Sonic 3 & Knuckles "newgame+ ring-attack" by Evil_3D, TheYogWog & kaan55
Sonic point of view encode
Tails point of view encode
Camhack + Rings locations encode
Introduction
The thing about ring attack TASes is, in a traditional TAS, the idea is to go from beginning to end of a level or game as quickly as possible - but, in a ring attack, it is to go from one ring or set of rings to the next, in such a way that results in the overall level or game completion with the most rings in the shortest time.
Hopefully that gives some perspective on the extraordinary amount of work that ring attack TASes require.
And not to diminish other forms of TASes, which already in their own right require tremendous effort and expertise. It was in fact one such TAS - a traditional Sonic TAS, by SprintGod - which caught my eye in 2012. This was my introduction to TASes as a thing, and it blew my mind and inspired me to get into the TASing scene.
Around that time, new discoveries by the likes of MarzoJr, Nitsuja, Aglar, and others, of game-breaking bugs were resulting in Sonic 3 & Knuckles TASes that were faster and more impressive than ever before. However, there was a growing concensus within the community that such runs, for all their glory, deprived the viewer of the kind of intensive gameplay that makes TASes so attractive in the first place - for which Sonic games of old are ideal, by their fast-paced nature.
Yet, there seemed to be no solution to this dilemma given TASvideos' rightfully strict guidelines governing submissions. And yet again, in spite of this, in 2013 I began work on my own personal vision of what that solution could look like. And hence in 2014 I submitted my Knuckles ring attack TAS of S3K. It was well-received, luckily, and I said then that I hoped that one day a TAS just exactly like this one might eventually emerge.
And now it has.
And it's all thanks to the enterprising Evil_3D, who founded the project, and his inventive co-author Kaan55, who joined some time later, after offering several new strategies to get even more rings; whereas my own participation was primarily planning-related.
I would like to think that my TAS had the same impact on Evil_3D and Kaan55 as SprintGod's had on me. It was a pleasure working with them and getting to know them, albeit in the limited capacity that I did.
And I give them credit for staying true to my original vision of what a ring attack TAS could, and I daresay, should, be. (Could or should be, at least, for now... I can't deny that it would be fun to see Super or Hyper characters zooming around, collecting rings someday, now that this current milestone has been reached.)
I hope that you the viewer, find as much enjoyment as I do in watching this run, and as I and others on the forums did, in watching its development.
-The Yogwog
Emulator and Tools used
- This movie starts from a savestate: Gens-11b Savestate to replay this movie (You can use marzojr & aglar newgame+ savestates too, both works)
- Gens Re-Recording 11b + Camera hack + Solidity and Terrain dysplay
- Sonic TAS tools
- Rings locations script by Selicre
- Rings unloaded notifier script by WST
- Sonic Zone 0: This site contains very useful informations about classic Sonic games, it was used as the main fount of information of the levels and did the route planning process less tedious.
Movie objectives
- Aims for fastest in-game time
- Collects every possible rings, monitor rings and giant rings
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses deaths to save time (all of them by Tails, poor foxy)
- Abuses programming errors and glitches
- Manipulates luck and enemy positions
- Uses 2 Players
- Starts from a savestate
- Contains speed entertaiment/trade-offs
- Disallow hyper transformation
- This is for make the gameplay more natural, show an never seen before use of the elemental shields and less nocive for the audience, seeing the levels has 2~5 mins of duration the abuse of hyper flash can really damage people suseptible to seizures, and the invulnerability music can ruins the levels atmosphere (and can make you sick, really)
Timetable
| Level | IG-Time | Normal Rings | Monitor Rings | Giant Rings | Total | TASed by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angel Island ACT 1 | 1:36'07 | 173 | 70/7 | 100/2 | 343 | Evil_3D |
| Angel Island ACT 2 | 4:13'20 | 195 | 40/4 | 100/2 | 335 | kaan55 |
| Hydrocity ACT 1 | 2:24'57 | 440 | 140/14 | 100/2 | 680 | Evil_3D, kaan55 |
