Submission Text Full Submission Page Publication Page
Tails Adventures is an adventure/platformer game for the Sega Game Gear with many game-breaking glitches. Unfortunately for anyone expecting Kumquat to finish that game, she has instead teamed up with alden to show some Rubik's Cubes the real super power of teamwork! 
 Game Objectives & Other Notes

  •  Emulator used: DeSmuME v0.9.5 (8MB debugger disabled!)

  •  Objective: Solve three Rubik's Cubes (sizes 2x2x2, 3x3x3, and 4x4x4) in the most entertaining way possible. Fastest in-game time.

  •  Screw the lag; we have funny!

  •  alden encoded it and Kumquat uploaded it!

 Important Notice

This run will not sync unless your firmware settings are correct (go to Config > Firmware Settings to change them). Please make sure your language is set to English and your name and comment are one of the following combinations. (Your birthday and "favourite color" do not matter.)

(Note: this list is under construction. We will be adding more combinations as we find them.)

Nickname: 378TsG7f

Comment: p-Iu57rUf0bEK<3XkaRT5^

Nickname: mgstwo

Comment: 141140.141.1001.1.1...96

Nickname: Woah.

Comment: Does this seriously work?

Nickname: TAS

Comment: Goal: Color a Rubik's Cube

Nickname: TASV.Grue

Comment: Om nom nom... Om nom.

Nickname: Xkeeper

Comment: I voted no just 'cause.

Nickname: A dinosaur

Comment: Don't color me, bro!

Nickname: D. Caruso

Comment: YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAHH!!!

Nickname: POOP!

Comment: TASVIDEOS IS SRS BIZNESS!

Nickname: LOOP!

Comment: NESVIDEOS ARE SRS BISNAZ!

Nickname: Walkn

Comment: This movie does not use B

Nickname: Smilin'Egg

Comment: Is a little creepy.

Nickname: TASV.Agent

Comment: Hello, I am a robot

Nickname: arukAdo

Comment: improper Capitalization

Nickname: Kumquat

Comment: Stop being so pedantic.

Nickname: adelikat

Comment: <3adelikat/Nach OTP!<3

Nickname: Limne

Comment: Never heard of him before

Nickname: Kumquat

Comment: Yup, I get more than 1! 

Nickname: alden

Comment: my head is upside-down!?!

Nickname: mklip2001

Comment: surprising newspaper!

Nickname: Limne

Comment: Sounds like chimney, y/y?

Nickname: BisqFist

Comment: Erm, I mean AngerFist.

Nickname: Noob Irdoh

Comment: Oh... It's an archer?

Nickname: Kumquat

Comment: Running out of ideas...

Nickname: alden

Comment: my head is normal now. :D

Nickname: Brushy

Comment: Doin' the no-pants dance

Nickname: goldfish

Comment: evolved into SEAKFISH!

Nickname: alden

Comment: woah, my head exploded!?!

Nickname: mmbossman

Comment: [lowercaseletterjoke]

Nickname: Randil

Comment: That dog is laughing. =(

Nickname: Sticky

Comment: Boing zoom Dakota! Pwah.

Nickname: goldfish

Comment: worth its weight in gil.

Nickname: sgrunt

Comment: don't read the next one.

Nickname: Warp@

Comment: A secret warp! Go down 2!

Nickname: Too Long

Comment: OmnipotentEntity's is.

Nickname: Warp@

Comment: A hidden warp! Go up two!

Nickname: Kumquat

Comment: Fantabulous fortunella!

Nickname: Bezman

Comment: Get equipped with WORDS!

Nickname: adelikat

Comment: can't let you do that!

Nickname: TASV.Grue

Comment: Bleh, needs less salt

Nickname: Kumquat

Comment: Yeah, I kind of figured

Nickname: alden

Comment: invisible pixels:       !

(There are seven spaces between : and !)

Nickname: Sticky

Comment: Burnt popcorn is delish.

Nickname: too short

Comment: mz's name is two long

Nickname: Kumquat

Comment: Have it figured it out?

 Story

Welcome to Rubik's World, land of the Cubies! Cubies are born here as Rubik's Cubes, but they eventually split apart and go on their own. They still love to build bigger cubes together, but they can never seem to get the colors right.

The Cubies need your help! Are you a bad enough Rubik's...Cuber...to aid the Cubies?

 Charts

Everyone loves charts! By popular demand, we have prepared some charts that show some numbers about some things.

 World Records

These are the current world records for solving 2x2x2, 3x3x3, and 4x4x4 Rubik's Cubes, according to The World Cube Association.

