Rygar time again! I finally got my thumb out to do something. I've been messing around alot with this game lately and I have discovered some really cool stuff.
Most of the text below is copied from my old submission text, with changes of course:
I managed to improve this run again. I don't want to spoil the fun watching it yet but I discovered a new way to use an old glitch. The first 4:30-5 minutes are identical to my old run. You'll see why if you watch it,
Some things you might wonder about (this is the walking-on-the-grass in the zelda-perspective world, Garloz).
The first time I perform it I can't enter to the left. I tested this for hours but I simply couldn't. When I want to get out I can't get out to the right nor straight ahead. Thus I have to scroll the screen. It still looks cool IMO and saves a good ~90 frames compared to my old run. The passage to Lapis takes a little bit longer this time because I took the time to manipulate some enemies on the ground to drop 3 stars so I could use power up for the robots. This was totally worth it though and the first robot goes down in half the time. It's actually raining robots!
This is still one of my favourite childhood games. Since I started time attacking I've learned so much about this game. It's the most glitchfilled game I've ever played, timeattacking or not.
This is an improvement by 17 seconds (if I calculated it right).I still use the European version of the game since the USA version doesn't allow you to jump over the river.
NEW STUFF: Last time I got the suggestion of doing this run with the USA-version of the game. Yes, it will most probably be faster but I strongly oppose this because of two main reasons:
  • It would be very weird if this one-item run were NTSC and the full run were PAL. I still need to jump over the river in the full run and it's not possible on the NTSC-version.
  • The game is MUCH harder in PAL. Yesterday I watched EmptyEye's (I hope I got your name right dude) speedrun of this and it looked impressive. Ligar however went down with ~15 hits or something. Sure, this would cut the time down with a few seconds BUT I'm of the opinion that the harder the game is the better (cooler movie).
Sort of quoting from the guidelines: "One should always play on the hardest difficulty". Also, I noticed that he had 9 energy balls in his speedrun, where one can only have 8 in the PAL version.
Ok, for the gameplay. The goal in Rygar is basically to obtain several items so that you finally can go and slay the most evil boss ever, Ligar, who has threatened the land.
This version uses a really cool glitch to "warp" to Ligar very early in the game. However, Ligar IS evil, and to be able to slay him pretty fast you must gain some "experience points" first (tone points). These are obtained by slaying enemies and thus I have to run back n forth to be able to kill enough enemies and gain some tone points. The enemies that are slain are robots in Lapis (the snow/mountain world is Lapis), which gives loads of tone points, and it's here that the most improvement comes from. I kill the robots more efficiently this time and this resulted in many seconds of improvements.
In this new version I found a way to get to Ligar without dying! This means I still have my power up for that battle and it helped a lot! Also, it's possible to get to the regular place, but that battle is 4 seconds slower ;P
Here is a collection of the tricks used:
Floating through walls: This is performed by jumping towards the edge of a wall and hit (slightly below) the edge. If done correctly you will be in the wall and can manouver through it. Use: The first non-jumpabale wall you come across, where the first rope in the game is. Thanks to Bisqwit who pointed out this from the beginning, I only changed it a bit.
Flying: This allows Rygar to slowly float downwards, to what should a certain death, to any hole. The thing is, when doing this you can fall through the bottom of the screen without dying and end up at the top of the screen. This is performed by rapidly hit the B-button when walking off an edge. You sort of must have a turbo-function to do this. It's pretty easy to perform though. Use: I use it to reach the door to Garloz (The overworld-view) really fast. Thanks to some guy at gamefaqs for this.
Air walk: This is my own-invented glitch. This is used to reach the unreachable places of Lapis in the beginning of the game without the crossbow and that thing that allows you to attach yourself to roapes. Anytime you walk off a cliff/platform you normally should be falling too certain death. If, however, you duck at this moment you reset the gravity of Rygar and you can walk another few pixels before starting to fall. Duck again and repeat. Use: To reach whatever you want, in this version to reach the area of Lapis which is normally not reachable this early in the game.
Well, that was some of the tricks involved in this one-item version. I have also discovered several other glitches like endless rope-climbing, glitch up Garloz and jump through certain doors (results in glitched-up places).
  • As fast as possible
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Does not use death as a shortcut.
  • Uses a warp (?)
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
  • Used the European version
  • Uses PAL emulation (enable this to avoid desynch)
I'll hope you'll enjoy it!
/Walker Boh

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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #782: Walker Boh's NES Rygar (Europe) "warp glitch" in 06:28.72
Joined: 11/15/2004
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You cut your run by another 17 seconds? Nice! As far as sticking with the PAL version, at least you used FCEU so that it will play at the correct speed. BTW, the other format is NTSC, not NTCS.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
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hopper wrote:
You cut your run by another 17 seconds? Nice! As far as sticking with the PAL version, at least you used FCEU so that it will play at the correct speed.
As I said in the submission text, I'm opposed to do it as NTSC because it would be weird and IMO a lame way to cut out another ~5 seconds.
hopper wrote:
BTW, the other format is NTSC, not NTCS.
Heh, crap. I'll change it. Thanks.
