263 frames, or 4.38 seconds, were able to be saved.
Game Objectives
- Emulator: Bizhawk 2.2.2
- Takes Damage to save time
- Takes Death to save time
The SNES and Genesis versions have many differences. Some of the more notable differences include:
- A larger screen resolution
- Faster load times
- Different layout for Really Inside the Claw Machine
- Bonus game every 200 stars you collect
- An extra level called Day-Toy-Na
For differences that are more relevant to the movie, that will be covered in the level by level comments.
One big difference you'll notice throughout the run is how much we avoid collection of stars. We never want to trigger the bonus game, so it's important to collect less than 200 stars by the end of the game.
2 frames were saved before even starting the game due to better start menu maneuvering. Instead of pressing down then start within two frames both can be pressed on the same frame and it takes you directly to the options menu. Same for setting Story-line to off.
Turning Story-line off removes cutscenes in the game, by the time we reach the 2nd level in this game, we've already saved the time it took to go into the menus to turn it off.
That Old Army Game
Here, the goal is to free the army men and knock down the baby monitor before you can finish the level.
One thing you'll notice is that I didn't jump on the shelf after freeing the army men, that's because the trick used to get up there doesn't work on Genesis. 10 frame jumps don't work so you have to go the intended way.
Time was able to be saved here by being farther right of the baby monitor as it was hit down.
Red Alert
Unlike the SNES version, the fastest time you can get here is a 102. The objective is to get all the toys put away before the timer runs out. We want to free Rocky before he turns around if we want to get a 102. No additional time was saved here.
Ego Check
A favorite in the Toy Story speed-running community.
In the Genesis version, swinging on hooks actually looses 2 frames, so we only use them when we absolutely have to. We take full advantage of damage boosts on this level. No additional time was saved here.
Nightmare Buzz
To do damage to Buzz you have to knockoff his glowing orange balls then he will start flashing. When he reaches for his wrist is when you can do damage to him.
A Buzz Clip
We do wiggling to position RC Car without having to do a full turn. This allows us to do tight turns around corners.
We also have to hit Buzz every time, if you do not the next instance of Buzz won't be there.
30 frames were saved by using the new "Fish Tail" strategy. By constantly turning left and right for several frames at the time RC Car gets pushed forward by a little.
Revenge of the Toys
We want to free Rex every time in order to leave the level. You get two hit point stars from the checkpoints when you free him and we will want to have max health at Food and Drink since bonus stars in this version cannot refill your health by more than one hit point.
Run Rex, Run!
Auto-scroller, only time save you can do here is to be on the right side of the screen as the level ends.
Buzz Battle
In the SNES version you can hit the tire on buzz as he's spinning, but on Genesis you cannot. So we have to wait until he halts before we can put the tire on him.
28 frames were saved here by hitting the tire in the beginning an extra time making it reach Buzz sooner. As well as having better positioning of Buzz later on.
Food and Drink
Avoiding the falling food and ducking when children come after you. We make use of all our health here to damage boost through everything possible.
40 frames were saved here by only ducking when necessary as children come by. While inbetween the shoes it is possible to begin running again without taking damage.
Inside the Claw Machine
One trick in this game is known as the Hitler jump (named by Jimmie1717). As a platform rises, you can jump and get a pretty big boost going up. It's a nice alternative to the 10 frame jump but is just as difficult to pull off in RTA runs.
Since we cannot refill health, we can take a death as soon as we get to a checkpoint. The benefit is since the loading times for the genesis version don't take very long, deaths aren't as time consuming.
Really Inside the Claw Machine
This level has a completely different layout than the SNES version has. You can only grab Aliens if they're in your view, so doing backwards walking won't help us here.
The Claw!!
Claw skip doesn't work on the Genesis version as sprites act differently.
To save time, we get Buzz all the way to the right of the screen. That way when the Claw tries to get him it won't have to travel as far.
Sid's Workbench
We take a death at the beginning to refill our health. I was able to save one frame during the death simply by ducking before I get hit.
Probably the biggest time save in this run is instead of taking a death midway into the stage, we get to the last checkpoint with 1 health and then take a death, that way we have full health and can do an extra damage boost.
We found that it's slightly faster to not jump before you encounter Sid, however the second time you encounter Sid it's faster to jump since we want to manipulate the first spiky yo-yo's cycle to barely miss.
Battle of the Mutant Toys.
Another difference in the Genesis version is you can quickly change your direction before you swing on a hook, this makes maneuvering upwards on the hooks faster.
Only big time save here is jumping over a big spider before we get to Buzz.
We simply have to get to the end of the level to beat it compared to the SNES version where one toy has to hit the end.
Roller Bob
Another autoscroller level, nothing real notable to explain here other than holding right at the end causes the level to end 1 frame faster.
Day-Toy-Na
Yay, puns!
This is the level that isn't used in the SNES version.
We have to be careful with how many power cells we collect here as they count for 2 bonus stars each. So we collect the absolute minimum to complete the level.
Light My Fire
Just like A Buzz Clip, we do wiggle and fish tail strategies to get around corners and collect batteries to refill before we run out.
27 frames were saved here by using the fish tail.
Rocket Man
The last level. The only real time save here is to position yourself above Andy's car at the end.
We never really planned on improving a 3 year old movie, but seeing how much time we saved, We're glad we did.
Not related to the run itself but one of the developers of this game, Jon Burton, has a YouTube channel called
GameHut, where he talks all about the Genesis games he worked on with Travellers Tales, including Mickey Mania, Sonic 3-D Blast, and Toy Story!
Special Shoutouts
- Jimmie1717 - For co-authoring and improving this run.
- EZGames69 - For co-authoring and improving this run.
- YamiAmarillo - For also running this game and helping push the time down. As well as looking for, giving suggestions, and helping with improvements to this run.
- Joe Stanski - For his run on SpeedDemosArchive.
- Mukki - For his TAS of this game to take notes from and compare to.
- Cerberusguns - For inspiring Jimmie1717, not only to run this game but then author the previous TAS.
- Toy Story Speedrun Community - You guys have inspired us in more ways than we can count and we're very thankful for every one of you.
Enjoy the run everyone!
feos: Once again no pub for 2 weeks, processing...
