This run beats the existing one by 1942 frames (32,31 seconds).

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.2
  • Heavy glitch abuse

Timesavers

I decided to improve upon the old run after a new faster way of defeating bosses was found during a real time speedrun, that I'll refer to as the Boss Glitch.
Two other major timesavers where found during the creation of the run. First I found a way to extend the Ice Glitch found in the previus run that I'll refer to this as the Extended Ice Glitch. Secondly I found how to increase your jumping height in the water level that I'll refer to this as the Water Glitch.

Boss Glitch

Maximum damage can normally only be dealt by charging the club to maximum "Power". With this glitch however you only need to chrage it once. After the first blow just push B as the first frame where the game allows you to start another blow, and the second blow will deal as much damage as the first one. This can then be repeated as many times as one like.

Extended Ice Glitch

Instead of (as in the old run) continuously holding right throughout the glitch abuse, and thus having to reset the speed everytime it surpasses a certain value - 112 to be exact, you can let go of that button after you hit a high enough speed and from that point on only push it every 4th frame. That way you'll neither increase nor drop in speed, though you're still limited by the maximum speed that the screen can scroll (4 pixels / frame) as you can't outrun it.

Water Glitch

When you jump under water your vertical speed only decreases every 4th frame. If you attack on this specific frame your speed won't decrease. The character will stop for a frame everytime you attack so it should only be abused when absolutely needed.

Screen Wrap Glitch

So far only has one use, at the final boss' first form. To execute it, stay at the left edge of the screen as it moves you forward and push A + down at the right frame.

Thanks to...

Adelikat for the previous run, the speedrunner Badbrakes for the Boss Glitch discovery and PGCX864 for the Screen Wrap Glitch.

Samsara: I only judge high quality runs.
Samsara: File replaced with a 64-frame improvement.
Samsara: FLEENTSTONES has been a mainstay of the site almost since its inception, and I feel the same way about this movie as I do about the recent Ghosts n' Goblins improvements. I do just love how a game can be TASed over and over for more than a decade and still have new, substantial improvements being found. So, of course, I'm accepting this as an improvement to the published run.
Samsara: Done, file replaced with a 75-frame improvement, and re-accepting and such.
fsvgm777: All right, re-doing my encodes.


