Pokemon FireRed completed without visuals or audio. The main goal of this project was to create a sequence of inputs that beats the game with an 100% chance...

This is one of my favorite videos of all time, perhaps even surpassing Watch for Rolling Rocks in 0.5x A Presses (although obviously not as iconic). It just perfectly scratches that itch of someone using a combination of technical skill and lateral thinking to complete an absurd video game challenge, all presented by an even-keeled narrator with clear visualizations and a bit of humor sprinkled in. I think I've watched it half a dozen times at this point--it's my "comfort food" for when I'm having trouble sleeping.

Kind of amazing that the very first video the creator has put out is such a banger, not just in terms of content but in terms of production value. He did say that he'd be making another video, so I'll be looking forward to that--tough act to follow, though, not unlike Watch for Rolling Rocks.

Can anyone recommend any channels/videos along the same lines? I've devoured the following:

  • RonJonGuaido [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    okay, but why doesn't he just purposefully lose the first fight w/rival, to avoid having to account for both "lvl 5" and "lvl 6" disjuncts and ensure he just needs to worry about "lvl 5"?

    maybe it's impossible to actually lose on purpose? like, will enough growling just result in squirtle never hitting him, and then he's eventually forced to scratch squirtle to KO?

    • AernaLingus [any]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I see a few comments mentioning that on the video, but I didn't see the creator addressing any of them directly

      It's definitely possible to lose on purpose--I just tried it a few times in an emulator and I lost easily by spamming Growl. I suppose it's technically possible that the Squirtle with its 95% accuracy Tackle could whiff every single one (or most of them) and Struggle itself to death, but that seems so astronomically improbably that it's not worth considering.

      He actually does address this in the video, albeit indirectly (which is why I think there was some confusion--I had to double-check myself even having watched this video so many times):

      (@4:18) It doesn't really matter whether I win or lose this battle but for reasons I'll describe later it's nice if I can

      (@6:46) The second caveat is that whether or not you can run away is dependent on your Speed stat. If you're faster than the enemy, then you get away; if you're slower, there's a chance you can't escape. The slowest Charmanders are outsped by fast Pidgeys in the grass outside Pallet Town and there's a chance I can't escape. Winning the Rival Battle helps mitigate this since Charmander will be faster at Level 6, but I can't avoid a slow Charmander that loses the Rival Battle not being able to escape, and from there the run is basically over. The chance that this happens, though, is quite low at less than a percent, but this is the reason that I can only say that this sequence of inputs almost always beats the game.

      So TL;DR/TL;DW: intentionally losing the Rival Battle will make it more likely for Charmander to get outsped by a wild Pidgey, thus increasing the run failure rate.