Introduction
Time Gal is an arcade game that's built in the style of Dragon's Lair. This is the US Sega CD port of the game. I'm keeping it short here but if you want to learn more about the game, just check Gaming Hell for your Time Gal needs:
https://www.gaminghell.co.uk/TimeGalIOS.html
I felt like I haven't submitted all that much in a bit but I got inspired by something recent. It
could've been anything! In all seriousness, I would like to thank Spikestuff whose Laserdisc game TASes sparked up that drive to TAS something again.
I used the US version of the Sega CD port mainly for the cheesy English voice acting. I do know of the special extra on the Japanese version of the Mega CD port but I'll leave that as an exercise for the viewer to discover that for themselves. Also there's an annoying audio quirk where the FMV audio is about a second or two ahead of the FMV video. The sound cues for succeeding/failing an action seem to play at the right time which is extra strange. I haven't checked real hardware so I can't say if that's an issue with the emulation or the game itself.
Game notes
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9.1
- BIOS used: Sega CD Model 1 US (v1.10)
- File name: SCD_m1_us_110.bin
- SHA1 hash:
4F315ADCEF9B8FEB0364C21AB7F0EAF5457F3ED
- Plays on hardest difficulty which simply removes the border input indicators lighting up
The time stop sections always run at a set time, so putting in the input early takes the same amount of time as putting the input in late. I do try to mess around a bit with that, for all that's worth. Input ends at selecting the last initial for the high score screen. I could've left it at the screen before by having last input be in 4001 A.D. but considering the nature of the game I don't think this needs an extended input file for entering a name in the high score screen.
Suggested screenshot
Frame 31597
CoolHandMike: Releasing since I cannot properly judge it atm. I will say that it does sync properly.
eien86: Time Gal, a game about an unfortunate soul who, no matter where (or when) she travels, everything, and I mean EVERYTHING wants to see her dead. Everybody, from prehistoric animals to futuristic robots hates her guts and wants her banished. Fortunately, a few inputs at the correct moment is all she needs to make it out unscathed.
Here the author made a movie where said inputs are made as soon as possible, making it rather optimal. I also confirmed the time freeze events cannot be rushed. Personally, I would have not included the high-score inputs in the movie but instead provided a different one for that. But I can understand that it doesn't really make a difference (probably no further improvements are even possible anymore).
Accepting to Standard