emulator used: gens 9.5b
emulator settings:
- Controller 1: 6 button
- Controller 2: 6 button
- Allow Up+Down: Yes
- Sound: Enabled, 44100KhZ Stereo, YM2612 High Quality enabled
game tags
- played on hardest difficulty ("normal" setting)
- uses no warps or passwords
- takes damage to save time
- manipulates luck
About the game
Garfield - Caught in the act is a relatively new (1995) game for the sega genesis, which was later ported to windows (with a different level order and a bonus level). While it is rather slow paced, it features a well known character, nice graphics (even some prerendered 3D objects) and a good variety of level themes. The story is about Garfield repairing the TV after accidentally destroying it. The remaining parts form an evil being, the "glitch", who traps Garfield into the television (can be watched in the intro). Now the player has to fight through 5 movies to face and defeat the glitch in order to rescue Garfield.
Game info
- Garfield slows slightly down, when jumping, landing, shooting or striking
- some animations can change the hitbox, which can be used to grab things ealier (seems not to work with remotes)
- attacking at the right moment midair can cancel the damage animation (used in water level)
- a jump during running is slightly lower
- Garfield has some random waiting animatios (like dancing around), which can be delayed by 1 or 2 seconds by moving around. I tried to implement them whenever possible to create a comedic effects and make waiting times more enjoyable to watch
- items: food gives hp, cup of coffee makes invincible, hammer activates whack-a-mole bonus level
- bonus level: Even tases are not save anymore: commercial breaks! But don't worry, it is a rather fast paced level, in which Garfield has to collect Pookies to earn lives or continues. Blue balls slow him down, cups of coffee speed him up. I collect the cups whenever possible, to finish the level as fast as possible. While the whack-a-mole bonus levels can be skipped by not collecting the hammer, these levels are mandatory and have to be played after each boss.
- GLITCH: in the "television guts" level, there are sometimes chips, where Garfield can jump through from below. Garfield can fall through them, when he properly lands on the side slopes (CREDIT goes to FerretWarlord)
Level notes
Count Slobula' castle
Boss: The end position of Count Slobula is fixed, but his starting position can be manipulated to a certain extend (maxed in the tas).
Revenge of Orangebeard
- Level 1: Intended as an autoscroller. Luckily the 10 hp of Garfield (and the animation cancelling) are enough to cross the water without the boat.
- Level 2: Vines can be skipped 2 times, which saves several seconds (thanks to FerretWarlord)
- extra bonus level: I don't know why, but despite not picking up the hammer during the level, this whack-a-mole bonus level has to be played after Revenge of Orangebeard (this also happened in all my normal playthroughs). I manipulate the "don't hit me"-character to come first and hit him, to skip the bonus level.
Cavecat 3,000,000 BC
boss: The position of the fallen rocks is fixed as soon as the level is entered. Unfortunately, I could not manipulate a rock to fall near enough to the seesaw, to hit the boss before he goes to the left side.
Catsablanca
- Level: It looks like a maze, but has only one way that reaches the end. So no route planning was necessary.
- Boss:
- He throws several bombs, of which 2 can be collected and used against him. By positioning Garfield, the first bomb can be manipulated (again only to a certain extend). The second one seems to always come as the 8th after the first one. By attacking him, his bomb throwing can be ended, forcing him to go to the other side. The moment, that he starts throwing again can be manipulated by attacking him, while he changes the side. This leads to the following strategy: Manipulate the boss to throw an unlit bomb as early as possible and interrupt him with this bomb as soon as he tosses the second unlit bomb. Then attack the boss with this bomb in such a way, that it minimizes the walking duration.
- The bomb that bounces around after defeating the boss is a glitch. It killed the boss, but was thrown so early, that it cancelled the explosion
The curse of Cleofatra
boss:
- The jon statue can be destroyed before the dogs (while going up), but is restored as soon as one dog is destroyed, thus left alone until the end.
- There is a little time span, in which the jon statue can not be attacked after destroying the dog heads
Season finale (final boss)
The boss can only be harmed by reflecting his own laser beams. So the only thing to do is to push the mirrors before he shots his beams. I hope nobody minds, that I wasted appr. 10 frames of lag to glitch and play around with the platforms during the waiting times, for the sake of entertainment.
Input end
The credits show up 10 frames later, as I jump before the last remote to end the input earlier.
Credits
- FerretWarlord: Not only did he discover the chip glitch and shared it with me, he reviewed my WIPs and found parts that could be improved. Without his help this run would be several seconds slower. Thanks
- faq from royalranger of gamefaqs.com: useful info and had a good route for cavecat 2
adelikat: Decent game and good viewer response. Accepting for publication.
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
Garfield - Caught in the Act (UE) [!].gen, which was the closest match to what you wrote.) Well, here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.