TASVideoAgent
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mklip2001
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Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Nice improvement! This new boss-fighting method looks like what I would expect from a dumb caveman, swing fast and furious until the enemy dies. The water stage also looks a lot smoother without the awkward ledge-pulls near the end. One minor complaint: you didn't chase out the vampire boss in the way I suggested for adelikat's currently published run in its discussion thread :/ Also, I know that the glitching of the future stage's elevator saves tons of time, but I've sort of missed seeing speedruns play through that area. It's so much harder platforming than the whole rest of the game, and I remember having a lot of trouble with it playing this game when I was much younger.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
XYZ
Former player
Joined: 12/9/2006
Posts: 168
Location: 2bastuz
High-speed movement in the ice level looks very cool. Bosses? Just slow pictures) Yes vote. Btw, Aglar, what do you think about "Flintstones,The - The Surprise at Dinosaur Peak!"? Many years ago I watched submission by Walker Boh played on Famtasia and noticed some improvement.
Post subject: spicy meme
Experienced player (690)
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GRAND DAD!? FLEENSTONES!? Nice improvement, yes vote.
Here, my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/dekutony
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NES TAS of the Year. Yes vote
WST
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TAS by Aglar 8-D
S3&A [Amy amy%] improvement (with Evil_3D & kaan55) — currently in SPZ2 my TAS channel · If I ever come into your dream, I’ll be riding an eggship :)
Editor, Expert player (2098)
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The music is horrible but the gameplay is good. A weak yes for you.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
PGCX864
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Player (50)
Joined: 2/7/2014
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We discovered a new glitch that is effective in saving of time. 80 frames saved! Link to video After, Nice improvements, YES vote!
Curent my TAS videos project: GBA Doraemon: Midori no Wakusei Dokidoki Daikyuushutsu! (any%= Done!!)(100%= incomplete) TAS videos in planning: N64 Tamagotchi 64 (However, I HATE to graphics issues on emulators... :() B-daman
Expert player (3643)
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Will never understand how people find stuff like this :D Anyway, here's the run with the glitch included. Please replace the existing submission file with this one: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/33056559340655847
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Samsara
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Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2238)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
PGCX864 says the screen-wrap saves 80 frames, but the new file is only 64 frames faster. Were those 16 frames unavoidably lost, or was it just a miscommunication in how much time is actually saved?
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Expert player (3643)
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Samsara wrote:
PGCX864 says the screen-wrap saves 80 frames, but the new file is only 64 frames faster. Were those 16 frames unavoidably lost, or was it just a miscommunication in how much time is actually saved?
The second form has a 64 frame rule for when it can be defeated :/
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Samsara
She/They
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Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
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Miscommunication, then. Thanks for clearing it up!
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Expert player (3643)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
Small timesaver found, relatively late in the run, so I'll add it in. Please wait with the publication.
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Expert player (3643)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
Here it is: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/33149401386582222 Sorry for the inconvenience!
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3208] NES The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy by Aglar in 13:32.55
Experienced player (876)
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Hey Aglar, with big 20 practice still going on it probably isn't a huge surprise that a new time save for this was found. I'm not sure if it will be allowed for the race since the rules tend to discourage using controller 2. Runner themotherbrain86 found that if he held B when going in the door to dracula he would just fly away and you don't need to fight him at all. As it turns out he had is B button mapped to both controllers. I'm not sure if there are other places in the run where controller 2 might influence things, but it might be worth trying some other experiments as well.
Expert player (3643)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
A new trick found after my submission - how unusual ^^. You can also push either of "up", "down", "B", "A" and "select" for the same effect. Anyway I don't know if this would be allowed on TASVideos either. Second controller inputs are often viewed upon as debug codes. It exists for example in The Legend of Zelda (allowed) and Mega Man 3 (not allowed). My spontaneus thought is that it shouldn't be allowed.
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Player (153)
Joined: 5/1/2006
Posts: 150
Here's some half-assed debugging. Frame references from this submission file. At 33015 it takes p2 input and stores it at $0367. Only B was pressed in this example:
07:F8E8:A5 10     LDA $0010 = #$40
07:F8EA:99 67 03  STA $0367,Y @ $0367 = #$40
Then at 33024 we get this:
07:E540:BC AB 04  LDY $04AB,X @ $04B0 = #$00
07:E543:B9 67 03  LDA $0367,Y @ $0367 = #$40
07:E546:A8        TAY
07:E547:D0 1D     BNE $E566
Meaning it will only branch to $E566 if there was p2 input at frame 33015. That eventually leads to here:
06:A768:BD 63 04  LDA $0463,X @ $0468 = #$40
06:A76B:29 C0     AND #$C0
06:A76D:9D 63 04  STA $0463,X @ $0468 = #$40
Depending on what p2 input was at 33015, that will result in storing either #$40 or #$C0 in $0468. #$C0 = drac stays, #$40 = drac goes. And I stopped looking at that point. Obviously, that's not a complete picture. but hopefully it's something to go on. Maybe a conditional (say, if $10 = specific p2 input) breakpoint on 07:F8E8 would turn up something else in another part of the game. Edit: I set p2 input to hold BTULR and set an execute breakpoint on $F8E8 with the condition K==#07 && $10==#5B and came up with this list of frames where p2 input might do stuff. Most of them seem to cause desyncs, but I didn't bother looking into why.
6
281
328
4260
4996
5043
7557
13162
13896
13943
16198
17093
21061
21108
22582
27591
27638
29890
29936
31806
31852
32969
33015
Surely more possibilities past that point too, but I'll leave the rest to somebody else. I'm leaning slightly less towards 'debug feature' now.