Hey, I finally completed a movie! While it's not quite what some of you may be expecting, I hope you'll enjoy this effort nonetheless.
This movie is a TAS of the English version of Pokemon Blue, done in Super Gameboy mode. The game is completed in 1 hour 50 minutes according to the in-game clock, which at the time of submission is 50 minutes faster than the Pokemon Red run available on Speed Demos Archive. It was completed using Visualboy Advance 1.7.2 (Nitsuja rev. 9), over the course of over 5 months, with 2 complete runthroughs of the game completed (the first being done with Pocket Monsters Green (J)).
In Japan, this game is known as Pocket Monsters Green; Japanese Red and Green are what became Red and Blue to the rest of the world. Japanese Blue has not been released commercially outside of Japan.
The movie features the following:
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes no damage (and thus, doesn't die)
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Ignores semi-important goals in the game
For those of you unfamiliar with the storyline behind Pokemon, you play a nameless novice trainer who aspires to become the greatest Pokemon trainer of all time. After choosing one of three starter Pokemon, you set out to collect all eight Gym Badges and defeat the Elite Four to become the Pokemon League Champion, all while filling up your Pokedex with information on all sorts of rare critters and catching and assembling teams of powerful Pokemon to help you on your journey..
...except that this particular trainer is in a bit of a hurry, and thus has no need for such silly things as Pokedexes and large collections of Pokemon. He instead muscles through (almost) the entire game using a single Pokemon - his starter, Squirtle.
So how does this trainer manage to accomplish all this in under 2 hours? Luck manipulation. The early GB Pokemon series features the greatest opportunity for massive luck manipulation abuse this side of Dragon Warrior. Nearly everything in this game is tied to an easily abusable random number generator, including but not limited to: When random encounters occur (and against which Pokemon), how much damage an attack deals, how accurate an attack is, if an attack is a critical hit, if additional effects tied to attacks occur, what attacks an opponent uses against you.. just about everything save for the stats a Pokemon gains when it levels up (which is determined by a specific and known formula). This fact is abused to its' fullest extent in this movie, allowing me to avoid battles, critical hit with attacks, and control/avoid enemy attacks at will.
As a nice side effect, I wind up taking no damage and am hit with no harmful attack from any enemy throughout the entire run. There are a few instances where I have to resolve an attack which supposedly has "perfect" accuracy, but there is no attack with perfect accuracy (see below).
This game pushes the primitive Gameboy's hardware to the limit. As a result, the game lags, and very badly at times. Scrolling through the game's menus was a royal pain at times (I take careful measures to attempt to reduce the amount of time I spend scrolling through menus), and inexplicably the game may lag during regular movements in certain points in the game. If you find odd pauses in movement in places, especially in areas where I cannot get into random battles, this is the game's lag at work. I unfortunately know no way around this.
As for route planning, the game is fairly linear, with very little chance to deviate off the main path. It's also well programmed in order you to at least nudge you toward beating all the Gyms in chronological order, if not outright forcing you. However, I do a sequence break by completing Cinnabar Gym (#7) before completing Saffron Gym (#6), allowing me to build up some levels defeating required Pokemon which are weak to my Squirtle's attacks before dealing with the more neutral Pokemon in Silph Co. Tower and Saffron Gym.
I obtain only 5 Pokemon throughout the entire game: Squirtle, Abra (for Teleport), Bellsprout (to teach it Cut), Doduo (to teach it Fly), and Onix (for Fissure). Squirtle is used as my only battle Pokemon throughout almost the entire game, while the others are utility Pokemon used either to pass through necessary obstacles in the game or are major timesavers which allow me to go between places more quickly. Onix is the exception to this - the Elite Four's Lorelei uses primarily Water/Ice Pokemon, which I cannot defeat easily with Squirtle/Blastoise. Thus, I instead caught an Onix in Victory Road, taught it Fissure, and used it against Lorelei's Pokemon to defeat them. Fissure, however, only has a chance to work if the Pokemon using it is faster than the target being Fissured - this is remedied by purchasing a pair of X Speeds in the Celadon City dept. store and using them during the battle to make Onix faster than its' opponents.
