I'm kinda new to this place. Xexyz is one of my favorite NES games, and I think I can do a good speed run through it. However, every single Xexyz rom I've come across won't work. In Famtasia it says "unknown opcode" etc., and on my other emulator it just doesn't do anything. Are all the Xexyz roms like that, or is it something with my computer in particular? Is there something in the code I could change to fix it?
I don't think many people are familiar with this game, but if anyone can tell me something helpful, I would very much appreciate it.
It's a side-scrolling game where the character goes through the levels blowing away enemies. He can get several types of guns in the game, but he can only hold one at a time. He can go into rooms and talk to people and get information, buy weapons, or play a betting game. In my opinion, Xexyz (pronounced Zex-iss, I think) is an overall pretty fun game. If you want, you can find small websites that have screenshots.
I just picked this up on cartridge awhile ago and have been enjoying it...
Anyone up for it? It's somewhat similar to Milon's secret castle in the way that you get powerups, spend money, find secret doors, etc...but more of a shooter/side scroller
Joined: 6/9/2005
Posts: 171
Location: Southern California
If someone does do this, keep in mind that you can hold up while jumping to gain a lot of height. :)
This game is a lot of fun but rather challenging. The Information is never worth purchasing, and most of the upgrades will be pointless for a TAS.
If you purchase the same weapon from a store twice (leave and re-enter) you will get the upgrade for that weapon. :)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1977
Location: Making an escape
Ah, there's probably no better time to do a knowledge dump than now. To open up, this.
First, agreed with Rauh: Most of the weapons would be pointless to snag. The only one that would be worth it is the laser in the last few levels due to its capacity to have turbo fire. Fortunately there's no need to upgrade it: turbo firing will squeeze out as many shots as you get upgraded, and it does so faster!
Second, the evil Buddha statues. I tried to get in as close as possible since it appeared that Apollo travels faster than the star you're given at the end of combat.
Third, lots of E* needs to be manipulated for the shooter sections in the castle and to purchase the laser in the last couple of levels. Unfortunately I have no idea how the RNG works.
Fourth, lag does no affect this game like it does most others. Here, it skips frames instead of dragging them out, meaning that for the most part you won't have to worry about intense action slowing you down.
Fifth, enemy health is kept track of in a very peculiar way. Instead of loading the max amount and counting down with each hit, it counts up to a certain point that varies with the target. When that point is reached, target dies. Also interesting is that some weapons, although they deal the same damage, will have different caps on various targets. For example, the first boss will blow up at 90 using the standard beam, but I have to get to 100 with the 45b ball.
As a subnote, I'm convinced the whole "weakpoint" thing some characters clue you in on is complete bogus.
And... I think that's it.
*Drugs are the currency of the future, eh?Edit: Oh, just remembered! Sixth, the hitboxes of enemies and bosses will close for two frames after being hit. That's why I only used bombs against the second boss. It wouldn't have mattered if I threw bullets on top of that.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Glad to see someone addressed it - I'm not sure why I never saw this on youtube, I guess I didn't search for it; assuming that I would find a topic here.
I feel like an idiot to admit the fact that I didn't even realize bombs existed in the flying mode...but I enjoy the silly navigating in the speed-up part.
Hope you feel like finishing it!
Joined: 6/9/2005
Posts: 171
Location: Southern California
Ferret: My favorite quote on that topic is when the young woman says "The Boss's weakpoint is its eye!" and then you reach the boss and it's basically a giant eyeball with a couple of tentacles. Thanks, lady! That was worth all my E*! :P
The "Information" is usually given out assuming that you got the weapon for the level. Like the 1st boss forehead thing...if you have the 45b Ball you can hit it without any risk. Also the dragon-flamethrower thing says "throat"...well it happens to be where the least amount of fire is actually at.
On the weapons note: laser = totally worth it. But what about Moon beam or whatever the one with the orbiting thing? I found that if you duck/shoot you have a orbiting thing of doom. Probably won't be worth it seeing as how you have to duck to make it work....
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Does everyone else see his post as being full of question marks?
Was he being funny, or are my language settings messed up in a really bizarre way?
