A Start-to-end run of Mr. Nutz for the SNES. Aims for a time as low as possible. Coins are avoided whenever possible to keep down the time spent in score-screens. Health and lives are collected, it positively affects the displayed 'skill' score. Acorns (ammo) are collected if no time is lost. No ingame warps or passwords were used. Damage is taken to save time or to display tricks without losing time. Choices for killing or avoiding enemies were purely on a basis of entertainment value. I enjoyed making this (my first) TAS.
Settings
- Emulator: Snes9X v1.51 for Windows
- Abuses programming errors
- Takes damage to save time
- Default in-game settings
- Aims for fastest time
About the Game
A colorful 1994 SNES platformer in which Mr. Nutz goes through worlds with several themes, each ending with a matching boss. The player has a small set of actions available; walking, running, jumping, throwing acorns and tail swiping.
Approach
Memory watching was intensively used to improve the movie, tracking data such as subpixel positions, player states and enemy states. Furthermore, sometimes LUA scripting was used to find fastest routes. HexEditing was occasionally used to fix desyncs (QuickHex v5.1).
The fastest way to accelerate from stand-still is by performing a small jump and holding the run-buttom. The second-fastest way is by alternating run-button while on the ground.
Having Mr. Nutz on the ground when triggering the end of a level is slightly faster.
Cornerboosting is used to save time (about 5 frames per occasion).
Mr. Nutz' hitbox is slightly bigger at his back, sometimes allowing one hit/miss enemies by turning around for a few frames. (does not work on solid geometry)
Extra comments on specific levels
World 1, Level 3
Stay on the elevator moving in Mr. Nutz's direction to increase net speed, hereby saving some frames. Used in other parts of the run as well.
World 1, Boss (Mr. Spider)
Button-bashing causes text to appear faster, up to 1 symbol (including spaces etc) per frame. Used in other parts of the run as well.
One can cancel out the spider's jump by hitting him 1 frame after it started but the time gained is less than the time spent waiting for it.
World 2, Level 1
The owl can be used to do larger/higher jumps, however ignoring it turned out to be faster.
World 2, Level 3
The swings' timing is based on the moment of loading an area and cannot be manipulated, in this case walking the spikes is fastest.
A short slowdown is done on purpose to allow the owl to follow Mr. Nutz, moving any faster would result in it being unloaded.
The owl is used to glitch over a wall that would otherwise require 3 buttons in the level to be pressed. Being inside walls causes Mr. Nutz to be pushed opposite the facing-direction at high speed.
World 2, boss (Evil Witch)
Take a hit to allow moving through the fountain of skulls, resulting in a faster kill.
World 3, Level 2
A rabbit is manipulated into jumping down, which is then used for a sequence break.
The up-down elevators start moving from a fixed position every time Mr. Nutz gets into close-to-visual range, delaying this event results in a faster result.
Ignoring the swing over the forks and taking damage near the button is faster in passing the pit, but one would still have to wait for the other swings causing it to be just as fast.
World 3, Level 2, sink part
Mr. Nutz has a much lower horizontal speed in the water. By releasing the forward button before entering the water, one can keep momentum longer (causing you to decelerate as if you were in mid-air).
In the second area Mr. Nutz has to slow down a bit to allow the swing to move away, otherwise he would've been forced to grab it, slowing him down much more.
In the third area Mr. Nutz hits the water-enemy. This allows him to accelerate back to full speed faster than when he would take a hit from the filthy green water itself.
World 4, Level 1
Mr. Nutz runs past a pack of bats causing them to unload, then turns back making the game loading them again. This way the bats are in position faster to allow a shortcut.
World 4, Level 3
Taking damage right before hanging onto a swing will cut off the hurt-animation.
A bat is lured to allow a sequence break.
World 4, Level 4
Some more enemy jumping to skip large parts of this level. Although not visual in the movie, one owl (the first one encountered) is lured for a long time, which is the reason for slowing down a tiny bit near the bomber-enemy.
World 4, boss (Ograoum Papas)
Unfortunately, this is a highly scripted and long boss. He continues it's sequence as soon as all eyes are either killed or unloaded, hence the hectic acorn firing.
World 5, boss (Little Clown)
Another highly scripted and slow boss, so some juggling and fancy moves are performed.
World 6, Level 1, Iglo part
Mr. Nutz gets pushed through the ceiling and walls after being forced into them by an enemy.
Abuse of two weak spots in the geometry of the level.
World 6, Level 2
Use of enemy projectile to skip a large part of the level.
World 6, Level 3
Walking the spikes gains some time.
Final score: 1323950, Total coins: 205.
Credits (in alphabetic order)
- All Snes9x contributors for creating the emulator
- Aqfaq for WIP feedback
- Bisqwit + encoders + publishers for running this community
- DeHackED for creating LUA support for Snes9x
- Gocha for creating Snes9x memory watcher
- JXQ for creating QuickHex
- mmbossman for WIP feedback
- Nintendo for creating the SNES console
- Ocean for developing this game (Pierre Adane & Philippe Dessoly)
- Ryo Ohkubo for creating JoyToKey
adelikat: Accepting for publication.
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