A Boy and His Blob (NES) was released in Janurary of 1989, developed by David Crane. The game features the boy, and his trusty blob friend. The blob transforms into different things when you gibe it different flavoured jelly beans. These transformations help you progress through the game in a normal playthrough...but of course, this is not a normal playthrough.
Game Objectives
Emulator used: FCEUX 2.1.5
Aims for fastest time
Uses game-breaking glitches
Comments
This run was started when we decided to take a look at this game because it was short and we wanted something to try. Lets just say, we found something big.
This is an improvement of 14.94 seconds (898 frames) over the previously published movie by Aglar. All of the improvements come from the new route that we used, I won't spoil anything here though, watch and see for yourself! :)
Special Thanks
We would like to thank Aglar for his previous run, and all other TASers of this game for their past efforts.
sgrunt: Replaced the submission file as detailed here.
Flygon: I remember the days where I could set this to "Published" inside the movie status and call it a day, despite not filling in the Publication form. It's no wonder I'm reduced to introducing sexy looking YouTube encodes instead. Improved sexiness pending 60fps support.
Flygon: Updated the YouTube module with the even faster TAS that, at the time of writing, is still pending for either Grunt or DarkKobold to shove into the submission. Get a hurry on you two!
mmbossman: Updated the submission file because of Aglar's improvements, and added him as an author as requested.
That was insane. I can't really see voting anything other than yes.
Unless I really didn't like the absolute breaking I just witnessed and wanted a full run. That's not what we are here though. Heck, even Megaman is like this now.
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
I quickly compared the parts of the new run and my run that where the same and apparently I did the last hole drops (at around frame 5800 in your run) 15 frames faster or so. I think it has to do with just whistling at a different frame. It should be changed fast since it's at the end.
Be sure to always carefully compare your progress to previous runs that contain the same maneuvers to make sure that obvious improvements don't get overlooked.
I am wondering whether it was the right movie submitted/updated. Doubtful points on the descriptions and forum posts:
#1: TASVideoAgent wrote:
Game Objectives
Emulator used: FCEUX 2.1.5
Aims for fastest time
Uses game-breaking glitches
The "Emulator Used" field inside the movie file reads "FCEUX 2.10.40", which indicates that the movie was created with a version of FCEUX 2.1.4. Did the authors started working with FCEUX 2.1.5 from an old movie created with older versions of FCEUX, or was it just a bug of FCEUX 2.1.5?
#2: TASVideoAgent wrote:
This is an improvement of 16.95 seconds (947 frames) over the previously published movie by Aglar. All of the improvements come from the new route that we used, I won't spoil anything here though, watch and see for yourself! :)
This updated movie is not 947, but only 882 frames shorter than the previous movie by Aglar. Meanwhile, it is 947 frames shorter than the previous movie by Aqfaq. Did the submitter just compare to the wrong movie?
#3: Kyman wrote:
Time length of the movie:
* In microstorage: 1min 42.167sec.
* In FCEUX 2.1.5: 1min 42.00sec.
* In submission queue: 1min 41.0sec.
In most situations, the authors can only tell the time length of the movie from the readings of the first two available sources before they have it submitted to the queue. Did the authors calculated the length according to the specific frame rate of NES adopted by this site this time?
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
Joined: 2/20/2010
Posts: 209
Location: I'm in space
After watching this, I felt depressed over my past relationships with sandwiches, and am now thinking I should move to Saskatchewan, where I could take up small engine repair, and engine repair.
That said, yes vote because you got to the credits without finishing the game.
Oh, play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the space cops.
Time length of the movie:
* In microstorage: 1min 42.167sec.
* In FCEUX 2.1.5: 1min 42.00sec.
* In submission queue: 1min 41.0sec.
* In the site database: 1min 41.999sec.
There seems to be a bug in time display: If movie subseconds are 995-999 (this one has 999), then the displayed length is almost one second shorter. Two submissions (this and another published one) are affected by this.
Time length of the movie:
* In microstorage: 1min 42.167sec.
* In FCEUX 2.1.5: 1min 42.00sec.
* In submission queue: 1min 41.0sec.
* In the site database: 1min 41.999sec.
There seems to be a bug in time display: If movie subseconds are 995-999 (this one has 999), then the displayed length is almost one second shorter. Two submissions (this and another published one) are affected by this.
The question is how could Kyman have known the bugged result before the movie was actually replaced and re-parsed.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
Time length of the movie:
* In microstorage: 1min 42.167sec.
* In FCEUX 2.1.5: 1min 42.00sec.
* In submission queue: 1min 41.0sec.
* In the site database: 1min 41.999sec.
There seems to be a bug in time display: If movie subseconds are 995-999 (this one has 999), then the displayed length is almost one second shorter. Two submissions (this and another published one) are affected by this.
The question is how could Kyman have known the bugged result before the movie was actually replaced and re-parsed.
Well I edited the post after once the site updated the time to 1:41.
Aglar wrote:
I quickly compared the parts of the new run and my run that where the same and apparently I did the last hole drops (at around frame 5800 in your run) 15 frames faster or so. I think it has to do with just whistling at a different frame. It should be changed fast since it's at the end.
Be sure to always carefully compare your progress to previous runs that contain the same maneuvers to make sure that obvious improvements don't get overlooked.
I honestly couldn't get it to work any faster, but I'll try again I guess.
EDIT: Aglar, if you could improve the ending like you say, I will add you as an author because I seriously can't do it.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
Yeah, it definitely looks like we'll have to revise our rules to exclude "Gets to the credits" from our requirements for beating the game. Easy yes vote!
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
I replaced the submission file with the microstorage link on the previous page. The official movie time is now apparently longer than the previous submission, but I would guess it's due to the timing glitch mentioned earlier in the site code. If someone would check to make sure everything is peachy, it'd be helpful. :)
this movie is suboptimal because it did not stop the inputs after the ending screen...
/jk
easy glitchy yes vote for the first run that show the ending before the end of the game
Wow. this new route turned the skip from boring back to entertaining, and now looks more diffiuclt to do in real time.
While i still miss the older skips that were all doable unassisted, this has much better WTF factor than the movie it obsoletes.
I wish the submission text was a bit more detailed - I'm curious why you have to throw the Tangerines three times in the boss room. Once to get Blob out of the cage, once to... glitch Blob into the proper position to throw the third Tangerine and jump past the wall on the next screen?
What happens if you throw an Apple bean once the boss has spawned in the boss room, before leaving and re-entering? I'm assuming you have to leave and re-enter in order for the "if jack touches this region, initiate end-game" flag to be set?