SizeTime
2x2x20.96
3x3x37.08
4x4x436.46
 Input Time

These are the times for this movie, from first input to last input, excluding spinning (see "Advanced Techniques" below for information on spinning). Please note that the first two cubes were not optimized for this timing.

SizeFramesTime
2x2x2110.18
3x3x33185.32
4x4x4171428.65
 Turning Time

These are also the times for this movie, from the first frame of the first turn of the first cube on the first screen to the last frame of the last turn of the last cube on the first screen.

SizeFramesTime
2x2x2250.42
3x3x33345.58
4x4x4173729.03
 In-game Time (hahaha)

The in-game timer does not account for lag, so it make us look even better. In fact, I should add "Fastest in-game time" to the list of goals!

SizeTurnsTime
2x2x210:00
3x3x3200:04
4x4x4710:16
 Techniques

We used many techniques in the making of this run, so we have divided them into three categories: Basic Techniques, Advanced Techniques, and Techniques That You Should Not Try at Home.

 Basic Techniques

Luck Manipulation

Oh, you know, standard stuff. Besides changing the firmware settings, as mentioned above, going through menus changes the RNG. We tried adding pauses to generate better cubes, and while the 3x3x3 cube was faster, the 4x4x4 cube was slower.

Also, you can touch the back arrow to skip three text boxes at once at one point, but it will generate slower cubes.

Slice Turn

Ah, the most essential technique of all! Without this, you would never be able to solve the cubes!

You can initiate a slice turn by touching a Cubie during a certain frame (hereafter referred to as a "movement frame") and touching another part of the screen during the next movement frame. If performed correctly, the slice to which your selected Cubie belongs will turn in the direction of your second touch!

Movement frames can be kind of tough to find, but you can just touch the same spot for a few frames and it will still work.

 Advanced Techniques

Reverse Slice Turn

A bit more complicated than the last technique, but the reverse slice turn is much the same as a normal slice turn. You just have to touch a different different part of the screen after you have selected a Cubie.

You can tell whether it is reversed or not by the direction the slice turns – clockwise is normal and counter-clockwise is reverse.

Spinning

There are two ways to spin the entire cube:

  1.  Touch a non-Cubie area followed by another area.

  2.  Use the D-pad.

Method #1 is faster, but you cannot perform turns while using it. Thus, Method #2 is preferred.

Also, it causes a lot of lag, but who cares?

 Techniques That You Should Not Try at Home

Despite the plural, there is the only technique in this category because it is just so much harder to pull off or even understand than the others! You might want to skip this part or at least save your game first. 

Internal Facet Centrifugal Exertion Cycle

Okay, seriously, do not try this without the supervision of an expert – you might break a nail or hurt you wrist. Like, really badly. So badly that it hurts for more than a few seconds, even!

But enough warnings! (Who pays attention to those, anyway?) To perform this technique, start by touching a non-corner Cubie during a movement frame. Then, during the next movement frame, touch the screen in an area across the cube from where you started. If performed correctly, the middle slice should turn instead of one of the outside slices, and your DS / computer / actual Rubik's Cube should not be engulfed in flames (if it is, stop wasting your time on this nonsense and seek help immediately!).

Please note that this technique will not work on the 2x2x2 cube, and a slightly modified version is an integral part of solving the 4x4x4 cube. (If you have mastered using it one the 3x3x3 cube, you can probably figure it out on your own. If not, you should really just stick to simpler techniques until you have.)

 Kumquat's Comments

I am so tired right now that I started playing Pokémon for a while before I realized I was just throwing Goldfish Crackers and Nutter Butters around. But I did get the high score!

 alden's Comments

I agree with Kumquat.

 Possible Improvements

Spinning the cubes causes lag, but whatever. Not spinning them would only be an improvement frame-wise.

I guess you could find better cubes if you searched for a few more hours, but I think we searched through enough. Finding better solutions, especially for the 4x4x4, would be a better idea (if there even are any better solutions, of course).

Speaking of better solutions, the technique shown in this video might be helpful, but the solver's hands got in the way and we were unable to determine exactly how it worked.

Also, you might try solving them in a different order, but that would ruin the pacing.

 Special Thanks

Thanks to Herbert Kociemba and Bruce Norskog for making Cube Explorer and FiveStage444, respectively. Without their solvers, we would have had to use other solvers instead.

And also to the kind folks at Speedsolving.com for trying to help alden find better solvers.

Special no thanks to Windows Vista, which caused a few problems for us along the way.

 Suggested Screenshots

    

alden: Editing, so that this is like, the most edited submission text EVAR.

adelikat:  Rejecting.  Details found here.
adelikat:  Unrejecting.

mmbossman: This is a quirky enough movie with enough possibility for competition and improvement to warrant publication. Congrats on a rare April Fools acceptance!

sgrunt: Correcting the game name so that it isn't published with the wrong name.

