This is the run for Link's Awakening, using the screenwarp glitch (explained below). Making this movie was a rough, but not very long path. Using the screenwarp glitch takes me to the very end of the eight and last dungeon in approxmiatly one and a half minute. Thousands of re-records later, I'm here with the finished result, which I'm very pleased of. It is also my first TAS-speedrun, and I didn't know anything about using the emulator for this purpose until I started with this.
Recorded on VisualBoyAdvance 1.72 with re-recording 19.2.
  • Takes damage to save time.
  • Uses game restart.
  • Heavily abuses the screenwarp glitch.
  • Aims for fastest time.
  • Manipulates luck.
  • Abuses programming errors.

Screenwarp glitch

This is basically done by walking towards the edge of the screen, and just a few frames before you hit the edge, you hold select while still walking. If done correctly, you should stop at the very edge, and the map will come up. Now close the map, and you should be at the edge of the next screen. This can be abused to reach unreachable places, and climbing over trees and other things. This is for example used in the movie by warping from the bottom-most screen, and ending up at the top screen (which conveniently enough is the entrance to the 8th dungeon).

Up/Down/Right/Left + A

By pressing up, down and the button I have for my shield, the game thinks that Link is at a different position and that makes me take the sword earlier. Same thing as Chef_Stef did in his LA TAS. This can also be done with other combinations, which provides some funny sequences that I use in the movie (Link changing colour, Link turning into a shovel, Link becoming invisible...)

Improvements are, in order of appearance:
  • Pressing Up+down + B allows me to pick the sword instantly when entering the beach.
  • As I take the sword at the right beach screen, I can screenwarp from there, and land at a much closer opening to the 8th temple. Also I land at the ground at once, instead of falling down and then spawning again.
  • Faster nightmare battle.
  • I'm shaving off some frames during the Aghanim and Ganon fights by manipulating them to appear closer to the middle. I do, however, lose some frames during the Ganon fight because of lag. This is mostly because that the previous emulator version, 1.7.2, had less lag than this. This was nothing I could do anything about.
  • Bringing up the "Save and quit" screen allows me to skip the ending message, the one telling me to climb the stairs.
Note: Right after I take the sword, I have to push the spiky thing one screen up to manipulate the spiky thing one screen down. If I would have taken damage from this one, I'd have died in the nightmare battle. Also, for some reason, I lost a frame when the Wind Fish disappeared, emulator issue I presume.
DonamerDragon's movie: 15733
My run: 14430
Improved by: 1303
I'd like to thank Tompa for introducing me to the techniques used, and helping me count frames (oh the drudgery...), and also giving me feedback on how to improve the run. Thanks a lot, I wouldn't have made it without you. And thanks to DonamerDragon for doing the last run, providing me with useful hints of gameplay and such.
Enjoy!
Suggested screenshots: 3272, 3562, 3566, 8300, 8521, 8530, 8785.

adelikat: Accepting as an improvement to the current published run.

