This is a TAS of The Lucky Dime Caper starring Donald Duck, a colorful SMS game with quite some catchy tunes.
It starts out with "Unca Scrooge" having a present for Donald's nephews: a single dime each! As it turns out, those are lucky dimes that Scrooge himself once used to start his fortune. Magica De Spell watches them from outside and later on steals the dimes and kidnaps the nephews to become even richer than Scrooge. The good guy that he is, Donald goes after the boys to rescue them.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Dega 1.15
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Genre: Platformer

Comments

There are two major version of this game, one on the SMS (this one) and one on the GG. The games differ a lot, as the GG version has slightly different graphics in the beginning and has powerups spread across the levels, which one would have to kill enemies for on the SMS. Also, the levels themselves differ in a way that they basically only share a common theme each (the woods, Egypt, Hawaii and so on), but have only vaguely similar layouts. Due to those difference and the fact that there appears to be only a European version of this game on SMS, I chose to use the (E) ROM and not the (U) ROM on GG. If requested/needed for judging, I will further elaborate the differences, though.
Thanks to various people (in no particular order):
  • alden
  • theenglishman
  • duksandfish
  • Wockes

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.

mmbossman: Somewhat of a substandard game, without too much action, but it was entertaining enough for me to just barely give it a pass. You also seem to have given some good answers to the technical level of the run in the discussion. Accepting.
ShinyDoofy: Processing, of course.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2150: ShinyDoofy's SMS Lucky Dime Caper, The in 20:09.88
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
Woo! Two SMS runs in the workbench!
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Hrm. I watched a few minutes and intuited that the precision was lax, so I banged on it a little and- if I'm not mistaken- saved a couple frames by damage-boosting over the springboard in the first level. I'll have to watch the rest later.
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Not encoded yet?
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Former player
Joined: 12/5/2007
Posts: 716
Dromiceius wrote:
so I banged on it a little and- if I'm not mistaken- saved a couple frames by damage-boosting over the springboard in the first level.
Feel free to give details. This is already my second version of this game and as I didn't receive any real comments on improvements (like "on frame xx, you jump too early/too high/whatever"), I has hoping to get some real answers here. I know that this is not the right place to post WIPs, yet maybe this run was already optimal enough to be published (which is for the judges to decide, not me).
DarkKobold wrote:
Not encoded yet?
http://files.filefront.com/luckydimecaper+tas+shinydymkv/;12580800;/fileinfo.html
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Feel free to give details. This is already my second version of this game and as I didn't receive any real comments on improvements (like "on frame xx, you jump too early/too high/whatever"), I has hoping to get some real answers here. I know that this is not the right place to post WIPs, yet maybe this run was already optimal enough to be published (which is for the judges to decide, not me).
Oh, sure. Jump to the right side of the trampoline thingy, and let the bee hit you so that you fly onto the platform. I hadn't considered earlier, but if there are penalties for getting hit (like at the end of the level) or a frame-rule, they would probably negate the damage boost.
Former player
Joined: 12/5/2007
Posts: 716
Unfortunately, getting hit in the SMS version (without having picked up a powerup) makes you lose the hammer and thus the boss fight with the bear would take considerably longer as one would have to jump on his head instead of hitting him with the hammer. About the frame rule: Every time a boss dies, Donald walks into the middle of the screen to continue to his nephew or the dime that one of the birds held captive. When having to jump on the bear's head for the last time, I think it would take longer to reach the (horizontal) middle of the screen to continue. /edit: nevertheless, thanks for sure observation(s)! :)
Joined: 1/22/2008
Posts: 319
Location: Brasil
i give this tas 6/5 well i ddint like the tear drops of fire scene the mecanism happens again on the piramid, when big blocks fall from the sky it tooks damage that could be avoided, and donalds walks give some steps back in some stages. well this tas can be improved
Run..Run...Run.....
Joined: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
Thanks for the credit, but I didn't actually do anything :P As for the run, I can't realy say anything about the technical stuff (only made 1 TAS movie ever) but I give it a 7 in entertainment.
"No love for the game gear"
Former player
Joined: 12/5/2007
Posts: 716
wicked wrote:
i give this tas 6/5 well i ddint like the tear drops of fire scene the mecanism happens again on the piramid, when big blocks fall from the sky
I must admit that those two parts aren't the most entertaining, but they're unskippable.
wicked wrote:
it tooks damage that could be avoided, and donalds walks give some steps back in some stages. well this tas can be improved
In case you're referring to the damage in the second level: it actually boosts Donald up a bit to save time for him not to swim up. Whenever I had to walk back a bit it was necessary to avoid damage (which would have cost time). You're welcome to improve this run or give hints as to what could have been improved in detail. :)
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
OCH! Well, I liked watching this movie; thank you for making it. It does have some unavoidable slow bits, though personally they weren't long enough to detract much. Technically, I eyed a few things I might have questioned but I'm sure such obvious things would have been noticed by you as well... so while I'm sure it's "improvable" I personally think it's very publishable. Good job, and good to see you TASing now as well as encoding for us all ;)
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
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. ---- [1249] SMS The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck by ShinyDoofy in 20:09.88