FractalFusion's Cyborg 009 in 16:07. This game is a spin-off of the
Cyborg 009 manga and anime, which began a long time ago. There are eight characters that you can use, but one of them is set and you can only choose two others for each mission.
Emulator used: Snes9x v1.43+ v15 and v16 (works on either one).
Aims
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Manipulates luck
- Abuses programming errors
Difficulty
I use the easiest difficulty here. The biggest reason is that the final boss takes much longer to beat on normal and hard. I am already forced to spend 3 cycles of the boss's vulnerable periods. Each cycle takes about 25 seconds.
Differences between easy and normal:
- The final boss's vulnerable period is longer on easy.
- In easy, all HP is restored between each area, rather than some.
- Easy mode has the bad ending.
I didn't even realize the game had a bad ending until I almost finished the TAS. No credit roll, and the last couple lines are changed (translates roughly to "But Giss [supposed evil] #2 and #3 may already be born!"). The only known ROM translation even missed this ending (although it still acts as a bad ending otherwise since only the text changed). I'll take it that the bad ending is a price to pay to cut down on the final boss.
Programming errors abused
- Jumping after switching chraracters.
- Having Apollo (one of the bosses) do his sound (battle cry or whatever) three times in a row, thus cutting out two of his charges.
That's pretty much it. There are too many minor ones to list.
EXP items
The reason I pick up the EXP items is because of one thing: the final boss. You can only fight the final boss as 009, and 009's attack starts out weak. When maxed out, attack is 5000 (the electric gun does one tenth of that, or 500, to the final boss, who has 34000 HP). So instead of being forced to hit the final boss over 200 times, it only requires 68 hits. I need 10 EXP items to max out 009's attack. Also note that you can't pick up items if you are flashing from being hit.
Characters
The characters of interest are 002 (can fly around), 008 (jumps forward the fastest, without consuming SP, and can swim in water), and 005 (destroys bosses with his fists, 1200 damage per hit, no SP consumed). I exclusively choose 008 and 005 for each mission.
Useful memory addresses
In Snes9x Memory Watcher format (s9xwcnf1.txt)
[CYBORG 009]
7E0AC3,2u, player x
7E0AC5,2u, player y
7E0A7F,2u, screen x
7E0A81,2u, screen y
7E0ECF,2u, boss
7E0EEF,2u, boss
7E0F4F,2u, boss
7E0F0F,2u, boss
7E0F2F,2u, boss
7E0749,2u, 009 level
7E073D,2u, 009 AT
7E06CB,2u, EX
7E06BD,2u, Total EX
Run info
The names of the missions are my own, not exactly that of the ROM translation.
Gilmore Lab: Prologue
- There are three routes to the next area. Strangely, these three routes determine which mission you do next after this one. The top route takes you to Secret Base, the middle route takes you to Arctic Ocean, and the bottom route (the one I take) takes you to Floating Fortress.
- Here, the bottom route is fastest. 008 can swim quickly in water, and the second area has the shortest route.
- At the beginning of the third area, I avoid damage from the bot to pick up the EXP.
- The giant mechanical spider cannot be hit at the beginning, but is easily destroyed by 005 later. I try to position 005 so that he comes down where he would end up in the scripted scene.
Floating Fortress: Threat from the Sky
- I use 002 to fly up to the top route.
- Partway through the second area, I switch to 002 as he is slightly more efficient than 008 in some places, and 008 cannot make the jump at the beginning of the third area without a jump from character switch.
- 005 destroys the horse here. Now for some reason if the screen is not at its leftmost position, Apollo does not appear right away but does his sound three times in a row. This cuts out two of his charges. I run 005 against Apollo's direction to reduce the time he appears on screen. After Apollo does the radiating circle attack, he leaves himself open for two seconds. This battle takes super long without 005.
Arctic Ocean: Fierce Battle in the Frozen Sea
- 008 swims fast, even when the SP meter is depleted (although not as fast). If the SP meter is depleted, pressing A every 8 frames or so should suffice.
- In the sub (third area), when entering a door there is a one-frame window where you can turn or switch character while the door opens and closes.
- The boss is pretty laggy, but 005 gets the job done.
Secret Base: Infiltration
- Even though the darkened areas cause a lot of lag, the route through the second area is fastest.
- The boss is one huge tank. 005 takes out the cannons and machinery with his fists. I jump forward while punching the cannons to reduce delay. The radiating circle that the machines emit freezes the player, so I must avoid them.
Weapons Factory: The Decisive Battle
- There is an EXP item I run into, but it is useless since you can only level up between missions and this is the last one.
- Partway through the second area, I must switch for 005 to knock out the barrier. I carefully choose the route so that no more than one barrier must be knocked out while avoiding the winding passages.
- I switch for 005 just before entering the area with the boss as doing the switch at the boss puts the boss in a worse position when it is defeated. 005 knocks it out quickly, while it is near the bottom. The boss changes its movement suddenly if its front is knocked out first, so I take out its back first, then the front.
Last Stand
- 009 is forced here. It is barely faster to use superspeed repeatedly, even though there are delays from doing so, since it makes 009 go twice as fast. I time the last one so that 009 reaches the end before the last delay kicks in.
Final Boss
- Since this is easy mode, and 009's attack is maxed out, I can deliver 23 hits per vulnerability cycle, with careful use of superspeed. There are two types of superspeed, one which lasts longer and slows down time, and the other which lasts shorter but stops time completely. I use one long one so that control is regained just before the boss can be hit, and one short one after the long one runs out.
- Then the boss becomes invulnerable, teleporting all over the place, surrounding
itself himself with a blue electric web. The web can't hurt you, only the boss himself. The fourth time he shows up, I try to manipulate the boss so that the location where he throws the electric ball is where he already is to avoid delay. Then the cycle repeats again.
- It takes 68 hits to beat him. On the last cycle, I do the short superspeed as late as possible so that I beat him before the last delay happens.
Known improvements
- By bringing 002 to Arctic Ocean it is possible to use character switch just when entering the second-to-last door, and then fly to the door leading to the boss.
- In Floating Fortress, switch out 002 earlier in the first area to save SP so that 002 can be used earlier in the second area.
- Jump towards a corner formed by a wall and floor and press the reverse direction to eliminate the turning delay.
- Even with 8 EXP items rather than 10, 009's attack is still close to max. The difference is 70 hits on the final boss, as opposed to 68.
adelikat: And processing (encoding by Aktan)