There are also several noticeable glitches/oversights I abuse in the game, as follows:
  • Every offensive attack, no matter how accurate it may be, has a 1/256 (~0.4%) chance of missing. Yes, this includes Swift, the infamous attack which "never misses". I use this fact to maintain the no damage run, as avoiding every attack but four doesn't really look all that good.. also, chances are all four of these attack avoidals may save time anyways due to the length of time it takes for the screen to shake and the HP bar to slowly decrease.
  • Using the Pokedoll item automatically ends any wild battle in which you can catch a Pokemon. I purchase one of these items in the Celadon City dept. store to pass through the Marowak "ghost" battle in Pokemon Tower without spending the 7-8 minutes required to obtain the Silph Scope from Team Rocket.
  • Similarly, I run away from the Snorlax blocking the route to Cycling Road to remove it from my path quickly.
  • Usage of the Selfdestruct attack automatically causes the Pokemon who initiated the attack to faint, even if it misses. I manage to Dig out of the way of the Weezing who uses this attack in Fuchsia Gym, to get the pesky Pokemon out of the way faster. ^^
I'm sure there will be a limitless amount of questions concerning little minute details of the game - most of them should be answered if you look at this game's thread on this site's message boards, located here. If not, post here or there and I'll be happy to answer them for you.
Is this movie perfect, though? I'm sure it's not, especially with new routes to old games formerly thought impossible being revealed daily. However, I've done my best to make sure that, with the possible exception of better luck with the RNG or a totally new route, that this is as close to perfect as it gets at this point in time. There are other possible (but very small) shortcuts, but those I found appeared to have too much risk attached to them with too little reward (with most being so small they'll almost immediately be eaten up in luck manipulation), and I think I'll leave it to someone with far more free time on their hands than I do to investigate more in depth which ones actually do save time and which are wastes of time.
Last but not least, I'd like to thank the following people for making this run possible: The speed run FAQ on GameFAQs for laying the groundwork for the run - much of the route for this run was inspired by the route this FAQ's author used; Azure Heights Pokemon Laboratory and serebii.net - large Pokemon fansites which have supplied the information necessary to complete the run and plan out improved routes for the run; the authors of the console speedruns on SDA for further route planning and comparison; everyone who posted in the Pokemon R/B thread on this site's message boards, for their invaluable help and tips (you know who you all are), and of course, everyone who has supported this run in various ways.
And with that, enjoy!

Bisqwit: Queuing for processing.

Joined: 11/30/2004
Posts: 83
Location: Basement
Now here's a game I haven't played in... wow. This game is older than I thought. Anyway I'm still looking through this. I'm a little hesitant, as this sort of game is more fun to play than watch, but the goals of getting through so quickly and with so few Pokemon make it a little more interesting. As far as catching all 151, you don't have to have all at the same time. Once they're caught, they're registered. In any case, that would be downright boring.
Editor, Skilled player (1936)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3239
Awesome run! I vote yes. I'm still wondering how you catch a L42 Onix with a Pokeball.
Active player (277)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
By throwing it!
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
Mencoder wrote:
Video stream: 33.084 kbit/s (4135 B/s) size: 28057087 bytes 6784.350 secs 407061 frames Audio stream: 41.437 kbit/s (5179 B/s) size: 35142848 bytes 6784.836 secs x264 [info]: slice I:1470 Avg QP:25.45 Avg size: 4520 x264 [info]: slice P:405590 Avg QP:28.12 Avg size: 53 x264 [info]: slice I Avg I4x4:48.6% I8x8:0.0% I16x16:51.4% x264 [info]: slice P Avg I4x4:0.1% I8x8:0.0% I16x16:0.7% P:4.4% P8x8:0.2% PSKIP:94.6% x264 [info]: kb/s:33.0
Audio stream: 35 MB. Video stream: 28 MB. Total: 66 MB. If I publish this as AVI, the file size is 79 MB. Overhead: 13 MB. If I publish this as MKV, the file size is 68 MB. Overhead: 2 MB. Can... not.... resist. (Oh yeah, does anyone else think it's weird that audio takes more space than video?)
