Emulator Details

• Snes9x 1.51
• Left+Right, Up+Down enabled

Objectives

• Uses hardest difficulty setting
• Aims for fastest time
• Takes damage to save time
• Unlocks a secret message

Special Thanks

• Tompa, for discovering an even better skip to the first exit
• StarFighters76, whose maps on gamefaqs saved me the hassle of actually playing the game.
• Nahoc, for very quickly starting to encode my first submission before I cruelly pulled it for this 10-frame improvement.

Useful memory addresses

Tricks Used

Damage Boost

Damage boosting appears in this game. It is best suited for giving the player a super high jump. This is used to skip large sections of levels. The Expert difficulty limits the player to one shield, meaning you can only take 1 hit before collecting another.

Speed Dampening

The player's speed gets butchered in the air. You lose 20 subspeed or more per frame until your total speed hovers around 3.6. However, during your throw or duck animations, you lose only 4 subspeed per frame. Any time you see me throw with no apparent reason, that's what's going on.

Fast Climbing

When climbing, you can start a new climb animation by repressing "up." Release as soon as you've stopped moving from one pull and your next pull will begin 5 frames faster. Over the course of the game, that's no small potatoes!

Level end abuse

There is some weird variation at the end of levels depending on whether you run through, duck, or come to an abrupt stop. These may all result in the same timer value, but some can cause the next level to start 1 or 2 frames faster. I optimized this as much as I could.

Comments

• I get a shuriken in level 2-1. This is beneficial for a number of reasons.
  • The shuriken does the most damage of any projectile, and therefore most dps. Axe = 1, Dagger = 2, Shuriken = 3, Sword = 4.
  • The shuriken stays out longer than other projectiles.
  • The shuriken's trajectory allows you to damage boost yourself without an enemy.
• When possible, using two projectiles is faster than using the sword once.
• No matter how fast you reach the end of 2-1, you have to wait for the platform to go and come back. Events like this are triggered when the object enters the screen.
• In water levels, keep in mind that bubbles hurt you. BUBBLES. You are protected by a bubble, which doesn't make a lot of sense to begin with. Yet another bubble, another pocket of air, hurts you. You got to love the logic to old school games.
• The mage boss has 40 HP. That means for one swing only, the sword is better than 2 projectiles. All shuriken = 14*3 + 0 = 42. With sword = 12*3 + 1*4 = 40. 13 actions instead of 14.
• In 4-1, the cloud usually follows you for 3 lightning strikes. I manage to outrun it after the first lightning strike. I liked this.
• Near the end of 4-1 there is some lag, but it doesn't show up in the emulator's lag counter. I noticed at first because I could see it, then I noticed the timer was staying the same for consecutive frames. I minimized this. I believe 2 frames of lag made the end.
• Singe the dragon has the same HP as the mage boss.
• The secret message is "Dragon's Lair is modern."