[TAS] Donkey Kong 64 101% TAS by Ballaam (Commentated)

Mornin! After 2 years, we are bringing you the Donkey Kong 64 101% TAS by Ballaam, with commentary from Ballaam, 2dos and Znernicus. This was streamed live on twitch for the reveal on February 24th 2024.
TAS: • [TAS] Donkey Kong 64 "...
FAQ: bit.ly/donk-tas-faq
DK64 Main Speedrunning Discord Server: / discord

[@inflatedego9418]

I feel like it's a testament to how comically huge this game is that the TAS takes 4 hours to beat it

[@ParadiseNigh]

I guess it kinda makes sense in hindsight; this game used to be in the Guinness World Records book for having the most collectibles in any single-player video game. Pretty sure it held that title for about a decade and a half, which is amazing considering Guinness is known for altering rules so the titles can get more competition. Edit: also had the record almost 20 years before the secret rainbow coin was found, too.

[@nintendoSara]

There is a lot to this game, especially to 101% it

[@shadefire8605]

Don’t you mean TAStament?

[@papabaddad]

101% and beat are extremely different things

[@inflatedego9418]

@@shadefire8605 ey :D

[@DarkenedAuras7653]

Alright DK64 Community. I'd like to sit here and explain the concept of a "wall". Y'all seem a little fuzzy on the idea. You see, they're supposed to be in the way, to impede movement through them

[@Ballaam]

Sounds like just a suggestion to me

[@stigmaoftherose]

I blame the devs for making them only visual walls and not having collision.

[@dk64speedrunning]

There are no walls in this game...

[@Ballaam]

@@dk64speedrunning Pointer table 2 is empty ( /s )

[@Cyborgroboandroid]

looking forward to putting this on for the next 2 weeks for bed

[@unbornpotato4497]

Fr fr

[@botulismsauce]

Aww yee

[@Firefarts09]

​@@unbornpotato449700000

[@Firefarts09]

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[@Firefarts09]

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[@shadefire8605]

I can’t believe TAS finally got around to dk64 101%! They really find their way to every speedrun out there, don’t they!

[@jewels3846]

Im starting to think TAS is pretty sus. Being so good at such a variety for so long 🤔 😂

[@stigmaoftherose]

​@jewels3846 it's OK, we've all seen the skill of Todd Roggers so we know it's possible for a human to be that good at every game ever no reason to be sus of Mr. TAS.

[@rtyuik7]

"i dont think this wall is REALLY here, but i need a Closer Look to be sure" (first-person clips through wall) "yeah, see, that was just a Fake wall...the game's FULL of these!"

[@UncensoredRhett]

I am here for BANAN and MONKE

[@bunstie5208]

So happy to see this being made, it’s truly a treat. There must be 1000s of guys like myself who grew up with this game but have nothing to do with a Speedrunning community. So it’s so nice that you’re willing to make these entertaining videos for all to enjoy

[@regalmammoth5670]

Each time you think DK64 can't be broken in another absolutely bonkers way it finds a way to suprise you. Sub 4 hour 101% is crazy for me to contemplate even with the barest knowledge I have from watching videos like this

[@DanielCenciD]

I finished the game 3 times and never see a bug, is just broken with you know how do it

[@aequitad4411]

I don’t know why, but seeing Diddy Chimpy Charge up a vertical barrier thingy (I think I heard someone call it a wall once, but I’m not too sure) and Chunky driving an RC car out of bounds are the funniest parts of the run.

[@dk64speedrunning]

Walls? There are no walls in this game!

[@shuacraft9193]

So far it’s Seeing DK landing while they’re in the game’s main menu, and then immediately throw a barrel directly at your face for me

[@aurastrike]

55:15 Had no clue the TAS actually goes to Hideout Helm after this, guessed it as a joke

[@wonderguardstalker]

Thank you for the commentary! Love hearing these on TAS

[@Jaaayzen]

Ballaam u r the GOAT of DK64! I've been speedrunning several games for almost two decades and I remember when people used to call certain tricks (like a HESS in OoT) TAS only, then people made it viable shortly after that. But for DK64 it was always like "hard tricks, shitass emulators and long categories, nobody's gonna put up with TASing that" and you just did several times. All of those TASes were great! Kudos to you dude! If speedrunning was paid as well as it should be, you'd be a millionaire.

[@Ballaam]

Thanks!

