Pokémon Pinball is a spin off in which you catch pokémon and visit locations by playing pinball in one of two tables: Blue and Red. Each table has exclusive Pokémon and so does each location as well. With careful planning, this TAS avoids going to many locations and never repeats a Pokémon (except for Eeveelutions).
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.10 (x64)
- Catch all 151 Pokémon without repeating
- Avoid wasting too much time manipulating
- Visits both tables but focuses more on Red table for better manipulating conditions
- Never loses a bonus or ball, as it can't save time anyway.
In my original TASes, it was pretty clear the Red table Bonuses were more time consuming, but that the basic gameplay cycle for catching was much faster and more confortable to be done on Red. When actually TASing this category, I later found out something terribly scary: the Red table is not only faster but has a few objects that allow for quick advancements of this game's RNG values. The Blue table lacks these and therefore is much more of a handful in order to manipulate. There were some losses that were considered acceptable in the Blue table.
What advances RNG?
it's mostly a static value, both catching and evolving pokémon advance it, and so does slots and bonuses... But these last two I only found out when i panicked in the Blue table and realized the amazing advantage Red table has. Failing locations changes doesn't advance RNG from what i've noticed and I can't cancel bonuses as well.
What is the advantage in Red table when it comes to RNG?
To catch a Pokémon, you must hit Voltorb in Red table and Shellder in Blue table. When not catching Pokémon, Voltorb advances RNG when hit, but Shellder doesn't. This is why i keep hitting Voltorbs all the time in Red table even when they're not accomplishing anything. In fact, they're actually enabling the next Pokémon selection. In Blue table, I tried a combination of catching Pokémon, evolving and slots to manipulate the next Pokémon. Problem is that after a few catches I lose the capacity to do Slots unless I complete a Bonus game and i cannot quit the Bonus Games without completion. Manipulating locations in Blue table was much worse but i still kept the location cycles to a mininum so very little time was wasted on that regard.
Slots are activated by the CAVE Icons in the lower section.
Bonus games are much faster in Blue and they're actually a little bit of an obligation because Mew can only be caught after two Mewtwo bonus games!
Location changes are activated in the lateral parts of the tables, digletts in Red or psyduck and poliwag in Blue.
Evolutions need 3 loops at the left and catching has a table for 2 or 3 loops at the right.
How do locations and their cycles work?
They're also RNG but with a specific group of locations being possible. When you start, you start at group 1, the next two locations are random group 1 locations, the next two will be group 2 locations, and a final Indigo League location in group 3. They cycle back to groups 11 22 and INDIGO again after that forever. Naturally, in Red I control these swiftly but Blue sucks so I use both the restart game feature and also accept some useless locations as an easier to way manipulate the right locations. This might be faster after all since all my attempts to use evolutions and slots never produced as a result the desired locations at all in blue! I hate Blue, have you noticed already?
LOL you got 3 Eevees
Oh yeah I need to evolve each one differently and guess what, also need to manip RNG BEFORE THAT or they might be all the same guy afterwards. Do you hate Blue table now as well?
A better understanding of RNG could make some swift plans to accurately predict RNG values and fastest ways to each capture with minimal time spent, maybe even start at blue table work it's way back to Red? I suck at RAM WATCH and Search but i found the pokémon value after it's generated so it's not useful for predicting but would serve as a cheat to produce the pokémon in casual gameplay lol (Mew anywhere LOL)
I could also super optimize every single minigame to perfection so they all look the same with minimal variation but honestly the original TAS was 3hours, this is enough of an improvement for everyone I believe. This was a very strategic TAS to route and my skills definitely improved a little more here.
Thanks these guys and my family and the members of the site who root for my TASing to continue. I now hate Pokémon Pinball and will not TAS the Pinball RS series despite having given a little direction towards the routing. This game is unsufferable for me and I believe the Pinball RS might be even harder.
DrD2k9: Updating movie file with
one that saves the game and displays the completed Pokédex as quickly as possible. In the originally submitted movie file, the last frame of input necessary to achieve the goal of completing the Pokédex occurs at frame 365242 but does not save and actually display the Pokédex. Any future submissions aiming for improvement would need to finish the inputs necessary to catch/evolve the final pokemon before this frame--taking longer to actually save/display the Pokédex shouldn't count against a run being considered an improvement.
While quite long and repetetive, this run looks good. Accepting as the full completion branch for this game. As best I can figure, the only other Standard class branch would be a run to max out the score counter.
Seriously, would it have been that hard to make the evolution stones something collectable on the tables instead of having to pray to RNGesus for the right evolution to just happen? That just seems like the devs being unnecessarily mean to the player if you ask me...
