iMacmatician's videos

Outstanding!

Diamond Seeking Fun! (1.28) —

WR… I think.

So I was using this exact path, except that after the 3rd diamond I jumped straight to the ice. I couldn't finish before the TM ran out for the life of me, except for one lucky time when I got a 1.31 with 21.99/22.00 TM!
Then I found the tweak of jumping on the slope of the 3rd diamond's island, which saved me 0.5 second or so. So that's how I was able to pull off this 1.28.
Possible improvement: 0.01 (1.27 catch is possible but very rare)

* This isn't quite correct. In this run I jump right before the 2nd gem unlike most runs (it might save a little bit of time?)

Cool thing: Pause the video at the right place and the marble completely fills up the screen! (Could fill up much more too given its apparent size.)

OMG awesome job and very precise, well done!

I'm starting to lose all my WRs slowly...
Good job.

Let's Roll! (2.22) —

Last month, I used this start and did some attempts at this level, but still couldn't get below my old 2.27 PR. Then one time I accidentally did a different jump pattern after the slope jump and got 2.24. I immediately realized that pattern was what Pascal had used for his 2.24.

Today, I was trying to record a 2.24 of this level, then suddenly I got a 2.22.

Possible improvement: maybe 0.01? Anyone wanna see if 2.21 is possible? (The reason why I say this is mainly because a switch from jumping off the start pad to rolling off it usually saves more than 0.01s)

I think you mean 2.22 but anyways, amazing strat!

Great time.

Awesome!

Epic job for another WR!

iMacmatician's Custom Levels —

I made some basic custom levels, the first two in the video around mid 2008 or so and the last one in I think April 2009. Because of my nonexistent level editing skills they are very simple levels. The levels haven't yet been released to the community for that reason (although I will if people want me to).

Crazy Level 1 (17.09, 12.30): I experimented with placing tubes and hazards on and around the Learning to Roll interior.
The first path was my original path for this level. I got a lucky quick escape out of the 3rd gem.
Possible improvement: 0.25
The second path was a later one, I don't remember when I found it, either this year or last year. I got a really lucky jump out of the tube at the end, one of my quickest ones ever. I also got the right jump pattern that flings me out of the gutter where the 4th gem is (same as 3rd gem for previous path).
Possible improvement: 0.15

Gem in the Road (4.36): From the Fork in the Road interior I placed many Powerups and gems. Although their placement is random I actually used an element of structure in picking them, as (I can't remember exactly, but) I cycled through the gem colors and used a certain number of each type of Powerup (or I cycled through the types).
The path I used follows the way I usually take with levels with many possible paths (examples are Par Pit, Frictional Battlecube, and Michael's Final Adventure). I find a path early on in my history with the level, a path that is relatively easy to do or obvious to find. Then as my experience and skills progress, I find several large tweaks that knock down the time by a lot, as well as minor tweaks like with any other path. Then the path becomes a good one that I use even as a much more skilled Marble Blaster. For this path the gyrocopter part was the main big timesaver. I also made changes to the last part of the path (after the time is stopped at 4.36) so the time wouldn't restart. I way overshoot the last Time Travel because if I don't, I have to slow down and make at least one extra bounce before hitting the TM, which means that sometimes the time restarts. (I've never had the time restart after an overshoot.)
Possible improvement: 0.5
My challenge to you is to finish the level without the time restarting (i.e. 0.00 finish). I'm not sure if it's possible with this path but with new tweaks/paths who knows.

Reverse Skyscraper (12.83, I made a typo in the video's white bar): Doesn't really qualify as a custom level since all I did was switch the start and finish pads (but there are some existing custom levels that aren't much more extensive). I was interested in what would happen if I switched the pads so I wouldn't have to do a traplaunch or two to make a fast run of the level.
I also used this level to practice going down the skyscraper for my Skyscraper WR attempt in June 2009.
The path requires good precision to get to the TMs with the least number of bounces. The one small surprise was after hitting the wall after the 6th gem, the marble doesn't touch the platform but instead goes straight to the TMs.
Possible improvement: 0.15 (part from 5th to 6th gems could be done a bit faster)

Song: Kesha - We R Who We R

Very nice!

Im noticing that your starting to use more current songs in your videos! Yippe
Awesome pathway for Gem in the Road, very smooth and fast. Awesome job.

Nice paths. GitR especially.

Battlecube Revisited (41.45) —

Back when we were recording for the MBP WRR2, I sent a .rec of my (WR at the time) Battlecube Revisited (44.07) to Pascal so he could use my path to do better. He did, with a 43.46. When I finally saw the video, I noticed that although I got a 9.90 on the first TM, he got it at 10.23, since he didn't use the tweak I used (one less rebound right before the TM). We also got the middle and last TMs at about the same time (me: 38.26, Pascal: 38.32; me: 42.23, Pascal: 42.32). He also found a timesaver where the diamond I get last he gets 15th, for a faster finish (interestingly enough, I made the reverse tweak last year to save time, funny how things change…). So I knew that I could improve on his run by at least 0.3. However, until last month I wasn't able to actually pull off a faster run.

