This is a romhack of the psx version of Rayman. The back and endsign positions have been swapped and Rayman completes each level by going left instead of right.
Game Objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.8
- BIOS used: SCPH-5501.bin (U)
- Speed/Entertainment tradeoff
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses programming errors
- Uses an in-game code
- Glitch Abuse
- Genre: Platformer
Explanation of the TAS
It may be best to read
https://tasvideos.org/5449S first to understand what this game is really about. Because many things have already been shown in scrimpeh and Got4ns tas before,
my goal was to do a freerun of my favorite levels which show some of my own strategies i found. All of the levels are unlocked by an in-game code, which unlock all of Raymans abilities: Punching, Hanging, Helicopter, Ring grabbing and Running.
They also unlock all of the levels with all of the cages gotten and electoons freed, making Mister Darks Dare available as a final level.
This is a romhack that massively increases the difficulty of the normal game which is already hard enough. Because you start at the opposite side of a level each time, you have to figure out the best way to the left. Most of the time
speedrunning strategies have to be employed in order to even finish a level.
TAS Route
I did not tas all of the levels because some of them did not have enough interesting things to show or stayed the same as in the original game. The levels i have tased almost always had something new to show. I still had
a general idea of how to tas the following levels that did not make it in the TAS:
- Pink Plant Woods: Only the 2nd and 3rd screen would be somewhat interesting to tas with speedstorage, but screen 3 made me not want to tas the level because of the hunter at the start which was just too slow for my liking.
- Anguish Lagoon: Basically the same as the original, my idea would have been to clip through the floor at the start and then megatether rayman into the goal which would be cool, but then i would have to play through a slow autoscroller.
- The Swamps of Forgetfulness: The 1st screen is just dropping down, the 3rd screen is a nightmare because of a long vine which would be too frustrating to optimize for me.
- Mr. Stones Peaks: The 1st screen is a super helicopter screen which isnt too difficult, but 2 of the screens afterwards are just dropping down and the 4th screens strategies would be too slow.
- Eraser Plains: Ying Yang riding at the start to the top right to get a life which i did not know how to optimize (i have tried too many times), there were little ways to go fast in this level due to lack of speedstorage on screen 2 and 3.
- Space Mamas Crater: Ending of screen 1 requires a tas zip which is too difficult for me, screen 2 and 3 did not give enough incentive.
- Crystal Palace: My attempt was to ringboost through the wall at the start of screen 1 but that wont work, screen 2 would have been alright.
- Mr. Skops Stalactites: This level is just one ringboost to the endsign, so no.
The levels i have chosen to be in this TAS have a lot of room to move in, so there were less opportunities for bad optimization.
10/18 levels in this romhack have been tased.
Goal of the TAS
TAS my favorite levels and finish the tas on the final level Mister Darks Dare. The levels shown in the tas get increasingly more "complex" and difficult, because i wanted to challenge myself.
Tricks
Speedlocking
Raymans walking speed is 2 pixels per frame, 3 pixels per frame if he is running. Raymans speed can be locked by holding Up/Down if he is midair. Rayman can face to the left while moving to the right by holding left and right at the same time,
facing to the right while moving to the left is done by holding left then right for 1 frame and Up/Down on the next frame.
Dropping down ledges
Jump before dropping down a ledge to reach maximum velocity, if there is not enough time for a jump then you should press Down before dropping down a ledge, which will push rayman instantly down by a few pixels and can be done even faster if you punch after holding down.
Holding X while walking off a platform will decrease raymans falling speed which can sometimes be useful.
Fist
The fist can be used in a lot of ways: Punch to increase raymans height at the beginning of a jump by a little bit, jump and punch to onehit almost any enemy, punching to stop helicoptering if you want to have more control over raymans position.
Rayman cannot use his fist if he is in his punching animation, the animation can be cancelled by helicoptering. When the running ability is unlocked he can punch continuously if near an enemy or plum/ying yang.
There are different stages of raymans fist:
Stage 0: Slowfist, it takes a long time for the fist to return to rayman.
Stage 1: Best for megatethering and TASing in my opinion.
Stage 2: The fastest speedfist, it goes a long way, but not so useful in this tas, except for the slippery parts.
