Post subject: NES - Battletoads (warps)
nesrocks
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So, anyone wants to try it out? i can easily get to level 12, but thats the one that needs training for me. I dont know the current record (if there's any) but i'd go for a sub 20 minutes run. I'll try it when i get home.
nesrocks
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ok it took me 31 minutes to finish it (31:49) thats because i died on levels 8, 10 and 12. too bad. too much backtracking, its better to go slow and not die than trying to go a little fast. i lost my first life on level 8, so i'm assuming if i train well i can not lose any life at all (except on boss battles, which is no biggie anyway)
nesrocks
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finished warpless in 45:16 i used 1 continue at dark queen
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doesn't seem like anyone wants to challenge you foda.. if this was snes.. i would. but im not relly that good at this one.
nesrocks
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maybe in time someone will. i can do the snes one too if you'd like to compete
nesrocks
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Wow! it's really easy to jump at the start of a level! just keep holding A before entering it. So, the level 9 start shortcut is possible on a speedrun :) hmm but it is not too usefull becasue the bots start to shoot lasers right after on the helicopter
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Yeah, that also works after the boss doors in MegaRockMan.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
nesrocks
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i guess i can do much faster now, but i havent finished it because i'm not satisfied with the 4th level and 8th and 9th :P but even so, it would be much faster, let me try to see. ok i was doing really well untill level 10. that level will be the decisive in the run, killing the first rat means it all. i couldnt and i started to suicide. but to the end of level 9 was cool, i compared to phil and genisto's movie and while they finished level 9 in 8:37, i finished in 12:33. i really doubt anyone can get it under 11. under 12 may be possible if you are the master of the universe. :P
nesrocks
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Alright, i think i've overdone myself now. 22:40 run, level 5 route (its autoscrolling, levle 4 isnt, so, even on a timeattack level 4 being 30 seconds faster, i dont think that its a good choice for a speedrun) I lost 3 lives total during levels, here is how much time i lost by having to backtrack due to lost lives: level 3 =~ 15 seconds (1 life lost) level 9 =~ 16 seconds (1 life lost) level 12 =~ 45 seconds (1 life lost) Also lost 1 life at boss of level 11, one life at dark queen, and 1 life after dark queen fight (after stopped recording). But its hard to measure how much time was lost there, so i'm not counting it. So, the way i played the time would have been 21:24~ if i hadnt lost any lives. The most improveable place is level 12. I dont think i can make the other levels much better (besides some missed punches). Here is the video: http://www.angelfire.com/ex/uobt/battletoads-u-speedrun-foda-v4.zip
Joined: 12/5/2004
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Hey, Bumping this up a bit to let you know I submitted a console run of the game to SDA, and it should eventually make its way to Twin Galaxies. I performed under slightly different rules than you (Namely, completing all of level 10), and ironically took the 1-3-4-6 path because I had seen it in your videos. :P I'm curious as to whether anyone has actually definitively done research on which path is faster for a human player at full speed, 1-3-5-6 or 1-3-4-6. Level 5's being mostly autoscroll should make it pretty easy to figure out an approximate time for it, so I guess how quickly you can go through 4 is the big determining factor. The run I sent in isn't really particularly good--somewhere around 26 minutes with several deaths--though I ironically manage to execute level 11 (Which as you know has a pseudo-fixed speed) almost perfectly. So yeah, look for that to be up at SDA soon.
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nesrocks
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Did you lose any lives? or is it a rule to not lose any life? I mean, if you lost any lives i wouldnt know why you bothered sending anything to them :P
Joined: 12/5/2004
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Oh, I die many many times. ;) Working on a full-game run where I die, well, less then many many times. :P Question: Working with the game, did you ever happen to figure out what causes the Hammerheads to appear (Or not) out of their generator in the third (I think it's the third) section of Level 9? I hate pretty much that entire level, but that part in particular has me baffled; how quickly or slowly you arrive there seems to have nothing to do with the number of Hammerheads you encounter when you do get there. Maybe it's something to do with how you kill previous enemies in the stage?
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nesrocks
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I always thought it was according to how fast you get there... and not kill the robot above, jump over it, i think but thats risky.
Joined: 12/5/2004
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Yeah, that's almost too risky to pull off on the NES. It's weird, killing it the traditional way (Pop him against the ceiling 3 times and strong punching him) seems to cause the hammerheads to appear LESS than if I do it one of the quicker ways (Pop him once and then ram-butt him). Like I said, it's got me confused. Oh well, I'll figure it out.
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Still not quite sure about the Hammerheads in level 9. Argh. My best guess is that they begin to spawn when you enter a certain radius from them, but said radius is extremely large (Which may explain why they seem to appear more often when I get aggressive with the robot above). Note that I have no definitive evidence to back this up, however. And while I said hitting it and jumping over it would probably be too risky,it may NOT be overly risky to attack it once and RUN past it. Oh, and you were right about Level 4 vs. Level 5....I timed each route (From the start of level 3 to the start of level 6), and presuming my execution of each route is close to optimal for a human player, it's quite a bit faster (Roughly 20 seconds) to go 1-3-5-6 than it is 1-3-4-6. Obviously, it means I should do my own homework about these things rather than blindly following what I see in tool-assisted videos.
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nesrocks
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"As difficult as it is, Battletoads is really not a game suited to speed-running--more of the game than you realize upon playing through it scrolls at a fixed (Turbo Tunnel) or at least pseudo-forced (The gear sections of the Terra Tubes) speed. Nonetheless, I AM speed-running here (Though not particularly well, admittedly--this was done with the intention of it being the inaugural record for the game at Twin Galaxies), and I figured most people would be amazed to simply see the game beaten legitimately. " dude... why do you say this? you know its not true, especially when i beat your time by so much. this game is totally suitable for timeattacking because of its difficult movements and hard to not lose lives (which cost a lot of time).
Joined: 12/5/2004
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Well, like I said, it was mainly that I wanted to be first. I actually have another run down that improves upon that by about two minutes, though I manage to die in annoying yet amusing fashion a couple times. I'm just looking for something to fill out the tape with. At this point, I'm attempting to run through Rygar, which is actually pretty annoying to go through quickly without dying! Edit: True, you beat my time by a good margin, but part of that is that you boot Scuzz in level 10, right? As for what I said, of the twelve levels, level 2 is more-or-less forced speed, 3 has the Turbo Tunnel, 5 is almost entirely forced-scroll, as is 6, 7 has another forced scroll part, as does 9, and 11 until the boss is entirely forced-scroll. So over half the levels have at least some forced scrolling. Granting, by warping you skip quite a few of them, but going through all twelve levels has quite a few moments of "fixed" time.
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nesrocks
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but those free levels are so loose that this is the best game to timeattack, imo. you just can never get close perfect, like in mario games. no matter how good you are, theres always a lot of room for someone better than you come in and beat your time.