Nikki and Fargus unwittingly casts a spell that destroys the town, so they must reach the Wishing Engine, where they can wish the town back to normal.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: PSXjin 2.0.2
  • Bios: SCPH1001.BIN
  • Aims to reach beat the credits
  • Take damage to save time
  • Abuse programming errors

Comments

First, I highly recommend that you watch the speed value (0x00093124, 4 bytes) if you are using psxjin to watch this TAS. It will help you to understand most of my movements.

About game mechanics

Max speed is 6008 on normal ground, 15360 on a slope and 4096 in the air, though it will not decrease your speed in the air if you have more than 4096.
If you turn yourself while you are moving, your speed will be negative (15360 -> -15360) and it will decrease by around 1000 each 2 frames, until it reach 0 or you turn yourself again.
If your speed is higher than 6008 and you land on the ground (either a normal ground or a slope), the game will instantly set your speed at 6008.
Fargus's spining attack can be use once every 50 frames, and it gives him a speed of 7500 for 20 frames. This gives him at max an average speed of 6600, so 10% better than Nikki.
When you jump on a monster, it will set your speed at around 10300 if it was higher, and after this check your speed will get a very little increase or decrease which is settle for each monster. So if you see me obliviously miss a monster, that is because it would give me a speed less than 6008.

Tricks and glitches

Speed preservation

As I say, each time you land on the ground, you should lose any extra speed you got previously. However, the game only check if your speed is greater than 6008, and not if it is lower than -6008. So as long as your speed is negative, you will only lose around 1000 of speed each 2 frames. This means that with TAS precision, you can turn yourself right before you land, jump immediately and turn yourself again so that you only have a negative speed during the 2 frames when you are on the ground and you only lose 1000 of speed. This is the main reason why I never used Fargus in this TAS (as Nikki can stay in the air more longer with her double jump).

Double jump cancel

A bad glitch or us. For the reasons, in most (all ?) of the cases, if you enter a level or a new section of the a level (they are easy to recognize), Nikki lose her double jump ability until she falls or makes a jump. That is why you will often see me jump at the very end or beginning of a section, in order to unlock the double jump for a following jump.

Monster speed boost

Very strange glitch that seems to be hard to produce. From what I understand, when you fall on a monster at his very left or right and from a high enough height (and with a speed of 6008 or less), it will give you an extra boost of some thousands at your speed (I got a speed from 8000 to 10000 in the few places where I used it). The second monster I kill in the TAS is one of these uses.

Damage boosting

Some damages hit you harder than others. If you take a damage that throw you hard enough (basically big monsters or spikes) to let you turn yourself in the right direction and still have more than 6008 of speed, then it will save time. I sometimes exceed 20000 of speed with this trick (like in level 2).

Stage by stage comments

Level 1 : First use of the Monster speed boost on the second one (over 8000 of velocity). I hit a plant with a fire ball to not be damage in return.
Level 2 : The spikes here give me over 20000 of velocity. After the elevator, there is a short area that is a slope.
Level 5 : Snail's slobber has the same property than a slope. The frog's velocity is the same than Nikki. To get the heart container, you must complete the track without breaking any stone. Even if it may cost some frames to do it, it is by far the fastest heart container to get.
Level 6 : I got enough velocity to skip a little part of the beginning of the second section.
Level 8 : The rhinoceros's velocity is the same than Nikki...
Level 10 : ... but the turtle's max velocity is only 4096 on normal ground, so must preserve your extra speed when you transform into a turtle as long as possible.
Level 11 : Some monsters here must be kill to unlock keys, and you need 3 hits to do it. However you can beat them in one hit with the ice power.
Boss 2 : Goon Honcho has 5 life points. He is only vulnerable in his "what are you doing up there" animation, which require that you are high enough. In the normal way, when you hit the boss, you are throw far enough to don't be able to hit him again in a row. However, his animation last long enough so that if he starts it right before you hit the ground, you have enough time to double jump to his head, and for some reasons it leads to multiple hits in a row (I never got more than 3 hits though). So by manipulating his animation, you can beat him in 2 attacks instead of 5.
Level 13 : The dragon's max aerial velocity is 8192 while it is only 6008 on the ground.
Boss 3 : I can't understand all the sentences he said...
Credits : After wishing for one million wishes, a chicken, the town back to normal, and everyone in the town being just like Fargus; it's time to play the longest level of the game : the credits. In fact, it's basically try to conserve the 15000 velocity you get between each sections, since the "normal" velocity of the sections is 10000 (or sometimes lower).

