Submission #1709: Flip's Genesis James Pond 3: Operation Starfish in 33:50.62

• James Pond 3 is a platformer where your main character has enough speed to rival even Sonic. It's got an overworld map spanning over 100 levels; many of them holding crucial items, extra characters, upgrades and challenging bosses. Luckily enough you don't have bother with all of them in order to finish the game.
  • Certain levels need to have 4 teacups collected in order to finish the level. Naturally I only do this where it's necessary.
  • Minimaps need to be collected to open up extra routes to secret levels.
• Recorded using Gens9, 6 buttons. No special emulator settings changed.
• Completes the game as fast as possible.
• No warping or passwords used.
• Takes damage to save time, no deaths.
• Abuses programming errors in the game.
• 6022 frames faster than previous run
  • The previous run was cancelled, on account of this improved run being created immediately

Techniques used

• When running down a slope at an angle, you'll accelerate to a speed much greater than what you can normally achieve on flat ground. You’ll slow down again once you start running on flat ground for a while though. Simple solution to that, just jump! It takes more time to slow you down in air than it does on dry land, but it doesn’t last forever. This is a great way of preserving both horizontal and vertical momentum. Can't run up the U-Shaped valley? No problem, simply jump up before the game has the chance to slow you down instead!

• Jumping off angled slopes won't send you vertically upwards; it'll send you off at an angle as well. Useful for clearing gaps, taking shortcuts and miniature speed boosts.

• Most items in the game can be stood on and jumped off. Grab an item, jump, and with a bit of good timing you can drop them so that you end up landing on them in mid air for a few frames. You can then jump off them right now, giving you much easier access to higher areas. This is very easy to perform in real time.

• Hit the underside of a floating block and it'll be activated. Hit the edge and you'll just stop whack into it and stop dead. Jump on the right frame however and you’ll hit the bottom corner and Pond will pass straight through it instead. This made it easy to collect the enclosed Minimap on Wensleydale Wastelands, rather than needing to bother with destroying the rocks first.

• Pond uses 2 types of explosives in the game: Bombs and Dynamite. Picking up a bomb has no immediate effect, but releasing it will start the countdown. Nothing can stop it now other than leaving the bomb so far behind that it gets wiped out of memory. Picking up a dynamite stick will instantly start the fuse countdown though, but unlike the bomb this one can be stopped simply by chucking it off screen. Doing this repeatedly makes it easier to transport the explosive a great distance, allowing me to use it in areas it was not originally intended for.
• When hit, both Pond and enemies will be given temporary invincibility, allowing Pond to pass through them without taking damage. Pond has this luxury at the beginning of each level, very useful indeed. Items can be thrown at enemies to make them take damage; luckily holding items doesn’t affect your speed.

• When flying the rocket you undergo effects of low gravity. Jumping and grabbing the rocket at the same time will send you upwards with the speed of your jump, but coupled with effect of the low gravity; causing you to ascend faster than what the rocket propulsion can usually achieve. Even works without any fuel.

Improvements

General

• Information boxes were turned off at the beginning. Now we don’t have to sit through thirty or so windows telling us what each item does.

• Faster falling is used by pressing down while in the air. This allows faster travelling down caverns, and landing earlier allows Pond to start his superior-to-jumping sprinting a lot earlier.

