Submission #2088: ElectroSpecter's SNES Donkey Kong Country 3 in 45:08.90

Donkey Kong Country 3 is a self-help pamphlet created as a joint venture by Sony Computer Entertainment America and Land o Lakes butter. It details the adventures of an orange cat and pug-nosed puppy as they try to find their way back home after a disastrous game of hide and seek.

This is a 15005 frame (4 minute and ~9 second) improvement compared to the published version, due to a myriad of new tricks and optimizations. Final in-game time is 00:38 (compared to 00:42 of the published submission)

A version of Snes9x with reset recording was used. You should be able to find a suitable emulator here: http://www.bluetoaster.net/emu/all.htm

Desync right at the beginning? You'll have to use a Snes9x with reset recording. The trick here is to reset the game as early as possible so that you can skip the rather long intro.

Naming screen

I entered my (shortened) name into the file select screen. Is it because I'm an egotistical bastard, you ask? Well, a bit, but I just believe that if the author of the video has a chance to put his or her name in the run, they should. Plus there's a lovely high score screen after the credits, where the name will appear in the results.

Warping in Worlds 1 - 2

In the first two worlds, you typically have to pass a certain point to trigger the appearance of the Warp barrels, which is why it may seem that I "backtrack" for them.

Belcha's Barn

The first bug can be tossed in Belcha's mouth a few frames faster, but this causes him to hilariously loose his teeth in various ways. This glitch can be viewed here (obviously NOT a time saver): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7drMs50PuG4

Arich's Ambush

The input for the Arich fight comes courtesy of Tompa.

The Route Change

Sami did Cotton-Top Cove before Mekanos. I decided to do Mekanos first. The route change has some very subtle ripples on later levels (mostly K3 and reasons having to do with Kong management). I'll try to explain these differences as they come up.

Fireball Frenzy

The odd jump that starts at frame 22533 is necessary to spawn the elevator a few frames earlier, and saves time.

Demolition Drainpipe

This was an odd but fun level to optimize. The cart will instantly hit top speed if you drop from a railing, so I do that when possible (unless I'm already at top speed). Hopping up the hills is faster than riding up them.

Ripsaw Rage

I stay well above the screen for a while during some segments so that I can skip the rats that you otherwise have to kill (i.e. I pass their spawn points before they spawn). Killing enemies in this game typically wastes ~1 frame (yes, it even freezes the scrolling of the level). Obviously, the end-of-level flag won't spawn until the screen gets close to it, so I have to wait for it to appear.

Low-G Labyrinth

This level has examples of the only times that rolling off a ledge is faster than dropping off. Also, any level with Squawks is a terror to optimize, and having him handicapped from the messed up gravity doesn't help either.

Kaos Karnage

The new strategy here is EXTREMELY hard to pull off, as the game doesn't really want you to stay up there. The Kongs will either bounce far to the left, or far to the right, never straight up (unless you're pretty much inside the head, which I do utilize once to bounce sort of straight up). So although the first few hits could be closer together, it's necessary to space them out due to Kaos' movements and the Kong's bouncing. Also, the first (and only) time his blades come out, they don't appear on the correct side (like they do in Sami's run). I tried switching sides (and also confusing Kaos), but in my run he only lets them out on the side opposite me. Even entering the level at different times didn't help, so I don't know what the deal is. I just went with it.

Bazza's Blockade

The first example of benefits of the route change. Having Dixie in the lead, I can squeeze by the last cluster of Bazzas (barely; there was some tricky manipulation of hitboxes).

Rocket Barrel Ride

Questionable team switch at the beginning? Well, having Kiddie in the lead is necessary to utilize both barrel skipping tricks in this level, which save a considerable amount of time. This means that I initially lose ~60 frames in this level. Sami was forced to hit a DK barrel (~60 frames) in Fireball Frenzy in his run, which I am able to skip because of the route change. So in the long run, the frames wasted by the team switch are evened out, and I still manage to save something like 25 frames AFTER the team switch (making the net loss -37)

Kreeping Klasps

Sort of crappy level. I managed to do more water skips, but still found that some segments were faster by just hopping through the water, as unappealing as it looks.

