#1837: Dammit's SMS Psychic World in 13:03.32

Aims for fastest time
Type: platformer, sidescroller
Tool used: dega-1.14a-win32

This game is good for TASing. There is a nice variety of special powers and the action is fast.

Story: Explained in the intro.

Many rom names were changed to (E) in the last revision of goodSMS. If you have a rom labeled (U) it may be the same. The mmv has been hexedited many, many times, so the rerecord count is not so meaningful.

Game mechanics

ESP: All abilities have 5 power levels. Power up by collecting more symbols. The four at the corners cost ESP juice; the others are shooting weapons and cost nothing. Selecting ESP will stop you unless airborne, so I do it in the air if possible.

Notable ESP powers:

red cross: This gives invincibility, but you still get pushed. Besides the demo in stage 1, this is used only to avoid imminent death.

spikeball: This screen crash hits everything onscreen. Used extensively to kill and weaken enemies and bosses from a distance. It is costly to use and has to be rationed.

up arrows: Fly by holding jump. This is a timesaver in many places, such as when going up ladders.

spark shot: This freezes enemies without hurting them. You can pass through stunned enemies, but there will still be lag if there are too many of them.

Taking hits: Whenever you touch an enemy, you just get pushed along, so you cannot blunder through them and there is no damage boost. No invulnerability time either.

Running: Basically, to run, keep walking. If you let go of left or right, or touch a wall or enemy, you stop running. It is often faster to build speed in a flat area before proceeding, or to pace around and wait for the path to clear rather than be forced to stop running.

Scoring: Every 10000 pts, the ESP bar refills. So I have to manage the score properly to ensure there is enough juice.

Explanations

In stage 1, I go off course to get a weapon powerup. The rose miniboss may now be beaten in only one attack cycle.

After the ice miniboss, I shoot one extra enemy to ensure a timely ESP refill later.

Same deal with the squid.

You will get stuck on the last level unless the wave shot is at max level.

Question: Why do you stop running at (some point)? Answer: The character's hitbox takes the full 2x3 blocks and she only responds to input once every 4 frames. So it's not possible to avoid brushing a wall whenever there's an obstacle that requires more than one jump to clear, or going through a passage with narrow clearance.

Data dump

Character responds once per 4 frames.

ESP selector responds once per frame.

Max rate of fire is once per 8 frames.

Screen crash makes the action freeze for 10 frames.

Some enemies have 16 frames of invulnerability but some don't, including bosses.

Memory addresses that would have been more useful if dega had memory watch: (numbers are in decimal)

C930  boss HP
DE02  walking/running flag
DE03  standing/jumping flag
DE07  walk till this reaches 0xb to start running

DF10  your HP  (max=80)
DF12  your ESP (max=80)

Small health or ESP refills 4/16 bar.

ESP power levels (max=5)

DF14  Restarter (cost=2/16)
DF15  Ice shot
DF16  Flight (cost=1/16)
DF17  Wave shot
DF18  Regular shot
DF19  Flame shot
DF1A  Screen crash (cost=3/16)
DF1B  Spark shot
DF1C  Shield (cost=3/16)