VVVVVV is a game where you flip gravity around so hard that you accidentally clip into the end area.

Game objectives

  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses death to save time
  • Skips the Gravitron Skip from the previous movie

Comments

This run saves almost 3 minutes over the previous run by clipping into the end area. It also improves the previous movie by using libTAS instead of Hourglass.

Gravitron OOB trick

It was known that abusing the R key to trigger a death after completing the Gravitron (the 1 minute bullet hell section) will keep your hitbox in a smaller state while you're able to get to the upper section of the Intermission 2 area. It was also known that you could clip out of bounds into Outer Space by using this smaller hitbox.
But now a new trick was found where using a timed flip near out of bounds will make you flip between two screens, making it possible to move horizontally to a new area.
The top right room is the final room of the game. The room to the left of it is the upper section of Intermission 2, with the Gravitron under it.

Route

The route is very simple. You want to reach Intermission 2 as soon as possible.
Playing the game normally, you will end up with this order: Rescue Violet. Rescue a second crewmate. Rescue a third crewmate. Do Intermission 1. Rescue a fourth crewmate. Do Intermission 2. Rescue the fifth and final crewmate. Do The Final Level.
 V -> 2 -> 3 -> I1 -> 4 -> I2 -> 5 -> TFL
By abusing the R key to die at the start sequence, we can skip Violet and rescue two other crewmates. You can then rescue Violet which will run a different cutscene, skipping Intermission 1 (and this was previously used to skip Intermission 2 due to the long Gravitron sequence). After rescuing the fourth crewmate, Intermission 2 is started and we can end the game.
Just like in the previous run, a trick called telejumping (dying while teleporting) is used to clip into walls and get to crewmembers faster.
This run was routed by Masterjun, so you will have an easy time improving it. Here is everything you need to know.

Special Thanks to

  • tzann, Theepicosity, chubbystickfigure, and Azrez for finding this trick
  • Spikestuff for telling me this new trick was found
  • libTAS for being better than Hourglass

