Tintin in Tibet (Genesis/Megadrive version) is a game based on Hergé's comics, it is infamous for being hard because of its unforgiving jumps and hitboxes. In this run I beat a previous TAS from duck_in by nearly 2 minutes. Some great tricks were discovered by duck_in so props to him!
Game objectives
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.3
- Aims for fastest time
- Hardest difficulty
- Takes damage to save time
- Slight luck manipulation
Stage by stage comments
The run is mainly a succession of well-timed jumps to result in the highest X coord, some jumps being only possible during 1 frame.
Level 1 - Train
- Damage taken saves approximately 6 seconds.
- The steam can be jumped over by an extremely precise jump.
- The end of the first part can be skipped by jumping under the railroad.
Level 3 - Market
- Damage taken saves at approximately 7 seconds.
Level 5 - Middle mountain
- Damage taken saves at approximately 7 seconds.
- The first apple can be taken from beneath, the second apple costs 40 frames but is worth it.
Level 7 - Descent
- Crouching on a rock makes Tintin immune to all damage until the level ends, the only optimization left is doing the least jumps as possible.
Level 8 - Snow
- Surprisingly snowballs can be avoided.
- One snowball can be used mid-air as a platform to gain a few frames.
Level 9 - Wreck
- A bit of luck manipulation was used to avoid random obstacles inside the plane.
- A platform near the end can be stepped on without taking damage only on the last X coordinate.
Level 10 - Cave
- Some pickaxe ramps can be jumped over although they shouldn't.
- Jumping and re-gripping can save some frames.
Level 11 - Cliff
- This is by far my best improvement, about 40 seconds on this level. Movements are way faster if you move a character for only 8 frames (vertically) or 22 frames (horizontally), resulting in a kind of epileptic look when we constantly switch characters. Near the end, Tintin is moved up a bit to gain some height while Haddock is falling.
Level 12 - Tempest
- Jumping on the ramp is actually faster than using pickaxe.
Level 13 - Monastery
- The first puzzle can be done without waiting for the animations.
- I've worked a lot on the library part and even coded an algorithm to try all combinations. I'm pretty sure this is the shortest possible way to do (not in number of moves but in time/length).
- A bit of luck manipulation was used to get an easy third puzzle.
- Overall at least 20 seconds are saved by taking damage.
Level 14 - Yeti
- Jumping at the right time allows to pass under rocks rather than waiting.
Other comments
- Most people will probably find the run not entertaining at all, the game being quite slow and repetitive. I realized later that I could have done a better entertaining in the descent level which is pretty much the only one where you have some free movement.
- The only available ROM is Europe and the run is using the default language (French), which is not a big deal since all dialogs are instantly skipped until the ending credits.
- The game has been reviewed by the famous French youtuber joueur du grenier for being too hard and shitty. :p
Memory: Judging