/Walker Boh
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Wow, this ending is a jaw-dropper. This has to be the most badly programmed NES game ever!
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
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And that's what makes this game so cool! There are so many glitches that can be used to save time that it is.. awesome! ;)
/Walker Boh
Post subject: Movie published
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [391] NES Rygar (Europe) by Walker Boh in 06:28.72
Joined: 7/5/2004
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hahah i feel so sorry for this game :D
Joined: 12/5/2004
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I'm the "EmpyEye" in question in the comments. Close enough, considering the many manglings of my given last name I've heard throughout the years. ;) Anyway, thanks for the kind words regarding my run...I trust you (And everyone else here) already know it's useless to directly compare a console run to a TAS even disregarding the differences between PAL and NTSC found in Rygar. Question: In the Rygar Tricks page, you mention that by using a variant of the left+right glitch you can effectively double-jump in the overhead sections. In the words of the page itself, "In overhead levels such as Garloz and Dorago's palace, when you press left+right or up+down+right at the same time while performing a jump, the game allows Rygar to jump again from any place between the jump." Could you possibly use this to jump the river in the NTSC version (I know you've said you don't plan to, I'm just curious), or does the game require you to be "over" solid ground for it to work? (EDIT: Never mind, apparently it doesn't work over rivers) On the "curiousity for its own sake" note, has anyone bothered to look at precisely what the game checks for when you go to play the Pegasus Flute to open the Sky Castle? At the very least, it makes sure you have the Flute, Coat of Arms, and Indora's Armor (Which seems to actually serve no purpose in the game if you check damage at various points without it versus with it); what I'm wondering is if it checks for the grappling weapon/pulley/crossbow (As you normally need all three to acquire the Coat of Arms and/or Indora's Armor). Again, I doubt it would help in a speedrun of any kind (Tool-assisted or not), but I'm curious all the same. By the way, this run is absolutely nuts. How you beat Belzar and this somehow beat the game, in particular, was great. EDIT: The main thing that differentiates the PAL version from the NTSC, besides the jumping-the-river glitch, is, as Walker mentioned in a roundabout way, the fact that Rygar can become much stronger in the NTSC version than the PAL one. To my understanding, Rygar's Tone and Last max at 1023 in the PAL version (Which, if a FAQ on Rygar is correct, should actually get Rygar up to a maximum of 9 life balls), whereas you can get both up to 4095 in the NTSC version, giving a potential total of 12 life balls. In my run (Keep in mind it's a console run), I end with 2094 Tone and 1897 Last, which makes me roughly twice as powerful as a PAL version's maxed-out Rygar. One thing to note is that, while the maximums on the NTSC version are 4095, you'll receive no Tone/Last from enemies that should give it to you if that number would put you over 4095. As an example, if I have 4000 tone, and I kill a snail that's worth 118 tone, I get nothing (Because 4118 is greater than 4095) and my tone stays at 4000. I don't know if the PAL version works the same way.
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Wow.. totaly amazing run Boh. Every update you do you shovel of seconds here and there. When is it time for frames? =)
Wheeeehaaa.. Yaaayy..
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Emptyeye wrote:
I'm the "EmpyEye" in question in the comments. Close enough, considering the many manglings of my given last name I've heard throughout the years. ;)
Crap. I missed the T. Sorry. I'll fix it right away.
Emptyeye wrote:
Question: In the Rygar Tricks page, you mention that by using a variant of the left+right glitch you can effectively double-jump in the overhead sections. In the words of the page itself, "In overhead levels such as Garloz and Dorago's palace, when you press left+right or up+down+right at the same time while performing a jump, the game allows Rygar to jump again from any place between the jump." Could you possibly use this to jump the river in the NTSC version (I know you've said you don't plan to, I'm just curious), or does the game require you to be "over" solid ground for it to work? (EDIT: Never mind, apparently it doesn't work over rivers)
Yes. I must be over solid ground to perform this.
Emptyeye wrote:
On the "curiousity for its own sake" note, has anyone bothered to look at precisely what the game checks for when you go to play the Pegasus Flute to open the Sky Castle? At the very least, it makes sure you have the Flute, Coat of Arms, and Indora's Armor (Which seems to actually serve no purpose in the game if you check damage at various points without it versus with it); what I'm wondering is if it checks for the grappling weapon/pulley/crossbow (As you normally need all three to acquire the Coat of Arms and/or Indora's Armor). Again, I doubt it would help in a speedrun of any kind (Tool-assisted or not), but I'm curious all the same.
I've tested to open the door without every item except the wheel-thingie. Since I don't want to die and since I must have the item from Dorago I must have it. I can check it out though just so we know. It surprised me that the crossbow was a key item. I couldn't open the door to the floating castle without it, so I think one needs every item. But I'll check it out and report it later.
Emptyeye wrote:
By the way, this run is absolutely nuts. How you beat Belzar and this somehow beat the game, in particular, was great.
You mean Ligar? Because that's the only boss I beat in this version. You can see from his projectiles that it really is Ligar that is glitched up and floating in the air.
