Speedrunning Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine GBC – Level 3 – Russian Border + Level 4 – Tian Shan River

In the Game Boy Color version of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, there is an exclusive level. But is it really an exclusive level? Depends on your definition. In the Game Boy Color version, the River level is special. It didn’t only get cut into two, but also the whole section with the candles got cut out. While it’s a shame that the candle section got cut out, I totally understand why they did it. That whole section would be a nightmare to convert into 2D and to play. Let me already say that the 4th level in Game Boy Color version is a nightmare to speedrun perfectly. I’ll talk more about it at the end of this article. Now, with that said, I want to welcome you in this new entry in the speedrunning guide for the Game Boy Color version of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Last year, I wrote a guide for the first two levels. Canyonlands and Babylon. In those articles, I already talked about various terms like what an ILS is and the rules of the categories. So, to avoid making these articles too long, I recommend you read the introductions to the previous articles if you don’t understand something or have questions. And if anything is still unclear, feel free to leave a comment down in the comment section. Or, if you have any feedback, thoughts/opinions on this article and/or the game, I’m open to hear it in the comments.

Run updates

My main focus isn’t writing this guide at the moment. So, it’s quite possible that improvements to the runs I already wrote about happened. Now, the legend the_Kovic improved my all treasures run of Canyonlands with 21 seconds to 4 minutes 15 seconds. That’s extremely impressive, since the whole route and strategies are almost completely the same. The biggest difference is that he got luckier with the RNG of the scorpions and took a bit more risk. On top of that, his run didn’t really have any movement mistakes. Honestly, I think it will be quite tricky to lower this run more without new strategies or route changes.

For now, there were no other big differences in terms of Canyonlands and Babylon. So, I think it’s good to dive right into the Russian Border guide.

Link to Speedrun.com page (All Treasures) – Link to Speedrun.com page (Any %)
The current world record at the time of writing is owned by:

Russian Border

for Any %: the_kovic, who ran this level in 1 minute and 47 seconds on November 27th 2022.
for All Treasures: me, who ran this level in 2 minutes and 46 seconds on January 2nd 2022. (Now, at the time of writing, I have a run in verification which improves this run with 10 seconds. It would make the time, 2 minutes and 36 seconds, preformed on the February 12th 2023)

Tian Shan River

for Any %: Molotok, who ran this level in 28 seconds on August 22nd 2017.

Note: when I say something in cursive, that’s only applicable for the all treasures route. So, the cursive text can be ignored for the any % route.

The Russian Border – Route

So, right off the bat… The route differs depending on if you do the all treasures run or the any % run. So, let me first talk about the all treasures part since after the extra section, we pick up with the any % route anyways.

As soon as you pressed “A” on the level title card, hold left to go to the little ridge and jump on it. Enter the little cave you see and run to the right top. There, you’ll find a red gem.

Usually, I run to the middle of the red gem and quickly turn Indy around by going down and then at the last second, pick up the red gem. It looks somewhat like this. It might require some practice, but it’s highly do-able. I typically reset my run when I don’t exit the cave before my timer hits 11 seconds. And even I often make mistakes here. It’s a bit tense to do and easy to lose time here. After you exit the cave, go right.

So, hold right after the level title card to exit the screen. Be careful, you need to go a bit right and a bit down. Don’t hold right and down right away since you’ll get stuck behind the rock and tree and you better reset then.

On the next screen, you have to go straight ahead for a bit and before the rocks, go straight down. Now, we go to a very tricky part. Depending on how you preform the next part… You might save a lot of time, loose a bit of time or have to reset the run. We have to drop off that ledge.

There are three ledges you can land on. The worst luck is that you land on the first edge, which will make you lose a bit of time. It’s something close to half a second to a second. Ideally, you land on the middle ledge. This is a lot smaller and will cost you a bit of health, but is the most ideal. You could also jump down a bit earlier than shown in my screenshot, but that’s risky. Since, then you will have to count more on your luck. I have had in practice runs, some jumps landing on the middle ledge but more often than not, I overshot or undershot and let Indy fall to his death. The safest is that you drop down at the smaller rock and aim for the middle ledge. Since, then right after the dropdown animation, you hold right, and you are in the best spot to continue.

