No Jumping: 8
Ever since No Jumping: 7, I had thought about No Jumping: 8. My question was the following: "How could I top No Jumping: 7?"
NJ: 7 was my favorite No Jumping video at the time (with No Jumping: 2 a close second). Not long after its release, I thought of a 1 Jump path for Mountaintop Retreat and a No Jumping path for Perilous Road. Also I thought of the creativity in my NJ: 7 Technoropes and Spin Practice paths and that some players such as Oaky made great videos of fairly long and complex levels many years ago. These paths inspired me to make NJ: 8 a video containing many long (by my standards) and difficult paths.
For various reasons, NJ: 8 was delayed from early 2013 to August 2013 to 2014/2015 to August 2015. But development went faster than expected during winter break 2014/2015 (December/January) (and I scaled back some unreasonable expectations), so I pulled up the release date to February/March 2015. For this video, the levels are not in game order, but are roughly ordered by the quantity and quality of tricks, techniques, and creativity in the paths used.
I will release a Bloopers + Alternate Paths video next month.
Also, I am announcing the
No Jumping World Record Rampage, with details in a thread on the Marble Blast Forums that I will post shortly. The NJWRR was first thought of while NJ: 8 was in progress, and I didn't want to announce the NJWRR but at the same time hide my times and paths for NJ: 8.
Notes:
Pink-Fold Maze: You could go similarly to the 8.xx With Jumping path and get a 9.xx, but this tweak is faster when No Jumping.
Spork in the Road: Back in 2008, I saw an old video of No Jumping Spork in the Road where the No Jumping time was faster than my best With Jumping time at the time.
Triple Decker: There’s another path that can go sub-26 but it’s very hard to do right.
Take a Stroll...: A different trim pattern that is faster than my previous run.
Divergence: None.
Twisting the Night away [1 jump]: You have to be very quick from the last gem to the finish to avoid getting knocked out by the moving blocker.
Grand Finale: I was much more aggressive overall than in the 39.944 run. I didn’t quite get the speed right on the “catching the Super Jump” part, but the rest of the run made up for it.
Convoluted Helix: None.
Marble Playground: None.
Learn the Friction!: None.
Ramps Reloaded: Tightened the Speed Boost part and got a faster and smoother finish. I have also beaten the original 15 second Gold Time for this level without jumping.
Basic Agility Course: I had an edge hit path (edge hit before the 9th gem, collect the 9th gem on the rebound, and then get to the TM platform on the second rebound), but this path is just as fast and so much easier.
Question: The ending of this path is taken from which of my earlier videos?
Tube Treasure: The ending was really slow but I had a surprisingly fast run around the 8th gem so I was cautious.
Orange-Fold Maze: One of my favorite paths in No Jumping: 8. Like many other No Jumping paths, this path can’t be done much better with jumping.
Tri Twist: You can hit the 5th gem directly, but that didn't happen in this run.
Powerup Practice: None.
Diamond Seeking Fun!: This run has, unintentionally, a faster tweak to the first diamond.
Combo Course: None.
Slip 'n Slide: Bumper edge-hit combo! The resulting launch kinda looks like one from a traplaunch, don't you think?
Bumper Training: That third edge hit was not planned and looks to be very hard to do deliberately.
Swivel: So the ending is still botched but the loop exit itself is 100% more awesome. It’s a tricky loop exit that includes a wall-hit on a pole, but in return it shoots the marble closer to the finish than most other loop exits (also see the MBP WRR2 run of this level).
Marble Agility Course: I got all 4 gems in the "jump through the holes on the right side of the level" part in two tries, which is one fewer than usual.
Thief: I was a bit surprised at how closely one can follow the old WR path for this level. IN retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised.
Will o' Wisp: This path is 45% stolen from KidPlayer, 45% stolen from the MBG WRR3 path, 5% semi-inspired by Woody's start for the MBU level, and 5% putting all that together.
Treacherous Path [1 jump]: A few path tweaks enable me to finish before the time restarts. I think it’s also possible to not have to restart immediately after the 10 second TM, so one can do it using the .rec. I think that if you do the path fast enough, you won’t need the Speed Boost TM.
Whirl: Totally new path and I like it. As of NJ: 8, this level will have had 4 different No Jumping runs uploaded to YouTube (22.xx, 19.xx, 16.66, 15.09) and will be one of my most updated levels among all my videos.
Perplexingness: Really cool path, note that the slope of the end pad is necessary here.
Platform Race 2: I don’t think the WRR2 path is possible No Jumping. This path is even faster than the WRRU path. My thoughts when doing the ending: 1. “Yeah this probably doesn’t have enough height to get to the finish.” 2. “But I’ll take this run to the end.” 3. “Wow, I actually made it!”
Skill Zone: One can also double Speed Boost before the first edge hit, but that's unnecessary although it might save a tiny bit of time. The Random Force part is harder than it looks.
Pathways: So I had a 23.891 .rec which failed…. I spent 1:10 hours more than I should have, and to end with a worse time. In some senses, the third edge hit is “easier” here than in the With Jumping path. As long as you get to the moving platform in time you are likely to get times within 0.4 second of each other. That’s not the case for the With Jumping path.
Gauntlet: I wonder if one can edge hit on the platform with the moving blockers to get to the Jump Boosts on the orange steps. I think I would have to get to the second step in order for this potential path to be faster than the existing path.
Mountaintop Retreat: This path was one of the paths that inspired me to make the NJ: 8 that you see now. (I would make NJ: 8 regardless because it’s part of an ongoing series, but if it weren't for paths like this it would look different.) Originally that path was a 1 jump path and I didn't think that No Jumping was possible, but after reading some posts on these forums I reconsidered and got a similar No Jumping path. There is another edge hit that I didn't do, and with it, this level can go sub-16 easily.
Perilous Road: I DIDN'T MESS UP THE EDGE HIT + SPEED BOOST!! I also found out that the first path (you'll see it in the Bloopers + Alternate Paths video, it was another path that inspired me to make this NJ:
isn’t possible since it misses one gem, but a modification of it (which makes it even harder) is. But the modified first path is only 15 seconds faster than the easier path. P.S. I always miss the TMs on the ice. I don’t really worry about them.
Darwin's Dilemma: My old (2009-2010) 3 second path for Darwin’s Dilemma is resurrected here! Unfortunately the last part of the run is quite slow so I got 13 seconds instead of the expected 12 seconds. Acceptable because the TT edge hit is a major PITA (4 successful edge hits + TT catches in 1 hour!).
NeonTech: This path requires many edge hits and is quite tricky. I think it's also a very nice path. You can actually get the gem on the first edge hit, but it's very hard to do (I only got it about 3 times).
Bonus level: The final time really doesn’t matter. When you watch the run, you’ll know why.
Bonus question: Which level has a final time, visible in this video, that is faster than my (previous) best With Jumping time for that level?
Songs:
America - Sister Golden Hair
And Then There Were None - Reinventing Robert Cohn
Deas Vail - Under Our Skin
Nightwish - Dark Chest of Wonders
Thousand Foot Krutch - Untraveled Road
My Chemical Romance - Dead!
Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life
Fall Out Boy - Thnks fr th Mmrs
iMacmatician's videos