Helicopter
Done by pressing x while rayman is in midair. The helicopter can be cancelled by punching and is reactivated for a short time by pressing x again. This method is sometimes used to go long distances.
By pressing x to activate helicopter while rayman is below a sprite/platform he will snap on top of it.
Clipping
Clip into and through the floor by holding a directional button and then Up/Down where a slope meets a solid tile, i do this by holding down for 2 frames. If rayman clips into the ground he will be midair and able to move back into the slope, resulting in a superjump if Up/down and X is being held.
Ringboost
If rayman punches a ring while he is at somewhat the same height, the ring will push rayman for 1 frame into where his swinging arc should begin. Holding Up/Down and pressing jump at this exact frame will give rayman a sometimes random speedboost to the left or right depending on how far rayman is away from the ring. The farther you are from the ring the greater speedboost.
Ringboosts are influenced by raymans position, so you can helicopter, punch, hold jump for a specific duration to get different ringboosts.
The maximum speed you can get from a ringboost is 48px/frame without dying to the camera. This is enough to go through small walls. If Rayman gets pushed from the ring into a wall he may zip upwards, though i did not get this to work in the tas. Rings can be overshot with raymans fist, resulting in megatethers which are absurd in length, i did this a lot because it looks fun.
Slippery
This is something that prevented me from tasing this game for a long time. If rayman runs on slippery tiles his jumps become slippery, meaning his pixel and subpixel speed change constantly. It's best to read scrimpeh and Got4ns author notes for this
https://tasvideos.org/5449S "Slippery Movement" because
it is too difficult for me to explain, though i will try to explain my thought process in the stage by stage comments.
Speedstorage
Rayman can keep up to 8px/frame speed for reactivation if he does a running jump. This is easiest set up by running down slippery slopes with a lot of speed and landing on a platform. Speedstorage can also be set up with ringboosts. If rayman jumps with 16px/frame or higher from a ringboost he can keep 8px/frame should he land,
the value is halved for ringboosts for some reason and only 8px/frame maximum can be stored.
Speedstorage is reactivated by running off the end of event tiles such as clouds, bongos, plums, anything that is interactable. If rayman has speed stored he can never do a rolling jump, otherwise speedstorage will be lost. The same goes for touching walls as it will reset raymans momentum.
Speedstorage can be held throughout levels.
Keep in mind that not everything is fully 100% optimized in this TAS, ringboosts for example if i had a value of 30px/frame+ i would already take it and be happy, it wouldn't make much of a difference. Ringboosts are fairly trivial and difficult. I will let you know.
Twilight Gulch
Why start on Twilight Gulch you may ask? Because i needed a speedfist and this level only had one screen. The first ringboost is a -34. Any speeds higher and rayman may collide with the wall above the golem. After getting through this small gap i get the speedfist from the next golem.
I finish the level with a -38 ringboost and rayman lands in the ground.
Mr. Sax
How do you even speedrun this level? First you would have to get the cage located to the top right near the rings. After getting the cage you would have to overshoot one of the rings and use speedlocking to get over a big gap which is difficult for speedrunners. None of this is done in this TAS though,
i climb up the rings and get a small ringboost. By turning around before getting a ringboost rayman will lose 2px of speed. Turned around now and i overshoot the ring for a megatether, should rayman punch too late the tether will be too big and rayman will touch the wall and die to the camera. There was also a specific frame where rayman touches the wall and somehow ends up in the backsign without visibly entering it.
The next ringboost is a -31 which was enough for me and it sends me flying over the gap. I forgot to mention that you can jump on the first frame after landing on ground and keep all of raymans speed if Up/Down is being held. After getting past some bongos we get to the first slippery section which i had to go back to and fix a few times.
I land on the first possible frame of the slippery and charge up a fistboost, enough to get rayman to -7px/frame. After touching the fairy which turns rayman into small rayman i have to make some precise jumps so rayman doesn't land on the slippery platform above. After being turned to normal size i do more precise jumps on the first possible frame
rayman lands, if this is done with high speeds then rayman can go inside of slippery slopes and they can even reset his momentum if the jump is not high enough or even make him superjump. Running down the slope now i have accumulated a speed of -9 with the subpixel speed almost reaching -10, so i turn around for 1 frame and do a 1 frame fistboost which boost
the subpixel speed by around -70-80, which was enough for -10 speed.
