3-D Tetris is a
Virtual Boy game (Dev'd by
T&E Soft and Pub'd by
Nintendo), that has 3 game modes: Center-Fill, 3-D Tetris and Puzzle mode. In this TAS I complete the
Puzzle mode and get to the credits as fastest possible!
The goal of Puzzle mode is placing the blocks/shapes in an (almost very specific) order and position that replicates the same as game show you at the beggining of the Stage. The right corner also shows you where to place the shapes, X marks the place (?). If you place a shape in a wrong position, and is not as marked by the X, game over.
The rom I used for this TAS has this CRC32: BB71B522 (SHA1: 5177015A91442E56BD76AF39447BCA365E06C272). According to GoodVboy, this is a good dump.
This is my second attempt of this TAS,
my first attempt was cancelled by request after discovering two improvements.
About the automatic pause screen, it takes 25 minutes (in this game) to activate a pause. → + A does not work in this game, it keeps on and starts the game. But as the length of TAS and credits are less than 25 minutes, I keep it enabled, to save 2 frames ♥
I also tried to remake the TAS with automatic pause off again, but it didn't go well.
Also, in the intro/title screen, pressing A, then S (or vice versa) does not work, so every time in the intro/title screen, I press A, then release, and then press A again.
While in-game, I can move the shapes every 7 frames, and rarely cases in 6/8 frames instead of 7. If a next move is in 6 frames, one of the next moves will be in 8 frames, and vice versa. This is only useful if the next move is going down (pressing R-Shoulder), and it's by 6 frames instead of 7, saves 1 frame (obviously). Not sure if this is due to possible sub-frames.
After completing each stage (except the last one), I soft-reset to skip the animation (you can still watch 'em all in credits) and save more than 300 frames (6 seconds) on each stage! (depending on how long are the animations), the total saved time is
02:12.00! About the last stage, I just let the animation going and pressed A twice to speed up and get to the credits faster (this is obvious, because a soft-reset won't let me watch the credits). If I don't press A twice in the animation, it takes much longer, and if that's the case I think it's better to finish the TAS at
frame 45014. If I do that it takes
00:45.59 longer than the actual movie to get to the credits.
This TAS used luck manipulation and I tried to complete all the stages in many (if not all) ways/methods with the goal to find the fastest completion of each stage. If you ask something like "X shape would be better/faster if you place at X position". Answer: very probably I tested it that way but was slower than actual method in the TAS.
And as last thing to comment: insert the virtual boy cartridge, turn on the console, play the TAS and... ENJOY!
Memory: Optimization seems good. Luck seems properly manipulated. Not turning off the automatic pausing and using soft-resets resulted in a faster TAS than the previous submission.
I feel that skipping the cutscenes through the usage of soft-resets did made the movie's pace go a bit faster. This came at a cost of making it even harder to understand what the goal was however. Ultimately the game is more or less the same entertainment wise as the last one. The audience response wasn't particularly strong either.
Accepting to Vault.
