Submission #918: Randil's NES Spelunker in 05:48.65

Nintendo Entertainment System
baseline
(Submitted: Spelunker (U) [!].nes USA)
FCEU 0.98.12
20919
60
5520
Unknown
Submitted by Randil on 12/18/2005 6:06 PM
Submission Comments
  • Emulator used: FCE Ultra 0.98.12 (nitsuja).
  • Length of movie: 20919 frames (5m 48,65s).
  • Rerecord Count: 5520.
  • Aims for the fastest possible time.
  • Manipulates luck.
  • Dies to save time.
To those who haven't played this game before I recommend that you read this before watching the movie:
The goal in Spelunker is really simple. You start off at point A and complete the level by reaching point B, just like in Super Mario. To get to the end of the level you will have to unlock a few doors, red and green ones. To unlock the doors, you have to get the keys to them, and they are hidden around the level.
So the goal in this game is basically to collect all keys, unlock the last doors and then go to the next level. Sometimes there are a door placed in the middle of the level, forcing you to collect a certain key before another.
Another huge part of this game is the fact that you die extremely easily! You have to keep this in mind while watching the movie, often it will look like I could have fallen a greater distance to save some time, but you die if you fall more than 2 inches. This makes this game very hard to beat on console.
Other than that, there are just a few things to point out. There is a ghost that makes your life misserable on the first two levels, in level 1 I "luck-manipulate" away the ghost, in level 2 it's faster to kill him once he appears than to "luck-"manipulate" him away. Bats are really easy to avoid as you can see in the movie, so they're not a problem at all.
There are often piles of rocks in your way too, these are taken care of by blowing them up with bombs. You cannot stand close to a bomb as it goes off, that's why I move away from it as it blows. I also start running again as soon as possible, even if it might not always look like it.
That's about it. This movie didn't take many days to make, since this is a very short, and in terms of tool-assisted speedrunning, easy game. The route I use is pretty much the same as in Ginger's submission. For those who are interested, this movie is 1712 frames faster than his submission, but my submission ends sooner, which makes it 3742 frames faster. I hope you enjoy this movie!
EDIT: I almost forgot one thing that should be commented. When you die, you are respawned to the location of the last item you picked up, or, if you haven't picked up any item after getting off the elevator, respawned next to the elevator. This is abused quite heavily in this movie.
NOTE: After this movie ends, the game will actually continue with a new quest, but the only differences between the normal game and that quest is that you can't see the enemies and the levels are much darker. That's why I chose not to play them.

adelikat: Accepting for publication.

Bisqwit: Processing...
Flygon: I was spelunking around and decided to encode this movie. Added a YouTube module.
Last Edited by adelikat on 9/9/2023 3:43 PM
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