General notes
- Syncs on Bizhawk 2.11
- Documented Rerecord count - 4415
- The run is performed on the hardest difficulty.
- Uses glitches and exploits to save time.
- Takes intentional damage to save time.
Introduction
Disney's Aladdin is a 1994 Game Boy game based on the 1992 Disney Animated Movie. The game is a 2D platformer, being a port of the Genesis Aladdin game. The movie Aladdin is a contender for the best Disney animated movie in my opinion but this game ain't it. This is naturally a stripped down port of the Genesis game but even considering the Game Boy's capabilities, they did not do a good job. The Genie's Lamp level was removed, the remaining levels were simplified, the game has a grand total of 3 songs (4 if you want to count the short victory theme) and the game just does not play very well. The game is a lot slower than the Genesis version and the frame rate is atrocious, being very low in addition to jumping all over the place which makes the game unresponsive at times. The game is at the very least playable but it is definitely a rough and janky port of a game I'm not even that fond of to begin with.
However, as Aladdin on the Game Boy is a very janky game, it has a whole bunch of exploits and skips which can be used to beat the game almost as quickly as the Genesis version, despite the slower pace of this version. I ended up doing RTA runs of the game and after finding a whole bunch of skips and pushing the World Record down, I decided that I might as well TAS the game too.
General game notes
- The US and EU versions are identical to my knowledge so the US version was used for this run.
- The game is Super Game Boy compatible but this TAS was performed in regular Game Boy mode. The Super Game Boy version has slightly longer loads and the game has very few enhancements.
- This run is played on Difficult. The only real difference between difficulties is that Aladdin has less health on Difficult.
- Genie Heads take you to a slot machine mini game. This is naturally slow so Genie heads are avoided throughout the run.
- Aladdin has a sword attack and apple projectiles. Apples are pretty much exclusively used as they can be used in the air unlike the sword and they can do other things...
- You can't skip the level complete cutscenes in this version.
Exploits
Air attacks
Whenever you fall for long enough, the game puts you in a falling animation where you can't move. Once you land, the game then puts you into a very long landing animation where you still can't move. This is one of the dumbest things in this port in the game but there is sometimes a way around it. If you jump and then you input an attack as Aladdin is about to go into the falling animation, he will attack in the air. This will allow Aladdin to fall for longer without going into the landing animation and he can even move for a bit after the attack. Whenever a big jump downwards needs to be made, air attacks are used to avoid the falling/landing animations.
Horizontal Rope jumps
When you climb on a horizontal rope, you normally cannot jump. Pressing the jump button simply makes Aladdin drop off the rope. However, if you press jump and hold the opposite direction at the same time, Aladdin will jump on the rope. This can be used in a few areas to our advantage.
Apple zips
This is one of the big exploits in this game. If you throw an apple just as Aladdin is about to bonk his head on a ceiling, he can zip along the ceiling. The direction he will zip depends on the direction he is facing when he hits the ceiling. This can be used both for smaller optimisations and for big skips. This is a very powerful exploit but it is annoyingly inconsistent. Sometimes it just will not work and I do not know why.
Apple Zips also have limitations. If you zip to the right, you have to be close enough to the screen in order to actually scroll the screen. If Aladdin is too far right, he just cannot move to the right, he has to move left first. If you zip too far to the left, Aladdin will wrap around the screen and he cannot interact with various objects, including end level goals. If Aladdin zips way too far, it flat out crashes the game. Despite these limitations however, Apple Zips are still very powerful and they are used numerous times throughout the run.
Apple Clips
If you thought Apple Zips were broken enough, there's even more. When Aladdin jumps into a wall, he normally just continues to jump/fall. If Aladdin jumps up some sort of slope however, his behaviour changes. Whenever he hits a wall while jumping in his "slope state", the game puts him into his standing animation. This is already odd but things get way more busted. If Aladdin throws an apple just before hitting a wall while he is in this state, he will just clip into the wall. This can be used to well... clip through walls.
This is not only limited by the fact that you need some sort of slope for Aladdin to jump up but Aladdin can also only throw apples while he is gaining height so wall clips can only be used in some places. Despite this, wall clips are still very powerful and there are numerous big skips you can perform by using Apple Clips.
