Start with no health. The game is stuck and X cannot move. Occurs if you use the password without going into the demo.
Start with 10 health. Occurs if you press start just before it goes into demo (1-5 frames before), and enter the password.
Start with 32 health, all weapons and subtanks (no capsule parts), and 0 lives. Occurs if you reach the demo at least once, and then enter the password.
I decided to use a fourth effect, which combines the 10-health effect with the all-weapons effect (reach the demo at least once, then press start just before going into another demo). The downside is having to watch the intro twice, but I decided it was worth it.
None of these effects give X any capsule parts. In fact, using this password, it is possible for X to beat the game without the dash part. I decided to make it a walkathon. Interestingly, being restricted to walking speed increases the opportunity to do entertaining stuff.
More info
I used this script [dead link removed]. It definitely helps with positioning, timing, and item drops.
The blackout glitch (after defeating a boss) is caused by pressing Start at the right time, after the boss explosion but just before X tries to walk to the center of the screen. It causes the music to become soft (as if the player is in the subscreen menu) and lasts until the next subscreen menu access.
The Armadillo skip glitch occurs by skipping the camera scroll. Using the ice platform to push X into the door, this bypasses the trigger that scrolls the camera up. As a result, Armadillo does not appear and you can advance without any problem. You can get Armadillo to appear by jumping in the boss room.
The ice platform glitch allows X to enter a wall from an upper right or left corner. He can only go downward, however, so this restricts its use. Furthermore, usage in some parts doesn't work well because the glitch bypasses the horizontal scroll trigger, and so prevents X from advancing. However, it works nicely in the corridor between Chameleon and Mandrill in Sigma 3.
Dropping 7 extra lives in 11 seconds was sheer luck. It just so happens that a set of random values responsible for dropping extra lives was close together, and occurred in a location with many enemies that have normal drop ability. It did not take me 1000000 years to TAS this. I used the script above, as well as a text file containing the indices of the random values which drop extra lives. There are only 341 such random values out of 43534. See below for more information about RNG.
I end the movie not at the last dialog clear, but when I press start to force fadeout after warping out at the end.
About the RNG
This RNG is used in Mega Man X-X6, Mega Man 7, and Rockman & Forte.
The RNG uses the following formula to generate the next 16-bit number:
The starting value for the RNG, which is taken to be index 0, is 0xD37. With this starting value, there are 43534 numbers in the sequence until the RNG reaches 0x0D37 again.
Index
Value (Hex)
0
0D37
1
275E
2
76D4
3
6438
4
2C64
...
...
43530
3F83
43531
BE41
43532
3A7B
43533
AF2A
0
0D37
The Lua script above uses a 128KB binary file (generated in C++) to look up the index corresponding to a given random value.
Information regarding how the game uses the RNG to determine things like random drops can be found at this post.
FractalFusion: Changed branch from "glitched" to "glitched password, walkathon". Don't know if you guys agree.
Nach: After reading everyone's comments and mulling over this for a bit, I realize there is no clear cut decision to be rendered for this run.
This run is faster than the existing any% run, and can technically be used to obsolete it. On the other hand, it abuses the password system, and while not actually using a password, the use is questionable. That alone pushes this into the same kind of "glitched" realm we have for games with SRAM, and makes it a separate category. Many viewers disapproved of this run for violating password rules, but I find this case to be acceptable.
The way the glitch works, all 8 stages are considered beaten, and X has their weapons. FractalFusion manipulated things so he'd have the minimal health and upgrades one can get using this glitch, to skip as little as possible. This leads to an interesting scenario where the intro level is played with all items and stands out from other runs, but the final levels would end up looking pretty much the same as an any% run, except that X has less than usual once he gets there.
The next thing about this run that stands out is the walkathon quality. The idea of a walkathon has mostly been shot down throughout the site when attempted for most games. The one exception has been Super Mario Bros, where the game is pretty short, and believed to not be possible as a walkathon, hence the movie there stands out as doing the impossible. Such a feat is really not much of a feat in other games, and in terms of this game, not the least bit surprising, thanks to wall jumping being part of normal game mechanics required to be used. On terms of a full walkathon alone, I think most people would want such a run rejected.
The next thing about this run is the speed vs. entertainment trade off. I don't know for sure if going to get the boots would make it faster, but I imagine so. There's plenty of other places where thanks to the slow speed, plenty of tricks were shown off and lent to entertainment. I don't think those tricks would work across a long non glitched run, and certainly not when doing the initial stages, where X doesn't even have the weapons available yet to show them off. So this run to an extent is a playaround, showing off the weapons, and only across a few stages to keep entertainment high.
Based on the above, neither quality alone would really be publishworthy. A glitched run to skip 8 levels then grab the boots would be too repetitive with the any% run. A full walkathon would be boring and not show much off that this run doesn't, nor have the entertainment the intro level here did. Adding a third branch to a popular game is acceptable, and it seems the combination specific to this run is one of the few that can work.
Feedback for this movie wasn't great, but it seems most of the negative feedback was about prejudging the run's allowance based on entering a failed password, or fighting over whether some other kind of movie would be more acceptable or not.
Since a slim majority of the users prefer to see this published, and many of the negative comments either misunderstood this run's glitch, or preferred an alternate run which would be rejected by my above criteria, I'm going to err on the side of acceptance.
