Disney's Aladdin (Genesis)

moooh

Edit history:

moooh: 2010-01-17 12:26:56 pm

2010-01-16 10:31:30 am

Exoray

Alright, this game needs a run and lately I've been practicing for it. For those who are not familiar with it, the Genesis version, made by Virgin, is a completely different game from the SNES version which was made by Capcom.

I was just about finished practicing when I was directed to the TAS which existence I had missed (correctly filed under D for "Disney's Aladdin" and I was only looking through A). Fortunately, there were very few new things in the TAS that I hadn't already discovered myself so I'm still on track.

Plan for the run:
I'm attempting a run on the lowest difficulty (Practice). The main difference from this one to the rest is that some enemies which take two hits in the other difficulties only take one on Practice. This will allow you to run and kill without stopping or taking damage. Other differences relate to the amount of available checkpoints and the amount of apples you spawn with after you die, neither which is relevant for this run as it's going to be a run without deaths (yes, that means doing the full Rug Ride).

Picking up genie heads adds an extra bonus screen at the end of each level causing a minimum 5 second loss each time, so this should be avoided at all costs. All genie heads but the very first on the first level can and will be avoided. Not even the TAS manages to avoid the first one so we'll just have to live with that.

I will be using stop-running as much as possible, although I won't get anywhere near the frame perfect stop-running of the TAS.

Apart from the first long jump shortcut in Agrabah rooftops (too frame perfect) and the crazy Palace rug skip (only managed to pull it off once!) I'll be doing pretty much the same platforming path as the TAS. Dealing with enemies will obviously be different as I have to take care in managing my health.

I haven't timed an estimate so I don't know what time to aim for yet. I do have an idea of what a good run will look like so I'll just have to see what I end up with once I fulfill all my criterias for that kind of run.

Thread title:

Alright, this game needs a run and lately I've been practicing for it. For those who are not familiar with it, the Genesis version, made by Virgin, is a completely different game from the SNES version which was made by Capcom.

I was just about finished practicing when I was directed to the TAS which existence I had missed (correctly filed under D for "Disney's Aladdin" and I was only looking through A). Fortunately, there were very few new things in the TAS that I hadn't already discovered myself so I'm still on track.

Plan for the run:
I'm attempting a run on the lowest difficulty (Practice). The main difference from this one to the rest is that some enemies which take two hits in the other difficulties only take one on Practice. This will allow you to run and kill without stopping or taking damage. Other differences relate to the amount of available checkpoints and the amount of apples you spawn with after you die, neither which is relevant for this run as it's going to be a run without deaths (yes, that means doing the full Rug Ride).

Picking up genie heads adds an extra bonus screen at the end of each level causing a minimum 5 second loss each time, so this should be avoided at all costs. All genie heads but the very first on the first level can and will be avoided. Not even the TAS manages to avoid the first one so we'll just have to live with that.

I will be using stop-running as much as possible, although I won't get anywhere near the frame perfect stop-running of the TAS.

Apart from the first long jump shortcut in Agrabah rooftops (too frame perfect) and the crazy Palace rug skip (only managed to pull it off once!) I'll be doing pretty much the same platforming path as the TAS. Dealing with enemies will obviously be different as I have to take care in managing my health.

I haven't timed an estimate so I don't know what time to aim for yet. I do have an idea of what a good run will look like so I'll just have to see what I end up with once I fulfill all my criterias for that kind of run.

agumike

2010-01-16 01:58:08 pm

Oh, so you are attempting the strictly Aladdin Aladdin game. I always prefered this one to the other one, which I was exposed to first.

I never got around to watching TAS vids of this game though, and I never really owned the game, but good luck!

Phoenix3568

2010-01-17 06:50:14 pm

Procrastination Nation!

I have played this game as well in my childhood, though I must say I was never very good at it.

good luck on your run, I hope to see it!

Frezy_man

2010-01-19 12:01:06 am

bläää

This game rocks Smiley

Its surprising that no one finish a run of this classic game. Its very easy to get involved with, easy controls and mostly a fare short 2 d platformer.

I was into running this game but I never got deep involved with it about one year ago.
Anyways it would be sweet to see a run of it. "Practice-mode" doesn't sound very impressive I can tell but if you can run without stopping it might be worth it.

The hardest difficulty would probably be interesting too anyways for anyone who have played that mode.

moooh

2010-01-19 10:20:56 am

Exoray

Yea the whole name 'Practice' does sound pretty weak Smiley

I think I'll get onto a run on Difficult as soon as I'm finished with Practice, the two runs will be pretty similar so I just need to adjust a few minor things.

You have the same health and take the same amount of damage in all difficulties. All the bosses hitpoints are unchanged too so it all comes down to health management. On Difficult, the hearts only replenishes 2 out of 9 total health.

Both the staff guards and the sword guards take two hits on higher difficulties so the fastest way is just to run through them. Hitting the staff guard at the right moment will let you get past him without taking damage, however the sword guard has a larger hitbox and swing area and you'll take damage even if you swing at them while running. If you manage to perform a swinging stop-run at the right moment you can bypass the sword guard without taking damage as well. Having to time the stop-run will most likely make you loose an earlier stop-run opportunity though.

Apart from that, the only other difference is that the fish enemy will appear in the cave and in the palace (won't be a bother at all) and a few of the genie hands in the lamp level will change size (need to adjust a few jumps and wait abit at the shrink/grow hands).

Yea the whole name 'Practice' does sound pretty weak :)

I think I'll get onto a run on Difficult as soon as I'm finished with Practice, the two runs will be pretty similar so I just need to adjust a few minor things.

You have the same health and take the same amount of damage in all difficulties. All the bosses hitpoints are unchanged too so it all comes down to health management. On Difficult, the hearts only replenishes 2 out of 9 total health.

Both the staff guards and the sword guards take two hits on higher difficulties so the fastest way is just to run through them. Hitting the staff guard at the right moment will let you get past him without taking damage, however the sword guard has a larger hitbox and swing area and you'll take damage even if you swing at them while running. If you manage to perform a swinging stop-run at the right moment you can bypass the sword guard without taking damage as well. Having to time the stop-run will most likely make you loose an earlier stop-run opportunity though.

Apart from that, the only other difference is that the fish enemy will appear in the cave and in the palace (won't be a bother at all) and a few of the genie hands in the lamp level will change size (need to adjust a few jumps and wait abit at the shrink/grow hands).

moooh

2010-01-25 12:47:41 pm

Exoray

Just a little status update:
Been through loads of hours of failed attempts. I think the trees in the desert are among one of the the main culprits, hate those slippery things that almost never register your jumps correctly.

Despite having played inside the lamp loads of times I still tend to black out and completely forget about which order some jumps come at. This is the last level where you can make costly mistakes so if I make it past it, that means I would have a really good run sofar (I restart when I make mistakes costing more than 2 seconds), so maybe that's why I'm choking on that level so much.

I had a really good run up until Sultan's palace where the game decided to drop me through a solid block after the second rug segment -.-

I've also been through a good run where I mistimed a jump in Jafar's palace which caused me to take damage 3 times unneccessarily. I died in the last room before Jafar because of it, but wouldn't have wanted to keep those embarrassing mistakes in anyways so that was probably just good.

I'm getting more consistent with the earlier levels now so hopefully we should see a completion of this pretty soon.

Just a little status update: 
Been through loads of hours of failed attempts. I think the trees in the desert are among one of the the main culprits, hate those slippery things that almost never register your jumps correctly.

Despite having played inside the lamp loads of times I still tend to black out and completely forget about which order some jumps come at. This is the last level where you can make costly mistakes so if I make it past it, that means I would have a really good run sofar (I restart when I make mistakes costing more than 2 seconds), so maybe that's why I'm choking on that level so much.

I had a really good run up until Sultan's palace where the game decided to drop me through a solid block after the second rug segment -.-

I've also been through a good run where I mistimed a jump in Jafar's palace which caused me to take damage 3 times unneccessarily. I died in the last room before Jafar because of it, but wouldn't have wanted to keep those embarrassing mistakes in anyways so that was probably just good.

I'm getting more consistent with the earlier levels now so hopefully we should see a completion of this pretty soon.

agumike

2010-01-25 01:33:42 pm

Oooo nice! I've seen a Tas of this game since you first started, and they take sooo much damage, it is scary. And those trees definitely are evil.

Can't wait to see results

moooh

2010-01-31 07:08:17 am

Exoray

Completed a run clocking in at 16:42 (PAL time) this morning.

Everything looks good up until The Escape where I start off the level with an ugly mistimed jump causing me to run into a wall. On top of that I accidentally hit the genie head with the back of my shadow or something (seriously, I was not touching it). 6 seconds lost in this level.

Inside the lamp brought some more resistance by having the first rotating hand in a very bad position which had me doubt I would make the next jump so I played it safe costing around 2 seconds. Along with another mistimed jump later on this level ended with 4 seconds worth of mistakes.

Sultan's Palace went ok, the stepping stone jumping in the beginning could have been abit faster (messed up the pattern once in the middle). Also the jump button failed to register once during the long rope climb costing ~1 second. Maybe 3-4 seconds worth of mistakes in here.

Jafar's Palace went pretty good up until the end fight where I miss with the first two apples because I'm standing a few centimeters too far away. ~2 seconds lost.

So, roughly 16 seconds worth of mistakes all in all. I will probably do a few more tries in an attempt to beat this time during the upcoming week.

Completed a run clocking in at 16:42 (PAL time) this morning.

Everything looks good up until The Escape where I start off the level with an ugly mistimed jump causing me to run into a wall. On top of that I accidentally hit the genie head with the back of my shadow or something (seriously, I was not touching it). 6 seconds lost in this level.

Inside the lamp brought some more resistance by having the first rotating hand in a very bad position which had me doubt I would make the next jump so I played it safe costing around 2 seconds. Along with another mistimed jump later on this level ended with 4 seconds worth of mistakes.

Sultan's Palace went ok, the stepping stone jumping in the beginning could have been abit faster (messed up the pattern once in the middle). Also the jump button failed to register once during the long rope climb costing ~1 second. Maybe 3-4 seconds worth of mistakes in here.

Jafar's Palace went pretty good up until the end fight where I miss with the first two apples because I'm standing a few centimeters too far away. ~2 seconds lost.

So, roughly 16 seconds worth of mistakes all in all. I will probably do a few more tries in an attempt to beat this time during the upcoming week.

moooh

Edit history:

moooh: 2010-02-03 01:57:32 pm

2010-02-03 12:38:05 pm

Exoray

Okay, I just finished a run that was Way better than the previous one. I start timing it and end up with.... 16:40 a mere 2 seconds faster than the other one?!?

Knew it couldn't be possible so I went back and re-timed the old one and got that one to a 17:11 this time around. I have no idea how I could have mistimed it so grossly earlier. This would mean that the new run is 31 seconds faster than the previous one. This doesn't make much sense either since I estimated around 16 seconds of mistakes in the last one. So either I underestimated the amount of mistakes in the previous run by twice the amount, or I somehow mistimed this run as well.
Maybe I shouldn't trust the stopwatch in my cell phone for these estimated timings.

This run was great up until Jafars Palace where I mistime a couple of stop runs and take some unneccessary damage. Might still be the one I submit because of how well the rest of the levels went. Will see if I can beat it during the weekend, otherwise I'll start planning for the run on Difficult instead.

edit: Ok, went back and timed both runs with online-stopwatch.com and they came up in 16:42 and 16:40 respectively. I have no idea where I lost that much time in the new run. It should have been faster by atleast 8-10 seconds if you look at how many mistakes I eliminated this time around.

Okay, I just finished a run that was Way better than the previous one. I start timing it and end up with.... 16:40 a mere 2 seconds faster than the other one?!?

Knew it couldn't be possible so I went back and re-timed the old one and got that one to a 17:11 this time around. I have no idea how I could have mistimed it so grossly earlier. This would mean that the new run is 31 seconds faster than the previous one. This doesn't make much sense either since I estimated around 16 seconds of mistakes in the last one. So either I underestimated the amount of mistakes in the previous run by twice the amount, or I somehow mistimed this run as well. 
Maybe I shouldn't trust the stopwatch in my cell phone for these estimated timings.

This run was great up until Jafars Palace where I mistime a couple of stop runs and take some unneccessary damage. Might still be the one I submit because of how well the rest of the levels went. Will see if I can beat it during the weekend, otherwise I'll start planning for the run on Difficult instead.

[i]edit: Ok, went back and timed both runs with online-stopwatch.com and they came up in 16:42 and 16:40 respectively. I have no idea where I lost that much time in the new run. It should have been faster by atleast 8-10 seconds if you look at how many mistakes I eliminated this time around.[/i]

agumike

2010-02-03 08:05:44 pm

Whoa wierd that you would get such inconsistant times. Still, don't rush yourself

hepcecob

2010-02-03 11:37:44 pm

You could run them side by side and compare them, that way you'd see exactly where you gained and lost times.

groobo

2010-02-04 07:04:35 am

boss

Why not just use virtualdub for an accurate time?

moooh

2010-02-04 09:52:54 am

Exoray

I use a DVD recorder with a HDD so I would have to burn them to a disc each time I wanted to see an attempt in virtualdub, not something I would want to do with every complete attempt. (DVDs cost money!)

I might use one for these last two though, just to be able to do the side by side comparison.

agumike

2010-02-04 07:08:23 pm

What about using DVD-RAMs? The rewritable ones? Would that work fine?

moooh

2010-02-09 01:10:25 am

Exoray

I guess I should just go buy some rewriteables. The time spent burning and loading into virtualdub will be shorter than manual timing anyways so I'll switch to that.

I have a current run which looks pretty good, only a few seconds lost at minor places. Unless I can beat it during this week I'll probably submit that version.

moooh

2010-02-14 04:33:51 am

Exoray

Alright, got the old time beat, new time is a 16:35.

What's really sad about this run is that I accidently get too close to a genie head in the lamp stage thus triggering the bonus level at the end. This is an instant 4 second lost.
Apart from that there's really only one glaring mistake above 1 second loss, where I mess up a nailing a shortcut in the cave which adds another 3 seconds (or rather, doesn't let me save 3 seconds).

I think I'm going to prepare submitting this one. Even if I keep going I will probably only be able to improve it by a few more seconds if I do get everything right during the run.