Submission #2244: Aglar's NES Gimmick! in 06:08.73

Nintendo Entertainment System
baseline
FCEU 0.98.28
22124
60
44988
Unknown
Gimmick! (J).nes
Submitted by Aglar on 5/2/2009 4:14:54 PM
Submission Comments
  • Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.28
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses death as shortcut
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
This run beats the current one by Deign by precisely 2000 frames (33.33 seconds). Improvements come from a new glitch abuse, better precision for the star shots and controlling the character; and using lots of new strategies.

Glitch used

If you shoot a star on the top of a block it will naturally bounch upwards. Same simplicity with shooting it on a side of the block or under it - it will just bounch in the opposite direction as it has when it hits the block. But what about hitting it exactly at one of it edges? In this game the result of this is that the star enters the edge and start bounching on the vertical sides inside the block. What you want is to have at least one block under the one you're "edge-shooting" (or a block at least 32 pixels high, what ever you want to call it), let the star bounch between the walls inside that block and then bounch up by the block below, then have the block leave the block it entered - and depending on what angle and speed you shot it with it will either bounce forward or backward where forward is usually the wanted direction. This trick will let you travel on stars where you couldn't before since the bounching inside the block takes the time just to make you catch up with the star. Check for yourself in frameadvance if this was unclear (It's used in the first star shot).

Enemy drops

Actually, in this game the "enemy drop" RNG can easily be followed without memory watch (so you can see if you like). The only thing that affects it is the score. To get something from an enemy the second and third last numbers in the score has to be the same(see table below). I get quite a lot items this way throughout the run.
NumberGet
00Healing potion
11Fireball
22Bomb
33Fireball
44Bomb
55Healing potion
66Bomb
77Fireball
88Bomb
99Fireball

Improvement

LevelFrames savedTotal frames saved
Level19797
Level2187284
Level3574858
Level43151173
Level51661339
Level66612000

Level 1

Used the star differently in room 1 and 3, the rest is from optimization.

Level 2

Used the glitch before the boat ride, and used new strategies after it. The boss was killed faster by jumping while pushing him, had to wait a bit at the end since he had to draw his saber before leaving the screen.

Level 3

Major changes became possible thanks to the glitch and new strategies. For example in the last area I used the down slope at the beginning to gain about two seconds, and this time Gimmick had seen his therapist before this level and no longer commits suicide by the waterfall.

Level 4

Better boarding and jumpoff of Nessie and then I found a way to use the star in the desert part. The rest in the level is through optimization and glitch abuse. At the boss I found that it has a 3-frame interval during its spawning time when it can be hit.

Level 5

Got the first star to last longer plus some changed strategies. A surprisingly large amount of frames was also gained on the boss.

Level 6:

The fight with the two rat warriors went much faster and many other things were changed as well. Early input ending FTW:)
Thanks goes to Deign, Nitsuja and Teowind for their contributions in the previous runs. Thanks also goes to Sami whose "all-levels" run used some strategies I could apply.
I choosed to make this run over the "all level" run because I prefer to do the runs that give the fastest times and that I think the extra level is the least interesting one.
Have fun with the toy!

mmbossman: Nice improvements! Accepting.
Last Edited by on 1/1/2022 6:13 PM
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