Walls are merely a suggestion: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past "Full Inventory" with minimap

fmp & Yuzuhara_3's SNES The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past "full inventory" in 52:52.44 shown with minimap
I (dwangoAC) bemusedly reacted to this glitch-filled run of LoZ:LttP for SNES. Glitches include door warps, map manipulation, and obtaining items out of order. Contains utterly useless, uninformed, perhaps even slack-jawed first watch commentary. Run may include references to parallel universes.
TASBot was off quantifying his popularity at MAGFest and was not present for this run.
You can see the author's notes and additional information on this run at TASvideos.org/6... and the Lua script used to generate the minimap can be found at pastebin.com/n...
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[@A_Link_to_the_Past_Crap]

I am fmp. I think. I really wish I could have been there when you actually streamed this so I could answer questions and provide insight, but alas. I didn't know this happened until earlier today when someone brought it to my attention on the discord server. You said you wanted to have an authors' commentary. I just so happened to have done one for a marathon a couple days prior here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHrNomt-ltqtfpI That commentary is a lot more creative than technical. I mention during the marathon that I've already explained so much of the run, especially in the submission notes, and so I wanted to use that showcase as a chance to discuss some of the actual making of the TAS. You might also enjoy the Delete Ganon TAS that's in the same playlist. Much shorter and a much different goal, but just as wacky. I also just un-unlisted the raw video of said TAS on this channel if you want to see that. I'd love to see this console verified. I know for a fact that a lot of stuff will work on actual console, but there are some problems you might have. There's been some recent discussion about exact chip revisions mattering for glitches. As far as I'm aware, that only matters for glitches that corrupt vram in ways far beyond anything this run does (we intentionally avoided those, which is fine because they add like 2 seconds of lag each time anyway; the delete ganon run has a bunch of vram corruption though), but you never know. There's also the fact that RNG uses ppu hcount in its calculation, which could make a verification impossible unless you happen to have a perfect console. The jury is out on that one, but I think Pinkus is working on a small hack to have people test to see if the RNG really does vary console to console. Pinkus, by the way, is the guy who did the bulk of the map script. I created it from collision display he wrote a while back, and he continued to help me improve the script from there. I really enjoyed watching this. Thanks for making this video. Just a shame I wasn't there.

[@dwangoAC]

Thank you for writing all this. I'll gladly test this but it must be dumped from lsnes because BizHawk is not hardware accurate enough. TheMas3212 has a script that can help but you'll probably have to manually resync. If you are able to create an .lsmv file we can dump that into the format the replay device needs and do a hardware verification test. I suspect we will have many failures due to nondeterministic behavior. We would sometimes collect a rupee outside of Link's house with the AGDQ 2017 payload but sometimes it wouldn't matter. It's likely we will need a console with synchronized clocks between the main CPU and the APU. I'm definitely willing to try blind verification tests though. Thanks again for making this!

[@Pyrogore]

Interesting how you/he cycles through all of EG2 underworld with Cane of Somaria to get all of the associated items in that map grouping (i.e. Cane of Byrna, the cape, all heart chests, etc.) Glad that underworld has its uses.

[@lonnymoore2622]

hey that was my line lol nice

[@asherdevin]

This should be at gdq with the author there to help commentate.

[@radkobachvaroff]

One of the most detailed comments proves the integrity of the TAS community, the lack of upvotes speaks to YT

[@bluephreakr]

Not _just_ parallel universes, Dwango. Parallel universes functioning in tandem, concurrently. That dungeon flip-flop was about as bizarre as the game gets right there. Like, as if Link dummy-cloned himself.

[@GIBunz]

some overload and memory leaking, it's like having six digits and then the 7th digit that's not supposed to be there going into a completely different memory variable

[@badlydrawnturtle8484]

Watching a TAS of most games is watching the computer occasionally break the game when it needs to get through an obstacle. Watching a TAS of LttP is watching the computer occasionally fix the game to maintain the appearance that it's actually doing a run.

[@voratheexplorer6442]

I think there was a total of 10 minutes where it resembled Link to the past. The rest of the time was spent with the hardware simulating the last image a GPU creates before it emits blue smoke.

