CoolKirby's Adventure is a great game. If you have a spare minute, watch our TAS. This is the result of an extensive frame war where 6 TASers participated, namely (in alphabetical order): CoolKirby, Masterjun, MESHUGGAH, mugg, TASeditor and TRT.
Note: Submission text is subject to change.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.1
  • Uses Old-PPU (the only thing is changes on different PPU is the credits glitch which can be remanipulated)
  • Aims for shortest input
  • Entertains without losing a frame
  • Uses reset button
  • Abuses game-breaking bug
  • Manipulates luck
  • Manipulates game

The story of this movie

TASeditor demonstrated a wall clipping trick on slopes. The next day, CoolKirby submitted #3976: CoolKirby's NES Kirby's Adventure "glitched" in 00:39.07 that abused the same bug from the previous TAS but now at the very first possible place: the 3rd room of level 1 using TASeditor's discovery. And another frame war had begun.
In the spirit of [2208] N64 Super Mario 64 "all 120 stars" by mkdasher, Nahoc, sonicpacker, Jesus, Kyman, MoltovM, SilentSlayers, snark, ToT, Bauru, Eru, Goronem, Mokkori, Nothing693 & pasta in 1:20:41.52 (as feos suggested), the 6 authors: MESHUGGAH, CoolKirby, Masterjun, MUGG, TASeditor, and was0x submit this movie as a team, since everyone made improvements and improved others' efforts. MESHUGGAH is the main author because he found the last improvements for this run.

How do you complete the game under 36 seconds?

You rush to the first possible place where you can abuse a game breaking glitch which triggers the ending credits (or various scene related subroutines) by using the Stone ability in water. While Stone Kirby will turn back into Kirby upon touching the surface of the water, entering a pool of water from below or from the side causes the game to crash. However, on the last frame before the game crashes, you can press Start and a few other buttons to manipulate the game to jump to the credits instead.
Other than that, there were various little tricks thrown in by the 6 TASers like subpixel positioning, removing enemies at lowest cost to save lag frames, dashing at cliffs, bunnyhopping to maintain movement speed, optimizing jumping lengths and inhaling, comparing different routes (sometimes you need to be slower to be faster) and rolling suitable RNGs.

MESHUGGAH's comments

Hi guys and girls. Do you wanna know what I implemented in order to shorten this TAS?
Optimizing sub pixel positions and jumps
using MUGG's lua script, later Masterjun's lua script, I could optimize the route to make it as fast as possible. To understand how much the game lags, in the movie it was faster to run down from the hill instead of jumping over it with a higher movement speed.
Inhaling three creatures instead of two
this way I lost position but saved lag frames, so I could continue the route faster.
Dashing through sparky
killing sparky removed many lag frames.
Delaying the leaving of a room
when you improve a "lag frame", the next occasion a lag appears will be different (of course this has other factors like objects on screen). Using TASeditor's idea of sacrificing frames to start the next room and combining this with slowing down at the early part of room 2, I could keep my improvements without losing them (except 1 frame which was otherwise impossible to make faster or even as fast as this way does). This saved much more than 10 frames alone instead of 1 frame (or even 0 frame).
Jumping through room 2 gap with 1 jump and breath
looks a bit funny, but this is 2 frames faster than any other strategy.
Wallclipping
you can clip over a slope if you time your jump's peak point to go through 1-2 pixels long walls. Movement speed and lag frames can fool you.
And for entertainment,
Glitch the ending graphics
this is input- and PPU clock/CPU cycle dependent. The reason I used this is to destroy the game after tedious TASing sessions.
I would like to thank CoolKirby for starting this madness, TASeditor for his great ideas and advice that helped me a lot, MUGG and Masterjun for their precious lua files and route strategies as well as was0x, and others who answered my questions on both forums and IRC. I hope you like this movie, as much as I hate the game now.
See you until my next frame war TAS =)

