Posts for Kumquat

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Posted: 10/29/2009 9:11 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
The only other differences I have found are that the item names, stage names, and options in Tails' House (besides "EXIT") are in Japanese, and the rectangle that appears behind an item's name when you collect it is blue. Switching to Japanese would only save about 10 frames in low% and any%, and about 25 frames in 100%. I probably should play it in English; I just thought I should mention that playing it in Japanese saves a few frames.
Posted: 10/29/2009 9:02 AM
(Edited: 2/13/2010 5:59 AM)
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I could never love someone who insists that their name should start with a lowercase letter. No, it is not mmbossman. That we each have an eight-pointed star as our avatar is purely a coincidence. (Besides, mine is completely different! It has five colors that blend together between each point, and there is a purple dodecagon behind it!) Edit: For future reference, this used to be my avatar:
Posted: 10/27/2009 10:27 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I have shown TASes to most of my friends, but only one of them was really interested enough to look at anything beyond what I showed them. I like to watch TASes with my brother, though, and my mother thinks it is an interesting, if time consuming, hobby. There is also someone here...with whom I would love to become better acquainted...<3
Posted: 10/27/2009 9:16 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Because low% is the simplest route, I think I will do it first. This is the route I have right now:
    1: Poloy Forest
      Collect Red Chaos Emerald. Collect Remote Robot. Complete the area normally.
    2: Volcanic Tunnel
      Collect Green Chaos Emerald. Complete the area normaly.
    3: Polly Mt. 1
      Collect Rocket Booter. Complete the area normally. Collect Purple Chaos Emerald.
    4: Tails' House
      Get into the submarine without equipping anything.
    5: Lake Rocky
      Travel to Cavern Island.
    6:Cavern Island
      Collect Mine. Immediately glitch out.
    7: Tails' House
      Get into the submarine and equip Vulcan Gun / Mine / Rocket Booter / Nothing.
    8: Lake Rocky
      Travel to Coco Island.
    9: Complete the rest of the game normally.
The only changes I can think of are not using the Vulcan Gun at all or equipping things in a different order, but I have not tested them yet. I have two ideas for the any% route. One of them is just low% with a few more items, and the other one involves glitching into Caron Forest to collect Sonic and the Proton Torpedo and skipping the Mine. Unfortunately, simply shooting a torpedo at the blocks that you normally need the Mine for will not work -- we need to find a way to get an enemy near enough to curve a torpedo into the blocks (or maybe we could hit it while it is near enough for the explosion to hit the blocks). I have not finished a 100% route yet, but I did notice that the Remote Robot cannot be used in most boss rooms, which means it is not possible to skip the boss guarding the Extra Armor. In other news, I have to redo Poloy Forest because I entered it seven frames later than I could have. However, I could save one more frame by playing in Japanese (though I have no idea why, because it is the same ROM). I assume I could save one extra frame per stage selection, but I have not checked yet. Should I continue to use the English version, or should I switch to Japanese?
Posted: 10/23/2009 12:22 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
It seems to be an incomplete list of items and their requirements. It is missing the Blue and White Chaos Emeralds, Triple Bomb, Wrench, Teleport Device, Night Vision, Item Radar, Sonic, Fang, Proton Torpedo, Extra Speed, Extra Armor, and Rocket Booter. Many of the items on it are unnecessary, so I have no idea what it was for.
Over two years ago, Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Thus, along with the Regular Bomb, Purple Chaos Emerald, and Vulcan Gun items that you always get along the way, you only need to collect the Remote Robot, Rocket Booster, Mine, Red Chaos Emerald and Green Chaos Emerald in order to complete the game.
I think this is correct.
Posted: 10/22/2009 10:28 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
If you use the Remote Robot right after Tails collects an item, you will have control of both of them. Is that the glitch you found before, Bag of Magic Food?
Posted: 10/19/2009 11:05 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
If I do a 100% run, I think it would be best to glitch into Caron Forest and collect Sonic as soon as possible. We just need to find a way past this wall, but nothing I have tried has worked. (You can get through those walls by flying into them, but you will get stuck in the second block unless it was only one block wide.) Also, I forgot to mention another glitch I found before. When you push an object, it will keep moving in the same direction as long as you hold left or right. You can also push things behind Tails if he is right next to them. (The Remote Robot can only push things while it is touching them, though, and it will always push them in the direction it is moving.)
Posted: 10/18/2009 6:55 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Here is my attempt at the first stage (also on YouTube). None of Bag of Magic Food's links work anymore, so I am not sure if my attempt is faster. I was not able to find any glitches that allow Tails and his Remote Robot to move at the same time, nor was I able to find a glitch that allows Tails to warp by touching a corner. However, I did figure out the glitch with recalling the Remote Robot after collecting an item, and I found another way to activate it. If you release down while the Remote Robot is on an edge, it will warp back to Tails almost instantly. Different glitches will hapen depending on the distance between them, but I am not yet sure of the exact distances.
