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This is an automatically posted message for discussing submission: #966: Dan & Nightcom's SNES Castlevania: Dracula X in 16:52

See details at: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/966S.html

Submission status: published
Last edited by: Phil

The submission message follows:

Dracula is back once again, and this time Annet and Maria are locked up in some unknown locations.
Played on Snes9X v1.43+ , with WIP1 Timing, Sync Sampples with sound CPU, Fake Mute desync workaround
No passwords used
Best Ending (Saving both Annet and Maria)
Takes damage to save time
Manipulates luck
Aims for fastest time
Genre: Platform
Dan started this movie about 1½ years ago (Sept. 2004), but had to stop at Stage 4 - the mine. A few days ago I (Nightcom) started a TAS for this game without reading the topic about it, which was kind of dumb but gave me good practice that I otherwise wouldn't have had.
I started to really enjoy how it was speedrun, with all the backflips and other precise timing one had to go through. So I decided to take the honor of continuing the unfinished run all the way to and through the final battles. I must confess that this was probably the hardest Dracula I've ever experienced, and that the movie makes the overall game look much easier than it is - in my opinion.
Anyway, enjoy the "flipped out" movie. ;)
Here's a picture of the game: http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/4654/casdx6rw.png
It'd be best to use one in that area since it's the first level and more people would probably recognize it in case they haven't played through the whole game.

/*- · Active player Joined: 2004-10-27 14:09:47 Posts: 517

i'd much rather see a screenshot of richter item crashing the key... or giving the "?" to dullahan.

nice.

-does whipping after a backflip cancel the slide animation?
-i never really noticed until the clock tower, but are the stairs difficult to move on, as far as landing and then turning around and jumping once more?

this game's movie is long overdue... YES vote from me.

AngerFist · Posted: 2006-01-31 15:53:50 Post subject:

I used exactly the same settings (= Sync Sampples with sound CPU, Fake Mute desync workaround) as you Nightcom but it freezed after a few seconds. Any suggestions how I can solve the problem?
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nitsuja · Coder Joined: 2004-12-21 02:32:54 Posts: 2297

Turn off Sync Samples if it freezes. (It happens on some computers but I haven't been able to reproduce it or figure out why (although I haven't really looked at much either).)

Nightcom · Posted: 2006-01-31 16:59:12 Post subject:

/*- wrote:

AngerFist · Posted: 2006-02-01 02:05:10 Post subject:

Viewed your whole run. Im voting Yes but its not a strong yes vote because I get the feeling that it wasnt fully 100% optimized. Im thinking mainly of your battle against that Grim Reaper boss. I felt you could do more damage on him depending on where you are standing. Maybe Im completely wrong because I obviously dont have any understanding how this games physics works. What caught my eye is that nearly 98% of the whole run, you guys walked and jumped backwards which was very cool! Overall, I think this run does deserves to be published.
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<erokky> wrong window

Nightcom · Posted: 2006-02-01 10:27:31 Post subject:

The Death battle:

...is annoying me just a bit with those two hearts, but it's like 0.2 or so seconds at max.

About his first form...
Otherwise I'm really happy with the fight, you can't hit him constantly because he flies away after each hit and he's invincible for a few seconds.
Hence why the battle looks a bit odd in the beginning.

And his second form...
I really like the 2nd battle though and especially the last hit I get on him, it looks kind of like nothing but if you know how it is playing against him you'd be surprised, because I jump in and land on the perfect frame and hit him on the perfect frame pretty much (literally impossible on a console I think, because his second swing with the scythe usually gives you damage even if you're a few pixels away from it) and not to mention how insanely fast the swing is and that he seemed invincible for a few seconds at some points (parts of swinging, flying, moving) in his 2nd form.

FODA · Posted: 2006-02-01 13:28:18 Post subject:

Yea i had the feeling that some stuff could have been done slightly faster, but just by looking at it i don't know exactly how. It was entertaining nontheless and it's Castlevania! i'm glad it's finished, i think this really should be pusblished.
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MattyXB · Posted: 2006-02-01 13:41:33 Post subject:

Not 100% sure anymore what I write. There was a short error and now my post is gone.

Voted Yes, because the run looks great. I like the backjumping. Some parts look bad, but the reason is maybe only the bad controlling from the character. Other nice things are the shortcuts by get damage. Great idea.