In this screenshot, we see the three ledges I was talking about. The single tile middle ledge is the best ledge. To progress, you have to go right. Here it’s extremely easy to get stuck in the little niche when you hold right and up. Don’t hold up too early. The best movement now is to move on the same line I’m running in the screenshot. At the end of this walkway, you have to drop and enter a cave. Don’t forget to pick up the green gem if you are on the all treasures route. Exit that cave by hugging the bottom wall and after exiting the cave, you will have to go right.

After you exit the cave and went right, you think you have to jump up the “staircase” and go left on the roof of that cave. But, there is a time save you can preform here.

Jump towards the first higher section a bit after the door. You’ll land on the edge of the first higher section. Then jump backwards towards the door and if you landed correctly, you’ll land on the roof of the cave. This little trick will save you around 2 seconds if preformed correctly. Especially when you land on the line right above the entrance of the cave.

To continue, you have to move left and go over the bridge and go down. Try to be at the most right side of the bridge when going to the next screen. Since, it’ll save you a few frames in the next screen. The next screen is an L corridor with two wolves. The top wolf is easy to avoid and will let you continue on your right wall hugging way. The bottom one is a pain. Try to not get bitten or lose health. Since, you’ll need it later in the run. I usually jump over the wolf. I rather take the time loss there, then having to go into the menu and heal. Health is going to be important from now on. Since, to save time we don’t kill the enemies.

On the next screen, you will face your first guard of this level. The damage can’t be avoided with this one. Don’t forget to pick up the blue gem, of course. Now, we are going for another fork in the route. If you do the any % route of this level, you best hug the left wall and go up. From where the health kit is. Otherwise, after picking up the blue gem… You’ll have to go to the right. And exit the screen at the most right edge.

The next two treasures are on this screen. They are located at the left and right side of the guard tower. Depending on the RNG of the guards’ movement, it’s better to pick up the left one first before the right one. But it’s a guessing game. I prefer in most cases to go to the right and pick up the golden coins there. After that I hug the guard tower and hope that the guard stays off-screen, so I take the silver coins at the left of the guard tower without too much additional health loss. Then without loosing too much health, I continue on my merry way.

Usually, I run underneath the rock and jump up towards the ledges at the left to avoid additional shots from the guard. To continue here, it’s essential to jump fast. After jumping on the ledge at the left… You’ll have to jump to the ledge on the left, and then it’s jumping up a few times. You’ll have to jump 5 times upwards and in this session, I typically take one, maybe two steps forward. If you execute it correctly, you will always land on the edge of the ledges which saves a bit of time. But, it’s something you’ll need to practice.

Now, after you reached the top and went right and down… It’s tempting to ladder snipe to get into the base. Yet, this ladder snipe is impossible to do as far as I know currently. You can skip a bit of the climbing down animation by jumping down on the ladder, but I wasn’t able to get that to work consistently enough for me to implement it in runs. It’d save over 4 seconds… But, this run is already tense enough.

I have seen the TAS by the_Kovic do it. Also, the small ladder snipe in the next room. But, jumping towards the edges of ladders on the screen… The game is so picky it’s dangerous to do. Oh yeah, don’t forget to pick up that silver bar like I show in the screenshot.

Now, if you follow the TAS… You’ll notice that we currently take a different route. One that’s safer and a bit easier to preform. The main reason why it’s easier is that it saves time not to have to preform the frame precise direct box pull strategy and not having to jump on the correct frame. We follow the all treasures route a bit more.

This discovery happened after Bluescreen18, another runner of the N64 version of this game, went and bought a copy of this version of this game. He posted the trick in the Discord and kovic and I ran with it. So, after exiting the ladder and going to the right, we jump on the box closest to the locker at the right of the room.

Now, a tricky part comes for the all treasures. Get towards the right edge of this box and mash “A”. Since, there is a treasure in this locker and you can open it via standing on the box instead of standing right in front of it. If you are able to open the locker without having to leave the box, you will save a second.