Aktan:  Processing...

			

		

	
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						Posted: 4/15/2010 7:29 PM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										Mitjitsu
									

									He/Him
								

								

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							Joined: 4/24/2006

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	TAS of 2007


	N64 TAS of 2007
					

				

			

			

				

					
I don't agree with publishing this movie. It falls under "fixed puzzle soloutions". It seems to be a common theme over the last year or so that since fewer movies have been submitted that we must dumb down our criteria for acceptance.

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/15/2010 7:36 PM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										sgrunt
									

									He/Him
								

								

									Emulator Coder, Former player
										
									
								

							

						

					

					

						
					

					

						
							Joined: 10/28/2007

							Posts: 1360
							
								
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
							
						
					

					

					

				

			

			

				

					
Mitjitsu wrote:
It falls under "fixed puzzle soloutions".
Hardly.  The state of the puzzle is randomised to begin with and it is not obvious without a lot of systematic analysis to determine the optimal solution to the puzzle as provided (even under TAS conditions), much less determining which initial states can be solved the fastest.

We are not facing a situation here where the solution is fixed and quickly and easily reproducible by someone with a passing familiarity with the puzzle, as with another recently submitted run or some of the cited quirky game examples.

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/15/2010 8:06 PM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										mmbossman
									

									
								

								

									Experienced player
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							Joined: 11/18/2006

							Posts: 2426
							
								
Location: Back where I belong
							
						
					

					



	GBx TAS of 2008
					

				

			

			

				

					
Mitjitsu wrote:
It seems to be a common theme over the last year or so that since fewer movies have been submitted that we must dumb down our criteria for acceptance.

There have also been many vocal arguments towards the opposite extreme: We should publish a movie for every game. Trying to appease everyone just doesn't work.

I have noticed in the past year that my judging criteria have gradually transformed into somewhat more lenient with publishing movies that are likely to entertain a majority of people, even if they aren't entertaining to everyone. This is in part due to the increased visibility of the site, which leads to a more diverse range of tastes in entertainment present (people don't just come here for the SMB3 or SM64 movies anymore).

				

				

					
						
Living Well Is The Best Revenge
My Personal Page

					
				

			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/16/2010 3:34 AM
						
(Edited: 4/16/2010 6:40 PM)
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										Aktan
									

									
								

								

									Publisher
										
									
								

							

						

					

					

						
					

					

						
							Joined: 4/23/2009

							Posts: 1283
							
						
					

					

					

				

			

			

				

					
Here is an HQ encode:

http://www.archive.org/download/KumquatAldensDsRubiksWorldIn0120.23/rubiksworld-tas-kumquatalden.mp4

http://www.archive.org/download/KumquatAldensDsRubiksWorldIn0120.23/rubiksworld-tas-kumquatalden.mkv

HQ Stream:

http://aktan.site90.com/?vid=KumquatAldensDsRubiksWorldIn0120.23/rubiksworld-tas-kumquatalden_512kb

Publishing soon.

Edit:  Added HQ Stream.

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/16/2010 10:36 AM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										Warp
									

									
								

								

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sgrunt wrote:
Mitjitsu wrote:
It falls under "fixed puzzle soloutions".
Hardly.  The state of the puzzle is randomised to begin with and it is not obvious without a lot of systematic analysis to determine the optimal solution to the puzzle as provided (even under TAS conditions), much less determining which initial states can be solved the fastest.

I think it could be compared to tetris in this regard.

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/16/2010 9:12 PM
						
					
				
			

			

				
					Post subject: Movie published
				
			

			

				
					
					
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										TASVideoAgent
									

									They/Them
								

								

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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.

----
[1505] DS Rubik's World by Kumquat & alden in 01:20.23

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/18/2010 3:16 AM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										djchilxxn
									

									
								

								

									
										
									
								

							

						

					

					

						
					

					

						
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Location: New Orleans, LA  U.S.A.
							
						
					

					

					

				

			

			

				

					
the archive.org stream is broken fyi

				

				

					
						
__--N0ISE

					
				

			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/18/2010 3:18 AM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										Aktan
									

									
								

								

									Publisher
										
									
								

							

						

					

					

						
					

					

						
							Joined: 4/23/2009

							Posts: 1283
							
						
					

					

					

				

			

			

				

					
djchilxxn wrote:
the archive.org stream is broken fyi

Hmm you're right, assuming you mean the player on the publish page.  That's weird,  guess I'll bug some people about it.

