Watching 8 Cutscenes Prevents Super Mario Sunshine from Crashing @NokiDoki

Noki Doki It’s been known for a while that if you start a Shine Get cutscene while another cutscene is playing, the game will end up crashing. Today I found that this is not always the case, thanks to the way cutscenes are handled.

The game has 8 “slots” to store active cutscenes, numbered 0 to 7. It also keeps track of the slot number of the last cutscene that started and the slot number of the last cutscene that ended. When a cutscene starts, the last started cutscene slot number increases, cycles back to 0 if it would go past 7, and the new cutscene gets loaded into that slot. Once the cutscene ends, the last ended cutscene slot number increases in turn, becoming equal to the last started cutscene slot number. Since both slot numbers are equal, the game knows it ended as many cutscenes as it started, so there are no more cutscenes to process.

Since there’s usually no way to end more cutscenes than you start, and the slot numbers are being used in a cycle, any time the last started and ended slot numbers don’t match up, that must mean there are cutscenes left to process, even if the last ended cutscene seems to be ahead of the last started cutscene. But when a Shine Get cutscene starts during another cutscene, for some reason, it ends twice, leaving the game with -1 cutscenes left to play, which it sees as 8-1=7.

Now, you rarely need all 8 cutscene slots in normal play, so the remaining ones are just filled with garbage data leftover from what you did before. When the game tries to process those 7 cutscenes that never existed to begin with, it can’t make sense of that leftover data and that’s why it crashes. But if you played enough cutscenes in the area beforehand, all the slots actually contain cutscenes, so the game is able to replay them all, although you can’t see most of them because of the Shine Get fadeout. It looks like a softlock for a while, but then the save box finally shows up like nothing happened at all!

updated 6 years ago

Watching 8 Cutscenes Prevents Super Mario Sunshine from Crashing

Noki Doki 2020-04-07 | It’s been known for a while that if you start a Shine Get cutscene while another cutscene is playing, the game will end up crashing. Today I found that this is not always the case, thanks to the way cutscenes are handled.

The game has 8 “slots” to store active cutscenes, numbered 0 to 7. It also keeps track of the slot number of the last cutscene that started and the slot number of the last cutscene that ended. When a cutscene starts, the last started cutscene slot number increases, cycles back to 0 if it would go past 7, and the new cutscene gets loaded into that slot. Once the cutscene ends, the last ended cutscene slot number increases in turn, becoming equal to the last started cutscene slot number. Since both slot numbers are equal, the game knows it ended as many cutscenes as it started, so there are no more cutscenes to process.

Since there’s usually no way to end more cutscenes than you start, and the slot numbers are being used in a cycle, any time the last started and ended slot numbers don’t match up, that must mean there are cutscenes left to process, even if the last ended cutscene seems to be ahead of the last started cutscene. But when a Shine Get cutscene starts during another cutscene, for some reason, it ends twice, leaving the game with -1 cutscenes left to play, which it sees as 8-1=7.

Now, you rarely need all 8 cutscene slots in normal play, so the remaining ones are just filled with garbage data leftover from what you did before. When the game tries to process those 7 cutscenes that never existed to begin with, it can’t make sense of that leftover data and that’s why it crashes. But if you played enough cutscenes in the area beforehand, all the slots actually contain cutscenes, so the game is able to replay them all, although you can’t see most of them because of the Shine Get fadeout. It looks like a softlock for a while, but then the save box finally shows up like nothing happened at all!

Super Mario Sunshine EYG IL in 1:10.94 (WR)

Noki Doki 2024-09-07 | 1:10 is real! Pretty trash ending tho, so it's most likely going down some more

Super Mario Sunshine EYG IL in 1:11.06 (Former WR*)

Noki Doki 2024-09-07 | Beaten on 8/09/2024 by me: youtube.com/watch?v=anS5cZwjUTU

Baby steps! This technically beats ink's 1:11.08 WR, but he lost 3 frames to the Shadow Mario cutscene at the start of the secret, which you can trivially just not get if you know its kind of obscure mechanics. His IL (and others in a similar case) may end up being retimed, which would give him a 1:10.98. Either way, I'm still shooting for a 1:10 of my own!

Super Mario Sunshine EYG IL in 1:11.09 (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2024-08-25 | Beaten by ink on 6/09/2024: https://x.com/inkstarLum/status/1831981362078941656

1:10 soon, 1:09 maybe possible eventually?

Blue coin DP18 – 0x A Presses, no savebox [H]

Noki Doki 2024-02-19 | I collect the 18th blue coin in Delfino Plaza without pressing the A button, using only the Hover Nozzle. This is an improvement over samgodro43's strat, which used the Rocket Nozzle: youtube.com/watch?v=OEJ_ZKdgLFI

Since then, better understanding of throw recoil mechanics and floor hitboxes made us able to clip through the slight bump at the peak of certain roofs, including the green one next to the police station. Note that not needing the Rocket Nozzle on the plaza doesn't actually save any A presses, as we can skip the nozzles' saveboxes by dying, just like the blue coins'. It mostly just feels more in line with the spirit of the challenge, and allows more flexible routing in case this ever becomes a full run.

First step is to get a fruit. We typically use bananas as they don't roll or bounce around nearly as much as the other fruits, giving us time to climb up to them, but it turns out a pineapple throw neatly reaches up to the flat awnings next to our destination, and with some precision, the pineapple stays up there.

Next we need to take damage, as the goal is to not only grab the blue coin, but also skip its textbox by dying at the same time. The quickest way is to repeatedly run into the jelly, but doing so from inside the tower would prematurely bump Mario into the coin, so we have to take this detour before the clip.

Then we go back to the pineapple, grind on the edge of the awning to bounce up to the top. Pausing and unpausing shifts the timing of the collision check between the pineapple and Mario, so that it now pushes Mario backwards when thrown. By pausing on the frame I was landing, the pause couldn't actually go through on the first QF (hence the "can't pause now" sound effect), so I actually shifted the collision check by 2 QF for the price of one, through I don't think it was necessary.

Clipping out of bounds is now as easy as throwing the pineapple from the right spot, but the upcoming hover is very precise, as we need to squeeze under the tower's wall (which extends down to the same height as the edge of the roof no matter the direction you approach from), then still make it onto the roof after you get in. But once that's done, it's a simple hover and ground pound into the alcove, then dive in the right spot to get one last hit from the jelly as we touch the coin!

