Okay, so I decided to make a TAS of Gyromite, an (as far as I can tell) mostly unknown game. It was 2-player, but used ROB, the robotic operating buddy, to allow one player to play by themselves. The first player's controller moves the professor and picks up radishes, and the second one raises and lowers the coloured pillars. If you don't really know the game, I suggest playing it; it is quite fun, and it will make the movie make more sense.
Gyromite, while being not well known, is also very odd. The main idea of the game is that a professor in a lab coat has to move around the stage, while using blue and red platforms to help them, and collect all the dynamite before time runs out. In addition to this, strange green birds (Called Smicks) wander around the level as well, and kill you on contact. However, they can be distracted by feeding them radishes, or they can be squished by the pillars. (The professor can be squished too, but it results in the loss of a life and is therefore not shown.)
  • Movie plays back on FCEUX 2.1.5.
  • This run was originally recorded on FCEU 0.98.15.
  • The goal of the movie is to complete 40 stages (After this they repeat) in the fastest time possible.
  • This run takes no damage because any damage kills you instantly.
  • Two glitches were used during the making of this, and they will be explained below.

The going through ceilings glitch

To go through a ceiling, you need a vine and a pillar, right beside each other. I later learned that you do not need a vine, just a pit below the pillar so that you character falls. How you do it is by making the pillar come down just as you move sideways into it. Done correctly, you will end up inside the pillar. From here, two different things can happen depending on the type of pillar. I haven't found a way to identify the two different kinds other than this glitch. The first possibility, and the better one, is that continuing to lower the pillar puts you on top of it. The second possibility is not quite as good, because you will still be inside the pillar after it is fully lowered. You then need to raise it, and lower it again to get out. The first possibility is demonstrated first in phase 9, while the second is first shown in phase 15. Both of these can also be done to Smicks if they get off they vine at the right time. Thanks to nitsuja for pointing out this glitch.

The vine climbing glitch

The vines seem to be divided into sections (at least that's how I think of it) that are of equal height. Getting off the vine to either side while in a section will put you in the middle of that section. This can speed up climbing because all you have to do is go far enough into the section, then get off and grab right back on to get boosted up to the center of the section. You can also climb down like this, and in the strange way this game works, climbing down is faster than climbing up, slightly. Also, climbing is faster than falling so staying on vines is important. This glitch is used on basically every vine in the game, the only ones I don't do it for are ones where I would have to wait anyways.
Thanks to nitsuja for the going through ceilings glitch, and thanks to Joseph Collins for suggesting the game in the first place.

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also replaced the ROM name.
  • You indicated Gyromite.nes
  • I updated it to Gyromite (JUE).nes

Truncated: I didn't think this was that bad at first, and wondered why the votes were so negative. But after a few levels it became pretty obvious - nothing much changes, it's the same-looking levels for 23 minutes, with no obvious change in difficulty or pace. I'm afraid I will have to reject this.

adelikat: Accepting for publication to the Vault


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1668: kirbymuncher's NES Gyromite in 23:07.71
Joined: 10/3/2005
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Oh, cool. I remember seeing a WIP of this... Eh, a reluctant Yes. The delays between levels kinda kills it, and the beginning ten levels seem trivially easy, but I eventually warmed up to it as it became more complex and the use of tool-assistance became more apparent.
Morrison
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I enjoy playing this game, and I'm glad a submission finally popped up. Nice movie
twitch.tv/Retrogaming2084
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I liked it at first, but then it went after 30, 40 levels.. the sounds got annoying.. And there wasn't much variety (sprites). Meh vote.
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It didn't entertain me at all, and the ending-that-isn't-an-ending made the boredom level high enough for me to not be too lazy to vote no.
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This game may not seem remarkable if you're not aware that the game was designed to be played VERY SLOWLY with R.O.B. It wasn't super-entertaining, but still a bit of a marvel to see, so I vote yes. R.O.B. in action! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcxrecy__XQ
http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.
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Good: the game. Bad: the ending (or lack thereof). Seeing a movie end so abruptly with nothing else after it (even a reset or a way to lock up the game) just feels ... wrong somehow. Voting meh...
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I'm afraid I must vote no on this. The game doesn't look terribly difficult in terms of planning and the gameplay is exceptionally straightforward and dull. The video with R.O.B. was kinda neet, but I could never have the patience to play like that...wow. I also agree with everyone about the abrupt ending, it's so very anticlimactic. The music did bring back memories of playing Mr. Do for the SNES for countless hours. As much as I love that game, I could only imagine a TAS of it being just as dull and boring however.
I'm sciencing as fast as I can ! ______________________________________ <adelikat> once more balls enter the picture, everything gets a lot more entertraining <adelikat> mmmmm yummy penises
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This game looks similar, conceptually at least, to Wrecking Crew, which I'm TASing. I'll watch this and post my comments soon.
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Well, even at 200% speed it was rather tedious for me to watch. The first ~half of the movie shows rather simple puzzles completed in hardly more time than what is needed to wait for the next one. The second half is by far more interesting, but… I don't know. Spelunker is a game that takes this overall concept and gives something that is interesting to watch in a TAS as a result: faster pace, variative puzzles, contiguous game world and much shorter overall length. Gyromite takes all the otherwise and as the result, the TAS gets predictable and boring. So, meh vote.
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om, nom, nom... blech, stale!
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Post subject: Movie published
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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. ---- [2135] NES Gyromite by kirbymuncher in 23:07.71