Now, from this box, we jump on the locker and then do a corner jump towards the pile of three stacked boxes. The easiest way to get this is to jump from the edge of the top locker towards the pile of boxes. But drawing that on the screenshot would make it a bit too confusing.

Now, go up in the vent and by hugging the left and bottom wall, go through the vent. After you exit the vent, you’ll enter a room with a table, two lockers and some boxes. Take the raft in the right locker, and the treasure in the left locker (in this order, since it saves you a bit of frames not going for the treasure first), and exit the room. When exiting the room, go through the vent again and after exiting the vent, drop straight down. Directly go one tile over to the left and run down. Then, you’ll have to climb down the ladder. Now, cross your fingers you have enough health remaning to tank the shots of the guard. Know that going in the menu and healing takes so much time it’s insane.

Now, we are at the final screen of the run. Depending on your health, it’s safe to land on the box to the right of the ladder. The two final treasures are located in the lockers in this room.

When you are down on the grond in this room, run towards the entrance of the river. You might notice that I drew a small purple square in the bottom right corner of the screenshot. I drew that there because that’s where you’ll have to open your menu and move towards the raft to end the level.

It’s possible to do this further from the entrance of the river and doing that saves a few frames. Do mash “A” as soon as you are in the boat since otherwise the textbox won’t disappear and you’ll lose time.

Level 4 – Tian Shan River

This level is a pain to run. Since, the movement is so exact and it’s so easy to mess up it’s insane. I have taken a screenshot of the actual route from one of the better walkthroughs out there, but it’s so tricky to explain it in words. To learn this level, it’s best that you take a look at the video of the run and learn it that way.

This is one of two levels in this game that don’t have any treasures. It would be insane if this level had any treasures to be honest.

So, for the route, you’ll have to know that mashing A makes your raft go faster. But, you’ll gain more and more momentum each and every time. And here is the annoying part, as soon as you hit the rocks or the edges… All the momentum is gone. And, we have the though luck that the fastest route through this level has many of these obstacles close to each other.

When Kovic was creating the TAS for this game, he told me that he was able to beat Molotok’s record by a few frames but that he spent too much time on it. This level is frustrating to run, it can’t be said enough. If only we could skip it, it would be a blessing. When I do full runs of the game, I try to make the time loss in the level as minimal as possible. My fatest time has been 39 seconds. It’s that rock section that does me in almost every time.

But, it’s still extremely impressive how Molotok created this amazing run and I doubt it will be improved or beaten anytime soon.

Wrapping up

I think I told my feelings about the 4th level in the previous section enough. Now, the Russian Border level is a tense run to do. It’s a short and fun run to do. But, it has so many spots where it’s easy to loose time. I honestly think that we are close to perfect runs in both categories.

Of course, I think that with better movement, my all treasures run of Border can be lowered but I would be surprised that we see a lower time then 2 minutes 30 seconds. But, I have been surprised before. Thanks to Bluescreen18’s little video on our Discord, we saw a long standing record be lowered by a second.

The next level is Shambala Sanctuary. This level is a possible run killer since it has various moments where it’s easy to drop to your death in the middle and the end of the run it’s tense. It’s also a longer level so, I have to have a good long and hard think on how I’m going to do the write up.

In any case, thank you for reading this article and guide. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

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First Impression: Corpse Party Blood Drive (Android) ~ Let’s go 3D.

Google Play Store link

I love the Corpse Party series. It’s one of the first horror games I ever tried and I wasn’t disappointed. I’m terrible when it comes to horror games and movies, but the story and writing of this series kept me interested throughout the whole series. In my opinion, it’s a ghost story done right. Now, when I saw in magazines that the 3rd game in the series was going to come out on the PS Vita, I wanted to play it. But, PS Vita’s were disappearing from shelves here in Belgium so I wasn’t able to play the game. But, one night, I was browsing the Google Play Store and suddenly this popped up. I have never bought a mobile game quicker before. So, was this a 35€ well spend or did I throw my money away? Let’s find out! As usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the content of the article. 

