The evil genius, Silas Volkmire, and his sidekick, the Dark Queen, have kidnapped the daughter of a well-renowned scientist and Zitz, one of the awesome Battletoads. Now the remaining Battletoads, Rash and Pimple, must rescue the two captives and stop the deadly duo from fulfilling their plans to control the world.

Objectives

  • Takes Damage to Save Time
  • Best Ending

Dooty's Comments

Do you know how do I choose my runs to TAS? Do I search for old runs? Runs with few rerecords? Runs from TASers that I dislike and want to take some sort of silly revenge? Do I have a dream that one day all of the SNES runs will belong to me? Do I have a desperate need for attention and I would work like crazy on a run, just so it would be on the front page for a few days\hours? Well, one of the previous alternatives apply to one of my other runs, but none of them to this one; I was trying to watch the published run on the emulator and faced a lot of sync problems, so I decided to update it on a newer emulator.

New Tricks

Two Birds With One Stone

I'm playing the 2 Players A mode, the frogs can hurt each other. At first I thought I would have to waste time to avoid the other toad, but it's not possible to hit the enemy and the other frog with the same attack, so I abused that to hit only the enemy.

One Hit Kill

Not really new if you have already watched Battletoads and Double Dragon by feos. Anyway, crouch with one frog and attack with the other. In stages that you can't crouch, you must knock the other toad down first.

Undocumented Warp

Another new trick that's somewhat old, oh well... stand on the tail of the last snake and you will finish Snake Pit on the left side. Not used in this run due to a faster solution.

Bonus Tally

In bonus stages it doesn't matter if you collect pins\dominoes or not, the amount of time you will wait to calculate your points is the same. Okay, it's not even a trick but I think it's at least new.

Stage 1: Dark Volcano

The only beat 'em up stage of the game and since there's not so many of "them" to beat I thought it would be a good idea if the frogs beat each other in waiting periods to add a little bit of entertainment.

Boss: Rocky

The one hit kill trick was not working not matter what, and if you watched my first wip you saw the fight as it's supposed to be fought. But TASers are persistent beings and when I was fighting the Dark Queen I felt the need to try Rocky's fight again. The solution; sacrifice one of the frogs to take advantage of the invincibility period.

Stage 2: Hollow Tree

There's not much to do here to save time as it's kind of auto scroller, but on the published run some enemies are not killed fast enough, and it gave a little advantage in this stage.

Bonus Round: Bowling Pins

From T-Bird; C'mon 'toads, it's bonus time! Collect the whites to win a life, avoid the skulls as they mean strife! I don't know what he means with "strife", but I still need those skulls to finish this bonus stage faster, it would be nice if the frogs could hurt each other though.

Stage 3: Speeder Bikes

I never managed to beat this stage back in the day; hard to memorize and avoid all the obstacles and long, too long. I will not complain if you fast forward this part of the run.

Stage 4: Snake Pit

This is where good part of the total number of rerecords come from; I spent quite some time trying to find short cuts here, sadly, the only one I found is really close to the end, but it saved more time than the glitch to finish the stage on the left side.

Stage 5: Tracktors

Despite being a long stage it's really easy to do, change directions three frames before the next turn. The obstacles can be avoided on the first or last possible frame, the first possible frame is preferable only on "Rail Out" sections. Rash is eight frames ahead of Pimple, so, do something with Rash, count six frames and then repeat with Pimple, simple as that.

Bonus Round: Dominoes

Another one of those unwanted bonus stages, luckily this one is short.

Stage 6: Rat's Race

No graphical glitches this time, sorry. On the comparison chart I said that this stage is 1481 frames faster now, but this chart sums stage+boss or stage+bonus, I think you figured this out already but it's good to mention to avoid misunderstandings.

Boss: Dark Queen

Watch memory addresses in this fight is quite complicated as it's random; press a different button or direction before the fight and prepare yourself to search for a new address. But the one hit kill trick eliminates the hassle, a little bit of the entertainment is also gone though.

Boss: Silas Volkmire

This is the man to kill if you want the good ending! Spoiler: After beating a game that is so hard on some sections, the designers should have come up with at least a static picture with the toads and the girl they just rescued, but no, there's just a stupid text saying that the boss escaped!

