Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Yes, especially for a first timer. You just want to be sure you're checking everything about making it optimal, as one sure sign that you're being sloppy is if you're making progress too fast. But keep up the good work!
Hey, everyone! I started a new Youtube channel for my TAS stuff, so feel free to subscribe if you're interested! I'll be posting videos there from now on. And speaking of that, here's my first one for the channel! A faster Banana Kingdom run! Many thanks to piepusher11, a speed-runner who is giving me a big helping hand. Also, thanks to whoever may have pointed him in the direction of my videos!
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Hey buddies! After a nice little break, I've been hard at work improving the three Kingdoms I've done before. If you aren't subscribed to my new Youtube account, here are the three improved Kingdoms!
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Banana Kingdom took the most work to improve. I don't recall how many frames I saved in total here, but it was pretty significant. Several different routes were attempted and many new tricks were learned.
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Orange Kingdom came with a surprising amount of improvement - 166 frames. I did not expect nearly as many, but a majorly improved bonus jump at the end of Silver Snow Peak and completely dodging the pigs at the end of Sky Garden, a feat I thought impossible, really sped things up.
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I knew Watermelon Kingdom had room for improvement, and I was right. A slightly different route, a few time-savers in Monkey Fest, some new tricks in Desert Oasis, and a boss fight with a new strategy got a hefty improvement of 226 frames from the last time I ran it, which was already much faster than my previously posted video.
Ahhh, the first big discovery of my TAS! Here's a video of the Banana Kingdom again, but with a new technique/route applied (and a few small improvements) that shaves off a whopping 764 frames!
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Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
That was quite amazing! You sir, have now got my attention :) Never played this game but this is a prime example what tasing is all about. Very nice work.
Improved Orange Kingdom! Skip to 1:25 if you want to see the obvious changes. The clapping breaks vines too! This can still be improved, but I really didn't want to play through and modify Silver Snow Peak again at the time, so I'll just get it next time I'm running through it or feel like getting it done. <_< Probably after I beat the next kingdom, I imagine.
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And some huge improvement on Watermelon Kingdom.
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I don't think we know why it works, but to do it, you clap every single frame while on a wall. You slowly slide up, and when you reach the top, you will fly back really fast. Your exact speed is dependent on how far up the wall you slide.
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Got a new video for you guys. This Kingdom still needs a good amount of work, but I need a break from it! Moving on to the next one, and will finish tweaking this later. Enjoy!
Here's another one for you. This one needs more work yet, but it's another one for the big optimization push that I'll have in the future. Need to keep moving for now or else I'll go crazy. :P
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I'm really enjoying your progress. This game lends itself very well to a TAS.
Edit: What does the highscore screen (the one with the bananas tossed into the tree) look like when you get crazy high scores like this?
Crazy high scores like this? This isn't very high :P
For this kind of thing, it gets just to the top, and maybe a tiny bit overflows.
When you get scores more like 3000 or 4000, it fills up REALLY fast, and sits there overflowing for a while, before stopping.
Thanks for all your support, guys! March has been a very busy month for me off the computer so I haven't had much time to work on this. But I hope to be back at a good speed in April. I really appreciate the kind words; it makes me excited to get back on top of things! <3
Someone on nicovideo started doing TASes of this game. From what I can tell, it's a testrun aiming for maximum beat in each level (not speed).
Link to video
So, I've encountered the first final boss fight of this TAS. Perhaps even the hardest.
ELEVEN BATS.
Optimizing ELEVEN BATS at the beginning of Primeval Ruins was taking so much time and effort that I've shelved it for now. Getting as much of ELEVEN BATS as possible is so crucial that getting all of them at once could be worth 594 points before counting combos, but missing one of them drops that score by 99 bananas. I will be getting this one on my second run through the game where I polish everything up since I should have more experience in TAS and knowledge about some more obscure/glitchy game functions.
So for now, here's what the any% run would look like for this kingdom! Enjoy.
Link to video