Note: to avoid major spoilers, I have chosen screenshots from the first chapter.

Note: for those interested, this game is also on the iOS store, but I’m playing it on Android so, this review is about the Android version.

The story warning

I have two big pieces of advice to give to you before you play this game. One, do not play the games out of order. Play Corpse Party: Blood Covered, then Book of Shadows and then Blood Drive.

Do complete them, since this game picks up a little bit after the actual ending of Corpse Party Book Of Shadows. Otherwise, various plot points won’t make sense in this game. If you are looking to get into the series, this isn’t the right game to start.

I’m glad that I’m able to play this game since Book of Shadows left on such a major nasty plot twist, I can finally see what effect it has on the characters. The writing in this game is in my opinion excellent. But, I can understand that it might be boring for some people. This game is a visual novel game with adventure elements. The novel sections are quite long and might drag on from time to time.

I think that two things could have improved the novel section. One, add a skip button that let you skip to the first bit of gameplay or important decision. When you are replaying the game to get to a certain ending or a name tag you missed, this would be a blessing.

Two, I think it would be amazing if they added an ability to save during the novel sections. Since this game is on mobile platforms, it’s going to be played by people who don’t always have the time. I was once on the train and when I had to get off, I was right in the middle of a novel section and I was unable to save. Some story sections can drag on for quite a while like a book. If only we were able to also use a bookmark, aka save, when we had to stop playing, that would be nice.

Those two things are actually my biggest complaints with the game. I have another one, but this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I notice that after long play sessions, my tablet becomes quite hot but when I put it in the protective sleeve, it doesn’t always become hot.

Return to form

In terms of gameplay, this game plays more similar to the Blood Covered game but with the novel sections of Book of Shadows.  I really enjoy the gameplay in this game outside of the novel sections.

To avoid spoilers, I’m going to talk a bit vague about the scenery, but the areas you visit feel familiar yet new. The puzzles in this title are good. There are some very tense horror moments that are neatly woven into the gameplay that crawled under my skin.

Now, you might have noticed an “Endless off/on” button in the screenshot. This was actually an interesting story behind it. When the game was released in Japan, the feedback on the flashlight mechanic was so bad, the developers actually patched an endless mode in. Why didn’t they remove it you might ask? Well, to give players still the ability to get a certain trophy/achievement. An interesting story isn’t?

Still, you keep picking up batteries throughout the game to power your flashlight. Now, like various others online, I do have a question. Since when do we use double A batteries to power our smartphones? It would a little bit of sense if they used a power bank that is powered by double A batteries.

So far, I’m at the 4th chapter of the game. I’m really enjoying myself. While I can understand that the visuals like the character models might put some people off; I think they still have some charm to them. They are well animated and I don’t mind it too much. The visual presentation of the whole game is just amazing. I love how you can move the beam of light your flashlight makes with the right “joystick”. It really helps with the immersion for me. The only thing that the developers should fix is that it doesn’t default to “off” when you load the game.

The atmosphere man. The atmosphere.

Something that this game has nailed perfectly is the atmosphere of the game. Besides the gore and creepy visuals, the voice acting does a lot to make you scared at the right time.

The atmosphere is built even more thanks to the use of sound effects and the music. The audio in this game is as good as the previous game if not better in some areas. Apart from the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, this game doesn’t have a bad soundtrack. But, I think that the soundtrack of the other games in the series is better.

In terms of the controls, this game nails it right on the head. The controls are pretty smooth in this game. And you will need them, since in this title when you get chased by ghosts, you can hide in cupboards amongst other things. Oh, and there are many traps littered around so you will have to avoid them.

In this game, the health meter has more meaning than in the two previous titles. Due to those traps, you can actually get a wrong end from dying on a trap. So, keep an eye out for cracked floors and other things like that. Also, you can find bandages in various spots to heal yourself back up.