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14772
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [428] SGB Pokémon: Blue Version by Tilus in 1:51:06.50
Joined: 7/2/2005
Posts: 31
Location: Charlotte, NC
waugh. Okay, I really need to see this run....*goes to look for an MKV player* Also: is the torrent set up with the right file name? I had to add the file extension myself after downloading a bunch of garbage because it cam eup as yadda-yadda-tilus.torrent and didn't have the extension. EDIT: oookay, gonna retract this now, I wasn't sure if you could save any time by avoiding poke-center stops, but i see now that there are just too many opponents to kill for that. No objections, good job sir ^^ And after all that effort to explain why quick hit misses, I must have blinked...I didn't see it <.<
YtterbiJum, on SMB3: I've tried 20+ times and it always desyncs there. Unless, of course, Genisto meant to die, use a star on the map screen, go in a pipe, and jump around till time runs out.
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
Yes, there's nothing wrong with the filename. bisqwit@Gon:~$ btshowmetainfo.py pokemonblue-tas-tilus.mkv.torrent btshowmetainfo 4.1.3 - decode BitTorrent metainfo files metainfo file.......: pokemonblue-tas-tilus.mkv.torrent info hash...........: 31ed71c3cfa711ebd584f40469570f2e6d322e56 file name...........: pokemonblue-tas-tilus.mkv file size...........: 68492089 (261 * 262144 + 72505) tracker announce url: http://bisqwit.iki.fi:6969/announce comment.............:
Post subject: About 151 Pokemon run
Joined: 7/28/2004
Posts: 6
Location: Finland
If I recall correctly, getting all 151 Pokemon just by playing the game is not possible. Mew, #151, was only obtained into game by downloading it into cartridge in some gaming expos where Nintendo had booth. In Finland this happened only once, as far as I know. However, I also recall that there rumoured to be a glitch in game, which would allow to catch Mew ingame, but I never succeeded performing this glitch and it was mostly supposed to be a hoax. And to top of that, don't forget one extra Pokemon, which was a sort of programming error/easter egg, Unown/Missingno. Chatching this one could also result in screwing up saved game data. :)
Post subject: Re: About 151 Pokemon run
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 380
Location: Finland
Akai wrote:
If I recall correctly, getting all 151 Pokemon just by playing the game is not possible. Mew, #151, was only obtained into game by downloading it into cartridge in some gaming expos where Nintendo had booth. [...] However, I also recall that there rumoured to be a glitch in game, which would allow to catch Mew ingame, but I never succeeded performing this glitch and it was mostly supposed to be a hoax.
A hoax eh? http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/rbcatchmew.html For further proof, look at the thread referenced in the submission novel and see Tilus' movie of performing this glitch.
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home." ( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
Post subject: Re: About 151 Pokemon run
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
Akai wrote:
Unown/Missingno. Chatching this one could also result in screwing up saved game data. :)
As for Missingno: Programming error yes, easter egg no. Missingno is an unused slot in the table of Pokémon. RHYDON;;;;KANGASKHANNIDORAN-;;CLEFAIRY;;SPEAROW;;;VOLTORB;;;NIDOKING;;SLOWBRO;;; IVYSAUR;;;EXEGGUTOR;LICKITUNG;EXEGGCUTE;GRIMER;;;;GENGAR;;;;NIDORAN+;;NIDOQUEEN CUBONE;;;;RHYHORN;;;LAPRAS;;;;ARCANINE;;MEW;;;;;;;GYARADOS;;SHELLDER;;TENTACOOL; GASTLY;;;;SCYTHER;;;STARYU;;;;BLASTOISE;PINSIR;;;;TANGELA;;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO GROWLITHE;ONIX;;;;;;FEAROW;;;;PIDGEY;;;;SLOWPOKE;;KADABRA;;;GRAVELER;;CHANSEY;;; MACHOKE;;;MR.MIME;;;HITMONLEE;HITMONCHANARBOK;;;;;PARASECT;;PSYDUCK;;;DROWZEE;;; GOLEM;;;;;MISSINGNO.MAGMAR;;;;MISSINGNO.ELECTABUZZMAGNETON;;KOFFING;;;MISSINGNO.. MANKEY;;;;SEEL;;;;;;DIGLETT;;;TAUROS;;;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.FARFETCH'D