[@Balthazar228]

It’s crazy how with TBS, technically the fastest possible run is partially “blindfolded”

[@Emanfox333]

jesus I really cant look away at any moment. You have to pause or you'll miss like several things. XD

[@TurtleOSX]

So glad this popped on my recommended. I remember years ago watching swordlesslink tutorials on how to speedrun DK64. so cool to see a full TAS. Awesome work!!

[@dk64speedrunning]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@absolutetrash7880]

Saw the run on Ballaam's channel but happy to rewatch for more knowledge

[@spyfoxguy]

52:20 I always enjoy faux-bewilderment in speedrunner commentary, especially when something truly broken is happening on-screen

[@jasper7439]

Honestly it was convincing for a bit lol

[@Alexs23743]

It feels so weird seeing the original game again after seeing so many randomized versions and how they've spoiled me. D: Is it just me, or are walls, boulders, Bonus Barrels, and even the very ground the Kongs stand on more of a suggestion than they used to be?

[@neoqwerty]

The rest of the DK crew has finally achieved the same level of wall-breaking as Cranky did in DKC when he was constantly breaking the fourth wall.

[@nintendoSara]

Walls are always a suggestion! In rando it's glitchless rules so they are not allowed to do many of the tricks seen here

[@sonictrain1]

Im afraid of the potential bismuth video

[@Viviantoga]

TheSoundDefense MVP in all marathons, even ones that don't exist.

[@devinusleton6634]

ohh banana

[@MarkofWisdom]

Really cool watch, neat to see what DK64 Speedrunners and TASers have gotten up to, and very cathartic to see various obnoxious minigames just flattened by the TAS

[@WilfredCthulu]

Getting insane ace stuff to start happening in dk64 would make me.

[@archmagemc3561]

I'm surprised with how broken this game is ACE hasn't been discovered yet tbh.

[@WilfredCthulu]

I mean it's not like it's cheetahman (or a modern AAA game ;D) you still have to actually go out of your way to do any actual glitches.

[@blorp918]

Ooooh, THAT'S how you beat Beaver Bother!

[@OblivionWalkerVerified]

The one glitch. Man there is so much lore to DK64 and I am part of it

[@FortuneKOF]

Three voices all with varying audio levels and the game being loud makes things a little disorienting Other than that, thanks for the upload! 🎉

[@TobiasWhisperwind]

THEY'RE FINALLY BACK PERFORMING FOR YOU

[@Michael-zf1ko]

Oh damn, I didn't realize a new 101% just dropped. This is awesome! I like the new overlay and the idea of the TBS cam, too.

[@ProtoDemnProductions]

I genuinely love the fact that walls in DK64 are more of a suggestion than a rule

[@finchvink]

Loved seeing this run, excited for the commentary! Thank you for putting in the time and effort to do that on an already very long video. Like, the fact this TAS took 2 years, that's insane! But the result is delightful to watch and super impressive. The audio design and music of DK64 soothes me for some reason and helps me focus, so I like to put on speedruns of it when I'm doing stuff like laundry, haha.

[@dk64speedrunning]

We are so glad you enjoyed!

[@ImmacHn]

1:04:28, what it appears to be happening is that the black area is not being cleared before drawing on top of it, so the health gets redrawn each frame, but not cleared.

[@sunname6252]

It really has always bugged me that DK64 decided 75/100 bananas was all that got tracked for completion percentage. Less bothered by coins since they aren't really tracked in any manner *cough* Forest Coin *cough*

[@asra-5180]

Technically, it's not the 75 bananas. It's just that medallion. So if you could skip the bananas...

[@Ballaam]

There's "true 101%" speedruns out there which do collect the extra 25 bananas per kong per level. However, the main 101% category has always been about the percentage (without doing stuff like duplication). Plus, from a routing perspective, skipping 25 is a more complex and interesting routing challenge.

[@xebatansis]

I have no idea what I just witnessed, but I' m impressed, none-the-less.

[@soacnsmiley3718]

this TAS was almost perfect except that it skippeed the intro song

[@neoqwerty]

I am seconding the request for an encode that includes the DK Rap in this commentated TAS thank you encoders

[@DaftBanana]

D O N K E Y K O N G

[@roddydykes7053]

I like how less than a second into the run there’s a massive moon kick. In for a treat watching this

[@Rob-ke8hq]

this is sick!

[@m_affiliates]

High quality Donk™️ gameplay is my new favourite phrase

[@wishonpleiades6288]

this run goes through enough oranges to fill an olympic swimming pool with OJ

[@DiddyKongVsLuigi]

Livin’ the dream @ The Thumbnail. 😂

[@RobbyRatPoison]

He-he-here we go!

