im finally done with this game... i think... please.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9
- Single level
- Second quest/Post game-completion
- Starts from a saved state or SRAM
- Genre: Adventure
- Genre: Puzzle
- Genre: Storybook
Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force for the Nintendo DS has a very interesting feature that was quite innovative and technically impressive for the time, let alone on the platform this game was released in: The ability to access REAL, genuine downloadable content through the Nintendo Wi-fi Connection for free. The game got DLC in the way of newsletters, polls, jokes, and more importantly, brand new missions... all whopping 2 of them... and 1 of them isn't even a real mission.
The first one released was "A special message from Aunt Arctic", which tells you about downloadable content and it's basically a glorified newsletter. It is such a joke that
I made a whole April Fools submission that "beats it" in over 15 seconds.
The second and last mission made for this game was "The Puffle Pranksters". A mission made to promote the then new White Puffle introduced in the Club Penguin online Flash game. It is pretty cute, but a little short.
Now the way this DLC is achieved is by storing all the downloadable content to your cartdrige's save file. So, if one were to delete your old save and start a fresh new save, all of that DLC data would be gone with it, requiring the player (back then) to download said data all over again (which will be really important later).
This TAS beats "The Puffle Pranksters" in record time, starting from an already existing save file. You can obtain the appropiate save file
right here. This save was preserved from a player that downloaded the DLC back in the day.
Now lets get into the specifics of this particular movie and it's... save file situation.
The Save File Conondrum
Ooooh boy, where do I begin...
Under normal circumstances, movies that start from SRAM and such require a verification movie along with it, to basically recreate said "dirty" save data. This is perfectly undestandable for most games to avoid any tampering or any cheating situations.
In this particular case however, creating a verification movie for this TAS is practically impossible. This is due to a number of reasons:
- As I mentioned earlier, the DLC data is stored onto the save file after being downloaded (as a download.arc file), so if one were to create a fresh new file, there would be no DLC data in it, making you download the DLC again, however...
- The Nintendo Wi-fi Connection is dead. So you can't download the mission anymore via legitimate means. Even if the NWC was still around, the original Club Penguin online game is also dead, along with the servers that originally hosted said DLC data.
- AND EVEN IF those two were still around, actually being able to TAS the whole process of downloading this data would not be feasable anyways considering the fact you can't TAS a game that connects to Wi-fi by any means. Not to mention how nobody in the BizHawk team would want to implement such niche features to the emulator and expect it to work reliably.
- A tool/save editor exists for the Club Penguin DS games called EPFExplorer, created by Olivercomet. With this tool, you can extract the DLC data from a save file and transfer it over to another, "cleaner" save. This is clearly not really a clean, legitimate method of accessing this content. Another method is transfering the data onto another save via 2 DS systems. You're able to transfer the DLC from one system to another in-game... if BizHawk supported such a feature... and it's still kinda dubious since one would require a "dirty" save file to even pull this off... see the problem now?
Honestly this is a mess, but just using the old save without bothering about verification movies and stuff is the only solution to this problem. I hope you all understand.
I did briefly discussed this matter with some of the staff a while back, so hopefully a nice solution will come out of this. So with all that said, let's talk about the actual TAS in question, shall we?
The I guess plot of this mission goes like this: The Elite Puffles are missing! It's up to the player to find them all and solve the mystery of their whereabouts and figure out what is up with these mysterious "white" puffles that have started to show up all over the island.
The mission normally starts by triggering a conversation with the green penguin called Rookie, remarking what I just said about the missing puffles.
I however skip that conversation entirely by clicking on the small trash can, preventing the dialogue from starting. I then click on the Map and go straight to the Dojo to talk to the Puffle Handler. After discussing the matter with PH, I start my hunt for these puffles by going to the Plaza.
I first need to go to inside the Pool to discover a "white" puffle. This is done in order to trigger a conversation I have to do with both the Pet Shop clerk and the Pizza chef, so I can obtain the Pepper item, which is required to reveal the puffles' true identity. After talking with those penguins, I use the HUD Off Glitch to store the Gadget menu and go back into the Pool to encounter the puffle yet again. I must use the Decoder Gadget to trigger the trivia quiz the puffle puts me through. After solving the quiz, I use the Pepper to reveal it is Flare the Black Puffle! Every time you reveal a puffle's identity, the puffle will join your party, letting the player call them using the Puffle Whistle. I inmedeatly click on the Map to warp to the Beach.