[@reahthorolund8373]

I was half expecting him to glitch out of bounds into a different game.

[@ae4164]

@@reahthorolund8373 Thank you Link! But our princess Zelda is in another castle!

[@DemMerithor]

The fact I made any sense of this TAS is crazy. But I'm glad to have seen this live. Crazy run indeed. I only understood what was going on because Andy had a 100% MG NoDupe run and pretty much followed this minus the parts a human couldn''t pull off (certain directional buttons to instaclip with out save-reset enemy hit variant).

[@PDsPCRepair]

For anyone who doesnt understand the tile mess, im pretty sure they used a different tile set for the overworld, dark world, caves, and dungeons, and each of those tile sets share addresses. So when you are in a dungeon but the game thinks you are in a cave, it calls for the cave tiles, and fills in the slots with whatever address is called for in the code. I think maybe this is why runners enter dungeons in cave tile set, because there are no locked doors in the cave tiles, so you can pass through them without having a key. Same if you are in the dark world but the game thinks you are in the light world, etc... For example, Duango kept getting confused when the medallion was dropping in a boss fight, but the medallion is the tile in the overworld that has the same address as the pendant in the dungeon tile set. I think... Please someone correct me if i am mistaken, as i only learned these things while developing my own quest in zelda classic.

[@JadeLockpicker]

Actually, the key thing is caused by the game setting your keys to -1 (255) in caves, so it won't display the key counter... but there's nothing keeping you from using the keys. This leads to great shenanigans. It gets even CRAZIER in the long run due to some of the absolutely rediclous wrong-mapping this run did.

[@imaginaryboy2000]

As a bit of bonus information, if you glitch into a cave-dungeon, the Big Key chests and doors are locked by the Escape Big Key.

[@sinteleon]

You know, we need TASbot to play SM64 so we can REALLY start talking about parallel universes...

[@stevemercier6691]

I need a map to understand this map. It's glitching out.

[@gypsysprite4824]

i don't think any amount of looking at maps will help you figure out what the hell is happening

[@glenmcgillivray4707]

The little I know is when you hit a map border you can walk into neighbouring maps, doing so when out of bounds leaves you behind the walls of yet more rooms, with an accurate global map of all rooms with relation to each other you can get anywhere, literally. Now the problem is that transition between maps that should never be walked between is the console has used a HEAP of shortcuts, texture swapping, incremental texture choice and similar to cheat needing more code to build maps, including reusing maps with different textures on the same map. Those shortcuts save a lot of memory, less texture files and thus smaller game assets, the problem? Transition between maps not intended to be moved between causes graphics to seriously get warped. The sheer reuse of assets in this game and memory saving hacks deployed on this game can be seen from just how bad the graphics got when running around out of bounds.

[@scragar]

Just a FYI when the map glitches out is when it's not actually on a map, the game has the maps laid out in a huge grid but there's a couple of places in the grid where there's just nothing, whenever you travel onto them nothing loads but the map data displayed winds up being corrupted because these no tilemap for the area.

[@1SkylanderKid]

Tas: imma dungeon hop here, enter glitch city here, clip out of bounds here, Dungeon hop some more, skip an animation, fight bosses backwards, All while getting max everything. Me: SLOW DOWN, I CAN HARDLY TELL WHATS HAPPENING!

[@lankymaccrazyhair264]

My brain was fried by this TAS almost as hard as the game was fried.

[@MidnightMechanic]

Never thought I'd see a Zelda item that literally creates wormholes in the universe. ALTTP is not a video game, it's a quantum physics dissertation.

[@TheRealLink]

Yeah as a big LTTP fan not going to lie, that broke my brain a bit. Always neat to see what people reverse engineer though and how they do these TAS runs.

[@liamnehren1054]

A legend of Tas: A link to the glitch

[@quille9879]

This is like watching a randomizer run, except it's the base game ._.

