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James Pond 3 is a platformer, with a huge overworld map spanning over 100 levels. Certain one way systems are incorperated when travelling from level to level, and there are crucial items, characters, upgrades and special levels scattered throughout the game. This run only bothers to destroy the Cheese mines/Stiltonium machines, as that's all that's neccessary in order to get the good ending
  • Recorded using Gens9, 6 buttons. No changes made to default settings in order to record
  • No passwords or warping used
  • Damage taken to save time, but no deaths.
  • Several tricks were used in the game
    • After running down a steep slope, Pond's speed will be increased beyond his regular top speed, but unfortunately after running along flat ground for a while it'll then be reduced to his regular speed. Easy way around that, simply keep jumping off the floor and your momentum will be conserved, which works for aiding both horizontal and vertical jumping. This gets used at various points throughout the movie.
    • Jumping at a block in the air on the right frame will result in neither hitting the edge or the underside, but rather just travelling directly through it. This made it easy to collect the Minimap surrounded by rocks on Wendsleydale Wastelands, by jumping through the rocks rather than finding a way to destroy them first.
    • Dynamite sticks will defuse themselves if they leave the screen, this made it easier to transport them greater distances and use them in areas they were unintended for
    • Another neat trick is that you can pick up certain items, drop them in mid air and you'll have a window of a few frames where you will land on it, giving you the oppertunity to jump off it in mid air. Great for reaching high places without the need for ledges

The Mines/Machines need to be destroyed for a good ending, which I always do when I play the game. For the sake of this TAS however, I was originally planning to just ignore them and head straight for the final boss. Granted, it would've been the bad ending, but an ending nevertheless. Of course, I get about 80% of the way through the TAS when I decide to play on ahead and discover just how bad the bad ending really is. Oh joy, it doesn't take you to the credits, what it actually does it take you to the Game Over screen instead. Well, that means I need to scrap most of what I've done, I need a completely different overworld route, and about three times as many levels to cover >_<. You don't need to be an expert at a game to do a TAS, but it certainly helps...

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Posted: 9/9/2007 2:50 PM
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1691: Flip's Genesis James Pond 3: Operation Starfish in 35:30.98
Posted: 9/9/2007 4:46 PM
(Edited: 9/10/2007 10:38 AM)
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Mukki
Skilled player (1098)
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
This pretty good for a first TAS. The game was a good choice as it was very fast paced at times. You also handled it very well. Although a couple of things stood out: you say that to preserve speed you can jump, however, during level 2 (?) Mr Pond decelerates quite noticably. Originally I thought it was to do with the terrain, but I thought I may as well ask. Also, around about frame 37000 (?) there is a situation where you drop dynamite on to TNT crates to collect something from the bottle shaped hole beneath. You didn't seem to jump into the hole as soon after the explosion as you did in other situations. Was there a reason for this? The ending doesn't bother me. I feel a movie of this game three times as long wouldn't be a good idea. I'll withhold my vote until you answer my above questions. EDIT - Well explained. I see no harm in voting yes. Good job!
http://tasvideos.org/Mukki.html
Posted: 9/9/2007 5:24 PM
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emu
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Joined: 1/2/2007
Posts: 188
Location: Germany, Munich
I wanted to say the same, but Mukki beat me to it.^^ The game choice is good (nice graphics, not much lag, fast paced). And the run itself was quite entertaining (I didn't ff the levels, except overworld). However there were several moments, that looked dubious to me. Unfortunately, I can't remember them. Since I don't know that game, I will wait for someone to comment the run, who knows the game, until I vote. Still great run; if the first and second part are similar, I want to see them tased, too. The choice for the ending looks ok to me, though it would have started to get repetitive after 20 more minutes.
Posted: 9/9/2007 6:17 PM
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DrJones
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
If I understood the submission message, this run is three times longer than it could have been, because it aims for best ending. Flip did a run to get a bad ending, and discovered that instead of the game credits, appears a game over screen, and he doesn't think that this counts as beating the game, so he scrapped it when it was around 80% done. I haven't watched this run, and I don't know the site rules too well, but if the judges judge that this case is to be treated like "All-Emerald Sonic runs" and "Good-Ending Makaimura" I'll vote no due to being against the choice of goals.
No.
Posted: 9/9/2007 6:20 PM
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ShadowWraith
Joined: 8/7/2006
Posts: 344
You'll not enjoy the movie because a judge ruled it should be a separate category? o_O (Read the poll question...)
Posted: 9/9/2007 8:30 PM
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DrJones
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
ShadowWraith wrote:
You'll not enjoy the movie because a judge ruled it should be a separate category? o_O (Read the poll question...)
Good Ending Makaimura isn't a separate category, just an unnecesary goal. Makaimura counts as beaten even though you are required to play the game twice to get the proper ending. Some Mario game requires you to beat it 8 times to get to the secret world and (truly) beat the game. The judges ruled that, for these games, the game counted as "beaten" even though there were still things left to do. In this game, it seems that it's unclear if defeating the last boss alone would count as beating the game, as it shows a Game Over Screen. Showing a different screen (the "good ending") takes thrice the time, and doesn't count as a 100% run, either. It might be deemed an unnecessary goal. So, if it's unnecessary, it's clearly suboptimal, so I'll vote no on that principle. If the judges think that destroying the machines is the only method allowed*, that changes things and I might give it a try, as I liked James Pond II.
No.
Posted: 9/9/2007 10:05 PM
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bkDJ
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215
Well I really liked the health management and crazy speed obtained in some areas as well as the clever use of ceiling-waking for extra speed when you have to wait for something. I didn't really see any bad playing, so I vote yes because I enjoyed watching it.
Posted: 9/9/2007 11:21 PM
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The_Great_Morphologous
Joined: 4/12/2007
Posts: 78
Location: Atlanta, GA
I think the reason for the wait around 37000 was because he had no health left and had to wait for the explosion to clear? Anyway, Flip seemed to abuse the speed boosts very well, especially in the levels where he cleared all of it in one jump. Voting yes.
Posted: 9/9/2007 11:24 PM
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Flip
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Joined: 7/25/2007
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Location: UK
Sega TAS of 2017 PSX TASer of 2015 PSX TAS of 2015
OK, looks like I did some pretty poor explaining there, I'll try and clear things up. First of all, forget about the 2 endings ordeal, there's really only 1, it was just my inexperience which lead me to believe there was 2. If you're not quite sure on it, just watch this quick video, you can skip nearly all of it anyway: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/374583527/JP3.gmv For the first half I deliberately kill myself just for the sake of getting to the Game over screen. For the next bit I warp and defeat the final boss without the neccessary requirements, hence getting what I referred to as the bad ending; where as in fact it's actually just the exact same Game Over screen I got a few minutes earlier. No credits or "The End" gets shown, so doing it this way basically has the same effect as just dying; so I can't see how finishing the game in this manner could be considered completing it. That is what I was gonna do originally, but obviously changed it into what is currently being published. Ok, now the other issues. Jumping will maintain speed, but it doesn't last forever. Air will eventually slow you down too, it's just that it takes longer to do so, so I cant go through entire levels at sonic speed. Next, I've only got 1 health left at 37000, so jumping down into the hole would've killed me. I needed to wait for the TNT to finish exploding.
Posted: 7/26/2012 3:53 PM
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TASVideosGrue
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