Ooookay, let's see what we have so far. Will edit this post later as I've ironed out the information and observations.
Version differences ?
- The double explode miniboss glitch and the 2nd double explode miniboss with 2 next level power up works in both version.
edit: test movie showing the 2nd double explode miniboss with 2 next level powerup for Japanese version
User movie #73227026846335122
- The Japanese version has more projectiles, giving more opportunities to damage boost for example at Stage 2 (level 1)
- The Japanese version has some cutscenes for a few stages, much longer than the time we could save by dmg boosting
- The Japanese version power ups are a bit different
Because of the longer cutscenes,
we should stay at the American version.
How does the engine works
The engine only allows 2 enemies at once and
3 4 objects at once. This means 3 projectiles, 2 projectiles and an enemy or 1 projectile and 2 enemy maximum.
A boss counts as an enemy and the boss only spawns correctly if there is a free space in the slots.
If an enemy is in an exploding state (only happens when you use B --> punching), depending it's exploding timer, the enemy won't be cleared from the enemy table when you start a boss fight.
The boss will spawn with the values of the exploding enemy and will be placed into enemy 0 slot. Then he rewrites one value (17th)
Double explosion glitch
If two enemy is in an exploding state and you start a boss fight, then depending on their exploding timer, the boss won't spawn.
However, both exploding enemy will get some values overwritten (6th, 11th, 15th, 17th) and the higher exploding timer between the two enemies will be used.
0x84 seems to be a "global
explosion timer" which uses the highest explosion timer.
The level will end in
255 - highest explosion timer frames later.
- Currently unknown why it doesn't works for Stage 1 (level 0) miniboss to acquire it as a next level power up
Fastest strategy so far
(Applies to both Hokuto no Ken 2 and Fist of the North Star)
Stage 1 (level 0)
- Manipulate two enemies as close as possible to the first mini boss cam x position
1792
- First mini boss double explode ( I don't get glitched next level power up here :( )
- Manipulate two enemies as close as possible to the final boss cam x position
3840
- Final boss double explode ( we don't get glitched next level power up here :( )
Stage 2 (level 1)
- This level has 3 stairs, which increases our cam x position greatly:
(cam x position in previous room, cam x position in next room)
from 1070 to 1560
from 1794 to 2304
from 2200 to 2816
- This level might improbable with using damage boosting if possible
- Manipulate two enemies as close as possible to the first mini boss cam x position
3328
- First mini boss double explode, pick up glitched next level power ups for Stage 4 (level 3)
Stage 4 (level 3) - cam x position 3328
- Going back to boss from right to left
1404
OR... die and start from left to right...
right to left --> 3328 - 1404 distance --> 1924 / 2 = 962
left to right --> 0 - 1404 distance --> 1404/2 = 707 frames moving and death and respawn time.
Since it takes more than 962 - 707 = 255 frames
seconds to die and respawn,
the submission's strategy of going to left seems to be better.
The question is does this "gather 2 next level power up" works on other bosses. If yes, we need to find which levels favors us the best cam x positions to finish the remaining bosses.
Latest hud v5:
User movie #73228759550285392
edit2: glitched power up tests
edit3:
- Picking up a normal power up: 3000 score points.
- The powerup of an enemy transforms when doing a double exploding glitch
- The only miniboss who gives us next level glitched power up is the 1st miniboss in Stage 2 (level 1) so far.
- Both enemy will drop the newly transformed power up
Stage 1 (level 0) 1st miniboss. White flag sprite.
Stage 2 (level 1) 1st miniboss. White flag sprite.
Glitched next level power up!!
Stage 6 (level 5) 1st miniboss 5122 cam x pos. Golden necklace sprite
Stage 6 (level 5) 2nd miniboss. Kenshiro sprite :) Hit + 10
edit4: powerup ids and what happens at the boss fights...
Doing the double exploding enemy will take up the 2 out of 2 enemy slots before entering a boss screen.
With the right global timer and their exploding timer, the boss will be loaded to both slot and will overwrite some values (noted with
Bs in my hud script).
Since the boss spawns with 0 health, his exploding timer will start, which is first the highest timer version of the boss and then the small timer version of the boss (when an enemy has 0 health, they will only explode after 128 - current timer frames).
The newly transformed power up for the
(2 as both of them) boss will be increased according to something... the formula is not known currently, but if you see the screenshots, see B - 17 for the value and what is shown on the screenshot. I assume it has something to do with the array of minibosses, each miniboss having the transformed powerup of miniboss position + 4. (miniboss 0 the first having 4, miniboss 1 the second having 5... not sure about this theory so far)
Value of B - 17 in hud or 0x398 for enemy slot 0, sprite
0, no power up
1, half star, +1 star if you have 4 star already IIRC
2, full star, +1 star
3, golden necklace, + 3 bomb
4, white flag, no effect
5, white flag, increases level by 1
<--- what we call glitched next level power up
6, white flag, no effect
7, golden necklace, +1 hit
8, Kenshiro, +10 hit
9, Kenshiro, +100 hit
A, Kenshiro, +1000 hit
B, nothing (also gets removed fast)
C, nothing (also gets removed fast)
D, Kenshiro, +10000 score
E, Kenshiro, +100000 score
F, Kenshiro, +1000000 score
10, nothing
11, Kenshiro, nothing
12 to 28 either Kenshiro or nothing and also gets removed fast
29, floating body?, nothing
70, opens a door?, nothing apart from a visual door being opened
71, one of the bosses, restarts stage
72, Kenshiro, nothing
73, nothing
74, Kenshiro, err a visual animation plays, probably kills everyone on screen, don't know as I'm not familiar with the game
The reason this glitched power up exists seems unintended from developer side, is that they were using developer code to select the stage they want to go.
While the game was never intended to be using the engine for this, the feature of instantly loading the part of the level when the level number is changed is there.
final edit: even the "power ups" have near instant impact on the gameplay as soon it's value changed...
As I seem I've (regarding understanding the glitch) finally looks like cracked the code, I will compile the tricks and stuffs in to a
Wiki: GameResources. Also should beautify my script and use better screenshots and animations...
The following test what needs to be done before diving in creating attempts that might will be unusable because of different beginning parts, are the following:
- verify formula of transformed power up to be miniboss position + 4
- find possibilities to manipulate this B-17 0x398 value to be 5 (pausing, dying, continuing, etc)
- act accordingly somewhat the basic strategy notes I wrote above in this post.
Note for you as you probably don't have this permission to edit GameResources page:
Any user with at least one published movie or with special permissions granted by an admin or admin assistant may edit these pages (see Editor Guidelines for more details).
In case you would also like to edit it in the future or something.
- if both guy explodes and we go through the "start miniboss" camx pos (it looks like I need to be closer to that camx pos to get this effect everytime I test this), the boss fight ends after 3 seconds and the boss' sprite will remain on the screen until we enter another screen. Enemies and projectiles won't spawn until entering another screen. edit6: (they actually spawn but instantly die as soon as drawn)
edit5: LOL, I just realized that this might be a potential time save, as none of the TASes did this on the first miniboss.
Both effect can be done in Fist of the North Star as well. The glitched sprite looks a little bit different but it also showed something flying upwards from the two guy killed. Only had success with once (I'm using a savestate and replicate the glitch in real time), there is a tricky timing in how much frames spent between killing the two guy.
So far I believe the USA version of the game should be used because of not using that cutscene after