Posts for SimonN

Experienced Forum User
Joined: 2/26/2018
Posts: 3
Location: Germany
MUGG wrote:
Does the wall zip from the SNES version work?
Yes, in DOS L1, blockers can push lemmings through walls. Reason: Lems enter the wall during normal walking. This is because they walk ahead first, and only then check for walls and turn accordingly. In the picture, they walk right-facing into the wall. They turn left-facing as part of the physics update during which they enter the wall, but stay in the wall. Then the blocker field turns them right-facing again (I forgot when exactly this happens, but it happens before the walker walks again on its next physics update.) On the next physics update, the walker again walks right-facing even though he is inside a wall, and turns left-facing again. Then the blocker field acts, etc., repeat. Definition (pin): Each lemming's effective coordinate, a.k.a, the lemming's pin, is the pixel under the lemming's blue body and white feet, usually inside the floor. On most animations, the lemming's body is 2 pixels thick, and on most animations, the pin is under the left column of body pixels, independently of whether the lem faces left or right. Definition (foot): A lemming's foot is the pixel immediately above his pin. Restating walker physics in this language: The foot moves into a solid wall, then turns/falls/ascends. Un-scientific interpretation: I consider it a misdesign that they put the pin into the floor below the foot, not into the foot itself. One would think that it makes no difference, you can formulate the physics either way exactly the same. But it's not the same psychologically: Several weird physical behaviors seem to follow from the programmer mentally tracking the pin, not the foot. E.g., it seems natural to program the pin to move along solid terrain and react to new terrain or air, whereas you wouldn't program the foot to walk into terrain in the first place. -- Simon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 2/26/2018
Posts: 3
Location: Germany
Rikus and Covert_Madness have TASed most of the 14 levels in summer 2017. I haven't TASed myself, but both Rikus and Covert_Madness are busy with other games these days. Here is their progress (posted with permission): Rikus's JPC-RR files for levels 1, 2, 4, 9 -- his working directory was C:\TITUSTAS\TITUSTAS Covert_Madness has been too busy for weeks to zip his input files. :-P JPC-RR input files are one file per-level, except for levels 1 and 2 which are in one same file. Separating the work per level is perfect for the game itself, but allegedly such partial JPC-RR input is painfully hard to rebase into a fullgame run. Health bonus tiles collected at full health are called extra bonuses, they're counted across levels. After every level, each full batch of 10 extra bonuses is converted into an extra life, losing 3 seconds. This means that the route should avoid completing full batches of 10. Having 0-9 extra bonuses after the final map is fine. Level 1-2, new extra bonuses 0, total 0: https://youtu.be/gmOuxWpguOc Level 3, new extra bonuses 0, total 0: https://youtu.be/qP1gzUfeO8Y Level 4, new extra bonuses 0, total 0: https://youtu.be/7S7GHbAIcyA Level 5, new extra bonuses 7, total 7: https://youtu.be/mHdYp8LlZnU Level 6, new extra bonuses 0, total 7. Level 7, new extra bonuses 0, total 7. Level 8, new extra bonuses 3, total 10: https://youtu.be/rU-0FnL9CNc Level 9, new extra bonuses 0, total 10: https://youtu.be/VPzIldKmG4I Level 10, new extra bonuses 0, total 10: https://youtu.be/v-XvEj9A7YU Level 11, new extra bonuses 0, total 10. https://youtu.be/MYMBw6EZQJ0 Level 12, new extra bonuses 4, total 14: https://youtu.be/Wl6-va-c7JE Level 13, new extra bonuses 29, total 43. Level 14, new extra bonuses 11, total 54: https://youtu.be/JEq858rh_6E The Level 9 boss fight could be improved: If you hold down, then tap jump, Fox enters a weird state -- tippy toes feature? I've always called it "sprite bug", since I've often triggered it during RTA by mistake before I knew about this use against the mummy boss. This bug/feature is not documented anywhere in the manual. On tippy toes, you can steal the ball from the mummy without the mummy starting to walk. -- Simon
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 2/26/2018
Posts: 3
Location: Germany
Hi, Jazz 1 was TASed by Ilari, Mothrayas, and slamo in 2014: Episodes 1-6, Episodse A-C, TAS notes. I've been speedrunning Jazz 1 RTA since September 2016 and hold the RTA record. Most of my new theory is for RTA, but occasionally, I've even found improvements over the 2014 TAS. I maintain a small website to document my findings: Jazz 1 TAS Improvement Ideas Jazz 1 Version Differences -- Simon