Donkey Kong Snap (38 FFAs) in 24:48 @TJBlakely

Donkey Kong Snap (38 FFAs) in 24:48

TJ Blakely 2020-04-29 | PB as of 4/29/2020.

I spent the previous 3 days on stream looking for all the FFAs, so naturally it culminated into "do a speedrun". If any more are found that I missed, I will do more runs of this. -- Watch live at twitch.tv/tjblakely

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.2] 100% Speedrun in 9:59

TJ Blakely 2023-05-08 | PB as of 5/7/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Version 1.2 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped! 1.2 adds Tag Anywhere as a new feature for the romhack.

On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

This was a near perfect run. I have no complaints. I've been chasing sub 10 for weeks but there was always something going wrong to just barely keep me from it. Very happy to have gotten it, despite DK desperately trying to throw the run in TTC.

With how long this took, I can't say for sure that I want more levels to be added. I really don't want to spend more time grinding out stupid collision or bad hitboxes or enemy RNG... though if more levels are added, I'll probably just suck it up and get back to the grind.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] 100% Speedrun in 11:58

TJ Blakely 2023-04-09 | PB as of 4/9/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

This was a near perfect run. I have no complaints. I wanted sub 12, and now I've gotten it.

I may be done with running this romhack for now. This was by far the most important time for me to achieve, and now that I've gotten it I think I'm happy with my contributions to getting more eyes on Banjo-Kongzooie.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] All Coloured Bananas Speedrun in 9:57

TJ Blakely 2023-04-09 | PB as of 4/8/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs

All Coloured Bananas is pretty self-explanatory - get all the Coloured Bananas (250) and then view the Totals screen in Banjo's House to confirm it.
This run still requires all 5 Banana Coins to access the opening area of Grunty's Lair, and 5 Jiggies to access Treasure Trove Cove.

This was a very good run. Lanky wanted to sabotage by just barely missing a CB in TTC, but it didn't cost that much time.

I had 4 more "PBs" of this category but they're all 10 minutes or above and I have no interest in uploading all of them when there were no route changes or improvements, just less mistakes.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] All Jiggies Speedrun in 7:50

TJ Blakely 2023-04-07 | PB as of 4/7/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs

All Jiggies is pretty self-explanatory - get all the Jiggies (15) and then view the Totals screen in Banjo's House to confirm it.
This run still requires all 5 Banana Coins to access the opening area of Grunty's Lair, and 75 Coloured Bananas to access the lair past the first room.

This was a very good run with the exception of the camera going insane when I attempt to enter the Tag Barrel in Mumbo's as Lanky. This is made up for by the Pause Exit on the final Mumbo's Jiggy grab.

I had 8 more "PBs" of this category but they're all 8 minutes or above and I have no interest in uploading all of them when there were no route changes or improvements, just less mistakes.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] 100% Speedrun in 12:05

TJ Blakely 2023-04-06 | PB as of 4/6/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

This was a very good run. There are a few minor mistakes, but even without them this run would not be sub 12, so I am okay with them being there...until I find another optimization.

Next is...uh...All Jiggies I guess? Then maybe All Coloured Bananas. Here are the differences:
All Jiggies gets 75 CBs in Mumbo's to access the rest of the lair, then skips the rest.
All Coloured Bananas gets 4 Jiggies in Mumbo's (plus the initial Jiggy to access Mumbo's) then skips the rest.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] 100% Speedrun in 12:15

TJ Blakely 2023-04-05 | PB as of 4/5/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

This was a pretty good run! there are some rather minor things that make me a tad unhappy, but overall I think this is as good as I'm going to reasonably get.

After I finished my April 1st TAS for this year, I started rerouting and timing stuff again for this, and found a ~5s faster route for Spiral Mountain, which also removed 2 inconsistent Moonkicks. Additionally, I realized you could Kick Jump Aerial onto the first slope in Mumbo's Mountain, and also skip a floor in the Termite Tower. Thus my 30s improvement over my previous PB.

Donkey Kong 64 F Bees TAS in 29:29.50 (28:58.60 RTA)

TJ Blakely 2023-04-01 | For April 1st this year, I decided to slaughter every single Zinger. Expand Description for more info, but please be aware the description includes words unsuitable for younger audiences.

There are bees in this game?
They're not called bees, but rather, "Zingers". There are also Robot variants, aptly named "Robo-Zingers". They look very largely (and boy, are they large) like bees. They are ripped straight from my nightmares.

What's so important about fucking the bees?
No, no... don't say it like that. I know I'm calling this "Fuck Bees", but it's not because I want it to sound like that. I'm calling it this because of the similarly titled meme (see: knowyourmeme.com/memes/fuck-bees ), though admittedly I'm using the word in a different way than originally implied by the meme. If you're wondering why the title says "F---" instead, it's just to avoid age-restriction.

Why TAS this category?
Because Shower Thoughts are a Curse and a Blessing. It was March 6th and I didn't know what to TAS for this year's April 1st. I had to come up with something that I thought would be good and interesting and unique (which is why I almost always lean towards Arbitrary Goals instead of traditional ones), and despite being given some ideas by friends, nothing was unique enough (in my opinion) to TAS for April 1st. That evening, I'm still racking my brain for ideas in the shower because I need something soon so I can begin routing (and after that, TASing). That's when my brain starts playing Siivagunner's "Honeycomb Highway", (see: youtube.com/watch?v=XUtGzQK1VYI ). Not only is it a great mashup, but the idea of "Fuck Bees" can be applied to DK64, and it was way too perfect to pass up as it fits all of my criteria.

