Emulator
  • Emulator: FCEUX 2.1.1 -interim
Objectives
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Aims for fastest time
Comments:
Ghoul School is now the first TAS submission I have done by myself. It was a fun project and a fun game and I've now gotten a bit better at spotting mistakes and optimizing.
I started helping Rick on his Ghoul School TAS over a year ago. A while after his submission, I noticed some minor improvements and I eventually decided to fix everything I could to clean up the TAS.
New Tricks:
  • The double-hit trick: This was known, but I managed to optimize it some more. If you use the bat or towel and turn around at the right frames, you can double-hit any enemy.
  • The door-trick: Turning around when exiting doors causes the character to spawn farther to the right, thus saving time.
Improvements:
The majority of improvements to this TAS were just from better optimization. Though the new tricks helped gain a few seconds as well.
  • Room 1: I use the door trick right when the character spawns to save a few frames.
  • Rooms 2 and 3: I optimized some jumps to gain 2 frames or so.
  • Rooms 4-6: A turnaround on the stairs combined with hitting the character's head on the ceiling resulted in a much faster result.
  • The locker room: frames were saved by hitting the zombies faster with the towel "double-hit" move.
  • The Gym: I damage boosted as much as I could where the previous TAS did not. I gained ~3 seconds here.
  • The Weight-lifting Room: Door trick used at the very start. I gained some time by killing the 2nd weight-lifting eyeball quicker. I later found a very small frame improvement, however when I tried to implement it, it caused horrible luck throughout the next few rooms. I could not manage to save any more frames here due to this. :(
  • The Crawl Space: I gained a few frames because I managed to jump more times with the Spring Shoes. Each jump with these saves 1 frame, hence the excessive jumping.
  • The Air Ducts: Door trick used right when entering here. I gained ~1.5 seconds because I zipped partially through the ceiling right before the door that leads to the basement.
  • The Basement: I saved some frames optimizing jumps up and down staircases. Trying to preserve momentum often looks slower, but is a faster result.
  • The Final Boss: I actually lose 1 frame here just because of the boss' position when entering the room. Had the boss been in the same place, using the same maneuvers, I think I would have gained 10 frames or so. This boss was very difficult to optimize because of the double-hit trick. I don't think this could be faster much at all if any.
  • Total Improvement: 384 frames
Credits:
I'd like to thank Rick for his previous work on this and his very impressive run. I wouldn't have known about this game if Rick hadn't posted.
I'd also like to thank Supper for his zipping technique which he discovered back when Rick was first TASing Ghoul School.
And Grunt for helping me "hex edit" during my final examination of the game. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a failure in the end, but was some useful information for future submissions.
Hope you guys like my run! Enjoy

FractalFusion: Accepting as an improvement to the published run. Also, changing ROM name to one which doesn't have the background problem.
Flygon: I was once told that if I didn't keep publishing, I'm gonna lose my Roost... I dunno about you, but this Flygon is going to use that Roost TM on himself, encode a damn movie, and publish it onto the front page of this website!
...this is about as badass as I can make publishing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2748: andrewg's NES Ghoul School in 04:02.73
Jess
She/Her
Site Developer
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 46
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Yeah, I've seen it already. Yes vote. :P Looks like I need to come back and either make sure this is dead perfect or have another run that can stay up for a while. I do have a good chunk of time after August...
Joined: 1/11/2009
Posts: 44
Could I vote no? Nice job wringing all those tiny optimizations out of such a short movie.
Experienced player (698)
Joined: 2/19/2006
Posts: 742
Location: Quincy, MA
Rick, I was wondering, would you possibly want to work on another improvement with me? I feel like there could be some room for improvements still. I don't see more than a few frames at best though. Maybe we could find a new trick or something, that would be cool. I'd really like to see this TAS go under 4 minutes. Also, I'm really sorry if you wanted to help me out. I hadn't intended to submit anything a year ago, but I have had this movie file for a long time now (probably since November) and figured I would submit it finally.
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner - Andrew Gardikis
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Yeah dude, it's fine. In all honesty, I got really friggin' lazy and just never got around to it. Sorry 'bout that. I'd be game in joining you in another split of this. Perhaps finding more glitches and screwing the hell out of this game. Do you think under four minutes is a viable goal? :D
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
As with the last run of this game, I get an annoying brick background on the first stage when I run this. With the last run, the background displayed correctly if I used the bad dump ROM, Ghoul School (U) [b1]. Is that what I have to do here to get the game to play properly?
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Experienced player (698)
Joined: 2/19/2006
Posts: 742
Location: Quincy, MA
I don't know how I got it by my file is Ghoul School (U).nes and does not display the brick background. EDIT: I think I might have a way to save time in this TAS. I was thinking these weight-lifting eyeballs were weaker. They are way too strong...
