Um, I can try to do the speed run (since I made a list and all that). I've never recorded anything on an emulator... so, if anyone is willing to have me PM a bunch of n00b questions at them, let me know. :)
The general case is that in order to resume recording, load the ROM, pause emulation, play back the movie that exists so far then load your current savestate. If you happen to accidentally erase your savestates for any strange reasons, play the movie and when you reach the point where you want to resume recording, pause emulation, create a save state and load it soon after. P.S. If you don't pause emulation before playing the movie, be sure to load the saved state before the movie is done playing. If the state is loaded after the movie is done playing, it will load the state, but will not resume recording. That means to resume recording from the very end of a movie, you must pause the emulator right before the movie ends, then save and load, then unpause. Also, you must be playing the movie back in non-read-only mode or it will rewind instead of recording.
I say Mega Punch since it has more PP. Mega Punch is strong enough to OHKO with critical hits. Lucky Egg will help you level up faster so you can do more damage on everyone. And definitely Quick Claw because your rival's pokemon the second time you fight the E4 are in the 70s, so no way Blastoise would be faster.
But with all the leveling up sounds, and the time it takes for the experience bar to move, is it possible the lucky egg could be slower?
Sorry for the double post. Just an update for people to ponder about. I got to the first round of the E4 with Blastoise lvl 55 I think? In the end he was 59. Then doing the Sevii Island quest, I only leveled up 3 times. So I go fight E4 a second time with my level 62. Blastoise!! The E4 is eassssssssyyy!!! One X-item and then crit hit them all. Your Rival, however, is all in your face and he thinks he's all gangsta, word, dawg, etc. He will take the most luck manipulation. Luckily, he starts out with Heracross and abuses Megahorn (which has 80% acc.). Two x-Items, then you crit hit all of Rival's pkmn. End :EDIT - 10/19: Forget what I said before. After rethinking it, Lucky egg would be faster. By a couple seconds I think, but still faster!! Though, getting a lucky egg without using action replay codes is a pain. :P
I've been doing some experimenting in FR lately, and I believe I can manage this TAS. First thing is that the ID/SID is set when you choose your character's name, which means the starting Pokemon's IVs can be manipulated at this point. However, FRLG has a random seed each time you start up, so it will be relatively tricky to manipulate a good starter, but not impossible. Second thing is that wild encounters are impossible to manipulate away, unlike RSE. It appears that after each battle ends, the number of steps before a wild encounter is determined, and once you reach the threshold of steps through grass, an encounter occurs. I do not know if it is possible to change the number of steps though. This will mean that, even in a TAS, Repels will need to be used in some places (like caves, and some grassy areas). On the upside, it seems critical hits are a simple matter of just hitting the correct frame. So the battles themselves will go by just as fast as in the Sapphire TAS. In order to get the 60 Pokemon needed for the National Dex and the Rainbow Pass, there will have to be a fair bit of planning. I know UD has a list from his real-time run, so that will give me a good basis. Rare Candies are few and far between, so I will be relying on Pick Up (via Meowth) ability (5% chance) to get more. It should save time having to capture more wild Pokemon at least, and I will have to aim for getting those that are 1-2 levels away from evolving. Which means I will have to learn how to manipulate Rare Candy, possibly find out how to extend my step count through grass (if possible), and perhaps even learn how to manipulate starter IVs to get the best I can. There are some people at Smogon looking into the IV generation side of things, so I can possibly get some insight there. All in all, this will be a big project, and I am not yet ready to manage it, but I am definitely willing to work on it soon! Once the IV generation side is more understood I should be able to get started at least.
Wild encounter manipulation is doing my head in. I am no closer to finding out how they work than I was a week ago. One thing of particular concern is that there appears to be no change in RAM when you change direction in grass, yet you can still trigger a wild encounter this way. Long story short - help! I need someone with familiarity with RPG internals to help find how wild encounters work better, and hopefully if there is any way to manipulate them. A free Rare Candy to anyone who helps!
val <- val*0x41C64E6D + 0x6073val <- val*0x41C64E6D + 0x3039