TASVideos discussion board

[NesVideoAgent]

This is an automatically posted message for discussing submission: #1659: hanzou's NES Adventures of Lolo 2 in 23:31.52

See details at: http://tasvideos.org/1659S.html

Submission status: published
Last edited by: Deign

---

The submission message follows:

This movie is 39 seconds faster than the currently published Adventures of Lolo 2 run by Randil and me. In this new version, 22 out of the 51 levels have been made faster through new strategies and glitch abuse. For the remaining levels, various stylistic elements have been added without sacrificing time.

• Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.16
• Length of movie: 23m 31.5s
• Aims for fastest time
• Abuses programming errors
• Genre: Puzzle

Glitches

• Rear half-heart shield: Anyone who has beaten a Lolo game on the NES console has probably done this at some point. When standing on the right half of a heart, Lolo is protected from attacks by Medusa or Don Medusa from the right. When standing on the bottom half a heart, he is protected from such attacks coming from below. With its asymmetric direction requirements, this rule was most likely originally a programming error but seems to have been intentionally retained in the later games including Lolo 2. Just like in the previous movie, this allows shortcuts in levels 2-5 and 9-2.
• Stand on water: While riding an egg, if you try to push another egg against a body of water, Lolo will stay in place as the first egg floats away. Just like in the previous movie, this trick is demonstrated in level 7-5 where it can be done without sacrificing time.
• Emerald block illusion: Using the change-direction special power while simultaneously pushing an emerald block downward may leave a graphical glitch, as shown in level 8-5.
• Dodge Don Medusa: If Don Medusa moves left and right, Lolo can walk through his horizontal line of vision for a brief moment provided that this space is immediately to the right of a heart of boulder. If Don Medusa moves up and down, with proper timing Lolo can pass immediately below a heart or boulder. This glitch is used as a shortcut in levels 7-1 and Castle-3.
• Get chased past Medusa: Alma or a moving Skull can overlap several pixels with Lolo before being lethal. If Lolo is running horizontally with a tailing enemy, he can avoid fire from Medusa or Don Medusa from below. If Lolo is being chased vertically by a tailing enemy, he can avoid fire from Medusa on the right. Note the similarity of directional requirements between this and two other glitches above. This is used in level 9-4.
• Walk through Rocky: Technically, it is Rocky who runs through Lolo. Push an emerald block (or egg) leftward or rightward against a wall while Rocky is running towards Lolo. Rocky will then swing up and down through Lolo. This glitch is used in levels 5-4 and Castle-1.

There are several other glitches in Lolo 2, but in order to complete the game as fast as possible only the above six are featured in this run.

Details

Here is a list of the various levels that have been made faster compared to the published run. In parentheses I have mentioned the players who advised or demonstrated the various improvements to me.

• 2-3: 16 frames with a new Skull dodging strategy (Deign & Nitrodon)
• 3-3: 48 frames faster by efficiently shooting and pushing Leeper (Nitrodon)
• 3-4: 1.7 seconds faster by shooting Snakey from the side
• 3-5: 14 frames faster by early egg sinking
• 4-2: 15 frames faster by sending Alma out of the way
• 4-3: 2 frames faster by sinking the first egg earlier (Nitrodon)
• 5-4: 3.1 seconds faster by manipulating Rocky and using the walk-through-Rocky glitch (Nitrodon)
• 5-5: 29 frames faster by early egg sinking
• 6-2: 29 frames faster by early egg sinking
• 6-3: 1 frame faster by Skull manipulation (Nitrodon)
• 6-4: 4.3 seconds faster by efficient emerald block pushing around Rocky and Don Medusa
• 6-5: 16 frames faster by pushing the egg into higher waters
• 7-1: 8.0 seconds faster using a new route with the dodge-Don Medusa glitch (Nitrodon)
• 8-1: 5.3 seconds faster by efficient emerald block pushing (Nitrodon)
• 8-2: 6 frames faster using a better shoot-everybody strategy (Nitrodon)
• 8-4: 1.8 seconds faster with a route better utilizing extra shots to hit Snakey (Nitrodon)
• 8-5: 31 frames faster using a new route (Nitrodon)
• 9-1: 6.5 seconds faster with a daring strategy of dodging moving Skulls and using one as a tail shield (Nitrodon)
• 9-4: 30 frames using the get-chased-past-Medusa glitch (Nitrodon)
• Castle-1: 3.8 seconds faster by turning Gol into an egg and using the walk-through-Rocky glitch
• Castle-3: 48 frames faster by using the dodge-Don Medusa glitch
• Castle-6: 15 frames faster by running up to the boss sooner (Randil)

As shown above, Nitrodon is responsible for more than 25 seconds of time saved.

According to my tests, the final boss can be beaten 2 frames faster if he does not shoot a fireball through the center aisle. I could have manipulated this scenario by exiting the previous level 2 frames later. The total movie length would have been the same regardless, so I chose to retain the unmanipulated boss fight which is more interesting with Lolo parrying a fireball.

Input is ended on the frame where it is longer possible to prevent the ending by pressing the Select button.

Special thanks to

• Randil, my partner on the old run, who originally developed a foundation of strategies for all levels
• Nitrodon, for his feedback on the WIPs that greatly improved this run
• Deign, for his contribution

Options for viewers

• For a minor graphical change, you can use the Lala 2 patch.
• If you find the repetitive music annoying, consider watching with sound effects only.

---

adelikat: Accepting for publication as an improvement to the published movie.

[Mr. Kelly R. Flewin]

O.O;;

NOW THAT'S AN IMPROVEMENT!

I never figured I'd see another Lolo 2 run so soon... let alone one that improves so much! This is a definite YES vote on MANY accounts, including for entertainment!


Mr. Kelly R. Flewin

[Deign]

Yes vote, new glitches and a 40 second improvement on a well made movie. Great job Hanzou

[Randil]

This was a very, very impressive movie. You had already told me about many of these improvements some time ago, but there were a few improvements in this run that I didn't know of.

Overall, I'm very impressed by your knowledge and dedication for this game, that goes for Nitrodon and all the other lolo-pros out there. :) I'm giving this a big yes vote, and I'm really glad to see this game getting even more owned. I bet the game developers didn't see these solutions to the puzzles. ;)

[NesVideoAgent]

---

This movie has been published.
The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie.

---

See http://tasvideos.org/940M.html

---

[4matsy]

I think I may have noticed one little place where it could be improved further...
In 7-2, you block Don in the top-right corner by pushing an emerald halfway into his path, but after getting the jewel, you have to walk around the middle area and through the arrows again just to reach the door.
If you had pushed that emerald all the way into Don's path earlier (right up against the wall), there would be enough room for you to be able to just walk by the emerald and directly to the door once you got the jewel.

I can't find any other places though...this is an otherwise awesome improvement to the previous version. :)

[hanzou]

Try pushing that emerald a half-space further and see what happens. :)

[AngerFist]

Nice to see a run from you Hanzou :) I usually dont like watching Lolo runs but you kept my interest during the whole run so I voted yes. Good job!

[Nitrodon]

This has already been said by everyone else, but congratulations on the new run. I voted yes, of course.

Would this be a bad time to point out that the left side of 9-3 can be improved by 32 frames?

[hanzou]

Nitrodon wrote:

[Randil]

Jesus Christ, stop breaking this poor game, guys... ;)