Posts for PJ

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Posted: 7/6/2023 6:10 AM
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PJ
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Super good TAS! I really love this game; I have been following the RTA route/run since its infancy, and it is really incredible to see where the route has ended up. I have never seen this mushroom boots skip (I knew one had to be possible!) and the 0-health dialogue glitches were really amusing. I'm really happy to see a run of this game that doesn't rely on death abuse to restore resources in the miniboss/boss gauntlets at the end, too, because that kind of play always feels sour to me. This was a joy to watch. Great work jafem!
Posted: 1/12/2023 8:24 AM
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PJ
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despoa wrote:
PJ wrote:
I am not sure if it works the same way in this game, and I didn't notice anywhere where it would save time, but in Mario 4 you can kind of "store" P-speed by releasing the run button. You lose P-speed if you bump into a wall, but not if you stop running, as long as you are still moving forward.
It works the same way in Mario 3. It was done a number of times to reach platforms where jumping at full speed would make Mario run into a wall and lose P-speed.
Oh, it was! Sorry, I didn't notice before. ^_^
Posted: 1/12/2023 7:11 AM
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PJ
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I have physical copies of this and Mario 4, and can confirm that they are a nightmare to play in real-time. I did some RTA runs of Mario 4 and it was not enjoyable. I definitely appreciate the work that went into this TAS, knowing how rough the mechanics are to work with. I am not sure if it works the same way in this game, and I didn't notice anywhere where it would save time, but in Mario 4 you can kind of "store" P-speed by releasing the run button. You lose P-speed if you bump into a wall, but not if you stop running, as long as you are still moving forward. In many cases, it was faster in real-time to stop running sometimes to avoid bumping into a wall, so I could resume full speed afterwards without having to build it up again. This is probably not the place to ask, but I'm curious about what emulator issues are preventing Mario 4 from being TASed. When I was practicing, I noticed that the worse emulators (Gens, etc) had a final boss fight whereas Bizhawk just reset when you completed the final platforming level. I assumed it was an emulator bug, but playing on an "authentic" physical copy, it behaves the same way as Bizhawk. The game resets when you complete the final stage and you don't fight the final boss. Probably a tricky ruling to make...
Posted: 10/1/2020 3:39 PM
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PJ
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Koh1fds wrote:
>Also, after every 10 hits, he becomes invincible and starts smashing back and forth across the screen. You can skip that if you land 11th hit while he is in the air. It saves like 15 seconds or something https://youtu.be/jv4IF3dt4Po?t=1068 edit: i didnt discovered it by the way
WHAT. That's incredible!
Posted: 9/30/2020 5:17 PM
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PJ
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Thanks for the info, Lobsterzelda! I had a feeling it was related to the stage 3 switches, but it's nice to have confirmation. I don't recall if Rash's jump is high enough to hit the switch or not, but I seem to remember thinking that Pimple was the only one who could. I guess if the faster jump saves enough time in stages 3 and 5, it might outweigh the slower switch hits, but that's an exercise for a more interested party I think. Haha. Good work!
Posted: 9/30/2020 1:27 AM
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PJ
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Whoa, what a pleasant surprise! I wasn't expecting to see this. Definite yes vote from me. Very entertaining run, as to be expected of this gem. Quick question: years ago I theorized (and I think I talked to feos about it) that it'd be faster for a TAS to use Jimmy and one of the green toads instead of Billy/Pimple because they have less startup time on their jumps. For most of the run it wouldn't matter, but I think for some of the void jumps (like the long 3-2 pipe skip) and extended interdimensional sky jumping in stage 5, the startup time on the jump is preventing the camera from advancing. IIRC Pimple and Billy have *slightly* higher jumps, which is required to hit the switches in stage 3 from the ground, but I could be misremembering. Could you elaborate on the character choice for me? Did we test it years ago and decide it didn't save time, or is there something else I'm overlooking?
