Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past by Tompa

- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses a game restart sequence
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Genre: Action
- Genre: Adventure

About the run

Long ago I had the idea of TASing ALttP as my first TAS. But after I looked at Flagitious’ run several times, I realized that it would be pretty much impossible for me to do it, because I had no experience and I would never be able to handle the manipulation and movement so I gave up the idea.
But here it is anyway. This is 14,705 frames, or 4 minutes 4.68 seconds faster compared to the previous run.
An encode can be find here, http://shynee.ath.cx/~doofy/sneszelda-tas-tompa.mkv , thanks to ShinyDoofy for it.

Tricks used:


Wobbling

While going left or up you can wobble (Holding left/up and pressing right/down every second frame) to increase your movement by 33%. Can also be used while swimming after a certain speed has been reached.

Pixelporting

While being pressed between two walls while going up/down, face the wall to either left or right and press <^> or <v>, depending on if you are moving up or down. This will make Link move up to 6 pixels at once in a mysterious way...
This is used a lot when going through narrow passages such as doorways and stairs that will take you between different ground levels, not floors. This won't work with all doorways and stairs however; some stairs make you go out of bounds and some doors are Link walking through automatically.

Floating

By using Turbo A, once the Pegasus Boots are collected, you can float over holes. While floating you can also go through small walls, see Palace of Darkness…

Shooting stuff through moving blocks

No comments.

Frame Rules:


Items

Items such as small keys, rupees, heart etc. can only be obtained every 4th frame which will sometimes force you to lose a frame or two (or three) if you are unlucky.

Taking/dealing damage

Most enemies that damage Link can only do that every 4th frame. This is abused to walk/run through enemies without taking damage.

Enemies

There are a few enemies that will only react a specific way depending on what frame you enter the room, such as the Cyclops and the "desert enemy" Swamola.

Manipulation:


Enemies

Many of the enemies can be manipulated. This is abused a lot to be able to kill them faster and not having them blocking my path.

Items

The items received from enemies aren't random, just if I get an item or not. Enemies have different prize packs that follows a specific item drop order. Skeletons for example, are always dropping a small magic as their first item, the second one is a green rupee and then a heart etc. Other enemies, such as the cyclops, have different prize packs.
If I want to get a specific item I'll have to kill the right amount of enemies until that item appears.
Enemies will not drop any items if they are killed by a dash attack.

The run itself:


BLA BLA BLA faster to do BLA BLA because of BLA BLA.
No Super Bomb BLA BLA, can kill Ganon anyway BLA BLA, saves around 2 minutes BLA.
BLA, need to BLA BLA wait BLA BLA a few frames anyway BLA BLA BLA.

Thank you...

erokky: You helped me get started with this, teaching me Link's physics and how the item manipulation worked etc. I would probably not have started seriously with this run if it wasn't for you.
flagitious: Your awesome run was a very good guideline for me to use. I was often very impressed how you had solved the enemy manipulation in many cases, which I have had many problems. Also a good WIP watcher.
dezbeast: Helping out with different things in the earlier parts of the run and given me comments on my WIPs.
Desbreko: You made me hate Mothula, but thanks for explaining how to kill him quick enough :D.
ShinyDoofy: Thanks a lot for encoding my WIPs!
Comicalflop: For proofreading the submission text.
Thanks to all the WIP-watchers and those who kept me going with this run! I hope you know who you are.
Enjoy!

adelikat: Accepting for publication as an improvement to the published movie.
ShinyDoofy: Processed, will publish...

