Friday the 13th is a survival horror video game published by LJN and developed by Japanese video game developer Atlus for the Nintendo Entertainment System video game console. It's an adaptation of the Friday the 13th franchise.
This run improves [1817] NES Friday the 13th by jlun2 in 03:00.69 by 2269 frames taking a faster route that is almost TAS-only with optimized luck manipulations and controls.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.2
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes samage to save time
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- Manipulates luck
Comments
Jason's movement on the map
Jason always stay in one divided map section for a few seconds accoding to a certain Stay Timer, then teleports to another following a predefined pattern. His initial location can be 1 of 3 depending on the game timer when starting the game.
When Jason assaults:
- If the player switch control to a counselor being attacked by Jason and escape outdoor without fighting him indoor, Jason will follow out if and only if the section right out of the indoor view is on Jason's path.
- If Jason is defeated in an outdoor section, he will immediately skip to the next one.
- If Jason is defeated indoor, he will stay there remaining non-interactive until the Stay Timer runs out, then follow the predefined map path as usual.
It shall be noted that some cabins and outdoor sections that appear to be on Jason path is actually skipped by him.
Yes, Jason is indeed teleporting on the map like a phantom.
Time of the day in the game
The game has some timer to determine how late it is in one day in the game.
Some items and lesser enemies only spawn when the timer is big enough.
The timer can be incremented quickly by exiting an indoor location repeatedly.
When Jason runs out of HP, the current day ends imediately.
Counselor's starting location in a new day
Counselors will stay in the last small cabin they haved visited the previous day. If two were in the same cabin, the one who came in latter will be put in the first empty small cabin on the map according to some predifined order.
Route and character choices in this run
The goal of the game is to zero Jason's HP for three times.
As the only weapon available from Day 1 which is powerful enough to taken him down quickly is the Torch, the route chosen is to get it as soon as possible, then track and hunt down Jason with it.
The fact that the currently controlled counselor teleports into small cabins when a new day begins presents some challenge for route-planning for a speedrun. The small cabin located between the cabin where the Torch weapon is and the northern woods where the clue to get the Torch is, as well as where Jason will spend some time wandering in, is the ideal starting place.
Crissy is the optimal counselor for this run, as she walks and fires the fastest. She is a slow boat-rower, but that isn't a problem as long as the Jason is depleted for 3 times before reaching the cabin on the lake. The only other counselor with an advantage over her is George, who only needs to beat 2 zombies to acquire a spawned item instead of 3 that Crissy needs to beat. However, George walks too slowly for any speedruns.
As the initial configuration of this run, Jason is manipulated to spawn at the eastern crossing of the outer ring of the roads, and no counselors are in his conter-clockwise path to slow the pace down.
This configuration enables Crissy to quickly intercept Jason in all three days before he could reach the cabin on the lake.
However, an indoor fight is neccessary in this route.
It's possible to only fight Jason outdoor, but that would require wating for Jason to slay enough victims in the cabin on the lake, or taking other routes dealing with switching counselors and more travelling on the road, which would be just slower.
Stage by Stage Comments
Day 1
To get the first clue to get the Torch, Crissy needs to get the Knife weapon or that clue won't spawn at all.
The Lighter item is not required.
The second clue to the Torch in the cabin in the nothern woods only spawns if the timer of the day is 2 or higher.
Crissy will simply exit and re-enter the view of the door of cabin to increment it.
For some reasons in the currently published run jlun first walked left in the woods to obtain the Key to unlock the door of the cabin and then walked right to get to the cabin, but it is actually faster to walk left all the way to get there.
After acquiring the Torch in a cabin by the lake, Crissy returns to the northern woods and intercepts Jason before he gets into that cabin with the clue.
Day 2
Crissy returns to the northern woods to intercept Jason again, this time before he could get out of it.
Note that Jason actually teleports from right to left despite which direction he seems to retreat to.
Day 3
To deplete Jason before he could teleport to the cabin on the lake, Crissy must assaut the cabin where Jason hides, or there wouldn't be enough outdoor sections to hunt him down.
You might be wondering why Crissy doesn't enter and exit the cabin or just wait outside to have a quick outdoor fight against Jason.
The reason is that the very outdoor section is not on Jason's teleportation path. What an unfortunate design choice.
The last combat is engaged in the last section before the cabin on the lake.
And he is finally defeated, at least for this game.
Other Comments
Fun fact
The movie file of this run was created on April 13th, 2018, which day happened to be Friday.
It was a pure coincidence.
Thanks
Thanks to all previous players for their runs.
Thanks to mtvf1 for the encode.
GoddessMaria: Judging...
GoddessMaria: Nice work with improving the currently published movie, klmz! The optimization level was on point and kept the audience entertained. Not much else to really say.
Accepting to Moons as an improvement to the published movie.
feos: Pub.