Posted: 9/26/2020 4:35 PM
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PJ
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Hahaha, this is really incredible! I really enjoyed reading the correspondence with TheZlomus. It is incredible to me to see what has developed out of the silly game end glitch I stumbled onto on console over a decade ago. What a fantastic game. Good work, everybody! I have no opinion on the legality ruling, but I really appreciate the science going on here and got a kick out of TheZlomus' shoutouts. Thanks for all your work on this game. :D
Posted: 8/12/2020 5:51 AM
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PJ
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Oh awesome! I didn't know about the area 9 shortcut. Well done! I'm almost certain there are better pathing options for many of these stages; this is just what I came up with myself. I routed this so long ago that I honestly don't remember the justifications behind a lot of it (i.e. there might've been other paths that were faster but less consistent, or required certain enemy despawns that I couldn't control properly). I'll try to help if I see something in a WIP that looks slow or if I remember anything, but I didn't keep great notes for this run. I'm realizing now that I never even posted my RTA run here. I'm sorry! Even though you clearly saw it, I'll post now so others can find it more easily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD8Nd0BcqD8 Re: the male, yes! Or rather, not through the walls, but you can actually get up to the boss door from below. I'm really proud of that clip. Not really sure why I didn't make a video of this before, but I've remedied that now (warning, audio seems extremely loud): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7LfXu5WxeM IIRC, the vertical grapple before the damage boost forces your hitbox upwards a little. I seem to remember needing to do that to actually get hit by the soldier at the top. Everything prior to that is just manipulating him into the proper spot and making sure I can grapple high enough. This was done in real time, and with the intention of being consistent for RTA, so it is likely that there's a faster setup for a TAS.
Posted: 7/17/2020 2:19 AM
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PJ
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Woo! I'm glad it's faster! Looking forward to the improvement.
Posted: 7/17/2020 1:22 AM
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PJ
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In the final level, I seem to remember that dash-jumping off the springs saves time. It has been awhile since I've done or watched any Battletoads speedrunning so I might be misremembering, but the spring climbs definitely looked slow here. Aside from that, it looks great! Very entertaining run.
Posted: 6/30/2020 3:28 PM
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PJ
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Thanks for the encode! Been looking forward to watching this one. ^_^
Posted: 5/4/2020 4:45 PM
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PJ
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Whew, what a fantastic run! Easiest yes vote I've made.
Posted: 5/4/2020 4:39 PM
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PJ
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Just popping in to say how excited I am for an update to this TAS! ^_^ Good luck!
Posted: 4/22/2020 9:56 PM
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PJ
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Oh, interesting coincidence that you posted in here today! I have the current RTA record, but hated running this game so I didn't really document things very well. I've been bad about this, and decided this morning to encode and upload my run, and find some old notes and strategy videos. I'll hopefully have some things organized by the weekend, and hopefully it'll be of some help. There are a TON of interesting strats and skips in this game, and while they are all pretty inconsistent and miserable to do in real time, it might give you some ideas for the TAS. For what it's worth, the Guy is about a minute faster than the Girl in this. I'd recommend using him.
Posted: 2/3/2020 12:36 AM
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PJ
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I admit I was the "meh" vote on the previous version because watching the dog slowly walk around for several minutes while you wait for the frame counter to get to the right spot was pretty uninteresting. The ACE was really neat, but overall I wasn't entertained by the movie. This version still has the amazing ACE, but now I get to watch actual meaningful things happen beforehand! Haha. Loved it. Good work!
Posted: 1/2/2020 1:07 AM
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PJ
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My favorite part of these Mega Man 1 TASes is always the credits. Mega Man defeated Wily, but at what cost??? Really great work, everybody! Highly entertaining movie.
Posted: 7/22/2019 8:48 PM
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PJ
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Just incredible. Great work, everybody!
Posted: 6/4/2019 6:05 PM
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PJ
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They are hosted right now as layers, which are overlapped on each other in the widget. My coder apparently tells me that it is easy to do what you're asking, though. This is why I should ask before I assume! Hahaha. I'll let you know when the functionality is ready. Edit: EZgames, I think your route was good. It's really hard to say, though. I already gave it my best effort, so my perspective on route is always going to be a bit biased. Haha. As for warps vs warpless, do whatever you feel comfortable with! The later warpless stages will be a *beast* to try to optimize, so it might be easier to start with warps? As for warp info, there's a brief summary table here with CD threshhold: https://www.thesupersnes.tv/compendium/mohawk/#cd You can also see each portal and the CD reqs on the map viewer as you load a map. Warps themselves are pretty simple; they're just like exit portals. You collect enough CDs to make them open, you jump into them to end the level, and they'll take you to some different stage. Here's a link to my PB with warps, if you're interested in that route. I haven't listened to the commentary in awhile, but I imagine I talk about my justification for this warp route. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbn2ZPv1zd4
Posted: 6/4/2019 5:47 PM
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OH! I'm so sorry, I forgot to update here when it was done. Yes, the map viewer is finished! The reason I don't have downloadable maps yet is because I really didn't want to create and upload 6144x5440 resolution maps for every combination of layers. That's also why I didn't upload them to vgmaps or somewhere else. If there is one or two common combinations that you'd like (i.e. just background+gravity) then I can put them together and upload them.
