NOTE: This is mike89 submitting this movie. I completed the last two levels and boss after legoking831 gave up the project. I have not listed myself as co-author since my work was of negligible length.

Run information

This is Donkey Kong Land 2 (the Game Boy knockoff of Donkey Kong Country 2) completed with 102% (all Kremcoins and DK coins) in 57:09.82.

Emulator information

I can't speak for the original runner but I know that the run syncs in VBA v21. L+R is not used.

Run comments

I have very little to say, since I only did three levels myself. All I know is that I was impressed with the quality, particularly in the bonus stages which are more like puzzles than straight platforming. (eg. Collect the Stars)

Potential improvements

I never did any hard statistics, nor do I have the know-how to do RAM watching to check for these things, but there are two potential improvements that I can see based on anecdotal evidence:
  • Jumping is known to be slightly faster than just running, but where you have an area small enough that you can't make a minimum size jump, I'm fairly sure that straight running is faster than using Dixie's glide to slow down. This is implemented inconsistently throughout the run, so I'm not sure.
  • When I did a test run of this myself many years ago, I reached Kleaver's Kiln before I did a test on whether Diddy or Dixie was faster. I found that Diddy was able to, with a perfect roll off a crocodile and jump, skip landing on one crocodile and land on the next one, whereas if Dixie tried it she would fall to her death. I'm not sure if the test was strictly scientific (there could be subpixel things getting in the way for example), but the conclusion I drew is that Diddy is either slightly faster or has a slightly higher jump. Anyone who wants to improve this would do well to look into this closely.
That said, enjoy the run, because I know I did.