Suggested Screenshots


slamo: This is obviously an entertaining and well-optimized run, sorry it took a while to judge but there are some things that had to be addressed first.
There is another branch that uses a certain glitch to beat the game very quickly. This glitch requires dying, saving, and quitting with a text box present, and then altering the game state to trigger the ending. It was brought up in the thread that a Gravitron skip was possible that required a save + quit sequence. The author explained that they chose to disallow saving + quitting because it was the least complicated restriction that wouldn't allow a game end glitch, and after some thought, I will agree with this argument. If we allow saving + quitting but restrict people from triggering the ending this way, somebody can just manipulate the game state to trigger an event that's as close as possible to the ending, and this is not really what we want. If we allow saving + quitting but disallow any game state manipulation, this would open up the opportunity for other save + quit glitches that we don't even know about yet. Saving + quitting is a powerful mechanic that is clearly very glitchy and could potentially end the game in less efficient ways than the current "game end glitch" branch, and we want to future-proof against this. Basically, we don't want to create the situation where people are finding specific glitches and tricks purely to circumvent the restrictions we've put in place. For anyone that might argue that any other glitch also has the potential to cause a game ending glitch: there's some truth to this, but currently this is the least complicated restriction we can put in place, and if more game ending glitches are discovered, we will deal with them when the time comes.
There was also the question of a Linux run obsoleting a Windows run. I was unable to find any evidence that there is a difference between these versions. The same glitches and mechanics apply to both runs, so for all intents and purposes, they are the same games. The improvement is obviously due to new tricks that apply to both versions and is not due to platform differences. Also, this run is intended to obsolete the current branchless run; it has the same goal and restrictions as that run, so this run will remain branchless.
Feedback was very good, so I don't see any reason to change the tier. Accepting to Moons as an improvement to the previous run.
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15584
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6429: Masterjun's Linux VVVVVV in 05:49.86
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Wow! Especially the gravitron segment and having the extro sequence while gravitron bullets are still flying! YYYYYYesvote.
Banned User
Joined: 5/27/2019
Posts: 136
Location: Gensokyo
I vote yes. Because everything in the game is awesome! Also I want your run to be published.
i think i got banned again... I don't know if I can do TASing at the moment. May in summer or something? Soon-ish... Aka. Chuterix, formerly ChutacoackoTAS (did I even address that name?) Check out my RTA's and TASes here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx6JXd3XDSkJqREaLQDYlDg P.S. I have school on weekdays unless break or something. So I will not read messages until the weekends or until further notice.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I don't really know what was going on. But it looked good to me. Was fast paced nearly the entire time except for the gravitron.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Memory
She/Her
Site Admin, Skilled player (1556)
Joined: 3/20/2014
Posts: 1765
Location: Dumpster
The fact that it's actually faster to do Gravitron is really dumb. The fact that you can get to the end from Gravitron is really dumb. This TAS is really dumb. I like really dumb, Yes vote.
[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
Noxxa
They/Them
Moderator, Expert player (4124)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
Good movie to watch, nice movement action for a few minutes followed by a funny glitch to end it. Yes vote.
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.
Active player (302)
Joined: 3/15/2018
Posts: 235
Location: United States
You look like you're having a lot of fun jumping around during the big ending fanfare. Yes vote!
Post subject: Another great run for this year!
Challenger
He/Him
Skilled player (1689)
Joined: 2/23/2016
Posts: 1061
Haven't watched the previous run, but this work is really good! Yes vote.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
EZGames69
He/They
Publisher, Reviewer, Expert player (4461)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2762
VVVVVVery good
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
lexikiq
She/Her
Active player (400)
Joined: 8/13/2018
Posts: 109
Location: United States of America
HHHHHHad eeeeeenough VVVVVVVVVVV jjjjjjokes yyyyyyet? yes vote but only because hourglass is finally dead. (but also because the TAS is cool.)
mohoc
He/Him
Reviewer, Player (250)
Joined: 5/20/2018
Posts: 35
Location: France
Hey, I know this game. Doing Gravitron in Any% was inconceivable just a week ago. Shoutouts to the VVVVVV speedrunning community for making the inconceivable happen. Yes vote.
Active player (302)
Joined: 3/15/2018
Posts: 235
Location: United States
So is it actually faster on libTAS, or does the mere knowledge that it was made with a more capable tool make the movie inherently better?
Joined: 12/22/2009
Posts: 291
Location: Michigan
what have you done masterjun
Current projects: Yoshi's Island Disassembly Yoshi's Island any% TAS with Carl Sagan
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (596)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1222
Location: Romania
This TAS worth a "Notable Improvement" sign. Yes vote!
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
I'm a little confused about the category for this run. There's a much shorter run for the windows version abusing a save bug, if I recall correctly. Doesn't that mean this run is not any%? But it's also not glitchless.
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.
mohoc
He/Him
Reviewer, Player (250)
Joined: 5/20/2018
Posts: 35
Location: France
