(Link to video)
Joe & Mac 2 - Lost in the Tropics is a sequel to Joe & Mac. It is follow-up to Congo's Caper, the second game of the Joe & Mac series.

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.11.4
  • Uses a game restart sequence
  • Takes damage to save time

Story

  • A caveman named Gork has stolen the crown belonging to the Chief of Kali Village, and it's up to Joe or Mac to retrieve it. But before,
Joe and Mac should go in search of the seven rainbow stones in order to reach Gork's Lair, where the crown was kept in the hands of Gork.

Tricks

  • Reset Trick
At the Frame 18 when you start this game, if you press Soft Reset, it's possible to skip the Data East and the Licensed by Nintendo Logos. It saves a lot of time! Discovered by Me.
  • Hanging in the Air Glitch
When Joe reaches the left edge of the screen, normally he will be pushed off the rope; when he is about to fall off, swing your club and he will remain airborne hanging on thin air. You can keep him airborne indefinitely by doing frame perfect club swings successively. It's only possible during the first autoscroller of the Snow Stage. Discovered by Orange Claw Hammer.
  • Faster Turnaround
While Joe or Mac is running, you can turn direction if you follow this instruction:
  • The sequence of inputs is:
1. You are dashing, i.e. holding > or < and L/R (depending of your direction)
2. You reverse direction and while doing so also stop holding L/R, so you go from > + L/R, to < alone or < + L/R, to > alone (depending of your direction)
3. Hold < or >. After 8 frames, press and hold L/R again, along with < or >. Trick discovered by Orange Claw Hammer.
  • Boss RNG Manipulation
During this Boss Battles, using a pause game, it's possible to manipulate RNG Position and RNG Attacks, depending of this boss attacks or positions. Discovered by Me.

Introduction

  • Thanks a Reset Trick, I skipped the Data East and Licensed by Nintendo Logos to the Title Screen!
Kali Village
  • I exit this village.

Kali Valley

Kali Kali Valley
  • Nothing much to say here.
Taka Hills
  • It's not possible to reach for the other side without the help of worm. After riding the cart and break up, instead of downwards the vine, I skipped this as soon as this horizontal camera is activated, allowing Joe to move forward much earlier for some frames.
A Stegasaurus
  • Okay, this is an autoscroller part. You have no choice but to wait until night. During this time, I took advantage to make entertainment. Before the Stegosaurus to be asleep, it's possible to make the cavemen become kind of automatically slide off screen, but with a wrong air position.
  • Instead to move forward, I avoid the freezing of character movement being at the center on the screen on the frame which this process is initiated after the stegosaurus get to sleep.
  • Once again, you'll wait until start this Battle.

Boss: Stegosaurus

  • It's a easy boss to defeat. So with caution for holes!
After this, You'll automatically recieve the first (Red) Rainbow Stone! Your character will also automatically reach The Tiki Village.

The Tiki Village

  • I exit this village.

Snow Stage

The Snowy Rockies
  • During the autoscroller, a visual glitch is used for entertainment. Before to reach the locked door, for unknown reasons, it's only possible to get the key going on closed door and then kill the enemy who has the Key.
Icy River
  • Nothing much to say here.
The White Maze
  • Ducking to avoid one of this enemies is 1 frame faster than clubing. Before the other autoscroller, 6 frames were improved using two clubs instead of 3 clubs: killing 3 enemies with each elub instead of 2 enemies.

Boss: Triceratops

  • It's more harder than first boss, but not tougher than Gork!
After this, you'll automatically recieve the fourth (Green) Rainbow Stone!

Jungle Stage

The Deep Tropics
  • Nothing much to say here.
Trouble in the Treetops
  • Nothing much to say here.
The Windy Valley
  • Another Autoscroller part! More entertainment is made during this autoscroller. Note: It's not possible bring caveman to this Boss,
forcing automatically the caveman to die.

Boss: Pterodactyl

  • I hit Pterodactyl 4 times during this first cycle. A pause game is used to change RNG Position of this boss, because defeating in this lower position is much faster than high position. I delivered a last hit a few frames later to save more frames.
After this, you'll automatically recieve the third (Yellow) Rainbow Stone!

Swamp Stage

Murky Swampland
  • I get a Club Upgrade, this help to save time in...
Tunnel of Horrors
  • I stayed the maximum time in the water, because running on the Water is faster than no-water. Thanks for projectile of club upgrade, i hit a caveman and other cavemen earlier than club each time.
Obstacles Ahead
  • Nothing much to say here.

Boss: Elasmosaurus

  • I took three cycles to defeat this boss.
After this, You'll automatically recieve the fifty (Light Blue) Rainbow Stone!

Volcano Stage

The Scarlet Carpet
  • Nothing much to say here.
The Boiler
  • Nothing much to say here.
Animal Tracks
  • Instead of wait to descend first and second rows of stone columns, I grab the rope to reach much faster on the stone columns. Before of start the second autoscroller of this stage, i did a Jump on the exactly moment when the screen starts autoscrolling, saving 6 frames.