Tracker Barrel

Here's where things get tricky with the whole route change thing: Sami entered K3 with Dixie in the lead, which is necessary to do Krevice Kreepers as fast as possible. In order for me to do that, I would have to switch to Dixie at some point before entering K3. The fastest way to do that was in this level. Grabbing the DK barrel and busting it open on the Krumple takes up a lot of time, but the barrel skip trick (where I get hit at frame 69807) saves a ton of time too. It's still 13 frames slower to beat the level this way, but 13 frames to switch Kongs isn't too bad, considering the amount of time it takes to do it normally.

Fish Food Frenzy

Nibbla is about 1 frame from chomping my ass at the end.

Squirt's Showdown

Hot Elephant on Snail action! Not suitable for minors.

Krevice Kreepers

Dixie can jump up the horizontal ropes much faster than Kiddie. Having just one Kong during this level lets me utilize the barrels faster (don't have to wait for Kiddie to get in too), which is another result of the new route.

Tearaway Toboggan

This level is stupid. Even if you are in the air over a slope, the game will slow you down as if you are actually on the slope. Sort of hard to optimize, considering it barely lets you. Jumping over the downward slopes is faster than riding down them, because I guess this is Elmer's glue, not snow.

Krack-Shot Krok

I thought this level would be tough, but it wasn't too bad. Squitter has a frame rule of sorts on his web platforms. You must wait a certain amount of frames before you are able to make a new one (I think it's something like 45 or 50 frames). Oddly, the game made a VERY large exception during frames ~97800 - ~98000. The frame rule just didn't exist for this segment, and let me madly shoot web platforms any time I wanted without reserve or a sense of decency. I don't know why this was possible, and it would be nice if I could break this frame rule at will.

Lemguin Lunge

You can roll into the Lemguins when they are airborne after first emerging from their hole, but after they land and start sliding, you will die if you roll into them (unless you roll into them from above at the correct angle, which I manage to do a couple times). This level is sexy.

Bleak's House

Improvement came from entering the level 11 frames late to manipulate his starting position, which is the only thing that really matters in terms of optimizing this fight (though the third hit is a bitch).

Buzzer Barrage

This level was a huge challenge to optimize, but in the end, fun. A lot of the odd movements are mostly manipulation of the Kopters. I have to get close enough to make them spawn, but stay far away enough so that I can zip past them as fast as possible when my opportunity arrives. There's a lot of opportunities to plow through enemies in this level, saving time. I tested all of these opportunities and chose the fastest ones (even though that means I have to wait a few times for the stupid Kopters).

Kong-Fused Cliffs

Broken even more.

Floodlit Fish

I discovered that there's a "grace period" in between dashes. So you can wait a bit between dashes and still retain y-speed. Sometimes it's faster to hug walls when turning corners, and sometimes not. It doesn't make a difference in many cases, since dashing acceleration is instant.

Weird road glitch

Whenever you enter a level marker that's in the water while moving, the Kongs will continue moving even after the screen starts fading. After I beat Floodlit Fish, I press B to enter the level again. However, since I'm moving still, the Kongs climb up onto the road towards Pothole Panic, and by the time the screen is done fading, I'm close enough to Pothole where the game thinks that it's where I wanted to be. This saves ~20 frames.

Pothole Panic

Faster with Kiddie, due to the fact that I can water skip to that one barrel. Also showing off that I know how to use Enguarde correctly now.

Ropey Rumpus

Saved a lot more time here thanks to a pointer from Nxcy. In fact, this shortcut also lets me save time in a few previous levels as well. Thanks!

Creepy Caverns

Much better barrel manipulation than last run. Not perfect, but close.

Lightning Look-Out

I still hate this level.

Koindozer Klamber

Better to have Dixie out here after all.

Final Battle

Although it doesn't really look like it, getting hit by Kaos in the first segment of the fight is necessary for correct barrel placement. The long pause with K. Roolenstein is because there's supposed to be a dialog going on, but the text doesn't appear. Input is ended earlier to save SMV time, but extends the AVI a bit.

A special thank-you goes out to Tompa, for being an inspiration and teaching me to actually be a good TASer.

mmbossman: Nice run. I'm glad you took the extra time to go back and fix those small mistakes from your prior submission, and I'm accepting this as an improvement to the published movie.

Bisqwit: Encoding.

Bisqwit: Unclaiming the encode, because I can't figure out why mencoder refuses to render the libass subtitles in the movie, and I have too little time to debug it.