This is a 4min 5sec improvement over the published run of this NES platformer. You need to collect the royal medallions from the seven governors (read: bosses) and then climb mount Demonhead to face the final boss. All this is done on a complex map system. You can get money from enemies, with which you can buy speed upgrades and new equipment.
Emulator used: FCEUX 2.1.4a
Genre: Platformer
Takes damage to save time.
Manipulates luck (boss behaviour)
Notes
As mentioned in the forum topic, this run can be improved, but I don't know how much. Probably between 5-10 seconds unless a new trick/strategy is found. Since I have no plans of redoing this any time soon, and since this run is a lot faster and cleaner, I chose to submit it anyway. I hope no one minds! :)
This TAS uses pretty much the same route as the published run, with some minor tweaks. In particular, I don't make the detour to route 22 to change in my gold for money, as I don't need that money.
A new trick was found that allows me to only use up half as much of the power boots as you usually do: when running you gain momentum, increasing by 1 per frame, up to a maximum of 16. When you release the D-pad, your momentum will decrease by 1 per frame and you will continue moving until you lose all your momentum. The power boots meter does not decrease when you don't press the D-pad. So what I do in the TAS is to run for 16 frames and then releases the D-pad for 16 frames - I will move at top speed by doing this, but only deplete the power boots meter for the 16 frames I hold down the D-pad. This trick basically makes the power boots item last twice as long. This makes them a very desirable as they now last around 40 seconds, compared to the normal 20.
Due to the Power boots trick and some better planning, I don't have to shop as much. Bringing up the shop window and doing all your shopping takes a lot of time, so this was a nice bonus. The shopping is also done in better places.
I don't make the detour to route 22 to change in my gold for money, as I don't need that money.
I climb mount Demonhead without getting pulled down. This saved about 1 minute.
Bosses are killed faster, in particular the first boss.
Some notes on speed: Your normal speed is 1pixel/frame (p/f), power boots speed is 2 p/f (lasts for 40 sec with trick above, 20 sec normally) and rocket pack is 3 p/f (lasts for 16 sec). Because of the power boots trick, this item is overall the most desirable (in terms of gained speed / money cost). Also, you can't buy the rocket pack until your fourth shop call.
Enemy drops in this game is quite simple. The game has a kill counter (RAM address 00E6). When you kill an enemy, this counter increases by 1. In order to find out what the enemy drops, take the value of 00E6 modulo 16, and find the drop from the following table:
Value
Item
0
-
1
-
2
-
3
950$
4
-
5
Apple
6
-
7
-
8
950$
9
-
10
-
11
950$
12
-
13
Heart
14
-
15
-
Thanks to Spoony_Bard for his run and knowledge (which he was kind enough to share in detail) and TheAxeMan for feedback.
I think this text will suffice for now, I might add more later. If you want to discuss new strategies unrelated to this submission, I refer you to the forum topic.
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6335
Location: The land down under.
I really liked this run, and by saving time skipping Route 22 and a whole 4minutes and 5seconds I'm giving this tas a yes vote.
-video deleted- thanks feos for doing HD encode for everyone :D
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Great run! It's a shame that the jetpack doesn't get used more often... I like watching it being controlled with TAS precision. However, the trick with the boots is really awesome. I also like how much you shoot enemy bullets out of the air. This gets a big yes vote.
My favorite bits were the first boss and the Mushroom boss. That was an awesome strategy to fly up to the girls to dispose of their shots quicker.
I have a few questions, though (I haven't been reading the game's thread):
* Why do you wait so long before entering the shop call after beating the Governor on route 7?
* Why do you backtrack slightly for the heart at the place you first use an AquaLung? It seems wasteful since you don't get into health problems, and you have to die anyway when you first see the Demon.
* Why do you make yourself micro-sized when you first fight Bopper?
* How do you avoid getting knocked down the mountain?
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.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Thanks for your feedback, everyone!
mklip2001 wrote:
Great run! It's a shame that the jetpack doesn't get used more often... I like watching it being controlled with TAS precision. However, the trick with the boots is really awesome. I also like how much you shoot enemy bullets out of the air. This gets a big yes vote.
My favorite bits were the first boss and the Mushroom boss. That was an awesome strategy to fly up to the girls to dispose of their shots quicker.
As always, thanks for your feedback.
mklip2001 wrote:
Why do you wait so long before entering the shop call after beating the Governor on route 7?
Because I need to have at least 7000 gold in order to buy 1 pair of power boots and 2 shop call items (5000 + 2*1000 gold).
mklip2001 wrote:
Why do you backtrack slightly for the heart at the place you first use an AquaLung? It seems wasteful since you don't get into health problems, and you have to die anyway when you first see the Demon.
If you mean the part where I resurface after getting into the water (around frame 37500) then this is how the physics of the game works - you always resurface directly after getting into the water. If you look at the input display, you will see that I am pressing down. The heart just happened to be there. :)
mklip2001 wrote:
Why do you make yourself micro-sized when you first fight Bopper?
I can't make the jump around frame 54945 without being small, and you deal just as much damage when you're small as when you're big, so I didn't lose any time keeping this form on the boss.
mklip2001 wrote:
How do you avoid getting knocked down the mountain?
By climbing fast enough. The pulling down starts after a certain amount of time, and I manage to get out of reach from it before it started.
A nifty movie. I feel like there ought to be an anime or manga that the game was based on, since the characters have such strong characterization, but according to Wikipedia there isn't.
Thanks for making this improvement and thus bringing this game back to the public eye! Easy yes vote.
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Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Excellent run, glad I could be helpful. This should definitely be published to obsolete the current run.
As far as known improvements, maybe you can make a game resources page or post them for posterity.
Barely knowing the game at all and not having seen the previous run, I quite enjoyed this run. It was very fast, looked very well planned and tightly optimized for a game that looks pretty complex and elaborate. It's just a shame the dialogue scenes, pause menues and shop calls were unskippable, but it didn't get as much in the way of the run as I had anticipated.
Yes vote, obviously.
Wow, I haven't posted here in forever.
I always felt the Clash at Demonhead run could be improved, I'm surprised it took this long to happen. I made the first one when I was a TAS newbie and I never really tried to improve it. I guess I kinda lost interest in TASing myself, I'm much more interested in watching the results from other people. :)
I'm really glad this improvement was made. Well done, Randil!
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