VENONAT;;;DRAGONITE;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.DODUO;;;;;POLIWAG;;;JYNX;;;;;; MOLTRES;;;ARTICUNO;;ZAPDOS;;;;DITTO;;;;;MEOWTH;;;;KRABBY;;;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO. MISSINGNO.VULPIX;;;;NINETALES;PIKACHU;;;RAICHU;;;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.DRATINI;;;. DRAGONAIR;KABUTO;;;;KABUTOPS;;HORSEA;;;;SEADRA;;;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.SANDSHREW; SANDSLASH;OMANYTE;;;OMASTAR;;;JIGGLYPUFFWIGGLYTUFFEEVEE;;;;;FLAREON;;;JOLTEON;;; VAPOREON;;MACHOP;;;;ZUBAT;;;;;EKANS;;;;;PARAS;;;;;POLIWHIRL;POLIWRATH;WEEDLE;;;; KAKUNA;;;;BEEDRILL;;MISSINGNO.DODRIO;;;;PRIMEAPE;;DUGTRIO;;;VENOMOTH;;DEWGONG;;; MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.CATERPIE;;METAPOD;;;BUTTERFREEMACHAMP;;;MISSINGNO.GOLDUCK;;;. HYPNO;;;;;GOLBAT;;;;MEWTWO;;;;SNORLAX;;;MAGIKARP;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MUK;;;;;;;. MISSINGNO.KINGLER;;;CLOYSTER;;MISSINGNO.ELECTRODE;CLEFABLE;;WEEZING;;;PERSIAN;;; MAROWAK;;;MISSINGNO.HAUNTER;;;ABRA;;;;;;ALAKAZAM;;PIDGEOTTO;PIDGEOT;;;STARMIE;;;. BULBASAUR;VENUSAUR;;TENTACRUELMISSINGNO.GOLDEEN;;;SEAKING;;;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO. MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.PONYTA;;;;RAPIDASH;;RATTATA;;;RATICATE;;NIDORINO;;NIDORINA;; GEODUDE;;;PORYGON;;;AERODACTYLMISSINGNO.MAGNEMITE;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.CHARMANDER SQUIRTLE;;CHARMELEONWARTORTLE;CHARIZARD;MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO.MISSINGNO. ODDISH;;;;GLOOM;;;;;VILEPLUME;BELLSPROUTWEEPINBELLVICTREEBEL As you can see in this table (copypasted directly from the game ROM), there are a few of them, occupying some random slots in the name table. As for Unown, Unowns are completely different thing: They are part of the Gold/Silver storyline, and there's even a movie where they play an integral part. Unowns are letter-shaped Pokémon, all having the index number of 201. (This is from a Povray animation made by me.)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 275
Wow. Awesome run. The only thing that could have made it better is if the rival's name was "Bisqwit". *bricked* ...what? >>;;
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
Anon wrote:
if the rival's name was "Bisqwit".
I'm not like that! *gasp* ;)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 50
Help, I can't watch it! I opened it with Winamp, and there's to audio. Can someone help me?
I'm the hero of yay.
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
marioguy wrote:
Help, I can't watch it! I opened it with Winamp, and there's to audio. Can someone help me?
Did you spot the blue text at the top of this page?
Post subject: Re: About 151 Pokemon run
Editor, Skilled player (1936)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3239
Bisqwit wrote:
As for Unown, Unowns are completely different thing: They are part of the Gold/Silver storyline, and there's even a movie where they play an integral part. Unowns are letter-shaped Pokémon, all having the index number of 201. (This is from a Povray animation made by me.)
What's that picture supposed to be? A random clip from a 3D game? If you say Unowns are letter-shaped, are Japanese Unowns katakana-shaped?
Post subject: Re: About 151 Pokemon run
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
FractalFusion wrote:
Bisqwit wrote:
(This is from a Povray animation made by me.)
What's that picture supposed to be? A random clip from a 3D game?
The text you quoted already answers that question.
FractalFusion wrote:
If you say Unowns are letter-shaped, are Japanese Unowns katakana-shaped?
Nope, they were originally alphabets.
Player (20)
Joined: 10/14/2005
Posts: 317
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Would you need to have Professor Oak evaluate it? I'm really not sure.
Although Oak does evaluate the pokedex when our hero reaches the hall of fame, I recall it's just the same text as if you evaluate the pokedex using Oak's PC in a pokemon center. Thus, such a movie ought to just stop shortly after catching all 151 unless beating the Elite Four and rival is explicitly stated as a second goal.
FractalFusion wrote:
It is possible to get all 151 Pokemon, but whether such a run is interesting is another question. Technically, it is possible to get 151 Pokemon, a bunch of glitched Pokemon (called Missingno.), 127 of every item in your inventory, and a broken cartridge.