  • If Tails was on-screen or very close, the Remote Robot will reappear near him as if you used it normally. (This cannot be done by recalling it after collecting an item.)
  • At certain distances, Tails will appear where he was, but the background will be the same as it was where the Remote Robot was.
    • One time this happened, Tails was warped through a wall he was near.
  • At certain distances, usually farther than the last, Tails will be warped to near where the Remote Robot was.
  • If they were very far apart or the Remote Robot was a certain distance above Tails, he will be warped out of the stage. (I was never able to do this after recalling it from a collected item).
I also found another glitch -- on certain, seemingly random frames, you can begin flying by pressing Button 2 once. Not only do you keep more speed from your jump, but it also allows you to accelerate horizontally one frame sooner! Here are the important memory addresses I have found:
  • 0xD517 and 0xD516 are horizontal speed.
  • 0xD519 and 0xD518 are vertical speed.
  • 0xD557 and 0xD556 are the Remote Robot's horizontal speed.
  • 0xD559 and 0xD558 are the Remote Robot's vertical speed.
  • 0xD3AF and 0xD3B0 are flight stamina.
  • 0xD726 is the first boss's health.
  • 0xD8A6 is the second boss's health.
Other things to note are that Tails's horizontal speed is set to 0 when he begins flying, his vertical speed will be set to -1 if you hold up while he is flying, and it will be set to 1 if you hold down instead. The Remote Robot's horizontal speed is set to 0 when it lands after a jump, and it causes a lot of lag when it flies. The Speed Boots double Tails's speed, but they can only be used on the ground. Sonic allows Tails to move at four times his normal speed, but only if you jump immediately after using it. It would be faster to immediately go back for the Speed Boots, but glitching out of the stage does not count as beating it. I am not sure if skipping the Remote Bomb will save time. Also, I was not able to find a way past this part of Cavern Island without it.
Posted: 10/12/2009 4:25 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Thank you very much, everyone! I am glad this game turned out to be a good choice.
Posted: 10/1/2009 10:10 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
ElectroSpecter wrote:
The "Best" ending is merely an extra screen that tells you you've won a contest. You're supposed to take your picture next to this screen and send it in or something. I wish I still had my instruction book with the contest details because I would TOTALLY do it.
I remember that contest! I also remember being upset that it ended before I got the game... According to this thread, it ended at the end of 1993 and the prize was a small Cool Spot figure.
Posted: 9/25/2009 2:35 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I care, Ferret Warlord. I care. When I saw your new avatar, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, your new picture of an excited Furret is very silly, and many people would find it humorous. On the other hand, it is not as cute as your other avatars, and the overall cuteness rating of your posts is going to decrease. While I personally would not choose your new avatar over any of your old avatars, I believe that you are the type to aim for humor over cuteness. The meme your new avatar was inspired by appeals to anyone who will laugh at a silly picture, and I think that makes it a good choice overall. A-
Posted: 9/18/2009 7:52 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Well, that took longer than I thought it would! I redid the first stage and saved 83 frames over the YouTube video. Most of the time saved came from better manipulation of the Ring to grab things faster, which allowed me to save time by grabbing the blue poles. I also redid the second stage and saved 226 frames over the YouTube video. Most of the time saved came from having a better understanding of how damage works — it turns out that the Ring does more damage if you spin it for a while before you throw it.
  • If it does not make a full revolution, it does 1 damage.
  • If it makes one or two full revolutions, it does 3 damage.
  • If it makes three or more full revolutions, it does 5 damage.
  • Each revolution takes about 32 frames.
Fockewulf has 20 HP, and his bombs do 8 damage if you throw them back at him. Finally, I completed the third stage (YouTube). Bearenger has 26 HP, but he does not have any attacks that you can use against him. I have one other strategy to test against him before I move on to Metal Island. One other thing I noticed is that there are some frames when your input does not do anything, but the game is not lagging. I pseudorandomly pressed buttons during several of those frames near the beginning of the first stage before I got tired of looking for them.
Posted: 9/18/2009 6:38 PM
(Edited: 2/13/2010 5:40 AM)
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Dear Bisqwit, Edit: Nevermind. Your fan, Kumquat
Posted: 8/26/2009 10:16 PM
(Edited: 9/18/2009 6:27 PM)
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I figured out how to get memory watch to work in Dega 1.16:
    1: Make sure you are not using Windows Vista. (This step is important!) 2: Install Python 2.5.4. 3: Yay, memory watch!
Edit: I finally got it to work with Vista! You just have to set Dega's compatibility mode to XP.
