(Link to video)
Gameplay Objectives
  • Fastest Completion
  • Uses death to save time

Overview

Böbl is a homebrew NES game developed by Morphcat Games for the NESdev Compo 2019. It is a nonlinear, metroidvania-lite platformer. You play as a little bubble, explore a collection of interconnected rooms, collect power ups to improve your movement and find rubber ducks to add to your collection. This TAS uses the 1.1 version of the game because it's a more complete version and doesnt have the crutch of being rushed to make a deadline for the contest.
This might possibly be the first BizHawk submission that was made using the Linux version of BizHawk.
Edit: turns out Juef beat us to the punch on that

Route

At the start, our bubble can only live in water, and landing on any other kind of terrain pops the bubble, sending us back to the latest checkpoint bell we rang. Aside from moving laterally, we can sink in water up to a certain depth by holding A or Down, and releasing it makes us buoyant again, giving us acceleration forward and allowing us a “jump” between bodies of water.
Three powerups are required to beat the game:
  • Dive Ball - increases how far we can sink in water, indirectly increasing our jump height too.
  • Iron Ball - allows for unlimited sinking and diving in water. Also allows the bubble to bounce off of solid ground once before touching water again.
  • Double Jump - allows for a small midair jump by tapping the B button.
We can quickly collect Dive Ball from our starting location, and then we head towards the Iron Ball upgrade. On our way, we run into clear pipes. Clear pipes can carry the bubble across. Weirdly, it appears that they take a variable amount of time to suck the bubble towards the pipe. Optimizing these suctions was a large consideration.
Once we navigate thru the pipes we get Iron Ball. With it, we can take a convenient shortcut towards the deeper area of the map and navigate to the Double Jump update. Here we use an intentional death to quickly respawn at a convenient checkpoint after collecting the update, avoiding a large amount of backtracking. From here, we double jump to make it thru the final gate and reach the final section.
The sky has almost no water bodies but it has clouds. Clouds won’t kill us if we bounce off of them. Interestingly enough, we can also increase our bounce height by using the Iron Ball on our way down, gaining momentum which we can preserve. This is the key mechanic that allows us to climb most vertical screens in this section.

Truncated: Claiming for judging.

Truncated: First, I should point out that this game is available from Morphcat Games' homepage either free of charge or at a price you set yourself.
The game is short but nice. It has a well-defined ending (so it's complete) and it is a wholly original game. The movie seems well made, no obvious flaws. One potential weakness is that the TAS is only a few seconds faster than the non-tool assisted speedrun, but the gameplay is definitely not trivial, so I don't think it is a big issue. A 100% run, maybe deathless, could perhaps offer greater difference over the non-tool assisted speedrun.
In all, I am accepting this!
fsvgm777: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7319: EZGames69 & ikuyo's NES Böbl in 03:31.45
mklip2001
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Nice short exploration game. The environments feel a little empty, but the run is quite short. Good little premise for a game. How long would you expect a 100% rubber ducky run to take?
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.
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Oh dude sick yes nice. I've been wanting to see a TAS of this game since I played it. Were the OOB exploits patched from this version? Really nice work at any rate. Yes vote for sure. Spacegulls TAS when?
EZGames69
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scrimpeh wrote:
Were the OOB exploits patched from this version?
Seems like it, yes.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Bigbass
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scrimpeh wrote:
Spacegulls TAS when?
ViGreyTech already made a TAS for that game here, and verified it too.
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nymx
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A lot of good homebrews lately. This one is no exception. I like the short run...as it kept my attention. Yes vote.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
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That's cute. Yes vote.
juef
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This might possibly be the first BizHawk submission that was made using the Linux version of BizHawk.
I made my recent Godzilla 2 TAS with the Linux version of BizHawk :)
EZGames69
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juef wrote:
This might possibly be the first BizHawk submission that was made using the Linux version of BizHawk.
I made my recent Godzilla 2 TAS with the Linux version of BizHawk :)
I wasn’t too confident that this was the first one after all.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
MrTASer
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Good TAS for a good game
My TASing channel ; My MUSIC channel ; My SoundCloud ; My HomePage ; Music Composer ; Mr.TASer#5922 VCop 2 TAS completed, but in a completely different way ; And SMB - GAGOTO (WL) TAS COMPLETED TILL W-4 ; Some more...
MESHUGGAH
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- Metroid elements - (near) Perfect sound design also Metorid music remix, DKC music remix - Long mazes (tubes) without ability to see the end - Optimized movements - Short TAS and sweet graphics Obvious yes vote
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Bigbass
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Console verification: Link to video
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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. ---- [4589] NES Böbl by EZGames69 & ikuyo in 03:31.45