| Hydrocity ACT 2 | 2:24'02 | 259 | 90/9 | 100/2 | 449 | kaan55 |
| Marble Garden ACT 1 | 3:15'42 | 506 | 130/13 | 400/8 | 1036 | Evil_3D, kaan55 |
| Marble Garden ACT 2 | 3:37'11 | 353 | 90/9 | 150/3 | 593 | kaan55 |
| Carnival Night ACT 1 | 2:44'03 | 312 | 260/26 | 300/6 | 872 | kaan55 |
| Carnival Night ACT 2 | 3:13'12 | 261 | 270/27 | 250/5 | 781 | Evil_3D |
| Ice Cap ACT 1 | 2:18'47 | 189 | 30/3 | 100/2 | 319 | Evil_3D, kaan55 |
| Ice Cap ACT 2 | 2:57'41 | 462 | 50/5 | 150/3 | 662 | kaan55 |
| Launch Base ACT 1 | 3:35'35 | 294 | 150/15 | 150/3 | 594 | Evil_3D |
| Launch Base ACT 2 | 4:19'27 | 409 | 160/16 | 250/5 | 819 | kaan55 |
| Mushroom Hill ACT 1 | 2:26'27 | 360 | 110/11 | 250/5 | 720 | kaan55 |
| Mushroom Hill ACT 2 | 2:12'37 | 338 | 80/8 | 300/6 | 718 | kaan55 |
| Flying Battery ACT 1 | 2:46'58 | 317 | 30/3 | 100/2 | 447 | Evil_3D |
| Flying Battery ACT 2 | 2:48'42 | 260 | 20/2 | 100/2 | 380 | kaan55 |
| Sandopolis ACT 1 | 5:10'17 | 383 | 220/22 | 350/7 | 953 | Evil_3D, kaan55 |
| Sandopolis ACT 2 | 2:36'44 | 284 | 80/8 | 200/4 | 564 | kaan55 |
| Lava Reef ACT 1 | 3:01'23 | 331 | 170/17 | 150/3 | 651 | Evil_3D |
| Lava Reef ACT 2 + Boss Zone | 4:48'07 | 333 | 60/6 | 250/5 | 643 | kaan55, Evil_3D |
| Hidden Palace Zone | 0:33'18 | 33 | 40/4 | 0 | 73 | Evil_3D |
| Sky Sanctuary Zone | 1:51'29 | 179 | 80/8 | 0 | 259 | Evil_3D |
| Death Egg ACT 1 | 2:25'52 | 278 | 90/9 | 0 | 368 | Evil_3D, kaan55 |
| Death Egg ACT 2 | 3:18'39 | 198 | 120/12 | 0 | 318 | kaan55, Evil_3D |
| Doomsday Zone | 1:35'22 | 194 | 0 | 0 | 194 | Evil_3D |
| Total | 1:11:49'59 | 7341 | 2580/258 | 3850/77 | 13771 | kaan_3D, Evil55 |
- Ice Cap 2 time is 0:55'15 "igt" + 7346 real time frames. We calculated the in-game time from the start of the level to the frame we beat the Act 2 boss like the game normally would've done.
- Sonic starts Doomsday Zone with 50 rings, if you want to add it to the total rings would be 13821
General info
What rings didn't we get?
- We collected 13771 out of 13826 total rings in Sonic and Tails history (99.60%). The difference of 55 rings consists of the following:
- 42 rings on Angel Island 2 Knuckles area. The death boundary made them impossible to collect.
- 1 mutually exclusive signpost ring monitor (10) on Launch Base 1 Knuckles boss area.
- 3 rings in Knuckles final boss. (Impossible to access without cheats)
- There is currently no known ways for Sonic and Tails to get any of these.
How long did this take to make?
- 21 months, the run suffered a lot of resynching progress and we redo it from scratch most of the levels due to newer glitches and updating the inputs to a more optimized version.
Why the movie starts from a savestate?
- The movie starts in a savestate with all emeralds/super emeralds to allow the giant rings collection and unlock the final zone, which contains more rings.
Why using 2 Players?
- We chose Sonic and Tails for the following:
- Sonic can avoid the hyper transformation using the elemental shields
- Sonic can use the elemental shields abilities.
- Sonic/Tails history has more levels and unlock other zones: Lava Reef 2 boss, Hidden Palace, Sky Sanctuary and Death Egg.
- Sonic has the true final boss fight, Doomsday Zone. (adding more content)
- Sonic along with Tails can do amazing combos, like carrying Sonic, and Tails can grab rings off-screen as long as Sonic's camera and Tails are in the same position vertically.
- Tails can save a lot of time collecting out of the way rings, avoiding annoying backtracking.
- Tails immortality/respawn is essential in some levels for collect more rings, the most notable use of this is Angel Island 2.
- And of course, there is already an existing movie of Knuckles which this run was inspired by.
Suggested Screenshots
- Frames: 72959 / 107856 / 170895 / 290534
Level Comments
Shield symbols under the level name represents the shield(s) used in the level
Angel Island ACT 1
Frame 1200/0:00'00 : The level starts with generating Tails and carrying Sonic when I still do not have control, and I keep Knuckles on the screen as long as possible to prevent the in-game time from starting earlier.
Frame 1960/0:04'00 : You can see that the monitors screens are glitched, but here I collected a ring monitor and speedshoes, the speedshoes are useful to travel the level more faster until the first giant ring.
Frame 2480/0:12'40 : Tails grab 3 rings off screen, at frame 2560/0:14'00 : you can see him grabbing 3 floating ring on the left side.