CoolKirby's comments

Hi, I'm Daisy CoolKirby! I started work on the original run after seeing TASeditor's new clipping glitch 53 minutes after he posted it. After a moment of decision, I spent the rest of my afternoon and night creating the 39.07 run, submitting it before I went to bed. This was definitely a challenge for me, as I had no experience with a game like this and didn't know how to optimize it quite as well as, say, MESHUGGAH did. I did the best I could though, and submitted it thinking it wasn't very improvable.
...needless to say, I learned a lot about advanced TASing techniques from my part in this frame war, especially from TASeditor and MESHUGGAH. While my hours and hours of trying to find an improvement myself but finding nothing were pretty discouraging, I did manage to save a frame once and establish my place in the frame war.
I'm really glad I was bested, because the run looks a lot better now with all the crazy new tricks and that wacky ending. And it couldn't have been done without all 5 of these other guys, especially MESHUGGAH (who must be a genius). Hope you all enjoy the run!

TASeditor's comments

Hi there!
How did I find the clipping glitch?
I actually was just playing a bit around, cause I was bored. Of course I did some pointless things, including jumping up a hill with turbo-fire button, then I accidentally found the clipping glitch. I was sure this could be used to improve the glitched TAS.
What have I achieved in the end?
Nothing! At the end I only shared ideas with MESHUGGAH, so he could squeeze out a bit more of the game. Thanks to MESHUGGAH for optimizing this run.

Masterjun's comments

Haha good job MESHUGGAH!
What did I do to be included here?
I actually just once saved 3 frames at the slope jump at the end, which was then sometime improved even more by MESHUGGAH (removing the lag by turning around instead of slowing down and creating laggy smoke). I also debugged the game and figured out how the RNG advances and how it determines the moves of the enemies. The lua script for it was already linked above somewhere...
How did I debug the game?
Well I... wait nobody actually wants to know this. It was easy by using the useful trace logging feature.
What else can I say?
Oh man I just love that glitched ending, haha. Also, lag frames can be a pain for every TASer! Seriously, how would anybody understand Slowing down to save time?

feos: Accepting too Moons. As for the alternate encode with regular ending, it must be added to the publication as a second YouTuber with a notice in the movie description explaining the second link.
Ilari: Processing...