Emptyeye wrote:
EDIT: The main thing that differentiates the PAL version from the NTSC, besides the jumping-the-river glitch, is, as Walker mentioned in a roundabout way, the fact that Rygar can become much stronger in the NTSC version than the PAL one. To my understanding, Rygar's Tone and Last max at 1023 in the PAL version (Which, if a FAQ on Rygar is correct, should actually get Rygar up to a maximum of 9 life balls), whereas you can get both up to 4095 in the NTSC version, giving a potential total of 12 life balls. In my run (Keep in mind it's a console run), I end with 2094 Tone and 1897 Last, which makes me roughly twice as powerful as a PAL version's maxed-out Rygar.
Exactly. And thus I don't want to do it for NTSC.
Emptyeye wrote:
One thing to note is that, while the maximums on the NTSC version are 4095, you'll receive no Tone/Last from enemies that should give it to you if that number would put you over 4095. As an example, if I have 4000 tone, and I kill a snail that's worth 118 tone, I get nothing (Because 4118 is greater than 4095) and my tone stays at 4000. I don't know if the PAL version works the same way.
I don't know actually. I can check it out aswell.
Frenom wrote:
Wow.. totaly amazing run Boh. Every update you do you shovel of seconds here and there. When is it time for frames? =)
I'm already doing it as accurate as possible. If I find something new I'll try to do it the fastest way of course ;) Thanks though mate!
/Walker Boh
Joined: 12/5/2004
Posts: 60
Emptyeye wrote:
By the way, this run is absolutely nuts. How you beat Belzar and this somehow beat the game, in particular, was great.
You mean Ligar? Because that's the only boss I beat in this version. You can see from his projectiles that it really is Ligar that is glitched up and floating in the air. [/quote] Yeah, you're right, it's Ligar. Wasn't paying attention to the projectiles, but then as I thought through the sequence of events in bed last night (Combined with the previous glitch that dying when you go through the door of Belzar's room takes you outside of Ligar's lair), I realized that you're killing, at the very least, something the game thinks is Ligar, and which behaves like Ligar in every way except for looks. I'm guessing the room data for those two bosses would be "located" right next to one another if you were to plot them on a map, similar to how A Link to the Past's dungeons are actually one huge dungeon?
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Emptyeye wrote:
I'm guessing the room data for those two bosses would be "located" right next to one another if you were to plot them on a map, similar to how A Link to the Past's dungeons are actually one huge dungeon?
Precisely. Even though I don't know how ZaLttP works, but that's the idea. The boss rooms are next to each other.
/Walker Boh
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I've tested the items a bit more now and one can't open the door to the floating castle without every item, including the wheel-thing. So a full run is a full run. I don't know if the grappling hook is needed to open the door but if you don't have it you can't get up there =/ It is possible to beat the game without it though, but that includes using warps (twilight zone) and in a TAS it would be no good.
/Walker Boh
Joined: 12/5/2004
Posts: 60
Hmm, interesting on the items bit. I was mainly curious as to whether the developers got lazy with the item checking at that point, as over the course of normal play without using glitches, you need the first three items to get the others (More specifically, you need the Crossbow to get any of the last three items, you need the Pulley [Wheel-thing] to get the Crossbow, and you need the Grappling Weapon to get the Pulley). Given that, I'm surprised they were so diligent as to check to make sure you actually had the first three items. A few more things to note on NTSC/PAL differences, from my own playing around a bit on the PAL ROM: -Rygar hangs in the air longer when he jumps in the PAL version than the NTSC one. This lets him jump farther in the PAL version, which makes some things easier (And probably explains why jumping the river is PAL-only) and others harder. An example of this is the first big jump in Gran Mountain, at 00:37 in the current full video, 00:45 in the current glitch video. In the PAL version, you can actually stand on the right edge of the tree branch above the cliff you normally jump off of, and jump from the tree branch across the pit to the ground below (Without the use of slowdown). In the NTSC version, you'll come up well short of crossing the pit. As I stated, this increased jumping power actually makes certain things harder--in the NTSC version, for instance, I can hit Eruga 3-4 times before I jump to dodge his fireballs consistently in real time; in the PAL version, it's more like 2-3 times before each jump. This may be worth noting in the Rygar Tricks page, as it's probably, as mentioned above, the reason you can only jump the river in the PAL version. -The Last values at which Rygar gains additional life bubbles are competely different, particularly after life bubble 5. I have no clue precisely what the values are, as I didn't check that far, but bubble 6 seems to be at about 250 in the PAL version, 7 at 500 or so, and 8 at, I'm guessing, around 1000. In contrast, 1000 Last is good for 9 life bubbles in the NTSC version, and it's possible to earn another 3 on top of that (Thanks to the maximum Tone/Last being 4095). -One similarity is that the giving out of experience works the same in both versions; if you're close enough to the max of a given version such that killing an enemy would put you over the max, you'll get nothing for that stat.
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Walker Boh wrote:
And that's what makes this game so cool! There are so many glitches that can be used to save time that it is.. awesome! ;)
However, if you actually try playing the game and try finding the glitches (especially without knowing them), they are extremely hard to find and to abuse. I think most of the glitches can only be performed with tool-assistance, and even then they are probably rather elaborated.