This run features a few tweaks, one notable one is a wall-hit after the 8th gem. I did a variant of this last year but removed it after I realized it was slower than directly going to the 9th gem. It was restored last month since this version (note the slight camera flick) is indeed faster. I also got an accidental weird edge hit right before the middle TM. I was surprised by that so I slightly overshot the next gem.

Weirdly enough this run's first TM catch is 0.01 slower than my 44.07's. Back then my best catch was either 9.89 or 9.90 (can't remember), now it's 9.78 (or so).

Possible improvement: 0.35 (it's those annoying move up-catch gem-pull back ones again, this path has relatively many more of those than most other paths)

Song: Ke$ha - Blow (as requested)

Amazing run!

Pleasure to watch.

Well done on another WR, definitely an awesome run.

The video is block in my country by sony music enterteinment cuz of the song

[EDIT] i just realised that the random custom levels is blocked too

Pretty sick wall hits and uses of SJ. Great job!

omg, awesome job

Awesome run!

Marble Blast Levels 12 —

This compilation can be considered as a kind of sequel to Marble Blast Levels 6.

Jump Tutorial (2.45): Optimized this path. Got a few 2.46's before this 2.45.
Possible improvement: 0.01

Mountaintop Retreat (9.47): I was aiming for a 9.6 or so and I ended up going 0.15 lower. This time also shows that the get TM before Speed Boost version of the path can compete with the get Speed Boost before TM path, even if the former might be slower. (For those who are wondering why I use the TM before SB path, it's because I usually can't turn the camera fast enough with the keyboard before reaching the SB.
Possible improvement: 0.1

Spin Practice (9.70): This level pissed me off quite a bit since I kept getting 10.0x's (best time 10.00) and couldn't get below 10 seconds. Eventually I did, with a 9.70.
Possible improvement: 0.15 (more with an edge hit at the end)

MMG: Icichole (11.04): Finally figured out how to get the TM at the start and still get in the hole afterwards.
Possible improvement: 0.25

Roll Like the Wind! (11.19): Now I can do the wall-hit after the 1st diamond.
Possible improvement: 0.1

Astroflight (19.23): Same path as my Astroflight run in my Marble Blast fun stuff video, except with one important tweak (there are others too) that is partially responsible for the 3 second drop from that run to this one.
Possible improvement: 0.2

Timely Ascent (2.36): Finally I'm able to do the edge hit path for a 2.3x. I also discovered the reason why people go straight to the finish instead of taking the 2nd TM when using the EH path, it's because although you get the first TM earlier, the platform you use with the 2 TM path doesn't go up sooner, so if you use that path the time can restart before you hit the finish.
Possible improvement: 0.02 (missed a 2.34 catch run)

Dragged Up! (11.27): I got the WR path after a bunch of misses, including an unfortunate miss of a 11.02 where the marble fell in the side of the top platform after hitting the top arch.
Possible improvement: 0.2

Treachery (7.59): My favorite path of this video and one of my favorite paths I made. Basically the history of this path is as follows:
Last summer I made a small compilation of GG marble runs (which I never uploaded here), many of which I used different paths than with the normal marble. Treachery (10.68 or so) was one such run, the path I used was an old version of this one, I get the gems in the same order and do the EH in the same place but I don't do any of those big jumps. I thought that path was only good as an alternate path because of two reasons: 1. the edge hit doesn't work with the regular marble (due to marble size differences), 2. My best Treachery time with the regular marble was 10.3x.
Later on, I tried this path with the regular marble and with a bit of minor tweaking of the marble's speed, I could indeed do the edge hit. The size of the marble affected which parts of the edge hit were easy and which were hard. With the GG marble, I could do the EH itself easily, but usually couldn't get enough height in the right position to get onto the platform. With the regular marble, the EH was hard, as I needed enough speed to get onto the platform but also the right angle and speed of the marble so it doesn't bounce on the ice and miss the edge entirely, but if I got an edge hit, it usually went up to the platform (some quite a bit above).
Initially, I got similar times with the regular marble as with the GG marble, but then I found many tweaks from after the 3rd diamond to the 7th diamond, including those wall-hits. These dropped the time to 9.xx, 8.xx, and then to 7.xx. One of the hard parts of the path is to get enough spin on the marble so it doesn't fall off the level after getting the 6th gem, but that got much easier with practice.
Possible improvement: 0.2

Song: Pitbull - Hey Baby

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Awesome job!

Wow great video (and song)!

like 5 of 6 of your newest videos has been blocked in my country...

Feb 17, 2011, 11:19am, vattu wrote:like 5 of 6 of your newest videos has been blocked in my country...

It's because of the music used in the video, because of it's popularity I think.

Anyways, awesome path for Treachery!

That's why gaming music is usually used by Pascal and I, because the chances of that being blocked is super low over music with voices (like iMac's or Andrew's vids).

Feb 17, 2011, 6:36pm, admin wrote:That's why gaming music is usually used by Pascal and I, because the chances of that being blocked is super low over music with voices (like iMac's or Andrew's vids).

and because it's the best music (my favourite kind, anyways)

Good job iMac, for a moment I tought it would have been possible to beat 6.46 on Treachery using ur path.

Feb 17, 2011, 11:19am, vattu wrote:like 5 of 6 of your newest videos has been blocked in my country...

Solution: move to a different country!