Metroid Zero Mission 100% by Dragonfangs
  • Visual Boy Advance 1.7.2 re-recording v20
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Collects all items
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
So here we are again, Metroid Zero Mission, this time including everything.
Sometime after I exited Kraid, I was told of a way to keep running velocity for slightly longer after running of an edge, I underestimated the time it would save and decided against redoing everything I had done so far. I still use this after Kraid, though there is only a tiny difference visually. The time saved from using this earlier would've been anywhere from 20 frames to a full second. The loss is still not a big deal, but I regret not listening to people who told me to redo.
You might notice that I never actually pick up the Varia suit. This is because when you get your fully powered suit, the game adds Varia to your inventory if you don't have it already (which stupidly makes it one of the required items).
This run mainly aims for the ingame timer. This doesn't really make a difference in most cases, but some of the routes I take might be slower in real time due to extra room transitions, depending on the situation I might ignore lag as well. The final timer reads 42:28. By comparison, the best unassisted record at SpeedDemosArchive has a time of 56:11.
I end the input about a second later than necessary just to get a frame count of 222,222.

Notes copy-pasted from the previous run

  • Exiting a spin jump will still keep your vertical momentum unless you shoot.
  • If exiting a spin jump without shooting and while rising, you'll still rise for a frame regardless if you hold jump or not, if you then press jump again you'll start spinning again and still rise. I can't actually remember ever using this for time saving purposes.
  • Exiting a spin jump positioned the right way under a ledge, you'll get pushed down a bit, and since you don't lose any vertical momentum by exiting a spin jump you can save a bit of time.
  • Doing the "corner boost" at a certain place in Chozodia made a part of the room load incorrectly. But it's just a visual glitch and can't be used for anything.
  • The horizontal movement of all of Samus's projectiles are related to Samus's movement, so if you move in the same direction of a missile it will move faster to keep itself away from Samus, avoiding a doppler effect. This same technique can be used to "curve" shots by shooting diagonally and then moving sideways.
  • If multiple projectiles hits an enemy, all of them will do damage. This is only really useful against the Brinstar Worm/Charge Beamst/Boss right after missiles that drop the charge beam.
  • Shooting while turning around cancels the entire turnaround animation, speeding up a turn by quite a bit.
  • Starting a spin and shooting at the same time makes the shot appear at the bottom of Samus's sprite instead of at the arm cannon.
  • Morphing and shooting at the same time fires the projectile at the back of the Morph ball sprite.
  • After the Chozo ghost battle it usually locks you in place before transforming you to your full suit. But if you turn around during a certain time frame of about 4 frames you can move freely again and the rest of that scene still plays out the same. If there happens to be any stun pistol shots left on the screen when the you've got the suit for real, they'll turn into garbled plasma sprites.
  • Power Grip is usually way faster than other forms of vertical movement(shinespark excluded) because there is only a single frame without upwards movement.
  • There is a "sticky walls" effect when spin jumping. In other words, if you touch a wall while spinjumping and then try to move away from it, you accelerate way slower than you would if you haven't touched anything. Most likely there to make wall jumping easier.
  • Space Jump removes the ability to Wall jump, which would've been faster if there's a wall nearby. But at the same time, Space Jump removes the sticky walls effect.
  • Ingame time still runs during the "Item get!" popup.
  • Mother Brain will usually only take 5 missiles or a super before closing its eye to charge a beam. But there is a short amount of time right after a beam is fired where she'll accept damage anyway.
  • Bosses in this game die too fast :P

New stuff

  • The frame you start spinning will always be the same velocity as the frame right before it. This can be used to maintain running velocity for an extra frame when you run of an edge. In addition to this, releasing the direction you're running at the right time will cause Samus to slowly decelerate instead of immediately slowing down to normal aerial velocity. These two can be used in conjunction. To produce the best result, you should release the direction right when you leave the edge then hold nothing for 2 or 3 frames, then spin.
  • During the first frame of the aerial turnaround animation, Samus will continue to rise regardless if you're holding the jump button or not. This can be used to go from a straight jump to a spinning jump without stopping in midair.

