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Posted: 10/15/2010 10:01 AM
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Brushy
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
Wow, progress, nice! I'm gonna watch this later tonight.
Posted: 10/17/2010 11:11 AM
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Brushy
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
Okay, now I watched it and I must say that the second level looks awesome with all those little glitches and stuff. At those rotating platforms, are you sure it's not faster to stay on some of them that are going to the left, as it seems your speed increases while on them. Other than that, I can't think of anything to say. Keep up the great work!
Posted: 10/18/2010 6:04 AM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Updated WIP. It ends when I die after the appearing platforms. I got that part looking great, and then I got shot at the end. I'll find a way around that next time. And hopefully next update will be a completed world 2! Thanks for the kind words Brushy! As for those platforms, I stayed on any one that was moving left for as long as I could. I went over that whole area, and couldn't find any place for improvement (thankfully, I didn't want to have to back track). There were a few cases that looked even to me like they were moving left and I just jumped, but watching frame by frame I found they are beginning to move right at that time. Thanks though, it didn't even occur to me to check that area!
Posted: 10/19/2010 12:59 AM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Is it possible that the enemy that killed you is luck-manipulated by extra walking? If so, you may be able to get it to fire more conveniently by altering what you do with your playaround waiting for the platforms. Anyway, looking forward to World 2's completion! This looks great so far.
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.
Posted: 10/19/2010 9:42 PM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Finished world 2. I was thinking the same thing mklip, so I went back and tried a bunch of different things to end up not getting shot. The annoying part was trying to make it entertaining too. I found if I just walked the top route and got to the waiting area as quickly as possible I didn't get shot, but it was very boring. (I also lost a frame from having to fall off the platform I land on below that alien. He shot again, and if I jumped I would die). Messing around, I found if I wait for a certain amount of time in the middle of that area, then wait more near the platforms I didn't get shot or lose a frame. I hope my waiting was somewhat entertaining, or at least not overly boring! Also by some awesome twist of luck, the alien before the radio beacon was timed perfectly to allow me to avoid it without having to stop and wait. Onward to world 3!
Posted: 10/23/2010 7:23 AM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
"Finished" world 3. I completed the world, but I'm feeling like I can save more time, so I'm going to back through and try some stuff. I also really rushed at the end, so I'm going to go back through that. I tried using death again at the first screws. I found I lost 185 frames from respawning, and 5 from death warping (I was moved back a little). After that, I used the invincibility from respawning to avoid the first screw, and took a hit on the second, saving ~100 frames. On the way back the timing of the screws let me completely avoid the left screw, and I took a hit on the right screw. I ended up ~12 frames behind if I had just avoided the screws, but I still had one hit point. I used that last one on a screw near the end, which would have taken 47 frames to avoid, meaning I saved ~35 frames. Looks like death was a good choice. I end the level with one hit point, but I'm thinking of dying again on the screws near the bottom to give me more hit points for the next levels (most likely world 5), I just need to really make sure I can make up for the respawn time. Other interesting things, I found kicking changes my hit box, letting me grab items sooner than if I didn't kick. I saved 11 frames grabbing the third machine part using a kick. I would have saved another 11 getting the first, but it threw off the timing of the screws. I did end up using it though to save a few frames and get me out of that area faster. It makes me wonder if I could have kicked in level one to grab the bomb. No way I'm going back now to fix it, but I'll definitely try it on world 5. Also, not having the gun (or the ID card) made a noticeable decrease in the time. You can really see it when I use the machine parts, it only takes 4 menu accesses compared to the 8 it took in my previous attempt. It also took 2 less to get the boots out at the beginning of the level. Each access is 77 frames, so I saved 462 frames, ~8 seconds just from that. And apparently they REALLY want you to have the gun in this game, since on one of the screens I don't visit there is another gun waiting to be taken. And the WIP I posted a few days ago was 33333 frames, this one is 43333 frames. Epic.
Posted: 10/24/2010 3:42 PM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
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Location: Georgia, USA
Epic. It's also surprising how much time you actually save from fewer inventory items. Nice discovery as well with the kicking hitbox. It's definitely not worth going back to the bomb in level 1 with this trick: you could always leave that as a potential improvement for anyone else who wants to try this game. Only one thing looked off to me: the pistons. With some pistons, you seem to pass by with hardly any ducking at all (a little on each side), and with some you stay ducking for a while. What influences that? Is it possible to duck maybe every other frame instead and slightly move forward while the piston is coming down? Once again, great work! I'd also be interested to see whether dying on the bottom screws saves time in the end.
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.
Posted: 2/8/2011 2:06 AM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
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Location: Georgia, USA
Hey, just thought I'd check in. Is there any progress being made on this? It was looking really good.
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.
Posted: 2/9/2011 10:42 PM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Not recently unfortunately. I got caught up with the dream team contest, and then school made me busy. I'm currently working on another TAS related project, which I'm hoping to get a post up about tonight, and then hopefully I can get back to work on this.