So much speed is required for the next jump, becuse there are a lot of spikes and i really want to avoid losing time. Luckily im able to only be hit once. After doing that more fistboosting for -7 which then turns to -6 because not much more subpixel could be generated from the fistboost. It was still enough for a superjump to get up to the upper platform with no slowdowns needed.
I do another superjump and jump up some small platforms. I remember there being an instance where i had to delay a jump for 1 frame because the camera could not keep up, killing rayman should he ascend too fast.
I run down a slippery platform to setup speedstorage for Moskitos Nest, speedstorage can be activated from the opposite side of an event but its frameperfect with the turnaround.
Moskitos Nest 1 A
The tentacle plants weakness is its lips but i deliberately punch its body to spawn more livingstones for some playaround. After jumping off the ascending flower i helicopter and hang onto a tree, speedstorage can be reactivated even from a hang, you just have to use helicopter and face to the right. I punch down a plum and position it in such a way that i can jump on top of it after a vineboost, an unconventional way to get up here.
Magician
By paying 10 tings to a magician you can play a bonus game where you have to collect tings at a time limit, the reward is a 1-Up. Optimization on this magician is easy, just keep in mind that you have to jump on the first possible frame when landing on a flower. This is sometimes not possible and i had to delay a jump by 1 frame. At the end i wait until the last possible frame to jump off the flower.
Moskitos Nest 1 B
Exiting the magician i clip through the ground and punch the plum quite far where it bounces off the upper platform. I wait by hanging onto a small tree for the plum to return and precisely crouch below red swinging spikes. Jumping off the plum and into the small tree, there is a spot where a slope meets a solide tile so i use that for a superjump.
On the upper platform again i do a ringboost to get to the left, but before i land on the left i turn around and punch. Now i just wait for the fist to hit the middle of the 3 rings for a slower ringboost so i can overshoot the leftmost ring for a megatether. A bigger megatether is not possible or else rayman may hit the spikes on the bottom near the water.
This ringboost sets up speedstorage for the next screen.
Moskitos Nest 2
Incredibly convenient placed plum at the start of this screen which i use to activate speedstorage. There are some spots where i think you can activate speedstorage a frame faster. The red springing flower that moves forward when jumping onto it is used for playaround.
Moskitos Nest 3
At the start i grab a life and do a superjump which is quickly cancelled with a helicopter. I clip where the life was located and there seems to be a small space where rayman can walk. After doing a damageboost i can face to the right and still move to the left for some small ledgegrab boosts.
Gong Heights 1
Speedstorage level. Not much to say here except at the start i did not do a punch to accelerate downwards faster... though this changes nothing. Can most likely save 1-2 frames with better speedstorage activation.
Gong Heights 2
Just wow, i can clip through the clouds here and activate speedstorage by jumping off the event cloud, so convenient. You will notice me punching some enemy eyes in the clouds, by punching them they will close their eyes and the hitbox will be disabled, making it possible to go through without stopping.
Eat at Joes 1
Only noteworthy part is the crawling section where i have to stop speedstorage on the last possible frame before i start crawling. Damageboost by turning around into the spikes saves a few frames and the lavaball wont be in the way.
Eat at Joes 2
Instead of using the clouds i can just superjump up, i believe even in a tas setting you would have to wait for the clouds to reappear. The blue obelisk that moves up and down has a specific frame where you jump right as the obelisk moves up you can gain some extra height.
A lot of damageboosting has to be done here to get around fast. I do a ringboost into a megatether to make this section more entertaining, even though its not the fastest way. Because i already "wasted" a lot of my health i have to get a 1-up. Running up the spikes after taking a damageboost i can do a superjump again.
The next section was annoying because of the lavaballs. There is no good way to damageboost or avoid them, so i just punch both of them and wait for a particular frame that can damageboost me correctly. Again i am very low on health and i go inbetween some bird enemies. This is 1 frame off dying, i can't even run. Luckily there is a P after climbing up clouds and i can start damageboosting again. This section can be difficult, because the endsign at the end of an upward slope with lots of spikes. The first ringboost i do is a 22 and the one following is a 44 which was more than enough for me. It is so fast that i have to helicopter and punch so rayman can take
a damageboost, otherwise rayman just gets stuck on the slope.