[@Mr.Spongecake]

The Legend of Zelda: What the Hell is Happening

[@kenpanderz672]

in ALttP, walls are casually ignored. in Super Mario 64, walls, are consistently broken through. in Castlevania, some walls give you chicken. im starting to think OG Nintendo didnt used to take walls very seriously.

[@Dyne191]

Played this game so much as a kid I was actually able to follow most of it. I don't think he was paying attention.

[@mattiviljanen8109]

"Sense and sanity is gone." *chugs down a bottle

[@berylliosis5250]

When you understand what this TAS is doing, you done good. I done kinda good.

[@Articxfrost0]

Sense and sanity have been pawned in for speed and glitches.

[@seancass7775]

Definitely check out the RTA runs of this category. It's primarily the same ruleset but there are some things that can't be feasibly done RTA that a TAS can do. The current record 1:17, and you'll be surprised to see some of the similarities and where things diverge as well!

[@thk.g00fy]

Here I am, almost one year after watching this for the first time. It might sound crazy, but .. I understand it! Fully!! Although I'm not able to perform most of those glitches, I'm currently inside the "learn glitch runs" school. Some Randomizer seeds NEED these techniques, or otherwise you're lost. Last item that got picked up (heart pieces aside) should've been Mirror Shield. In compare to current randomizer settings, the items in Vanilla aren't progressive. So if you get access to phat phairy, you could get Butter Sword for Butter Knife .. but maybe I'm wrong. ;) Still an impressive TAS to watch! 😊👍

[@dwangoAC]

As in, you think rerouting to pick up the mirror shield could be faster? You're welcome to swing by TASVideos.org to grab the original movie file and experiment, if you find a new route that's faster you can submit it along with credit to the previous authors as a new run. Awesome that you've found it interesting!

[@Kwyjibo28372]

Saw this run when it came out. Love this one.

[@eckitronix]

Local Demigod Distorts Reality To Fight Evil, Claims To Be A Robot

[@BroedgeMan]

I was looking for a version of this TAS with commentary but tbh I was kinda bummed out by this. It seemed like you didn't really pay attention most of the time and rather looking at chat or whatever. I love all your content you do for the GDQs so don't get me wrong. I switched to the uncommentated version after halfway through the video. Just felt like I should say this.

[@dmas7749]

31:30 love the delayed reaction here 48:43 Somasoa/Somaria, not Byrna, that's the blue cane

[@Jdwzl]

Awesome Tas... PS: i speedruned this game and finished it in 5 minutes

[@Slash0mega]

17:00 what confuses me the most is that the minimap dosn't seem to acually match the game. that time code is a example, the camera border dosn't match the real camera

[@thesuccessfulone]

10:54 Did TasBot just load its save from within the dungeon?

[@liamnehren1054]

awesome to see someone else just throw pots at the jail guard! XD

[@queenofwolfs1597]

tmw you want to watch a regular tas speedrun but tasgod said no

[@tiggerbiggo]

I don't watch the streams, can anyone explain what the pixely images are doing at the bottom? I've never been able to work it out watching these videos, it seems to me to just be random pixels that sort of make drawings, and I saw an anime face just appear and disappear at one point... Is it audience interaction or something? Thanks in advance, this video was really fun to watch

[@TKRuna]

DwangoAC's streams let you type in chat commands to change the color of pixels in that box - people have it botted/automated in a way that they can draw large sprites. You don't see those commands onscreen since he's filtering them out.

[@tiggerbiggo]

@@TKRuna that is SO MUCH COOLER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE! Gonna start watching the streams now :D

[@Finsternis..]

Obviously you have to do this video again, while playing the file at 25% speed and referencing the submission notes towards what is happening. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Hm. Maybe not that much...

[@Kevinsyel]

just started watching. "Your face is a suggestion" is totally something I'd said. Like, Subscribe, Comment, Bell

[@wfow1448]

@11:06 It's Helmasaur King!

[@bbbb-ii9kn]

intro Rob for the win lol

[@sevaht]

Is this minimap overlay available anywhere?

[@dwangoAC]

I'm not trying to ignore you but for some reason I can't find the final version of it. I'll get back to you on that.