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 814

Red button storage was a mistake - Ricco 6 1:39.55 IGT (WR)

Noki Doki 2023-10-03 | Shoutouts to Jcool114 for thinking outside the box and coming up with this blooperless route! However, starting from the crane platform as he did, we can't possibly get to the first coin as soon as it becomes tangible (1 second after it spawns), so I had to once again make this IL worse by starting closer to the coin. Like, much worse.

Since you have to be on solid ground to get the red button's textbox, there's no better place to start than the crane platform... at least, no better place above water. There's the seafloor right under the first coin, but sadly, just swimming down to it won't trigger the textbox. We need to momentarily cancel the swimming action, which can be done using a grab.

Sounds simple, until you realize there are two sources for grabbable objects (namely fruits): the infamous fruit machine, and the coconut tree on a high ledge in the farthest corner of the level. The fruit machine seems much more convenient to reach, and the RNG wouldn't be an issue since we just need any fruit except durian, but it has a special property: its fruits despawn after 40 seconds, instead of 2 minutes for any other fruit in the entire game. It's just not enough to clip under the water, drop the fruit, store the button and come back, so the coconut tree is the only option left.

Getting there is not so bad, but there's nowhere safe to throw the coconut once you get it, so you have to swim with it. I use the rocket nozzle platform to skip some of the swimming and get to the vertical crane, which is both the way back to land and the way to get pushed out of bounds. Here I have to be careful about the water surface, as swimming off the edge of it can downwarp me into the void or softlock me, but also about not getting back in bounds too high, as Mario will act like there's a water surface wherever he reenters. Despite that, the coconut doesn't despawn here, so I can put it down under the arrow platform, store the red button, get in position, use the coconut to trigger the textbox, and simply wait for Mario to float back up to the surface!

And then fail the starting Y storage. A lot. Or take way longer than I'd like to admit to realize that holding forward during the spinjump from 2nd to 3rd coin was aiming the turbo nozzle up, pushing me down and making the jump practically impossible. This was only my 4th time successfully sticking to the route up to the 3rd coin, and first time getting any further, but 1:39.65 should be possible... given enough patience

Super Mario Sunshine Ricco 6 IL in 1:38.88 IGT (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2023-09-24 | Beaten on 26/09/2023 by Jcool114: youtube.com/watch?v=oL3X2ObQeQA

Getting close to 1:39 👀

Super Mario Sunshine Ricco 6 IL in 1:38.79 IGT (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2023-09-13 | Beaten on 23/09/2023 by Jcool114: youtube.com/watch?v=RmLa_aWoOdc

Did this without Free Pause to show you can do switch storage with pause instead of the Z menu. On the frame after you land the ground pound on the switch, Mario's airborne, so pausing won't work, but it does on the QF you land on the switch, and for the 3 frames after landing on the pressed switch. The advantage is that since you can't pause in mid-air, you can mash Start during the ground pound without fear of getting the menu before the switch is pressed! But if you have Free Pause, that advantage goes away, and you just risk pausing on the frame that doesn't work in vanilla, making the attempt invalid.

Pianta 2 Instant Text

Noki Doki 2023-08-15 | By reading a sign during the Piantissimo race, it's possible to make the textbox at the end of the race come up 26 frames faster than normal. This is subject to the same route requirements as the text skip we've known about for a while, so they can be combined together when those requirements are met, which is sadly not the case on any common routes. But this can also be used independently in Noki 5 (with the boat rental sign) and Gelato 5 (with the Surf Cabana sign), which haven't been tested for this yet!

EDIT: Actually, there are no route requirements, it just always works! But it can be combined with the text skip if you happen to get that.

Inside the level, all you have to do is read the sign after starting the race, then complete the race and line up with the flagpole and the Pianta, just close enough that the B prompt to talk to her shows up when you spray her. You also need to be facing within 1024 angle units (5.625°) of her.

So what's going on? Well, the game uses scripts to handle things like NPC dialogue. Normally scripts are free to run as long as they need to each QF, but the script interpreter has a special (debug?) mode that only runs up to 32 instructions at a time, and that mode triggers based on an uninitialized variable, so it may or may not activate depending on what was in memory before the level loaded.

If that mode is active, the script that ends the race and triggers Piantissimo's text is too long to run in one QF, so it can't assign the right dialogue properties in that first QF. This is not always a problem, because the script starts running as soon as the dialogue is triggered, whereas the textbox only needs its properties once Mario is done turning towards the NPC.

But if Mario's close enough to facing the NPC, he'll complete his turn in that first QF, and since the script isn't finished yet, the textbox will reuse the properties from the last displayed textbox, in this case the sign, and start appearing instantly!

Super Mario Sunshine Noki 8 IL in 1:11.37 (WR)

Noki Doki 2023-07-17 | ...

Super Mario Sunshine 120 Shines Speedrun in 3:17:24

Noki Doki 2023-07-11 | Goated run

Splits: splits.io/ay5s

0:00 Airstrip
3:28 Bianco 2
11:01 Bianco 3
12:19 Bianco 4
14:29 Bianco 5
17:40 Beach Shine
18:54 Gelato 8
20:28 Gelato 7
21:25 Pianta 1
23:07 Pianta 2
24:35 Pianta 3
26:41 Pianta 4
28:03 Pianta 5
29:41 Pianta 6
32:34 Pianta 7
33:37 Pinna 1
36:03 Pinna 2
39:02 Pinna 2 reds
40:26 Pinna 3
42:14 Pinna 4
43:44 Pinna 5
45:42 Pinna 6
47:47 Pinna 7
48:53 Grass Pipe
50:32 Lilypad
52:51 Bianco 6
54:37 Bianco 7
55:27 Ricco 1
57:59 Ricco 2
59:35 Ricco 3
1:00:25 Ricco 4
1:01:47 Ricco 5
1:03:20 Ricco 6
1:04:44 Ricco 7
1:05:41 Sirena 1
1:08:41 Sirena 2
1:10:19 Sirena 3
1:11:21 Sirena 4
1:13:05 Sirena 5
1:16:23 Sirena 6
1:18:19 Sirena 7
1:19:28 Noki 1
1:21:19 Noki 2
1:22:27 Noki 3
1:23:54 Noki 4
1:26:28 Noki 5
1:28:20 Noki 6
1:29:59 Noki 7
1:30:51 Pianta hidden
1:35:17 Pianta 8
1:37:41 Pianta 5 reds
1:39:37 Pianta 100
1:42:41 Gelato 1
1:44:15 Gelato 1 reds
1:45:59 Gelato 2
1:48:46 Gelato 3
1:50:49 Gelato 5
1:52:40 Gelato hidden
1:53:42 Gelato 100
1:59:31 Gelato 6
2:01:44 Gelato 4
2:04:27 Beach Pipe
2:05:12 Pinna 6 reds
2:09:55 Pinna 8
2:12:21 Pinna 100
2:15:16 Box Game 1
2:16:09 Noki hidden
2:17:51 Noki 100
2:21:49 Noki 8
2:24:35 Noki 6 reds
2:26:53 Sirena 2 reds
2:28:57 Sirena 4 reds
2:30:40 Sirena 8
2:32:32 Sirena 100
2:37:09 Left Bell
2:37:58 Gold Bird
2:39:07 Cop Secret
2:40:13 Underbell
2:40:33 Right Bell
2:41:15 Lighthouse
2:41:57 Shine Gate
2:42:37 Pachinko
2:43:49 Box Game 2
2:46:11 Chuckster
2:47:00 Airstrip reds
2:48:42 Delfino 100
2:49:16 Bianco 1
2:50:39 Bianco 8
2:52:49 Bianco 100
2:58:58 Bianco 3 reds
3:00:47 Bianco 6 reds
3:03:22 Ricco 2 encore
3:05:00 Ricco 4 reds
3:06:46 Ricco 100
3:11:53 Ricco 8
3:14:14 Bowser