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
Editor, Experienced player (729)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Yay you are finished! Now you can retire: Good job. I've watched all the WIPs, and good improvements all around.
Homepage ☣ Retired
Player (223)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 399
Now those bosses really got it bad. Overall, quite extreme.
<adelikat> I've been quoted with worse
Active player (489)
Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682
At Tompa's request, I've uploaded the run to my YouTube channel. You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4OnVBswiF8
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Awesome run! The disco in the sewers was a bit distracting, mind you, but the rest of it was all very nice. My only question is, against the dungeon 7 boss (the one you need the two wands for), you charge up a spin attack while his shell is exploding. It looks to my untrained eye that this caused a lot of lag; mightn't you have avoided that lag either by starting the charge earlier (when there are fewer explosions onscreen) or by sending the swordblast straight into a wall instead of down the screen? Or am I just seeing things?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Active player (440)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Normally I'd give some smartass quip or a pun, but I think that the run's awesomeness speaks for itself. 9.5/10 here. Oh wait, I've got one: LINK TO THE KICK-ASST! ... Uh, that was horrible. Sorry.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 3/11/2008
Posts: 583
Location: USA
Looks nice. Yes 'ote. I was going to wonder whether it would be faster to do S+Q after hookshot dungeon, but I realized that you'd need to exit and Mirror to lightworld to get Old Man's place as restart, so it'd come out slower, I think. Why is the bouncer in the room after the Moldorm in Ganon's Tower continually activating?
Tompa
Any
Editor, Expert player (2139)
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1932
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Derakon: There is a lot of lag during the fight anyway, my sword spin didn't add anything more than one frame. Which makes the second part one frame slower than Flag's version. Eternal: I have actually no idea, but I'm not complaining :D. Thanks a lot guys!
Skilled player (1399)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Great run, very entertaining and looked very optimized.
Skilled player (1085)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Personally, I vote 'Tompa fucking rules' on a numerical scale. Thanks for going through all that tough stuff to bring us such a great run. I really enjoyed this and the WIPs P.S. I've spent 17 years trying to get the dark overworld theme out of my head, damn you Tompa! No idea why I find it is so catchy...
Player (208)
Joined: 7/7/2006
Posts: 797
Location: US
Great run from beginning to end. It definitely appears you were thorough with saving the occasional frame. 4 minutes is quite an impressive improvement. Many thanks to ShinyDoofy (and anyone else if I don't recall) for the periodic encodes. 9.2/9.7
caitsith2
He/Him
Player (46)
Joined: 3/26/2004
Posts: 194
That was some serious pwnage. Wasn't expecting to see ganon pwned that badly.
upthorn
He/Him
Active player, Emulator Coder (387)
Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 1802
The run is a joy to watch once it is past the first dungeon, though towards the end there are a few places where it looked like the path through a room wasn't necessarily the fastest... Is it faster to wobble over all those pits than to use that one cane to make a moving platform? At first I thought it was so that there'd be more magic guage remaining to use the fire rod, but at least once, more than half the guage was left when you did the save-restart.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Tompa
Any
Editor, Expert player (2139)
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1932
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
The rooms in Ganon's Tower where you have to kill the enemies is slower than Flag's run. As I haven't got neither the Silver Arrows or the Gilded Sword. It also will cause more lag as there are more arrows on the screen. I struggled hard with these rooms and this was the best I could make out of them. You move just as fast while going on the moving platform as if you would have used the dash glitch (If you are going up or left). In the first room of Turtle's Rock, it was faster to use the block because Link could start moving on solid ground earlier.
Player (209)
Joined: 2/18/2005
Posts: 1451
Very nice run and a pretty solid improvement to the previous one. I especially liked the clever use of the boomerang to get items without taking additional detours to them, and the quick boss fights. The only strange thing I noticed is that you used a normal attack on some of the bosses like the one at ~130000 frames, even though you had the time to get a charge for the first attack in each round, which usually does much more damage. Any reason for skipping it there? Other than that the run seems to be very clean, and I couldn't see any mistakes in it. Good job Tompa. A easy 8/9 from me.
See my perfect 100% movie-walkthroughs of the best RPG games on http://www.freewebs.com/saturnsmovies/index.htm Current TAS project (with new videos): Super Metroid Redesign, any% speedrun
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: Minnesota
I can honestly say I have only watched until the 1st boss. Fuck me. Yes. (On that note, I fully expect a 100% run Tompa. FULLY expect. As well as another kewl haircut photo that makes you look holy or whatever.)
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Tompa
Any
Editor, Expert player (2139)
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1932
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Saturn: Because you won't inflict more damage anyway, so it's kinda pointless...
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Congrats, Mr. Tompa, for finally finishing the run and the submission text! Now take a well-deserved rest.
Skilled player (1633)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Watched again, all the way through, without fast forward. I can't say that about most 10 minute+ runs... much less hour+ runs. Great run, great game.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Player (39)
Joined: 7/7/2008
Posts: 871
Location: Utah
...I have to watch this straight away!!
Joined: 8/23/2008
Posts: 417
It's funny, I loved this game as a kid but it is so hard to get into now. So many parts of it feel dry to me for some reason, and watching it is even worse... But I was able to enjoy watching this in a single sitting, so that's sayin' something. Good work, Tompa.
I will not use self-reference in my signature.
Skilled player (1882)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I watched this yesterday, but forgot to vote. This was a good movie, and I enjoyed watching it. High votes from me. :)
Joined: 3/10/2006
Posts: 347
Location: Maryland, United States
It's great that your finally done, Tompa! I gave it 9.6/9.3
Joined: 8/20/2005
Posts: 643
Location: Mikkeli,Finland
Nice movie, really entertaining =) What next Tompa? maybe 100% ;)
Current Projects: ???
Player (39)
Joined: 7/7/2008
Posts: 871
Location: Utah
Finally finished watching it, and I enjoyed it very much. 9.5/9.5