Posted: 4/7/2019 2:57 PM
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FractalFusion, I gave your TAS WIP a watch two weeks ago and finally remembered to post here. Haha. It's a really impressive run! The biggest change is the cutscene after fighting Mash in the Robot Museum. You can hold start to advance the text during that cutscene; you let it play out in the WIP. Text boxes are really inconsistent in this game so I don't blame you for the omission. Free time save! I've been curious for awhile about a Rush Jet strat in Wily 2. I never tested it myself because it is of no use in an RTA, but it might be interesting to try to TAS sometime. The stage has some awkward geometry in the first few screens that would make zips appealing, but the startup of Jet probably makes it slower than the alternatives. Thanks for sharing the WIP! I had a lot of fun watching it. I sadly can't use much of it in an RTA except the Turbo Proto visit skip, but it was great to see still. ^_^
Posted: 3/25/2019 6:10 PM
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PJ
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Oh wow, there's tons of good info here! Thanks so much, FractalFusion! ^_^ -I also took a peek at the Rush Search code, but only for the item probabilities. I did not know that the delays were also random! I thought they were linked to the item result, since I was always getting long delays for the same items. That's good to know! -I had no idea that you could skip the Turbo Proto visit like that! I'll look into that and get practicing. Thanks so much! -Re: stage order in 100%, I agree that Shade first should be fastest. Since Turbo Man and the truck miniboss in his level are both random, I couldn't calculate an exact time savings, but it was somewhere between 3 and 20 seconds based on patterns (in an RTA run). I imagine it would be very very close in a TAS, but likely in favor of Shade first. Factoring in the Proto cutscene skip/early shield grab, it would definitely be faster. Thanks for linking your test run! I'll give it a watch later tonight. IIRC, the current 100% TAS doesn't even do the noise crush quick kills, so there's already quite a lot of time to come off. It would be very interesting to see an updated run! Thanks again for all of this feedback and ideas. I have some things to look into. ^_^
Posted: 3/12/2019 3:16 AM
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PJ
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Hey everybody! I found something really interesting in this game yesterday and thought I'd share. It can definitely be used to improve both the any% and 100% TASes if anybody decides to work on those again in the future. I'd also really like to have some more eyes on this in hopes that someone might get some more ideas. ^_^ Rush Search can be used to interrupt cutscenes if he digs up a health or weapon refill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EZZ0iqV3H0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbJjPmmw8uE Those are really the only worthwhile applications I've found. The Wily Machine quick kill is the biggest one. The Cloud Proto visit might save some time (didn't time it out), and the Proto Shield cutscene is probably also worthwhile. Idk if the first Proto Man fight cutscene is worth it or not, but I'll leave that to a more interested party. I've been unable to use this for any other boss kills or anything else of note, but I'd love to have some more opinions!
Posted: 2/23/2019 12:03 AM
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PJ
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Yea, the subscriber-only thing was a bug on Twitch's end. I will never lock my content behind a paywall, so I'm pretty upset by the bug. Sorry for the inconvenience! It seems to be resolved now. As Ahdok mentioned, Mecha Richter and I tested activating this glitch on both players and noticed that there were even fewer waves of enemies than with 1 player. I don't know if boss health was reduced further or not. It seems like playing through in this state to get "0 player" spawns might be ideal. Either way, I'm really excited to see the new TAS! Thanks again for sharing this glitch with us! This is a very exciting development.
Posted: 1/17/2019 9:09 AM
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PJ
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Great improvements! Looks much better! :D
Posted: 1/16/2019 9:04 PM
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PJ
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Oh ok, yea if they're fine with that sort of tradeoff, then I absolutely support grabbing that big CD. Hahaha.
EZGames69 wrote:
Thank you for spending so much time into routing this game by the way. I really enjoyed your run at GDQ and I really see some potential in a TAS for it.
It was my pleasure! When I have some more time, I'll share some of my timing notes for warp pathing, etc. There are some discussions to be had about what category you're planning (warp vs warpless), and the routes for the warp path. CD collection in the bonus levels will be a tremendous pain to optimize... I'm really curious to see how a TAS can utilize the gravity to slingshot around corners instead of constantly running, and how many enemies can be avoided or run through. There are some crazy physics in this game that are simply not possible to fully take advantage of in real time. My general stage routes are pretty good, but I think a TAS might be able to do some more creative things. Another thing I want to mention before I forget about it is the "remote collection" glitch. If you use the explosion attack (X) while you have a powerup and the powerup expires during its animation, Mohawk collects everything on screen instantly and returns to his normal state. With some clever pathing and powerup routing, you should be able to end near a high density CD cluster and collect them all at once. I have only one planned use of that in only one category, but there are a few other places where it'd be useful if you could manage it well.
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