Emulator Settings

  • Mupen64 v0.5
  • Video: Jabo's Direct 3D8 1.6
  • Sound: Jabo's DirectSound 1.6
  • Input: TAS Input Plugin 0.6
  • RSP: RSP Emulation Plugin

Run Goals:

  • Collects 100% of collectibles
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses death and save/quitting as shortcuts

Game Details

Rocket: Robot on Wheels is, like many other N64 games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong, centered on collecting all of the items in each world. The game takes place in a theme park on the eve of opening day, when the antagonist Jojo sneaks in and reprograms the park, leaving Rocket (the player character) to fix the mess before opening day. This is accomplished by completing six worlds with the help of vehicles and special abilities, and finally facing Jojo and foiling his plans once and for all...

Detailed comments

This started mostly as a route-planning effort, but as the play quality got higher I was encouraged by several in the game's thread to submit this run. Here are my comments, mostly from the thread, for each level:

Clowney Island

  • Clowney Island is a boardwalk-style carnival complete with midway, rollercoaster, and giant mechanical dinosaur.
  • As the game starts, I collect the first ticket and save/quit to skip a cutscene.
  • Clowney Island must be split into two parts, as the move Slam is required for several tokens.
  • I pause for three frames occasionally to skip texts.
  • Final in-game time for Clowney Island: 0:06

Paint Misbehavin'

  • The game departs a bit from the theme-park theme at this point as we take a trip to Rome to traverse aqueducts and paint the town with a hovercar.
  • Again, Paint Misbehavin' is split for the time-saving capabilities of the double-jump.
  • When the building rises after painting the statues, I was able to rise with it and complete it from the top down.
  • A trick called box jumping is used to skip painting myself to fool the guard. This is used in a few other levels as well to gain height.
  • In the last room of the Aqueduct section, I skipped activating two of the four switches using the double jump move.
  • Final in-game time for Paint Misbehavin': 0:08

Mine Blowing

  • Next up is a subterranean level, sandwiched between two very open ones. This level features exploding gemstones and a cave full of mushrooms that allow Mario-style triple jumps.
  • I was able to prevent myself from falling down the waterfall after the mushroom cave, letting me do the top part of the level without taking the long way around.
  • The first room of the mine cart ride area is skipped by a well-placed double jump onto an incoming mine cart and to the next platform.
  • I use a damage boost to get the ticket from the raised alcove. It would make more sense to jump down for it at the end of the level, but when you load a different part of the level the alcove seals again, making that impossible.
  • In the rolling rocks room, I have to stop to prevent myself from hitting a rock and missing a token. It looks ugly, but it's necessary.
  • Final in-game time for Mine Blowing: 0:08

Arabian Flights

  • After being cooped up in a mine, Rocket takes to the skies in a flying carpet in this wide-open level.
  • The Fun with Magnets strategy is based on the shortcut posted in the thread by twelvetwentyone a while back.
  • I got a VERY nice fan setup at the end of the machine. I was able to pass the first three with little wait at all due to the fact that the Freeze Ray prevents you from being blown for a short while (not enough to go straight through full-blast fans, unfortunately.) The second set was also very nice. Even if I had gotten there a few seconds earlier and grabbed the token immediately, I would have been blown off after Rocket does his backflip dance.
  • Final in-game time for Arabian Flights: 0:08

Pyramid Scheme

  • Rocket finds a peaceful pyramid in the jungle, but as night falls, things transform entirely.
  • I touch the very edge of the grapple pad, which has the same effect as pausing (a text skip)
  • I skip the bridge falling cutscene by jumping over it without touching it.
  • The picture code never changes, so I can input it without first going to night and coming back. When the mouth opens, Rocket can clip through the top of the statue's head, which is why I chose an odd flipping order.
  • I found out of necessity that the Freeze Ray increases launch height. I use this in the "Restful to Ruined and back again" area.
  • I must "unlock" the day/night switch near the code puzzle in order to use it to return to night after the ruined circle area.
  • Final in-game time for Pyramid Scheme: 0:08

Food Fright

  • Food Fright is comprised of three sections that involve a LOT of climbing to move between. The first section is the food section, the second a machine, and the third is full of monsters.
  • I saw no noticeable difference between doing the two halves of the food section in a different order, so I went with the marshmallow area first for a slightly better Machine part placement between the two.
  • In the jumping marshmallows area, the Freeze Ray saves the day again as it gives me enough height to reach the ticket from the ground.
  • In between the two sections I use the grapple to get to the normally out-of-reach ticket, skipping about 10 seconds of waiting.
  • Inside the monster, I start taking damage. I need to get down to 4 health for a death warp.
  • The other 3 damage is taken around the monster, the final ticket is collected, and I hit the electrified fin to warp out, saving about 30 seconds.
  • Final in-game time for Food Fright: 0:08

Jojo's World

  • The three-room puzzle before Jojo's World was quite interesting. The first room was fairly standard, and I got a good setup for the second. However, this gives me a HORRIBLE setup for room three, so I had to get a little...creative.
  • Jojo's World itself encompasses some of the more notable features that were present (or in many cases, skipped) in previous levels. It is quite linear, so there isn't much to be said.
  • I skip painting myself, saving a large amount of time painting and traveling the long path up.
  • I use a few box jumps to skip the magnets.
  • I move around the spider's first leg instead of blowing it up, then jump up to its body. This skips blowing up its legs.
  • The Flaming Sphere of Doom is rather anticlimactic. I try to jump around a lot but there's not much in the way of entertainment that you can do when you're confined to a rolling ball.
  • Final in-game time for Whoopie World (including Jojo's World): 0:11
Final in-game total time: 0:57. I surpassed my goal of sub-1 game time and slipped under my 1:15 real time goal by less than 8 seconds.
This game doesn't have a traditional credits scene, but rather it dumps you in a room where you can pick up screws that read off the names of the developers. There is no way to "complete" this room, and the only way out is to use the exit in the opposite corner. This simply returns you to the game's start area, so I ended the movie in a place that simply gets to the credits room, as there seems to be no way further.