Boss: Tyrannosaurus

  • Once again, I did a pause game to change RNG Position of this boss.
After this, you'll automatically recieve the sixth (Blue) Rainbow Stone!

The Tiki Village

  • I go to talking with old man to recieve the second (Orange) Rainbow Stone, and I get a ride back to Kali Village.
Kali Village
  • OH NO! A Village in Flames! Because of this problem, the village became an autoscroller level.

Boss: Gork

  • Gork is TOUGH! He is much harder than other bosses of this game. During the Battle, I taked damage to manipulate the attacks of Gork (1 cycle only) to save 1 frame.
After defeating Gork, You'll automatically recieve the last (Purple) Rainbow Stone! After this, go to the level entrance to the Southwest of Tiki Village. The stones will do their thing and build a bridge to the Gork's Lair!

Gork's Lair

Rainforest
  • I wait for worm moves 1-2 frames to give possibility to reach the other side.
The Boneyard
  • This part is like a Boss Rush of Megaman games! Joe will have to defeat this bosses again!
In all Re-Fights, I avoid the freezing of character movement being at the center on the screen after defeating each boss.
Two notable difference for this TAS:
  • I did a pause trick once again, to manipulate RNG Position of this 2 cycles of Pterodactyl Boss Re-Fight.
  • During the Triceratops and Water Dino Re-Fights, their invincibility times is much longer than regular fight. It can't be avoided.
Foreboding Cave
  • It is now time to move forward. You'll have to re-fight Gork now!

Boss: Gork (Again)

  • Same strategy.
After defeat Gork, Joe will go towards the crown to retrieve it but Gork will ask it for more power. Unbelievably the crown will help the person who stole it, leading to this second phase of this Battle.

Final Boss: Enchanted Gork

I did a pause game three times to change RNG Attack, because 1 of 3 spinning attacks of this Boss is much faster than other 2 attacks.
After this defeat, grab this crown and...
...END.
Special Thanks to
  • Orange Claw Hammer, for watching my WIPs, for pointing several mistakes of my first 2 WIPs, for Hanging in the Air Glitch, Faster Turnaround Trick, and for Avoid Camera Strategy.
Suggested Screenshots

Samsara: Joe-dging.
Samsara: Excellent first run. Accepting for Moons.
feos: Pub.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5151: Challenger's SNES Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics in 19:31.22
caitsith2
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Posts: 194
Edit: Youtube encode made. Link to video Edit 2: Modern downloadable encodes - (a copy of the HD encode also resides there)
mklip2001
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Thanks for the encode, caitsith2! This game is a lot more watchable than the first Joe & Mac. There still isn't a ton of gameplay variety shown, but the run looks smooth. I actually like seeing the brief pauses for luck manipulation, like it demystifies what a TASer does.
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.
Challenger
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Posts: 1036
Thanks for the encode, caitsith2! This screen of this encode is my favorite screen of my run!
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Joined: 2/28/2009
Posts: 99
mklip2001 wrote:
This game is a lot more watchable than the first Joe & Mac
Indeed, it's always frustrated me a bit that the original Joe & Mac gets a decent amount of attention from the speedrunning community while this game gets almost none. Glad someone finally picked this game up to TAS! Well done Challenger, glad I could help out throughout the process. Also, my guess of 19:30ish for the final time was pretty spot-on :P
Challenger
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Orange Claw Hammer wrote:
mklip2001 wrote:
This game is a lot more watchable than the first Joe & Mac
Indeed, it's always frustrated me a bit that the original Joe & Mac gets a decent amount of attention from the speedrunning community while this game gets almost none. Glad someone finally picked this game up to TAS! Well done Challenger, glad I could help out throughout the process. Also, my guess of 19:30ish for the final time was pretty spot-on :P
You are right! This second game is much better than first game, despite of almost no attention for speedrunning community. I'm first player to make a official speedrun of this game! Very thanks, Orange Claw Hammer! I'm glad for your help and support during of this project. This is my first complete project of TAS! And is a my second TAS game to work.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
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Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Orange Claw Hammer wrote:
mklip2001 wrote:
This game is a lot more watchable than the first Joe & Mac
Indeed, it's always frustrated me a bit that the original Joe & Mac gets a decent amount of attention from the speedrunning community while this game gets almost none.
The first game is a classic in the arcade games and has ports to half a dozen other systems; it's pretty well known. The version we have on our site is the NES version (which is one of the poorer ports of the game due to system limits); speedrunners tend to use the SNES or Arcade version instead.
caitsith2
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Posts: 194
Archive.org link. Link to video EDIT: HD re-encode available. EDIT 2: Retracting this HD encode. revision still uploading. Archive.org files revised. EDIT 3: Revised HD encode available.
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. ---- [3172] SNES Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics by Challenger in 19:31.22