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/21/2010 8:07 PM
						
					
				
			

			

				
					Post subject: Re: Verdict
				
			

			

				
					
					
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										CrazyTerabyte
									

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adelikat wrote:
There are many people who can solve a rubix cube very easily and efficiently (and in some case two at once or even blindfolded)
Let's not forget the guy who solved 2 Rubik's Cubes while playing Guitar Hero. :)

Still, lots of luck manipulation, and possibly the same level of competition and improvements that we found at Monopoly, and about the same level of fun.

Also, I'd add Tetrisphere to the list of quirky movies (but it wasn't submitted on april's 1st).

				

				
			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/30/2010 3:15 PM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										jlun2
									

									
								

								

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	GBA TASer of 2010
					

				

			

			

				

					
Just because this movie's awesome, I made a lua script just for this publication! 

gui.register(function() 
 local x = memory.readwordunsigned(0x020FA8A8)
 local y = memory.readwordunsigned(0x020FA8AC)

-- Reference Point
gui.pixel(x-1, y-1, "white")
-- The Color: White
gui.pixel(x+3, y-32, "white")
gui.pixel(x+3, y-44, "white")
gui.line(x-4, y-5, x-4, y-45, "white")
gui.line(x-4, y-45, x+4, y-45, "white")
gui.line(x+4, y-45, x+4, y-32, "white")
gui.line(x+2, y-5, x+2, y-32, "white")
gui.line(x-3, y-5, x-3, y-3, "white")
gui.line(x+1, y-5, x+1, y-3, "white")
gui.line(x-3, y-2, x+1, y-2, "white")
gui.line(x-1, y-35, x-1, y-42, "white")
-- The Color: Black
gui.pixel(x-1, y-43, "black")
gui.pixel(x-1, y-34, "black")
gui.pixel(x+2, y-43, "black")
gui.pixel(x+2, y-33, "black")
gui.pixel(x-1, y-9, "black")
gui.line(x-3, y-7, x-3, y-44, "black")
gui.line(x-3, y-44, x+2, y-44, "black")
gui.line(x+3, y-33, x+3, y-43, "black")
gui.line(x, y-35, x, y-42, "black")
gui.line(x+1, y-7, x+1, y-33, "black")
gui.line(x-1, y-3, x-1, y-5, "black")
gui.line(x-2, y-4, x, y-4, "black")
-- The Color: 0x4A4A4A
gui.pixel(x, y-43, "#4A4A4A")
gui.pixel(x, y-34, "#4A4A4A")
gui.pixel(x, y-3, "#4A4A4A")
gui.pixel(x-2, y-3, "#4A4A4A")
gui.line(x, y-5, x+1, y-6, "#4A4A4A")
gui.line(x-2, y-5, x-3, y-6, "#4A4A4A")
gui.line(x+1, y-34, x+1, y-43, "#4A4A4A")
gui.line(x-2, y-34, x-2, y-43, "#4A4A4A")
-- The Color: 0x5A5A5A
gui.pixel(x+2, y-42, "#5A5A5A")
gui.pixel(x+2, y-34, "#5A5A5A")
gui.pixel(x-2, y-6, "#5A5A5A")
gui.pixel(x-1, y-8, "#5A5A5A")
gui.line(x, y-5, x, y-33, "#5A5A5A")
-- The Color: 0x737373
gui.line(x-1, y-6, x-1, y-7, "#737373")
gui.line(x-1, y-10, x-1, y-33, "#737373")
gui.line(x+2, y-35, x+2, y-41, "#737373")
-- The Color: 0x949494
gui.line(x-2, y-7, x-2, y-33, "#949494")
end)


				

				

					
						
LLCoolDave wrote:
This seems to be competing for the "Worst looking TAS of 2011" Award.

					
				

			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/30/2010 5:18 PM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										OmnipotentEntity
									

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Just a thought, the majority of Rubik's Cube positions can be solved in 16-19 moves.  This movie uses 20 moves, I only know one cube position that requires 20 moves. >_>

				

				

					
						
Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, 
Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.

					
				

			

		

	




	

	

		

			

				
					
						
						Posted: 4/30/2010 5:25 PM
						
					
				
			

			
			

				
					
					
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										Aktan
									

									
								

								

									Publisher
										
									
								

							

						

					

					

						
					

					

						
							Joined: 4/23/2009

							Posts: 1283
							
						
					

					

					

				

			

			

				

					
OmnipotentEntity wrote:
Just a thought, the majority of Rubik's Cube positions can be solved in 16-19 moves.  This movie uses 20 moves, I only know one cube position that requires 20 moves. >_>

As explained in the thread, the game counts only quarter moves, meaning what usually one would count as 1 move for a half turn counts as 2 in this game.

				

				
			

		

	







	

		
		
			 
		
	

	

		

			
				
			

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