Submission #360: TheAxeMan's NES Jackal in 08:24.82

(Link to video)
Nintendo Entertainment System
baseline
FCEU 0.98.12
30289
60
1292
Unknown
Jackal (U).nes
Submitted by TheAxeMan on 10/10/2004 5:29:57 AM
Submission Comments
Long-time listener, first-time caller here. So I've created a timeattack for the NES classic Jackal. I used FCEUltra in windows XP. I've experimented some and produced this run. One-player, aims to be as fast as possible. No bugs that I know of. No deaths (damage=death). Abuses luck in a few spots, mostly bosses.
I take my jeep on a joyride through six areas of some foreign country ruled by a crazy dictator. Some of my comrades in arms have been taken hostage, but since this an as-fast-as-possible timeattack they're on their own (almost all of them). My jeep is initially armed with a grenade launcher which gets upgraded to a missile launcher right away. The missiles can fire in any direction, but either the jeep has to be facing that direction or at least turning in that direction. There is also a gun which always fires north. Both are useful in a timeattack as both can be fired at the same time and while moving.
I've done my best to make things interesting. I power up all the way, which wastes a small amount of time in the first level, it may be possible to do better with one level lower. Also, I actually deliver one of the POWs to the rescue chopper (lvl 4), he has to jump out while I'm moving. In stage 5 I get a hidden 1-up, it's right in the way. The whole way I try not to destroy too much of the dictator's inept army, maybe it will make it easier to rebuild. However, many foot soldiers and tanks are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I use both weapons as needed and every shot hits (I'm pretty sure). I definitely showed off a bit in some areas where I could have more easily been just as fast, and I think the result is pretty entertaining in places.
The levels are pretty straightforward and diagonal movement is a composite of vertical and horizontal, so it's easy to see that most of it is fast as possible. Sometimes there is a slight slowdown from too many sprites, but this is hard to avoid. Unfortunately, fully powering up hurts in this area. The bosses are the other potential improvement, most of the work went into them. Missiles refire after the last one explodes, so closer=faster. However it is only possible to get right up to the tanks on lvl1 and the chopper on lvl4. It might be possible to beat me on the chopper, I had trouble avoiding the shots when I tried to get too close. Abused luck to get it to come down where it did. Also, it might be faster to beat the lvl 5 boss going right to left, I thought of it too late. Finally, on the last boss first form, those tanks are very annoying, it might be possible to abuse luck to get them out of the way. I did abused luck to make the gun chopper less bothersome. Once you destroy the building all these annoyances are gone. I am probably most confident on bosses 2 and 3. Laser beams (lvl 3), were pretty annoying since you cannot go through all three without stopping. Also I had to slightly quiver to shoot a homing missile near the end of lvl 6.
I everyone enjoys this, I have to say that this battle made my blood boil!

Bisqwit: In April, I received a Jackal submission from Robert Bible. The movie length was 9:46. I rejected it, because 1) it didn't look impressive and 2) it desynced somewhere.
I had already forgot this submission by now.
Now, your submission is almost 1.5 minutes faster. Let's see what it's made of...
Bisqwit: publishing.
Last Edited by adelikat on 9/7/2023 3:01 PM
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