This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4427: Zephyrz's NES A Boy and His Blob in 01:23.50

om, nom, nom

Oops. I uploaded the wrong .fm2 file. What should I do to fix that?

Oops. I uploaded the wrong .fm2 file. What should I do to fix that?

I'm not an admin, but upload it to movie storage and update your submission text to indicate where the correct file is. Be sure that your movie beats the existing run, of course. Best of luck!

Thanks. I've now done that. I accidently left in a large chunk of blank inputs after the final one in the uploaded with the submission so it added over 4k extra frames.

Oh so it's 1:24.05 run oh that's a sigh of relief. Entertaining and shorter so Yes.

Link to video

Sweet Zombie Jesus on a Pogo Stick.. that was mindblowing! I mean that looks ABSURDLY easy to pull off in real time... and without the precociousness of the last TAS with holes a plenty. This definitely has destroyed a childhood game in ways never thought imaginable. Definite Yes vote!! Mr. Kelly R. Flewin

That's a pretty big improvement! Good job, yes vote.

Gonna need an explanation for what happened here lol

Voting yes cause I'm confused as to what actually happened.

Gonna need an explanation for what happened here lol

the run starts off pretty normal. you throw a root beer jellybean to make blob turn into a rocket and fly left. this isn't a glitch. when you land, things change a bit from the previous route. someone found out recently that if you throw a jellybean off screen while whistling the blob back (pressing b) and holding left, you can fall down to the next screen. clips like this have been known for a long time (see: the current published TAS in 1:41), but it required a different method where you had to fall down, land in the hole again, then quickly whistle and hold left. the difference is now you don't need to fall down into another screen in order to clip, you simply just need to throw the bean off screen. this is why we can clip earlier than the 1:41 TAS. not only does it save time there, but it also saves time when you fall (you dont have to go as many screens to the left), and at the end (we can clip instantly after exiting the final boss room, instead of going to the left for several screens). after passing through the credits, we enter the final boss screen. the problem is that the final boss is not loaded. we use a ketchup jellybean to spawn blob in the cage, and then use the tangerine jellybean to get over the wall. by the way, once you enter that room, you cannot exit back to the right, it just simply wont let you. after that, we do the same thing to get out of the screen. the reason we want to get out is because we can reenter quickly and load the final boss. but why not kill him right there? we can't get over the rock when we reenter the room. so we simply get out again, and do the same clipping method on the next screen so we can enter a glitched version of the final boss room. then we throw a ketchup to spawn blob in the room, and then throw an apple to kill the final boss with the jack. the reason you see the credits and stuff is because they are technically screens in the game data, but obviously you weren't supposed to access them. in the final screen where you cant see anything because the game is glitched out, this is what is actually happening http://youtu.be/QcWajywEfE0?t=23m10s you might also be wondering how do we know what bean we are throwing in the last screen because you cannot read what the bean is due to the glitched out text. there's two methods: memorize how many beans you are away from the apple, or look for something that resembles "kpp" in the glitched text (this is the method I use). i have tried doing this clip in the credits screen + when you first enter the boss room, and what ends up happening is you get blob into its hole form, and when you go into it, you just fall forever (you just fall from the top of the screen, and you can't do anything about it). but who knows, maybe someone will find a way :) i know im rambling at this point, but this makes runs of this game a lot easier. i haven't played the game since AGDQ and i picked it up again yesterday due to the new find and got a 1:46 (non-tas timing is start --> win screen). i further improved it to 1:44.93 today, which is about 9 seconds off this TAS. I think it can be brought down a second, but it was a solid run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdF8IRfD2dI

Thanks. I've now done that.

I was able to console verify this using true's original replay board (video proof coming eventually, probably after this is published though unless true beats me to it). Congrats on the run!

Thanks xcd!

Is David Crane part of the game's name?

so someone coded the "tilting the cartrige" function in FCEUX.... impressive... yes vote

Liked, Laughed, Yesvoted!

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone! xcd pointed out to me that my trampolines weren't exactly optimal and he was right. Ended up finding what I did wrong and saved another 33 frames! new upload: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/17322661248366697 If I find some time I'll actually write up a decent explanation of what's going on, but school and work are kind of killing me right now. xcd did a decent job explaining things for now if you want to know what's happening in the run.

Congratulations to your first TAS, Zephyrz! Thanks to your movie, the mechanics are easy to learn from the input, so I've started to optimize it and will upload it once I'm done (as you wrote previously, you won't have much time soon) My latest attempt is 5001 frames.

Is David Crane part of the game's name?

Yep: http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/david-cranes-a-boy-and-his-blob-trouble-on-blobolonia

Dang MESHUGGAH! I guess having more TASing experience under your belt helps out with optimizing. I didn't think there'd me much room for improvement, but you've proved me wrong. Haha. And yeah, this is my last year of undergrad so I've got a pretty serious course load eating up my free time.

Is David Crane part of the game's name?

Yep: http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/david-cranes-a-boy-and-his-blob-trouble-on-blobolonia

Huh. I wonder would the previous movies have to be renamed then (along with the encodes). :P

Okay, I've learned the game so I'm going to implement every optimizations missing (trampoline "release", speed and pixel (subpos doesn't seems to be used by the game), blob positioning). Once I'm done, I will ask Zephyrz to add me as a co author and upload it to movie storage. Currently 4952 frames, probably ~8 frames will be saved more.

I'm currently finishing the game in 4932 frames without a few new founds I discovered by randomly mashing buttons (and watching lua script) and speed controlling is a bit slow progress. So I'm going to make a new movie file and of course upload the 4932 frame long for this publication if you want to publish the movie until I complete the TAS from the beginning...