I inmedieatly use the Decoder gadget again so I can answer the second puffle quiz. Before using the Pepper, I use Flare to fix the door to the Lighthouse. After entering the door, I go straight to the top of the lighthouse in order for Blast the Red Puffle to break a box, revealing another puffle. After revealing the puffle to be the green one, I perform a Pause Cursor trick to hover my cursor to the exit. Inside of the lighthouse again, I then reveal the identity of the Yellow Puffle, Chirp. While I do that, I open the Puffle Whistle menu and pick Blast again. The first possible frame I click on the Map to go to the Snow Fort. The game forces me to switch to the Elite Puffle I find, which is annoying since I need to use Blast, but also the Purple puffles for the rest of the mission, so I have to keep changing puffles a few times over the course of the movie.
In the Snow Forts, I talk to a red penguin so they can give me a Water Balloon, which is a necessary item for the very end of the mission. From there I go straight to the Town Center and into the Disco. Inside the Disco, I use Blast to break a box, revealing a puffle inside. It is revealed to be Pop the Purple Puffle, which is the other Elite Puffle we actually use in this TAS. I pause cursor and go all the way inside the Cave.
Within the Cave there's a large boulder that Pop lifts up by blowing up a large bubble... just dont question it ok I then reveal that the puffle behind that boulder is Loop the Pink Puffle! I reselect Pop and warp into the Forest, where I use Pop one more time to reveal the last puffle, Bouncer the Blue Puffle. Now that I've found all of the Elite Puffles, I can report back to PH inside the Dojo.
It is revealed that there's one more white puffle to meet. This one however seems to be a REAL White Puffle! It seems that the Elite Puffles were pranking us this whole time, and they were welcoming the new guy into the group. We give him an O'Berry and then use our Water Balloon so he can show us his special ability... or not. Turns out it is faster to click on the Map and then instantly exit the map screen to skip the puffle's animation than waiting for the whole animation to finish. Doing this is 6 frames faster. The side effect is that the puffle is ironically frozen in place mid animation. We get congratulated, get rewarded 100 coins, and finally the mission ends.
Now I do believe I need to mention this first...
I do not start the movie from the DS intro screen. I don't know about the rules surrounding this particular platform when it comes to skipping BIOS screens, but I hope it's OK. I mean, I did started working on this movie since BizHawk 2.8, where I think it wasn't a requirement, even though I had to restart in 2.9 so... I don't know what's the veredict with this little detail... To be fair it's less bizarre than the whole SRAM thing this movie also has. I honestly don't want to resync the whole thing even with TAStudio being an option for DS games now.
Oh yeah, I hope the BIOS and Firmware are OK too... please let that be OK i dont wanna resync the whole thing
I also want to mention, because of the way the DLC works, and EPFExplorer having various other tools, you can technically create your own custom mission without the need of modifying the ROM! Cool, huh? You can see an example for a custom mission created by Olivercomet
right here. (perhaps I can TAS this one day??? maybe.)
Notable improvements
There exists a glitch called "Pause Clicks" that lets me skip certain dialogue under the right conditions. Perhaps it could be used in the conversation you have with the Pet Shop clerk to save a little bit of time.
Another possible improvement MIGHT be when I go to the Disco. Instead of going straight in after collecting the item, I could click on the Map and go there instead the moment I get the item. After finding Pop, instead of going all the way to the Cave on foot, I could warp to the Mineshack using the Map. Not sure if either idea is faster though.
Umm... thank you for reading and have a nice weekend! Waddle on... I guess.
ViGadeomes: This level beeing archived in a savefile isn't a problem for a verification movie in this case as it might be now the only way to play it.
The TAS seems good in all aspects.
Accepting as a new branch.
Note: I extended the inputs of the movie to reach the game credits for the publisher
here if needed.