(sorry for being somewhat off-topic, couldn't really ask that elsewhere)
It definitely increases your horizontal speed when you jump. And it seems to last a decently long while. The question is really whether or not the level allows you to jump enough for it to be worthwhile.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1977
Location: Making an escape
Alright, with the help of the Boss Rush password and the memory address that determines what weapon you are carrying, I managed to assemble the following chart. It indicates how much damage you have to do with each weapon before victory.
The chart only concerns itself with the bosses at the end of the mechanical castles. Also, for simplicity's sake I counted the three phases of the Goruza fight as separate bosses; as such the last fight takes up the last three slots (slot 6 is how much damage to deal to each hand, so a total of 20 is dealt out in that fight). Plus I don't take into account firing rates.
Generally, each shot from each weapon does two points of damage. However, I did notice on multiple occasions when gathering these values that a shot would randomly do three points. It may have something to do with the weak point bit, but I doubt it as once I managed to do that much damage by attacking the fifth boss's lower gun, when, according to my brother, the weak point is stated to be in the throat. I don't know what brings it about; it seems to occur on a completely random basis.
Derakon wrote:
It definitely increases your horizontal speed when you jump. And it seems to last a decently long while. The question is really whether or not the level allows you to jump enough for it to be worthwhile.
The level doesn't matter; I just tested it and it allows you to walk on air without any descent when you use turbo fire! You can also cancel out any vertical ascent you are making! :D Definitely something I missed in my partial run. Unfortunately this also means even *more* E needs to be harvested.
Edit: Okay, nevermind about it doing 3 a shot as it appears I misread it; it's actually doing only one. In that case, it should be easier to avoid doing one point instead of finagling it to do three, so that's good news.
I still don't know what's up with the weak point thing, though. I have tested it multiple times, and I can't seem to do any more damage regardless of where I attack. The only thing I haven't tested is to see if talking to the informant actually sets the weak point or something, but that's obviously not worth it for a TAS.
Edit the Second:
Shadow Byrn wrote:
But what about Moon beam or whatever the one with the orbiting thing? I found that if you duck/shoot you have a orbiting thing of doom. Probably won't be worth it seeing as how you have to duck to make it work....
True, but you're not allowed to duck while fighting bosses, and they are also immune to its ramming damage. However, I have found that if you get hit just right while attacking you'll get a short spat of the "Moon Ball of Death" that you were talking about.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
E doesn't seem too hard to be harvested; i would imagine you can manipulate 5E drops from every enemy with only a bit of tweaking, as it's random and not totally uncommon to get a few 5E pickups even in a casual run-through - am i correct?
Joined: 6/9/2005
Posts: 171
Location: Southern California
There are also occasional rooms where Apollo can receive free 20E*, and those rooms can be used twice before they disappear.
Maybe the "Hit the ghost with your head" rooms can be utilized? I recall the rewards being as high as 70E*?
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1977
Location: Making an escape
Goodness, with the amount of research and planning I've been pouring into this, you'd think I'm planning on actually making a run. -_-
XkyRauh wrote:
There are also occasional rooms where Apollo can receive free 20E*, and those rooms can be used twice before they disappear.
Maybe the "Hit the ghost with your head" rooms can be utilized? I recall the rewards being as high as 70E*?
I would think those rooms would take too long. However, assuming perfect manipulation, it should be avoidable. I just calculated it would require an average of 16 large E blocks per level in order to purchase everything (rides in the suits, foot wings, and lasers). There should be enough enemies per level to fill that quota, but, again, that's assuming perfect manipulation which I'm not sure is possible.
I've also drawn up what should be the best weapon to use against each boss in the castles. They are, respectively: hand beam, hand beam, hand beam w/ mirror (comes free in that level), and lasers for the remaining bosses.
Boss HPs for the shooter levels: 220, 220, 250, 250, 250. As with the castle bosses, shots do two points of damage.
Also discovered recently is a better way to shoot the hand beam. Press down and fire on the same frame. Your shot will count as if you were standing. Wait a frame and press fire again; you'll shoot another beam. While ducking, you will need to wait 7 frames before firing again (compare with standing, which takes 8), so after doing this, start firing with 7 frame breaks. Oscillating between standing and ducking does not work. Would be most helpful against the Buddha statues.
And that should be it. The rest would just be minor route planning.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
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.