[@dwangoAC]

OK, I got the link to the minimap script (although it only runs at about 15 fps), it's at pastebin.com/nAxq1YLR and I've added it to the description. Thanks!

[@lonnymoore2622]

ludicris speed . oh my god they went plad.

[@enderarrow8352]

I have multiple questions

[@Sipricy]

55:11 Hello there

[@zeldaoos]

Present this run at a Gdq event, I beg you!

[@Kamikater2]

What an awesome TAS! Especially the Minimap was helpful to not completly lose track :) I can't perform any of the tricks myself but quite a few of them are not TAS-only and are explained in the reverse boss order run from Andy and superskuj at AGDQ: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3m0k3x4g6aIi7s

[@Shadaxv90]

When did he glitch the boots?

[@dwangoAC]

Perhaps the better question is "When didn't he?"

[@fiddysplayground1163]

the low ass quality TASbot rendering makes me sad

[@Just-J-10]

Sanity is a lie.

[@fakename9410]

mute the video at 31:33 , and play the shooting star song. thank me later

[@KesorodaBlk]

Hi, Orucsoraihc! 😶

[@kaseybrown7664]

I wish you could speed run life like this. I'm 8 years old. I go to the bathroom, I come out of high school. I sit down to take a test, and it turns into the application for my first job. I hand it in, I get not only a job but a promotion. I run outside, grab a box, get married, run back inside, now I have 2 children and live in a big house....

[@liamnehren1054]

perfect analogy of what we're watching! XD

[@PK_Scratch]

Thank you. That minimap simultaneously helped and did not help.

[@voratheexplorer6442]

Nintendo Employee: We've got the game complete boss. We've ironed out all of the bugs and it's ready to release right alongside the SNES. Speedrunners: Hold my beer. TASBot: Target Acquired.

[@voratheexplorer6442]

Let us give you a great RPG. It will define a generation. Walls optional.

[@ajz2k]

"Open world". No bounds! Truly ahead of its time.

[@Lightmagician60]

Video title: "walls are a suggestion" Me: "the whole game is a suggestion"

[@illusionist9761]

The most apt description of this run is the phrase "uh... And now we're here"

[@MrSolomonGaming]

The best of my understanding; Dungeons, Caves, Houses, etc. are all in this massive grid and are connected. The glitch to beat the game in mere minutes utilizes that by warping into floors and maneuvering the grid from Hyrule Castle to the Triforce Room which is where the Ending is triggered for example. What this TAS does here is utilize that to access dungeons and items super-early and to literally blast through bossfights by taking advantage of behaviors of bosses being off-screen which is usually never intended. As you mentioned a lot of Japanese 1.0 version-exclusive glitches, much of what the TAS uses, enable these normally impossible skips and zipping all over the place. (Such as towards the end where he not only finished the item checklist with a Mirror Shield but glitched his way from Turtle Rock to the end of Ganons Tower instantly. Also colors get distorted when you warp between dungeons this way because I guess it skips a sort of trigger to load proper colors upon using the proper entrance. As for the chest opening session in the Waterway, it's not any form of duplication but rather a type of glitch to allow him to get most of the remaining chests outside their intended locations.

[@Saiavinn]

*About 9 minutes after TASbot's short detour into Misery Mire,* "Ah- but- where'd we get the cane?"

[@shingshongshamalama]

But first, we have to talk about pAralLEl UnIveRseS

[@havvik3505]

Thanks chicken-SpongeBob

[@Brimshae]

"Never get blue balls." -dwangoAC, 2019.

[@VectorKnightZX]

I love Dwango's stunned reactions to this nonsense. They are astonishingly similar to mine. Edit: well you asked for any knowledge for how it worked, so... During the complete palette fuckup, the reason he left the pendants and crystals there was because they'd warp him out if he grabbed them, making it much easier to use that fact that all the dungeons are a 'quilt' to even greater advantage to pretty much waltz in through a couple rooms, grab it, and waltz out. Also, while it's easy to know for people that are familiar with this kind of thing, it's very important to know that sometimes, the textures are messed up, so that it shows him getting one thing but it is actually something else. This is true in the case of the weird map shenanigans too, which makes it exceedingly useful to have the map on. And remember that there are different layers to the game, which, with proper fnaggling, can let you stay on a layer above most enemies and traps, letting you just... Walk through them. But yeah this run was nuts and I literally blinked and missed some things sometimes.

