Hetfield90's Mega Man X 100% TAS in 33:48. It is 1329 frames (22.2 seconds) faster than the published run by gameplay improvement, and 400 actual frames (~10s) faster (due to emulator frame rate and lag emulation/load time accuracy disparities). Emulator used was Bizhawk 1.9.1.

Goals

  • Uses no passwords
  • 100% item collection
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses speed/entertainment tradeoffs
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates Luck
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Dies to save time

Overview

There were two main inspirations which catalyzed this run: one of which came from a glitch (known as the Phantom Grab) discovered by Luiz "The Pride of Brazil, Slayer of Goku" Miguel, which allows you to replace objects inside of a boomerang by collecting another item with the boomerang on the same frame the new one spawns. This glitch was utilized to save a substantial amount of time and even changed the route to one which was previously thought to be impossible. Since this route is still far less than practical for real-time speed runs, I wanted to showcase it (as well as other optimizations that have been discovered by myself and other RTAers since Dezbeast's run was published) in a TAS.
The other came from FractalFusion and Rolanmen1's 100% TAS WIP, the movement of which I essentially copied exactly for the first 3 stages of this TAS (and even some of their downtime swag as well). When I saw their TAS WIP it was like art in motion to me, and it really got me thinking about what new things can be added to a 100% TAS.

Table of Time Saved in levels:

Published: Total FramesMy Run: Total FramesPublished: Lag FramesMy Run: Lag FramesPublished: Gameplay FramesMy run: Gameplay FramesGameplay Frames SavedTime Equivalent to Gameplay Frames Saved(approx.)
Intro5735575842357315735-40.1s
Penguin658765401565866535510.9s
Kuwanger534152781453532752251021.7s
Chameleon6313640191763046384-80 -1.3s
Eagle6029575349129598056243565.9s
Mammoth512751572375125412050.1s
Penguin Revisit221822053622152199160.3s
Mandrill4740471883847324680520.9s
Armadillo12229123141363091209312005881.5s
Octopus4807493812525246824686-4 -0.1s
Sigma 14780486963447744835-61 -1s
Sigma 23080312712030793107-28 -0.5s
Sigma 33274248626653248242182713.8s
Sigma 417061697001706169790.2s
All Stages71966712413849887158269253132922.2s
Because the published run was made on Snes9x 1.43 (which saves a substantial amount of time over Bizhawk 1.9.1 in lag emulation/load times) and I wanted to know how much I improved upon the published TAS in actual gameplay (and in which places), I measured the the parameters of each section of gameplay in each TAS (to discount load time disparities) and counted lag frames to discount those as well. Of course, this undermines the fact that both TASes were made to achieve fastest completion time and reduce lag as much as possible (and that different parts of each TAS did a better job at reducing lag than the other), but I felt that knowing this extra information couldn't hurt. More info on what parameters I used to exclude load times and which frames were lag frames in each TAS can be found here.

Stage Info

All frame save/loss values exclude lag frames and load times.

Intro(4 frames lost)

  • This vile is far from optimal, but after 15+ hours of trying to manipulate him, this was the best I could get and I really wanted to continue with the rest of the run at that point. The fact that didn't notice the ship misalignment on the iteration I ended up going with is mind boggling.

Chill Penguin(51 frames saved)

  • Walking backwards for exactly one frame and then jumping two frames later makes utilizing slope speed from even gentle inclines worth it. Also, log zips are cool.
  • I didn't use the soft music glitch on this stage or any other stages in the run even though it saves frames because I like Mega Man X's sound track and want to hear it at full volume.

Boom Kuwanger(102 frames saved)

  • This is essentially an exact replica of the Kuwanger stage from FractalFusion and Rolanmen's 100% TAS WIP, so all credits go to them here. Time saves over Dezbeast's run include the right wall climb in the first room, an additional laser damage boost, elevator skip, 2 additional gap jumps, and the ceiling kick after the heart.

