Two things before you start reading:
1. I type a lot
2. I haven't tested the game much with the emulator as of this post
I had a route for Spyro 2 for several years now which was posted on SDA and has been optimized by me and various others over the years. I figure that, since there is not even a SINGLE Spyro TAS run on the site (though it has been discussed often), this might be a good start to a bigger speed run future for Spyro. In my opinion, if the series was more popular, Spyro would make for a VERY competitive game to run because of the crazy amount of possible gem routes, especially for 100% runs.
Anyways. The only testing I have done with this game on an emulator was for only about 30 minutes. Currently, a friend is borrowing my copy of the game, but when I get it back (tomorrow or the following day), I will test it out more thoroughly. The only thing that might hold me back is technical issues with the emulator.
The route is pretty simple. The run will mainly be me getting all of the talisman throughout each level. There is no way to skip this step. You can skip to Autumn Plains without getting a single talisman but the whole room around Gulp's entrance is solid and cannot be glitched past. I thought perhaps you would only need the talisman from Autumn Plains to access Gulp and not the ones from Summer Forest (since, when played legitimately, you are supposed to have them) but that's not the case.
So, I am required to get all the talisman from Summer Forest and Autumn Plains. However, I can skip just about everything else, including Moneybags. Off the top of my head, the abilities I will need to pay for are Swim (for getting past Aquaria Towers and Sunny Beach) and Headbash (for reaching Ripto without collecting orbs). I am not 100% sure if I need climb or not. I can skip the part you must climb to reach the second half of Autumn Plains, but I do not know if it's required for any other levels.
Skipping Moneybags will minimize the amount of gems I will need for completing the game and will reduce the amount of sidetracking that is necessary. However, I cannot (or might not want to) skip Moneybags each time. For example, paying Moneybags a measly 100 gems in Aquaria Towers will be faster than swimming and much safer. I don't even know if there's a way to swim past the sharks and I am not going to worry about it because 100 gems isn't a big setback. I can easily make that by collecting random gems in my optimal running path.
REQUIRED GEMS
Swim: 500
Submarine: 100
Headbash: 1000
Two Levels in AP: 400 each (I think)
Total Gems: 2400
From what I remember, all other occurrences with Moneybags can be skipped. These include the Glimmer bridge, Aquaria Towers wall, Crystal Glacier bridge, and the Magma Cone elevator. I am not sure if paying Moneybags for access to a speedway is a good gem investment so I will need to test my gem collection in my route before making a decision.
Aside from skipping Moneybags and collecting talisman, I will be cutting corners as much as dragonly possible. I will have to test various possible movement increasing techniques that would definitely make the run more interesting. Since all the tricks in my preliminary route were discovered on the console, I will need to also test any possible new tricks that might be manipulated using the emulator. One in particular has to do with the "super jump" technique in Hurricos.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5_V8t63udE
I will have to do some frame advance and memory testing to figure out what exactly causes Spyro to jump like that. It appears that he is in his falling animation when moving vertically so I guess that's a good place to start.
In addition to those glitches, I can also skip many large portions in each level and possibly even more if I can find some new tricks with the emulator tools. This actually concerns me, since a large chunk of the run might be the level loading screen. It reminds me of the Resident Evil 3 run where it is just Jill opening doors throughout. Time will tell.
Well, I pretty much covered as much as I can. I will probably have many changed opinions when I actually get to testing the game. My show comes on in 25 minutes so hopefully one of the ten Spyro fans on this site reads over this and offers any type of support to motivate me.