How did you open Aztec Lobby without Key 1?
Good ol' ISGAE, or, Intro Story Glitch Aztec Early. Here's a quick rundown of events:
I start Intro Story at the beginning of the run before entering any files, but cancel it at a precise time to keep it running in the background.
At the end of each "section" of Intro Story, there's a fade out which calls a certain cutscene index when the next map is loaded, and plays the cutscene at that index.
Normally if a cutscene were to play, you'd get sucked right back into Intro Story and it would play the proper cutscene on the proper map, but what I do here is activate a cutscene (death cutscene) and overwrite the warp to the next map with a warp to DK Isle (by dying via damage into a loading zone, leading to DK Isle). This still makes the cutscene at the correct cutscene index play, but in DK Isle instead of the Intro Story map(s).
Because the "lobby opening cutscene" is responsible for actually opening the lobby, and the Key just activates the "lobby opening cutscene", I can achieve the same effect as turning in Key 1 without ever doing so by incorrectly viewing the cutscene. This warps me into K. Lumsy's Cage afterwards as that's where these lobby opening cutscenes normally place you.

How did you get all the guns, instruments, and moves without buying them?
This is probably the most well known thing seen in Any% and NLE runs, but I achieved this through MMM, or, Main Menu Mode. The Kong Battle Monkey Smash multiplayer mode gives guns to every Kong, and each of the Mystery Menu Bosses and Bonus games give instruments and moves to every Kong, so I loaded these and got pulled into my file through the final fadeout of Intro Story Glitch. This keeps the game thinking I'm still in the Main Menu, as I never "entered" a file properly, so it never resets the temporarily loaded moves.

Why do you unlock the two other Kongs? You can kill the bees with DK can't you?
Yep, initially I thought I would only need DK, but then I really started thinking about things and figured out that there are Zingers that require unlocking other Kongs. Diddy has Zingers in Factory R&D where only Chimpy Charge will work on the switches and inside the Mech Fish, which requires Guitar to spawn. Lanky on the other hand is only needed for Painting Room in Japes, as the pegs need to be slammed in order to spawn the Zingers, but they can only be slammed by Lanky. Slamming them as DK doesn't do anything.

Why are you using such an old version of Bizhawk?
Without getting too technical, the newer versions emulate DK64 worse than the older version that I used. If you play on the newer versions of Bizhawk, you will notice that large chunks of worlds like Galleon, Caves, and Castle will be missing until you try to "enter" the missing chunk, at which point the missing chunk will load and the previous chunk will now be missing. It's really annoying visually and it just isn't worth using.

April 1st TAS playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCPTVU3zWuzwsHG22j66tyGj_-mFZJa1

Created using Bizhawk 1.13.2
Rerecord Count: 13660
Recording Date: March 10th, 2023 - March 27th, 2023
TAS Timing: 29:29.50
RTA Timing: 28:58.60

2023 TAS Promo

TJ Blakely 2023-03-31 | [Text version]
April 1st, 2023
For the 5th consecutive year
A DK64 Arbitrary TAS
The goal? I'll give you one hint...
It's hip to be there.

The video will go live on my YouTube channel at midnight MDT.
This promo and the link to my TAS video will also be posted over on my Twitter.

April 1st TAS playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCPTVU3zWuzwsHG22j66tyGj_-mFZJa1

2023 TAS Promo

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] 100% Speedrun in 12:45

TJ Blakely 2023-03-23 | PB as of 3/22/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs
Had there been more time, I would have TAS'd this little romhack for April 1st. I have something else planned instead.

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

Okay seriously I'm not grinding this any more...for now. I need to keep working on my TAS lmao.
This romhack is pretty fun, so I'll definitely come back when more levels are added.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] 100% Speedrun in 13:06

TJ Blakely 2023-03-22 | PB as of 3/21/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
On 3/20/2023, GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs
Had there been more time, I would have TAS'd this little romhack for April 1st. I have something else planned instead.

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

Could I get sub 13? Yes absolutely. Will I right now? No. I need to work on my TAS for April 1st. I'll come back after...maybe. I really had to improve my run after rewatching my previous upload. The sloppiness in it was horrendous and it was killing me to leave it as it was.
This romhack is pretty fun, so I'll definitely come back when more levels are added.

[N64] Banjo-Kongzooie [v1.0] 100% Speedrun in 14:48

TJ Blakely 2023-03-21 | PB as of 3/20/2023. Played on original N64 Hardware via EverDrive 64.

This was done on the Day 1 patch of Banjo-Kongzooie Revamped!
Today (3/20/2023), GloriousLiar released the new revamped patch for Banjo-Kongzooie. You can watch GloriousLiar's trailer for Banjo-Kongzooie here: youtube.com/watch?v=kHHnXSOh1Zs
Had there been more time, I would have TAS'd this little romhack for April 1st. I have something else planned instead.

