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Oh, my, I did not at all expect an improvement for this, and as I watched it, it was magnificient. The new skip in 7-4 and C-4 was especially fascinating, I never would've expected that. I'm also really glad you kept up the fire-flower massacre.
Yes vote for a glorious improvement to a glorious run
//I should point out that the run seems to have been created on a modified ROM. It does however sync fine with:
Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World (U) [!].smc
CRC32: F84305B1, v 1.0
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Josh the FunkDOC wrote:
Too lazy to take a pic but I just found an easy skip with ice spell in the last level!
In the room with the pendulums leading up to Dracula's room, you can freeze the first bat that appears and immediately jump onto the first pendulum instead of climbing the stairs and waiting. Saves about 9 seconds, minus the time spent getting the ice spell.
In the US version, the candle in front of the wall with meat in block A-02 has the ice spell, and I think that's also the case in the JP version. Sadly this skip isn't worth doing in the US version since you can't get lightning back before Dracula, but it should save a nice chunk of time in the JP run if memory serves me right.
BTW, I've had trouble performing the stair glitch in real time, and I didn't do it in my recent Grant speedrun. I want to learn it for marathons and such, though - is there precise timing involved? Seemed like it to me.
Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any bats in the Room in the J version. Presumably they are in the second quest there, I hear the U version added some at that place.
In the greatest fit of irony, I remember there was a lightning spell right before Dracula in the J version. It's like the game really does not want this trick to be useful.
Regarding the stair glitch, essentially, you can go one step lower with Trevor than with Grant before triggering the screen transition. Therefore, you can stop at the lowest step, then press down and then switch characters immediately. You'll know if it worked when you hold up after switching and the screen transition is triggered regardless.
Jigwally wrote:
scrimpeh wrote:
a whipping 11 times.
I see what you did there
That wasn't even intentional, but I sure love my Freudian Slips.
Lastly, I found a new Glitch that, as you may have guessed, is utterly useless!
If you touch the boss orb in BLK 6-05 on the very last frame before you drown, the game considers you dead. Because of that, a couple of things happen:
No enemies spawn
Your weapons don't work. You can use your whip, but it won't affect candles, and thrown weapons will not appear.
You can't die. Falling into a pit makes you come out at the top of the screen. Having the time run out won't kill you either.
The screen will not scroll.
Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to trigger it anywhere else, and because screen scrolling is deactivated, you get stuck at this point without being able to proceed:
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Brandon is correct, I find the terminology used very misleading and I think neither is really indicative of what it really contains, simply because it isn't clearly defined what a press or a hold really is.
I think there isn't a way to precisely express either category with just two or three words, but it needs to be enough to clearly differentiate them at a first glance.
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I remember I did a "No subweapons, no damage" run for Castlevania. It was rejected for the goal choice, I wonder whether or not a Ninja Gaiden run will fare better.
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ais523 wrote:
[...]
Wo-ho-hoah, that's quite a bit of planning right there. There's nothing I can really add to that, but generally, backtracking shouldn't be too large of an issue, being able to warp to save points and many screens being traversible relatively quickly.
One thing I wonder about, has it been proven you fall faster using divebomb? I don't remember there being that much of a speed difference between regular falling and divebombing.
As a whole, I think that glitched low%, masterful 100% and insanity any% provide the best mix of TASes for the game, because they pretty much cover all the relevant bits. I haven't tried more recent versions of hourglass, but I remember the game crashing a lot when I tested it.
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Yeah. The biggest problem with the freeze spell is that it is just not conveniently placed. Most of the big skips using it occurs relatively early into the levels, before you can find it anywhere.
So either a speedrun'll fight the bosses using only the staff (which will be fun with the Block 7 trio) or forego the skips, which would be a massive shame.
I've went through the game and counted, I was able to find the freeze spell a whipping 11 times. The first one occurs in BLK 4-0C
Going by pure numbers, the lightning spell is even rarer.
/Edit: Naturally, I checked on the US version. The position of the subweapons seems a bit shuffled around from the usual. The stair glitch works the same way as in the J version, but it's a lot more sane. I haven't managed to make the game freeze or summon Trevorcard yet.
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Gentlemen, I can honestly not believe that pointless Gag from IRC is still going. It wasn't funny in its inception, beating it for a couple additional days certainly didn't make it funnier. I wish you all a good day.
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Essentially, if the enemies are positioned the right way, you can use the freeze spell to get up any four block high ledge.
Frozen enemy hitboxes often don't match the the actual sprites and have barely any room to stand on. Additionally, the freeze spell seems to be quite rare, unfortunately, which is a problem, since it does no damage against the bosses. (Compared to the other two spells, which can down bosses in seconds) Additionally, enemies only seem to drop the fire spell and stopwatch.
Here are some pictures of the more promising shortcuts, along with additional notes on them:
- The hitbox of a Dhuron with his rapier out is very iffy. Sometimes, you can jump onto his solid part, sometimes, you can't. Your safest bet is to freeze him while his rapier isn't extended.
- Fairly straightforward, the ravens might get in the way, though.
- You need to stand directly beneath the axe to be able to jump on it.
- Walk a few steps to the right, then freeze him. It's important the winged guard gets high enough before he is frozen.
- This one is tricky, since it requires you to take damage. If you just jump on it from the front, you get stuck and can't move. You have to take damage, walk into the skull cannon's hitbox, freeze it, and then jump onto it when you're far enough to the right.
- This trick, no matter how much I tried does not work.