[@SuperBazsle]

This is absolute insanity. Kudos to all involved in this. So...Reverse Boss Order TAS when? EDIT: LOL it's even mentioned in this video and I didn't realize it at first at 3:36:08. Reverse keys would be effectively the same as reverse boss order.

[@cloverwizard03alt37]

If only u knew of the Mechfish Agenda this run wouldn’t be outdated

[@KingLoof]

that tech became outdated a few hours ago

[@NastyWalkThroughs]

How does the bonus game announcer like his steak? "Wellll Doneee!"

[@bonfirelit37]

1:02:26 i fell asleep watching and this woke me up. Earphone warning!

[@SAwfulEPM]

Something I wonder about, what defined the end of WBR? What made stopping the chain save more time than continuing it? It seems like it'd have beneficial to maintain for longer.

[@Ballaam]

There's a few big things which kill it working for longer: - Once you're in a level, there's no way to exit it without killing WBR. This means that once we got into a Fungi-Galleon loop, we couldn't get to any other level without having to restart WBR which takes time because of having to re-route in another Helm visit. Even then, 99% of the timesave from WBR is from Owl Race Skip. Sure, the routing shown here saves time over normal glitched gameplay, but it doesn't amount to much. - WBR works because you're storing multiple maps to a chain of maps (The "parent chain") where the game stores their state when you go into another. For example, when you go into Troff 'n' Scoff in Japes, it stores the state of everything in Japes so that the banana you just spawned in Japes remains spawned. This in fact extends even further. If you go from the face puzzle room in fungi, to fungi exterior, to giant mushroom interior, to Tiny's bonus in Giant mushroom, it stores the state of those first 3 maps. What this all amounts to saying is that the parent chain can only store a maximum of 17 maps. If you try to store an 18th, the game crashes. There's no way to reset the parent chain without killing WBR as, like mentioned earlier, WBR relies on having certain maps stored within the parent chain. - The lack of being able to die, pause exit to lobby, void amongst other things slows down the route, potentially more than the timesave from doing more bonuses in a WBR chain. Hope that explanation is helpful :)

[@SAwfulEPM]

@@Ballaam So essentially WBR only works in a pair of levels, and won't be a net timesave other than the most excessively time-consuming GBs in the game besides. Plus it puts you in a Main Menu Moves-ish state that has some clear downsides that slow you down, oh and it'll crash outright if you try to prolong the shenanigans too far. Got it. Thanks, Ballaam!

[@Azzucips]

I actually think if you guys did the opposite with how you did the camera for TBS (only show the small sections) it would have been much more useful, but i also understand that would be so much extra work that it wouldve taken too long to release this

[@Frank_Erz]

Thanks.

[@WillieDangerously]

Mornin'!

[@nintendoSara]

Mornin!

[@dk64speedrunning]

Mornin

[@boxob093]

man i am SO hyped for this

[@snigwithasword1284]

Insulting every time someone thinks an ai did this or ever could do this.

[@spyfoxguy]

3:30:38 I hope this limerick beef escalates into cautionary fables

[@Ballaam]

Nah, it's devolved into humiliation haikus

[@ShirakoriMio]

Bismuth video when

[@Colonel723]

Absolutely incredible TAS. I may have missed the explanation but how was Chunky able to grab the DK levers GB in Forest Mills?

[@Ballaam]

GB is unflagged and can be picked up by any kong. The devs likely did this to prevent a crash which happens if two items in two different maps are tied to the same flag in the save file.

[@Colonel723]

@@Ballaam So that means if you had done the levers and moved the GB to the outside, it would be only flagged to be picked up by Donkey?

[@Ballaam]

@@Colonel723 There's two copies of the GB. One inside and one outside. Before pulling the lever, the outside copy is intangible (with an asterisk I won't go into too much detail about). Once you pull the lever, the inside version goes behind a grate, and the outside one pops out and becomes tangible. Only the outside version is flagged, and is grabbable by only DK. The inside version is unflagged and grabbable by anyone

[@Colonel723]

@@Ballaam cool! Great work again on the TAS

[@Ballaam]

@@Colonel723 Thanks

[@razzmatazzbean]

you are hurting this game. awesome.

[@nicehorn5250]

Thanks for uploading the commentary version, 👍👍

[@dk64speedrunning]

We are glad you are enjoying!

[@Shiradrenaline]

I was hoping there'd be a link to the Dogadon explainer video, but there isn't one. I'm interested in learning more!