Joined: 3/9/2009
Posts: 530
I'm on team "non-glitched ending" too. It's actually immediately recognizable as the ending credits instead of relying on familiarity with the game to be impressed. Someone here even though the game was still being played.
MESHUGGAH
Other
Skilled player (1884)
Joined: 11/14/2009
Posts: 1349
Location: 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝑦𝔞𝔯
Looks like I'm the only one (and maybe GhostSonic) who can interpret the meaning of various informations from solely the encode. Pretty sure that other people thought "TH EN" is something like "Thaumaturge encapsulations" so yes it's pretty hard to understand this is really the end since who thought that a TAS will end the game after it's started? Sarcasm off, I don't care about it, so if that's the only problem, switch the ending.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Expert player, Publisher (2254)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6324
Location: The land down under.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Slowking wrote:
I mean you really have to know this game to even recognise that the credits have started when they are glitched. Casual viewers will be really confused why this TAS doesn't finish the game.
With a run as glitched like this, casual viewers will have no clue what is going on anyway, unless they're very familiar with the game or read the submission notes. That's part of the charm of a glitched run.
AnS
Emulator Coder, Experienced player (723)
Joined: 2/23/2006
Posts: 682
feos wrote:
Well how about this ending? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lnogpRPvY4#t=760s
The Rockman movie plays all levels and doesn't skip right to the glitched ending, thus it looks solid. The whole movie actually prepares viewer by progressively increasing the level of glitchness. The Kirby movie starts as normal, but then glitches out without building any dramatic tension to let people know that the result was arranged (that it indeed was a success and not a failure). The current glitched version just doesn't look satisfying enough. As for garbled graphics, I think I've seen this trick used too much, so I've become apathetic to it.
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Expert player, Publisher (2254)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6324
Location: The land down under.
Ans, so Battletoads (that's all I can say, just expand off that one)
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
MESHUGGAH
Other
Skilled player (1884)
Joined: 11/14/2009
Posts: 1349
Location: 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝑦𝔞𝔯
I already said, I don't care, switch the ending. So I would also like to people stop posting examples which are exactly not true. How comes the previous submission (MUGG's run where he suddenly goes under water and starts the credits) is "vastly different" than this one? I understand that not everyone can figure out TH EN, yes it really requires so high intelligent that only 10 people knows that this game is ended. When I first generated the scrambled endings (I think someone else did it too) without knowing anything about the game (and still don't know anything about it), I instantly realised that: nice, I glitched it up. Please just say "I don't like this ending" or don't even try to post something intelligent. edit: " As for garbled graphics, I think I've seen this trick used too much, so I've become apathetic to it." - and I saw TASes too much, so I've become apathetic to it.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
MESHUGGAH wrote:
I already said, I don't care, switch the ending.
Or don't. You've got 97% approval rate for this run as it is now, and there certainly aren't any site rules against glitched endings for a glitched run. Don't let a vocal minority bother you :) I'd wager that at least as many people prefer the glitched ending as those that dislike it (and that the majority of people don't care either way). Don't worry about it!
Joined: 3/4/2012
Posts: 74
I voted yes, but I'd still prefer the non-glitched ending. I'm guessing I'm not the only yes vote that would prefer the non-glitched ending. The solution of having both versions available in the publication seems like a good idea to me.
AnS
Emulator Coder, Experienced player (723)
Joined: 2/23/2006
Posts: 682
MESHUGGAH wrote:
edit: " As for garbled graphics, I think I've seen this trick used too much, so I've become apathetic to it." - and I saw TASes too much, so I've become apathetic to it.
Haha, but it's incomparable! TASing is art, while garbled graphics is simply a trope.
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Expert player, Publisher (2254)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6324
Location: The land down under.
And that's why an alternate version was made for the ones who complained.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
Active player (421)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
If we're making tases for the tas community only, I think the glitchy ending with "check the submission comments" is perfectly fine. Having it as the main publication on the site is OK by me. If we're thinking of Joe Youtube, I think it makes a lot of sense to have the regular ending there. We should at least consider folks who stumble upon the video after watching a Kirby Puckett highlight reel or something. So I guess what I'm getting at is yes vote.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
Most of dislikers stated they would be fine with having the non-glitched encode present somewhere in the publication. I'm not sure if it must be linked as usual or just from the description text. Since it would actually be two different movies, I prefer the text link. And yes, I will be glad to accept the current ending as the main movie.
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.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3854
Location: Germany
I think the ending should always be as clean as can be. If it's glitched it feels like the ending hasn't been fully achieved
Player (227)
Joined: 4/25/2012
Posts: 73