Sting Chameleon(80 frames lost)

  • Generally Sting Chameleon is the 8th Maverick in 100% so you have water in the pit to get the heart, but by getting the heart with the Phantom Grab instead you can move Chameleon before Storm Eagle which is more conducive to boss weaknesses. The time loss here is from not having buster upgrade or Rolling Shield yet in this route.
  • It took some experimenting to figure out how to do this Phantom Grab optimally, but juggling the life drop with a second boomerang set it up almost perfectly. It's normally faster to do the miniboss before getting the heart, but since that would cause me to have to backtrack to get a life drop from the nearest enemy, the inverse order was better.
  • I started with Shotgun Ice on the miniboss since I don't have the buster upgrade yet in this route. It hits the boss earlier than any other weapon at my disposal, and the fight still takes 22 hits regardless.

Storm Eagle(356 frames saved)

  • Aside from saving 5 seconds on the boss fight by having c-sting, there were number of small time savers over the published run throughout the stage as well. These included the Luizerang™ (a strategy developed by Luiz Miguel where you arc the boomerang downward to grab the heart earlier), jumping underneath a platform in the first section and wall kicking the other side of it, some lag reduction, a more optimal pre-capsule climb, and using Shotgun Ice to break the barrier to the capsule.

Flame Mammoth(5 frames saved)

  • Jumping left after the buster upgrade demonstration allows you to reach a full charge 7 frames sooner (because you get the pink charge shot off screen quicker), and you can still get into position to create the ice sled on time anyway.
  • The jumping after boomeranging the E-tank was done to cause the E-tank to take an as direct as possible trajectory to the point where I needed to do the Phantom grab. I was able to save 9 frames with this over the published run's strategy.
  • I found out that you can manipulate what kind of enemy is dropped onto the conveyor belts with your y-axis position, which allowed me to get a zip through an Utuboros head in the second conveyor belt section.
  • The charged Storm Tornado strat for the Flame Mammoth boss fight was far too laggy on Bizhawk to be worth it, so I just went with the standard any% strat.

Penguin Revisit(16 frames saved)

  • Upon entering this stage with the dash boot upgrade, I got confused as to which game I was actually playing and started using Maverick Hunter X strats everywhere(which explains the excessive use of Fire Wave). Luckily it didn't cause me any extra lag frames.
  • Doing this revisit at this point in the run saved me 2 frames in stage select inputs over any other alternative.

Spark Mandrill(52 frames saved)

  • I'm glad I was able to kill the 2nd blue mech to reduce lag and get the ceiling kick after the 2nd ladder without slowing down at all.
  • The reason I used Fire Wave on 2 of the fireflies in the hallway before Thunder Slimer was because that was the only weapon I could kill them with at a time where they wouldn't give me an item drop (or if they did I could pick it up right after). Amazing how the laggiest weapon in the game can have situational lag reduction applications, lol.
  • This Thunder Slimer pattern killed the miniboss in the same amount of time as the pattern in the published run (the time I lost to lag from hitting two bubbles with charged Storm Tornado was balanced out by being able to get 2 additional C-sting shots in after my first wall jump), but I ended up saving time in lag during the explosion with 2 less bubbles at that point.
  • This heart grab(discovered by Megiddo) was where most of the time save in this level came from. I think it may have potentially been faster to phantom grab it with a drop from the turtle, but I didn't think of this till much later in the TAS(probably not because of lag though).

Armored Armadillo(88 frames saved)

  • I was initially anticipating this to be a time loss in this route since having the body armor prevents you from taking enough damage from the cart to die to the bird at the end of the stage, but it turns out that e-tanks have a significantly greater spawn distance than hearts which allowed me to forgo dealing with the first burrower and a venture into lag city entirely.

Launch Octopus (4 frames lost)

  • I popped charged C-sting on the first sub to reduce lag during the fight, but ended up getting it back during the explosion. I also tried popping the C-sting earlier in the stage so that it would run out precisely when the Submarine does, but this just displaced the lag to earlier in the stage, lol.
  • I lost some frames by having to dodge a torpedo from the ship, but I still have no idea how I could have manipulated it.
  • I then somehow managed to despawn the ship (maybe from going too fast?), which lost me frames on the climb out, but at least I was able to do the Luizerang 2.0™ and arc the boomerang downward to get the heart sooner even with this low ceiling.
  • I lost 5 frames from Octopus jumping high at the start of the fight, but I have no idea how to manipulate this without causing lag city from killing the blow fishes before the boss door. As you can probably tell by now, this stage did not really go my way, lol.

