This is my second version of Sonic Spinball, completed in 7 minutes and 58.5 seconds. It is 7043 frames (117.38 sec) faster than my currently published run, and is 1568 frames (26.13 sec) faster than Flip's previous submission. I would like to give my extra special thanks to Flip for his work on this game. Without his discovery of the "no emeralds" glitch in the first level, this run would never have been made, and if not for his contributions with several other aspects of it, I never would have broken 8 minutes. I would like to request his submission be linked on the publication page (assuming this gets published), to give proper credit where credit is due. All of the improvements I mention below are in reference to his movie.
Information: Aims for fastest time, played on hardest (fastest) level, and genre: sport (although I really don't agree with that, I can't think of a better genre to group it into).
Intro: Saved two frames by pressing start and right at the same time on the options.
Level 1: The biggest savings is the previously mentioned "No Emeralds" glitch, which effectively shaved around a minute off the published movies time. This level and associated bonus is improved by 282 frames mostly due to a much faster boss fight. I used the RAM address 00FF84B3 in order to extract as many hits in the least possible time, which happens to occur in a semi-circle motion. I also only had to hit Robotnik 3 times after the tail broke off, due to a couple extra hits when the tail was still on.
Level 2: There were three noticeable savings in this level, adding up to 646 frames. The first, and most frustrating to optimize, were the rebounds off the cork loop, but I think my outcome is pretty near to perfect. My second improvement is a very tightly optimized boss fight, which turned out very well. The third, and largest, was achieved due to a simple oversight on the previous submission: it's possible to skip the message at the end of the bonus level, which saves roughly 5 seconds.
Level 3: Many thanks to Flip for the improved route used in this level, in which I saved 326 frames. The only place where I lost time is on the approach to the boss room right after getting the 5th emerald, because I was not able to manipulate the Clucks to move into a good position for launching all the way up to the top platform. This resulted in me having to land on the moving platform, and jump up to the next one, which cost me ~100 frames. However, thanks again to RAM watching (address 00FF8183), I was able to tightly optimize the boss fight. The bonus stage was also slightly improved.
Level 4: I utilized the same route Flip used, with a few new additions contributing to the 312 frames saved. I saved some time on the approach to emerald 3 by taking a shorter route, and was able to utilize a well timed flipper launch right after collecting that emerald to save some more time. I thought my goal of 8 minutes was totally crushed when I found that the handle that leads to Robotnik was moving away from me when I reached it, but I found an unique work around that only cost me around 10 frames (the alternate method of waiting for the handle to move all the way back, would have cost me 120 frames at the very least). After a fair amount of testing, I was also able to end the input before the first blow to the final Robotnik is delivered (so don’t touch any of the controls before he’s toast!).
I highly doubt that there is much more improvement to be made for this run when it comes to optimization. However, I would not rule out the discovery of another glitch similar to the one seen in the first level, allowing for earlier boss access in levels 2, 3, or 4. I was almost positive I’d be able to glitch through the walls of the final boss with super fast balloon bouncing but wasn’t able to get anywhere close to inside. I’ll keep my eye out.
Once again, thanks to Flip for his help and discoveries, and I hope you enjoy watching!
adelikat: Accepting & encoding.