Table of contents
Game objectives
- Aims for shortest input (ending time not affected by this)
- Plays "Time Attack" mode (story mode without dialogues)
Intro
After I optimized my previous submission of the "Superb Joe" mode TAS (and took part in other NES TAS projects), I present you the speedrun mode of the story mode called as "Time Attack" mode.
Let me introduce the game again. You can go left or right and use the grappling hook with A. Doors can be used with "Up". And a little physics: grappling for the minimum time gives the best vertical boost. Grappling for longer time yields in slower vertical speed but same horizontal speed. This is useful to avoid bumping the ceiling.
Detailed game tricks
- 6th frame is a lag (in-game)
- While in-game, every 6th frame is a fake lag frame.
- Fake grappling
- As the name implies, this is useless for TASing (technical-wise). Pressing A for 1 frame right before the lag frame rule, you can manipulate the "walking" sound pattern without slowing down.
- "RNG" manipulation
- You can manipulate explosion sprite to pop up at different places by pressing A,L,R at random places. This can also affect enemies spawn (delaying them by 1 frame), so this is "remanipulated" to make 0 frame delays (you can't make them faster).
The strategy for the different situations is (in order of appearances):
- Grabbing from ground
- Used near to walls for activating grappling hook once grabbed it's target.
- Double grabbing edges
- This way I can make a bigger vertical boost. Greatly depends on vertical position and route (so this isn't the fastest everytime).
- Opposite swinging
- If you instantly switch direction between 2 grapplings, you will go 1px/f instead of 2px/f. This used to fine-tune movement.
- Fast falling
- You can keep your vertical boost for a few frames even if your vertical speed "reseted" to 0 after touching the ground. This is very useful when I would bump my head in the ceilings if I just try to avoid touching the ground while falling down.
Miscellaneous
If you like watching a guy grappling full random things, this TAS made for you. See you until my next TAS =)
Lua script used for the run: http://pastebin.com/466m47zm
Noxxa: Judging.