After the success of Nintendo's 1981 Donkey Kong, the Japanese developer launched two sequels a spinoff called Donkey Kong Junior which ended up having its own spinoff: Donkey Kong Junior Math. In the 'Calculate' mode (there's an A and a B with the latter being harder), Donkey Kong stands at the top of the tower holding a number which the two Juniors (I and II) must race each other to make using the numbers hanging on vines and operations on platforms. This TAS aims to beat Calculate B in record time by uniting the Juniors and maybe by manipulating the luck a bit.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8
- Aims for fastest completion
- Uses hardest difficulty
- 2 Players
- Manipulates luck
- Uses death for major timesaves
RNG Manipulation
Like many NES games, the layout of Donkey Kong Jr. Math's levels are determined by what frame they are loaded on. We can take advantage of this by only advancing to the next round once the layout of it will be ideal.
Killing Junior II
Usually, the round will end and the loser will play out the death animation (see round 5). The game will then move on once it has ended. However, it doesn't actually check the reason behind why it played and so Junior II can be killed just before Junior I wins the round to end it sooner than expected. This saves a bunch of time in an already short TAS.
Moving Operations
The operations on the platforms will move when they are used to an unoccupied platform and a lot of the time, they aren't in satisfactory places. So, in rounds 2, 4 and 5, Junior II runs over to an operation Junior I needs and sends it over to him. This works because Junior I isn't on the starting platform when the operation is used so it spawns right underneath him. Junior II is used to move operations into better places throughout the TAS.
Possible Improvements
The main potential improvement is better RNG since there might be better boards that I didn't come across while experimenting. However, it did seem like there were only a set amount of possibilities for each round as the difficulty gets harder.
Possible screenshot: any frame after 1:14 (when Junior I is celebrating)