(Link to video)
This run is an 21 frame improvement over the published run due to a completely new route. This run was at first created to test if this new route would even be faster as it was impossible to tell without greatly optimizing it.
  • Emulator used: VisualBoyAdvance re-recording v23.6
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Abuses glitches
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Best ending

Tricks used

Up/down + A or B combos

This allows link to do a variety of glitchy things with items such as the sword, shield, shovel, etc… Using up/down/b allows the owl text near the sword to be skipped and helps with killing enemies.

Corner Boosts

When you walk past a corner you can move into it slightly to push Link a maximum of 2 pixels forward. Often you can only save 1 pixel due to the sideways walking mechanics.

Screen Transition Boosts

This trick only works when Link is traveling vertically between screens. By clipping as close as you can into a wall that leads to the next screen and pressing the direction you’re headed plus the direction of the wall (for 1 or 4 frames depending on diagonal movement mechanics), Link gets a “boost” when he can first start moving on the next screen. This saved around 2-3 pixels. Ideally, you want to just press the direction for 1 frame, because you usually loose a frame if more are held, but it can’t be avoided in some cases.

Fire bat stun

This is done by playing the ocarina on a certain frame right before a fire bat flies towards you. The fire bat then remains on the screen.

Dethl skip

With a fire bat stuck on the screen, the game glitches out in a similar way to the GB LA run and the fire bat changes into a Dethl and explodes. The game then considers it dead which triggers the stairs despite one still being on the screen.

Enemy manipulation

From what I’ve seen there are two stages of manipulating what an enemy does when you enter the screen it’s on. First is the frame that the enemy starts moving on. This can be manipulated by delaying input and entering the screen with the desired enemy some frames later. The other way this can be manipulated is by using items such as your sword or shield. In the case of this run, the shield is the only optimal way to go; By shielding on screens before you get to the desired enemy, you can also manipulate when it starts moving. The second stage of manipulation is what direction the enemy heads in. On the frame right before they move this can be manipulated with different input including a/b and directional input. Additionally sometimes shielding randomly before the enemy moves can help manipulate it. Methods for manipulating the first stage work here as well.

Useful memory addresses

0000FF9A – x speed (in subpixels)
0000FF9B – y speed (in subpixels)
0000FF98 – x coordinate (in pixels)
0000FF99 – y coordinate (in pixels)
0000DBB5 – number of enemies killed.
0000C200 - x coordinate of boss
0000c210 - y coordinate of boss

Stage by stage comments

Obtaining the Sword

-The entire start of the TAS up to getting the sword was unchanged and the same as the published run.

Setting up the doghouse glitch to get the ocarina

After getting the sword is when the route first changes. In order to prefer a later glitch, we need the ocarina. One way this can be obtained is by using the doghouse glitch with 8 enemies killed and opening a certain chest. Killing 8 enemies on the way back from getting the sword proved to be a challenge to manipulate. One thing to note on the screen where I kill enemies 5 and 6 is that a little time is killed waiting for one of the enemies to fully die, as it doesn't count if you enter the next screen too early. The next screen also proved to be a challenge to manipulate. I had to make the octorok walk a certain way so that when I finished climbing the stairs, it would be in an ideal place to damage boost of off. This required hours of trial and error to get the desired behavior. The screen with enemies 7 and 8 is also worth noting. Initially I had to swing my sword twice with a short delay between swings so it would connect with the first enemy, but I found a way around this. By pressing <^vAB, I was able to hit both enemies at the same time with one swing. Sadly this didn't cut the grass but I was able to cut it on the next frame where link could attack. A heart drop was manipulated for one later damage boost and for health during the end of the run. From there it was just walking back to the doghouse in a similar way as the published run does.

First time in the underground

In the underground there is a lack of music, so I did what I could with the shield to try to make some beats. The screens I entered all had the shortest amount of loading time, corner boosts were used where I could find them, and a damage boost was applied to save a little time. After opening the chest the game is immediately reset.

Setting up the doghouse glitch again

After resetting you will always appear in Taron's house. I used a <^vAB attack on Bow-Wow to get a quick double sword boost. I ended up 2 pixels below my desired location, but didn't lose any frames walking diagonally up those 2 pixels. From here I used the shield at a bunch of random times to manipulate when one of the octoroks started moving and after a while got very desirable results. From there it was just getting back to the doghouse again.

Getting to the boss

Like the start of this run I hex edited in my input from the published run because I feel it was solid.

The boss battle

At the start of the boss fight I lost one frame (which happened to be the frame I didn't know how I saved in the last one). I messed around and realized it was highly dependent on when you entered the boss room. Depending on when you entered, the first form could always jump on a certain frame. It proved impossible to save this frame by delaying time, or by switching out the ocarina there, so I just had to go with it. Once the Ganon fight began, I needed to stun a fire bat at some point by playing the ocarina. I found that if you play your ocarina right after doing a spin attack, it will cancel the animation allowing you to swing your sword once the ocarina text is finished. The best cancel I was able to get was 4 frames after damaging Ganon. I took damage before climbing the stairs in order to stay alive while on them.
Overall, a total of 21 frames were saved with this new route.
Two other things I wanted to add are that I used VBA 23.6 since all my prior work for LA and LADX has been done on VBA and I felt most comfortable with it for this project. Also, I included the "best ending" as a goal since the prior run is incorrectly tagged with this (dying to the shopkeeper in that run gets you the normal ending). The Marin ending (her face isn't viable in my encode since it flickers on screen every other frame) and a thanks from the developers is given in this run.

