Dr. Jones leaps, hovers, launches, and flies his way around the world in 16 levels, racing against the Soviets to uncover the mystery of the Tower of Babel.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.10, Ares64
- ROM SHA1 checksum: 93300d63412d6c7432109b5ad2e4a8b9348e9538
- SRAM setup: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/639009334343696610
- Completes and then deletes a save file, to enable skipping the startup logo animations and the map animations between levels.
- Category: All Story Levels
- Completes every level of the game's main story.
- Time: 45:22.067
This TAS completes evey story level.
Normally in an any% run, the level King Sol's Mines is skipped entirely by playing without the expansion pak. Due to shortcomings in current emulation of the game, the Ares64 core is the only core which the game can properly be TASed on, and does not offer the option to remove the expansion pak.
There is also the Return to Peru bonus level, which is also skipped due to not being unlocked..
Canyonlands
The first level is one of the simplest in the game. Indy using a Sunwalk launch to propel himself to the end of the level in mere moments.
Babylon
Babylon consists of three parts. First, Indy falls through the ground into a hidden room with a statue. Next, he launches to the end of the stage, dropping down an elevator shaft after a brief wait to get stuck in the elevator shaft. Finally, he hovers up the elevator to spawn Agent Turner and present him with the statue.
Tian Shan River
After launching down the expansive river four times to collect candles and R-reloading to return to the start, Indy launches to an alter where he lights them, activating the bridge forward.
Shambala Sanctuary
A quick launch from the roof of the starting building places Indy right next to the button at the end.
Palawan Lagoon
Indy uses a Sunwalk launch to scale a cliffside, then launch to a button, and hoofs it to the door leading deeping into the volcanic island.
Palawan Volcano
Just past the first room, a slope is places perfectly to let Indy launch to the door deeper into the volcanic temple.
Palawan Temple
After encountering a golem, Indy uses a series of crawl flights through the volcanic caverns to fly directly to the exit.
Jeep Trek
Indy deftly drives a Jeep through a maze-like Soviet encampment.
Note: Due to a possible emulation issue, this level requires a reload to prevent softlocking in the end cutscene, losing roughly 13 seconds.
Teotihuacan
Dashing straight to the bottom of the pyramid, Indy uses crawl glitch and hangs from a nearby ledge, triggering a bug that lets him hover right around the door blocking his path forward.
Olmec Valley
From the scenic cliffside, Indy quickly launches straight across the valley, falling right onto the exit to the pyramid he meant to explore.
V. I. Pudovkin
Captured by the Soviets, Indy traverses their ship in order to retrieve his belongings, secure the artifacts, and escape. One of the most solidly built levels in the game, with the only glitch being running into a door to keep it open long enough to bypass a cutscene that plays on reopening ir.
Meroë
By hovering his way through the side of a pyramid, Indy is able to launch through the ground to the hidden mineshaft.
King Sol's Mines
With the help of a prolonged hover up an incline, Indy is able to launch straight through thr mineshafts to the exit.
Nub's Tomb
A well placed ledge allows Indy to launch up into the higher section of the tomb, right outside of the exit.
The Infernal Machine
Betrayed by Agent Turner and his friend Sophia, Indy must take down Turner, and rearrange the improperly placed machine parts to rescue Sophia. The other best built level in the game, only having another cutscene skip by activating a button with the lighter out and reloading.
Aetherium
In Marduk's strange dimension, Indy leaps in forward in the opening cutscene to bypass half the level, and briefly meets its ruler before, one final time, launching right to the end of the stage, bypassing the fight with Marduk entirely. Sophia manages to find her own way out anyway, once we make sure to step into the zone to spawn her.
Potential Improvements
Being a 3D game where the camera swinging alters your direction, lines taken through the game are tough to keep perfectly straight. Frames may be able to be picked up by straightening them out.
The game's input parser is not very reliable, so pulling off tricks may lose frames by not being in sync with it.
Overall, if tricks were to understood better, they may become more consistent allowing them to be performed slightly quicker.
The most glaring improvement would be found by circumventing a softlock at the end of Jeep Trek without reloading the level. In addition, th eOlmec valley launch requires multiple stands to activate, so a single stand would save a bit of time.
A sub-45 may very well be possible in this category.
Furthermore, with improved emulation, an any% TAS skipping King Sol's Mines can be made.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to the game's three prominent runners, osukarui, who made two excellent videos on the game's speedrun which inspired this TAS, the_kovic, the current world record holder, and Bluscreen18, who holds some of the IL records. They each helps tremendously in giving me info and pointers, including devising the launch used in Olmec Valley.
P.S.
I don't know who decides the character for the title cards, but Saki Kurokoma right there ready for her cowboy hat buddy.
Samsara: Judging, and already looking forward to watching!
Samsara: And I was right to look forward to it, because the sheer brokenness of this game's mechanics make it an incredible watch. Almost every level is broken in new, unique ways. Launching across maps, twerking up mountains, crawl flying through volcanoes as the classic sting plays in the background... This might be one of the first times I've ever seen a speedrun, TAS or otherwise, where seeing levels completed normally felt like glitches. Indy running and jumping normally? That's not supposed to happen! He's supposed to be furiously vibrating those Indiana Hip Bones into the void!
Fantastic run, definitely accepting, and given the overwhelming positive feedback in the thread, I'm recommending a Star as well!