I would also approve much more of the non-glitched ending. The glitched ending is funny if you know what's going on, but the clean ending is far more satisfying in my opinion. If anything, I'd want the glitchy one to be the alternate encode, though it kind of loses its reason for existence in that case... ...which I think it actually a good argument for why the "clean" ending should be the official one. If the glitchy one is the main one, the clean alternate would exist to "validate" the glitched ending. On the other hand, if the clean ending was the main, than the glitchy ending basically falls to being nothing but an in-joke anyway... and really, I think it'd be better not to give publication priority to the in-joke.
ALAKTORN
He/Him
Player (99)
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 2527
Location: Italy
I agree with both of the above posts
Joined: 12/6/2008
Posts: 1193
MESHUGGAH wrote:
Please just say "I don't like this ending" or don't even try to post something intelligent.
I won't simply say "I don't like this ending" because that's not the problem I have with it. I didn't notice the first time watching, that the credits had started. I needed to watch it a second time and even then I just realised it because I had played this game before. If even not-so-casual viewers are slightly confused, casual viewers will be totally lost. I also disagree that casual viewers will be confused no matter what, like somebody else here said. If you glitch through the floor, do some trick and the credits start, they will know that you somehow glitched to the end of the game. If you perform that glitch and the screen goes all garbled up, they won't know what is going on. In the end you can do what you want. I was just giving my opinion. I don't know why you would want an ending where casual viewers won't be able to tell that the game has ended. I always thought tasvideos was about making entertaining movies for everybody. Btw. that the rest of the run is great was implied by me only complaining about the ending. ;D I for one just think that an ending this badly garbeld doesn't qualify as ending the game. Most people here seems to disagree, but that doesn't mean I can't give my opinion. Just because one can read "th" and "en" doesn't mean that it's actually the end screen. You can glitch graphics from all sorts of places into all sorts of other places in all sorts of NES and GB games. Granted here it is actually the end-screen, but as glitched up as it is it could be anything, really.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
Slowking wrote:
I always thought tasvideos was about making entertaining movies for everybody.
Unfortunately, being entertaining for everybody can not ever be reached, and this is never claimed. There is a goal to annoy the viewer as little as possible, but it concerns the quality of encodes. It is nowhere said to TASers: "Satisfy as much people as possible with your run". Here we don't have strong dislike of the ending, it's only a bit controversial, and most of dislikers agree to have an alternate encode, no? Very few people say "Publish the clean ending primarily", and even if they do, we can not rely on the minority, because then much more people would be annoyed.
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.
Joined: 3/9/2009
Posts: 530
feos wrote:
Very few people say "Publish the clean ending primarily", and even if they do, we can not rely on the minority, because then much more people would be annoyed.
Huh? Isn't the primary argument for the clean ending is that it's easy to understand and respect FOR the majority?
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
The argument that it is easy to understand for majority isn't equal to being asked by majority of forum posters. We can't rely on silent people while making submission decisions, we account what posters say and weight their words to make the decision sane to the most people. We also can not depend on people saying on youtube "tasing is cheating because I can't do that". If they want to know what happens, they read the info we make sure to provide. Otherwise, ignorance is their own fault
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.
Joined: 3/9/2009
Posts: 530
feos wrote:
The argument that it is easy to understand for majority isn't equal to being asked by majority of forum posters. We can't rely on silent people while making submission decisions, we account what posters say and weight their words to make the decision sane to the most people. We also can not depend on people saying on youtube "tasing is cheating because I can't do that". If they want to know what happens, they read the info we make sure to provide. Otherwise, ignorance is their own fault
Sooo... What's wrong with the ten or so people that have said it then?
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
Wait, you disagree to have the clean ending as the second youtuber in the publication?
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.
ALAKTORN
He/Him
Player (99)
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 2527
Location: Italy
I’m pretty sure we’re saying that the main publication should have a clean ending, as the game doesn’t feel over otherwise (and a casual viewer would just be left confused by the glitched end) and did someone actually count the people voicing for and against? we’re not that much of a minority I think
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2406] NES Kirby's Adventure "game end glitch" by MESHUGGAH, CoolKirby, Masterjun, MUGG, TASeditor & illayaya in 00:35.91
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
9 people disliked the glitched ending. 6 people liked it specifically. 7 people had no problems with the glitched ending and voted Yes for what was originally submitted, not mentioning the ending preference. 5 want two versions published alongside. 1 wants the glitched one to be replaced. People having no distraction by the glitched ending can be accounted as those who agree with publishing it. But the dislikers also were active, so the second youtuber is added. What is the problem I don't understand now? That the glitched one is not removed? Removing it was requested by a single person. That the clean ending is not encoded for downloadables? It can be done anytime. That the clean one is not primary? The opinions are slightly on the glitched one's side.
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.