Hello there. This is my second Spongebob TAS made so far, and I would like to thank CoolKirby for his run that I used as a "guide" for this improvement. Without him, I would've never found out some amazing tricks that he discovered alone.
Game objectives
Emulator used: VBA-v24-alpha
Fastest Time
Takes damageStrips to save time
No passwords
Comments
This game features the famous Spongebob SquareUnderpants who goes on some quest to retrieve a golden spatula from the depths of hell and use it to become the Master Fry Cook. This game's jumping physics, as noted by CoolKirby, is terrible and makes a real time play through rather difficult and frustrating.
Stage by stage comments
To Treasure Chest
Frames Taken: 3421
Frames Saved: 230
Somehow saved several frames on my way to Goo Lagoon.
Abused the "Blow Bubble" animation to avoid knockback.
Abused CoolKirby's ...... Sinking Glitch to sink down faster into the lagoon.
To Jellyfish Fields
Frames Taken: 2322
Frames Saved: 187
Made the knockback helpful by turning just before getting hit.
Mostly the same as CoolKirby's route.
Jellyfish Fields
Frames Taken: 2442
Frames Saved: 16
Abused Bubble animation again.
Somehow killed the boss faster.
Tried to make the battle more entertaining.
To The Carnival
Frames Taken: 1108
Frames Saved: 6
Nothing Special, CoolKirby's route is optimal.
The Carnival
Frames Taken:999
Frames Saved: 78
Took a new route up.
Also abused the geysers.
To Kelpazoic Jungle
Frames Taken: 718
Frames Saved: 5
Minor optimization of route.
Kelpazoic Jungle
Frames Taken: 4082
Frames Saved: 85
Frames were mostly saved at the first couple areas.
Not much improvement on the last area as CoolKirby did a really good job.
To Undersea Desert
Frames Taken: 872
Frames Saved: 0
Nothing Special here.
Undersea Desert
Frames Taken: 3609
Frames Saved: 139
Very difficult to improve; most of the input ended up similiar to CoolKirby's.
Rock Bottom
Frames Taken: 2752
Frames Saved: 1
CoolKirby was right when he said that this area was perfect; can't seem to improve it much.
Dutch Under
Frames Taken: 4182
Frames Saved: 96
Improved due to a somewhat different route.
Other comments
Possible Improvements
Better precision I guess?
CoolKirby's "Synced" run
How did I compared two movies made with 2 different emulator versions? Well, I synced CoolKirby's run with the emulator I used, and used it as comparison. Luckily, all it took was to add several idle frames at the begining to sync it up. Here it is.
adelikat: Replacing movie file at the request of the author. Improvements: "Minor optimizations in jumping saving 18 frames, and an improvement near the end by CoolKirby that saved 57 frames."
I saved 57 frames from the end of the Flying Dutchman battle. Please replace the submission movie file with this one.
Anyway, amazing run, jlun2! And thank you for giving me credit for my original run.
I remember trying to blow a bubble in Goo Lagoon, but I kept falling into the goo and sinking, which wasted time, so I abandoned it. Nice to see it's actually of use. And the sinking glitch and Flying Dutchman battle look awesome! Also, I never thought of turning around to damage boost the other way. Brilliant! Finally, great job with better manipulation of that scallop in Undersea Desert.
Again, nice work, and I'll be giving this run high ratings once it's published. YES VOTE!
Apparently he's been working very hard on this. And it paid off!
EDIT: Removed my suggested screenshots. I like the one that was chosen for the published movie more anyway.
Thanks CoolKirby!
Well, I managed to save 18 more frames, plus CoolKirby's improvement, which means a total of 75 frames saved. Can anyone replace the submission with this file please?
I think adelikat replaced the movie file with the 57 frame improvement, and sgrunt replaced that movie with another one saving an additional 18 frames.
Is any of CoolKirby's input in the final movie? It seems like the recent NES Penguin Submission had an added author for just the final boss input, maybe this should too?
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Well, I just did the end of the battle after the final boss and the jumping to the Golden Spatula to save 57 frames.
It's jlun2's choice whether he wants to add me as an author or not.
Oh, I thought the improvement was too minor compared to the length of the movie to make CoolKirby a coauthor. Sorry CoolKirby!
Edit: Btw, how's the encode going?
It's your movie; you don't have to make me a coauthor for my 6 seconds of input.
As long as there are no other improvements to be made, I'm sure the encoders will make an encode soon.
Until then, I've made a temporary encode.