Daxter 101% Speedrun in 2:59:27 (WR)

Noki Doki 2023-04-25 | Sub 3 is upon us! ... and by now it really doesn't look that good but I'll chase the sub 2:50 another time

Stream highlight: twitch.tv/videos/1802782430
Splits: splits.io/ap2h

0:00 BV1
2:40 Matrix
8:24 CS1
17:07 BV2
19:28 Jak Chase
20:50 Tanker 1
32:05 Tanker 2
42:57 Palace
53:11 Prison
1:05:51 Final Boss
1:08:35 SM1
1:14:02 SM2
1:20:08 Braveheart
1:25:46 LotR
1:34:11 Indy
1:39:40 Matrix 2
1:48:33 LotR 2
2:01:41 CS2
2:08:53 Hotel
2:16:38 Mill
2:27:24 Brewery
2:33:57 Transit
2:40:01 Train Chase
2:41:09 Distillery
2:46:29 Cannery
2:56:11 Emerald

[April Fools] 4YG

Noki Doki 2023-04-01 | This video is an April Fools joke! In reality, horizontal spam-spray recoil exists in the code, but it scales with a parameter that is set to 0, so spam-sprays can only affect vertical speed. Furthermore, Yoshi's render matrix is initialized when the level loads and whenever he returns to his egg, meaning it's impossible for junk data to affect the properties of a spam-spray.

---

Early Yoshi-Go-Round (EYG) has long been known to be possible in every episode of Pinna Park, except the fourth, the only one to not feature any enemy that can both move around and be turned into a platform by Yoshi. Because of this, it's impossible to follow the same route as other episodes, so no one's really been trying to make 4YG a thing anymore.

I was thinking about hyperhover the other day, and why it couldn't work with other nozzles: turbo and rocket both need to charge, making it impossible to use them before they're properly initialized, and spray is the default nozzle, meaning it's initialized before you can possibly wake up FLUDD. But I'd never really thought about Yoshi: he can spam-spray at any time, and doesn't fully initialized until he gets out of his egg, so surely it could work!

So here's the plan: hatch Yoshi's egg so that he spawns on the first QF of a frame, mount him on that same QF, and spam-spray to gain backwards speed based on junk data from a previous level. Lining up the QFs was surprisingly easy: hatching the egg is based on collision detection between the fruit and the egg, and mounting Yoshi is based on collision detection between Yoshi and Mario, so it all pretty much works out automatically as long as you don't pause beforehand, I just need to carry the fruit to Yoshi so Mario's close enough to mount.

Horizontal spam-spray recoil is usually unnoticeable, but when you read junk data as a direction vector, it can give Yoshi any amount of backward speed! Here I hacked the initial render matrix to give me around -120k speed but just like hyperhover, it just depends on what happens to be in that memory location at that time. Once you got the speed, just land while holding a direction, and the speed cap is off for a few frames!

Back to the actual strat, there are a few issues: first, Yoshi can't redirect that hyperspeed as easily as hover, so we need to start close enough to the right direction (carrying the fruit also helps to set Yoshi's spawning angle). The second issue is that the go-round is elevated compared to the beach, so reactivating the speed by landing at ground level sadly won't do. Instead I have to land on the cliff, which requires a spinjump and a Y-turn to maneuver around the invisible wall. It's probably possible to go with a lower point on the cliff and land directly inside the loading zone rather than on the roof, but this is good enough for a demo.

Daxter No TMS Speedrun in 52:03 (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2023-03-10 | Beaten on 11/03/2023 by me: youtube.com/watch?v=0qzDc6jyJuo

Last PB before my run at SpeeDons, this Saturday at 7am CET! twitch.tv/mistermv

Stream highlight: twitch.tv/videos/1760608603
Splits: splits.io/ajel

0:00 BV1
2:24 Matrix
4:35 Hotel
10:27 CS1
12:34 Queen 2
17:56 Mill
23:27 Distillery
29:33 Cannery
35:46 Emerald 2
37:59 Tanker 2
39:51 Palace
43:01 Prison
49:12 Final Boss

Daxter Any% Speedrun in 21:45 (WR)

Noki Doki 2023-01-29 | Insane run, 20 seems possible but will be ridiculous to grind for

Stream highlight: twitch.tv/videos/1722463863
Splits: splits.io/aedx

0:00 BV1 Entry
0:32 BV1
2:22 Matrix
4:34 CS1 Entry
6:43 CS1
7:36 T2 Entry
9:08 Tanker 2
10:14 Palace
13:22 Prison
19:08 Final Boss

Super Mario Sunshine EYG IL in 1:11.90 (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2023-01-15 | Beaten on 24/06/2024 by ink: https://x.com/inkstarLum/status/1805092665673068580

Finally! Glad it happened on a 44 entry, even though it's 0.4 seconds off my best

Super Mario Sunshine EYG entry IL in 44.53 (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2023-01-13 | Wasn't planning on posting until at least full level PB but this was insane, likely 2nd place if I made it to the end

Previous WR: 44.79 by me (youtube.com/watch?v=QSrrUYTxjAE&t=141)
Beaten on 6/08/2024 by me: youtube.com/watch?v=yacYtuskVso

The Yoshi-Go-Rounds Secret – 6x A Presses [Y]

Noki Doki 2022-11-07 | I collect the Pinna 6 Shine by pressing the A button only 6 times, using Yoshi but not FLUDD. This is an improvement over Frog7ribbit's now-deleted EYG video from June 2017, which also used the Spray and Hover Nozzles.

