This movie has been obsoleted. The new movie can be found here.
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- (Ab)using monsters as platforms
- (Ab)using main character as a critical strike weapon
- (Ab)using boomerangs to cause massive damage to multiple, superimposed targets.
- Manipulates luck
- No death
- Uses emulator FCE Ultra 0.98.16
- Genre: Platform
Many of you are probably familiar with Konami’s original Castlevania game, but in case you haven’t played this game, here is a brief description:
Castlevania is loosely based on Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, and Dracula’s extravagant and creepy castle deep in Transylvanian forest.
The main character is Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter.
Dracula’s hit points reach zero 250 frames (~4.16 seconds) faster than Phil Cote's previously published run. If you subscribe to the ‘end input as soon as possible' philosophy, then the run is 423 frames faster (~7.05 seconds). This version does not feature a higher score, but a high score was sought after.
I would suggest revisiting Phil's Castlevania TAS before delving into this one.
Level improvements:
Level 1: 20 frames faster
- Enter castle gate faster—1 frame
- Optimized using the bat as a platform—16 frames
- Optimized bat boss—3 frames
Level 2: 59 frames faster
- Cross took 42 extra frames to get.
- Second whip upgrade avoided—49 frames saved
- Killed Medusa faster—52 frames
Level 3: 115 frames faster
- Took four more extra frames to get to the mummies with the cross.
- Beat the mummies faster—119 frames
- As for stage 8, it may look like I waste frames, however no frames are lost due to a frame rule. Originally I was going to replay this segment and kill the ravens, but I thought the manipulation of the raven enemies was funny.
Level 4: 29 frames faster
- Killed Frankenstein faster—29 frames
Level 5: 10 frames faster
- Optimized using the hunch-back as a platform.
Level 6: ?? frames faster
- Dracula’s hit points drop to zero 17 frames faster. This could have been optimized more if I had decided to end input in the same manner as Phil, but using Dracula’s ghost to push Simon to where the magic crystal spawns took a significant amount of extra time to arrange.
- End input 173 frames faster. The trade-off of the previous note.
About abusing the cross:
The cross is meant to hit strong enemies (such as bosses)once then pass through them. Funny thing about the cross is that by hitting two enemies on top of one another, it is actually possible to make the cross hit three or more times in one pass.
This technique is used on that knight enemy at the start of level 2, the bone dragon in level 4, the mummies and on Dracula. In the example of the knight, the cross hits the knight first, then the cross hits the bat, then the knight again. Once the cross hits a second target (bat),it can hit the first target (knight) again so long as the cross is still inside the knight’s hit box. It is as if the cross has been reset to yield damage to a target it previously hit one or two frames ago, but the programmers neglected this error.
The mummies both have a lot of HP, so throwing a cross at them once they are close together makes each mummy reset the cross’ strike on the other mummy over and over and over again. This tactic yields massive damage in a very small amount of frames. Hence, the mummies can be killed solely with 2 crosses because they take 2 damage (from their collective HP address) each and every frame that the cross is inside both their hit boxes.
It was possible to throw crosses at the mummies before I did, but each frame that a cross hits a mummy, it prevents the mummy from moving along his course for one frame thus preventing the mummies from moving together at the first possible moment. Also, both mummies need the same amount of HP in order to die at the same time using only the cross. One would have to hit the last mummy for the same amount of HP as the difference of the mummies' HP once one mummy dies.
It is possible to kill both mummies with only one cross, but it takes more time to manipulate that into happening than it does to just use two crosses.
Special thanks to the Castlevania TAS authors Bisqwit, Genisto and Phil Cote. Without these authors’ ideas and TASes to reference, this version would not have been possible. To be honest, I feel more like a co-author.
Enjoy.
Bisqwit: Processing.