Possible improvements

  • Have less trust in the speed value (0x00093124) since it is not always accurate. If you are on a moving platform and you are not moving, your speed will be 0 instead of the one of the platform. If you are climb down a 45° slope, your speed will be 15360 instead of 7680.
  • Better hearts management.

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: Good run, well done. Accepting for publication.

natt: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3704: lapogne36's PSX Pandemonium! in 34:03.33
Warepire
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What's up with the camera stuttering? Other than that this was highly enjoyable, I didn't think this game could be finished that fast. Yes vote.
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
Very nice run. I like all the tricks you use to keep your speed from damage boosts, like in level 2 with the spike wall, and how you outran the screen at the end of level 4. And level 6 was crazy fast and really short! Overall a great addition to the site, Yes vote!
Warepire wrote:
What's up with the camera stuttering?
I think it's the trick he uses to keep his speed while jumping by landing backwards and then continuing forward. That's probably what causes the camera to stutter a little.
Joined: 4/24/2012
Posts: 129
Location: Atlanta, GA
I've never played this, but it looks like a lot of fun. Keeping momentum really broke some of the stages. Nice variety in the game itself. A good watch. Yes vote from me. As an aside, the sound effects make me think of the time spent playing The Unholy War. Pleasant memories.
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Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Warepire wrote:
What's up with the camera stuttering?
That's really annoying sometimes, but looks like it is PSXjin's fault; on ePSXe the game runs a lot smoother. edit: Watched the whole thing, and yes, it's really well done. Yes vote from me too.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
mklip2001
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Posts: 2223
Location: Georgia, USA
This was a very nice run! Even if you were mostly just running and jumping, with fairly little difficulty in dodging obstacles, there's plenty of stage variety and speed abuse to make this fun. Ironically, I found the boss fights to be a lot less interesting than the rest of the run; I'm not even entirely sure what exactly you're supposed to be doing with the first and third bosses. Anyway, this gets a Yes vote.
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.
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
I vote yes, but it's a weak one because although it's pretty well played, I didn't find any reason to watch it a second time.
No.
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psxjin 2.0.2 svn719
  File: Scph1001.bin
CRC-32: 37157331
   MD4: 9111c817a40d544e85d3c70e5fe40876
   MD5: 924e392ed05558ffdb115408c263dccf
 SHA-1: 10155d8d6e6e832d6ea66db9bc098321fb5e8ebf

  File: Pandemonium.bin
CRC-32: 2ad02749
   MD4: 39f3041a002dd92cd579e1ba87c8aca1
   MD5: 87ee8c4748f536db10171d6f0f17bb4d
 SHA-1: fdd3fc2e9a4d4d9b140054e77ce4dc6e7ceccb2e
Joined: 5/14/2007
Posts: 525
Location: Pisces-Cetus filament
Great damage-boosts! That's what I enjoyed the most. I didn't expect this game to be so long. Is Lomax your next project? :P
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!
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Examining my dump now on the frame freezer... The game is occasionally generating out of order frames. The phenomenon looks exactly the same as certain field order errors that can happen when reprocessing interlaced content. I don't know too much about psxjin's underpinnings, but my guess would be some sort of poor emulation with frame output timing or backbuffer select or something like that... You can see it on frame advance in the emu; it has nothing to do with the avi output chain. Occasionally you'll get studders where time clearly moves backwards from one frame to the next.
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Joined: 9/14/2011
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Common side-scrolling game with excellent optimizing techniques. That's just when we should vote yes.
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. ---- [2111] PSX Pandemonium! by lapogne36 in 34:03.33