So, there's this weird glitch I found that at the moment appears very inconsistent, but it may be useful if we can figure out how to manipulate it, for both Real Time and TAS runs. *ahem*
Step 1. Go to a character switcher.
Step 2. Exit the character switcher. (I don't change characters as they would be reset during the next step anyway)
Step 3. Soft reset. (That's L+R+Select+Start)
Step 4. Load your save and enter the main game.
As long as you're in any of the Mu Continent levels, the first Atlantis level, or the first Bikini Bottom, you'll appear somewhere that isn't the start point, usually over a pit or out of bounds. However, I have encountered an instance where I was taken to the end of the first room in Atlantis, which means this trick CAN save time. The problem? It seems to have varying results each day I try it. (And yes, I tried changing the day on my DS, it doesn't read that data) And I'm not changing the process at all. Could anyone do some research on the glitch and see of there's a way to manipulate it?
Okay. I'll do that when I get home. ... That is, if soft resetting works the same way in an emulator as it does on an actual DS. (For example, you can soft reset (the button combo) Sonic Rush to go to the title screen, while on an emulator, as I've seen, it completely resets the rom. So I am not sure if it'll work properly.)
If it helps, I do have a video recorded showing the glitch from my actual DS and explaining the process to do it. Would that work?
I was really sick over the weekend and completely forgot to make a verification movie. Here's the video showing the glitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd-UaFC-lJ4
Ignore the sucky commentary, as well as the fact that this is a sucky attempt at an AGDQ submission, please. The glitch in question occurs at 2:32.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcrhwhaAlps
Recorded a run. Bit rusty with a huge mistake during Atlantis, but a speedrun nonetheless. Now you can see the route.
Say, where'd you find the Japanese rom of the game anyway?
As long as you're in any of the Mu Continent levels, the first Atlantis level, or the first Bikini Bottom, you'll appear somewhere that isn't the start point, usually over a pit or out of bounds. However, I have encountered an instance where I was taken to the end of the first room in Atlantis, which means this trick CAN save time. The problem? It seems to have varying results each day I try it. (And yes, I tried changing the day on my DS, it doesn't read that data) And I'm not changing the process at all. Could anyone do some research on the glitch and see of there's a way to manipulate it?
Sorry, was busy irl.
Did you mean from a fresh save, you can wrong warp to Atlantis?
As long as you're in any of the Mu Continent levels, the first Atlantis level, or the first Bikini Bottom, you'll appear somewhere that isn't the start point, usually over a pit or out of bounds. However, I have encountered an instance where I was taken to the end of the first room in Atlantis, which means this trick CAN save time. The problem? It seems to have varying results each day I try it. (And yes, I tried changing the day on my DS, it doesn't read that data) And I'm not changing the process at all. Could anyone do some research on the glitch and see of there's a way to manipulate it?
Sorry, was busy irl.
Did you mean from a fresh save, you can wrong warp to Atlantis?
No, you have to unlock Atlantis first. I'm saying there's a way to warp to the end of the first room in Atlantis (and I'd assume other stages maybe), saving sometime, but it appears inconsistent. You still have to enter Atlantis's level to do the warp.
I decided to make a little TAS demonstration. I don’t change the difficulty for this demonstration. There are a few things I will point out:
You can skip through text faster by holding the Y button so the US/Japanese versions are closer than initially thought.
The US version has faster load times than the Japanese version, saving multiple frames on each loading screen.
There is a textbox in the first level which is skippable in the Japanese version but not the US version.
It is hard to say which version will be faster. Japanese has faster text but US has faster loads. In this first level, the US version loses just under 2 seconds but a majority of the total timeloss did come from the extra test box. The difference will also be smaller with a difficultly change. It is impossible to tell which version will actually be faster for a full game run and other potential version differences could also exist.
I did check the Korean version. The Korean version has slightly longer loads than the Japanese version. Text is also fast in Korean, being faster in some places and slower in others compared to Japanese. It loses around 20 frames in the first level I believe.
I don’t have any immediate plans to TAS the whole game but I did want to have a quick look at the game to test some things out.
TAS file: User movie #638995842385702839Link to video
I thought I might as well finish Bikini Bottom. Here are a few additional notes:
Walking straight is faster than walking diagonally so you want to minimise diagonal movement.
If you pick up something and then switch characters on the next frame, the other character will pick up the object.
Sandy gets knocked down after 3 hits. I carefully plan my attacks so that she doesn't use any of her invincible attacks and that she gets knocked down with as little health as possible before using her invincible healing move. This allows you to skip the healing.
You can change the RNG on the Mr. Krabs level by entering the level on different frames.
Nicely done! I don't know what's going on in some of these minigames but the jellyfish and Sandy fights were really fast! I'm sure there'll be more fun surprises like those as you go on.
Nicely done! I don't know what's going on in some of these minigames but the jellyfish and Sandy fights were really fast! I'm sure there'll be more fun surprises like those as you go on.
Thanks.
The rest of the game does seem too daunting for me however so I currently do not see myself continuing on by myself. I would be interested if somebody else helped out but at the moment, I think I will keep this TAS on the backburner.