adelikat: Accepting for publication.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2575: legoking831's SGB Donkey Kong Land 2 "102%" in 57:09.82
sgrunt
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Just because I know people are going to be asking, here is legoking831 indicating mike89 should finish this run: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=221576#221576
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Good save. I forgot about the controversy that had arisen with things like this in the past... good to have that cleared up.
Samsara
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The link should go in the submission text, just to be safe. That being said, I'll watch this as soon as I can.
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.
sgrunt
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Personally, I didn't find this very compelling; it didn't offer much (if anything) that can't already be seen in the Donkey Kong Country runs, which (thanks to the system those are on) do a better job of demonstrating the gameplay. I give this a meh. EDIT: Encode: http://www.archive.org/download/SGBDonkeyKongLand2102In5709.82ByLegoking831/dkl2-tas-102p-legoking831.mp4 Stream that here: http://www.zexsoft.com/aktan/?SGBDonkeyKongLand2102In5709.82ByLegoking831/dkl2-tas-102p-legoking831
Joined: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
I remember wasting alot of hours on this game trying to get 100%, I failed hard. The game might not look harder than the console version but picture yourself playing this on the crappy screen of the old Game Boy... Watching... EDIT: Gave it a yes vote leaning towards meh (to many bonus stages, I ended up skipping most of them).
"No love for the game gear"
mklip2001
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This run seems pretty good! I'm not sure yet if it's worth publishing, just because the game feels really watered-down compared to the SNES version. The music is much more annoying, for instance. On the plus side, a number of the animations are quicker, such as team switching. A few places stuck out to me. 1. In Hornet Hole, you grab an invincibility barrel and then backtrack to bounce off a Zinger. Would it be faster to damage boost off the Zinger and get a DK barrel later? 2. In Parrot Chute Panic, you use Squawks to ride the last shaft. Once again, is it faster to fall as the Kongs and possibly take damage? 3. In K. Rool Duel, would Diddy be faster for most of the fight? This is because he holds objects in front of him, as opposed to up top. You look like you lose a little time in the first few hits because of this. The barrel work is excellent in this run and does stand out from the SNES version. The cute double-Diddy glitch at the final fight is good too. However, I'm undecided as of yet whether this offers enough to be published in addition to the SNES version.
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.
Joined: 1/22/2008
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Location: Brasil
i liked besides i never expected such a big game in gambe boy color
Run..Run...Run.....
Joined: 11/11/2007
Posts: 242
Location: the 1950s
I attempted TASing this game not too long ago. I lost interest in it. Glad that it got done. Thought it was very entertaining, YES vote
Currently working on: -Possibly the Wily Tower (Mega Man the Wily Wars)
Tompa
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When looking through the run, it really felt it was rather unoptimised. He sometimes stops a little after he roll, causing him to lose speed, turbo is being used from time to time which may lose a frame here and there. I believe the damage taken to save time didn't even always save time and there were sometimes better places to do so at. After trying to TAS the first level for five minutes, I got into the warp barrel 16 frames faster, still being improveable. Overall, there were a lot of parts I liked about the run. Such as Scramble Blast. But for me, the good parts didn't "overwrite" the parts that weren't as good. I won't vote as now, but it will be probably be a no, otherwise meh.
Joined: 1/30/2006
Posts: 10
I voted yes, mostly because of the odd nostalgia I got from the days I played this on my Gameboy Pocket and me liking that yellow cartidge as a kid. The run was not so bad either. Honestly, I say allow this run to be published, giving others an incentive to improve it. (That's one thing that gets me sometimes about submissions being rejected. If something doesn't seem quite good enough and no such run exists yet, it doesn't give nearly enough people the opportunity to see it and say "hmm, maybe I could improve on this".) That last tibit was more or less a rant, something that could easily be countered, but that's fine. I have an idea to propose sometime later.
Joined: 5/2/2009
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Sound Reaper wrote:
(That's one thing that gets me sometimes about submissions being rejected. If something doesn't seem quite good enough and no such run exists yet, it doesn't give nearly enough people the opportunity to see it and say "hmm, maybe I could improve on this".)
Worse yet, this run is being made since March 28. No one, in any moment, gave this run any kind of critic.
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ
Tompa
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Yeah, I felt kinda bad for that afterwards. It's because I usually don't care about TASes of games I haven't played. I checked the topic like once or twice, but never watched any WIPs of the run. I watched this TAS because I just finished the game a few hours before the run was submitted. So yeah, I'm sorry for not giving any comments on the run during its making.
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
Seeing this brings back a bit of nostalgia value for me, since I had all three of the DKL Games. But I also enjoyed the run, so I'm giving this a yes vote. I'd also like to thank sgrunt for the encodes of so many submissions as of late, really helped out big time.
Joined: 6/23/2009
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Man I loved playing this game on my gameboy. I remember the last 3% completion gave me such a hard time that I gave up. Loved watching you destroy the game.
Joined: 4/29/2005
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I've been wanting to see 100% TASes for the three DKL Games for a while, now. I fondly remember playing those three games when I was a child. Had a lot of fun.
adelikat
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Any game with a monkey as the main character is enough to get my yes vote.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
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Joined: 3/16/2009
