Posted: 1/24/2005 9:24 PM
Post subject: Low G Man or Kid Kool
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Cheez
Former player
Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 72
Location: Michigan, USA
I'm trying to decide which of these to do a run of. I've done the first levels of each to give you an idea about them if you don't know anything about them: http://abharrie.misterdotnet.com/LowGMan.zip http://abharrie.misterdotnet.com/KidKool.zip Low G Man has really jerky animation, which makes even frame advancing a little tough, and Kid Kool seems like it might get really repetitive. I don't know a whole lot about each game, so any extra info about either would be nice.
Posted: 1/25/2005 2:18 AM
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TheAxeMan
Ambassador, Experienced player (709)
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
I think low G man could be really cool if you could manipulate powerup drops. You need powerups to increase your jumping height. There are also powerups to increase the length of your spear, but I don't know if this is good for a timeattack where you can just turbo speed this anyway. You can also powerup the gun to spread shots. There might be other useful powerups, but they are all too rare when playing normally, making this game very frustrating. In some later stage I think you have to have upgraded jump to get by, so when you continue you are screwed. Special weapons are only from killing certain enemies or rescuing prisoners, I think. Probably worth your time to use them, I think they are much more powerful than the spear. I'll watch your first level when I get home. :)
Posted: 1/25/2005 3:46 AM
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Cheez
Former player
Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 72
Location: Michigan, USA
Powerup drops can be manipulated, I showed this in the first stage by getting two invincibility things. And they're not too hard to manipulate. Simply changing which frame you attack on changes the drops. Other things to note. Jumping is a lot faster than running, but if you don't hold jump for at least 2 frame, you tend to stutter when you hit the ground and can't immediately jump again. There's a warp on stage 1-2 that takes you to 2-1, but I think I won't use it. The hidden stage is really boring to watch. There are a second and third quest that are subsequently harder. On the third quest, the little robots at the beginning of 1-1 take 6 hits to kill with the spear. Also enemy bullets fly faster. If I do those ones, powerups will only be gotten as absolutely needed. The run I put of the first level is *hardly* optimal, just trying to get a feel for the game. -Cheez
Posted: 1/25/2005 5:08 AM
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Cheez
Former player
Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 72
Location: Michigan, USA
hahahahahaha, I just discovered that I can double tap in a direction and run fast.....I wish I had an instruction manual before I started this.... I also discovered that powerups carry over from level to level, so I should get some early on
Posted: 1/26/2005 4:44 AM
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Cheez
Former player
Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 72
Location: Michigan, USA
Okay, I redid the first level of Low G Man. I collect some powerups this time. I have max jump by the end of the first level, and I use it too for the boss. I actually run this time, which is much faster. I have a lot better handling of the bosses. Same link as first post. -Cheez
Posted: 4/14/2012 12:07 AM
Post subject: Low G Man
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goofydylan8
Experienced player (520)
Joined: 11/2/2010
Posts: 359
Here is another one from the list of games that have a SDA run but not a TASvideos run. I am currently 3 minutes 15 seconds into the SDA run and am ahead by around 35 seconds. If I continue at the pace I am currently going I should save about 2 minutes 45 seconds with a final time of a little under 13 minutes. I have no idea how accurate that estimate is, but since I had to collect bonuses on the first levels and won't on the rest I feel it is actually conservative and might be a bit faster than that. Some points to consider while watching: Walking speed is slowest at 1 pixel per second. Jumping is slightly faster at around 1.333 pixels per second. Sprinting is fastest at 2 pixels per second. I manipulate the item drops in two ways. First I get them to drop so that I get exactly enough to max out all of my stats. Second I make sure that the spear strength is at max before the first boss as it saves time on the boss. That is why the first two levels has some slight backtracking and why he comes to a stop on the items. There shouldn't be anymore that I need to pick up though so the rest of the run should be a pure run through. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
Posted: 4/14/2012 5:29 AM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1254)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11478
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
NES TAS of 2011
Post #66316 Thread #1706: Low G Man Post #114289
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 4/19/2012 1:13 AM
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goofydylan8
Experienced player (520)
Joined: 11/2/2010
Posts: 359
feos wrote:
Post #66316 Thread #1706: Low G Man Post #114289
Thanks. I was finally able to look through those posts and the best attempt I could find was 20.55 seconds behind at up to 2-2 so I am solidly beating that run. He does beat my intro by 8 frames though so I will most likely redo (or hopefully if this game is random free hex in) the intro and test out a few strategies he has on some levels. Every level is beat by over a second but I am fairly confident most of that is from his not maxing his spear weapon so I will need to check if a couple of his routes that I didn't think of which might save a little time but I am not sure. I will post a new WIP when I get back to some point between 3-1 and 4-1. I am thinking this run might be under 12 minutes but I really do not know about that figure. EDIT Nope all items are based on a RNG as I should have guessed. That means to add in the 8 frame improvement I have to start again. Oh well hopefully it will result in an even better movie.
