Submission #1378: upthorn's Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles "Knuckles, 100%" in 45:28.60

Emulator used: Gens 9Z (Gens 9F compatible)

Emulator settings:

• Controller 1: 6 button
• Controller 2: 6 button
• Allow Up+Down: Yes
• Sound: Enabled, 44100KhZ Stereo, YM2612 High Quality enabled

Categories

• Does not use warps or passwords
• Abuses programming errors in the game
• Manipulates luck
• Takes damage to save time
• Aims for full completion
• Aims for fastest in-game completion time

About the Movie

In-game completion times:

Angel Island 1

0:54

Angel Island 2

0:35

Hydrocity 1

0:54

Hydrocity 2

0:46

Marble Garden 1

0:46

Marble Garden 2

0:43

Carnival Night 1

0:46

Carnival Night 2

0:30

Ice Cap 1

0:52

Ice Cap 2

0:51

Launch Base 1

1:24

Launch Base 2

1:26

Mushroom Hill 1

0:58

Mushroom Hill 2

0:57

Flying Battery 1

1:00

Flying Battery 2

1:18

Sandopolis 1

1:41

Sandopolis 2

1:26

Lava Reef 1

1:01

Lava Reef 2

0:21

Hidden Palace

0:08

Sky Sanctuary

0:57

Total Time: 20:14

Notes and Explanations

• There are certain portions of the movie where I do something which may seem slow, or pointless.

1. at 08:34:40 (frame 30885), in Hydrocity 2, I get crushed under a dropping block. If I did not do this, I would be unable to go past the left edge of the level, to arrive at the boss more quickly, and I would therefore lose 20 seconds of in-game time (and about 13 seconds of real time)
2. at 14:02:50 (frame 50570), at the end of Marble Garden 1, I get a fire shield that the sign post hit. This gives me a better subpixel position to start MG2 with, and was faster than knocking the signpost away from the monitor.
3. at 14:56:20 (frame 53780), in Marble Garden 2, I take damage from the boss. I was unable to make the third hit on that pass without taking damage immediately afterward.
4. In several places in Ice Cap 1, I don't charge a spindash all the way, because the ice columns I have to break through are very picky about what speeds they let you through with, and even with the lower speed, doing one partial spindash is slightly faster than doing multiple full ones.
5. in two places in Launch Base 1, I hold a spindash for more than 6 frames since, because of the way I landed, starting it later would cause me to reverse direction.
6. at 23:20:00 (frame 84000) at the end of Launch Base 2, I hold a fully-revved spindash for quite some time, to comic effect.
7. at 36:54:00 (frame 132840), at the start of Flying Battery 2, I start a spindash early, to prevent Knuckles from going into his balancing animation (which prevents ducking/dashing).
8. at 38:19:10 (frame 137950), at the end of Flying Battery 2, I end where I am instead of all the way right, to get the acceleration bonus from the jump, saving 5 frames.
9. in several places, during the special stages, while jumping over star bumper spheres, I bump into multiple spheres. This is because it is impossible to jump over three bumper spheres in a row without hitting the third, however it is still faster unless there are at least 7 spheres in a row.

Thanks to

• Nitsuja for checking over much of this run, and giving good suggestions for many, many improvements; developing, and helping develop, some tools; and tipping me off to a few glitches.
• Dustin for unwavering moral support, testing some things for me, and doing the Launch Base 1 boss fight for me.
• SprintGod and Mike89 for their great help in planning special stage routes.
• All of The Sonic Center, for discovering and sharing several glitches that I make use of.

Extra stuff

• For those (most of you) who feel that the special stages are very slow and boring, http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/3511/UpthornS3KTAS050.gmv is a version that does not collect the second set of emeralds in Mushroom Hill, and is therefore 9m 04s shorter. Saves 7 time units in MH1 and 8 in MH2 (for times of 0:51 and 0:49, respectively).
• Single level "pure" speed run of Angel Island 1 http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/3520/UpthornS3KPureAI1K.gmv achieves a time of 0:43 (11 time units saved)
• Single level "pure" speed run of Hydrocity 1 http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/3523/UpthornS3KPureHC1K.gmv achieves a time of 0:38 (16 time units saved)