100% in this romhack, much like other romhacks that GloriousLiar has released, includes filling out the Totals screen, which can be seen inside of Banjo's House.
The totals are as follows:
5 Banana Coins
15 Jiggies (Golden Bananas)
250 Coloured Bananas

Things that I skip in this run:
The Dive Barrel Training Barrel, found in Mumbo's Skull. The move is not displayed on the Totals screen, nor is it necessary to collect everything.

Alligator Fidget Spinner

TJ Blakely 2022-12-01 | Edited at the request of my brother

Bonk

TJ Blakely 2022-12-01 | Edited at the request of my brother

Donkey Kong Racing Any% TAS in 3:14.83 (2:52.93 RTA)

TJ Blakely 2022-04-01 | For April 1st this year, I decided to TAS Donkey Kong Racing, a brand new romhack by GloriousLiar. Expand Description for more info.

What is Donkey Kong Racing?
Donkey Kong Racing is a romhack that introduces 6 new car-based solo-races to DK64. These races function similarly to the Castle Car Race in Base DK64. The catch? You need to collect all coins and beat the course without losing any coins in order to get the prize.

How is Any% defined?
Access the "Congratulations" screen. This screen appears in DK's House once the final race is beaten and you have met the coin requirement for that race.

What on earth is going on? Why didn't you just go to the final race?
The final race cannot be accessed normally until all 5 other races have been completed.
The loading zone for the final race actually does exist before all 5 other races have been completed, and it is located at 0, 0, 0 in the Car Training Grounds. These coordinates are pretty far out of bounds and can't be reached with the car at this time.

Wait if you can't reach the loading zone then how did you get to the final race?
The final race track was actually ported into the map that would normally be DK's Rotating Room in Crystal Caves. So if we were to access Rotating Room in "regular" gameplay, it'll take us to the Rotating Room map, which is actually the map for the final race.

You said the loading zone for the final race can't be reached with the car, does that mean it's possible to reach the loading zone in the Car Training Grounds without the car?
If you actually caught this, great job. Yes, there is another way to access the loading zone, and it was actually my original plan before thinking of this route.
You can do the following to reach the loading zone early in the Car Training Grounds:
-Void out as shown
-Exit to Isles
-Get Shockwave from BFI and grab 1 Crystal
-Pause Exit to Level
-Press and Hold B on the first active frame before "boarding" the car
-Release Shockwave to exit car
-Pseudodive into the pool
-STVW towards X=0, then travel along the X axis until you reach Y=0 (this avoids invisible walls and void out zones)
-Swim near the surface of the water at 0, 0, 0 to warp to the final race

Why TAS this romhack?
GloriousLiar put a ton of effort into making a couple different romhacks over the past year or so, and I thought it would be really cool to show off his creation, and also give thanks to his work by TASing a romhack that he developed.

What is this texture spiking?
Good ol' bone displacement. This is an issue that has plagued emulated DK64 forever, but normally isn't seen nowadays thanks to a fix that Isotarge found. That fix, however, is only implemented if the game detected is Base DK64. Since this is a romhack, that fix isn't applied here.

Did I just hear Lanky?
That's the car horn, don't worry about it.

Why do you play as DK instead of any of the other Kongs?
I seriously considered tagging Diddy as a reference to Diddy Kong Racing, but the romhack is literally called Donkey Kong Racing, so I figured staying as DK would make more sense. That aside, the only real differences are in character size. Larger characters like Chunky have trouble getting into some spaces. Even DK was a bit of a struggle in one spot, but it doesn't stop DK from being able to solo everything, so I just use DK because tagging would be slower.

April 1st TAS playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCPTVU3zWuzwsHG22j66tyGj_-mFZJa1

Created using Bizhawk 1.13.2
Rerecord Count: 1091
Recording Date: April 1st, 2022
TAS Timing: 3:14.83
RTA Timing: 2:52.93

Donkey Kong Racing 100% TAS in 15:12.10 (14:50.20 RTA)

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Elite 4 Round 3 Glitchless in 4:51:17

TJ Blakely 2022-01-05 | PB as of 1/5/2022. All music played in this run is from Xenoblade Chronicles/Xenoblade Chronicles 2/Xenoblade Chronicles Future Connected/Xenoblade Chronicles Torna the Golden Country.

Hit 1 spinner in Snowpoint Gym, 2 in postgame areas.

My notes for Lucian 2 were missing a second X SpA for some reason so that was fun...

Only E4 that crit killed me was Aaron Round 3 which was cool.

No spinners/crit kills this run is a ~4:45 which could be improved if I cleaned up my menus and movement.

Optimally I think this run is about 30 minutes longer than E4R2, which comes from Stark Mountain stuff + actually beating Round 3. -- Watch live at twitch.tv/tjblakely

Klobber Hovering

TJ Blakely 2021-04-04 | "Someone probably knows this but I didn't."

By shooting your gun at a Klobber (Green Kremling in the brown barrel) while it is charging at you, the Klobber will be knocked back and gain a small height boost. This allows for some fun interactions like forcing the Klobber to hover up to areas it normally shouldn't be in.

I doubt this is very useful, unless you need a tall hitbox for some reason, since Klobbers have a hitbox ~double their natural height.