Frame 2760/0:17'20 : Tails grab a group of 7 floating rings.
Frame 2850/0:18'50 : This is a ring monitor.
Frame 3520/0:30'00 : Using the loop zip and using Tails to grab the 3 ring on the tiny lake this saves a lot of time.
Frame 3875/0:35'55 : This secret room has 3 monitors, 2 rings and 1 invulnerability.
Frame 4125/0:40'05 : This new loop zip was discovered by WST which allows me to skip having to run around in the hollow tree, and thanks to Tails we're also able to grab the 5 rings on the right while doing the zip.
Frame 5168/0:57'00 : Tails supports Sonic breaking this platform so that Sonic falls directly down and proceeds to the next giant ring room, same situation on frame 5673/1:05'13.
Frame 5475/1:02'05 : In the upper right part of the screen you can see Tails picking up a group of 3 rings.
Frame 6155/1:13'12 to 7163/1:29'42 : Here is where the lightning shield comes into action, this part normally without this shield would be very tedious to do since the rings are in very uniform positions, but thanks to his ability to attract this section is easily overcome.
Frame 6957/1:26'17 : Tails grabs 2 rings above Sonic and then the last group of 3 at frame 7165/1:29'43.
Frame 7393/1:33'29 : The boss receive perfect frame hits without the need of the insta-shield.
Angel Island ACT 2
Frame 8995/0:02'36 : By jumping at the right spot Tails is able to clip through the ground using the breakable rock. This allows him to go into Knuckles' area to grab some rings. This was also done in a few more areas.
Frame 9088/0:04'09 : For some reason the Act transition raises the death boundary a little which prevents Tails from being able to grab the rings in Knuckles' area. I have to go past a certain point to lower it back down. I purposefully get stopped as soon as I can in order to get sent back quickly.
Hydrocity ACT 1
This level is relatively played normal, however the most important things here to explain are Tails ring grabs.
Frame 25645/0:03'40 : Tails collects 10 floating rings off-screen here.
Frame 26273/0:14'08 : Tails takes the lower path to collect the ramp and loop rings
Frame 26719/0:21'34 : This lightning shield is needed for grab a 6 rings group at Frame 26979/0:25'54, then Tails grab them at Frame 27079/0:27'34 to prevent them from disappearing
Frame 26775/0:22'30 : Tails grab 3 rings down here, then he grab another 3 at Frame 27045/0:27'00
Frame 27405/0:33'00 to Frame 27646/0:37'00 : This section requires a very tight coordination between both characters, the image below is pretty self explanatory about what happen here
Frame 28535/0:51'50 to Frame 29473/1:07'27 : Same explanation as above, the image shows whats happen
Frame 30054/1:16'37 : This lightning shield is needed to grab the secret rings cloud at Frame 30477/1:23'40
Frame 30106/1:17'29 : Tails grab the loop rings and another 3 off-screen at Frame 30291/1:20'34
Frame 31166/1:33'39 : Tails grab 2 rings off-screen here, then he kill the badniks at Frame 31502/1:39'15 - 31609/1:40'59 to break the bridges quicky here
Frame 32840/2:01'29 : Tails grab 4 rings above this loop, the rest of the level is played normally
Frame 34046/2:21'10 : The boss received perfect frame hits with bubble shield bounces meanwhile Tails carries Sonic off-screen, you can appreciate this watching the camhack/Tails encode
Frame 34846/end level : This bubble bounce is for delay the score table a bit to get a perfect objects sync on HCZ 2, without this trick we'll lost an unnecessary amount of in-game time
...In progress...
Special Thanks to
- TheYogWog: For his Knuckles ring-attack and his S + T 2015 test runs that made me interested in this project
- marzojr: For his help and technical knowledge about this game
- WST: For providing useful .lua scripts, the artwork and sharing the new AIZ1 zip
- Selicre: For providing useful .lua scripts and develop the Atlas encode
- DMTM: For sharing the first half of the new MHZ 2 boss strat
- SID': For the amazing artwork!
- Everyone who followed the project from its roots via forum thread/youtube and observing its growth and offering his support in these 2 years, I want to say thank you.
Submission text is still on development, be patient.
Otherwise we'll crush you with all the rings collected in the run
feos: Let's get crushed with the rings and judge this.
feos: Setting to delayed as we hope that the atlas workflow is done first, so everyone could enjoy the hell out of this movie when it's published.
feos: We're back on track.
feos: The ring has been attacked, the game+ has been newed, the submission text has been in development, and I have watched both the atlas and the Tails camhack encodes to pretend I understand what's going on. The movie is indeed remarkable, and presence of Tails makes it rather crazy in some places, also the whole thing quite boldly stands out from existing runs... of the whole series I should say. The audience fully agreed, accepting to Moons, will watch the rating regarding starring.
Dacicus: Processing...