"Get ready for a lot of fun, and excitement!"
Objectives
- main levels
- 100% completion
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.10.0
Famidash is a homebrew NES demake of the 2013 PC/mobile rhythm platformer game, Geometry Dash. Version 1.2 of Famidash features demakes of the official main 22 levels and 21 custom community-made levels, compared to the 13 main levels and 7 custom levels in Version 1.1. Initially, this run didn't have any timesaves out of menuing and ending input early, but now that this update is out, we can take advantage of certain level design errors to save time. I won't go super in-depth into the mechanics of Geometry Dash, so if you're familiar with the game, that's great. If not, no worries. You can still follow along. I'll keep the basics of the game brief though.
Basic Game Overview
In Geometry Dash, you control an icon that automatically scrolls to the right. You are tasked with guiding the icon throughout the level, avoiding all the obstacles along your way. Dying at any point puts you back at the start of the level. Throughout the levels, you'll find jump pads, jump orbs, and portals to assist or hinder your progress. Portals can change your gamemode, size, gravity, and speed (we'll get back to this in a bit). Additionally, each level has 3 Secret Coins that the player can collect. This TAS aims to complete the 22 main levels while collecting 3 Secret Coins in each level.
Additional Notes
- The cube can sometimes jump in and out of spikes completely unharmed. This can only happen in rare circumstances however, and it's not too useful.
- Spikes with green outlines are fake spikes. They don't harm the player and are meant to either decorate the level or mislead the player (there's also fake blocks too).
- The game lags sometimes. Doing different inputs can reduce lag, but sometimes it is just unavoidable.
Speed Portals and Skips
In level 15, Electrodynamix, you are introduced to speed portals. Speed portals are these arrow-shaped objects that will increase or decrease your icon's speed upon contact. From slowest to fastest speed, they are: orange, blue, green, pink, & red. If you follow the Geometry Dash speedrunning scene closely, you'd know that players are able to skip speed portals that slow you down, saving time by playing the level in a faster, unintended speed. Speed portals can also be skipped in Famidash. However, since Famidash is not a 1:1 recreation of Geometry Dash, not every skip from Geometry Dash works. Meanwhile, Famidash also has some of its own exclusive skips.
Additionally, if you're unable to completely skip a speed portal that slows you down, you can still save a few frames if you hit the portal late instead of early. Conversely, if there's a speed portal that speeds you up, you should hit it as early as possible to save the most time.
The Levels
Onto the levels! I won't go over every level, since there isn't a lot to say. I play the first 10 levels in order and skip the 11th, Clutterfunk, saving it for last. This is because Clutterfunk has a long, descending staircase at the end that requires no input. I measured the time it takes for the icon to reach the results screen from the last input for each level and Clutterfunk has the most frames at 249. The second longest is Dash at 125. While we still have to menu all the way back to Clutterfunk after beating Dash, we still save 101 frames compared to doing every level in order.
In the levels below, I will be referencing skips that Geometry Dash speedrunners use. Each skip mentioned will have a video of the skip linked.
Only other thing to mention is that I took the time in each level to do some playaround, whether it be timing inputs to be as late as possible, weird jumps, straight-flying, or skipping pads/orbs/portals.
Hexagon Force
This skip involves hitting the orbs in a specific way so that the icon is able to hit the top part of the UFO portal, allowing you to buffer an input and jump over the speed portal. In Geometry Dash, you have to hit the mini portal in order to survive the next section, but luckily you're able to survive without it in Famidash!
Essentially, you have to follow a specific set-up in the dual-ball section in order to get to the cube section while still in mini form. Then, you use that to get out of bounds. While you can get out of bounds in this section in Famidash, you actually can't beat the level, as the wall extends downwards and kills you. Doing this skips the third coin of the level anyway, which is quite sad, since "main levels" and "main levels, all coins" don't have any noteworthy differences in terms of skips or level routing. If this worked, you could do this level last and end input early in a "main levels" TAS, but alas, you cannot.
You can also go out of bounds in Theory of Everything in Geometry Dash, but not in Famidash. Just thought I'd mention.
Theory of Everything 2
The easiest and probably the most well-known skip in the entire game. Doesn't work in Famidash though.
Famidash-exclusive Skip
Fortunately, we don't leave empty handed! I'm able to squeeze through the two spikes before the last wave. I still have to do some inputs in order to survive however, since the slopes are jank and can kill you. Interestingly, some people claim that this skip existed in Geometry Dash at one point, but I haven't seen it anywhere.
Geometrical Dominator
In Geometry Dash, you can skip this speed portal by either going above or below it (below is easier). In Famidash, the speed portals are placed differently. Going below is no longer and option. I tried vertically aligning my wave in different ways by jumping into the portal at different times, but had no longer in skipping the speed portals by going above.
Deadlocked
Famidash-exclusive Skip 1
By jumping at the end of the robot section, you can jump over the speed portal in the ball portal. Quite difficult to get this one working.
This is a skip that uses a update-specific glitch to activate a jump orb after leaving its hitbox. You can't do this glitch in Geometry Dash anymore, and no one was able to get this skip in a run when you could. You can't do it in Famidash either, but I'm at least able to hit the speed portal late by hitting the edge of the spiked platform.
Famidash-exclusive Skip 2
We can skip the speed portal in the mini wave section! You can also skip the ball portal and the speed portal inside it, but you can’t beat the level, as you’re still stuck in mini form, and are unable to clear a jump.
Fingerdash
Famidash-exclusive Skip
You can skip speed portals in the wave section. Need the right alignment for it though.
Doesn't work in Famidash.
Dash
Climbing on walls isn't a thing in Famidash, but that's not important. The point is, is that you can't skip the blue speed portals. If you do, you just stay as the ball and die.
I don't know how I did this, but I ended up glitching out the graphics on the top part of the screen. Uhhhhh... totally intended... yeaaaaahhhh
Famidash-exclusive Skip
Nothing's stopping you from just flying underneath the robot portal and letting you stay as the ship. After flying over the rest of the level and skipping a speed portal, I play Clutterfunk last and that's that!
Possible Improvements:
- getting Geometrical Dominator Skip (if it's even possible)
- optimizing hitting speed portals late
- lag reduction
Recommended Screenshots:
- 91495f - In my opinion, the best one
- 17591f - Hitboxes are a suggestion...
Comments
Special thanks to lexicon, lilleh, and exyl for their videos of skips! If you've read through these notes, I hope you've learned something about Geometry Dash speedrunning! I'm a big fan of the game, have been playing it for 10 years, so I'm really glad I'm able to showcase something adjacent to it on TASVideos. I'm going to be running Geometry Dash on GDQ next week and I'm really glad that I get to represent our community to more people. It's everything I could've asked for (AND IM STILL REALLY NERVOUS AAAAAAAAA)!
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to place a bunch of spikes in my room so that I can practice my jumping skills. Don't think it'll be too dangerous, since I can clip through them if luck is on my side.
- Walgrey
- Walgrey
DrD2k9: Claiming for judging.