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also replaced the ROM name.
  • You indicated Metroid Zero Mission (U).vbm
  • I updated it to Metroid Zero Mission (U).gba

Bisqwit: The audience feedback is good for this movie. Although it is a 100% movie, it is not that much longer than the any% movie -- only twice as long, so question may be whether it has merit enough to be published. I think the answer is yes, and I'm accepting this submission for publication :)


Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
You know, this run made me realize that I don't think I ever once used shine-spark in Metroid ZM or Metroid Fusion. Is the existence of those powers revealed somewhere in those games?
P.JBoy
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Mechuyael wrote:
You know, this run made me realize that I don't think I ever once used shine-spark in Metroid ZM or Metroid Fusion. Is the existence of those powers revealed somewhere in those games?
The demo :p
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
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Ah, so I need to be patient in the title screen to see it? No wonder. =P Anywho, sorry for forgetting, but I'll be voting yes, though to be honest the last 5 minutes or so (around the 3rd time Samus went out of the ship for some item) I was thinking to myself that I want the run to end already.
Joined: 3/7/2006
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Location: UK
I can't wait until I'm back on my PC so I can watch this. Good show. I'm sure I'll be voting yes once I see it.
Voted NO for NO reason
Joined: 7/26/2006
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P.JBoy wrote:
I can't wait to see what screenshots BisqBot makes out of this
I bet you didn't expect Megaman Zero's title screen. edit: screenshot 3 of course.
Joined: 8/7/2006
Posts: 344
I thoroughly enjoyed watching this, especially the mockery you made of Acid Worm with the plasma beam. :) Yes vote!
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Joined: 6/13/2006
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Cpadolf wrote:
No doubt the best GBA run to date.
I disagree, but I did kinda liked it. Yes vote from someone who has neither played the game nor is creaming his pants over this run.
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comicalflop wrote:
I disagree
No wai, such incomprehensible thoughts are unacceptable. But seriously though, there are not that many GBA runs I like very much, basically it's the CV and Metroid runs I enjoy. So this run did not have to beat many runs to claim the title "Cpadolf's GBA run of choice/ZM 100%, if Cpadolf get's to decide". That does not change the fact that it's awesome though.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
Sir_VG
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I vote no because you're lame and didn't find a way to get Power Bombs early. YOU SUX0R!!!11111onetyone.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Joined: 10/7/2007
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Awesome run, it was fun to watch every second except when you use a save station to fill up your power bombs. You rock, Simon! I would've voted yes if I could, but apperently, I'm one of those "lurkers". =)
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Meroigo wrote:
it was fun to watch every second except when you use a save station to fill up your power bombs.
Yeah, that part totally sucked ass, the most unbearable 4 seconds in the world!
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Mitjitsu
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Cpadolf wrote:
No doubt the best GBA run to date.
I think not
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Technically perhaps not, (I don't have enough in depth knowledge about the two games) entertainment wise though this is much greater IMO.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
AnS
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Joined: 2/23/2006
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That's... greatest GBA run up to date, definitely! So much amazing tricks and stuff here and there... in my experience, this TAS provokes jawdrops even more frequently than JXQ's SM run! What I like about "100%" runs is that thay consist of 2 parts - 1st half usually looks as good as "any%" run, and then 2nd part (with heavily upgraded character) is TEN TIMES cooler! Man, I didn't know the game can provide so much entertainment (not only speedwise).
creaothceann
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Clear "yes" vote. :)
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AKA wrote:
I think not
I would have mentioned Sonic Advance 2, as that's what I think of for the best GBA run ever. Despite it being submitted a long time ago, it's also very optimal; I once tried out of curiosity and couldn't save any frames anywhere, period.
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Ok, maybe that one. But since not having played the game makes it less entertaining in the end I think I prefer this.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
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Fun, fun run with a lot of great acrobatics. I thoroughly enjoyed this!
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I've been waiting on this run to show up and am not disappointed. Great run, I'll probably end up watching it many times as I have the any% run.
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. ---- [981] GBA Metroid: Zero Mission "100%" by Dragonfangs in 1:01:43.70
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For once the nesvideoagent's "beauty" algorithm caught the essence of beauty spot-on with its third proposed screenshot. Btw, I notice that in this metroid run, in the same way as in the others, bomb-jumping is used a lot to access places which don't seem to be accessible otherwise (at least not at that point of the game). I was wondering if this is indeed the original way intended by the developers to access those places, or if this is just a trick not supposed to be possible (but instead you need to find some object which allows you to access those places).
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Bombjumping was supposed to be possible (and even endorsed by developers through ingame demo and the first trailers), but all items Dfangs took it with, while accessible through bombjumping, can as well be accessible through other means: shinespark, space jump, springball, or other scenery elements.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Qlex
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Hey Dragonfangs, remember me? Glad you had enough enthusiasm to make other TAS of the Metroid series, for my greatest pleasure ;) The movie was pure genius, I enjoyed it a lot. Late yes vote.
Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
Warp wrote:
For once the nesvideoagent's "beauty" algorithm caught the essence of beauty spot-on with its third proposed screenshot.
Heh, yeah I found it funny how the bot completely missed a good shot of the 'zero suit' segment of the game yet was kind enough to take a pic of samus's ass.
This signature is much better than its previous version.