Submission Text Full Submission Page
So this game has some glitch that makes it so you can skip to the end by pausing the game, pressing up, then unpausing. Wait, there's already a published TAS of this. You might think that optimizing this further is impossible, but nope. The previous movie actually missed the first input boundary, so they just lost 4 frames from that (the game runs at a pseudo 15 FPS). That's the only real improvement in this movie; the other difference is simply using CGB/GBA mode, which has a fake improvement of a shorter BIOS. Nonetheless, there is 4 frames of actual improvement, so this movie should be able to obsolete the previous movie, and should be able to be console verified!
As an aside, I am wondering how the previous movie not rejected for sub-optimallity, this input boundary was blatantly apparent by opening up the movie in TAStudio.
Why I'm canning this: Forum/Posts/498660


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15561
Location: 127.0.0.1
EZGames69
He/They
Publisher, Reviewer, Expert player (4458)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2761
As an aside, I am wondering how the previous movie not rejected for sub-optimallity, this input boundary was blatantly apparent by opening up the movie in TAStudio.
I looked at that movie previously in TAStudio but did not see anything that could be improved. It wasn’t an obvious improvement.
[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
Emulator Coder, Judge, Experienced player (728)
Joined: 2/26/2020
Posts: 775
Location: California
EZGames69 wrote:
As an aside, I am wondering how the previous movie not rejected for sub-optimallity, this input boundary was blatantly apparent by opening up the movie in TAStudio.
I looked at that movie previously in TAStudio but did not see anything that could be improved. It wasn’t an obvious improvement.
I think the improvement was just not obvious just due to a misunderstanding of the "glitch." Essentially, I believe that this is not an actual glitch, but rather a debugging feature. Dying actually has no relation to this trick. The only thing needed is to pause, then press Up, then unpause. And guess what, spamming up will go to other stages. It isn't some overflow from dying, it's just the game letting you select the stages. That said, I believe the currently published TAS should be obsoleted by the previous TAS, as the TAS was simply not legitimate in the first place (and this explanation should probably be mentioned in the movie description). I'll be looking into this game, as it does seem to be a nice game to TAS, but gonna can this sub.
TASVideosGrue
They/Them
Joined: 10/1/2008
Posts: 2785
Location: The dark corners of the TASVideos server
om, nom, nom
Player (52)
Joined: 4/1/2016
Posts: 292
Location: Cornelia Castle
That's a shame. Why isn't it legit?
DJ Incendration Believe in Michael Girard and every speedrunner and TASer!
Samsara
She/They
Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2109)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Player (52)
Joined: 4/1/2016
Posts: 292
Location: Cornelia Castle
That's still legit.
DJ Incendration Believe in Michael Girard and every speedrunner and TASer!
Emulator Coder, Judge, Experienced player (728)
Joined: 2/26/2020
Posts: 775
Location: California
DJ Incendration wrote:
That's still legit.
Cheats, debugging codes, and arcade continues are not allowed
It's not. The movie rules do not allow them (with some exceptions, none of which apply to this movie).
Samsara
She/They
Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2109)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
DJ Incendration wrote:
That's still legit.
I literally linked the clause in the rules that says it's not legit. It's explicitly a level select that was left in as a debugging feature in this prototype ROM. Other officially released games by the same developer have the exact same style of level select hidden behind cheats or passwords, most notably the game that this prototype ended up becoming.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Player (52)
Joined: 4/1/2016
Posts: 292
Location: Cornelia Castle
Oh, sorry. What's the code for the game this became?
DJ Incendration Believe in Michael Girard and every speedrunner and TASer!
Samsara
She/They
Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2109)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
TCRF wrote:
Enter the password "PQLLQ" ("pollo" is Spanish for "chicken") to enable the in-game stage select mode. During the game, press Start to pause it, then press Up or Down to change the level number. A level number will be displayed at the upper right corner of the screen. Unpause the game to jump to the selected level. Level 130 is the final entry and ends up with the credits roll.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.