This EYG is quite different from Frog's 3-Stu strat, which mostly followed the 2-Stu plan from normal speedruns, but added a pink platform into the mix in order to raise Yoshi up to the purple platform headed to the go-round. At the time it seemed that making the purple platform lower to the ground would either cause it to break against the go-round, or leave Yoshi unable to get onto the go-round.

The first part is unlocking Yoshi, which is where spraying was required. Thankfully we can simply use sea water to get a fruit out of the ground, then carry it to Yoshi without breaking FLUDD's peaceful slumber. I use a pineapple here for speed, but it's possible to reach a coconut and a papaya too. I couldn't get either of the bananas though.

After the original video went missing, my first idea was to try out 1-Stu, which has become the best strat for normal runs. In the A Button Challenge, Yoshi is pretty broken thanks to infinite ground pounds, but his one weakness is getting off the ground in the first place; on Pinna beach, the only ledges he can reach 0x and run off of are the cannon base, and the slippery hill that slopes off the ground near the papaya. So we'll have to resort to making our own ledges using juice platforms. It doesn't seem like they should be able to help, but what makes them useful is that they move.

You see, Yoshi mostly shares Mario's physics while he's on his back, but when left alone, he'll switch to much coarser collision checks, ignoring walls and ceilings, and snapping onto floors from much lower than Mario would. So if we make a platform near the ground and dismount as it grows towards Yoshi, he'll snap onto it. Better yet, the platform rotates as it forms, so Yoshi will start to rotate with it, and with the right positioning, he can get carried into another ledge and snap onto it as well. Once on that ledge, I can finally use the latest hottest tech to clip into the park. As it turns out, there is a platform height that fits all the criteria of letting Yoshi snap onto it, not breaking against the go-round, and letting Yoshi snap onto the go-round, so we reach the secret entrance just a few seconds slower than a top execution with the A button.

The beginning of the secret is frustrating, as the very first gap is barely out of reach. In fact, if we could dive off the peak of the last rotating block, then cancel the dive while keeping its horizontal and vertical speed, Mario would be able to grab the ledge. After some testing, this doesn't seem possible, but this first A press may be shaved off once we reach SM64 levels of science. For now, if we need to press A, might as well make the most out of it! I gather a bunch of speed by landing on a slippery slope right before it becomes safe, carry it up and pull off a massive spinjump straight to the red egg block.

Navigating egg blocks is pretty easy, they move so we can dive in front of them and ground pound for height, and they'll pick Mario up. That's the only way we knew of back in 2017, but I accidentally found out that you can even just dive straight from one to the next in at least some cases so that's nice. However the gap after the last egg block is not so nice, and requires another A press. Once again, I go big and use that A press to reach the platform from the green egg block, skipping the red one.

Then we get to the final structure, which normal speedruns climb with a spinjump to the wall facing the ice block, 3 wallkicks to land on the brick block above it, and a spinjump-dive to the Shine, or 5 A presses total. The one improvement we can make was found by SMS TASer extraordinaire zelpikukirby: by dive-grinding on the edge of the moving platform, we can carry more speed into the first spinjump, which makes it reach higher. Using a Y-turn, we can redirect it towards the ice block, then ledgegrab the brick block after only 2 wallkicks. One last spinjump-dive to grab the Shine, and Bob's your uncle!

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 1646

The Runaway Ferris Wheel – 0x A Presses [S/H]

Noki Doki 2022-10-15 | I collect the Pinna 5 Shine without pressing the A button, using the Spray and Hover Nozzles. This is a remake of a now deleted video originally posted by Frog7ribbit on May 19, 2017.

The theory-crafting behind this strat was one of my favorite moments in SMS ABC. Thanks to the pirate ships and the ramp above them, getting up to the Electro-Koopa isn't much of a challenge, but then we need to defeat it by flipping the grate below it, which normally requires hanging off it and pressing A. Well, there's another way to flip a grate: ground pounding it from above. Using cheat codes, samgodro43 confirmed that flipping the grate that way would indeed defeat the Electro-Koopa, but attempting it in the normal game would always result in Mario getting shocked and pushed away. If only there were a way to make Mario invincible without cheats...

That's where Gregoire271873 stepped in, and brought up the fact that Mario is invincible during cutscenes, such as the ones you get by cleaning a linked graffiti. And so we had a plan: stand on top of the arch going over the grate, spray the O graffiti that's barely reachable from there, and just as it's about to spawn a blue coin, drop off the edge and ground pound. From there you can simply ride a cabin up to the Shine.

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 640

Super Mario Sunshine EYG Segment in 1:54.63 (Community Gold)

Noki Doki 2022-04-12 | Unusual platform ride

Stream highlight: twitch.tv/videos/1453335615
Previous community gold: 1:54.97 by me (youtube.com/watch?v=P93juiiNi_Y)

Super Mario Sunshine Any% Speedrun in 1:17:45

Noki Doki 2022-04-11 | Featuring the worst Petey I've ever had
Also first PB I got on stream, at twitch.com/nokidoki

Splits: splits.io/98cg

0:00 Bianco 2
4:50 Bianco 3
6:05 Bianco 4
8:23 Bianco 5
11:43 Gelato 8
13:42 Gelato 7
14:32 Pianta 1
16:22 Pianta 2
17:48 Pianta 3
18:46 Pianta 4
20:15 Pianta 5
21:44 Pianta 6
23:37 Pianta 7
24:28 Pinna 1
26:58 Pinna 2
28:21 Pinna 3
29:56 Pinna 4
31:26 Pinna 6
33:30 Pinna 7
34:31 Ricco 1
36:20 Ricco 2
37:54 Ricco 3
38:44 Ricco 4
40:04 Ricco 5
41:36 Ricco 6
42:59 Ricco 7
43:49 Bianco 6
45:42 Bianco 7
46:35 Sirena 1
49:30 Sirena 2
51:05 Sirena 3
52:04 Sirena 4
53:35 Sirena 5
56:29 Sirena 6
57:58 Sirena 7
58:59 Noki 1
1:00:39 Noki 2
1:01:42 Noki 3
1:03:09 Noki 4
1:05:31 Noki 5
1:07:10 Noki 6
1:08:37 Noki 7
1:09:25 Bowser

Super Mario Sunshine EYG IL in 1:14.21 (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2022-01-23 | Beaten on 26/01/2022 by Jer: youtube.com/watch?v=84ZWdPY3FC4

