Emulator Settings
- Mupen64 v0.5
- Video: Jabo's Direct 3D8 1.6
- Sound: Jabo's DirectSound 1.6
- Input: TAS Input Plugin 0.6
- RSP: RSP Emulation Plugin
Run Goals:
- Collects 100% of collectibles
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses programming errors
- Takes damage to save time
- Uses death and save/quitting as shortcuts
Game Details
Rocket: Robot on Wheels is, like many other N64 games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong, centered on collecting all of the items in each world. The game takes place in a theme park on the eve of opening day, when the antagonist Jojo sneaks in and reprograms the park, leaving Rocket (the player character) to fix the mess before opening day. This is accomplished by completing six worlds with the help of vehicles and special abilities, and finally facing Jojo and foiling his plans once and for all...
This started mostly as a route-planning effort, but as the play quality got higher I was encouraged by several in the game's thread to submit this run. Here are my comments, mostly from the thread, for each level:
Clowney Island
- Clowney Island is a boardwalk-style carnival complete with midway, rollercoaster, and giant mechanical dinosaur.
- As the game starts, I collect the first ticket and save/quit to skip a cutscene.
- Clowney Island must be split into two parts, as the move Slam is required for several tokens.
- I pause for three frames occasionally to skip texts.
- Final in-game time for Clowney Island: 0:06
Paint Misbehavin'
- The game departs a bit from the theme-park theme at this point as we take a trip to Rome to traverse aqueducts and paint the town with a hovercar.
- Again, Paint Misbehavin' is split for the time-saving capabilities of the double-jump.
- When the building rises after painting the statues, I was able to rise with it and complete it from the top down.
- A trick called box jumping is used to skip painting myself to fool the guard. This is used in a few other levels as well to gain height.
- In the last room of the Aqueduct section, I skipped activating two of the four switches using the double jump move.
- Final in-game time for Paint Misbehavin': 0:08
Mine Blowing
- Next up is a subterranean level, sandwiched between two very open ones. This level features exploding gemstones and a cave full of mushrooms that allow Mario-style triple jumps.
- I was able to prevent myself from falling down the waterfall after the mushroom cave, letting me do the top part of the level without taking the long way around.
- The first room of the mine cart ride area is skipped by a well-placed double jump onto an incoming mine cart and to the next platform.
- I use a damage boost to get the ticket from the raised alcove. It would make more sense to jump down for it at the end of the level, but when you load a different part of the level the alcove seals again, making that impossible.
- In the rolling rocks room, I have to stop to prevent myself from hitting a rock and missing a token. It looks ugly, but it's necessary.
- Final in-game time for Mine Blowing: 0:08
Arabian Flights
- After being cooped up in a mine, Rocket takes to the skies in a flying carpet in this wide-open level.
- The Fun with Magnets strategy is based on the shortcut posted in the thread by twelvetwentyone a while back.
- I got a VERY nice fan setup at the end of the machine. I was able to pass the first three with little wait at all due to the fact that the Freeze Ray prevents you from being blown for a short while (not enough to go straight through full-blast fans, unfortunately.) The second set was also very nice. Even if I had gotten there a few seconds earlier and grabbed the token immediately, I would have been blown off after Rocket does his backflip dance.
- Final in-game time for Arabian Flights: 0:08
Pyramid Scheme
- Rocket finds a peaceful pyramid in the jungle, but as night falls, things transform entirely.
- I touch the very edge of the grapple pad, which has the same effect as pausing (a text skip)
- I skip the bridge falling cutscene by jumping over it without touching it.
- The picture code never changes, so I can input it without first going to night and coming back. When the mouth opens, Rocket can clip through the top of the statue's head, which is why I chose an odd flipping order.
- I found out of necessity that the Freeze Ray increases launch height. I use this in the "Restful to Ruined and back again" area.
- I must "unlock" the day/night switch near the code puzzle in order to use it to return to night after the ruined circle area.
- Final in-game time for Pyramid Scheme: 0:08
Food Fright
- Food Fright is comprised of three sections that involve a LOT of climbing to move between. The first section is the food section, the second a machine, and the third is full of monsters.
- I saw no noticeable difference between doing the two halves of the food section in a different order, so I went with the marshmallow area first for a slightly better Machine part placement between the two.
- In the jumping marshmallows area, the Freeze Ray saves the day again as it gives me enough height to reach the ticket from the ground.
- In between the two sections I use the grapple to get to the normally out-of-reach ticket, skipping about 10 seconds of waiting.
- Inside the monster, I start taking damage. I need to get down to 4 health for a death warp.
- The other 3 damage is taken around the monster, the final ticket is collected, and I hit the electrified fin to warp out, saving about 30 seconds.
- Final in-game time for Food Fright: 0:08
Jojo's World
- The three-room puzzle before Jojo's World was quite interesting. The first room was fairly standard, and I got a good setup for the second. However, this gives me a HORRIBLE setup for room three, so I had to get a little...creative.
- Jojo's World itself encompasses some of the more notable features that were present (or in many cases, skipped) in previous levels. It is quite linear, so there isn't much to be said.
- I skip painting myself, saving a large amount of time painting and traveling the long path up.
- I use a few box jumps to skip the magnets.
- I move around the spider's first leg instead of blowing it up, then jump up to its body. This skips blowing up its legs.
- The Flaming Sphere of Doom is rather anticlimactic. I try to jump around a lot but there's not much in the way of entertainment that you can do when you're confined to a rolling ball.
- Final in-game time for Whoopie World (including Jojo's World): 0:11
Final in-game total time: 0:57. I surpassed my goal of sub-1 game time and slipped under my 1:15 real time goal by less than 8 seconds.
This game doesn't have a traditional credits scene, but rather it dumps you in a room where you can pick up screws that read off the names of the developers. There is no way to "complete" this room, and the only way out is to use the exit in the opposite corner. This simply returns you to the game's start area, so I ended the movie in a place that simply gets to the credits room, as there seems to be no way further.
FractalFusion: Although the technical quality is suspect, almost everyone seems to agree that this movie should be published. As an action-filled 3D platformer with large amounts of route planning, I agree. Accepting for publication.
sgrunt: Processing (thanks to finally being able to dump with synced sound).