FractalFusion: Although the technical quality is suspect, almost everyone seems to agree that this movie should be published. As an action-filled 3D platformer with large amounts of route planning, I agree. Accepting for publication.
sgrunt: Processing (thanks to finally being able to dump with synced sound).


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15586
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2644: Azorae's N64 Rocket: Robot on Wheels "100%" in 1:14:52.80
Player (79)
Joined: 7/7/2008
Posts: 873
Location: Utah
Hmph, I didn't think you would publish this. What happened to your plans of not publishing it? Anyways, you already know my opinion of your run, yes vote.
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
Not that I've watched this yet, but 11k re-records does seem awfully low for a game of this length and difficulty.
Emulator Coder
Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 95
I'm voting yes. It's a 100% run. I've played the game. Compared to me, it's played great. I wanted this run in 2009. Basically, even if other people don't think it's played well enough, I still say publish it. N64 runs are rare enough as it is without being picky when it comes to the games with a variety of mechanisms and play styles displayed.
Joined: 8/10/2007
Posts: 14
Location: Louisiana
Yes. I followed the WiP's all the way through and I enjoyed the whole thing. Although it is admittedly not perfectly optimized, the run was extremely entertaining and, in my opinion, easily of high enough quality to be published. Having played through the game several times, it was amazing to see the route planning and execution.
Joined: 5/11/2009
Posts: 17
Location: United States
I vote yes for this run. I've been following the individual levels in the thread and they have all been incredibly entertaining and done way faster than I thought possible with the use of quite a lot of interesting tricks. Having played this game only a moderate amount, it is tough for me to tell how much room for improvement there is, but I think most people will agree the run is anything but sloppy. Very fun to watch, well done!
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
Could we possibly get an encode? :3
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
Kitsune wrote:
Could we possibly get an encode?
There are Youtube links in this thread.
Joined: 1/26/2010
Posts: 6
Location: Canada
Voted yes on this one. I'm a long time lurker, first time commenter. Not only had I never heard of this game before, this run showed me I was missing out on a great N64 game (and whats better then a 100% run to introduce me with?). I felt the run was well done and even with it's (minor) flaws, you need to start somewhere to build upon. I particularly liked the racing in the first world where you stopped to grab items; That was awesome!
Kaylee
She/Her
Editor, Active player (434)
Joined: 9/29/2008
Posts: 706
Location: Canada
Yes, yes, yes, yes and more yes. I have been following this the whole time, and I am very happy seeing this submitted :) Great job. Oh did I mention I am voting yes?
Joined: 4/26/2010
Posts: 2
Location: Roseville, MN
Kitsune wrote:
Could we possibly get an encode? :3
The full run is up on Youtube, it looks like: http://www.youtube.com/user/xAzoraex#p/c/FFDE7BA0AE7BC6F4/0/X7UBgXMnxM8
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Wow, this was a much more interesting game than I thought it was going to be. There's tons of stage variety, and all the action is fast-paced. It's clearly tons of work to collect all the items. I'm quite impressed, and I look forward to seeing further improvements of this game. In the meantime, it seems quite worthy of a Yes.
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: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
Well, I watched the first three segments, and I was thuroughly entertained. :3 Yes vote!
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
I'm voting yes. This game is very entertaining and it features clever shortcuts and no backwards walking. Even if it's not perfect, it's still good enough (I didn't notice any major flaws) the site and maybe publishing it will encourage an improvement at some point.
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
Posts: 899
Location: Sweden
Good game, good run, love how you multitask during the race in the first level. Easy yes vote.
Expert player (2468)
Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
It's like watching a walkthrough, but it was fun enough for a Yes vote.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Joined: 4/3/2006
Posts: 269
This run is fun to watch! Voting yes!
Joined: 5/2/2010
Posts: 41
Location: the Netherlands
Love the game, love the TAS. It's a shame this game is not well known.
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
This almost has to be a first for a N64 run. All of the votes are yes votes. :3
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15586
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1533] N64 Rocket: Robot on Wheels "100%" by Azorae in 1:14:52.80
Joined: 8/13/2005
Posts: 356
Location: Canada
I didn't watch this for a long time because of the intimidating length... and I guess also because I thought, since it was an N64 game I'd never heard of it would be a piece of garbage. But this was one of the finest runs of a 3D platformer I've watched. Even though it was well-over an hour I didn't feel like I was bored at all. There's lots of interesting movement choices and cool interaction with the environments. Watching as many long TASes as I do I often at least have a few lapses in concentration where I start thinking about what I'm supposed to be doing. Anyway, I recommend this movie and I'll probably be nominating it for an N64 TAS of the year when the time comes. I think it's a good candidate for it (unless somebody improves Mario 64 by 8 frames or somesuch).
Joined: 4/30/2007
Posts: 150
wow man, thanks for doing this here is to the next great game for a tas being tas'ed