There are other new game mechanics in this game, but I’m not going to talk about them to avoid spoilers and I want to keep some things a secret so you can find out for yourself if you decide to play this game. Let me say this: so far, I haven’t got anything bad to say about a game mechanic.

Something I really like about this game is the quick save button. You can quick save during exploration. A feature I wish was implemented in the previous games, to be honest. It makes redoing certain parts a bit easier. You can only have one quick save.

From what I read, if you want to fully complete this game, you will have to play give or take 25 hours of it. This means that there is a lot of gameplay for a visual novel. If you rush through the game, you will have a playtime of 15 hours. So, that means I’ll have a lot to enjoy in this game.

A bug I sometimes experience is that the text flies by without me touching anything. Thankfully, you have a message log and you have a button so you can replay the voice acting. But those moments fix themselves as soon as I swipe down and bring the message log up. I have no clue what caused it.

In my honest opinion, I think that this game has a lot to offer for Corpse Party fans and horror fans. I wouldn’t recommend this game as an entry into the Corpse Party franchise. Besides, I think it’s unfair to critique the 3rd game in a visual novel series that’s very plot-heavy that isn’t accessible to first-time players.

The Android version also has the achievements you have in the PS Vita version. This is quite neat. But, something very neat is the fact you can back up your save in the cloud and download it again if needed.

In terms of the difficulty, I can’t really judge the game quite yet since I haven’t beaten it. So, I will expand more on that in the review when I have beaten the game.

The load times in this game are quite short. This really surprises me. It doesn’t break the flow of the game one bit.

While the game has some flaws like too long novel sections, the inability to save during those novel sections, the overheating and the endless mode; the game has a lot of strengths like an amazing visual presentation, a lot of twists left and right and is pretty immersive.

I’m really enjoying myself with this game and I’m thankful that the developers ported this game to Android. While I can understand that some people won’t enjoy this game, I’m enjoying it. Again, the game has some flaws but it doesn’t outweigh them to not enjoy the game.

If you are looking for a way to play Corpse Party Blood Drive and you don’t have a PS Vita, don’t wait to pick this game up. I honestly think this game is worth the asking price. You get a lot of game for your buck and the Corpse Party fan in you won’t be disappointed. At least, that’s how I think about the game.

I could ramble on about this game for a while longer, but I think I’m going to leave it here. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then have a great rest of your day and take care.

Rant #009.5: 10 things that I dislike about games. (Part 2/2)

Part 1

Alright, let’s continue this rant. With the picture I used for the introduction at part 1 at the right side, let’s talk about 5 other things that annoy me in games. I started with issues with the control binding, tutorials, invisible walls, grinding and social networks. This second part of the rant has been written before part 1 got released, so I couldn’t add things from the comments. In any case, these things aren’t placed in any order. Since all these things annoy me. And what does it matter that one thing annoys me more then another one? All these issues need to be addressed! To close off this introduction, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion of my picks and or your most annoying things in video games. Thanks in advance. Anyways, let’s go!

#5: Micro-transactions of ANY kind

This stuff happens with DLC as well. I have seen DLC for Assassins Creed 4 to speed up some grinding. But you need to pay a small fee for it. Now these things give people an unfair advantage in some games.

Bravely Default made a big mistake here. There is a special “rescue” type item to save your party that works with micro-transactions.

I can understand DLC. If it’s additional content that you need to pay for. But these things to have additional gems or reduce waiting or grinding time boils my blood.

An amazing parody game is DLC Quest. You will get a kick out of this if you dislike this as well.

Before I move on, I have to mention something. In college, a friend of mine plays a soccer sim on his phone. He got annoyed that people kept beating him because they abused the micro-transaction system. So, this kills the balance in the game. Yeah. I promised him that I mentioned it!

#4: Online “noobs”

Okay, don’t get me wrong here. I have no (big) issues with noobs. There are people who need to learn how to play the game. You can’t expect yourself to be good at any game you play online. By playing the game over and over again, you get better at it.

In Minecraft, if you use a hacked client to make custom maps, I can understand. Yet, then you have a whole range of people who are just killing the online experience. And instead of flooding my whole top 10 here, I took them all under one entry.

