In 2008, inichi demonstrated the full extent of subframe reset abuse in Chrono Trigger.
When Ersnes Rerecod Van Daaz Octava Deltius graced the land with his presence on the tenth of May, men fell to their knees as calamity brewed in the north.
Divine wrath descended upon a distant tundra. Thunder raged for several hours and the ground was carved anew. Soon the gods' message had reached even the farthest of lands:

"- Mid-frame reset support"

primary10bit444

  • Heavy glitch abuse
  • Uses sub-frame resets
  • Corrups save data
  • Demonstrates the glory of lsnes
Chrono Trigger (U) [!].sfc
md5sum:    a2bc447961e52fd2227baed164f729dc                                  Chrono Trigger (U) [!].sfc
sha1sum:   de5822f4f2f7a55acb8926d4c0eaa63d5d989312                          Chrono Trigger (U) [!].sfc
sha256sum: 06d1c2b06b716052c5596aaa0c2e5632a027fee1a9a28439e509f813c30829a9  Chrono Trigger (U) [!].sfc

Tricks and glitches

Loading corrupted save data

The game writes hash checksums upon saving; if the checksums don't match, the save(s) will be unloadable and displayed as empty.
Howewer, due to an oversight, it is possible to bypass this check and load corrupted save data by pressing Up+A on the save load screen.

Detailed commentary

Millennia Fair

Marle is picked up. If the Imp's house is entered without her in the party, the game will crash.

Zenan Bridge R1

The game is saved twice to set up save corruption at a later time.

Guardia Continent, Eastern Nebula

The position value 1F3E is partially overwritten with the party's current position, 4A50, resulting in the position 4A3E being stored in SRAM.

Guardia Continent, Imp's House

If Marle isn't in the party when entering this area, the game will crash.

The End of Time

The game is saved on a save point, resulting in the corresponding flag being set in SRAM. The subframe reset here is just for show - allowing the save to complete would yield equivalent results.

Zenan Bridge R2

The Zenan Bridge save is loaded. The game is then saved over the End of Time save and interrupted after the location values are written but before the save point flag is removed. This allows us to save anywhere.

Zenan Bridge R3

The game is saved on Zenan Bridge, resulting in a save file with a location value of 2000. We then exit the area and reset while the location value F001 is being written to the save file, resulting in SRAM containing the location F000.

Nu Ending

The location value F000 corresponds to the Nu ending, so the run ends when the save is loaded. Since triggering the ending in this manner wasn't intended, glitched graphics are briefly shown.

Special thanks to

  • inichi: for demonstrating the concept and making the extremely fabulous published runs.
  • Ilari: for making lsnes and helping with emulator usage and Lua scripting.

About obsoletions

The published any% and NG+ movies both abuse save corruption. This run is faster than both; obsoleting both of them seems to make the most sense.

Suggested screenshots

TBA

Nach: Reje... er... Judging.

turska: Replaced movie file. The new movie file is 46 frames faster.

turska: Replaced movie file once more. The new movie file is 12 frames faster.

Nach: I had a lot to consider in judging this run, the acceptability, the entertainment, the star issue, single or double obsoletion, and so on.
This run is clearly faster, made with a better emulator, and more real than the last run. Under these conditions, this run should be accepted to obsolete the current normal run. However this run is nowhere near as entertaining, so should it still obsolete it or not?
I watched the previous run a few times, my first reaction upon seeing it was that it was amazing and very entertaining, the second time was quite interesting too. On a third watch however, I found that the novelty wore off and the run wasn't all that entertaining. Since both these runs are about abusing SRAM, I'm accepting this run to obsolete the previous run, however, since there is very little entertainment in this run compared to the previous, it should be published without a star, a moon would be fine though.
Regarding the New Game+ obsoletion, I've mulled over it for a few days. It is loaded with a very pre-abused SRAM file. Technically, this current run here can also be loaded with a pre-abused file and cut the time down to mere few seconds. I find that pre-abusing a file sort of misses out on the point, and really is not deserving of a record. Since the main point of NG+ is to either show off new things in the game that can't be accessed otherwise, or beat the game significantly faster thanks to higher stats at the start, and the current NG+ run doesn't do the former, and it loses for the latter, I'm accepting this run to obsolete the NG+ as well.
Despite this double obsoletion for an abusing SRAM category, I think this site deserves a non abused version of CT and CT NG+, and I hope TASers will try to fill in these categories.


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Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Nach wrote:
Let me in turn thank you for your feedback in the thread for many movies I've judged as of late.
Oh, you're welcome. I try to watch and comment on all of the movies in the Workbench, but I usually don't have time to watch them all before they're accepted.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 6/8/2005
Posts: 236
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
My thoughts: - This run should be accepted. - This run should obsolete the current glitched run. - This run should be published right alongside the 4+ hour run. Similar runs should obsolete one another, and dissimilar runs should be considered as a separate publication if there is a significant entertainment difference. I don't consider this to be terribly entertaining other than the fact that the game becomes horrifyingly broken. But it is a fascinating technical demonstration, so it should be published.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
SaxxonPike, the run has already been published and already obsoleted both the "glitched" run and the "NewGame+" run. There is still room for an optimized any% run on the site that does not use save corruption, but for now, this run is the only Chrono Trigger run on the site. All of this information is in the comments above.
Joined: 5/31/2012
Posts: 4
As a Chrono Trigger fan: I've never seen anything like that before... and I liked it, but by watching this TAS I don't even know what this game is about xD
Joined: 9/28/2011
Posts: 4
so why was the 4 hour run obsoleted? http://tasvideos.org/450M.html Shouldn't there be separate categories for glitched and not glitched like the other videos?
Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
conqueran wrote:
so why was the 4 hour run obsoleted? http://tasvideos.org/450M.html Shouldn't there be separate categories for glitched and not glitched like the other videos?
The 4 hour run was obsoleted with the last run. It's not being republished until a more optimized run can be made (and isn't NG+ or use the save glitch). Inichi made a speedrun (not a TAS) that's under 3.5 hours, which shows how much the old TAS needs to be improved.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Active player (411)
Joined: 3/16/2004
Posts: 2623
Location: America, Québec
I know the tasers did made their best. They are skilled Chrono Trigger TASers without a doubt. But it's sad to tell this because I know they worked really hard, however this version is not interesting. The enjoyment when I've watched the previous run was really high but this one, no. I'm deceived :P
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3573)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
Nach wrote:
Thanks for the input.
I'm trying to decide if this was intended as a witty pun. :)
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
adelikat wrote:
Nach wrote:
Thanks for the input.
I'm trying to decide if this was intended as a witty pun. :)
The answer should be apparent and deterministic.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
This is the current screenshot. I plan to replace it with this one: If you have any other suggestions, post here.
Player (213)
Joined: 9/14/2011
Posts: 349
Why is this now Vault?
fsvgm777
She/Her
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Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1213
Location: Luxembourg
Here's an off-series video where they comment on the TAS....and don't credit inichi for co-authoring with turska (at least in the custom thumbnail and the video description): Link to video
Steam Community page - Bluesky profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
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