Posted: 2/10/2011 8:26 PM
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Brushy
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
I'm looking forward to this too! :)
Posted: 3/2/2011 8:06 AM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
And after a few months of delay, here's an update: Updated, but not guaranteed to be the final revision of level 3 I changed around the harm in this version. After getting the first machine part I stop before the last screw (in my last video I got hurt by it), leaving me with 2 bars of health instead of 1. I used both on the screws at the bottom of the level. After getting the key I killed myself on a screw, and luckily do not death warp back at all. The timing was right on the next screw to let me walk right under it, and I pause for the next screw to keep all my health. Overall the video is 101 frames longer, but that may not be a bad thing. So health is getting trickier and trickier. If I stick with this video (which I may not, I'm not sure yet) I'll have 3 bars of health to work with (no lives left after this). Those 3 can really come in handy in level 5 when I'm doing all the bullet dodging. I may also like some points to work with in level 6, but I get an extra life there. However there is an extra life in level 4 that would take little time to grab, and it might be possible to make up for that in taking hits. I'm really not sure what to do yet.
mklip2001 wrote:
Only one thing looked off to me: the pistons. With some pistons, you seem to pass by with hardly any ducking at all (a little on each side), and with some you stay ducking for a while. What influences that? Is it possible to duck maybe every other frame instead and slightly move forward while the piston is coming down?
I'm pretty sure the ducking works on an x position cycle. It seems on a 4 pixel barrier he stands up for a frame when I'm trying to duck walk. If get under the piston at the right spot I can move at most 3 more pixels, since one more movement would kill me. I don't have much control over where I get under the piston though. I pretty much just keep moving as much as I can without dying.
Posted: 3/5/2011 2:50 AM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks for the update! That looks fairly good up until the last death... that seems a bit off. However, as you mention, it's tough to tell at this point. When doing level 4, if you make a version that doesn't grab the extra life, do you think it would be possible to easily hexedit it to get a version where you do grab the life? If so, that should help with testing. Oh, and off-topic, nice job with the NESBot!
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.
Posted: 11/1/2011 2:32 PM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Hello micro500, do you have any progress with this run? It was going really well!
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.
Posted: 11/2/2011 12:52 PM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Unfortunately I haven't made any progress. I've been busy with other projects and school, but I do plan on finishing this as soon as I have the time again, which should hopefully be soon.
Posted: 11/2/2011 12:57 PM
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khv-user
Player (93)
Joined: 10/7/2011
Posts: 30
Location: Russia, Far East
Speedrun can be more more faster without the bonus levels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP9EyC2bmvY. And this is not optimized, one of my first TAS.
Posted: 11/2/2011 1:29 PM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
khv-user: It is true that the run will be faster if you don't play the 6th world. However, I think the run feels more complete and challenging with that world included. It's more like a "best ending" run. Thank you for providing another reference run!
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.
Posted: 3/18/2013 4:17 AM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Has it really been over a year since I last posted here? Wow... Anyway, I've made a major breakthrough in understanding how the prize code is processed. I've know for a while now that the 24 characters you enter on the screen are translated into 15 bytes of data, which then have some operations done to them, including two checksums, and a basic check. If any of these checks fail, the code is denied. Tonight I discovered that only 8 of those bytes actually matter. The other 7 are ignored after passing the checks and are overwritten with new values. This got me to thinking, could I fill those 7 bytes with different values, enough that it passes the checks, and still activate the prize world? The answer? Yes. I traced those 8 bytes back to their characters representations, then filled the rest with new values, accounting for the checks. The known prize code is: 
3HDJL9DNQV2WYTV4S91RXR86
and my new code is 
3D0001DNQV2WYTV4S91Q0H85
I've tried entering my new code and playing through the game, and it correctly activated the carnival prize world. The code can be manipulated even more, but to keep it simple I didn't change it too dramatically. You'll notice the middle ~13 characters match. This is the actual payload of the prize code that activates the carnival world. The "8" at the end is a part of a checksum, and just happened to match again. The "3" at the beginning changes how the second checksum works. I believe I could have changed it, but it made testing easier to not change it. I filled the rest with "0"s. There are clearly a large number of codes that will activate the carnival world. So what does this mean? For TASing, I can likely save a little time on the code entry if I choose a different code. I can generate all valid codes for the carnival world and figure out which would take the least amount of time to enter. I also mentioned previously that there is a second prize world. I am still working on finding a way into it, and knowing now there are only 8 important bytes greatly reduces the number of codes to try if I end up using a brute force method. I am in the process of figuring out how the final check of the working code works, and if I make any breakthroughs with that I'll post about them.
Posted: 3/20/2013 1:28 AM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
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Ooh... there's a second prize world?! I am curious about seeing this. It may be the case that you can only get into it with a password, as opposed to playing it right after the first prize world. I'm glad to see this topic is back up. The study of the code is pretty interesting. Could changes to the code be hexed in without redoing too much work?
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.