Eat at Joes 3
This screen is similar to the first TAS of this game so i wanted to try something different, and by different i mean no speedstorage. The ringboost i take gets me into the crawling section with spikes, so i turn around and damageboost. The invinciblity frames were not enough though so i had to crouch below the blue prickly ball.
Eat at Joes 4
The endsign is located on the very bottom left on the screen and you are supposed to ride on ufos to get close to it. Even then you would have to overshoot a ring or set up speedstorage to get to it, so what way did i choose? First i thought about ringboosting to the left with around 25px/frame, but rayman will just hit the ceiling that is covered in spikes.
I had the idea of megatethering again and behold... it works perfectly here. By doing a ringboost near the 1st ufo to the right and then overshooting the ring, i can set up a megatether which barely avoids all of the instant death spikes in the section below. This also sets up speedstorage for the next ufo i jump off of and even for the next screen.
Eat at Joes 5
The hammers are in the way so i had to wait a few frames to get past them. The red ring i have to punch 3 times to get ~45px/frame speed because it was so high up. I could also do with 2 punches and get a speed of 30 and then punch the ring again when i pass it for higher speed, but im not sure if that would even be faster.
The Hard Rocks 1
I still have speedstorage from Eat at Joes and i make use of it here on this cloudride. I jump off the cloud and get to a ring where i set up speed of 16, any speed higher than that would not work in this next section, because i want to get the 1-up and maximum speedstorage without losing too much time. In the original game the endsign would be placed right next to the 1-up, but it is not present here.
Instead, the romhack removed the wall on the left and it is now open, otherwise there would be no viable way to get to the end of the screen.
Almost at the endsign, i go out of my way to get another 1-up in the middle of the screen. The golem near the endsign is defeated with very fast punches that are possible due to the endsigns gravitation.
The Hard Rocks 2
Simple screen, the superjump after taking damage from the spikes might unironically be the fastest way to get up, but is cut short because of the running jump which makes rayman instantly snap onto the moving cloud. There is no autoscroller on this screen this time and the blue spikes are in no favorable position for me to get through.
The best way (not the fastest) to get through them is by going below them.
Another not so favorable instance of blue spikes near a boulder where i want to show off a boulder superjump. By landing on the boulder and destroying it at the same time, rayman will be ejected into the air. The magician is similar to the one in Moskitos Nest, but with clouds.
The Hard Rocks 3
You are supposed to touch the left side of the wall where the P is located to spawn a set of clouds, but i just superjump up. Not much else to say about the screen, i go out of my way to collect a 1-up. There is a set of slopes below the 1-up where it is possible to superjump but after many rerecords i gave up. The best thing possible was to get rayman in his near ledge animation on solid floor.
Bongo Hills 1
Getting a 1-up off screen and doing a small boost from the moving drum. This is interesting because jumping onto the moving drum rayman has a speed of 3, the drum wants to bounce rayman into the air but by frame precisely pressing x on that frame you can get up to 11 px/frame speed, which is almost 4 times running speed.
That is too fast and rayman would be flung into the wall, so i had to decrease that speed by going to the right of the drum and reduced it this way to 5.
The drumsticks line up perfectly here and i had to do no waiting which i was very happy about, because this was a slippery jump and there was no way to slow down.
I clip through the slippery floor, normally you have to go around the slope and drop down, but i just move along the slope and lose no time. After the crawling section i jump up 2 clouds and onto slippery which i get 2 superjumps out of into the endsign.
Bongo Hills 2
Basic screen with some playaround, only noteworthy parts where i punched the eye in the wall frame precisely so it stays closed. Near the end of the screen there is a hang which was very precise to do but it skips 2 falling bongos which would otherwise lose 2-3s.
Bongo Hills 3
I just fall down, yes i know im not near the wall and i lose time but i had to punch the antitoons this way for entertainment.
Bongo Hills 4
The 1-up next to the angry moth was tricky to get, sometimes the moth will be in the way of my fist and i wont be able to pull the 1-up towards me. The ringboost was the main reason i wanted to tas Bongo Hills, because i thought it was possible to get to the end of the screen in one go, but not at all.