Left must be released before it can be pressed again. So it would go something like this:
1. downleft to 8
2. nothing
3. upleft to 8
4. nothing
5. downleft to 2
6. upright to 7
7. nothing
8. to 6
right, thanks for the clarification :)
edit: I’m getting 8 with the old one too though >_<
1 1 1 1
8 3 1 8
6 1 1 1
1. down to 8
2. left to 8
3. downright to 8
4. nothing
5. upright to 2
6. downleft to 7
7. upright to 3
8. downleft to 6
what’s wrong this time? :S edit: was told you only get 1 button for down/up switch
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Thank you SmashManiac.
I'd also like to thank all the you who sent me positive feedback via PM.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
I’d have liked to see the 8 frames password hexed in before this was published, but whatever I guess…
Huh, I guess this TAS contains way too much luck manipulation to just "hex" the improvement which is at the very beginning of the movie...
what I said was a “complain” that the idea of hexing it wasn’t even considered; I know it’d probably fuck up everything but Fractal hasn’t made any such post in defense of not hexing it, that’s what I was complaining about
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
I would've been sad had this movie not been published. It's just the right length, it's entertaining, and it shows me something that I haven't seen before. I really enjoyed this TAS.
Movies that actually use passwords (not this one) should be judged on a case-by-case basis. If a TAS were to start Mega Man 2 with nine e-tanks, and those tanks somehow allowed the game to be played faster, then I might vote yes or no, but leaning towards no. However, if entering a password in MM2 allowed you to skip some long cut scene when choosing "New Game" then I'd vote yes for the e-tanks password, even if they're not used. As long as the password has some merit and isn't just a free advantage.
but Fractal hasn’t made any such post in defense of not hexing it, that’s what I was complaining about
I thought I already gave my views on hexing this run on IRC, but anyway, I'll post about it.
Bottom line is, I don't care about hexing for this run.
I intended this run to be just for fun. I have better things to do than worry about hexing in a password improvement. There are other, more important gameplay-related improvements that I glossed over because it would have taken way too much effort for this type of run.
Besides, I only learned about the password after the run was accepted, and in process of publication.
By the way, it turns out that the RNG runs heavily during the password (more than 9 values per frame, though the number decreases temporarily as you go around changing the numbers quickly). Hexing in the password will affect all future things depending on the RNG like item drops and boss behavior.
Movies that actually use passwords (not this one) should be judged on a case-by-case basis. If a TAS were to start Mega Man 2 with nine e-tanks, and those tanks somehow allowed the game to be played faster, then I might vote yes or no, but leaning towards no. However, if entering a password in MM2 allowed you to skip some long cut scene when choosing "New Game" then I'd vote yes for the e-tanks password, even if they're not used. As long as the password has some merit and isn't just a free advantage.
I know this is the least important part of your example, but the maximum number of E-tanks you can carry in Megaman 2 is four.
It doesn't become nine until games 3-6, and later 9 and 10.
Man, this run makes me look like a one-legged retard, especially in the climb with Hammer Joes.
PS: Does the game read total HP for Hadouken? Or Hearts Collected? If so, would you plan on doing a "100%" glitch run? It'd be fun seeing how the path would go if you had all the weapons to start. Then again, you'd just be collecting armors, Hearts, and Hadoukens. Or just Armors and the Hadouken.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames."
Frames 16:26
To get Hadouken, you need to have all subtanks, all upgrades, all hearts and you have to have watched the dialogue with Zero after beating all stages, and you also need 32 full bars of health. To actually use it, you just need 32 bars of health, although the animation won't display correctly if you don't have the helmet upgrade. You can see this by inputting the password 7774 5142 5822 and holding R+L+X+down as you press Start.
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
xnamkcor wrote:
would you plan on doing a "100%" glitch run
Such a run would most likely be rejected.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
To get Hadouken, you need to have all subtanks, all upgrades, all hearts and you have to have watched the dialogue with Zero after beating all stages, and you also need 32 full bars of health. To actually use it, you just need 32 bars of health, although the animation won't display correctly if you don't have the helmet upgrade. You can see this by inputting the password 7774 5142 5822 and holding R+L+X+down as you press Start.
What does R+L+X+d do? I'm not familiar with any controller input codes for any of the games, besides the C4 Chip Diagnostic in X2 and X3.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames."
Frames 16:26
It allows you to keep your hadouken when you continue with a password, if you hold them as you confirm the password. Otherwise, you'll lose your hadouken and have to get it again.
It allows you to keep your hadouken when you continue with a password, if you hold them as you confirm the password. Otherwise, you'll lose your hadouken and have to get it again.
You mean it gives you Hadouken? From what I remember, Hadouken isn't stored in the password, at all. And there is no SRAM. So it seems like "keeping" the Hadouken, and more of just a code to force yourself to have Hadouken.
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames."
Frames 16:26
There is a hadouken bit, as seen on page 4, but players normally don't know about it.
Now, as for how to actually create a password based on those 36 bits: First eor bits 28-31 into each of the first 6 nibbles. Then, digit n of the password is defined by concatenating the bits specified by the mask in the nth column of the following table:
For example, for the 2nd digit, you would concatenate bits 0, 19 and 26.
This gives an index into the nth row of the following table, which is the digit value:
So, there is a Hadouken Bit. Is it normally given if you get a password and it is ignored when entered? Or is it completely unused?
"The guy was fatally injured and wants to be covered by God's tears (rain) before he dies. God is too busy to bother because it wastes frames."
Frames 16:26
Yes, when you get a password, it will store the fact that you've got the hadouken. But when you enter the password, it will take away your hadouken if you don't hold those buttons. So, if the hadouken bit is not set, you won't have the hadouken no matter what. I suppose this was a last minute change, where they decided to keep the old behaviour accessible via a secret code. Otherwise, it would be too easy for players to discover the Hadouken by accident by entering random passwords until they got one that worked.
