Submission #5406: jaysmad's SNES Disney's Aladdin "capeless" in 16:36.78

Here is the SNES version of Disney's Aladdin. A side scrolling, 2d, platformer which was produced in 1993 by Capcom. There are 3 known categories for this game. 100% (all red gems), any % and capeless. This time around, i stayed true to the movie and decided to go capeless. The main differences are, the lack of room to cheese things up but also getting 100% red gems becomes impossible, since some are simply out of reach. So in the end, the cape is basically like using Peach in SMB2... Without it, the game is less... user friendly, to say the least.

While running the game, i learned many things, which means that my 100% and any% will, eventually, be in need of some updating. Most of the new findings are movement based, like maintaining highest running speed. Aladdin starts off running at top speed but slows down on every frame, until he reaches his basic speed. By letting go of the Y (run) button, for 1 frame, the speed resets back to its highest. Another useful tip is the fact that you can slow down the speed reduction by either oscillating left then right, or simply press forward on one frame then nothing on the next. The easiest and most commonly used technique here is jumping on the first and fastest frame possible.

Found a trick that allows you to skip a couple pixels. If you grab the swinging poles, while facing the opposite direction then let go, you will gain some distance. The only problem is that when you let go, you lose a lot of momentum. This is why i don't always use this clip.

There are 3 ways to bounce off things or enemies. A short/Quick, medium/slow and long/slow jump. The speed it propels you depends on how fast you were going before bouncing. For example, in level 1-3, after sliding down the ropes, when i bounce off the enemy. This technique is used many times throughout the run.

To start off, i go straight for the top of the tents, for there is a small slope on each of them. When i reach highest speed, i then jump to maintain it. 1-1 is a where i stock up on apples and an extra heart, since they are basically on my path and will be very useful later on.

Not much to explain here... Upward slopes are basically like every other game, as they slow you down. Here the best way is to jump as soon as you hit them. If you keep running upwards, you will basically slow down to walking speed. Now, if you are heading for a downhill, it is better to start from the top. Starting from anywhere else, in the slope, will drop your speed to its lowest then slowly start going up but if you start from the top, it will add up to your current speed and reach the maximum much faster.

Introduces the rope slide which helps you reach crazy distance. After bouncing on the enemy at the bottom, you can reach very far, very fast. At first, i tried going straight down but i could not reach far enough to get to the platform at the bottom. I had watched a couple speedruns from guys like JoeDamillio and Le_Hulk and knew that i could reach it. I managed to do so by pressing the opposite direction 1 frame before grabbing on. Don't know if it's because i slowed down before grabbing on but it worked.

The pre-boss section contains 2 swinging stick that could have been used to clip through a couple pixels but i kept bouncing off the goon when i'd let go. To be honest, i am convinced this can be done, somehow.

The boss is defeated by jumping on him right after he raises his arm to slash me. I start off by ducking down to throw him an apple as soon as possible. This makes him start the battle about 10 frames earlier. 4 hits and he is out.

Some jumps are impossible to make without either swinging on the stalactites, taking damage on the spikes or, like i did, break it off ,with an apple, and bounce off of it. In the following section, I then used damage boost, for the first time... Woah! Compared to grabbing the ledge or jumping off the the bat, it is much faster to take the hit. Then right after the cape i jump down but hit the tip of each slopes, in order not to get the stop animation. This happens when jumping high distances, either up or down.

Approaching the end of the level, i reach Aladdin's monkey, Abu. He is actually the key to trigger the end of the level. He will only jump after pointing out that there is a treasure down there and will not jump if you do not. You must keep a good distance for him to go faster, though, if you are too far and go too fast, he will slow down to walking speed.

It is much faster to slide/run on the log since its speed is added to Aladdin's. The logs also help skipping the rock walls. When you jump on them, they will sink just enough to give a chance to pass. You can slide, while ducking and will have a 2 frames window. I could not reach the second wall fast enough to do the skip but i am now convinced that both walls could be skipped, without taking damage or using the ropes, in a caped run.

Woah!!! That's all i got...

Some corner boosting, thanks to the genie platforms. If you jump under them you will be pushed forward.

This level showcases the swing pole clip. Not much else is shown here except a couple bouncing tricks. I start a series of bounces, with a short/fast bounce then the next ones become fast as well.

The tongues are on a set timer so it is important to reach the top before it is unreachable. At the genie block section, someone asked me how to reach the higher blocks. The answer is simple... the faster you run, the higher you jump. To run fast enough to reach the block you need to jump as soon as you start running... when Aladdin's speed is at its highest.

Here we have the help of sand streams, which pushes Aladdin faster than his usual running speed. It also can be maintained when jumping.

Not much to say here. Where i knocked the apple jar, you need to stay on the ground long enough for the game to register the rest of the level. If not, you will be stuck with an invisible wall blocking your path.

Damage boost was the main theme here but also making sure that i take the hit while going the right direction. You must be going the opposite way for it to work and with the poll clip it was quite faster.

"sighs"

You might have noticed, i throw an apple backwards at a flying pot, at one point. This was to avoid lag caused by all the sprites on screen. Other than that, there is a damage boost that allows to clip right out of the stone heads. The direction depends where you take the hit. If you get hit while on the right, you'll get pushed out to the right and so on.

Nothing special here. When you swing on a lantern, it will fall and set fire to the ground. I only use the swing clip once, since most of the time the flames and sprites would lag the game too much.

The only time i used luck manipulation was here. By killing the first Iago (parrot), i assured that Jafar-1 starts off with the right pattern. Other than that, it is another level where i take a lot of damage. Luckily, i end with the exact amount of gems needed to refill my hp.

Jafar-1 takes 6 hits to take out. He starts with the flying pot pattern allowing for a series of 3 hits. After taking the shots, he will always counter attacks with his triple bolt. The following pattern is decided on the fourth hit, depending on when i hit him. On his second flying pot attack i just need to hit him twice and use my last apple to eliminate 1 of the pots. That would have created lag if not taken care of. If i would've gave the last hit a little more to the right of the screen, i could've avoided the stopping animation. Sadly, i was unable to.

Jafar-2 will go down after 8 hits. 6 of them are done by using the damage boost to reach the head. 2 can be done with the help of the eggs he spits out. Most of the fight i try to avoid lag as much as possible by using different maneuvers. The eggs could've been destroyed to reduce a bit of it but it is faster to use them to deal damage. My last input is right after the seventh hit. I place Aladdin at the right place so that the next damage he takes pushes him right on the bosses head... dealing the final blow.

feos: That's a lovely branch indeed. I watched it side-by-side with the any% one, and it has this difference throughout the whole run: the game becomes harder to play and optimize, and it's quite clear due to constant cape abuse in the any% branch. The feedback was also rather nice, so I'm accepting this as a new branch to Moons.

Guga: Processing... feos: Enough.

fsvgm777: So....yeah. Waiting for Stovent's updated encodes.
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