Posted: 8/18/2009 4:26 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
It does not show up in either version of 1.16, but I just checked 1.15 and it does show up! So... I guess I have to test everything in the old laggy version, but it is much better than nothing. Thank you very much, Alden!
Posted: 8/18/2009 3:42 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Could you please explain exactly what I need to do? No matter what I try, I cannot get it to work. In other news, I redid the boss fight without the unnecessary hits. It was faster until the last hit, which was slower because the boss was immune to damage for a much longer time for some reason. I have no idea why, so I will not be able to continue until I can use memory watch to figure out how his health works.
Posted: 8/18/2009 3:12 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
The only things in the first level that Tails can recover from are the spiked ball near the beginning and the blue and yellow blocks, so no, it is not useful. I did not know that Dega had a memory watch feature. How do I open it?
Posted: 8/17/2009 8:08 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I finished the second level. Here are the movie file and YouTube video. I was also able to improve the first stage by 19 frames by avoiding the weight at the beginning, getting better boosts from minecarts, and avoiding lag. I decided to err on the side of caution and not use the level select code to skip the title screen. I am certain that I can improve the boss fight, but I am not sure how. The first boss is consistantly defeated by either 20 hits from Tails's Ring or being thrown into a wall 5 times. In my current video, I defeat him with 4 throws and 4 hits, but I was able to defeat him with 4 throws and 3 hits in my test runs. I suspect that throws do varying damage, but I am not sure how to manipulate them. Edit: Okay, I figured it out. I was hitting him too soon with the Ring, so he was stunned without taking any damage. (I have no idea why that happens.) I should be able to beat him with 2 hits and 4 throws. Based on these numbers, I assume that he has 40 health, and he takes 2 damage from being hit by the Ring and 9 damage from being thrown into a wall.
Posted: 8/14/2009 11:43 AM
Post subject: Using level select to skip the title screen?
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I have a similar question. Is it okay to use a built-in level select code to skip the title screen? In Tails' Sky Patrol, for instance, I can save 120 frames that would otherwise be wasted waiting at the title screen if I use the level select code.
Posted: 8/12/2009 11:42 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
I am glad all of you are enjoying it! I will finish the second stage as soon as I can, but I have no idea when that will be. Alden, I recorded the videos with CamStudio. Also, if I use the level select code (Up, 2, and Start on the title screen) to select the first stage, it is 120 frames faster than starting normally. Am I allowed to use it?
Posted: 8/12/2009 4:04 AM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Some of the crystals are on slower paths, but I am not sure if it would be more entertaining to collect them. For now, I am going to avoid every crystal. The new movie file is here, and you can watch it on YouTube here.
Posted: 8/11/2009 11:27 PM
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
Thank you, Alden! I will certainly be using the latest version of Dega, because it also plays the game at its proper speed. (I made another test run with Dega 1.16 (MAME core), and it was about 13.5 seconds faster without being optimized.) I also retested a few things:
  • Spinning the Ring does not slow Tails down.
  • Flying diagonally does not slow Tails down.
  • All items are collected with the Ring, not just crystals.
Do you think I should collect all of the crystals? Some of them will take a few seconds to collect in later stages, and I am still not sure if collecting all of them does anything.
Posted: 8/11/2009 9:01 AM
(Edited: 8/12/2009 3:51 AM)
Post subject: Tails' Sky Patrol
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Kumquat
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (121)
Joined: 8/11/2009
Posts: 73
Location: Texas
For reasons not immediately apparent to myself, I decided to add one more thing to my long list of things to do and make a TAS of Tails' Sky Patrol. (I wanted to play Tails Adventure, but I do not think I have enough time for it right now.) In Tails' Sky Patrol, Tails must fly through five stages to save an island (does it have a name?) from Wendy Witchcart and her minions. For some reason, he cannot stop flying and he will lose a life if he touches the ground. Or the walls. Or a ceiling. But not enemies, because he always has a Ring with him! I made a test run of the first stage. Here is the movie file. I, um, forgot to get the latest version of Dega before I started recording, and I will have to start over because it desyncs on the newer version. Notes and observations:
  • Tails's Ring will automatically grab crystals and objects that it can latch on to unless it is being spun or thrown.
  • Spinning the Ring will slow Tails down a very small amount.
  • You can grab then release certain objects (such as minecarts) to boost Tails forward a few pixels.
  • The spinning yellow walls can only be passed when they are parallel or perpendicular to the screen. Tails will lose a life if he hits them at any other angle.
  • Tails's hitbox is really small, but I am not sure what its exact size is. I am almost certain that it is only 1 pixel tall.
  • However, it seems that any part of Tails's sprite can collect candy, extra lives, and invincibility panels.
  • I lost a few frames by collecting the crystals. I am not sure if they do anything besides give you points, and I will ignore them next time if I should.
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