Even with almost maximum ringboost speed there was no way to get past the 3 floating platforms, they act as a wall and would stop rayman immediately. I had set up speedstorage from that ringboost though and im able to finish the screen quickly with it.
Bongo Hills 5
Speedstorage is used almost all the way on this screen, the chocolate balls allow me to activate it. In the small rayman section is a spot where even with a 1 frame jump rayman will hit the ceiling and lose his running jump and speedstorage. Im still able to use it quite far and even as small rayman, i can keep a speed of 4 and lock it in.
At the end i jump over a gap by speedlocking 2 as small rayman.
Bongo Hills 6
Let me just go in this gap and oops, i skipped the entire screen!
Allegro Presto 1
My nightmare level, slippery movement is my nightmare. The 1st screen spawns you in such a bad spot that i had to jump back to properly set up a speed of 7. It would have been nice to find a superjump to get to the upper platform and skip half of the screen, but these were blocked by solid tiles. I still find a way to get a superjump to get past annoying spikes which
you would normally have to crawl under and heavily slow down. It was not enough to skip all of the spikes and i had to squeeze my way inbetween spikes without getting hit. The rest of the screen is just fistboosting and precise jumps over spikes so i dont lose time. I am aware that you can superjump up to the endsign where the 1st cage should be located, but
that would be too easy.
Allegro Presto 2
Punching the trumpet is frameperfect, the 2nd trumpet is also gotten rid off by jumping into the ceiling so i can extend the length of raymans fist. Crawling under a trumpet which sucks me in and i have to wait, because i want to set up framejumps. I set up a running jump right before the trumpet pulls me in so i can make use of framejumps. This lets me have
a speed of 7. After jumping up the slope there is the amazing opportunity to do a superjump to get up much quicker, but it was barely too short. I really wished that i could have put that in the tas and i tried every clipable spot but nothing worked, so i had to go the slow way. Below the trumpet, that slope, i have to slow down a lot in order to get through,
otherwise rayman gets stuck. This is another trumpet that pulls you in but this time im able to speedlock an 8. The same is done for the trumpet located at the top, going this way might be the fastest option. Oh yeah i also set up speedstorage for screen 3.
Allegro Presto 3
Right at the start of the screen you have to jump on the first possible frame, otherwise rayman will get a slippery jump, making speedstorage activation awkward. With a speed of 8px/frame i jump onto a solid platform for a framejump, this way i can manipulate raymans position much better before going below and into a slope for a superjump.
The 2 1-frame fistboosts are done to reach a speed of 9px/frame. I also clip into another slope similar to the 1st but i have to slow down a bit. The romhack placed a slope on top of the screen to make it actually possible to beat. At the end of the screen is a slope you cant clip through earlier, because rayman will just be put back on the platform.
Pencil Pentathlon 1
The only screen that had a 48px/frame ringboost to get through a small wall, which skips 50% of the screen. Dropping down the pencils in an awkward way there is a trigger in the gap that spawns a fairy. Before getting turned into small rayman, i jump into the wall which resets my momentum and then touch the fairy and by jumping off the ground on the 1st frame,
i can keep a speed of 3 as small rayman. Now we are in this small section where you are supposed to run through but there is a trick to go fast here instead of just running. Small raymans speed will oscillate every frame from 1 to 2 etc, but by jumping on the frame where it is 2 and locking that speed, i can go much faster.
The ceiling only allows for 1 frame jumps which makes it look odd. The red rings speedboost is 14 which is 3px/frame faster than my wip from over a year ago. At the end of the screen is a bouncy platform where if rayman jumps precisely into the middle part of the bouncy, he wont be bounced up. I use this to get rayman to run.
Pencil Pentathlon 2
A hard screen because of super helicoptering. Rayman can rise up by 2 pixels if his speed is 0, otherwise its 1. This is important because there is a lot of going up. The 1st section with spikes on the top has a bouncy platform which you can go through, but i hang onto the platform and have to make precise movement to get a running jump working, its very weird this platform.
The same is done on the 2nd section with spikes, but the platform isn't transparent.
