Mickey Mousecapade is a NES platforming game where you control Mickey and are assisted by Minnie in your quest to rescue Alice. The current run improves the existing run using a long known trick to warp past several rooms in level 1. Through an amazing stroke of luck, a fairy I can use to kill the last boss also spawns in a convenient place, so this time as well.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.2
- Beats the game as fast as possible
Comments
Getting Minnie captured in level 1 and then using the Rescue Minnie mini game to warp to the bottom right corner of the current room was a trick first suggested by Tangent a few years ago. Only recently though did I manage to get enough working knowledge of the game to get a proper TAS done using it. The trick itself saves 5 seconds, but I lose about 50 frames to RNG and lag after that. Amazingly, a fairy to kill the last boss spawns in a perfect location in the pirate room. With this I finally am able to accomplish this long expected time saver.
Stage by stage comments
Level 1
Randil had originally used a restart sequence to get a better enemy spawn in level 1. However, this abused the fact that FCEU 0.98.15 loads its quicksave before the reset. This game does not clear RAM on reset, so really what is happening here is that Randil's run starts from 4 frames after power on. Factoring this in, it is not faster to reset.
Anyway, technicalities aside, Tangent's trick works exactly as predicted. Minnie is captured and after saving her in the mini game, you get warped into the lower part of the room and save several seconds. I believe minnie is captured in the optimal way. The capture enemy flies up and to the left, and it takes 8 shots to reveal him (after manipulating him to show up.) So I move in the correct direction to shoot and also lose minnie close to the edge of the screen. You can't do the trick of leaving a room early with Minnie afer this point, but I haven't gotten a better solution. For anyone interested, a capture enemy is in the room when ID 42 is in 073X.
Level 2-5
Nothing new, I try my best to get good RNG and lag reduction, this game is full of it. I lose time early on, but make up most of it with closer snake spawn and a quicker and less laggy pirate fight. A fairy spawns in the pirates room before the last boss. I don't know precisely how, but this stroke of luck allows the last boss to be killed with the fairy and save another second or so.
Other comments
I'm surprised how much I learned in the process of making this run. Despite being a fairly simple game, there a lot to consider. I'm sure someone with a better eye for optimization can save some more frames, my guess is maybe a second more can be saved. I originally missed the fairy in the pirates room and didn't think I could get one to spawn. I don't know how I missed it, but better to be lucky then good as the saying goes.
I hope you enjoy this long overdue update.
Samsara: Claiming this now while I wait for a potentially updated file.
Samsara: I was a bit interested in taking on this run in the future, though I've lost a lot of TASing time recently so it's good to see the improvement still making its way to the workbench. Everything looks fairly solid and the new strats look well-researched. Audience feedback is also pretty good this time around, so I'm accepting this run as an improvement to the published run with an upgrade to Moons.
Spikestuff: Should I sacrifice an encode right now or not... hm...