Here, I am going to make any significant notes I can think of about the run.
Agrabah Market
- After reaching the first rope, I perform an Apple Zip in order to take a direct path to the next area. The camel jump from the Genesis version does not work in this version but this Apple Zip achieves more or less the same purpose.
- Once I reach the second rope, you can jump on top of the rope and then jump into the end trigger for the level, skipping a good chunk of the level. This skip was actually found by RTA runners in 2017/18, being the oldest known skip in the run, long before I started looking into this game.
The Desert
- After the first checkpoint, I use an apple clip to clip and zip through a wall.
- Shortly after the apple clip, I use an apple zip to reach the first scarab piece early.
- I use a rope jump to avoid the Genie head.
- On the final rock formation, I use another apple zip to skip some platforming.
Agrabah Rooftops
- In the section with three pots, I get the flute for the second pot. I then jump up a slope when going on the floating rope so I can perform an apple clip and skip getting the third flute, in addition to skipping all of the platforming on the right side of the level.
- I climb up the next vertical rope and then I use a rope jump to reach the higher part of the level early.
- The first boss takes 15 hits and enemies have a lot of iframes in this game. You just have to wait for the iframes to wear off before attacking.
- Somehow, I managed to make the last rope shift to the right, allowing me to jump up to the second boss early. I honestly have no idea how I made this happen but it happened
Sultan's Dungeon
- This level is cycle based and I annoyingly had to wait at times. I couldn't skip a couple of the cycles unfortunately.
- After clipping up to the first checkpoint, I can use an apple zip to skip a good chunk of the level.
- After performing that first skip, I can then perform an apple clip in order to skip to the end of the level.
Cave of Wonders
- I go right and then when I reach the wall, I apple zip through it in order to take a direct route to the end. This skips a lot of the level.
The Escape
- I use a couple of apple zips in places to gain some distance.
- There is this one branching path where you can either go high or low. High is not an option in this version, you cannot run past the boulder. You have to activate the boulder and then run back and wait for the boulder to past you in order to take this route and that's just not fast. The low road is pretty much the only option and this version fortunately doesn't have the stupid splashing lava.
Rug Ride
- You cannot die multiple times to skip this level, you have to play through it. Fortunately, this level is quite straight forward in this version.
- I collect every item as quickly as possible to reduce lag.
Sultan's Palace
- After the rug ride, I jump directly onto the rope as a small optimisation.
- After this, I use an apple clip to clip through a wall and skip a long carpet ride. Afterwards, I then use another apple clip to skip a another large chunk of the level. Both of these skips combined save over a minute and a lot of waiting.
- There's no Iago fight in this version.
Jafar's Palace
- After moving to the right side of the stage and dropping down to the second lowest platform, I perform a very precise jump in order to get a slope state jump and to apple clip into the wall. I can then apple zip inside the wall to reach the other side, skipping a large chunk of the level.
- I can apple clip after jumping off the rug to reach Jafar faster.
- Beating Jafar is as simple as just throwing apples at him inbetween his iframes. Standing further back does not actually save time and you can't hit him off screen.
Conclusion
And that's Aladdin on the Game Boy done in 9 minutes and 48 seconds (9:33 RTA).
I am happy that I was able to get a sub 10. My RTA PB was 12:20 when I made this TAS and I knew a 10 minute time was probably possible but I didn't know if a 9 minute time could be done. Turns out that it can be done. More lag reduction could potentially be implemented and there are theoretical strats which could exist. There could be a bigger skip in Agrabah Market or there could maybe be a way to skip cycles in Sultan's Dungeon but those are things I was not able to figure out for the time being. I am happy with how the run turned out overall however and I hope that it is an interesting watch with all of its unique skips, even if the game is slower paced than its Genesis counterpart.
Challenger: For an Aladdin game which became famous thanks to the 1992 movie and the very known Genesis and SNES titles, the GB port is surprisingly janky.
But for the other side, great to see that different glitches ended being introduced whose compensation works enough to result into a nice and polished project. Great job beating this game below 10 minutes with gameplay optimization, lag reduction, heavy apple usage and more!
Accepting to Standard.