First ever sub 45 entry

Daxter All Missions Speedrun in 1:24:20 (WR)

Noki Doki 2021-12-30 | Sub 1:25 was my 2021 goal for this category, clutched it out just in time! 1:22 is probably realistic but that can wait lol

Splits: splits.io/8s0l

0:00 BV1
2:31 Matrix
4:39 Hotel
10:31 CS1
14:08 BV2
16:13 Chase
17:47 Tanker 1
23:35 Distillery
27:43 Cannery
33:54 Emerald 1
36:07 Brewery
37:50 Transit
43:39 Queen 1
45:45 CS2
49:59 SM1
53:46 SM2
57:26 Queen 2
59:33 Mill
1:04:44 Emerald 2
1:07:46 Tanker 2
1:10:38 Palace
1:13:53 Prison
1:21:24 Final Boss

[LOTAD] Super Mario Sunshine Arbitrary Code Execution: Any% in 34:28

Noki Doki 2021-12-18 | RTA timing: 34:13.385
TAS timing: 34:28.300
Rerecords: 131,338 (probably way more from unsaved brute force sessions)

DTM download: drive.google.com/file/d/16t8-mEJ1VXXcXU_pOmoj3Mi5mhhWFTJm/view?usp=sharing

First, I unlock Bianco, and save before both Ricco and Gelato are unlocked. Then I enter the eel fight with 0 lives left, get eaten 3 times, then spawn the Shine. That way, the Shine spawn cutscene loads into the 4th cutscene slot, and doesn't get overwritten later. Then I game over in order to reload the saved plaza state without loading the title screen FMV, which would result in all cutscene slots being cleared.

Once back to the plaza, I start by spraying water and doing an insanely precise sidestep to make sure one of the splash effects that appear on the ground ends up at a very specific coordinate relative to the camera. That coordinate translates to a memory address inside the spin buffer, which stores the stick's angle every quarterframe for spinput checks.

Finally, I prepare for cutscene underflow, which occurs when a Shine Get cutscene tries to start while another cutscene is playing. While waiting for that other cutscene to start, I write arbitrary code into the spin buffer, using pause buffering to control my stick angle on every in-game quarterframe, rather than every frame. Once cutscene underflow triggers, the game reads my splash effect coordinate, which leads code execution into the spin buffer, where my code achieve 4 things:
- set the Bowser fight as the next area;
- set the current cutscene as the last one to play (otherwise the game would play the following invalid cutscenes and crash);
- overwrite the game's code to lower the Bowser fight's handle count requirement from 5 to 1;
- branch back to game code safely.

Then the Bowser fight starts, and swiftly ends because of the aforementioned code patch.

=== FAQ ===
Is this specific to PAL? What is possible on other versions?
Italian PAL just happens to be the version where I did my research, but it's not unlikely that a similar setup could work on any other GC version. PAL only gets more chances because each language has a different set of possible setups. As for 3D All-Stars, the glitch doesn't seem to be patched (unlike shinehax), but to my understanding, Nintendo's emulator can't execute code directly from its emulated GC memory, so we'd only get to call existing game functions (similarly to SRM on the Master Quest edition of Ocarina of Time).

Is there potential for a faster setup?
Absolutely! The eel Shine is one of the slowest spawn cutscenes to reach from new file, so it only gets better from here. I looked into 435 different setups before making my original cutscene underflow demo, and that was only scratching the surface, which is why I'm planning to make a tool that will allow anyone to help without technical knowledge by simply playing on Dolphin.

Will this ever be done RTA?
Not with the current setup. Getting the splash to stop at a usable coordinate took 2 weeks of automated brute forcing (on and off because Dolphin would crash every hour), and the next steps depended on the exact value I got. But assuming we find a way for humans to get that first pointer right, camera setups could be found to make the rest possible. The player would only need to hold the stick at specific angles and pause on the first possible frame after unpausing, a couple times in a row, with the ability to immediately try again on failure.

Droplets or splashes?
The cutscene underflow demo I made in May 2020 was pretty rushed, and in particular I said I was hacking water droplets instead of water splashes. In reality, there are two setups in the eel fight: if you spawn the eel's Shine, you'll need to manipulate a splash on the plaza, and if you spawn the 100 coin Shine, you'll need to manipulate a droplet. I got the two mixed up and since I was hacking in values either way, I didn't have to question which one it was. But in practice, splashes were more convenient to work with.

Super Mario Sunshine Sirena 8 IL in 4:27.57 IGT (WR)

Noki Doki 2021-09-28 | Probably the most convoluted switch storage setup that actually saves time, also I found out you can just put a durian next to the switch to bounce and stay in the air until you get to move again

Daxter - Strip Mine 2 Skip

Noki Doki 2021-08-28 | Now that any% is a 20-minute orgy of stored menus and textboxes, the idea of a category without TMS is starting to gain traction. That category would need to defeat the hive queen in Strip Mine 2 to gain access to Emerald Forest 2, but as it turns out, you can ignore the 30 nests scattered around the level. This saves about 2:30 in the level itself, and 1:30 by removing early flame, for a total of 4 minutes (at best).

The first part is pretty simple, just ledgegrab as far into the corner as you can, then drop off by holding away from the ledge and pressing X. Watch out for the slippery ground when navigating out of bounds here, you can easily slide into the eco.

Jumping over the tunnel is fairly tricky and will likely take a good amount of practice to get down. First I get the camera inside the tunnel and rotate it as far right as it'll go, then position Daxter inside the small metal bar that sticks out. His facing angle also seems to matter.

Once in position, I double jump and spin with a neutral stick. If done correctly and in the right spot, Daxter gets pushed to the right and stands inside the rock for a split second. At that point I start holding up on the stick and double jump right after. If you don't get the double jump, you're usually still out of bounds ready to try again. If you do, hover onto the breakable wall and hold O to get another hover when you slide off. The hard part is over, but watch your step as you head towards the elevators, for reference I jump from the edge of the solid floor at 0:39.

The elevators are pretty self-explanatory, and there's a checkpoint at the start of the section. So falling off isn't a problem, and if you end up clipping in bounds between two walls, you can just save and load, and try again.