[@TheDendran]

I grew up with this stuff so I was like: "Oh, nice, a lttp SR, what kind of glitches will he use?" Me and my brain, not even 5 minutes in: *"WHAT IN THE F IS HAPPENING HERE?!"*

[@RoblKyogre]

Now that I think about it, any TAS can cause you to lose your sense of sanity.

[@seanpeacock4290]

Cuthulu plays a Link to the past.

[@skins4thewin]

So if you don't understand it then why not have the person who created the TAS do the commentary? I would think that'd make a lot more sense.

[@KaitharVideo]

The really weird minimap looked like a jump to non-map memory, given the very regular pattern. Though everyone knows that if you go too fast you go to plaid.

[@waltercomunello121]

Which is way beyond ludicrous, I reckon.

[@xxEzraBxxx]

That’s actually how the collision looks

[@O.M.JaYY3]

"WOW! So I bet it's gonna be hard for Link to get thru all those walls, huh"? "No actually it's gonna be super easy, Barely an Inconvenience" !!!!!

[@jonathanbarrus2326]

I super wish we could've had Andy or Chris or Patty on commentary to explain stuff..

[@zsanetick]

I'm a little new to this channel as a whole, and I've got a question about the layout. What's the thing in the bottom middle? Is it like r/place or something?

[@KTSpeedruns]

If a game like this would be made by a big developer from modern day, it wouldn't have taken years to find glitches to make this possible. This would just randomly happen to people for no reason, and everyone would call it "charming".

[@VatchGaming]

remake incomming

[@spartonberry]

AGDQ killed the animals five times last marathon. I guess TASBot was pleased with the outcome. But I don't know what to think of MASHBot. Right now it's just a DS he mashed. But can we be assured he won't become more vengeful in the future? WutFace

[@EdwardHowton]

What. Okay, question: how though. No, you misunderstand. I want to know how TASsers managed to program drugs into software. _What._

[@berylliosis5250]

It's called LSD Blind :LinkFace: alttp-wiki.net/index.php/Game_mode#LSD_Blind

[@Wakssbm]

With such a complex route with so much bugs and glitches I wouldn't be surprised if the time went down to about 30 mins. This one is so impressive nonetheless.

[@pkscarr]

OK... That's one of the very few times I've watched an entire TAS run and at no point have any idea what's going on or how it's happening... Love it.

[@noddwyd]

Seems like the routing possibilities are complex enough that you would run into the traveling salesman problem, so it's possible this isn't actually a totally optimal route either. Maybe I'm wrong though. Usually in speedrunning routes or at least runs get proven suboptimal eventually though.

[@PkGam]

If A Boy and His Blob is even weirder, I've gotta watch that because this was insane, lol! Just think too, if all of these things are possible to do on a real-deal console, a tremendous amount of time could be saved almost anywhere a human can pull off a glitch skip. Well, depending on the rules of a speedrun of course as I know many don't allow certain things.

[@deathsia250]

TASBOT: Hmm, what happens if I do THIS... Zelda Link to the Past: STOP BREAKING ME DAMN IT!!!

[@Slash0mega]

i am going to point out that ALL of the dungeons are in the same "map" so if you can walk through walls you can get to any dungeon in the game from within another dungeon

[@RobertPendell]

Rule #1: Everything in a game is a suggestion. EDIT: Also apparently I'm the first comment...

[@VideoGameManiac8]

first

[@kickitoldskool]

Robert Pendell Here’s the Crown for being first: 👑

[@catboygamer]

Wow that was something alright. I don't watch a lot of speed runs but I've seen a few randomizers and played the game once or twice myself but I can't follow most of that without the mini-map and even then i don't think I was following it well.

[@commercialchase8442]

Link, what did I tell you about taking drugs?

[@NightFore]

8:55 I'll need a dictionnary to understand all these glitches used...

