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Overview

This is a TAS of the USA/Europe version of Pokémon Red, finishing with a in-game clock of 1:41. The emulator used for recording was VBA 1.7.2 (Nitsuja rev. 10), and the run itself was completed over the course of approximately one month. Throughout the run, only three pokémon are collected: Charmander, Gyarados, and a Pidgey.

Features

  • Aims for fastest time.
  • Takes no damage.
  • Manipulates luck.
  • Abuses programming errors in the game.
  • Ignores semi-important goals in the game.
  • No predefined saves.
  • Genre: RPG

Description

As with the previous movie, this submission is also aiming for the fastest time to become the Pokémon League Champion, and does so 15,632 frames faster than the last. In general, this new time can be attributed to several changes in tactic:
  • Using Gyarados instead of Mew.
  • Glitching the main battler earlier (in Mt. Moon instead of Cerulean).
  • Not catching Abra or Snorlax.
It's also worth noting that a level 7 Gyarados caught in the wild knows all the attacks he would learn up to level 42, including:
  • Bite
    • A mid-level normal attack.
  • Dragon Rage
    • Guaranteed 40 points of damage.
    • Most pokémon under level 20 have less than 40 hit points.
  • Hydro Pump
    • The most powerful water attack.
Having such a strong arsenal of attacks, Gyarados is able to power through the first part of the game effortlessly. Most of the saved time comes in the first half. The Elite Four is somewhat slower, however, because Gyarados does not know Pyshic or Dig to take out the Ghost pokémon.

Luck Manipulation

The majority of the manipulation in this game comes during battles. Manipulating critical hits, adjusting damage, manipulating misses, etc. I have tried my best to ensure that all delays are as short a possible, and watching full speed they are hardly to be noticed. I also had to manipulate three 1/256 misses this run: Lt. Surges Raichu, Lorelei's Lapras, and Gary's Blastoise in the very last battle. Other things were manipulated too, such as the location of the switches in Vermillion Gym, causing people to move, etc.

Glitch Abuse

The glitch I use to catch Gyarados is in principle the same one I used to catch Mew, only a change of setting. Instead of Teleporting from the Glitch Trainer, I use Escape Rope instead. Fighting the Lass is what triggers Gyarados when I return to the lower level. I also use the Poké Doll trick again.

Selected Notes

Start - Mt. Moon

  • I decided to rename Chamander this time. After the second battle, it had already paid for itself.
  • Saved a critical hit on the first trainer in Veridian Forest.
  • Saved a critical hit on Brock's Onix.
  • Picked up seven Escape Ropes. I would have gotten eight, but I didn't have enough money.
  • Saved a lot of time on the Youngster by having more Embers at my disposal.
  • Used the Poké Center, necessary for Gyarados glitching.
  • Time lost: 31 frames.

Mt. Moon - Cerulean

  • Avoided picking up TMs.
  • Rolled Gyarados with max stats.
  • Fought the Gym immediately, and learned Bubblebeam.
  • Saved at Poké Center (last time until Indigo Plateau).
  • Time lost: 3,411 frames.

Nugget Bridge - Celedon

  • Abra was not caught.
  • Mew is not glitched.
  • Minimized both 'Critical hit' and 'Super effective' messages through move choice.
  • Minimized switching between attacks.
  • Time gained: 19,002 frames.

Poké Tower - Safari Zone

  • Due to a lower special, I was unable to do Celedon Gym before Poké Tower. This means I lost four Ice Beams which weren't auto-healed in the tower. It turned out to be alright, though, because of the extra 5pp from Surf.
  • Time gained 2,226 frames.

Fuschia Gym - Indigo Plateau

  • Bite was, as speculated, not strong enough to do Fuschia Gym immediately. The was unfortunate, because I didn't want to teach Strength without Surf, and I wanted / needed Hydro Pump for the Gym. I attempted doing the office building first, but to no success. Although I was able to get through alright, I used all of my Hydro Pumps doing so, which defeats the whole point. So, I did in fact end up having to teach Strength without Surf. To mitigate the loss a bit, I switched the Surf HM up to the top while learning Strength. This had a nice side effect. Namely, that I was able to do Blaine before Sabrina without losing menu time, because the item menu cursor was up near the top when I needed to Escape Rope out of the Mansion.
  • Time lost: 483 frames.

Lorelei

  • Jynx got an extra attack.
  • More critical hits needed.
  • Time lost: 256 frames.

Bruno

  • One extra attack for the Machamp.
  • Time lost: 274 frames.

Agatha

  • Three extra attacks needed, one for each Ghost.
  • Time lost: 1,034 frames.

Lance

  • Dragonite got an extra attack.
  • Time lost: 230 frames.

Gary

  • Pidgeot got an extra attack.
  • One less attack needed for Arcanine.
  • Time gained: 108 frames.
primorial#soup: In the description text, it should probably be noted that this run breaks sequence twice. Once by using the Poké Doll trick to skip the Game Corner completely, and once by swimming to Cinnibar from Pallet Town instead of going through Seafoam Islands. Both previously published runs do both of these as well.
Bisqwit: Accepting for being an improvement to the previous version. However, I think I'll keep the torrent of the previous movie around too, because the Mew version is still very interesting.