[Live Commentary + Chat Reaction] Donkey Kong Snap DELUXE TAS in 1:07:34.85 (1:07:02.77 RTA)

TJ Blakely 2021-04-02 | Uncommentated Version here: youtube.com/watch?v=nZOUclVO3ys
For April 1st this year, I decided to take a picture of every enemy, friendly, and playable character. Expand description for more info.

What's so important about taking pictures of every enemy, friendly, and playable character?
Quite honestly? Nothing. Taking pictures of anything that isn't a Banana Fairy results in...wasted film and nothing else. You do get an interesting filter applied to the pictures though, which is cool.

Why TAS this category?
A long time ago, back in 2015, I routed a category called Donkey Kong Snap with GloriousLiar. The goal of that category was to take a picture of each cluster of bats/butterflies/fish, as well as some other animals like the Light Fish in Galleon and Squawks holding the Spotlight in Fungi who followed you around when near them/in the same area as them (I refer to these animals as FFAs, or Follow Friendly Animals). I ran this category myself sometime in 2020 (link at the bottom of the description) after finding a couple FFAs that we previously missed. Naturally, the next step was to take a picture of EVERYTHING ELSE, so here we are.

Why did the video turn Black and White?
I was using a camera hack to show what was going on. To denote the camera hack being used, I added a Black and White filter over the section of the affected footage. Had I not used this camera hack, you would only have seen the Tag Barrel screen spinning around and around. Nothing else.

How did you pull out the camera in [Boss Fight]?
I was using a *literal* camera hack to...well...use the camera. I didn't want to leave bosses out, especially when they have some crazy good animations that are 110% worth photographing!

How did you spawn a Red Klaptrap?
There is an unused Red Klaptrap spawner in that little tunnel. I activated it by finding the address in RAM and changing it from inactive to active, or 00 to 02.

Why are you using such an old version of Bizhawk?
Without getting too technical, the newer versions emulate DK64 worse than the older version that I used. If you play on the newer versions of Bizhawk, you will notice that large chunks of worlds like Galleon, Caves, and Castle will be missing until you try to "enter" the missing chunk, at which point the missing chunk will load and the previous chunk will now be missing. It's really annoying visually and it just isn't worth using.

Special thanks to:
Isotarge, for creating both the camera hack and the *literal* camera hack, allowing me to create this TAS.
GloriousLiar, for feedback and superior knowledge of object sentience.
Mittenz, for feedback and coming up with the idea to distribute an album of the snapped pictures (album coming soon )
Ballaam, for information on how to spawn the Red Klaptrap, and the database of enemy and character locations which massively reduced the time it took me to find everything.
Everyone who voted in my Twitter poll: twitter.com/TJBlakely_/status...
Outlaw, my co-commentator for the Livestream

April 1st TAS playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCPTVU3zWuzwsHG22j66tyGj_-mFZJa1

Created using Bizhawk 1.13.2
Rerecord Count: 16,209
Recording Date: March 15th, 2021 - March 31st, 2021
TAS Timing: 1:07:34.85
RTA Timing: 1:07:02.77

My 38 FFAs Speedrun: youtu.be/fChHlK9cN-U

[Uncommentated] Donkey Kong Snap DELUXE TAS in 1:07:34.85 (1:07:02.77 RTA)

TJ Blakely 2021-04-02 | Live Commentary Version here: youtu.be/kGE3x1F6JPQ
For April 1st this year, I decided to take a picture of every enemy, friendly, and playable character. Expand description for more info.

What's so important about taking pictures of every enemy, friendly, and playable character?
Quite honestly? Nothing. Taking pictures of anything that isn't a Banana Fairy results in...wasted film and nothing else. You do get an interesting filter applied to the pictures though, which is cool.

Why TAS this category?
A long time ago, back in 2015, I routed a category called Donkey Kong Snap with GloriousLiar. The goal of that category was to take a picture of each cluster of bats/butterflies/fish, as well as some other animals like the Light Fish in Galleon and Squawks holding the Spotlight in Fungi who followed you around when near them/in the same area as them (I refer to these animals as FFAs, or Follow Friendly Animals). I ran this category myself sometime in 2020 (link at the bottom of the description) after finding a couple FFAs that we previously missed. Naturally, the next step was to take a picture of EVERYTHING ELSE, so here we are.

Why did the video turn Black and White?
I was using a camera hack to show what was going on. To denote the camera hack being used, I added a Black and White filter over the section of the affected footage. Had I not used this camera hack, you would only have seen the Tag Barrel screen spinning around and around. Nothing else.

How did you pull out the camera in [Boss Fight]?
I was using a *literal* camera hack to...well...use the camera. I didn't want to leave bosses out, especially when they have some crazy good animations that are 110% worth photographing!

How did you spawn a Red Klaptrap?
There is an unused Red Klaptrap spawner in that little tunnel. I activated it by finding the address in RAM and changing it from inactive to active, or 00 to 02.

Why are you using such an old version of Bizhawk?
Without getting too technical, the newer versions emulate DK64 worse than the older version that I used. If you play on the newer versions of Bizhawk, you will notice that large chunks of worlds like Galleon, Caves, and Castle will be missing until you try to "enter" the missing chunk, at which point the missing chunk will load and the previous chunk will now be missing. It's really annoying visually and it just isn't worth using.

