Submission #1011: Acmlm's NES Monopoly in 00:30.03

System Nintendo Entertainment System Emulator FCEU 0.98.12
Game Version USA Frame Count 1802
ROM Filename Monopoly (U).nes Frame Rate 60
Branch Rerecord Count 546
Unknown Authors Acmlm
Game Monopoly
Submitted by Acmlm on 3/14/2006 3:22:29 AM

Submission Comments
  • Recorded with FCEU 0.98.15
  • Luck manipulation
  • Fastest time to get the CPU bankrupt (by last player input)
Yet another improvement, by 16 frames, still using the same strategy. The time is now 00:30.03 (1802 frames) ... almost under 30 seconds, but unless I missed something unexpected, I don't think it's possible to do any better.
I spent the last 1-2 days figuring out the game's randomness completely (different variations and frame timings) by looking at the code and memory viewer, and made a program that simulates it. Then, given the initial random values, it tries all possible timings that lead to victory and only keeps the fastest one ... doing about 500000 re-records worth of work in 15 seconds.
The result was only 10 frames faster than on the last run, but it should be optimal. Then right when I was going to record this run to submit (after finding and testing the best combination), I found another way to manipulate the card order: when entering the player's name, both the amount of letters I enter and the time between each (including End) affect it. Trying different ones until I found a pattern in the results allowed to save 6 more frames.
The delays are now down to this:
  • 7+0 for the card order
  • 0+2+4 to get Community Chest
  • 0+0+4 to visit jail
  • 0 for the CPU to buy Oriental
  • 2+1 to buy St. James
  • 0+0+1 to buy Tennessee
  • 0+1+5 to buy New York
  • 3+2 for the CPU to go bankrupt
Total: 32

Bisqwit: Processing.

Last Edited by on 1/1/2022 6:13 PM
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