Sigma 1 (61 frames lost)

  • I have no idea how I lost an entire second in this stage, but all of it was before the Vile fight. I guess it either had something to do with how I spawned the floating platforms/where I did my damage boosts, or maybe I did the Vile text skip incorrectly.
  • I figured out that you can buffer the entire Hadouken input during the load times before boss fights, this saved me 1 frame on each of Boomer Kuwanger, Spark Mandrill, and Sigma.
  • Each of the current fastest published MMX TASes have 3 crossovers for their first Bospider pattern, and mine did not break the tradition. I thought having ample time to wall slide after the Kuwanger fight and at the beginning of the Bospider fight with several optional enemies to kill in between would be RNG manipulation heaven to get the god pattern easy, but of every iteration, this was the only one I got that had even as few as 3, lol.

Sigma 2(28 frames lost)

  • A double kick in the first climb allowed me to utilize the platform jump without overshooting the top.
  • It's faster to use C-sting in the final section but I couldn't get a decent Rangda pattern with it to save my life. The red eye first pattern which I ended up taking isn't even optimal.

Sigma 3(827 frames saved)

  • Using the ice sled to zip past the range of pixels that pan the camera up before the Armadillo fight allows you to skip him entirely.
  • Timing my Fire Wave to run out after the last necessary flame to kill the 2nd miner before Sting Chameleon is released saved a pretty significant amount of lag. I even had less lag frames in this section than the published run did on Snes9x 1.43.
  • The ice sled zip through the wall before Spark Mandrill was half a second slower than not doing it, but it was too cool for me to pass up, lol. I guess I'll just chalk this one up to speed/entertainment tradeoff.

Sigma 4(9 frames saved)

  • After hours of going back to Flames Mammoth's room in Sigma 3 and killing caterpillars, I was somehow lucky enough to get an optimal Velguarder pattern and not get blocked by the left claw at the start of the Velguarder Sigma fight in the same iteration.
  • The two-pronged always catches Velguarder Sigma off guard. He never expects you to attack him from both sides.

Possible Improvements

  • I mentioned most of the big areas for improvement in the stage by stage descriptions, but I think that lag reduction could have been better overall. There was a lot of random lag that likely could have been eliminated with buster shots which I didn't notice until I was counting lag frames after the TAS was finished.

Closing

This run is far from perfect, but I enjoyed making it and was able to showcase the new route/optimizations which made me want to make it in the first place. Making my first full game TAS was definitely a valuable learning experience, and I think I'll be able to do a much better job now when I tackle my next one (which will likely be Mega Man X2 Any%).
I'd also like to give thanks to:
  • FractalFusion and Rolanmen1 for their 100% WIP which inspired me to do this run.
  • Dezbeast for his published run which I used as a reference for the majority of my run.
  • The MMX speedrun community who are constantly looking for new ways to optimize this and the other X games.
  • My stream viewers who watched me spend hours smashing my face into a wall trying to manipulate RNG.
Screenshot Suggestion: (frame 64755)

