it). However, pretty much any other category has more goals than that, and I think they should be actually achieved, rather than just forging the achievement by writing the proper values into the proper memory locations. Doing the latter just defeats the spirit of the stated goal.
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You can look at it differently. Reaching the end via a major skip glitch is primarily demonstrating the glitch itself, and the fact that it can be used to speed you up. It doesn't matter if you call that any%, or you call any% the fastest run that avoids that technique. I think the common rules about "any%" meaning no restrictions on glitches haven't served our categorization approaches too well. We only happen to accept such any% for Vault. For Moons we accept both "glitched fastest game completion" and "fastest game completion without major skip glitches". The latter demonstrates how you reach the goal of beating the game, the former demonstrates how you can glitch the game into thinking it's been beaten. But for all other categories, we can't equally accept 2 versions of each branch:
  • "pacifist, warp glitch" and just "pacifist"
  • "all items, arbitrary code execution" and just "all items"
  • "maximum kills, game end glitch" and just "maximum kills"
It doesn't (and shouldn't) work like this. We prefer the ones that more faithfully achieve the primary goals. We also want to avoid redundancy, avoid meaningless publications. And finally, we want to only publish branches with solidly defined goals.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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feos wrote:
You can look at it differently. Reaching the end via a major skip glitch is primarily demonstrating the glitch itself, and the fact that it can be used to speed you up. It doesn't matter if you call that any%, or you call any% the fastest run that avoids that technique.
Don't get me wrong. If ACE and other forms of memory corruption were banned in all categories (except those demonstration categories explicitly showcasing such techniques), I would be the first (and perhaps only) one to give a standing ovation. It's just that I try to be pragmatic and acknowledge that many people consider any% to mean "anything goes, no matter what, as long as the ending is reached".
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feos wrote:
For example, in a Super Metroid 100% run, you can activate ACE and use it to speed you up, but not for writing the items into your inventory without actually collecting them, and not for displaying the false item count percentage in the end.
ACE and fully arbitrary memory corruption are not permitted in full completion categories, regardless of what sort of advantage they're used for. Lesser memory corruption glitches are allowed, but you can't use them to skip the normal process for collecting items. There's no practical difference between writing the items into inventory using ACE and successively warping to each item using ACE while also skipping the item jingles.
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JSmith wrote:
ACE and fully arbitrary memory corruption are not permitted in full completion categories, regardless of what sort of advantage they're used for. Lesser memory corruption glitches are allowed, but you can't use them to skip the normal process for collecting items. There's no practical difference between writing the items into inventory using ACE and successively warping to each item using ACE while also skipping the item jingles.
Yes, the current rules already state that such things are banned from full completion. I just want community's opinion whether we should explicitly ban them for other primary branch goals as well, like the ones I described.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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OOT can definitely support a category between pure Any% and MST. This just isn't the right category. Abstain from voting (since I haven't watched it), but I don't think this is publication-worthy. Just writing the six medallions into inventory (mostly with RBA), and then jumping to credits just isn't intriguing enough to watch.
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Habreno wrote:
OOT can definitely support a category between pure Any% and MST. This just isn't the right category.
I think it would be a better idea to just outright go for MST, because that category is very popular in unassisted OoT speedrunning, rather than invent a new category (or use a much more obscure category) that's half-way between.
Abstain from voting (since I haven't watched it), but I don't think this is publication-worthy. Just writing the six medallions into inventory (mostly with RBA), and then jumping to credits just isn't intriguing enough to watch.
I can't help but to agree to a large extent.
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Warp wrote:
I think it would be a better idea to just outright go for MST, because that category is very popular in unassisted OoT speedrunning, rather than invent a new category (or use a much more obscure category) that's half-way between.
You wouldn't have to invent anything, you'd just go with existing low-glitch categories like "No wrong warp" or "no IM/wrong warp". The only OoT TASes that invented categories themselves are those challenges like "all dungeons, no doors" or "100% 3 pause".
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.
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andypanther wrote:
You wouldn't have to invent anything, you'd just go with existing low-glitch categories like "No wrong warp" or "no IM/wrong warp". The only OoT TASes that invented categories themselves are those challenges like "all dungeons, no doors" or "100% 3 pause".
The good thing about MST is that (at least at speedrun.com) the BA, RBA and GIM glitches are banned. You need to get all the required items genuinely.
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Jabo video plugin for N64 TASes has been deprecated. Thread #20237: Deprecation of Jabo video plugin All TAS submissions using Jabo from now on will be encoded with minimal and default settings.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.