There are a couple others, but these are really difficult or rely on ravens, which I think can't be manipulated outside of a TAS. Aside from that, it's potentially possible on any ledge where the enemies are in the right place.
Lastly, the stair glitch shortcut in Block 9-01 is also possible with Sypha. So is the one in Block 4-0B, I presume, but it doesn't seem like you can get the freeze spell that early.
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Note for everyone trying to play this movie, "Enable Advanced Level Bus Timing" needs to be enabled to make the run sync.
Anyway, hooray, a new DoS run. I'm still hoping for a full warpless run using Soma, but I'm excited for a Julius run as well. Strange, I remember Julius could move faster, but perhaps I'm mixing things up with Aria of Sorrow here.
Anyway, great work so far, please, do keep it up.
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Amusing run, and it looked like it broke the game fairly much, even if it's a bit on the short side.
I see no harm in seeing this published, so here's a yes vote.
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The movie was short, yet it still managed to drag on a lot. Couldn't they at least have made the backgrounds different for each screen?
Reading your description however, a fair bit of thought does seem to have gone into the movie, and, so here's a weak yes vote.
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Oh wow, that run was beautiful. I'm impressed by how quickly you were able to whip this together too. What I loved about the run was how efficient Samus moves. Jumps are kept as small as possible, and shots are precise, yet you still managed to play around unbelievably much during downtimes, great and small, which I loved.
The bosses were a definite highlight of the run, especially Kraid and you staying in midair for nearly the entire fight. Missile management during those, and especially in Tourian must've been insane. It's just a shame you had to take damage a couple of times, but overall, this run was masterful.
Definite yes vote right here.
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I'm still for keeping .tas, but if you really want it changed, I like .biz the most, simply because it makes it unique to the emulator name.
Unless we're gonna change that too, but honestly.
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Alright, this happened often enough during my research for me to make a post specifically about it.
Meet Trevorcard
Wandering off into the regions man was not meant to see, too far astray from the path of light, will not go unpunished. Trevorcard is a spirit that will haunt you, even after your return. He posseses the soul of your former companion, Trevor, and knows two forms, one that is relatively sane to the human eye, if still eldritch, and one that is far more unworldly, distorting his very surroundings frequently.
His main attack is that of a chain, though he is prevented from actually connecting it. Instead, he will freeze motionless, should he attempt to use it regardless. Other weapons cannot be used either, with the sole exception of a measily stopwatch if it is used in such a way it won't trigger his chains.
In his humanoid form, he posseses the ability to shapeshift into a flying creature - one that is foreign to the human comprehension, but acts much like a Bat does.
Furthermore, the way his tormented soul seems to take damage is random. Sometimes, his entire life force may be depleted in one strike against him, at other times, he will endure a blow absolutely unharmed.
There are conflicting reports of his cries of agony when he is hit - some have described it as a big rumble or crash - whereas others have likened it to the sound of a knife being thrown. Everyone will agree though - its sound is very eerie.
If only he was useful in an actual TAS.
If you touch the boss orb in BLK 6-05 on the very last frame before you drown, the game considers you dead. Because of that, a couple of things happen:
Leave this thread alone, all of you!
Going by pure numbers, the lightning spell is even rarer.
/Edit: Naturally, I checked on the US version. The position of the subweapons seems a bit shuffled around from the usual. The stair glitch works the same way as in the J version, but it's a lot more sane. I haven't managed to make the game freeze or summon Trevorcard yet.
- The hitbox of a Dhuron with his rapier out is very iffy. Sometimes, you can jump onto his solid part, sometimes, you can't. Your safest bet is to freeze him while his rapier isn't extended.
- Fairly straightforward, the ravens might get in the way, though.
- You need to stand directly beneath the axe to be able to jump on it.
- Walk a few steps to the right, then freeze him. It's important the winged guard gets high enough before he is frozen.
- This one is tricky, since it requires you to take damage. If you just jump on it from the front, you get stuck and can't move. You have to take damage, walk into the skull cannon's hitbox, freeze it, and then jump onto it when you're far enough to the right.
- This trick, no matter how much I tried does not work.
There are a couple others, but these are really difficult or rely on ravens, which I think can't be manipulated outside of a TAS. Aside from that, it's potentially possible on any ledge where the enemies are in the right place.
Lastly, the stair glitch shortcut in Block 9-01 is also possible with Sypha. So is the one in Block 4-0B, I presume, but it doesn't seem like you can get the freeze spell that early.
Wandering off into the regions man was not meant to see, too far astray from the path of light, will not go unpunished. Trevorcard is a spirit that will haunt you, even after your return. He posseses the soul of your former companion, Trevor, and knows two forms, one that is relatively sane to the human eye, if still eldritch, and one that is far more unworldly, distorting his very surroundings frequently.
His main attack is that of a chain, though he is prevented from actually connecting it. Instead, he will freeze motionless, should he attempt to use it regardless. Other weapons cannot be used either, with the sole exception of a measily stopwatch if it is used in such a way it won't trigger his chains.
In his humanoid form, he posseses the ability to shapeshift into a flying creature - one that is foreign to the human comprehension, but acts much like a Bat does.
Furthermore, the way his tormented soul seems to take damage is random. Sometimes, his entire life force may be depleted in one strike against him, at other times, he will endure a blow absolutely unharmed.
There are conflicting reports of his cries of agony when he is hit - some have described it as a big rumble or crash - whereas others have likened it to the sound of a knife being thrown. Everyone will agree though - its sound is very eerie.
If only he was useful in an actual TAS.