I'm not good at writing, but I'll give it a try.
Donkey Kong Country 101% TAS - by Arne the great
This run is a 101% completion of Donkey Kong Country and is my first TAS and submission ever.
I started this run December 2005 so that's mean I have worked on it a little more than 4 months. Although I've been kinda lazy most of the
time and schoolwork slowed down my progress too. (or maybe not the schoolwork)
The movie length is 170718 frames (2845.3 seconds, (47:25) and the in-game timer is
38:56 (shows as 38 min because seconds aren't displayed but are being kept track of)
and is 3219 frames faster (53.65 seconds) than the
current published run!
I've played a big amount of DKC before I started this run, mostly in school (We have a Snes and DKC that we can play on the breaks, (E) version though that
are a little diffrent) and discovered some new tricks and glitches that could be useful in a TAS and I will explain some of them
later. Bouncy bananza, Forest frenzy (which also are my biggest timesavers) and some other miscellaneous tricks were the main reasons why I
decided to improve the DKC 101% run.
Mostly of the tactics are the same because the current published run were very precise and well done which also gave me some problems to keep up and performing some tricks.
- Emulator used: SNES9x 1.43+ improvement7
- WIP1 Timing ON
- Fake mute desync workaround ON
- Takes damage to save time
- Aims for fastest time
- Uses warps
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Manipulates luck
New tricks & Glitches used
This run uses a few new tricks/glitches than the current published run, I'll list some of them:
Barrel-boost-jumping/speed-barrel-jumping
This is a neat and useful trick/glitch that I discovered early and works simply that when you're holding a barrel
and jumping at an slope on grounds like the one in Snow barrel blast and Slip slide ride your speed increases.
It also works if you're holding a barrel and with right timing jumps on
the very edge at grounds like the ones in Jungle Hijinxs, Reptile Rumble and Temple Tempest. You can see a lot of this trick at the beginning
of Bouncy Bananza.
I also discovered that you bounce a little higher on enemys while holding a barrel.
Rolling extending
A simple trick which I unfortunately discovered somewhat late in my run, It works simply by letting go of 'Y' when you roll at an enemy
and then you don't get your speed increased or start rolling again like you normal would, but later on while you roll you can press 'Y' again and your speed will be
increased and roll again just like you would roll at an enemy like normal apart from no 'pause'.
While performing a roll you let go of 'Y' button and then next frame you presses
downwards, 'B' and Y and next frame again just downwards and at next frame when you
press 'Y' you will start rolling again and also you won't have that stop in the end of the roll!
The 'extra roll' is often a little slower and will often give the same result as doing a simple roll jump.
The trick is usually most useful when you are at the exit.
Endless climbing
When you're climbin a rope you can't climb above the visable screen but if you simply presses downwards you
can jump above the visable screen and climb really high and maybe skip a rope as I do in Forest Frenzy.
That was all I think?
Oh, I discovered that one character is circa 10 frames faster at the map than 2 charaters.
Level by level
I decided to write some details of how much I saved and what I did faster in every stage.
I often saved 1 - 10 frames between the stages and in rare cases I lost 1 frame (once 10 frames slower but I'll explain why later).
1. Jungle Hijinxs
I saved 18 frames on the intro before entering this stage.
I jumped up to that palm and did a roll that allowed me to roll the whole way
to the barrel below the necky.
65 frames saved!
2. Ropey Rampage
Nothing special here, just some smoother movements and jumps.
12 frames saved!
3. Reptile Rumble
I did some more smoother playing and did a Barreljump (explained above) into the third bonus.
32 frames saved!
4. Coral Capers
Ugh, I hated the waterstages when I first started and had trouble being as fast as Alex but soon I noticed how to be faster and started to really
like waterstages, they are kind of relaxing.
21 frames saved!
5. Barrel Cannon Canyon
I had some trouble with this because by some unknown reason I was slower after the barrel after the 3 kremlings, but I figured later out if I jumped at the
right half of the barrel I wasn't slower. The timesaver here was a barreljump after the last bonus and jumped and bounced on the kremling into the auto-barrel.