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: While there are still opportunities for further improvement throughout the run, this is a worthy update of the 100% run for publication. Accepting as an improvement to the published run.
Guga: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4560: Hetfield90's SNES Mega Man X "100%" in 33:48.86
ALAKTORN
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In the intro stage against the bee minibosses, why don’t you jump as they enter the screen to start shooting (and therefore hit them) sooner?
JoshButro
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I enjoyed watching this TAS being made, and it looks awesome Het. Very nicely done. You get my vote. Now you have to do an RTA run that matches the TAS, lol.
current TAS: Q*Bert 3 any% v2TAS<br> next TAS: Q*Bert 3 X*Bert levels
Editor, Skilled player (1437)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2106
This was an excellent run. Great new tricks a very good execution. Just man, do newer emulators lag more than the good old one-four-three. Yes vote.
Experienced player (766)
Joined: 12/20/2009
Posts: 120
Very nice. I watched this run when you streamed :D Yes vote.
GoddessMaria
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Excellent job on this run! I recall seeing some of this before and wondered when the next improvement to "100%" was coming up. Glad to see it surfaced and very well made! The neat tricks used along the way were a plus! I have been entertained by this one, through and through! Voting Yes on all grounds!
Current projects: failing at life
Techokami
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Damned impressive! I like the trick of pulling items into the boomerang as they spawn. Especially when they get a broken palette or turn into garbage data. Yes vote!
xRavenXP
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Location: Brazil
Fantastic run, i like so much the tricks and luck manipulations. Voted yes to stars!
I love games and love to record videos (longplays). Visit my Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/xRavenXP
Editor, Expert player (2071)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Good job, Hetfield90, and thanks for picking up where I left off. Sorry that I didn't reply to your message; I forgot about it because I don't sign in to this site much anymore, and I forgot whatever I did to manipulate Vile in the intro stage (probably just trial and error). There is a trick to glitch through the walls near the beginning of Spark Mandrill's stage using charged Shotgun Ice. I don't know if it is faster.
ALAKTORN wrote:
In the intro stage against the bee minibosses, why don’t you jump as they enter the screen to start shooting (and therefore hit them) sooner?
If I remember correctly, it's because the bee minibosses do not take hits until they stop going down and start attacking you.
Skilled player (1245)
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Yeah the intro stage bees (and the submarines in Octopus' stage) are transparent until they reach ground level. @FractalFusion Ah yeah I think I figured out that the optimal pattern is for him to dash and then walk after you interrupt his jump with a shot, but I had spent so much time trying to manipulate him already that I just wanted to continue with the run at that point, lol. Is the thing in Spark Mandrill you're talking about something like using the sled to glitch though the first wall and forgo the first 2 ladders with the same trick from Sigma 3 in your glitched walkathon? Thank you everyone for watching it and for the comments!
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Hetfield90 wrote:
Is the thing in Spark Mandrill you're talking about something like using the sled to glitch though the first wall and forgo the first 2 ladders with the same trick from Sigma 3 in your glitched walkathon?
Yes, it is like that. If you glitch into a wall that is thin enough, you can jump out the other side. I don't remember how exactly it works but I vaguely remember pulling it off. I did it on one of the walls to go from the Sub-Tank route back to the main route.
jaysmad
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NOOB OF THE YEAR!!! SNES OF THE YEAR!!! TAS OF THE YEAR!!! Is what I would have said if this was submited a month ago. It still gets an HELL YEAH!!!
Active player (252)
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Especially like phantom Grab in Sting Chameleon.Yes vote!
Active player (437)
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Wow this came out of nowhere. Fantastic run my man, good job on a thorough run. Really looking forward what you'll do with X2 and hopefully other X runs :D Easy yes vote, cheers.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Joined: 1/19/2010
Posts: 146
Yes vote from me. I don't sign in much anymore, but I still keep an eye on runs. I have a question about Mammoth's stage. I noticed your climb to the arm upgrade had you double back on the first wall kick to wall kick a second time before ascending. In an old freerun TAS of the stage I made a good while back, I managed to avoid having to double back. Were you just not able to avoid that, or does it stop some slowdown by doing that?
Joined: 6/4/2009
Posts: 893
i knew that doing chill>kuwa >sting >storm could save time but damn, that run is impressive... also can you zip upward ? or zip downward elsewhere ( like spark mandrill shaft before the bubble boss or launch octopus heart ? ) yes vote and star worthy
PJ
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Awesome TAS, Hetfield! It was really great to see one that was updated with all the new strategies. I loved the phantom boomerang grab of the Armadillo sub-tank! Ingenious!
