Essentials

  • Emulator used: VBA-rr svn330
  • Aims for fastest time
  • No death
  • Genre: Platform

About the game

"Ultraman Ball" is a strange platform game. The hero is Ultraman, but for some reason, he transforms into ball form, "Ultraball". Essentially, this game seems to have nothing to do with Ultraman, because it is said that this game is based on an abandoned NES project, "Armadillo 2". Indeed, this game is quite similar to "Armadillo".
I don't think this game is very nice, but I think it is worth TASing.
Basically, the hero moves fastest when he is in Ultraball form and in the air. But the mechanics of this game is a bit complicated.

Tricks

Levitation

When you turns into Ultraball, any acceleration is disabled at the frame, and Y-velocity is reset to 0. So you can virtually levitate by pressing <B> rapidly in the air.
And, if you try to turn into Ultraman near the ceiling, you can't do it, but any acceleration is disabled at the frame. So you can fall slowly.

Piercing breakable blocks

When you collide a breakable block from the side, the direction of X-velocity is negated. This is annoying for TAS. But, when you turn into Ultraman while you are rising in the air, X-velocity is set to 16*sign(previous X-velocity). This precedes the bounce by breakable blocks, so you can maintain X-velocity by pressing <B> at the same time as you collide a breakable block.

Vine boost

When you move horizontally while you holding vine, X-velocity is set to 48 at the frame. So, you can boost by pressing <UP> and <RIGHT> rapidly on vine.

Misc

Some stages have bonus areas, and you can finish the stage by playing a bonus game. But the bonus game takes about 30 seconds, so it is no use for TAS.

Resources

Here is some useful memory addresses:
$C201current form (0:Ultraman, 1:Ultraball)
$C205position x (16-bit, little endian)
$C207position y (16-bit, little endian)
$C209velocity x
$C20Avelocity y
$C518invincibility timer of bosses
I put a simple lua script to display information.

klmz: Perhaps it's level design and music's limitation, this movie lacks a comfortable pace and feels out of joint. However, it does look well-executed.
klmz: Accepted as nobody would oppose.

Brandon: Publication underway.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3144: TaoTao's SGB Ultraman Ball in 06:04.45
NitroGenesis
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I'll be encoding this
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Skilled player (1633)
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Posts: 2202
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NitroGenesis wrote:
I'll be encoding this
Don't you already have three things claimed? Don't you think you should leave stuff open, if your plate is already full?
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
NitroGenesis
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DarkKobold wrote:
NitroGenesis wrote:
I'll be encoding this
Don't you already have three things claimed? Don't you think you should leave stuff open, if your plate is already full?
I should put updates on that other stuff... sorry
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
mklip2001
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TaoTao, thanks for the Nico encode! This ended up being pretty fun. There are certain things that don't really seem correct for the game, like why the ball form doesn't roll any faster than it does on downhills, or why the game lags like it does with some large enemies. Outside of that, the game is pleasant and short. I also like how the game does its boss rush. Yes vote. Good to see another run from you, TaoTao!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
NitroGenesis
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YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
NitroGenesis
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Editor, Experienced player (550)
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YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Joined: 3/18/2011
Posts: 35
Location: Ohio
Well made and entertaining to watch. Yes vote
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There were moments in this movie when the awesomeness of TAS powers were displayed, but the game seemed to suffer from overly low difficulty and simplistic level design. What in this movie do you think were the most attractive to you?
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
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klmz wrote:
There were moments in this movie when the awesomeness of TAS powers were displayed, but the game seemed to suffer from overly low difficulty and simplistic level design.
I agree with you. I think this game has good idea, but it looks like a rush job. I tried bringing out the goodness of the idea.
What in this movie do you think were the most attractive to you?
I mostly like the levitation of 1-4, and I like the vine boost of 2-1, 2-BOSS fighting, and breaking blocks of 2-4.
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The things I liked the most about the game were the apparent jumping on top of spikes without harm, levitation, trickery with vines and occasional suicides by the main character. The game physics overall seemed nifty for a GB-era game. Yes vote from me.
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I have to agree with klmz, nothing about this run screamed TAS, beyond the one floating part in 1-4. Otherwise, it seemed like a maze game where you knew the solution, which doesn't make for a good TAS.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
SXL
Joined: 2/7/2005
Posts: 571
Played fast, short enough, Was entertaining to me. Voting yes.
I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death - NAS
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This TAS is fast-paced, short and features some interesting tricks. Also, it looks optimized, so I think that it should be published.
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3 xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D Help improving TASVideos!
NitroGenesis
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I played this game after encoding and it is very hard to control ball ultraman like the way this TAS does, as it is very sensitive to hitting walls and will bounce all over the place.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1811] SGB Ultraman Ball by TaoTao in 06:04.45
Editor, Player, Publisher (46)
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4K 60 FPS YouTube encode: Link to video