User Files from MESHUGGAH

#18575992990380423 - NES Kyouryuu Sentai Juuranger WIP17

Kyouryuu Sentai Juuranger (J)_WIP17.fm2

In 01:37.14 (5838 frames), 1788 rerecords

Game: Kyouryuu Sentai Juuranger ( NES, see all files )

1115 downloads

Uploaded 11/6/2014 1:22 PM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

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Finishes level 1 and boss faster than http://tasvideos.org/938S.html already.

Ignore the rerecord numbers, will be updated later.

For newbies:

Jump height is fixed.
You can ignore "being hit" standing animation by pressing A (jump), going forward without wasting a single frame.
You can cancel your fire to avoid being slowdown by ducking for 1 frame after shooting, or firing before falling down.

Comparison with resynced version of that run:

13 frames faster start by resetting 7-8 frames after power on to press start earlier.
The game sucks, so you need to manipulate the timing of pressing select (for selecting hard difficulty) and starting the game/cutscenes to decrease the loading time for resources. Something 12 frames can be achieved with this.
~31 frames faster by optimal movement and maximizing speed to reach cam X positions to load next platform objects.
~1100 frames faster boss fight by hitting the boss once his invulnerability wears off. Since we visited that random guy in that door, we deal 2 dmg with bigger hitbox. Without this power, we could only dmg him (1 per hit!) down to 6 health, costing more time to wait for it to also reappear and kill the remaning (6) hits.
Cutscene loading time manipulations in progress.

Other tricks not mentioned:

Jump has fixed height, however jumping at specific frames can change the cam Y speed, letting you hit a platform earlier.
It's better to jump over the edge of a platform to avoid nullifying your X speed. Obviously scenario dependent, when you want to jump earlier or just move forward to win.

#18440420488725507 - NES Parasol Henbee WIP24

MESHUGGAH_Parasol Henbee_WIP24.fm2

In 01:30.48 (5438 frames), 29409 rerecords

Game: Parasol Henbee ( NES, see all files )

833 downloads

Uploaded 10/31/2014 10:50 AM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (81.81 KB) Information

Lua script: http://pastebin.com/0WMdBb9s

This movie aims for shortest input and kills as much as possible enemies (and picking up parasols) as long as they don't cost (lag) time.

Level 1 - same length but different route. 0 lag frames.
Boss 1 - 2 frames saved by parasol bumping as last hitting.
Level 2 - many frames saved compared to my test runs, there's might be 1-2 lag frame.

I pulled a -12 Y pos wall boost at frame 5396... both the player and cam Y would be 0.0 at that time at normal occurance. So, I guess this should work on all small jumps as long as both Y speeds hit 0.0 at the same time?

#18399143893408916 - NES Parasol Henbee WIP5

MESHUGGAH_Parasol Henbee_Hardest_v5.fm2

In 01:03.88 (3839 frames), 3218 rerecords

Game: Parasol Henbee ( NES, see all files )

755 downloads

Uploaded 10/29/2014 2:13 PM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (57.82 KB) Information

First level and boss done.

Avoid colliding with dead enemies (you can fall on them, resulting in 1 frame of no movement speed) Avoid falling down from a platform instead of jumping off (1 frame of no movement speed instead)

Age 10~20 is hardest difficulty, 3 lives, 3 parasols ("ammo")/parasol symbol, 150 time, 1 rainbow length (a half circle), no ducking.

So I guess I need to restrict the ammount of parasol usages.

#18283745307423457 - NES Shinobi TAS improvements

MESHUGGAH_Shinobi.fm2

In 07:36.42 (27430 frames), 27552 rerecords

Game: Shinobi ( NES, see all files )

1117 downloads

Uploaded 10/24/2014 9:29 AM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (411.71 KB) Information

Input changes starts around 15000th frame MANDARA boss (the level that starts with statue shoot out) spawns after player reaches specific X position, so...

84 frames saved by

abusing special first frame to jump and shoot so we don't wait for the generic "wait until falling down to take control"
abusing the "falling down" mechanic which clears the "firing" bit from action state. However we can only shoot 1 bullet at a time (only 1 slot for that), so this only saves time (and it saved a lot here) if we can: fire in air, touch the ground and the bullet previously fired collide with enemy within 9 frames to fire again opposed to a simple 9 frame delay between each firing.

Checked all jumps from the beginning, so...

1 frame saved by different route to the end before final boss
8 frame saved by removed 1 unneccessary "horizontally slow" jump right before the final boss level

The final boss input is the same, as I already abused the "state changer" falling mechanic there, just didn't documented it.

#18136606278777935 - NES Shinobi WIP11

MESHUGGAH_Shinobi (U)v11.fm2

In 02:47.47 (10065 frames), 7434 rerecords

Game: Shinobi ( NES, see all files )

1163 downloads

Uploaded 10/17/2014 6:27 PM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (151.23 KB) Information

Improved 1-3 (boss fight) and completed level 2 screens and boss (helicopter). Currently ~260 frames faster than latest rejected submission.

Note to myself: add that random UD,UD glitch for boss 2. That's the only place where it doesn't takes time to pull off a graphic glitch

Other useless information is that Wrath of the Black Manta's (Ninja Cop Saizou) engine is updated from this one. But there's no pause glitch and it seems the air direction change also missing, but I guess I will recheck those tricks on this one.