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Posted: 10/29/2006 6:21 PM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
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Active player (278)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Yeah, I remember that some badges are required to use the HMs on the map, so trading with some other game that has everything already still wouldn't help much in that respect. Even besides that, it seems like a roundabout version of starting a game with everything beaten and just running to the end. What's so impressive about grabbing a high-level fighter from some other game you played?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 10/29/2006 6:28 PM
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Mukki
Skilled player (1090)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
GBA TASer of 2012 GBA TAS of 2012 Lucky TAS of 2011 Gameboy TAS of 2011 N64 TASer of 2007
Exactly, a game played like this would only be fit as a concept demo, even then it would still be about an 01:25:00 (possibly, if really abused) and hence too long for anyone to be bothered watching out of interest.
http://tasvideos.org/Mukki.html
Posted: 10/29/2006 11:34 PM
Post subject: @Primo
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Chamale
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Player (178)
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1352
Location: Canada
OK, I just wasn't thinking straight. According to pokemon stadium 2, the only pokemon that learn cut and fly are: Farfetch'd Skarmory Charizard Mew Clearly, that's no good. All of these would be time-consuming to get (Skarmory isn't in RBY at all). I heard a rumour of a glitch that teleports you to the Hall of Fame. I'll have to try it out. I'll edit my post later to say if it worked. Of course, it won't be a very impressive run - You would have about 1 badge at the point you "Transported". On the principle of "Better safe than sorry", I'm going to transport all my pokemon to Pokemon Stadium 2 before trying this. By the way, Primo, if critical hits are so bad, why do you beat Brock with critical hits in your run? Edit: OK, the glitch doesn't work. The idea was that you don't go to a pokemon center at any point, and use Escape Rope while in Mount Moon. The game, not knowing where to send you, sends you to Hall of Fame. There's another alleged version, involving an Abra's teleport, and I'll have to try in the interest of TAS science. I'm wondering how Squirtle will have the PP to make it that far (Actually, not really. I plan to replace Water Gun with Mega Punch, then replace something with Water Gun.) Edit 2: OK, the other variation didn't work either. I'm glad I transferred all my pokemon to pokemon stadium... all I deleted was a ditto.
Posted: 10/30/2006 1:05 PM
Post subject: Re: @Primo
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primorial_soup
Player (87)
Joined: 1/15/2006
Posts: 333
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Chamale wrote:
OK, I just wasn't thinking straight. According to pokemon stadium 2, the only pokemon that learn cut and fly are: Farfetch'd Skarmory Charizard Mew
Charizard can only learn Fly from Pokémon Yellow onward. In Red and Blue he unfortunately cannot :\
Chamale wrote:
By the way, Primo, if critical hits are so bad, why do you beat Brock with critical hits in your run?
Simple answer is that I was using Charmander. I don't have an emulator in front of me at the moment, so I can't check exactly, but I think it made the difference between 5 points maximum damage non-critical, and 6 points maximum damage with criticals. At any rate, it meant one less attack needed over the course of the battle. If you have a Squirtle with a high enough starting special, you can two-hit KO with out critical hits, which is definitely the optimal strategy.
Chamale wrote:
Edit: OK, the glitch doesn't work. The idea was that you don't go to a pokemon center at any point, and use Escape Rope while in Mount Moon. The game, not knowing where to send you, sends you to Hall of Fame. There's another alleged version, involving an Abra's teleport, and I'll have to try in the interest of TAS science. I'm wondering how Squirtle will have the PP to make it that far (Actually, not really. I plan to replace Water Gun with Mega Punch, then replace something with Water Gun.)
Sure doesn't. If you haven't used a Poké Center, your last save point is at your house in Pallet town (I think this is because your mother counts as a Poké Center, in some strange manner). Another variation would be to simply die somewhere along the way. If this sent you to the Elite Four, that is a bug that most certainly would have been noticed by the developers. Mega Punch is a strong attack obtainable very early, but it has its drawbacks. I've mentioned elsewhere that certain attacks have an animation which is significantly slower than others... Mega Punch is one of them (55 frames slower than Bubblebeam, for example). Just something else to think about.
Chamale wrote:
Edit 2: OK, the other variation didn't work either. I'm glad I transferred all my pokemon to pokemon stadium... all I deleted was a ditto.
If you have any questions about anything that might possibly compromise your game data, feel free to ask beforehand. Many people have already done a lot of the experimentation for you :)
print reduce(lambda x,p:p/2*x/p+2*10**1000,range(6643,1,-2))
Posted: 11/2/2006 1:12 AM
Post subject: @ primo
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Chamale
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Player (178)
Joined: 10/20/2006
Posts: 1352
Location: Canada
The thing is, this website (trsrockin.com) actually said it worked. I find it a very reliable source. Anyway, I really don't care about game data. If I ever have the slightest smidgen of caring, I can just get Pokemon Stadium 2, take the Dodrio Tower, and go to the point I was before.
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