Swords & Serpents
(Intellivision) in 2:31
For more information, see the submission text for the 1-Player TAS I created before.
Having been shown more about the game's design, I learned that Game Mode 3, called "2-Player Magic," gave the second player, the Wizard, three uses each of spells 2, 3, and 4, alongside the infinite uses of spell 1 that the Wizard always starts with. Well, spell 4 is "Fast Feet," and if the Wizard strikes the Prince with the spell, he temporarily moves much, much faster than normal. So this immediately warranted a new run of Swords & Serpents in this game mode to see how much time could be saved. Turns out, over 50 seconds were saved off a run that was already shorter than three and a half minutes long, incredible!
The Wizard adds a deep layer of complexity to a TAS of this game. The camera is always focused solely on the Prince, and if the Wizard ends up outside that viewing range, the second player loses control of him until the Prince finds him again--and sometimes, instead of patiently sitting still, the Wizard even ends up wandering off entirely to somewhere random in the dungeon, which is irritating enough in normal gameplay, and just death for a speedrun!
With proper positioning, though, the game may slightly offset the Wizard from where he last was--and if this new spot is inside a wall, it's possible he can even be ejected onto the other side of it! This effectively lets the Wizard glitch right through solid walls if you can use the Prince to manipulate the camera's view properly, and this isn't even that difficult to do in real time! So with all of these new techniques in hand, lemme explain this 2P run in more detail real quick:
With proper positioning, though, the game may slightly offset the Wizard from where he last was--and if this new spot is inside a wall, it's possible he can even be ejected onto the other side of it! This effectively lets the Wizard glitch right through solid walls if you can use the Prince to manipulate the camera's view properly, and this isn't even that difficult to do in real time! So with all of these new techniques in hand, lemme explain this 2P run in more detail real quick:
Floor 1
This floor runs similarly to the 1-Player run--glitch through a corner near the start, head up towards the key. With the Wizard handy, though, he can cast "Fast Feet" on the Prince and wait patiently while he turbos over to the exit key and back, saving a ton of very slow walking time. "Fast Feet" does not use a timer--instead, it tracks the number of times you change direction, and ends after a set amount of readjustments, so we aim for long stretches of walking straight to maximize the maximum momentum.
The next bit has the one big timesaver this run could still have that I just was not able to manipulate: there is one more crusher door on the path to the exit, and I could not quite line things up right to save time here. See, the door is on a global timer, so saving time would require getting there much earlier. This is possible with "Fast Feet," except we cannot let the Wizard too far out of our sight, or else he disappears entirely if we try to switch floors. There are very few ways to speed up the Wizard's path to the exit, though, so he's the anchor holding the Prince back from reaching the crusher door in time. If there's a way to manipulate the Wizard to be far enough along the corridor to not get lost when the Prince zooms through the crusher doors, some seconds more could be shaved off of this run, but I just could not make it happen.
The next bit has the one big timesaver this run could still have that I just was not able to manipulate: there is one more crusher door on the path to the exit, and I could not quite line things up right to save time here. See, the door is on a global timer, so saving time would require getting there much earlier. This is possible with "Fast Feet," except we cannot let the Wizard too far out of our sight, or else he disappears entirely if we try to switch floors. There are very few ways to speed up the Wizard's path to the exit, though, so he's the anchor holding the Prince back from reaching the crusher door in time. If there's a way to manipulate the Wizard to be far enough along the corridor to not get lost when the Prince zooms through the crusher doors, some seconds more could be shaved off of this run, but I just could not make it happen.
Floor 2
Whenever you switch floors or teleport, the Wizard stays where he is in relation to the Prince, meaning he starts Floor 2 in the next room over already, far ahead of the Prince. The "Fast Feet" he casts here puts him on empty--you only start the game with three uses--but thankfully, the game's only refill location is on the other side of a wall nearby, and we know how to glitch through solid walls!
The Wizard reads the scroll to refill ten uses (the "4" on the scroll screen is referring to the number you press on the controller to cast the spell, not the number of uses you have), and then glitches through yet another wall to get back on the same path as the Prince. One more "Fast Feet" sends him zooming off to pick up another exit key and back, and then we finish the floor in a way that manipulates the Wizard's starting position on Floor 3 to not only keep him from getting lost, but also saving a lot of walking time reaching the next scroll.
The Wizard reads the scroll to refill ten uses (the "4" on the scroll screen is referring to the number you press on the controller to cast the spell, not the number of uses you have), and then glitches through yet another wall to get back on the same path as the Prince. One more "Fast Feet" sends him zooming off to pick up another exit key and back, and then we finish the floor in a way that manipulates the Wizard's starting position on Floor 3 to not only keep him from getting lost, but also saving a lot of walking time reaching the next scroll.
Floor 3
The top three floors all have transportation scrolls that allow the heroes to travel quickly from the start of the floor to the end of the floor and back. See, the game's only scoring system is based on picking up treasures throughout the dungeon and banking them in a treasure chest located all the way back at where you start the game on the top floor. This is very helpful on return trips, since the team can only hold six treasures at a time, but usually is not helpful when you first reach a new floor since the next staircase down is locked until you find that floor's key elsewhere. That does not prevent you from using the transportation scrolls to move around, though, and on Floor 3, it is much faster to reach the key from the exit staircase here instead of the starting staircase.
Since we finished Floor 2 with the Wizard at the top of the screen, he begins Floor 3 much closer to the transportation scroll than the Prince. When the Wizard uses the scroll, though, the game treats the warp the same as if the Prince was the one that read it, so he is the one that transports to the other scroll's tile location, leaving the Wizard's new location to again be the same spot on the screen in relation to the Prince as he was before the warp. This is beneficial still, however, since the path to the key is north from this second scroll, meaning he is in the perfect location to boost the Prince. One more quick "Fast Feet" on the Prince to go snag the key and come back, and the pair can exit to the next floor while being comfortably nearby each other.
Since we finished Floor 2 with the Wizard at the top of the screen, he begins Floor 3 much closer to the transportation scroll than the Prince. When the Wizard uses the scroll, though, the game treats the warp the same as if the Prince was the one that read it, so he is the one that transports to the other scroll's tile location, leaving the Wizard's new location to again be the same spot on the screen in relation to the Prince as he was before the warp. This is beneficial still, however, since the path to the key is north from this second scroll, meaning he is in the perfect location to boost the Prince. One more quick "Fast Feet" on the Prince to go snag the key and come back, and the pair can exit to the next floor while being comfortably nearby each other.
Floor 4
The Wizard is no longer useful anymore, so he zaps a "Fast Feet" onto the Prince and wanders off. The Prince completes this floor in the same way that the 1-Player run does, but just with faster feet this time. Once the three easter egg initials are on the screen, the run ends. Thanks again for watching!
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: No problems here. This 2 player run is exactly what you would expect, a faster run over the 1 palyer version.
Accepting as a new "2 player" branch to "Standard".
despoa: Processing...