I’m talking about campers, hackers, abusing the chat system… It all grinds my gears. Can’t you just play the game like normal?

Rust, is a perfect example of a game that got ruined by people who used hacks for example fly. I have seen YouTubers calling out at each other, and that’s where I draw my line.

Abusing glitches in a game, sure, why not? I mean, I used the “X-Ray” machines to find caves in Minecraft. I have no shame in admitting that. It doesn’t help me finding the best ores. It just helps me finding caves to find those ores or to make grinders work better.

If you’re a hacker, and you need your hacks to play the game, just keep in mind that you ruin the game for others! There is also a chance that you either kill the server, experience or the game for others. In my experience I have seen a server dying slowly because of the hacking.

I think I will leave it here for this entry. But this might be another rant coming where I talk more in depth of this subject.

#3: Flaws in the difficulty

Dear lords, is this something many gamers under us have such a hate for. Games that suddenly throw up the difficulty for the climax of the game.

Escape From Monkey Island on the PS2 made a major flaw here. You have to work out a whole rule set for an advanced rock-paper-scissor game. Now, I don’t have endless patience to figure this all out. So, naturally I looked it up online. And yes, it’s randomized each and every time! Oh lords, isn’t that fun.

I’m planning to write a “game quicky” about custom minecraft maps. But in these maps, they make this fatal flaw as well. When I still made YouTube video’s I had to cancel a series because there were too much spawners.

In CTM maps, there can be a lot of spawners. But they should be balanced. In Super Hostile maps, there are a lot of spawners but it’s possible. Because with enough light sources you can disable the spawners and such.

Now, when any game, mod or custom map throws an overdose of enemies at you that it becomes more of an endurance round, then the game is flawed.

Not to mention that games where the enemies can kill you in a shot or two on the hardest difficulty setting. I mean, it should still be playable. And you shouldn’t be afraid that each monster could kill you with the greatest of ease.  That’s in summary what I mean with this.

#2: Backtracking, most of the times.

Yes, I’m looking at a game like the amazing 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors on the DS for this one. While you don’t have to backtrack while playing the game, there is a major sort of backtracking here. This game has multiple endings.

Here is the issue, when you saw an ending, you have to replay the whole game over again to see the other endings. Auwch! You might have a speed-up button but still.

Thankfully the sequel fixed this. In Virtue’s Last Reward, you have a tree that follows the different paths. So, that way you can easily go back to one point in time and pick the different option.

Now, about backtracking. In some cases, I can understand it. Like you need to go first to one spot to fetch a power-up. In Castlevania(-like) games I have no problem with it at all. Since you can grind your character meanwhile. That’s clever game design!

But when the game design is so bad that you can easily skip something or when it becomes a big focus, then it’s no fun anymore. Take notes from the examples I mentioned above guys!

#1: Cliches / Bad game design

Now, my final thing are two things combined. When a game uses too much cliches in their game, the game gets boring and predictable. I hate it the most when it comes to cliches giving the game a bad game design.

From cheap deaths to jump courses you can’t fail… Yeah, it can ruin a game easily. I found a game on Android that demonstrates this to it’s full extend. From impossible timed challenges to moving platforms to spikes… You name it.

While this game goes of memorization, this game has great game design. And it’s rewarding to find the way the developer wanted you to finish the level. This game uses a ton of cliches in the right way and makes an amazing game with it.

For example, I’m not good in jumping puzzles. I fail them a lot. In the Wind Waker, there is a part in the ship that you need to do. It’s a part where you need to jump from platform to platform. When you fail, you have to restart. Man, did I hate that part.

Closing words

So, that was my rant on 10 things that annoy me in games. I know that a lot of these articles exist on the net but I tried to talk about things that almost never get mentioned. That got extremely challenging near the end.

All these subjects would have been a complete rant. But I never had enough material to write a full article about it. So, I’m glad that I was able to talk about it in this article.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I’m really looking forward to your comments. Thanks again and I hope to see you at a next article.