So all together the run looks great.
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nitsuja · Coder Joined: 2004-12-21 02:32:54 Posts: 2297

I'm not really sure about this... it's hard to ignore the way the playing style changes sometime around the mine level (which is where Dan stopped). A few of the especially noticeable mistakes after that were:
- On frame 28410, he makes a dagger appear for no apparent reason and walks in the wrong direction for a while before continuing to backflip to avoid it.
- On frame 29522, he uses the key once in the wrong direction missing the door, then waits for the animation to finish and uses it a second time facing the other way to unlock the door, wasting about 25 frames
- Walks the wrong way at 30480 instead of cancelling the backflip earlier, and generally spends more time on the ground walking or waiting for the whip animation to finish than appears necessary compared to what was done in the first few levels
- Going up the stairs around 41615 (and most stairs after that), I don't know if it's done suboptimally but it looks like it since it's a noticeably different way of going up the stairs than Dan used
- Throwing a cross to collect hearts on 45440 looks odd, because earlier the hearts were always collected by whipping candles along the way
- The 1st form of Death looks improveable, as almost everyone else has said (the 2-hit item crash doesn't look so bad, I'm not sure 3 is possible, but the long amount of time spent waiting for Death to get back onscreen to be hit didn't look very good).

This still beats the game quickly and has plenty of cool tricks in it, so maybe it should be published for that, but I'm pretty sure it would be better if the later levels had been played with as much (if not more) attention to detail as the first few levels.

Nightcom · Posted: 2006-02-01 16:14:14 Post subject:

nitsuja wrote:

nitsuja · Coder Joined: 2004-12-21 02:32:54 Posts: 2297

Nightcom wrote:

Graveworm · Player Joined: 2005-09-29 22:35:30 Posts: 407

Is this Vampire's kiss? I don't have the game, so I can't watch the movie, but it's the same game, right?

/*- · Active player Joined: 2004-10-27 14:09:47 Posts: 517

yes, just this is (U) while Vampire's Kiss is (E).

FreshFeeling · Posted: 2006-02-02 00:36:35 Post subject:

This was pretty good. The highlight for me was the clock tower before Death, where the moving platforms allow a lot of good shortcuts.
...but everyone's right that the Death fight looks pretty sloppy. What different kinds of strategies did you attempt to use? It seems like if there were any way to get a boomerang "hovering" on him, it would save a ton of time.

Also, if you intend to improve or redo the run sometime, I'd really like to see a "no girls rescued" run like you said. I kind of thought that a rescueless run would be much faster... I was surprised when I watched this.

EDIT: I looked over the game's topic, and you seem to have already indicated that he moves away from all hits and is invincible for a bit. I guess that the "hovering" is out of the question.

agopo · Posted: 2006-02-02 02:12:59 Post subject:

Watched it through till the end, it's an okay but not perfect run (like nitsuja said).

- The fight at Death clock tower.. although I don't know much about the game I do know the castlevania games in general and am sure, that there's got to be a quicker way to beat his first form. Have the other items really been thoroughly tested here?
- I absolutely noticed the "key used in the wrong direction"-mistake. If this was done intentionally to turn around more quickly.. I doubt that it was faster than jumping up there regularly.
- The fight against Dracula is unpretty. Too much unnecessary jumping around and whipping air. Was it done for luck manipulation? If so, isn't there a more aestetically pleasing way?

Sorry Nightcom, I don't mean to put down your work, I just think that it's improvable by several seconds (which you also seem to think, as you want to run the game again).

Voting "Meh" on it. Not perfect, but too good to be overlooked. Hope you'll do the perfect run soon and get the props you deserve. ;)

Nightcom · Posted: 2006-02-02 12:59:42 Post subject:

Quote:

KDR_11k · Posted: 2006-02-02 18:48:31 Post subject:

What happens if you hit death with the cross when it's returning? Can you pull him towards you?

McBAIN · Posted: 2006-02-02 20:38:14 Post subject:

Not sure about this, the first few levels of Dan were great, but i had the feeling your travelling could go a bit faster at some places.

For instance, Dan climbed the stairs very quickly because he used the whipe to cancel the rough landing. You just land rough and don't cancel it out by whipping.

I too had the idea Death 1st form could go much faster. I noticed 2 times where your cross only did 1x damage. Have you tried luring him to the middle of the screen and then go into an attacking frenzy? (regardless of that he moves back when hit)

Also, i think you should've used crossed against Dracula's first form, while whipping him too. He transports back and forth a LOT so you want to kill this form as quickly as possible. His 2nd form is on the screen the entire time so you can just hack away there. Plus, you had 3 hearts left!
You could've at least used those against his first form.

Going to vote meh. The first few levels look great, but i had the feeling you rushed your part.
I've been waiting a long time for a TAS for this game, but i'm just not sure about this...
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Joseph Collins · Posted: 2006-02-06 06:06:37 Post subject:

I vote No on this simply because of the fact I saw some slip-ups in this movie that could have been avoided. One happened in Stage 2, and I think another might've happened in Stage 5', but I'd have to watch the movie again to be absolutely sure...(I watched this a couple days ago.)

Yes, I know Nightcom didn't play Stages 1 through 4, but if he had, he might've improved on Dan's work.
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