TASVideoAgent
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Tompa
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Very nice! Too bad annoying lag and such stopped you from a sub 4 minutes... Should be able to do it though, hmm. Oh well. Great work on your first submission. Yes vote:).
Active player (324)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
This is glitched worse than the last version. I love it. I love the random musical note at the end.
Player (88)
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1057
Location: United States
pretty nice improvement. It was short enough not to bore me, voting yes.
They're off to find the hero of the day...
N._Harmonik
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Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 502
Location: Canada
5573 re-records for a run that's 4 minutes and 1 second long? Yikes, I'd hate to see how many you would do for a full run of this game.
Why, oh, why do I even <i>try</i> to understand my own species?
ventuz
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Joined: 10/4/2004
Posts: 940
Easy yes, good improvement and short enough.
Tompa
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N. Harmonik wrote:
5573 re-records for a run that's 4 minutes and 1 second long? Yikes, I'd hate to see how many you would do for a full run of this game.
Blame me, I made him redo a lot of parts :D. That increased his rerecords count quite a lot.
Player (103)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Very awesome. I'm so glad someone was able to beat it by that much! I'll have to take a look at this!
Soft Blue Dragon
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Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Whew, that's just cool. I didn't know about the left+right glitch when I first did this run. I personally think it could be a little better still based on knowing that now...there is two problem areas I saw, I think another go could get this below 4 minutes. * Lag when warping out of mabe village can be avoided. Lose one frame when warping the second time from the telephone booth area. That loses the chicken sprite and saves a few frames from what I saw. It wasn't worth it at the time to save those frames... * Why the reset sequence at the end? Did that gain time from my run? Without that I think this could easily go down below 4. Still gonna vote yes. Great job on the run.
Soft Blue Dragon
Tompa
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What emulator are you watching this with, Dragon? Using the latest or 1.7.2? 1.7.2 takes one frame less to start the game than 19.3. Didn't you read his comments before you replied?:O "Bringing up the "Save and quit" screen allows me to skip the ending message, the one telling me to climb the stairs." I think that was like 365 frames faster or something.
Player (103)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Tompa wrote:
What emulator are you watching this with, Dragon? Using the latest or 1.7.2? 1.7.2 takes one frame less to start the game than 19.3. Didn't you read his comments before you replied?:O "Bringing up the "Save and quit" screen allows me to skip the ending message, the one telling me to climb the stairs." I think that was like 365 frames faster or something.
*palms face* I so read that too before I viewed the video, gawd I'm tired. x-x
Soft Blue Dragon
Joined: 3/10/2006
Posts: 347
Location: Maryland, United States
I'm going to vote yes. Not only is it more optimized, I think it's also more entertaining than the puplished run.
Joined: 12/27/2006
Posts: 532
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
Thanks everyone for the kind replies. :)
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
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A great glitch demonstration, and an entertaining run. Voting yes!
"Big-endian guys drive like THIS, and little-endian guys drive like ISTH!"
adelikat
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Wow, this run is now basically King Bounty with a boss fight. I saw some menus, a little walkilng, and then BAM; fighting the final battle. I love it.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Glitcher
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I've been whoring out glitches in this game for years and I've never seen anything like that. How did you pull off that Up/Down trick? I just tried it right now and it doesn't work. I configured the up, down and B buttons on VBA 1.72 to a certain key, and when I press it, nothing special happens. No glitchy graphics or teleportation. Either I'm missing something, or you're not being clear enough, mate.
Tompa
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First: Welcome to the forums! Second: Have you got "Allow Left+Right / Up+Down." on or off? Third: It's quite hard to explain how these kind of glitches work in this game. It is very easy to see that something is wrong if you press up+down when charging and releasing the spinattack. By doing that, you'll see that Link "moves" to different places on the screen, his sword as well. When you are pressing up+down+shield, Link will be able to pick up Piece of Powers, Guardian Acorns and the sword, as long as it is in the same vertical line as Link. I can't really give an explaining to it... So you'll have to accept this one.
Glitcher
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Tompa wrote:
First: Welcome to the forums! Second: Have you got "Allow Left+Right / Up+Down." on or off?
Boy, do I feel stupid. I'm not that familar with VBA anyway. Thanks, Tompa. No wonder I couldn't find this glitch when experimenting for ages on my old GB. Seems it can only be done on an emulator. What wonders this 14 year-old gem still holds. PS. Thanks for the greetings.
Joined: 12/27/2006
Posts: 532
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
Glitcher wrote:
Tompa wrote:
First: Welcome to the forums! Second: Have you got "Allow Left+Right / Up+Down." on or off?
Boy, do I feel stupid. I'm not that familar with VBA anyway. Thanks, Tompa. No wonder I couldn't find this glitch when experimenting for ages on my old GB. Seems it can only be done on an emulator. What wonders this 14 year-old gem still holds. PS. Thanks for the greetings.
Heh, probably some more is yet to be discovered. This game is so full of glitches. Thanks. :)
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
Tompa
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You can't imagine how much I've been testing with these kind of glitches in this game, ooooh boy! Every weapon, every combination. I haven't, however, experienced with two weapons at once so much... hmm. Glitcher: Take a look at the LA DX TAS that's on the site to see a lot of these glitches found by me and Chef_Stef :).
Glitcher
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I took your advice and watched it. It was okay, I suppose. I admit I was impressed with using the Hookshot to skip chasms and nab the Bird Key. The rest was serviceable.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [822] GB The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening by Soulrivers in 04:00.50
Tompa
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Yay :D. Is it going to be the same pic again? I personally like this one better:
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Wee, publication. :)
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
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Congrats on this :D BTW, as far as I know we all have Glitcher to thank for originally discovering that the final boss can be beaten in this way, this early in the game.