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60fps downloadable version (with TV aspect ratio as well): http://www.mediafire.com/?coq6u47j0l0chxn (~91MB) Also uploaded to Nicovideo: (Account) Part 1: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25407722 Part 2: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25407687 (No account) Part 1: http://www.nicozon.net/watch/sm25407722 Part 2: http://www.nicozon.net/watch/sm25407687 By the way, to whoever is making the Youtube encode for TASVideos, this game has weird flickering. 1 on 1 off in some places, and 1 on 3 off in other places. I heard that Youtube may be supporting 60fps, but that could be misinformation.
Nicos wrote:
also can you zip upward ? or zip downward elsewhere ( like spark mandrill shaft before the bubble boss or launch octopus heart ? )
I've tested it before (and probably parrot14green), but as far as I know, it is not possible to zip/glitch upward. There are other places to zip downward, but if you bypass the horizontal scroll trigger, then you can't progress (such as before the Spark Mandrill miniboss).
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Thank you again everyone for all the votes/comments.
RaijinXBlade wrote:
I have a question about Mammoth's stage. I noticed your climb to the arm upgrade had you double back on the first wall kick to wall kick a second time before ascending. In an old freerun TAS of the stage I made a good while back, I managed to avoid having to double back. Were you just not able to avoid that, or does it stop some slowdown by doing that?
Hm I just tried doing what I think you were describing and I can't fit between the wall on the right and the block on the left without bonking my head on the right ceiling. I've been messing around with the sled zip after the E-tank in Mandrill, but I haven't been able to get it just yet. The flickering lights make it pretty hard to tell exactly where I'm placing the sled. Though I did find out that you can start the charge for the sled at least 11 frames earlier if you use a phantom grab to get it. I did it with a drop from the 3rd mech in the stage but I'm sure it would be more optimal with a drop from the 4th. Strangely enough, when you approach an e-tank from level ground (as opposed to from higher up like in Armadillo's stage), it doesn't spawn until you get much closer to it (around the right side of the nearest ladder in this case). I was able to test this in Armadillo's stage since that e-tank spawns in the air, but is already on the ground if you spawned it earlier.
Joined: 6/4/2009
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too bad :/ thanks for the answers !
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Can you explain what the phantom grab actually is, or why it works if you know how (since I couldn't find any information on it anywhere at all, and that it appears to be a v1.0 exclusive trick)?
Joined: 1/19/2010
Posts: 146
Hetfield, Here is a link to the freerun video for reference. I remember hitting my head on that as well. IIRC, I did some weird button combination during that first wallkick and to my surprise, it actually worked out. Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly what buttons I held, but basically, I tried to catch the furthest/lowest point of the wall itself with the first kick, then before hitting my head, I held the buttons and advanced frames/load state til I got it. I think it might also include letting go of buttons during lag frames. edit: Actually, now that I think of it, I have a strong feeling that it was simply letting go of jump for a certain number of lag frames til I got it.
mklip2001
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Very nice job! It's a shame how some parts got a little slower, but I honestly couldn't tell from watching. There are a lot of fresh touches in this run besides the Phantom Grab. I really like all the places you use Shotgun Ice scatter to hit enemies quickly (like the miniboss of Sting Chameleon or several vertical ascents in the Sigma stages). The sled zip in Sigma 3 was a good entertainment tradeoff. Is the autoscroller skip in Boomer Kuwanger's stage a recent development? I don't remember seeing that skipped before. One minor thing that was missing was dumping a Hadoken into the final form of Sigma, even though that doesn't hurt it. It was funny when the current published run did it, but it's certainly not needed. You also look like you take damage earlier in that fight, which would prevent the Hadoken from being used anyway. Great job!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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@Atma I actually have no idea how it works or why it works aside from the obvious (spawning an item the same frame you collect another w/ a boomerang), but there was a short discussion about it in the Mega Man X thread. Also, interestingly enough you can even grab things that aren't even items with it, such as boss doors. I wonder if you can even grab capsules with it, lol. @RaijinXBlade That's pretty crazy. I've been messing with it for a little while now but still can't seem to get it. @mklip2001 The first place I saw the Kuwanger elevator skip was in FractalFusion and Rolanmen1's 100% WIP. I wanted to do the swagdouken on Velguarder Sigma, but unfortunately I didn't have time to do it and dboost through the head and let the claw take me to the other side, so I had to choose 1 or the other. This 2pronged attack thing is some silly thing I do in my RTA runs, so I really wanted to include it in the TAS as well, lol.
Joined: 2/13/2006
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Location: Finland
Great, entertaining run. Congratulations! I really liked how you showed off the weapons in great variety. The new glitches (the boomerang one and the zips) are nice since they need almost no setup, the blazing speed of progress is not interrupted.