Special thanks to:
Isotarge, for creating both the camera hack and the *literal* camera hack, allowing me to create this TAS.
GloriousLiar, for feedback and superior knowledge of object sentience.
Mittenz, for feedback and coming up with the idea to distribute an album of the snapped pictures (album coming soon )
Ballaam, for information on how to spawn the Red Klaptrap, and the database of enemy and character locations which massively reduced the time it took me to find everything.
Everyone who voted in my Twitter poll: twitter.com/TJBlakely_/status/1374852616501403650?s=20

April 1st TAS playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCPTVU3zWuzwsHG22j66tyGj_-mFZJa1

Created using Bizhawk 1.13.2
Rerecord Count: 16,209
Recording Date: March 15th, 2021 - March 31st, 2021
TAS Timing: 1:07:34.85
RTA Timing: 1:07:02.77

My 38 FFAs Speedrun: youtu.be/fChHlK9cN-U

Comparing Diamond and Pearl Remake Attack Animations VS. Sword and Shield Attack Animations

TJ Blakely 2021-02-26 | I was curious.

SwSh Footage is my own
DP Remake Footage butchered from youtube.com/watch?v=BjCwUk06ZSk

-No Croagunk because I have Sword, not Shield
-No Porygon-Z because I haven't bothered trading for one

XCDE: Arts Inheritance Updates

TJ Blakely 2021-01-20 | A follow-up to my previous video. This video focuses on resources (publicly available in description) that I didn't know about when I made my first video, new discoveries regarding Arts Inheritance, and a warning about a system issue that I've run into before.

RESOURCES:
XenoPlayed's Written Guide: docs.google.com/document/d/1a2nB9V-1Sg1JksTR5B2p2sHv0JtI-GaV0dAtrMRTCSQ/edit?usp=sharing
XenoPlayed's Arts Inheritance Table: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ryDmoF1dK10OVnhg0A2EOEVYrcN3muCGIrBPZuGsTUs/edit?usp=sharing
Hyper T's Blog Post: hyperts.net/xenobladede-newtech4
Test's Appearance Rates Chart: twitter.com/testAccount8192/status/1346030899381485569
Translated Versions of Hyper T and Test's Charts: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uhCCWGdLLvLDe-s2D3-iv-RVtR5rGnFRYpHFSalvpF0/edit?usp=sharing

BIG THANK YOU TO:
ArcheKnight: twitter.com/arche_knight
XenoPlayed: twitter.com/PlayedXeno
Hyper T: twitter.com/hyperT7s
Test: twitter.com/testAccount8192
AppleMarimo: twitter.com/applemarimo
Miiks: youtube.com/channel/UCGFScRzLX-XVbVSCHuc9DRA
and You, for watching and being interested in Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition.

XCDE Alt Team: Sharla Melia Seven Speedrun in 6:08:22

TJ Blakely 2020-12-23 | This'll be my first attempt at an Alternate Team Speedrun. Codename: Girl Power

Open the Description to see answers to questions you may or may not have about this run.

Q: Are you going to beat the game in one sitting?
A: Yes, unless I'm not feeling well physically or mentally.

Q: What does "alternate team" mean?
A: It means I am using a team which is not the regular/fastest known team (Shulk Reyn Dunban).

Q: What made you want to do this?
A: I've planned on doing an alternative team run forever, just to see how different team combinations handle different bosses.

Q: How did you get to Level 50? I thought this was patched?
A: I'm running on an older version and I have disconnected my Switch from all Internet sources to avoid updating.

Q: Are there any bosses which are drastically different?
A: Yes. Almost all of them because the team that I will be running can't really use damage based Chain Attacks.

Q: How good is this team combination?
A: This is probably one of the worst team combinations that you could possibly run, if I'm being honest.

Q: How is the team handled before getting all 3 members?
A: If I have any of the characters mentioned by name in the Alternate Team (Sharla, Melia, Seven) in my party, I MUST use them in mandatory battles. I'm allowing myself to just have the characters in party, and not requiring myself to play as them because forcing myself to play as Sharla through Ether Mine means I'm at the mercy of waiting for Shulk to use Enchant. This would just pointlessly bloat the time and make it a worse viewing experience as well, thus my decision.

Q: Only mandatory battles? Why not all battles?
A: This would make grinding extremely miserable for any team that doesn't include Melia. Again, this would needlessly bloat the time it takes to complete the run for no real reason.
A2: Let's say I was to attempt to grind without using Melia. This would probably include farming a bunch of EXP Up V (or whatever the highest tier is that I can purchase) Gems from the Noponsage, farming/finding weapons with 3 slots (ideally) to use these gems, then most likely farming a 30% Respawn Chance Unique Monster until I can progress through Central Factory. I would have to resume grinding in Agniratha to hit ~Level 67/68 (also probably using a 30% Respawn Chance Unique), then resume story. Grind up to 70 minimum (also probably using a 30% Respawn Chance Unique) to "pay for my insolence", then grind in the final area to hit ~75 (also probably using a 30% Respawn Chance Unique) before going through the gauntlet at the end. This just doesn't sound fun. The amount of time it takes to get the EXP Up Gems alone would be at least half an hour, and that doesn't even get me any actual experience. I'm sure you can understand why this wouldn't be a great idea when I'm trying to complete this in a single sitting.