127 frames saved!
6. Very Gnawty's Lair
Nothing special, just jumped 1 frame earlier.
1 frame saved!
7. Winky's Walkway
I kind of wish I would try a little more on this but I don't think there's much room for improvement.
7 frames saved!
8. Mine Cart Carnage
I played around a little and jumping seems like it was faster sometimes. Didn't look deeper into that.
8 frames saved!
9. Bouncy Bonanza
Like I said before this was one of the main reason I started on the run because you didn't need to take that winky room for 101% and
skipping that room saves a lot of time.
436 frames saved!!! :)
10. Stop & go station
I thought this would be hard to TAS but turned out not to be. Only diffrence here I think is not throwing the barrel.
18 frames saved!
11. Milstone Mayhem
On Alex's run he dies just before the bonus but I found out that you can just jump into the barrel and later on I found out that you could simply
boost-barrel jump into that barrel which of course saves much ´time!
I also sacrified a frame so I could make Diddy make a nice glide at the bonus. ;)
113 frames saved!!
12. Necky's Nuts
Between Milstone Mayhem and this stage I lost 10 frames but that's all because 2 characters are about 10 frames slower on the map.
But I saved some time because I there was no need to take a DK-barrel.
35 frames saved!
13. Vulture culture
I just tried to be as fast as possible and I was really suprised over how much I saved by just smooth it up a little.
70 frames saved!
14. Tree Top Town
The first part wasn't something special about but in the second part I discovered that you could change to Donkey Kong and jump directly into
the barrel but I wasn't sure if it would save anything and by even more testing I found one frame you could jump with diddy directly into
the barrel and that of course saved a lot of time!
214 frames saved!!
15. Forest frenzy
Like I said before this was the other main reason for the run. I used a trick I explained earlier in the trick section that
allow you to climb as high as you want on a rope rope and I used that trick to skip a whole rope part.
I also entered the last bonus on a faster and cooler way.
400 frames saved!!!
16. Temple tempest
On this stage I do a trick that I don't really know how I did but I succeed after a lot of tries. I rolled through the rope and jumped
later and that aren't supposed to be allowed.
79 frames saved!
17. Orang-utan-gang
I did just use some of that barrel-boost and saved some time. I had a little trouble at the beginning but I figured out how to keep up later.
39 frames saved!
18. clam city
Like I said before I really started like to TAS the waterstages, there's a lot to improve and they're very relaxing. ^_^
35 frames saved!
19. Bumble B Rumble
First I got some really early hits and was some frames faster but always ended up being slower at the end and I understood that the bee had to be closer
to the ground on the last hit so I simply hit him a frames later.
4 frames saved!
20. snow barrel blast
I had about three diffrent tactics for the barrel-boost jump there but the one I used is the fastest.
137 frames saved!!
21. Slipslide ride
The timesaver here was simply that I didn't do that jump in the beginning so the enemies spawns a little earlier. Some rope parts were faster too.
54 frames saved!
22. Ice age alley
I had some trouble with keeping up but I jumped down into the auto-barrel and saved some time by that.
46 frames saved!
23. Croctopus chase
Long waterstage... Much too improve though. Relaxing and a big timesaver. particular this one.
106 frames saved!
24. Torchlight trouble
Nothing special at all. skipped the parrot because I find its flashing annoying.
18 frames saved.
25. Rope Bridge Rumble
I had major problems with rolling on the tyre and landing at the platform and tried many times and left it a while for a couple of days but
figured out how to do it later and succeed in the end. A hard trick that really needs frame perfection.
17 frames saved.
26. Really Gnawty Rampage
Just another boss and mostly jumping at same frame as alex and avoding some lag. Didn't want to look deep into the boss.
0 frames saved/lost/eaten.
27. Oil Drum Alley
At this point it started to go really slow with my progress I did not feel like TASing at all.
I knew that rambi was slighty slower than roll-jumping and I did a couple of tries and noticed that it would save much time by just skipping
rambi.
