[TAS] DOS The Adventures of Captain Comic: Episode 1 - Planet of Death by Sand & Kabuto in 06:30.98

This is a tool-assisted speedrun. For more information, see https://tasvideos.org/4345M
TAS originally published on 2020-12-04

The Adventures of Captain Comic: Episode 1 - Planet of Death was one of the first console-style side-scrolling platform (shareware) games for PCs. Though it was developed as an experiment to test the viability of real arcade games on standard IBM-compatible PCs, Captain Comic gained fame as one of the best shareware games ever made, later serving as the inspiration for Commander Keen and even getting an unlicensed port to the NES.

To complete the game, players must collect three treasures that were stolen from the planet Omsoc: rare gems, a sack of rare coins, and a jeweled crown. Sand ( https://tasvideos.org/Users/Profile/Sand ) and Kabuto ( https://tasvideos.org/Users/Profile/Kabuto ) collect the three treasures as quickly as may be technically possible, thanks to accomplishing the routing of the run using computer optimization. To learn more about the algorithms and optimization work that went into this run, read the authors' submission notes.

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The encodes of this movie have the authors' commentary embedded as subtitles. Additionally, there is a 21-part series of live coding videos ( https://archive.org/details/@david_fifield?and%5b%5d=subject%3A%22The+Adventures+of+Captain+Comic%22+subject%3A%22live+coding%22+subject%3A%22TAS%22&sort=date ) that documents the creation of this TAS. Check out a TAS of the unlicensed NES port here.

#tas #tasvideos #toolassisted #toolassistedspeedrun #speedrun

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Kind: captions
Language: en

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This castle contains the Crown, one of the three treasures needed to win.

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The first goal is to collect the Door Key so we can enter the castle.

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A Shield refills Comic's HP, or grants an extra life if already at full HP.

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Here we start taking damage, in preparation for a death warp.

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After this death, Comic respawns at the left edge of the stage.

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Dying and respawning also activates the hover glitch,

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which enables Comic to stay in the air for a long time.

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We are again taking damage, in order

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to set up a quick death inside the castle.

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We are missing the item that lights up the interior of the castle,

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so we will have to play it in the dark.

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Touching the ground cancels the hover glitch.

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We take a quick death to reactivate hover.

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You can't see it, but the Crown is surrounded by solid walls.

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We can clip a corner to get into the Crown room,

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but to get out, we must die and respawn at the castle entrance.

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To die, we use a glitch: hovering against the top of the screen

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increases Comic's upward velocity until it wraps around and becomes

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strongly downward, pushing Comic off the bottom of the screen.

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We take the Shield this time for an extra life,

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because there are still four intentional deaths ahead.

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A can of Blastola Cola lets Comic shoot fireballs.

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Here is another intentional death to activate hover.

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We hover over almost the entirety of this stage

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just to get over this wall.

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Going through the door cancels hover,

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so we die again to reactivate it.

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Hovering gets us up to this door, but we need to hover again on the other side.

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We collect the Shield and then start taking damage for another quick death.

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These enemies have been manipulated to spawn quickly and close to Comic.

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Now we can hover up to the Gold, the second of the three treasures.

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The Teleport Wand lets Comic get past certain obstacles.

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(A death warp saves time going back to the left.)

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It is also slightly faster to teleport than to walk, only when moving left.

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The Teleport Wand lets us reach this door quicker.

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The third and final treasure, the Gems, are outside this door.