Yes, the last round played in the TAS is unwinnable. Please read on for more details.
Introduction
Since I already TASed
the original arcade version I might was well try my hand at this port. When doing research, the one longplay I could find stopped at round 23. This made me curious if it was possible to complete the level under TAS conditions. Seeing that I made the disclaimer at the top of the submission, no it wasn't possible. I think the port's perfectly playable, albeit not beatable, for something that had one developer and one artist when microcomputer ports generally had shoestring budgets and no guarantees of quality control.
Game notes
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.10
- Plays the first 22 rounds as fast as possible
- Stops at round 23 after getting as far as possible
Game version used
I used the cracked version done by Hotline from the TOSEC set. The ones listed without any notes had problems. The first version listed in the TOSEC set was unlabeled that it was cracked and also didn't boot the game. The alternate unlabeled version simply didn't load the game. I then had to check different cracked versions and the Hotline one had the least amount of intrusive changes in it since the cracktro could be quickly skipped by pressing Space before anything showed up to get into the game. There was another one I tested that didn't have a cracktro but it messed with the copyright information that showed up between rounds and that one had to be discarded.
Changed mechanics from the arcade original to the C64 port
Please refer to
the arcade version's submission notes for the broad strokes of how the game works. This section will cover the mechanical changes in this C64 port that, as far as I can tell, are not caused by the cracks.
Also worth noting that while there's sources that say this got a US release, setting the system to NTSC caused horrible graphical flicker that's potentially a seizure warning. This means that this TAS was done in PAL mode.
Jumping changes
Jumping speed is the same as normal running speed so there's no need to worry about keeping jumps to a minimum. Jumping height, on the other hand, is reduced so avoiding obstacles is a bit harder to do.
Vertical movement
Vertical movement is slower in this port. This leads to some situations where it's impossible to avoid the green slip zones as the lower vertical speed and reduced air time makes it impossible to move far vertical distances.
Super drink changes
Super drink cans either need to be jumped on or run over with a skateboard. Merely running into them kicks the can without giving the boost. The speed boost lasts a lot longer compared to the arcade version, and can be extended a bit further by jumping the moment the effect expires. The speed boost doesn't stack with the ramp boosts.
Ramp boost changes
The horizontal screen position of the runner when jumping off of a ramp affects the speed boost given by the ramp. As there are a couple of rounds that require slowing down to hit other ramps, this means that there's cases where it's faster to stop the chain to run to a later ramp as a resulting bounce that required slowing down could lead to losing time compared to just running.
No popper boosting
Jumping on poppers doesn't give the horizontal boost that it does in the arcade original. It's very likely that the one programmer for this port simply didn't know this mechanic existed. In any case, this means a lot of stages are slower due to the loss of extra boosting.
No can kick chaining
Even though ultimately this just means less scoring opportunities and doesn't affect the TAS, I miss this mechanic not being in the port. :(
End of round changes
The rounds end a fair distance before reaching the goal, so there's no bonus for jumping over the gate. The fanfare at the end of each round always loops 3 times so there's no need to adjust in-game time to reduce the number of loops. This applies even if the remaining time to count down takes longer than the 3 end of level music loops.
Why Round 23 is unwinnable
The biggest problem with the round is that the timer is set to 40 seconds in the port. For comparison, on the hardest difficulty on the arcade version the timer is set to 55 seconds. This probable error in setting the round 23 time doesn't give the player enough time to reach the end of the round. While that time might be doable if the game mechanics were closer to the arcade original, the timer is the main thing that needed to be changed to make this port beatable. There's probably a poke I could've used to change the Round 23 timer but it's more fitting showing that sometimes a microcomputer game is just unwinnable due to an error. Instead I simply get as far as possible before the timer is up.
Note to publishers
Also note that this is in PAL so be aware of that.
nymx: What's this?
Darkman425 and the C64?? Welcome to the club! Claiming for judging.
nymx: Sorry for the delay. From my observations, this run can't be improved. You have capitalized on everything to make this as fast as possible. As for the last stage, many games of that era were impossible to play; however, this is rediculous that it isn't even remotely possible...even for a TAS. So, yeah...
GJTASer2018 brought up an interesting point how they ended the game to keep from having to finish it.
Accepting to Standard, and welcome to the C64 club!
