Submission #1865: Aqfaq's Genesis Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle in 05:27.8

Console: Sega Genesis
Game name: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Game version: USA
ROM filename: Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (U) [!].gen
Movie length: 05:27.8
Re-record count: 9618
Author's real name: Jaakko Järviniemi
Author's nickname: Aqfaq
Submitter: Aqfaq
Text last edited at: 2008-02-26 19:48:59
Text last edited by: ccfreak2k
Download: Download (1848 bytes)
Status: published
Click to view the actual publication
Submission instructions
Author's comments and explanations:
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle improved by about 79 seconds (4738 frames).

Thanks to Foda for the previous movie, which helped me a lot! Foda also gave me feedback that helped improving this movie.

There are 11 levels in the game. These are the improvements:

  • 0.5 seconds were saved in levels 1-8 due to better precision.
  • 0.5 seconds were saved in level 9.
  • 6 seconds were saved in level 10 by using the bike to gain speed.
  • The rest of the improvement comes from a completely revised route for level 11.

My route for the final level abuses two new tricks:

  1. The bike can be used to gain enough speed so that you get stuck in a wall. Then you can ascend by jumping inside the wall. This trick is used four times for shortcuts.
  2. If you get damaged when you are using the bike or the helicopter, you sometimes get warped upwards the height of approxximately 7 blocks. This trick is used once by equipping the helicopter, touching an enemy and warping to the screen that is located above.

Here are useful RAM addresses:

Alex's X-axis sub-pixel position 00FFD01A
Boss HP 00FFE126

I'm sure that some sub-pixel optimization is possible in the final level (and maybe in level 9), but I'm not used to it, so I can't understand how to do it perfectly. So go ahead and improve the movie further, if you can handle the sub-pixel world. I would enjoy seeing any improvements to this. :)

The movie attributes are the same:

  • Plays at hardest level
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Genre: Action
  • Genre: Platform

Enjoy!

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. I'm not sure I got the right ROM though. (I tried Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle (U) [!].gen, which was the closest match to what you wrote.) Well, here goes! Feel free to clean up the list.
http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_1.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_2.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_3.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_5.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_6.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_7.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_8.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_10.png http://tasvideos.org/media/autosnaps/1865_11.png
Bisqwit: Replaced file with a new provided by the author. Apparently, it is 21 frames faster now.
adelikat: Accepting for publication as an improvement to the published movie.

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