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner - Andrew Gardikis
mklip2001
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Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
I saw the YouTube video. Good job once again! However, is it possible to do zipping in the lower sections of the Crawl Space? It seems strange that you only hang out on the top areas.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 1/11/2009
Posts: 44
mklip2001 wrote:
I saw the YouTube video. Good job once again! However, is it possible to do zipping in the lower sections of the Crawl Space? It seems strange that you only hang out on the top areas.
The screen only scrolls horizontally, so while it looks like there are more classrooms beneath the floor, they're actually just bottomless pits.
Active player (291)
Joined: 12/16/2008
Posts: 458
Location: Houston
total glitch fest, I like
Personman
Other
Joined: 4/20/2008
Posts: 465
This is exactly the kind of game I enjoy TASes of - probably too badly made and annoying for me to enjoy trying to actually play, but creative and interesting enough that I want to see all the content. And the glitchiness and damage boosting was also awesome.
A warb degombs the brangy. Your gitch zanks and leils the warb.
Player (50)
Joined: 1/19/2009
Posts: 100
Very nicely done andrewg! Yes vote here. Edit: Oh, and btw, I hope you find the time to assist with the mtpo individual levels on sda with my good friend sinister1 and dk28!
Joined: 5/8/2010
Posts: 177
Location: Entropy
Yes vote, even tho i got no idea what going on, the huge warping in the middle of the walls must be my favorite bug in games!
Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1976
Location: Making an escape
This has probably been thought of before, but I feel I must ask regardless. What happens when you zip into cheerleader's prison and ignore the final boss?
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Experienced player (698)
Joined: 2/19/2006
Posts: 742
Location: Quincy, MA
Ferret Warlord wrote:
This has probably been thought of before, but I feel I must ask regardless. What happens when you zip into cheerleader's prison and ignore the final boss?
unfortunately, the game won't end until you: kill the boss, remove the barrier on the girl's prison, and then have the character sprite touch the girl's. :o
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner - Andrew Gardikis
NitroGenesis
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Editor, Experienced player (550)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
I voted yes, although some parts looked suboptimal. Oh well. I wonder if a 100% run would be entertaining. BUBBLS!
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Experienced player (698)
Joined: 2/19/2006
Posts: 742
Location: Quincy, MA
NitroGenesis wrote:
I voted yes, although some parts looked suboptimal. Oh well. I wonder if a 100% run would be entertaining. BUBBLS!
Nitrogenesis, what parts? The game doesn't give you much room to pass enemies quickly. The enemies I killed needed to be killed because they take away so much health.
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner - Andrew Gardikis
NitroGenesis
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Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
It was probably just my gut feeling.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
andrewg wrote:
NitroGenesis wrote:
I voted yes, although some parts looked suboptimal. Oh well. I wonder if a 100% run would be entertaining. BUBBLS!
Nitrogenesis, what parts? The game doesn't give you much room to pass enemies quickly. The enemies I killed needed to be killed because they take away so much health.
Andrewg, one part that looks a little suspicious is the room in the Air Ducts where you zip upwards. After that zip, you walk to the door, and afterwards you change to the spring shoes and the towel. Given that you said spring shoes save a frame when you bounce, shouldn't you have changed to the spring shoes and towel shortly after the zip and bounced all the way to the door? Also, why do you equip the embalming fluid for the Crawl Space area when you need to switch back to the towel later anyway?
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Experienced player (698)
Joined: 2/19/2006
Posts: 742
Location: Quincy, MA
mklip2001 wrote:
andrewg wrote:
NitroGenesis wrote:
I voted yes, although some parts looked suboptimal. Oh well. I wonder if a 100% run would be entertaining. BUBBLS!
Nitrogenesis, what parts? The game doesn't give you much room to pass enemies quickly. The enemies I killed needed to be killed because they take away so much health.
Andrewg, one part that looks a little suspicious is the room in the Air Ducts where you zip upwards. After that zip, you walk to the door, and afterwards you change to the spring shoes and the towel. Given that you said spring shoes save a frame when you bounce, shouldn't you have changed to the spring shoes and towel shortly after the zip and bounced all the way to the door? Also, why do you equip the embalming fluid for the Crawl Space area when you need to switch back to the towel later anyway?
I thought this myself when we were making this section for Rick's old TAS. If you equip the spring shoes after zipping upwards, when you enter the door you are too tall to progress, this is why I change to the spring shoes after going through the door. After gaining the embalming fluid notice that it automatically equips without me pausing to switch it. Very nice observations! Unfortunately, both are unavoidable situations.
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner - Andrew Gardikis
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
Since I've got the spare time, I'll encode this in SD as well... Optimized screenshot: Publishing this when I get home.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1587] NES Ghoul School by andrewg in 04:02.73
Joined: 7/8/2009
Posts: 43
Location: Catalonia
good run freak game!
Joined: 9/12/2009
Posts: 60
Location: None of Your Business, USA
Ummmm the game is weird in my opinion... The TAS looks optimized well but the game is weird. A MEH from meh!