The rest of the video is just showing the queen fight, since I usually rely heavily on the ultrasonic. Without it, 4-cycle is pretty lenient, and 3-cycle is possible but tricky: twitter.com/Qbe_Root/status/1431451671733878787

Super Mario Sunshine All Blue Coins Speedrun in 2:15:12

Noki Doki 2021-08-24 | sub 2:15 tomorrow

Splits: splits.io/885t

0:00 Airstrip
3:30 Bianco 2
10:48 Bianco 3
12:02 Bianco 4
14:36 Bianco 5
17:51 Gelato 8
21:19 Pianta 1
22:45 Pianta 2
25:24 Pianta 3
27:31 Pianta 4
29:01 Pinna 1
32:16 Pinna 2
35:19 Pinna 3
37:58 Pinna 4
39:28 Gelato 6 blues
43:58 Gelato 7
44:50 Gelato 4 blues
47:44 Pianta 5 + Pianta 6
57:42 Pianta 7
58:41 Pianta 8 blues
59:44 Pinna 6
1:02:32 Pinna 6 blues
1:05:53 Pinna 7
1:07:05 Ricco 1
1:11:05 Ricco 2
1:12:53 Ricco 3
1:13:43 Ricco 4
1:16:29 Ricco 5
1:18:01 Ricco 6
1:19:36 Ricco 7
1:20:39 Ricco 8 blues
1:22:51 Sirena 1
1:25:35 Sirena 2
1:27:08 Sirena 3
1:28:08 Sirena 4
1:29:57 Sirena 5
1:33:37 Sirena 6
1:35:24 Sirena 7
1:39:41 Bianco 6
1:43:30 Bianco 7
1:44:22 Noki 1
1:47:10 Noki 2
1:48:26 Noki 3
1:49:53 Noki 4
1:53:24 Noki 5
1:56:36 Noki 6
2:01:17 Noki 7
2:02:05 Corona blues
2:05:10 Airstrip blues
2:05:53 Bianco 8 blues
2:09:46 Trade in
2:12:52 Bowser

Super Mario 3D All-Stars Galaxy Any% (Mario) Speedrun in 2:57:25

Noki Doki 2021-06-15 | Made it! Rocky first hour, but the rest was pretty solid

Splits: splits.io/7vt8

0:00 Gateway
9:40 Good Egg 1 [53]
14:48 Good Egg 2
18:43 Honeyhive 1 [32]
21:51 Honeyhive 2 [35 O]
24:18 Honeyhive 3 [32]
26:49 Loopdeeloop
29:49 Flipswitch
31:53 Megaleg
34:37 Space Junk 1
38:36 Space Junk 2
41:43 Rolling Green
44:29 Battlerock 1 [88]
47:29 Battlerock 2 [40]
51:27 Space Junk C
54:05 Battlerock 3 [51]
57:36 Battlerock C [30]
59:05 Bowser 1
1:03:28 Beach Bowl 1
1:06:09 Beach Bowl 2
1:07:51 Beach Bowl S [52]
1:10:07 Ghostly 1 [24]
1:12:53 Sweet Sweet
1:15:09 Honeyhive C
1:16:59 Good Egg L
1:17:55 Beach Bowl 3
1:20:24 Beach Bowl C
1:22:05 Ghostly S [25]
1:24:18 Bubble Breeze
1:26:00 Airship Armada
1:28:37 Hurry Scurry
1:31:10 Battlerock L [76]
1:34:00 Gusty Garden 1
1:37:33 Gusty Garden 2
1:41:40 Gusty Garden S [39]
1:43:29 Gusty Garden 3 [40]
1:46:17 Gusty Garden C
1:48:08 Freezeflame 1 [30]
1:50:47 Freezeflame C [32]
1:52:37 Freezeflame 2
1:55:47 Freezeflame 3 [58]
1:58:19 Freezeflame S
2:01:06 Honeyclimb [155]
2:03:30 Bowser 2
2:09:47 Gold Leaf 1
2:13:20 Gold Leaf 2 [25]
2:17:06 Gold Leaf 3 [15 O]
2:19:35 Gold Leaf S
2:20:51 Gold Leaf C
2:22:27 Sea Slide 1
2:25:04 Sea Slide C
2:26:48 Sea Slide 2
2:29:26 Toy Time 1 [90]
2:33:09 Toy Time S
2:36:02 Toy Time C
2:38:13 Toy Time 2 [70]
2:40:34 Buoy Base 1 [25 O]
2:44:11 Buoy Base S
2:45:29 Drip Drop
2:47:31 Honeyhive L
2:49:02 Fate of the Universe

King Boo Double Cycle Skip (in a run)

Noki Doki 2021-05-13 | This fight is a 7/40960 occurrence, which is why it's (to my knowledge) the first time anyone's ever got it in a full-game run. Community gold by 13 seconds!

Blue coin DP02 – 0x A Presses [Ø]

Noki Doki 2021-02-19 | I collect the left sewers blue coin in Delfino Plaza without pressing the A button or using FLUDD at all. This is an improvement over samgodro43's strat, which required the Rocket Nozzle: youtube.com/watch?v=_PH3iaA-l5E

The sewer blue coins are an interesting case in the A Button Challenge: they're very easy to reach, but once you're in the sewers, the only way out is to jump or use a rocket. Or so we thought until tonight, when I stumbled upon a seam in the sewer floor collision near the left sewer coin.

Note that this couldn't be used to skip the textbox, even if we had a seam closer to the coin: Mario first downwarps (way too far to touch the coin anymore), then dies a whole second later. We may or may not have a completely separate theory on how to skip the textbox...

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 81

The Manta Storm – 0x A Presses [S]

Noki Doki 2021-01-10 | I collect the Sirena 1 Shine without pressing the A button, using only the Spray Nozzle.

Fighting the manta spray-only was never an issue (though this fight is a bit lackluster because I couldn't get a better one to sync for some reason), but we couldn't figure out how to grab the Shine without hovering. The closest we could get was by diving from a nearby tree, but the only attempts that ever made it onto the post used a jump to setup.

But now that we live in the future, we know that Mario's sprinkler spray is more powerful than it seems, as it can be used to build up some nice speed on slippery slopes. Unfortunately the A Button Challenge hype has kind of died down in the meantime, so it took me some time to come back to this riddle and realize that when you step on one of the tree's lower leaves, it tilts in such a way that its end becomes slippery for a split second. That's all we need to setup a Beyblade, which easily lets Mario ledgegrab the post. By grabbing the ledge at a specific spot, the ledgegrab is immediately canceled into a normal landing on top of the post, which conveniently allows Mario to dive without a running start, then ground pound into the Shine.

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 101 (more like 600-700 if you count the desynced attempts)

Daxter - Breezy Valley orb route

Noki Doki 2020-08-13 | 0:40 The small valve on the pipe is a good visual cue for where to drop off the cliff
1:30 Reverse queen strat found by Rane

Still don’t do gambling, kids

Noki Doki 2020-07-11 | ...

