Submission #6515: Soig's SNES Contra III: The Alien Wars in 12:56.02

Super Nintendo Entertainment System
baseline
BizHawk 2.3.2
46638
60.0988138974405
17881
Unknown
Contra III - The Alien Wars (U) [!].smc
Submitted by Soig on 9/17/2019 4:15:46 PM
Submission Comments

Necessary info:

  • About bullet:
IDNameMax bulletsDamageCDOthers
00 2/bullet3
01S10(2*5)2/bullet4
02C34/2 frames5Sometimes miss(takes no dmg)
03H52/bullet4
04F 2/2 frames
05L73/bullet Can't shoot until all of the previous bullets disappears
Also, there are some other difference between 2D and 3D mode:
  • In 2D mode
    • For S gun, shoot 5 bullets in each time. And only could shoot again while a set of bullets are disappearing. (Especially, if 3 bullets of the first set disappears, and 2 of the second disappears, you can't shoot next new set of bullets.)
    • For L gun, you'll shoot a long laser if you press Y button at one frame.
  • In 3D mode
    • weapon system is similar to nes contra.
      There is no CD RAM. Or I didn't find out it... Normally, pressing Y button discontinuously is faster than continuously.
    • Movements is same as Jackal. X or Y speed always equals 2. Not only on horizontal or vertical, but also on diagonal.
    • movement is not friendly. I searched the speed and position RAM though, speed is not so intuitive. Instead, calculating the position's change is important. And after comparing the different rotation angle, walking on the 45° angle is the fastest. (The actual speed = 2*√2=2.8284)
    • For S gun, you can shoot S bullet just when any bullet disappears.
    • For L gun, you can only shoot ONE bullet in every 2 frames. If you want to shoot a long laser, you need to press Y button continuously.
Many more lags before stage 1 start... I don't know how to compare between snes9x 1.43 with bizhawk 2.3.2. So hope someone could help me make a comparision list to show that difference.
And I'll show you a comparision without the emulators' difference.
StageFrames savedTotal saved
1-87-87
243-44
3-21-65
4-39-104
515955
6314361

Level-by-level notes

  • Stage 1
S is fastest. So use it instead of C.
I used that tank. It helps me beat boss in 6 frames (fastest). But I don't save any frame... It seems that there is a frame rule for that boss similar to nes contra 1. I tested that the screen starts to move at the same frame after the second boss.
  • Stage 2
Better movement, better weapon choice and better bullets shooted.
  • Stage 3
First of all, at the wall boss, I get many more lags... I don't know if it comes from the emulation difference or my unluck. And in my unused movie(you can get the encode from the playlist above), the fewest lags way is beating one bullet from that boss.
A real console can give me the correct answer - the emulation difference or my unluck. So I go to RTA website to find the video. And the movie's author wrote:
Stage 3
I use the lasers to snipe the snipers as we move right. After we do the midboss I die and Hurblat does the climb alone. The game lags too much to keep player 2 alive. Keeping player 2 in costs 17 seconds worth of lag. I still get to keep crush on one hand even though I lose all my lives which is awesome. Double crush and crush/laser pretty much wrecks everything as far as the rest of the stage goes. In case you're wondering why I have laser, the range helps in stage 4 and it also makes the boss fight in stage 5 much more consistent.
Jump at a better frame before the first tall wall.
So it's emulation difference. And I changed to use their idea: Make one of the the players die. And rebirth after. But still takes a long time... Because of more lags.
Faster boss fight.
  • Stage 4
61 lags more than previous run. So it's faster if you ignore that lags' difference.
  • Stage 5
Better movement, better weapon choice, and better bullets shooted.
  • Stage 6
Better weapon choice, and better bullets shooted.
Specially, the final boss r2, you need at least 3 rounds to beat it. And after a round, boss's HP will decrease 1/2. And each attack form has its own timer. Here a picture shows every timer.(It's not absolute, it's around that value.) So player's damage in the first round is 1/4, in the second round is 1/2. So you need to choose a shorter timer form in first two rounds.
contra 1 mini boss: 1 frame saved.
contra 1 boss: 2 frames lost.
contra 2 boss: 1 frame lost.
contra 2 arcade boss: 4 frames saved.
final boss r1: 43 frames saved.
final boss r2: 154 frames saved.
final boss r3: 74 frames saved.

RAM watch

Because running ram watch window is much slower, I used lua to watch them, instead. And I'll give you the lua file in the forum.
  • Other RAM I used
Some ram I didn't show in the lua, So I will give you here.
AddressSizeTypeNotes
1E444 bytesHexhi score
1FA04 bytesHex1p socre
1FB64 bytesHex1p bonus life rest
1FE04 bytesHex2p socre
1FF64 bytesHex2p bonus life rest
1C024 bytesHexclear bonus socre
BD801 bytesignedif it's 2D
1F841 bytesigned1p 1st gun
1F861 bytesigned1p 2nd gun
1FC41 bytesigned2p 1st gun
1FC61 bytesigned2p 2nd gun
00701 bytesignedstage ID

Memory: Claiming for judgment
Memory: This movie failed to beat all known records. #6091: Mr_K's SNES Contra III: The Alien Wars "2 players" in 12:48.97 is significantly faster than this run and is easily discovered through searches. Regardless of whether or not the author wishes to uncancel that run is irrelevant.
Rejecting.
Last Edited by adelikat on 11/1/2023 4:13 PM
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