#18134112835667135 - NES Shinobi WIP6

MESHUGGAH_Shinobi (U)v6.fm2

In 01:13.40 (4411 frames), 3546 rerecords

Game: Shinobi ( NES, see all files )

1122 downloads

Uploaded 10/17/2014 3:45 PM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (66.42 KB) Information

you don't need to rescue hostages. They are called "power-ups".
Power-ups: 10k points, bonus level, max life, weapon power (doesn't effects boss dmg-s, they count hits not dmg)
after damage boosting, you stop after a while, so it's only useful when you land before that happens
landing (from a jump, from a platform) costs 1 frame

So, my route is simply win to right.

Completes 1-1 and 1-2 and boss. 203 frames faster than latest rejected submission because not picking unuseful power up and properly controlling the game (menu, character, jumping timing, reducing jump counts etc).

Boss fight probably improvable, but notice that every hit spawns a fireball which hard to manipulate greatly while still in a good position.

#18108039675433228 - NES Escape from Atlantis WIPv1

MESHUGGAH_Escape From Atlantisv1.fm2

In 00:02.75 (165 frames), 1009 rerecords

Game: The Escape From Atlantis ( NES, see all files )

835 downloads

Uploaded 10/16/2014 11:34 AM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (2.73 KB) Information

Currently bashing through NES TAS candidates. After watching the hilarious videos about playing this miserable spaghetti, I've thought I give it a try.

Worth. First stage completed in 125 frames by

Running (1.0px/f) with A+R,R pattern instead of walking (0.25px/f)
B button and player Y pos manipulates bird

#18018040000291436 - NES ARBF WIP70

MESHUGGAH_ARBFv70-compact.fm3

In 01:36.95 (5827 frames), 33321 rerecords

Game: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends ( NES, see all files )

1103 downloads

Uploaded 10/12/2014 10:18 AM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (16.36 KB) Information

New discoveries implemented.

Doing the POW boost from ground with 384 walk speed and minimal speed reduction lets you get a 672 - 1 frame of walk reduction (19) = 653 units. This only works from the ground (to use the smallest reduction that comes from walking).

So...

1-1: abusing 3rd bomb to do 653 ground pow boost instead of 640, saving 4 frames
1-2: nope
1-3: we jump even much smaller with 653 (impossible to bypass the second rat) so, same
1-4: we can't position the bomb to make a ground pow boost.
1-5: doing 653 ground pow boost saved 3 frames
1-6: relatively new route (compared to previous WIP), optimizations might help to squeeze out more saves. something 12 + many frames faster (653 speed + route changes)
1-7: currently the bitch has the worse position she could get.

#17910653396657761 - NES ARBF WIP54

MESHUGGAH_ARBFv54-compact.fm3

In 01:36.41 (5794 frames), 30023 rerecords

Game: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends ( NES, see all files )

1113 downloads

Uploaded 10/7/2014 2:14 PM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (16.98 KB) Information

Improved third screen with 24 frames by

tiny improvment at the start, squeezing few subpixels
jumping to the 1st stairs and throwing a bomb and boosting to 576 beforehand to maximize our position while throwing an ideal bomb (position and time wise)

Improved fourth screen with 23 frames by

better bomb throw timing/position, maybe improvable?

Improved fifth screen with 4 (or 24?) frames by

self boosting with our bomb, because explodes earlier than the first enemy's. Bullwinkle can't throw it on top of the stairs from the ground and don't forget he requires to make a "mini jump" (or continuing a normal jump with a smaller Y boost), so currently this was the best position/timing.

Movie contains my "old" test runs for the next screens, which probably improvable with more self boosting and more position optimizing.

#17840162079485036 - NES ARBF WIP46

MESHUGGAH_ARBFv46-compact.fm3

In 00:46.77 (2811 frames), 24651 rerecords

Game: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends ( NES, see all files )

917 downloads

Uploaded 10/4/2014 10:02 AM by MESHUGGAH (see all 294)

Download (10.52 KB) Information

The adventures of rocky and bullwinkle and friends first few screens of level 1. tas faq: http://tasvideos.org/NES/AdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkleAndFriends.html (I know, I made the page missing the GameResources directory...)

After finishing the first two levels (levels takes several scenes), I've started to reimplement various tricks and about to compile best routes.

Subpixel over carries on screens: 1-2 to 1-3, 1-3 to 1-4.

Comments. First level, first screen

Starting with throwing a bomb for self boost is 49 position slower (considering you are going with 576 units, it would take 22 frames), so we are abusing the most optimal in both timing/position is the 2nd falling bomb.
Since you need to get 0 speed to bend over for the key, best strategy is throwing a bomb and boosting for the end, because the setup doesn't takes much time and as previously mentioned, it get's efficient in long distances.

Second screen

Climbing stairs depending on your position where you hit the stairs, usually the fastest method is A*4,U*4,A*4 because of the tinier better Y/X position trade between jumping and climbing to barely reach the next platform to continue charging to top speed.
Most optimal exiting is always same length. Subpixels and maybe stair orientation alters the usage of U over D

Third screen

Using optimal subpixels to get an additional speed gain to jump off without falling down
Since you can't avoid red spike, jumping when only hit once is the best and continue holded speed instead of 384

Fourth screen

Picking up soda can because we are thirsty
Throwing a bomb to boost off and jump over the huge gap which otherwise hard because of the great hitbox of the red spike above your head, you also need to time your dmg to avoid your speed getting zero (as you run out of health while charging).

Fifth screen

Currently optimizing best X and Y pos for first enemy's bomb to boost off and Bullwinkle's position to avoid further chainsaws. Just running to the right ends the level at 3085 with 576 units speed (goof jumps are not abusable to get 640 units speed)

Also I have no idea if there any use of bombs other than boosting off and killing enemies (especially since you can't combine this two, you either boost off and get dmg or you dmg someone else and cry in a corner for no extra speed).