[TAS] SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Any% in

This run is dedicated to Coel625, for relentlessly proving to me that further optimization can always be discovered if you dismiss convention in favor of creativity.

I began creating the input file for this TAS in December of 2019, meaning it took 10 months to complete. That said, the routing process for an Any% TAS has been essentially on-going since I first began playing Battle for Bikini Bottom in 2012. Of course many great minds contributed to the finalized route, through non-TAS and TAS findings alike. I do not take full credit for this route, nor the modern TAS meta. However, I have contributed my fair share, and the hundreds of timing/routing videos posted on my second YouTube channel, throughout the past 8 years, were largely responsible for the relatively short 10-month creation cycle of this TAS.

Since most timing/routing was done outside of this movie, the rerecord count (of at least 200,000) could accurately be inflated several times over. I have easily spent more time and effort on this project than on any other TAS to my name. This TAS was 8 years in the making, starting out as a funny side project in an underdeveloped cartoon game, and evolving into one of the most rewarding, fun, and passionate experiences of my life to date. I hope you enjoy the fruits of this questionable allocation of several thousand hours of my free time, across nearly half of my life: A Tool-Assisted ‘Battle for Bikini Bottom’ Speedrun, completed in 39:20.100, on GameCube.

Thank you each and every member of the Battle for Bikini Bottom community, for reviving this gem of a game after the first wave of runners had essentially retired. You all gave me a space to return to, and the collaboration necessary to achieve such a polished end-product for this 2020 revision of Tool-Assisted BfBB Any%.

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RTA Standard Timing (File Select to Final Cutscene): 39:20.100
TAS Standard Timing (Power-on to “Last Input”): 39:43.750

This TAS was created using Dolphin Emulator. While Xbox is the fastest console to play Battle for Bikini Bottom, it has limited TAS tools. Compared to Xbox, approximately 5 minutes were lost due to GameCube’s slow load screens, deaths, and oob-respawns throughout this run. A perfect conversion of these inputs to Xbox would yield a 34:xx time. (The lack of lag-based tricks also loses some amount of time).

Check out another upload of this TAS with an Input/Address Viewer:
   • TAS: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Any% ...  

Previous TAS Record - Any% in 1:04:37.066 (2014):
   • TAS: Battle For Bikini Bottom "Any%" ...  

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Feel free to stream this TAS on Twitch (or anywhere really) for viewing parties / reaction content :)

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Thumbnail art by Klyx -   / klyxtwit  

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We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time
― T.S. Eliot