The 1-up part is a bit slow because there is no way to get past the falling pencils, so i make some playaround happen. Rayman flies through a lot of pencils and gets to a wall filled with ying yangs, 3 punches are needed to get through. After the ying yangs the helicopter below the moving pencils is frameperfect and can only be done with precise punches.
Pencil Pentathlon 3
This ringboost was more pain than i could have imagined. I have tried a lot of different positions and all i couldve gotten was a speed of just 20, which was nowhere near enough for what i needed. So i tried a different approach on this ringboost and got a speed of over 30px/frame. Its important that you cannot get any faster than this, otherwise rayman will
hit a wall and not move at all. With a speed of 30px/frame i can actually keep half of that speed on the slippery platform, which was good. I needed to slow down regardless for the ending of the screen, and there were 2 enemy eyes that are annoying to get through.
Mister Darks Dare 1
Speedlocking on this level does not work and raymans subpixel speed will decrease every frame by 2 if he doesnt go up or down slopes. The fistboost at the start is enough for ~830 subpixel speed which is equivalent to 3-4px/frame. There is no other way to get fast on this first part, jumping does not help. If rayman jumps up slopes he will sometimes lose
18-20 subpixel speed on the first possible frame he lands, but there is a spot on each slope where it is possible to negate this, but extremely hard to get working. When rayman jumps up slopes and lands, he may decide to jump and immediately get stuck on the slope again, which is incredibly annoying. Not only that, i had to do precise jumps to catch downward
slopes on the 1st possible frame.
Mister Darks Dare 2
This was a nice screen to tas, it had a lot of things. At the start Mister Dark will summon Dark Rayman, who copies your every move. In the middle of the screen i punch a ring and use the momentum to get ontop of the wall, instead of having to crawl under. I drop down the wall and get a ringboost of 50px/frame, which doesnt actually kill rayman, but has him
spinning around at the edge of the screen infinitely, if it weren't for dark rayman. Another ringboost is done and rayman comes incredibly close to dying again, because rayman cant have a megatether and move into the wall. By jumping on the last possible frame before rayman gets crushed by the camera and wall, i can setup speedstorage for a section later
in the screen. A lot of optimization has gone into the next part where i wasn't allowed to do any running jumps. The screen ends with playaround.
Mister Darks Dare 3
The slippery on the first part of the screen has a lot of potential. I decided to fistboost and speedlock 6px/frame, even though the subpixel speed was high enough for a 7. I did this because if i were to go too fast then raymans fist wouldn't catch up to him in time for another fistboost. The 2nd fistboost reaches a value of 8px/frame and ~2000 subpixel speed, which is very close to 9.
There is not enough space to fistboost to 9px/frame, but there is another slippery platform waiting for me to fistboost off of, and i do just that, for a value of 9 which also sets up 8px/frame speedstorage. This still makes no sense to me because the subpixel value is way too low for 9px/frame, but still it works. The speedstorage is setup for the jump over Mister Dark and the slippery section that comes after. If you were to jump on the 1st frame after landing on this slippery, then rayman will clip through the floor and die. I do precise jumps so rayman gets stuck in the 1 slope for instant turnaround, the same is done on the 2nd slope. Speedstorage is set up for the last time to get through a lot of clouds.
Finale
The floor is slippery in bossfights. Not much has changed in this bossfight, with the exception of a new strategy when the fire closes in on rayman. If rayman touches the fire and the floor at the same time after collecting his fist, he will skip an animation that would last ~4s. The TAS is finished with Bzzit landing and making rayman do a superjump.
Final Words
This was a hard game to TAS, so many mistakes had to be fixed and it was really frustrating but in the end, i did it. There are a few spots in the TAS that can be improved by a few frames, but im happy with how it looks now.
Note; I decided to resubmit this as i was too quick to cancel it due to negative feedback at first. I want to have it properly judged and accepted/rejected now. Its a playaround i had spent months on optimizing so canceling it this early would be such a waste.
The Romhack can be found
right here (patch to an unmodified
merged (either with an old version of DiscoHawk (the one included in BizHawk 1.6 works well) or with
CDmage (load CUE, then save (default settings can be kept)). The movie file syncs
with this CUE sheet.