Here's how I would picture a 151-pokemon run: Our hero would play up through the first third of the game taking a somewhat scenic route, capturing various small pokemon like Nidoran and Caterpie that can later be evolved. He would continue on to the part with the gambler which can be abused for the so-called 'Mew glitch'. Recall that this glitch enables the player to capture not just Mew, but any pokemon in the game. Next, he would use the glitch to battle Missingno and create 100+ poke balls. He would then use the gambler glitch repeatedly to capture dozens of other pokemon who are in a first- or only-stage of evolution. These pokemon include the most familiar ones like Charmander or Bulbasaur, but also legendaries such as Moltres or Mew. This is a long and repetitive process, although it's probably faster than playing through the storyline and finding these pokemon in their natural places. Next, he would use the gambler glitch to view Missingno again and get 100+ rare candies. These can then be used to level up various small pokemon into their evolution forms (which would probably be faster than directly catching them through more of the gambler glitch). In the midst of this, he can make appropriate use of the 'ditto trick' when a pokemon has an appropriate special stat (see above link), and this allows the trainer to catch any remaining ones out of the 151 that haven't already been caught. This would not require playing the second half of the game, going into the safari zone, delving into dungeons to catch the legendary birds, or battling the Elite Four.
AceOfShades wrote:
In any case, that would be downright boring.
Indeed. -hanzou
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 3999
It would be impressive as it'd compromise the game's main goal in a few hours with a glitchfest, but unfortunately it would be really boring to watch.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Joined: 1/1/2022
Posts: 1716
Wow, takes 0 damage. Very impressive. I spotted one thing that could have saved you some time. When you battle Rival in Saffron City, you walk directly left from the portal. When you win, he walks all the way around you when leaving. But, if you take 1 step up then walk all the way left, the rival will be lined up with the portal when he battles you. You can save the time it takes for him to walk 4 tiles. Another thing was timing for critical hits. I thought there were some fights where the enemy took 2 hits to faint regardless of either being a critical. Sometimes you timed the first to be a critical when it didn't really matter, so you could have saved some time for the "A critical hit!" message to pop up. But, these will probably save a minute at the most, so I'm really just nitpicking...
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
AceOfShades wrote:
In any case, that would be downright boring.
Reading hanzou's description, I think I would want to see this done. But I can keep dreaming...
Active player (277)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Yeah, you'd have to weigh your options for each species. Raising a Pokemon to evolve, finding an evolved form of it instead, finding a Pokemon with a glitch, raising a Pokemon to evolve faster with a glitch... Sounds pretty complicated. I'm still not sure how I would want such a movie to end. One idea I had was to go to the Pokedex and scroll through everything to prove it was full. :)
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 9/24/2004
Posts: 177
ackackatk: The reason behind that is the way critical hits work in this game. Despite what you might think or what conventional knowledge shows you, critical hits do not do 2x damage in this game. Instead, it's actually closer to ~1.8x damage, thus if an attack would normally drain half the enemy's life bar (or slightly more), a critical hit with the same attack won't defeat the enemy Pokemon. Thus, you'll see quite a few instances where I'll use 2 normal attacks to defeat a Pokemon instead of 1 critical (or a critical and 2 normal attacks instead of 2 criticals, and so on).
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (966)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
Hhhhh... I have downloaded Matroska Splitter and ffdshow. Which crashed the first time I tried to install it, but a different directory worked. (It refused to overwrite/register ffdshow.ax the first time. I've had an identical problem at another computer.) Still no go. WMP shows the movie length as 4:45 instead of 1:51, there is no video at all and the sound is garbled. I'll gladly take 11 MB (or 50 MB) extra file size over this mess.
Joined: 10/24/2005
Posts: 1080
Location: San Jose
I just did a straight install of VLC, and I cant get .MKV files to play perfectly (even if windows doesn't recognized the file).
<agill> banana banana banana terracotta pie! <Shinryuu> ho-la terracotta barba-ra anal-o~
Joined: 5/27/2005
Posts: 465
Location: Turku, Finland
To watch .mkv, I use K-Lite and FFDshow codecs and BSPlayer to watch it. (I'm using Windows XP)
Which run should I encode next? :)