Posted: 5/2/2012 2:24 AM
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goofydylan8
Experienced player (520)
Joined: 11/2/2010
Posts: 359
Alright here is my updated WIP. It finishes the game in 10:59.32 which is a 01:39.40 improvement over the fastest TAS WIP in progress I could find up to the last level as they do not finish it. It is also a little over a 4.5 minute improvement over the SDA run. After finishing this WIP I can see why this game has never been TAS'ed. It has extremely clunky controls, the animation is sometimes slow to update, and your character gets stuck or stopped for the dumbest reasons. Also the last boss is needlessly difficult in comparison to the difficulty level of the rest of the game and sort of cheap. This was really a learning experience throughout and I am confident I can beat this by a few seconds if I optimize my movements in the first levels with tricks I learned later on and if I figure out a better strategy for the last boss. Some points to consider while watching: The fastest motion is running followed by jumping and then walking. To run you can press the direction for a frame, release for a frame and then press again. Sometimes when you land the character gets "stuck" and you float around at 0 speed for a number of frames up to 10+. You can get out of this by firing the freeze gun 14 frames prior to the released frame. At the beginning of each level regardless of where the character is positioned it starts with the game believing your character is on land. This means that on vertical levels you can be moving upward and halfway up the screen before the character even appears. Here are some improvements I know of: Intro can be reduced by 8 frames through pressing start earlier than I did. First boss may be able to be improved by a few frames by skipping the shooting thing as it does not need to be destroyed to finish the level. In the first few levels I can better use the shoot 14 frames prior trick to start running faster. In some situations I jump over an enemy when it would be quicker to jump for 1 frame and firing in the air. The last boss can almost certainly be improved as I essentially just rage quit and went with an easier strategy than the optimal. The damn balls that float around the screen cannot be destroyed, they only disappear when they are no longer in screen, and lock up your character until you fall off the screen and die. They can be avoided by destroying the sac things that are shooting them out but they each have almost the same amount of health as the boss does so it would take way too long to be feasible Overall it is a pretty good effort in my opinion but it can be a little bit better. I would be greatly appreciative if you would post your opinions and critiques
Posted: 8/23/2014 8:44 PM
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PJ
He/Him
Joined: 2/1/2011
Posts: 182
Location: Western NY
Bump! I started playing this game a bit yesterday and found a ceiling clip. It works exactly as you'd expect from a game that allows platforms near ceilings: just freeze an enemy near a ceiling, jump into it from directly below, and jump and while you're "oscillating" over the enemy. I'm guessing that if the jump is during the top frames of the oscillation, you'll go into the ceiling. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3jhPdK9bfs I haven't found any places where it can save time except for in the submarine. The TAS despawns the first ceiling enemy, but it could either kill an enemy along the way to make him spawn or just do the clip on the second enemy. It would still save time. I have not found a way to move while within a wall. It seems to stop you pretty solidly once you're in there (until the enemy unfreezes). You can also jump above the screen during the 4-1 boss fight. You can't move left or right but you're stuck above the screen. You can still stab upwards or downwards into the boss chamber though! http://imgur.com/ZpK7XVv,OUexa47 The only other interesting thing I found is that you can double jump after taking damage. Before you accelerate downwards like crazy, there is a small window where you can do a full jump in mid-air. I suspect the TAS could use this in the final fight to get hit by the bubbles and recover safely. IIRC, you take time to scroll bubbles offscreen before the very last hit. Perhaps this would help. It won't help in most other places because you can powerup your jump far beyond any need for a double jump, but it might be good for damage control after you get hit. I'll update with anything else I find.
Posted: 12/27/2015 12:28 PM
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asdf
Joined: 12/27/2015
Posts: 1
Just watched the TAS, and I think I spotted a possible small improvement. During the final boss fight, it looks like the player spends a second or two deliberately getting hit in order to destroy the vehicle (while firing bombs that don't hit a target or do any damage) - please correct me if I am wrong. This can be avoided by pressing Select to immediately destroy the vehicle (this is in the manual but is easily forgotten as it's rarely useful in normal play).
Posted: 10/19/2020 8:20 PM
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XTREMAL93
He/Him
Active player (446)
Joined: 1/6/2012
Posts: 586
Location: Azerbaijan, Baku
All Secret Bonus Levels Link to video All Hidden Warp Levels Link to video