Q: Will you be using the Time Trial Glitch?
A: No. I wanted to make this run as comparable to my Shulk Reyn Dunban run as possible in terms of time, which means no Time Trial Glitch. To add to this, there are only ~3 teams that can use the Time Trial Glitch to their benefit (Lv 80, 90, 99 teams), and I feel like it would be a super unfair comparison to only let those 3 use it, so I've banned the Time Trial Glitch because of this.

Q: How much slower do you think this is compared to the fastest known team (Shulk Reyn Dunban)?
A: (This answer was added after stream) About 40 minutes slower, based on the mistakes that I made in this run. If I were to grind out the menus for a week straight and get decent luck on boss fights, I could see this going down to a 5:55ish time.

XCDE Alternate Team: Sharla Melia Seven

TJ Blakely 2020-12-23 | This'll be my first attempt at an alternative team Speedrun. Codename: Girl Power

Q: Are you going to beat the game in one sitting?
A: Yes, unless I'm not feeling well physically or mentally.

Q: What does "alternative team" mean?
A: It means I am using a team which is not the regular/fastest known team (Shulk Reyn Dunban).

Q: What made you want to do this?
A: I've planned on doing an alternative team run forever, just to see how different team combinations handle different bosses.

Q: Are there any bosses which are drastically different?
A: Yes. Almost all of them because the team that I will be running can't really use damage based Chain Attacks.

Q: How good is this team combination?
A: This is probably one of the worst team combinations that you could possibly run, if I'm being honest.

Q: Will you be using the Time Trial Glitch?
A: No. I wanted to make this run as comparable to my Shulk Reyn Dunban run as possible in terms of time, which means no Time Trial Glitch. To add to this, there are only ~3 teams that can use the Time Trial Glitch to their benefit (Lv 80, 90, 99 teams), and I feel like it would be a super unfair comparison to only let those 3 use it, so I've banned the Time Trial Glitch because of this.

Pokemon Sword: Marowak Alt Main in 5:10:04

TJ Blakely 2020-12-04 | Done as a race with Eegl. This was completely unrouted but very enjoyable. Uses the Crown Tundra DLC Dynamax Lair exploit to get a Level 65 Poke before leaving Motostoke. -- Watch live at twitch.tv/tjblakely

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Plus Speedrun in 2:55:43

TJ Blakely 2020-11-29 | Date recorded: Friday, November 27, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game Plus" and ends on killing blow on final boss.

A couple spots of bad luck but overall good enough for me to put down.

IMPORTANT: This may not be the optimal setup in terms of Arts Inherited, Team Comp, or Gems. There could very well be other things that I'm missing or crazy combos that I wasn't able to get through Arts Inheritance (Final Cross Melia, Mind Blast Riki, etc.). Please do not assume that this is the absolute lowest this category can go - for all I know, playing as Melia could be the best.

Extra notes:
Shulk: having Inherited Arts on Shulk was useful for One Hit Kills through the Mechon sections since all Anti-Mechon weapons are weaker than regular weapons. The Monado III allowing for guaranteed critical hits and the highest weapon damage in the game helps a ton. The downside to Shulk is that his attack animations are kinda slow. He has the best fall damage and "put weapon away" animations though.

Reyn: Very high weapon damage allowing for more One Hit Kills. Slowish attack animations, bad fall damage animation, decent "put weapon away" animation. Magnum Charge is limited by his Talent Gauge making Reyn less useful than most other members in end game fights.

Dunban: Very high weapon damage allowing for more One Hit Kills. You can count the amount of fast attack animations Dunban has on one hand. Mostly slow attack animations, bad fall damage animation, bad "put weapon away" animation. Dunban could potentially be good as a lead with Gale Slash animation Buster spam, but I didn't use him because he just felt slow to use compared to others. I think Arts Inheritance on Dunban is a wasted slot if you only use him in Prologue.

Sharla: Very high weapon damage allowing for more One Hit Kills. Best character in terms of attack animations. Decent fall damage animation, terrible "put weapon away" animation. I believe Sharla is the best late/end game (yes, even over Shulk who has guaranteed crits) because of full access to First Attack Plus 150%, Berserker, Shadow Eye, Magnum Charge, Second Gear (wasn't able to get Second Gear...). You can use almost any physical damage art with these buffs and have it one shot most of the time.

Melia: Second lowest weapon damage. I don't really know how good her attack animations are since I haven't inherited any other damage arts onto her before. She seems like she might be okay, but I don't know how quickly you could stack buffs when you have to deal with her summoning animations. Bad fall damage animation, good "put weapon away" animation. I didn't inherit arts onto her because she's only required for 2 fights in High Entia Tomb.

Riki: Decent weapon damage, but still bottom 3. Though Riki has pretty slow/laggy attack animations across the board, his one strength is the multi hit Tantrum animation (shares same index as Mind Blast, Final Cross). Bad fall damage animation, bad-terrible "put weapon away" animation. I didn't inherit arts onto Riki since he's never forced to be party lead and I didn't want to keep swapping him to the front, even if it would only take a couple seconds. I just didn't think it would be worthwhile when you consider the constant swaps and generally bad attack animations, but I could be vastly underestimating level 12 Mind Blast.