[@havvik3505]

Me: is sad Tasbot intro music: we can't have that

[@mattalevine]

That is an amazing name for a glitchy TAS run imo Also, 41:20 "Stay_Hydrated_Bot" Zed, is that you?

[@Mortbise]

That... was beautiful... I wish something this crazy would find its way to a xGDQ. Kinda like the item abuse Panga did.

[@faleeppine9653]

If you ever are able to console verify this, it would be amazing to show at a GDQ event. This is just mind boggling /awesome/

[@soranuareane]

"I don't think very many people on KZbin are gong to watch this far" hi dwango

[@WillowEpp]

"I have never gotten to zora that way!" Slacker, even middle schoolers use that strat, smh.

[@TheKd8lvt]

An explaination to how TASBot was doing two dungeons around 15:00 - All dungeons in ALTTP are on the same map, allowing you to clip out of bounds and walk between dungeons (making a very *very* quick and easy Any% possible by clipping out of Hyrule Castle and walking out of bounds all the way to the Gannon Fight, or even just to the Triforce room)

[@buckiethecat]

Brainmelt%

[@Tanka036]

31:51 Wot? Im- uh- my brain committed not feeling so good. Second

[@alcesmir]

Yuzuhara's Bottle Adventure to use flute indoors and get to death mountain (I've seen that part in runs before) followed by jumping in water without the flippers which will move you back to the last place on land (the game thought) you were at. At least I think that's it? Not exactly sure why that puts us in EG though.

[@Tanka036]

@@alcesmir that makes sense I guess. But it's still a massive case of migraine.

[@alcesmir]

@@Tanka036 Yeah. Even though I can recognize quite a few tricks that are used in various glitched runs, a lot of this is just overwhelming to try to follow. The overworld stuff is not too bad, but when there are wrongwarps and odd stuff in dungeons I'm also mostly lost and confused.

[@iSmurfYou]

thats all the madness i hoped it would be and more.

[@tommatthews9638]

55:11 ...I'm the guy that did I guess

[@x.atheista]

Jesus! I've never seen Ganon get A$$F*ckeD like that! 1 cycle , 4 silver arrows one-shot! 😁 this is sick. Yet somehow i followed the whole thing. Majestic TAS!

[@giin97]

According to your video tab, A Boy and His Blob is THE oldest video, bottom of the page :P

[@ember3579]

This, ladies and gents, is why TAS is so popular. Some times, watching a computer completely nostrilfuck a game we've played in our childhoods is fun. The more absurd shit it pulls off, the better.

[@Vykk_Draygo]

I hate the bee myth. The principles of insect flight are well understood. WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP QUOTING THIS? -_-

[@bedwablackburn]

Wow, I'm not a person to take drugs, but if this is what is like to be on an acid trip.... Wowzers... No thank you. ROFL. Great to watch though with the mini-map

[@SilverKnight16]

Looks like Link is both the Hero of Time and the Hero of Space, because what the holy crap did I just watch.

[@MarioMasta64]

in the video you said the url was 6514s instead of 6154s somebody might type it out before doing a description maybe add a note on screen saying *6154s or something? edit: timestamp @ 3:54

[@danwithaplan3742]

I'm not a coding expert, but from what I've heard, the interior rooms in this game are all stored in the same area. So if you can clip OB, you can travel to an entirely different location if you know where to walk. I forget what causes the sprite corruption though.

[@CrippledMerc]

This is probably one of the most manipulated runs I’ve ever seen. I’d love to see it replicated on hardware though because it’s absolutely wild. I’m gonna have to go read about this run and the mechanics behind it.

[@renakunisaki]

My brain tastes funny.

[@covillen]

This was really cool. You should have a video thats shows how levels are normally played vs how TAS does it . I think that would be cool to watch.

[@seanpeacock4290]

I once tried to beat this game in a single sitting. The TAS beat it faster than I got through the second dungeon, possibly faster than me getting through the first dungeon since I tend to wander around to get as many items as I can before moving on to the next. I think it took around 20 hours. I buried my sanity next to my speed running ambitions after watching this.