Possible Improvements

I've quoted a line from T-Bird, on the Bowling Pins bonus stage; it's neither present in the published run nor in my run. So, what? Well, I haven't figured out how, but it may be possibe to manipulate what the Dark Queen and T-Bird say between the stages so you only have to skip shorter text. Also, PJ posted a video on the forum of him skipping the first stage with a glitch on console, you bet we tried to reproduce this glitch on emulator, as you can see we didn't succeed, but a run featuring that glitch would save tons of time.

Special Thanks

feos, for his awesome Battletoads & Double Dragon run, the one hit kill trick and most of the style of my run was inspired on his run, but also for feedback on the forum, thank you. PJ, his SDA run is also amazing and his tricks inspired me to find new solutions to solve parts of the run that otherwise would be a lot slower, thank you. FODA and Vatchern, the way I finish some enemies is a carbon copy of their strategies, thank you guys!

Apologies

I said on the forum that I was posting less wips due to people not commenting every time I released a new one; it was childish on my part. Not commenting does not mean not watch or support, I realized that now and so I'm sorry. I hope you have enjoyed the run. See you... mm... well, still don't know which one will be my next run, but whatever it is, without your support it will be meaningless, so see you there!

Suggested Screenshot

[dead link removed]
StageFrames Saved
Dark Volcano722
Hollow Tree52
Speeder Bikes56
Snake Pit522
Tracktors68
Rat's Race1481
Total2901

Nach: Let me start by saying that this is an absolutely amazing TAS. Also, thank you so much for taking a game off my list. I'm especially pleased to see it done on an emulator which doesn't have huge emulation flaws.
It seems the game wasn't hard enough, so you had to up the difficulty with fighting yourself! Segment after segment, you made it look way too easy. Skuzz was completely left in the dust. The Snake Pit was your personal workout room. The Dark Queen after meeting you decided she'd rather play with Billy and Jimmy, they're less violent. Also, best ending, terrific.
I'm accepting this game, and giving the previous one the boot. The spiked boot. Or the concrete fist, whichever works for you.
feos: Processing.


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No, sorry. Even though there are still possible things to improve, it's not in my plans to start it all over. Entertainment: 6.5.? Pretty good. This is above the average of some of my runs, so thank you!
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
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Well, I never noticed there was 'music move' in previous speedrun, but I think this TAS is as good as predesessor. I love some parts when toads kich each other to fight off more enemies. Suggested screenshot was great choice, too.
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Odongdong: Music moves were in NES warped toads. I'd wish that feature to become a TAS visiting card, a trend.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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I'm watching that run right now, and trying to assimilate as much as I can. Rest assured that I'll put as much "dance to the music" that I possibly can in my next run :)
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
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First bonus stage: would the tally take less time if you end the stage with zero pins? Hoverbike stage: is the scrolling speed for all segments (except the last one, obviously) equal? Does the stage end a fixed number of frames after you've crossed the finish line? Rat Race stage: would doing a jump before falling off a ledge help build up downward acceleration?
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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edit; @ moozooh; 1 = No. I did the comparison after the toads lose all energy. 2 = Yes and yes. All segments are equal in speed, but staying on the right side seems more difficult. 3 = No. You slow down if you jump. Also, sometimes you can run, by pressing forward twice, but then you can't turn around as fast as walking, thus it's slower too. Finished watching the NES run; Let's see if I got that right; ~10 seconds of an almost unnoticeable dance in Snake Pit? To be honest, I was hoping to see something like X-Men in Arcade's Revenge, oh well...
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
PJ
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That Arcade's Revenge TAS is SOOOO GOOOOOD. I have seen it close to 10 times already. <_<
Expert player (2470)
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You can say that again, it's really well done. The part where Gambit dances to the music, the one I mentioned in my previous post, is simply one of the best ever made in my opinion.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Joined: 2/26/2011
Posts: 98
Dooty wrote:
You can say that again, it's really well done. The part where Gambit dances to the music, the one I mentioned in my previous post, is simply one of the best ever made in my opinion.
Say it a third time, even. OK. So this TAS was very entertaining for me. I am a huge fan of Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, even though it is a game that caused me lots of pain as a youth. Any kind of TAS or speedrun of a Battletoads game is cool to watch, and I've seen a number of them already, which is why it is somewhat surprising how this TAS makes such a big impression. Thanks for combining technical and entertainment skill into a great TAS for a great game. Looking forward to seeing more.
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. ---- [2115] SNES Battletoads in Battlemaniacs "2 players" by Dooty in 18:19.75
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submission text has a mistake "imporove"
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.