Fiora: Worst weapon damage, worst "put weapon away" animation, worst "enter combat" animation. Fiora also has the pleasure of sporting the worst Skill Links, laggy attack animations, and her only multi hit animations are Air Fang (shares index with Shaker Edge, Bone Upper, Head Shaker, Spirit Breath, Healing Gift, and Peekaboo) and Final Cross (shares index with Stream Edge, Lariat, Cure Round, Blinding Blossom, Mind Blast, and Tantrum) - but Final Cross is essentially unusable because of how long it takes to start dealing damage. I don't even know what her fall damage animation looks like because she is so worthless that I can't bring myself to play as her outside of required sections. As if that wasn't enough, swapping out her talent art is also worthless so you can't even put a good art in center and spam it using Activate Monado. Garbage character.

If you seriously read this far, I'm impressed. Good job. I believe this run is still improvable considering I made a few small mistakes and some bad luck held me back, but with the current setup that I have I don't believe it's possible to go lower than ~2:55:2x. Maybe 2:54 is possible, but it'll take more insight than I currently have in order to achieve it - and I simply don't like this run enough for me to spend more time on it than I already have. 200 hours between understanding Arts Inheritance, rolling the gacha for my desired arts, grinding AP and Noponstone, and testing every fight with every combination that I have is enough for me for now. Maybe that'll change in the future, but for now, I'm done with this category.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Plus Speedrun in 2:57:01

TJ Blakely 2020-11-28 | Date recorded: Sunday, November 1, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game Plus" and ends on killing blow on final boss.

This was my last run with minimal Arts Inheritance. I wanted a 2:56:xx without redoing all my arts again, but I decided it would be more worthwhile to just end up redoing everything since I was still having issues on some fights (and Magnum Charge + Berserker is always helpful).

This run was beaten by another run of mine: youtube.com/watch?v=1L57qy3P2gA

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Plus Speedrun in 2:57:14

TJ Blakely 2020-11-28 | Date recorded: Thursday, October 29, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game Plus" and ends on killing blow on final boss.

This was my second run of the category. Not particularly amazing.

This run was beaten by another run of mine youtube.com/watch?v=3MgpQk5iuIY

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Plus Speedrun in 2:58:34

TJ Blakely 2020-11-28 | Date recorded: Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game Plus" and ends on killing blow on final boss.

This was my first run of the category. WR, but used Arts Inheritance and the previous record did not.

This run was beaten by another run of mine youtube.com/watch?v=-oKulh3os-w

XCDE: Arts Inheritance and Arts Duplication

TJ Blakely 2020-11-03 | Full "How to" explanation of Time Trial Glitch, Arts Inheritance, Arts Duplication.

Follow-up video here: youtube.com/watch?v=YYD0Q537UuU

If you don't understand something, or if I missed something, tell me in the comments.

BIG THANK YOU TO:
twitter.com/testAccount8192
twitter.com/hyperT7s
hyperT's Reddit Post: reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/hsacyy/setting_other_characters_arts_guide
twitter.com/PlayedXeno
XenoPlayed's Written Guide: docs.google.com/document/d/1a2nB9V-1Sg1JksTR5B2p2sHv0JtI-GaV0dAtrMRTCSQ/edit?usp=drivesdk…

Touhou Cannonball Title and Youmu(+Maid Alt) Live 2D

TJ Blakely 2020-10-17 | In loving memory of the only quality mobile game I've ever played. RIP Touhou Cannonball, taken from us too soon.

This is a recording of the title screen (full title song loop), Youmu Live 2D Home Screen interactions, and Maid Youmu Live 2D Home Screen interactions. Please ignore 15:00-18:00 - I thought my capture program would auto rotate as I rotated my phone, but it turns out that wasn't the case. I had to add another window capture in OBS, which is what this timeframe was.

VA: Azumi Waki
Youmu Art: Sazanami Mio
Youmu Maid Art: torino

My audio slightly clips at some points. I'm sorry. My computer sucks.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 4:46:56

TJ Blakely 2020-09-10 | Date recorded: Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Finally, a pretty good time. Some small menu mistakes near the start, but otherwise well executed.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 4:50:50

TJ Blakely 2020-09-10 | Date recorded: Friday, September 4, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 4:54:01

TJ Blakely 2020-09-04 | Date recorded: Thursday, September 3, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Extra Notes:
Huge new glitch was found (not sure how recently or who by) that effectively cut the grind in half at the cost of being lower level for a few bosses. Though the boss fights take longer, it is still worth it as the new glitch essentially saves back all the time that you lose fighting bosses at a lower level. Additionally, this means the grind being cut in half is pure timesave. I'd estimate this glitch is something like a 24-25 minute timesave - even more if you're really bad at fighting the final few bosses.

That all being said, this is the first sub 5:20, first sub 5:10, first sub 5(!!!!), and first SUB ORIGINAL GAME!!!!

...of course, that doesn't mean I'm done. This was a bad run.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:20:52

TJ Blakely 2020-09-04 | Date recorded: Friday, August 19, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:20:48

TJ Blakely 2020-09-04 | Date recorded: Friday, August 29, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Fantastic run ruined by final boss lmao. Was on pace for a 5:17:xx which would've been insane with these strats.

XCDE What?