• Better health management

Notable changes/Possible questions

• East of Edam-Throwing rocks at the 2 rats allowing me to pass through rather than doing a slow jump over them
• Parmesan Plains-Originally I did a few small jumps at the beginning of the level for the sake of manipulating them into collecting some health. No need to do that in this run, since I can collect health on a later level without any cost to the time. Once I’ve cleared all the huge gaps, I dump the spring shoes earlier so I can run to the finish instead.
• Gouda Gully-Not jumping all the way to the finish, but landing on an edge to project myself towards the ending.
• Banana Basin-You’ll see at the beginning that I whack into the wall rather than running all the way round. For some reason this cannot be achieved on this terrain; Pond would have just gone flying upwards when attempting to take the corner, so I needed to stop
• Lower Gloopy-A much better climbing of the main vine this time. The input is actually symmetrical for each side, and gets repeated over and over. The original run had jumping all over the place.
• Toadstool Point-I manage to get the bomb to the upper level without the need for the extra height boost from the cheese.
• Little Pimple-Jumping off the dynamite stick saved a lot of time getting the minimap. No need to get some dynamite, wait for it to blow up some TNT, wait for the explosion to stop, then pilot a rocket up there.
• The Fungle Jungle-Screw smashing the TV apart and using the weird ghoul to elevate me to the top, just jump off the TV in mid air. Lots of time saved there. Of course, I couldn’t just do a well preserved jump like on other levels because there is a mushroom at the bottom of the valley. If I wanted to run down, then jump up again I would just whack straight into it.
• Rennet Mine 1-Much better juggling of the 2 dynamite sticks at the end. Getting hurt by the first TNT explosion rather than the second was a better idea, since it gave a large window of time for which the second stick could blow up, ensuring optimum performance.
• Rennet Mine 2-You’ll notice I manage to create a gap without the need to blow up the TNT. Looks like the destruction of the land and the TNT box are actually independent actions, health saved here so that’s less needed to collect later on. This is the only gap it actually works on though as it seems the trigger which creates this one gap has a furthest distance from the trigger for the TNT explosion..
• Lair of the Mush beast-He takes constant damage now, no gaps.
• Slimesworld-Under-Cheese-I can ignore collecting 2 health, don’t need ‘em
• Curdle Mine-Grabbing a rock for the sake of passing through a later enemy, few frames saved there
• Greater Pimple-I manage to get through the final blockade without losing any health. Missing those 2 health has already paid for itself
• Fruitopolis-After getting the first cup, I don’t bother running on the ceiling to get out, I turn around and use momentum preservation techniques to get me out much faster
• Curdleburg-Smashing the TV on my head rather than on the ground, the ghoul comes out a few frames earlier and also comes out from a higher point. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Carrying that one tonne wait made me go so fast I cant even stop myself!
• Lower Curdleburg-A direct jump onto the bullet at the beginning, not bounce on the rat first.
• Nibblestone Fell-I needed to hang about the top of the first chamber in order to set off the rocks in the area above me. Better rocket flying, managing to get through each gap in one swoop, without the need to let go of the propulsion. Leaving the rocket behind much earlier by getting hurt saved a bit of time. Doesn’t matter health wise, since the later levels are just swarming with health pick ups anyway.
• Nibblestone Quarry-Just before the minimap I land on invisible platforms. There’s no glitches, or ways or revealing them.
• Yoghurtopia-One part I deliberately slow down because I needed to be properly synchronised so I that don’t hit the bouncing poison bottles above me.
• Wensleydale Wastelands- Faster destruction of the moving bushes, and earlier release of the rocket.
• Triple Scoopingdon-Faster route getting to the top
• Scoopingdon-No I don’t slow down, just an illusion caused by the snowflakes changing direction.
• Bovine Aerial Assault-Constant damage to the boss, no gaps this time. Well, expect for the final shot. Once his machine gets destroyed, it moves very slowly to where the gap is before lowering into it; so I just waited until he was over there anyway. For the second half, the final blow to him was delivered by dropping the weight from from a greater height, thus allowing for an earlier end to the input

Possible frame images

• 1831-Good selection of items in the game, although the score doesn’t look too impressive. Zilch.
• 21618-Cute picture of old Dibley
• 62575-Crucial level with lots of enemies
• 81231-Shots of Maybe’s precious moon cheese
• 82464-Pretty overworld shot
• 82857-Shots of Maybe’s precious Stiltonium Machines
• 117979-Nice shot of the final boss

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. I'm not sure I got the right ROM though. (I tried James Pond 3 - Operation Starfish (UE) [!].gen, which was the closest match to what you wrote.) Well, here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.