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Location: In the USA, nowhere else.
Thanks for all the feedback! And to mike89 for finishing this! I'm a newbie TASer, and I'm only 14, so this isn't one of the most optimized runs you'll see. I'm hoping for an improvement sometime soon, but for now, this is what I have. Level By Level Comments: 1st World: A bit rusty. I wish I would've watched this part before moving on! There's some minor improvements here and there. Hot-Head-Hop: Here I discovered a trick with Squitter where if you press B and then Select on the next frame, you'll land on the web platform no matter how fast you travel (unless there's lag, which is almost unavoidable in this game!). I guess he's officially the new Squawks. Kannon's Klaim: Went well, although I'm pretty sure most of you are asking why I entered a barrel from the side instead of the top. When I tried the top, the short-cut wouldn't work. Weird, huh? Lava Lagoon: This level was painful and frustrating to TAS. I used a trick where you switch-sacrifice. Only I did it a bit sooner than I should've. Oh well. Barrel Bayou: Here's a trick I found in a testrun of this game. When rotating a controllable barrel, there's one frame where you can shoot in between a vertical/horizontal and diagonal direction. It's pretty nice, since you can skip large portions with this trick and maintain a fast speed. Glimmer's Galleon: I would've done this stage blind, but I couldn't skip most of the barrels. To be honest, I have no clue how I swam above one of them. Krockhead Klamber: Things get more interesting about halfway through this level. Slime Climb: This level always seems to get the best of optimization. This is also one of those levels where Diddy is on-camera for about thirty seconds, and Dixie comes back to steal the show. Target Terror: I LOVE the rollercoaster music. There is a trick where if you continually jump up ramps, you won't slow down as much. Bramble Blast: Credit goes to Blaziken257 on Youtube for posting a speed run of this level using all those short-cuts. I would've never found them without him! Rickety Race: The kremlings are a nice boost to help save time not going uphill. Bramble Scramble: I discovered a trick on this level where if you hit the corner of a bramble and roll on the same frame, you will roll off the bramble without getting hurt! I have no clue how I was able to find this the first moment I could make good use of it. Rambi Rumble: Featuring...DIXIE CLIMBING SUPER FAST UP WALLS OF HONEY! And...RAMBI KILLING AN ENEMY WITH HIS BIG BUTT! Krazy Koaster: This level replaces Haunted Hall in DKC2. Probably because it was impossible to get Kackle to work on Game Boy. It does have similarities, like a bonus stage with more stars than you need. I'll finish this later. Gusty Glade: For some reason, the wind hardly affects you at all on the ground. Thus the reason I spend some of the level on the ground. Parrot Chute Panic: If you go past the camera on this level, you'll die. It's rather annoying! Worse yet, if you run into unavoidable lag, the camera moves even SLOWER. This is one of the few levels that might have been better off in an any% TAS, considering the fact one bonus leads to a Quawks (yes that's his name) barrel. Windy Well: You can get a slight boost if you touch a platform while floating up. Dungeon Danger: This level replaces Castle Crush (which is nice since that level is LONG). K. Rool. Duel: I really should've used Diddy here. Oh well. Last 3 Levels: Boy, I'm impressed with your work mike89! Since this is my first submission, I may improve this, but maybe not now.
Lego is awesome!
Joined: 11/4/2007
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I'm impressed a 14 year old can get so many yes votes. I congratulate you, sir.
Joined: 2/26/2007
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adelikat wrote:
Any game with a monkey as the main character is enough to get my yes vote.
I am attempting to come up with some snarky remark for this, but I have nothing. That game just plain sucked, dude. Lick your wounds and move on... TO TEH VIRTUAL BOIIII!
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
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This is one of the GB's best platformers and is a good port of the SNES version. Unfortunately, this is this run's downfall. I don't think we need runs of both games as they are too similar. Some games ported to GB have different levels to compensate for the different hardware, or different techniques/glitches that would make both publish worthy, but there's no strong evidence of that here. Voting meh. This is still a decent first submission, but bad game choice. I think that your work has some promise and I would would be great if you perhaps looked into TASing another game.
adelikat
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Mukki has a point. I don't know DKC well enough to know if there were any significant differences. To published this movie, I would first like to have some kind of breakdown of any significant differences between this and the SNES version.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
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adelikat wrote:
I would first like to have some kind of breakdown of any significant differences between this and the SNES version.
From what I've seen: 1) Inferior graphics/music (obvious). 2) Less enemies. 3) An entire world was completely cut out (Gloomy Gulch). 4) One of the animal buddies, Rattly, was cut out as well. 5) All of the remaining levels, although based on the SNES ones, have different layouts. That'd sum it up rather nicely, I think. So, basically, one could say GB's DKC2 is the poor man's DKC2...
sgrunt
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GeminiSaint wrote:
From what I've seen: 1) Inferior graphics/music (obvious). 2) Less enemies. 3) An entire world was completely cut out (Gloomy Gulch). 4) One of the animal buddies, Rattly, was cut out as well. 5) All of the remaining levels, although based on the SNES ones, have different layouts. That'd sum it up rather nicely, I think. So, basically, one could say GB's DKC2 is the poor man's DKC2...
Would you agree, then, that there aren't really any substantial gameplay differences between this and DKC2? I mean the style of gameplay as opposed to anything like level layouts.
Joined: 5/2/2009
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sgrunt wrote:
Would you agree, then, that there aren't really any substantial gameplay differences between this and DKC2? I mean the style of gameplay as opposed to anything like level layouts.
Well, then again we have Mega Man 3-6 with mostly the same gameplay. AND their GB counterparts.
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