TJ Blakely 2020-08-21 | I was standing around after deciding to kill my run (because it wasn't good enough) and I went to read something. Suddenly, the Unique Monster battle theme starts playing. What on earth just happened? I've never seen this before, and I can't explain WHY it would happen either.

Maybe it's time to pop XC1 open in the emu and check coordinates or something. Maybe this is close to 0,y,0 and a unique populated at origin or something and Reyn aggroed it with his idle animation? There's no aggro ring around either character though, so I doubt this is the case...hmm...

XCDE H2H Interrupt

TJ Blakely 2020-08-20 | There seems to be a single frame where you can input before a H2H begins. I've only been successful with jumping so far, which is shown in the video. Tried it with the Melia Reyn H2H in High Entia Tomb, but you're too high up so you still get the platform instead of dying.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:26:48

TJ Blakely 2020-08-15 | Date recorded: Friday, August 14, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Extra notes:
I originally decided that sub 5:30 was what I wanted as a reasonable goal. I expected sub 5:30 to require great execution, memorized menus, a healthy dose of luck, and no deaths. Turns out that it didn't actually require all of that. Sub 5:25 however....

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:30:18

TJ Blakely 2020-08-13 | Date recorded: Wednesday, August 12, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

XCDE Bulkhead Controls

TJ Blakely 2020-07-26 | Lure seems to be necessary to make this consistent

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:31:21

TJ Blakely 2020-07-19 | Date recorded: Thursday, July 16, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:39:16

TJ Blakely 2020-07-19 | Date recorded: Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition New Game Speedrun in 5:40:24

TJ Blakely 2020-07-19 | Date recorded: Sunday, July 12, 2020
Timing starts on selecting "New Game" and ends on killing blow on final boss.
Accepted XC2 Money

Pokemon Sword: Lanturn Alt Main Speedrun in 5:26:03

TJ Blakely 2020-05-04 | PB as of 5/3/2020.

Lanturn is my favourite Pokemon, so I routed this over the past few days. Didn't think I'd get sub 5:30 so quickly, especially with the HORRENDOUS early game (catching Chinchou to enter Turffield). Looking at the run now, I feel like sub 5 is doable with Lanturn (I'm on Physical, Digital could probably do it without much effort). Maybe I'll run this again, maybe I'll route another alt poke...who knows! -- Watch live at twitch.tv/tjblakely

Abominable

TJ Blakely 2020-05-04 | So close -- Watch live at twitch.tv/tjblakely

Donkey Kong 64 All Melon Crates TAS in 16:21.79 (15:46.73 RTA)

TJ Blakely 2020-04-02 | For April 1st this year, I decided to TAS an arbitrary category, All Melon Crates. Expand Description for more info.

What's so important about the Melon Crates?
Quite honestly? Nothing. Melon Crates aren't a collectable, so they don't give any file completion percentage, and they don't do anything other than give 4 quarter slices of watermelon, which restore up to 1 full watermelon of health.

Why TAS this category?
My favourite 101% runner, Mcat55 (Twitch)/Mcat550 (YouTube), routed and ran this category back in 2015. This run is for him. A link to his RTA run can be found at the bottom of the description.

This was uploaded on April 2nd, not April 1st!
You're right. I had all footage done on April 1st, but the date rolled over before I could upload the video. I'm sorry. Between schoolwork and dealing with desyncs, it took me far longer to complete than I had estimated.

Why did you just stand around briefly after beating Dogadon?
The Tag Barrel was at a bad point in its cycle - it was rising, which made getting TBS impossible (or at least difficult enough that I thought it was impossible). To get around this, I waited briefly so that I could actually achieve TBS.

Why did the video turn Black and White?
I was using a camera hack to show what was going on. To denote the camera hack being used, I added a Black and White filter over the section of the affected footage. Had I not used this camera hack, you would only have seen the Tag Barrel screen. Full black, 4 question marks, and DK. Nothing else.

April 1st TAS playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlCPTVU3zWuzwsHG22j66tyGj_-mFZJa1

Created using Bizhawk 1.13.2
Rerecord Count: 4966
Recording Date: April 1st, 2020
TAS Timing: 16:21.79
RTA Timing: 15:46.73

Mcat's All Melon Crates RTA speedrun:
youtube.com/watch?v=UIVQGWZL3Gc

DK64 Dirtiest Cart + Tag Anywhere V1 in 1:58:07

TJ Blakely 2020-03-09 | PB as of 3/8/2020.
Decently happy with the run. I really just wanted sub 2 since I was getting ~2:05 in practice, so that's cool. Maybe I'll do this again? There were some issues that make me a little unhappy with it, so there's certainly some incentive for me to go back to it. For now though, I might start working on another project. We'll see how I feel.
If there's something that you want to see or think would be really cool, let me know on Twitter @TJBlakely_ . I'll take any and all ideas, though I can't say for sure I'll run everything since I still have school stuff to take care of. This offer is not exclusive to subs (I'm not even affiliate) or runners or anything of the sort. I'll listen to anyone willing to pitch an idea! -- Watch live at twitch.tv/tjblakely

K. Rool in 12:08

TJ Blakely 2020-03-08 | PB as of 3/8/2020.

Barely, but still a 12:08 nonetheless from first non-full-black frame to final punch cutscene start frame.

Still not good.