[@Ballaam]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqWcqIh6pZijgNE

[@Ballaam]

I think YT hid my reply because it was a link (grr). It's on my channel

[@Shiradrenaline]

@@Ballaam Thank you!

[@DanielCenciD]

i love this game

[@Kosmicd12]

1:49:30

[@Ballaam]

Shoutouts to Kosmic

[@Slash0mega]

skew climbing hm, and other bugs that come with getting skewed... it's weird how much game physics rely on character orientation rather than world orientation. in the game Valheim if you use a advanced build mod to rotate a bed or chair, you will get skewed when standing up and weird physics can happen then as well.

[@jacqueshebert6445]

as glitchy as this game is, I'm surprised the items are collected through collision, and not ACE or some inventory glitch

[@Wobmiar]

Source requirement is a pretty universally liked ruleset for most 100% games. Fact is, many games can use ACE to get items, or dupes, but for the sake of entertainement and fun gameplay, needing to pick every required item from the source is the way to go :)

[@Murilo_Floriano]

Guys, a new sleep video came out

[@nonenothingnull]

It'd been nice to see *all* collectibles counted

[@sisterfister7891]

_We do not choose how many collectables the game needs us to collect._

[@pokefriend123]

It should be standard for DK 64 runners to let the opening DK Rap play out in it's entirety,, even if it wastes time. It's too iconic! And it's not like you're saving much anyway this speedrun is 4 friggin hours YEESH!

[@Atylonisus]

Dkrap% when

[@GrahamArnold64]

Timing for rta runs doesn't start until you get to the file select so it wouldn't waste any time at all!

[@DavidHeartdust]

What emulator was used? Do you have any recommendations for performance?

[@Ballaam]

BizHawk 1.12.1 was used. If you're just looking for an emu to play DK64 and don't want the emulation lag, modern PJ64 versions are fine

[@vladimirnesterov134]

Good job! Also, was making this TAS boring?

[@Ballaam]

Nope :)

[@KingLoof]

i dot know if its really 101% i think you missed that one banana thing

[@sisterfister7891]

_The game counts it so._

[@KingLoof]

@@sisterfister7891 yeah its like a floating point integer rounding error because i rember that one banana being in that one place in the game if you run in the game and go to the left theres a place right? so it a banana there in the place. the riemann hypothesis can prove it

[@frequensea9434]

Now TAD Banjo Tooie the other forgotten collectathon 🙃 bet you won’t

[@RingRush]

coming Q2 2024

[@bunstie5208]

@@RingRushI love you

[@dimetime35c]

HOW DARE YOU SKIP THE DK RAP!!!!!!!!

[@alcedof.6629]

Ohh! A 4h DK64 Tas. Meh. "Its Commentated" Grap drink and snacks!

[@Slash0mega]

2:30:40 is that a thing now? ai speedrunds?

[@Ballaam]

No

[@redtiger179]

Anyone know what they were referring to with a Kaizo DK? Is it is DK64?

[@snared_]

What a broken game. Sorry, what a beautifully broken game, is what I meant by that! Cheers, this is awesome.

[@ninatiels]

Listening to this, a friend thought I was looking at porn. Constant grunts is a bit obnoxious

[@Kaepora2]

What happened to just... Playing the game?... Why do we need robots for this? Watching DK fly the game at pixel perfect precision is cool and all, but the experience someone has playing through the game would be by far much more enjoyable. Edit: No I wasn't tracking how much is actually put into making a TAS do what it does, i'm not one for saying someone shouldn't do what they like to do.

[@XD0002]

Because some people find it interesting to see how broken a game can truly be. It also gives insight to speedrunners on what they could do to improve their runs.

[@Ballaam]

Hi, the guy who manually entered each input for this here. No robots were used aside from calculating the optimal angle (an algorithm I devised and wrote myself) and displaying variable readouts! :)

[@nicolasgiard1828]

Well you need to actually play the game to even do a TAS :P TAS are not meant to be gamming in a way, its more to show off what the game would look like if everything was done in the most optimal way possible. It require a massive understanding of the game and its limits, alongside a deep knowledge of the various tricks and glitch within the game. Usualy people who do TAS played a lot the game or at the very least are working on it alongside runners and gamers :)

[@SnapdragonSK]

Good news: if you would rather watch someone play through the game traditionally, you can go watch a Let's Play instead? Anyway great job on this TAS, it's cool to see a deep dive into the game's workings

[@nintendoSara]

Ballaam did an amazing job coding this himself over a period of years!