Nach: Nice improved, good response, accepting as improvement to existing run.
Guga: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
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Patashu
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'Well, it's an Ocarina, but you have no idea how to play it...' In a fit of bumbling serendipity, Link plays 'Serenade of Skip the Final Boss' on his ocarina.
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Spikestuff
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Good luck to whoever is figuring out the branch name. Anyways, yes vote.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
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I love the shield music you make at the start :P
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Two other things I wanted to add are that I used VBA 23.6 since all my prior work for LA and LADX has been done on VBA and I felt most comfortable with it for this project.
That doesn't seem like a good reason to use an older version of an emulator, especially when future ones have different (usually more) lag thus making it very hard to prove it's faster. :/
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Bah ha ha! I just noticed Link was drumming the music to 1942 with this shield in the glitch dungeon. The run gets a yes vote just for that. XD
Tompa
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How many different glitch worlds did you test? I would imagine there is one with both the Ocarina and the boss entrance in one.
MESHUGGAH
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I liked the glitches =) Yes vote.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Spikestuff
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jlun2 wrote:
That doesn't seem like a good reason to use an older version of an emulator, especially when future ones have different (usually more) lag thus making it very hard to prove it's faster. :/
It's an obsoleted emulator but it hasn't been placed to the "not accepted at all" area.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
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That boss fight was one of the funniest I ever watched. Said YES without a doubt. Nice glitch !
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Tompa wrote:
How many different glitch worlds did you test? I would imagine there is one with both the Ocarina and the boss entrance in one.
I checked a good number of chests in different underworlds but never found the ocarina. In the underworld I did go to I was unable to find any glitched tiles that would take link to the underworld with the boss room in it. One question I have is about the timing of this run; the timing on this run should be something like 5:37.533, but is instead longer. Is this correct or a site glitch or something?
Patashu
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Bobmario511 wrote:
Tompa wrote:
How many different glitch worlds did you test? I would imagine there is one with both the Ocarina and the boss entrance in one.
I checked a good number of chests in different underworlds but never found the ocarina. In the underworld I did go to I was unable to find any glitched tiles that would take link to the underworld with the boss room in it. One question I have is about the timing of this run; the timing on this run should be something like 5:37.533, but is instead longer. Is this correct or a site glitch or something?
http://tasvideos.org/PlatformFramerates.html If you time a run that is X frames long at 59.7275005696058 FPS or at 60 FPS you will get two different lengths. The former is how long it would be if run on a real gameboy/gameboy advance. The latter is an incorrect length that you would only get in inaccurate emulators that run the game at 60 FPS exactly. The time you think it is is the time at 60 FPS. The time tasvideos reports is the time at 59.7275005696058 FPS. If you run the math you will see this is exactly correct.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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I just noticed something. The branch is "glitched". Isn't it supposed to be warps or something?
Patashu
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jlun2 wrote:
I just noticed something. The branch is "glitched". Isn't it supposed to be warps or something?
It'll be fixed when it's published.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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. ---- [2628] GBC The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX "warp glitch" by Bobmario511 in 05:39.06
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Are my eyes going bad, or does this have a longer time than what it obsoleted? Should we put in the description why that is?
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
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xnamkcor wrote:
Are my eyes going bad, or does this have a longer time than what it obsoleted? Should we put in the description why that is?
Look at the frame count on each submission this run is shorter than what it obsoletes.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Patashu
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xnamkcor wrote:
Are my eyes going bad, or does this have a longer time than what it obsoleted? Should we put in the description why that is?
Possibly the old movie was timed at 60 fps and the new one at 59.7275005696058
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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Patashu wrote:
xnamkcor wrote:
Are my eyes going bad, or does this have a longer time than what it obsoleted? Should we put in the description why that is?
Possibly the old movie was timed at 60 fps and the new one at 59.7275005696058
Don't you guys usually mention that in the description when that happens?
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames." Frames 16:26
Noxxa
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xnamkcor wrote:
Patashu wrote:
xnamkcor wrote:
Are my eyes going bad, or does this have a longer time than what it obsoleted? Should we put in the description why that is?
Possibly the old movie was timed at 60 fps and the new one at 59.7275005696058
Don't you guys usually mention that in the description when that happens?
Yes. You may notice though that the publication description hasn't been written yet. Obviously someone will need to write it first, then you can see it mentioned in the description.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Patashu
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Mothrayas wrote:
xnamkcor wrote:
Patashu wrote:
xnamkcor wrote:
Are my eyes going bad, or does this have a longer time than what it obsoleted? Should we put in the description why that is?
Possibly the old movie was timed at 60 fps and the new one at 59.7275005696058
Don't you guys usually mention that in the description when that happens?
Yes. You may notice though that the publication description hasn't been written yet. Obviously someone will need to write it first, then you can see it mentioned in the description.
That's not good enough! I want it done yesterday! ;)
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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Patashu wrote:
That's not good enough! I want it done yesterday! ;)
Sorry, it was already done tomorrow.
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.
Patashu
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Congrats on passing 100k nicovideo hits Link to video
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu