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Routing a "Pokémon Red Playaround" TAS - Page 1

Routing a "Pokémon Red Playaround" TAS

Posted by: ISSOtm
Date: 2017-01-16 12:03:56
The principle of a TAS, for those that don't know, is basically to program an emulator to play a game "perfectly". To do so, tools such as frame advance, rewind and save states are allowed, hence the name Tool-Assisted Speedrun. The goal is usually to finish the game as fast as possible, using glitches most of the time but not always.

Here, I would like the discuss a route for a TAS that doesn't aim at finishing Pokémon Red as fast as possible - others do that already and way better than me - but instead to showcase glitches in an entertaining way.


The goal I planned for this TAS is to obtain 8F ACE, use WTW to skip all Victory Road, then 8F-induced WTW to skip the whole Elite Four. I think winning by pure ACE or underflow somewhat sucks.

Here is the current planned route :
1. Maybe manipulate the female NPC to trigger the Oak softlock ?
2. Trigger the sprite overflow in the lab
3. Manipulate Charmander's stats for Brock Through Walls (BTW) later
4. Open the START menu after the Rival battle, just for fun
5. Go and heal in Viridian
6. Get and deliver the Parcel
6 1/2. Buy items to have 6 item slots filled. The highest-selling must be bought last
7. Set up the death Trainer-Fly in Viridian Forest
8. Battle the Rival
9. Get Oak's glitched text (pause on it for like a second, have slow text speed)
10. On the way back, get the level 3 Pidgey encounter, Growl 6 times
11. Capture Nidoking 8)
12. Level it up in the forest to speed future battles up
13. Heal at Pewter to set Teleport destination
14. Perform Brock Skip
15. Reload the map to respawn the NPC
16. Perform BTW
17. Reach Cerulean, skipping Mt. Moon
18. Catch an Abra for Teleport
19. Go to Celadon while making a detour through Lavender and Vermilion to add to the Fly list
20. Obtain Fly HM
21. Go back to Pewter using Teleport
22. Perform BTW again
23. Set up a Trainer-Fly on Route 24 using Teleport
24. Save at the PC then reset
25. Return to Cerulean by BTW
26. Engage the swimmer in Misty's Gym
27. Let Charmander against his second Pokémon to showcase the dumb AI
28. Obtain level 1 Mew, if possible we should remove Snorlax to save another BTW later
29. Set up another Teleport TFly
30. Save at the PC, then reset
31. Perform BTW still again
32. Beat Misty, levelling Mew up in the process. If not possible, it has to be levelled up ASAP since we need to deposit it later, and that crashes if it has negative XP
33. Encounter Missingno, rearrange items and catch it to make maximal profit
34. Teach Fly to Mew
35. Fly to Celadon
36. Sell the 256 cloned items
37. Buy a Water Stone and an X Special. The X Special should land in the inventory's sixth slot
38. Go to Cycling Road. If Snorlax cannot be removed by TFly, do another BTW
39. Bypass the bike requirement. If doing BTW, pass through the loading zone (described at the end of this post) and go on the road without a bike to showcase downwards movement being applied anyways, but go back to be forced on the (faster) bike
40. Go to Fuchsia to set on Fly list
41. Catch Ditto and set it up for Cooltrainer (faster item duplication than TFly)
42. Fly to Vermilion
43. Enter Diglett's Cave
44. Duplicate X Specials. Might as well dupe Water Stones if possible
45. Fly to Celadon
46. Obtain 8F. Deposit items in the PC instead of tossing (avoid wasting the Water Stone(s) and buy items to stabilize the inventory)
47. Fly to Cerulean
48. Deposit 8F, withdraw items to stabilize the inventory
49. Set up a Trainer-Fly, going to Lavender
50. Engage the guy that yields a Pidgey, Growl 6 times with Charmander and finish with Mew
51. Fly to Cerulean
52. Capture Pidgey at level 1, manipulating its stats so it will have 233 Max HP later
53. Teach Fly to Pidgey (can open START menu for TFly, teach then fly)
54. Get it to level 100 and cancel the evolution
55. Set up TFly again, going to Celadon
56. Go to the PC, deposit Abra, Nidoking and Mew, then save and reset
57. Set up another TFly using the famous Gambler, going to Pewter
58. Trigger BTW again
59. Fly to Fuchsia, this doesn't cancel the glitch
60. Go on the water to catch a Tentacool
61. Go east of Fuchsia and fight an Arbok-yielding Trainer
62. Fly back to Cerulean
63. Obtain Arbok through the warp
64. Battle the guy to the Gambler's left to get a Parasect yield (other Trainers may be faster, though, but I found none)
65. Go back to Cerulean to get it

Now what is left is :
- getting Onix (or another Pokémon to tweak where ACE will begin in the pack)
- getting the required items
- optimizing the route
- doing the thing
- being showcased at AGDQ


[size=14pt]Removing Snorlax[/size]
TheZZAZZGlitch explained it in one of his videos. Basically we need to load Snorlax's map right before doing a TFly, and due to the glitch's properties, this will remove Snorlax.

[size=14pt]Passing through loading zones[/size]
If a warp is triggered not by stepping on a door, it can be passed through. To do so, NoClip (aka WTW) is required. Then, the player must be on the title that he should stand on to trigger the warp, but not facing the warp. By pressing and holding towards the warp, he will pass right through.

An example will be given on the Cycling Road gate west of Celadon City. The player should stand one step north of where exiting the gate puts him, with NoClip active. Then, move one step down. Pressing and holding left will have the player step on the gate. Tapping left to turn, releasing then holding will have the player enter the gate, however.