Cutscene Underflow Demo

Noki Doki 2020-05-20 | To do this without hacks, you’d need one of the water drops from the barrel to end up at a float-perfect Z coordinate. For the value we need, float-perfect means accurate to a millionth of a unit, that is 10 in-game nanometers. I’ll be surprised if this is even made into a fully legit TAS, especially given how the water particle manager likes to shift things around over time.

Since I was hacking droplets anyway, I also put my payload there, but it would be possible (and more practical) to put it somewhere else.

More info: pastebin.com/H7jutG6w

1-Stu EYG Tutorial

Noki Doki 2020-04-15 | ...

The Sand Bird is Born – Buttonless

Noki Doki 2020-04-03 | The entry is a strat I theorized years ago for the ABC but never got around to TASing. It looks simple, but three things make it surprisingly hard to pull off. First, the Cataquack has a very limited vertical range; even a regular jump at running speed is enough for it to lose interest. This means I can’t be too far uphill from it. Second, while Mario’s grounded on a slope, his horizontal speed gets cut down depending on the steepness of the slope. Since this doesn’t affect the Cataquack, I can’t get too close to it or it’ll easily catch up, toss me in the air, then walk away. And third, on most of the hillside I have to navigate, any time I’m facing downhill in the slightest, I start a buttslide that is very hard to exit buttonless.

But the climb is possible nonetheless, and once the Cataquack is in the upper section, it can toss me up to the secret area. It might be possible to get tossed directly into it without the trampoline but the fixed angle the Cataquack gives you isn’t great, and I can’t use Y cam to change it.

Inside the secret area, 3 of the red coins are too far off the ground for Mario to grab while standing on the sand bird. I use the starting cloud to get one of them, enter another cloud from below so it eventually clips me upwards into the second coin, and grab the third as the bird tilts sideways. I was surprised I didn’t even have to framewalk for this. It’s at the top of the tower that things get tricky; unfortunately, a buttslide doesn’t let you get the top coin and return to the sand bird before it’s too high, so I have to use a Beyblade instead, which uses the R trigger. The alternative is simply waiting for the sand bird to take another lap around the tower, and R is an analog input just like the sticks, so I figure this is fine.

This video is TAS, recorded on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 202

Super Mario Maker 2 - La Casa De Los Desafios in 1:24.733

Noki Doki 2020-03-16 | I usually post my Super Mario Maker ILs on Twitter but this one’s a bit too long for the video limit so I figured it was a good opportunity to link the thread for people who don’t follow me there: twitter.com/Qbe_Root/status/1219804728978296834

Anyway here’s a breakdown because this one has a lot going on:

Coin 1: I was initially worried about optimizing the bullet climb on the right end of the room, but all I had to do was hit the wall next to the first spring before landing on it. This allows the first two cannons to spawn, but not the third, giving it the perfect delay for a bounce on the third bullet, then the second, then the Goombas.

Coins 2 and 3: Probably the hardest rooms in normal play, but their exits are conveniently placed at the top of the level, so you can just jump over the one-ways.

Coin 4: This room normally has blocks around the Bob-Omb, so the goal is to bounce off Goombas until the path gets cleared, but because of the level’s layout, the Bob-Omb and flamethrower were both able to spawn while I was in the first challenge room, that’s what causes the slight screen shake you can see at 0:21.

Coin 5: Using the leftover Bob-Omb from the previous room, I can skip waiting for the Bob-Omb in this room. But the only way to destroy both blocks from the outside is to hold the Bob-Omb inside the wall, simply throwing it won’t do, so I have to take a detour to get the leaf from one of the skipped challenges.

Coin 6: The short wait at 1:49 is to give the winged platform some time to rise up, a detail that took me way too many deaths to realize was necessary for the boot skip to work. I then take further advantage of the leaf I got by skipping the flying boot section, since the one-ways are too low for Super Mario to get caught under them.

So yeah, the level is made in such a way that you can complete rooms in any order, but the speedrun route ends up being pretty much set in stone.

Super Mario Sunshine Sirena 1 IL in 1:46.933

Noki Doki 2020-02-02 | In a run!

Blue coin GB29 – 0x A Presses [H]

Noki Doki 2019-12-22 | I collect the 29th blue coin in Gelato Beach without pressing the A button, using only the Hover Nozzle.

This probably helps more with bingo than ABC, but I made it 0x because why not. Afaik this is the only way to get this blue coin without Yoshi or extra nozzles. Shoutouts to Yoshyegg for emailing me about this challenge and getting me to finally TASing it!

Blue coin DP15 – 0x A Presses, no savebox [H]

Noki Doki 2019-11-01 | I collect the coconut lady’s blue coin on Delfino Plaza without pressing the A button, using only the Hover Nozzle. This is an improvement over samgodro43’s video, which didn’t skip the textbox: youtube.com/watch?v=OQHX00IV5XY

Most of the plaza blues have textbox skips based on collecting them while dying, but the coconut lady was one of the last we couldn’t skip. It was clear that fall damage was our only hope, but there were a few issues with that: it’s impossible to take fall damage in sand, and nothing near the island would give us the necessary height anyway. The sand issue could be resolved by placing a barrel and having the coin spawn on top of it, and any of Yoshi, the turbo nozzle or the rocket nozzle would allow us to carry the height from some plaza building to the island, but barrels disappear from the plaza before Yoshi or the nozzles become available.

Fall damage is one of the few mechanics that changed fundamentally between SM64 and SMS, likely to accommodate for the rocket nozzle. In SM64 it was based on the height where Mario performed his last action, but in SMS it relies on the last place where Mario was grounded, and his downward momentum when landing. Fortunately, ledgegrabs don’t count as a grounded state for this, so it’s possible to fall from a high place, grab the ledge of a boat, hover from it to the coconut lady, triple bounce off of her to land with enough downward speed, and take damage from a fall that technically lasted nearly a minute!

This strat is only possible after both Ricco and Gelato have been unlocked (so the boats are moving) but before Pinna is unlocked (so the barrels are still present).

Shoutouts to AverageTrey for finding the quick damage spot I used at 2:09: clips.twitch.tv/BlushingSolidBatTBCheesePull

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 971

Don’t do gambling, kids

Noki Doki 2019-09-07 | ...

Daxter - The Vase Orb

Noki Doki 2019-08-28 | Thank you Daxter! But our orb is in another vase!

The Red Coins of the Lake – 0x A Presses [S]

Noki Doki 2019-07-29 | I collect the Bianco 8 Shine without pressing A, using only the Spray Nozzle. This is an improvement over my previous strat, where I also used the Hover Nozzle: youtube.com/watch?v=sZAXE-8oP3I

It’s been almost two years since I found how to get the highest two coins hoverless and planned this video. But I was also very critical of my previous TAS of the level, which had unnecessarily long stretches of Mario just walking or swimming. This one needed to be better. So much better that after hours of attempts at manipulating RNG so I wouldn’t have to swim at all, I got bored, decided to try again later, and the file sat on my desktop until I finally decided to lower my standards.

I still manipulated a Pondskater to bounce into the 6th and 7th coins, and another at the end to bounce up to the windmill. RNG manipulation on a tightrope or while sidestepping isn’t too bad since spraying is always available (unlike normal movement where dives, slides, etc. are common)

Shoutouts to scatter for finding that Mario’s turn around in place conserves vertical speed: twitch.tv/scatter I still used Y camera at times because I TAS with a physical controller, which makes hitting precise angles in ESS positions very tricky.

This video is TAS, played on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 2498

Super Mario Sunshine Fast Any% Speedrun in 54:00

Noki Doki 2019-06-23 | Not great but hey, it’s a PB! Shoutouts to the boat

Splits: splits.io/49lg

Super Mario Sunshine Max% Pre-Peach Speedrun in 1:06:04 (Former WR)

Noki Doki 2019-06-21 | Beaten on 19/02/2021 by Samura1man: youtube.com/watch?v=gSyW8zGkRT4

After my pre-Peach right bell IL, I obviously couldn’t stop there, especially after Mikan found a way to get the pillar blue coin that was nagging us this whole time!

Splits: splits.io/495p

Pre-Peach right bell in 29:03.03

Noki Doki 2019-05-12 | Timestamps:
0:30 1st barrel
1:05 2nd barrel
2:03 Glitching the manhole
10:03 3rd barrel
20:17 4th barrel
22:46 5th barrel
23:40 Cleaning the bell
28:53 Jump to the Shine

This strat was initially TASed by zelpikukirby: twitter.com/zelpikukirby/status/1055796960110698496

While the TAS only needed to place 2 barrels, doing it RTA required a bit more setup. Putting a barrel down on the box sets it at whatever height it was before it entered the space above the box, meaning we have to get above the box at the right height and stay above it during the entire fall, without ground pounding or the box will break. At the heights we need, the box is offscreen so this can’t really happen RTA. Instead, I start stacking barrels lower down. There are only 2 barrels to work with, which limits the maximum height I can reach, but I can use them multiple times for setup.

For the first barrel, I simply jump out of the nearby manhole. With the camera zoomed out all the way, I can still see the box, so this isn’t too hard. I set the barrel low enough that I can still jump onto it from the manhole while holding the other barrel. Then I spinjump off of it and move sideways to land on the box. Sideways movement is good for this because it has no momentum: I’m instantly moving when I push the stick to the side, and most importantly I stop moving as soon as I let go. Of course this is theory because I still get some forward speed while buffering the spinjump.

This second barrel is now too high to reach with regular manhole jumps, so I glitch the manhole so I can get big jumps off of the cover. Jumping off the cover is step-perfect, meaning most of the time, the window to get the jump falls in between two frames and it’s completely impossible. The main setup to avoid this is to jump out and land on the cover while it’s still flipping, but since I’m holding something, the only way to do this is to ground pound at the exact time I get out of the manhole.

So now it’s a frame-perfect ground pound and a frame-perfect jump, back to back. To make things worse, the green side and the blue side of the cover have different animation lengths, so the jump timing depends on which side is up. Unsurprisingly, this is where it gets tricky. I have to do this and land on the second barrel I set earlier to set a third barrel, then repeat to set a fourth one.

For the fourth one, I don’t spinjump off the third as I did previously because I need to set it as high as possible while still being able to jump onto it. I make sure it’s still reachable by carrying a pepper over it (the pepper was just superstition really, at this point I’ve been grinding frame-perfect inputs to land on barrels in the sky for about 20 minutes and I’m starting to lose my sanity).

Landing on the fourth one is alright because it’s hard to overshoot, but now I have to get a running start into the lid jump so every failure takes a bit longer to recover from. I set the fifth and final barrel as high as I can reach, and after a few tries I finally get to the Shine, 30 to 45 minutes faster than the upwarp!

Daxter - Tanker 1 shortcut

Noki Doki 2019-05-09 | Saves about a minute in All Missions. It’s much easier if you don’t hover once you’re out of bounds, but it takes some more backtracking to get to 30 gems: twitter.com/Qbe_Root/status/1126517948221464579

Daxter - CS1 backtrack (proof of concept)

Noki Doki 2019-05-02 | LakeTheCat found out that closing the autosave prompt with X will make Daxter jump, but not affect menus. The autosave prompt can be brought up at any time by removing and reinserting the memory stick. This means we can jump while retaining TMS, which makes it possible to get the spray gun in CS1 and teleport back to the entrance.

While the execution can obviously be improved, it doesn’t look like this can be a huge timesave, but it’s a fair bit easier than CS1 skip.

Red Coins in Ricco Tower – 0x A Presses [T]

Noki Doki 2019-04-13 | I collect the Ricco 4 reds Shine without pressing the A button, using only the Turbo Nozzle. This is an improvement over my previous strat, which used the Hover and Rocket Nozzles: youtube.com/watch?v=Gv07c-AjDPc

The Rocket and Turbo Nozzles are basically equivalent for the ABC, as both require an A press to unlock in each area. In Ricco, the Turbo Nozzle is generally a better choice when possible, as it’s available right next to the starting point and doesn’t require the Hover Nozzle to reach. On top of that, we can combine unlocking the Turbo Nozzle with a blue coin textbox, saving an A press in 120 Shines!

This video is TAS, recorded on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 1337

Red Coins on the Water – 0x A Presses [Ø]

Noki Doki 2019-04-10 | I collect the Ricco 6 Shine without using the A button, F.L.U.D.D. or Yoshi. This is an improvement over my previous video using Grassdigger’s strat, which used the Spray Nozzle: youtube.com/watch?v=8xq2oyQqcUo

Grégoire found a way to get onto the logs, by sidestepping into them, get stuck between them and the platform, then pressing B as they sank low enough. This saves quite a bit of time and removes the need for the Spray Nozzle!

This video is TAS, recorded on Dolphin 5.0-6022 with the PAL version of the game.
Rerecords: 973