Conquest of the Crystal Palace is the story of a boy and his dog who overthrow an evil rock (or is it a brain?).
This run: -aims for fastest time -takes damage to save time (seriously)
I was planning on doing this eventually. However, when I saw tim333's cancelled submission I was inspired to actually work on it. Many ideas in this run came from tim's run and the resulting discussion (damage boosting, using the dog as a platform, e. g.). My run is much faster, though becuase of more precise movement, better routes, and ridiculously short boss fights.
Some tricks I use in this run:
Damage boosting: each time you take damage and thrown to the right, it saves 16 frames. Because of this, I try to take damage as many times as possible in each level, since at the start of each level your hp is replenished. I tried my best to spread the damage across the entire level for aesthetic reasons.
Using the dog as a platform: To call the dog, you push down + A. Usually then he will jump on the screen before landing and attacking enemies. The thing is you can land on the dog in midair if you jump just right. He can be used to reach much higher places that way. To make the dog leave, press down + A again. You can call the dog off when you're standing on top of him. He takes a little while to leave, and while his cloud is on the screen you can still ride on top of him. Also, when he leaves, he stays in the same place on the screen regardless of whether the screen is moving or not, so you can use him to walk on air for a few frames, or as an elevator (which I do once).
Backwards attack: If you attack away from your enemy then press the arrow toward him, the character on the screen will do a double attack. The second hit does about four times as much damage as the normal attack, so in the time it takes to do three normal attacks, you can do about eight times as much damage.
I don't consider any of these glitches or programming errors, but if you feel differently, so be it.
It's possible this run could be better, but without any extra help, I think this is the best I can get it (I'm still new to TASing after all). Have fun watching it!

adelikat: Response has been good. In addition, this game has many nice TAS elements such as damage boosting & advantageous programming errors. I am accepting this movie for publication.

adelikat: Encoding is underway.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1491: arkiandruski's NES Conquest of the Crystal Palace in 11:18.75
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Not the most interesting game, but the dog-boosting is impressive. It occasionally lags, but it doesn't look like there's any sensible way to prevent that, unless perhaps the dog can be manipulated to kill more stuff whilst flying around. It could have been stylistically better if you had done something clever while waiting for the levels to end. You seemed to jump around randomly. But, it's hard to fault someone because he didn't "do something clever" so it's not a big deal. Voted crotch-chomp. I mean, Yes.
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
What does that knife outline next to the dog symbol mean? Also during the final level you sometimes jump and slash to kill a skeletont hat pops up but you jump very low and the blade animation isn't done by the time you land, causing you to stand still fora few frames. Isn't it possible to jump earlier and higher and make sure the blade animation finishes before you touch the ground?
Reviewer, Active player (287)
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
The knife is your sword. The skeleton can be killed without stopping. I tried hard to make sure that attacking enemies didn't waste time. Guess I missed that one. I'll fix it once I can get a hex-editing program to work. EDIT: Okay, I tried this and it threw off the timing on the next room to the point I could no longer beat the game. Killing the skeleton perfectly saves one frame, but I think it will cause the finished TAS to be slower.
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 563
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Not a very interesting game, and the movement is kind of slow, however the run seems to have been done well. Borderline yes, but a yes vote none the less :)
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3572)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
The Game: This is a pretty "meh" game except for the damage boosting & the dog trick. But these things make it a nice TAS. This is an ideal example of taking damage to increase entertainment. It is a limited resource and must be planned for maximum damage taking. The dog trick makes for big shortcuts that separate it from "normal" play as well. Overall I this is a publishable game. The run: It is good for the most part but there is a good bit of lag. It looks like sometimes you bypass an enemy or use him as a damage boost but later he is on the far left of the screen and new enemies are appearing causing lag. Had you killed these enemies you could have reduced lag perhaps. Also, sometimes you kill enemies and they drop coins(?). Is this random? If so you should manipulate it so that they DON'T appear in laggy areas. This isn't perfect but it is nice. I guess I will vote yes.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Reviewer, Active player (287)
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
All enemies drop items. Some enemies only drop coins. The only way to keep coins from appearing on screen is to collect them.
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Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Wow. The lag in this game is obnoxious, especially in the earlier levels. Come on, Contra (J) didn't lag with twice as much shit moving on the screen with greater speed. Thankfully, the run is short enough and has some nice damage boosts to not be boring, so I vote yes. Later, when you'll be more experienced as a TASer, I'm sure you'll look at this run again and spot numerous improvements, but as of now, I think it's good enough.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Active player (437)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
It gives me great pleasure to vote yes on this entertaining run. I really liked how you took damage to move quicker forward. I loved those stone enemies, they look so chocolate-ish :)
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
My parents actually bought this game for me as a kid though I could never get past the third stage. I liked the dog boosting but the lag is kinda lame. Still entertaining so voted yes.
This signature is much better than its previous version.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [847] NES Conquest of the Crystal Palace by arkiandruski in 11:18.75
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Ahaha, I totally love the description. Especially "a boy and his dog who overthrow an evil rock" sounds awesome ("overthrow" and "rock" in one sentence lead to this adorable ambiguity). :D
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 2/25/2006
Posts: 70
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I think/feel that this game is the hardest one EVER!! Thank you for this submission, I thought I would have never seen it ever completed :)
Joined: 6/9/2004
Posts: 17
I made a shot at TASing this once and proved only that I should never, ever try to TAS again. My run was 13:17. Thanks for finally making an acceptable version of this.