129 frames saved!!
28. Trick track trek
Here I did a roll earlier and jumped to that platform instead of waiting longer and rolled directly into the bonus-barrel.
63 frames saved!
29. Elevator antics
At this point I started get really tired of doing the TAS and I couldn't get as fast after the last 'elevators' but I figured out how to
get the elevator spawn a little later or earlier, can't really remember.
69 frames saved!
30. Poison pond
Another waterstage and another improvement but a kind of boring waterstage but I managed to smooth it up a little.
55 frames saved!
31. Mine Cart Madness
Madness? Yes. Mine cart? Not as much as it supposed. ;)
Fortunality, just before I started with this stage I found a really neat glitch that allowes you to roll and jump in mid-air but only if you die after
the midway barrel and then re-enter the stage and jumps out of the midway barrel but I found out later on that if you died with one character in some
way you could be able to do the mid-air roll & jump glitch and I tested some tactics and the one I use is the fastest I think. Also discovered a trick that allow you to slap in the air with Donkey Kong and entering the 3:rd bonus 100 frames earlier but I couldn't
get the mid-air roll trick to work and didn't believe that it would be faster. I also changed character and died once and I still saved a
lot of time (lost some and earned some time later on too).
166 frames saved!
32. Blackout Basement
Great use of the rolling extending here and I managed to roll really far and fast and skipped a rope part. I was 10 frames faster
between this stage and mine cart madness and boss dumb drum because 1 character is somewhat faster. Kind of makes up for the
10 frames that were eaten between Milstone Mayhem and Necky's Nuts.
129 frames saved!
33. Boss dumb drum
I'm happy about how this turned out. I had a lot of fun doing this and I also had to
take the DK-barrel at the beginning of the stage and taking a DK-barrel makes you lose
about 34 frames so I was actually about 3 frames faster
31 frames eaten like a french stinkin cheese? meow?
34. Tanked up Trouble
Some better rolling in the beginning and I rolled on the two neckys to make a longer roll and land on the kremling earlier.
Just some minor improvements.
59 frames saved!
35. Manic mincers
Again with a diffrent rambi tactic, I simply just did like in the DKC any% run and used rambi to skip a short part. First I thought that
you had to have a barrel to come up to that ledge but you just need to wait a bit and then jump. (as you can see I slowed down a bit, before people start: Omgzor j00 l!k3 sl00w N0 w00t¨0ff corse!!111oneone)
96 frames saved!
36. Misty mine
I just did some roll extending here and smoothed it up a bit. By unknown reasons I was 3 frames slower before the bonus
and I just couldn't get it as fast as alex did. I have no idea what caused it.
37 frames saved.
37. Loopy lights
This stage was easier than I thought. I rolled at the enemy right at the beginning (that's the only one you can roll on (only works
for (U) 1.0) and I were quite suprised that no one noticed that.)
41 frames saved and a cheese as a hat.
I thought this one would be hard to TAS too but turned out there was a lot that could
be smoother and I was really happy about the result.
90 frames saved!
39. Necky's revenge
Boring boss and boring to TAS but managed to save some frames by letting necky be at lower part at last hit.
I think Necky's Nuts can be improved in the same manner.
8 frames saved!
40. Gang-plank galleon
Last boss and a long one too. I may have rushed it through but I just wanted to finish the run!
Don't think I really saved much time but quited a bit earlier.
Notes and some thanks ;)
- Thanks to Alex Penev for creating awesome tactics for a 101% run.
- Thanks to all that motivated me and such.
- Thanks to Bladegash for finding out the in-game seconds.
- And a big thank to the whole TAS community.
I may improve samis DKC any% next.
And even make a new version of this (if I find something new) in the future.
Unlikely though.
If you see any spelling mistakes or you think something I should add, tell me then.
Hope you enjoy watching this!
Truncated: Good movie, good feedback, putting it on accepted. Congrats.
Bisqwit: I second that, congratulations on making such a
good movie as your first movie. Processing.
Thank you.