This is indeed not Any% strictly speaking. I suppose that you were referring to the 2014 "game end glitch" movie by Masterjun, which manipulated the game state sequence in order to trigger the credits in under a minute. It is worth noting that while you reach the credits, you don't get to reach the "Game Complete" screen. Now this submission is about to obsolete Scepheo's run in 8:45.87. The same glitches were used in both runs (telejumping, Space Station 1 skip, an Intermission skip using the Violet cutscene skip), the main difference being the newly discovered Gravitron OOB in Masterjun's submission, which skips one of the main levels (The Laboratory in his run) and the Final level. Scepheos' run has had a legitimate place in the site and I believe that Masterjun's run has a legitimate place as well, since there are a lot of glitches - telejumping, the Violet cutscene skip, and now the Gravitron OOB - that you don't get to see either in the "game end glitch" run or the "20 trinkets, No Death Mode" run. A proper naming of this category could be discussed. It is worth mentioning that in order to perform the game end glitch, you have press the Escape key to go back to the main menu and then reload your save. And it has been the only useful speedrunning trick that required the use of the Escape key. So "No Escape key", "No Save & Quit" or "No Credits Warp" are a few possibilities off the top of my head. About the run itself, I have two remarks. First, as discussed in the VVVVVV speedrunning discord server, at the very beginning it could actually be faster to go to the Space Station 2 teleporter first instead of going to the Warp Zone teleporter first by a few frames. Second, and maybe more importantly, you can skip doing the Gravitron with a Save & Quit as soon as you enter the Gravitron room and then reload your save. So whether the Gravitron should be done or not is a legitimate concern. The main debating point would certainly be the entertainment value of doing the Gravitron in this run. As a side note, this current submission corresponds to what has been called "Any%" in the RTA community of the game. Since we require to speedrun on the latest version in most categories (v2.2, where the game end glitch is no more possible) and since all runs are single-segmented (forbidding save & quits), it made sense for us to call it Any% and do the Gravitron in the run. (Oh and if you are a former runner/viewer of the game, we have renamed several categories due to the discovery of the Gravitron OOB about a week ago. So what used to be called "Any%" for years is now "Credits Warp", which makes more sense tbh.)
Masterjun
He/Him
Site Developer, Skilled player (1988)
Joined: 10/12/2010
Posts: 1185
Location: Germany
It should be mentioned that here at TASVideos we don't use labels like "any%" anymore. If you want more information, you can read the Branch name section in the Publisher Guidelines. To summarize: Just because there is no branch name doesn't mean it's "any%"!
Warning: Might glitch to credits I will finish this ACE soon as possible (or will I?)
EZGames69
He/They
Publisher, Reviewer, Expert player (4461)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2762
So question, since this is almost identical to the windows version of the game, are we going to see movies of this game made on linux obaoleting the ones on windows?
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player (907)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
EZGames69 wrote:
So question, since this is almost identical to the windows version of the game, are we going to see movies of this game made on linux obaoleting the ones on windows?
I think this should be a case-by-case decision but in general this is a question that's come up before with ports. From a quality of life perspective it's clear that libTAS is superior but I don't think that on its own is enough for obsolescence but if there are timing differences between the two I don't think that should be held against a run either. Yes vote on this, and I'm highly considering showing this at ESA with TASBot providing visualization. Thoughts?
I was laid off in May 2023 and became too ill to work this year and could use support via Patreon or onetime donations as work on TASBot Re: and TASBot HD is stalled. I'm dwangoAC, TASVideos Senior Ambassador and BDFL of the TASBot community; when healthy, I post TAS content on YouTube.com/dwangoAC based on livestreams from Twitch.tv/dwangoAC.
GamesFan2000
He/Him
Joined: 1/4/2019
Posts: 84
Location: Canada
DAMN! You broke this game in half! YES VOTE!
Expert player (2567)
Joined: 12/23/2007
Posts: 830
Awesome run! I never thought this game could be broken like this. Masterjun never fails to impress us. Easy Yes vote.
Recent projects: SMB warpless TAS (2018), SMB warpless walkathon (2019), SMB something never done before (2019), Extra Mario Bros. (best ending) (2020).
Player (146)
Joined: 7/16/2009
Posts: 686
Huh. Would you look at that.
mohoc
He/Him
Reviewer, Player (250)
Joined: 5/20/2018
Posts: 35
Location: France
I would love to see this at ESA. There had been no significant breakthrough in this game for years, plus this run would have very little overlapping with what will be shown in the scheduled Glitchless Any% race.
EZGames69
He/They
Publisher, Reviewer, Expert player (4461)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2762
dwangoAC wrote:
I think this should be a case-by-case decision but in general this is a question that's come up before with ports. From a quality of life perspective it's clear that libTAS is superior but I don't think that on its own is enough for obsolescence but if there are timing differences between the two I don't think that should be held against a run either.
Well ports are one thing. Like there’s obvious differences between something like the snes and genesis versions of a game, but we’re at the point where PC ports of games are so identical to each other that it’s not unlikely to have them obsolete each other. I dont have an opinion on what should happen (especially since I dont know the difference between the linux and windows versions of this game) but I am very curious to see what the site decides to do with it.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
dwangoAC wrote:
I think this should be a case-by-case decision but in general this is a question that's come up before with ports.
There's an important distinction to be made. For a classic port, both versions have different source code. There's just no way a game written for an SNES is going to run on a Genesis; it would have to be rewritten from scratch. And often, the new team won't have access to design notes of the earlier team; this is why e.g. all versions of 2D Prince of Persia have wildly different physics. A modern port uses the same source code but different libraries. For example, a game written in C++ could use a standard library for graphics and sound. And if this library also exists for other platforms, then almost instantly you can have a Mac, Linux, or XBox version with identical gameplay. And with the same glitches, too, unless there are glitches in the library (which would then apply to every game using that library).