Posted: 3/20/2013 1:38 AM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
I actually hacked my way into (what I'm pretty sure is) the second prize world a while back, but it was horribly broken (music was the same as the first world, enemies were weird, no important items like keys or anything were available) I did make a map, and the level looks pretty cool. I'm looking forward to playing it at some point! From what I've heard, the second prize code was for a second contest (that I guess never happened). The contest would be very similar to the one that did run in that the code would be released on a certain day, so I'll have to play the whole game again to get to it. I'm doubtful that changes could be hexed it, but I suppose its worth a shot. I'll try it when I get back to the TAS. Right now though I'm focusing all my efforts on finding this second prize code.
Posted: 2/19/2014 11:16 AM
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Mecha_Richter
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Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
So I did some testing with some codes I found from the following site: http://gamehacking.org/?game=31231 Mainly, I was just screwing out to see what I could do with the game, then I found this: http://www.twitch.tv/mecharichter/c/3750827 The codes I used were the following: Climb Up From Ground - 00B2:6D Climb Up From Ground - 00B5:6D Both of those need to be enabled for it to work. Levitate Jump - 00D6:FF When you enable levitate jump, you start flying when you jump, and climb up from ground allows you to jump through some ceilings, so mainly I was doing this for fun. Found out you can get outside of the inner areas of stage 4 and even get into a door you're not even supposed to access. Enter it again, the stage ends. The main reason I'm showing this is to see if there's any possible way to clip into the ceiling using normal means. If so, this would save like 5 minutes or more. Here's a couple more funny glitches I wanna show off because they're hilarious. http://www.twitch.tv/mecharichter/c/3750754 http://www.twitch.tv/mecharichter/c/3750773
Posted: 2/19/2014 3:26 PM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Mecha Richter wrote:
When you enable levitate jump, you start flying when you jump, and climb up from ground allows you to jump through some ceilings, so mainly I was doing this for fun. Found out you can get outside of the inner areas of stage 4 and even get into a door you're not even supposed to access. Enter it again, the stage ends. The main reason I'm showing this is to see if there's any possible way to clip into the ceiling using normal means. If so, this would save like 5 minutes or more.
That's a fun glitch! I would love to know if that is possible using normal means, but unfortunately it probably is not useful for completing the game quicker. The prize world code you enter at the beginning of the game is processed in a number of steps, and the steps are in a certain order based on the order of the maps you go through as well as a few special events. The processing is designed such that as long as you complete the game as intended (no skipping screens, etc) the processing will work out correctly and the prize world will load. However if you skip certain screens/events the processing will do the wrong thing and the prize world will not load. I discovered this first hand when I found a way to skip the car scene in world 2. I went on to finish the rest of the levels, but the carnival world never loaded. I've recently confirmed this theory by discovering that both entering the car, and leaving the car map are events that trigger processing, and if they are skipped the processing is invalid when it comes time to load the carnival world. As for world 4, certain maps, including the middle screen when you go over the waterfall in the barrel, trigger processing, so I don't think skipping them would result in the prize world loading. However, something I've been wondering about is if it is possible to skip steps of the processing with a different prize code. The code would have to work out correctly after all the steps of processing the game not including the ones you skip. I think there is a change this is possible but it seems unlikely to me. Plus the only way to find such a code would be to bruteforce it which would take a long time and isn't guaranteed to work. That is an idea I'd like to explore later, but right now I am gearing up to try to find that second prize world code. I've made a lot of progress, but it still seems that I will need to bruteforce it. I'll make another post soon with more details of my progress and how the community can help out. Thanks for sharing!
Posted: 2/19/2014 9:30 PM
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Mecha_Richter
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Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
Yeah I found out the hard way that you can't skip certain events to access prize world (I tried skipping the car segment too). If a skip like this was possible though, it would be nice for an any% run.
Posted: 6/10/2014 2:33 AM
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Mecha_Richter
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Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
So, I found a couple substantial glitches today. First is invincibility glitch. If you get on the same frame you screen transition with one health remaining, your health underflows and you essentially become invincible. Here's a video with a great setup that PJ came up with: Link to video The other one, which a huge time improvement, is the wall clip. I noticed in the prize world, that some of the roller coaster go all the way up against the wall, but it doesn't push you back if you're hanging of the edge. So basically, you're standing off the edge and you start walking when you're up against the wall, you walk right through the wall! There's two spots where I found that this saves time on. The first one is the first roller coaster you gain access to. Instead of jumping and going to the second bonus game, you go down and follow the coaster until the end, then just walk right through the wall. This skips the second bonus stage and having to activate the gate. The second one is the second roller coaster. Once it appears, just walk right. This saved me over at least 2 minutes on my run. Link to video
Posted: 6/10/2014 1:25 PM
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micro500
Emulator Coder, Player (68)
Joined: 10/4/2005
Posts: 197
Excellent find on that invincibility glitch! This makes me think I can probably improve my run that I've been working on for a long time. I've been considering starting over with Bizhawk anyway.
Posted: 6/10/2014 6:22 PM
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Mecha_Richter
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Joined: 10/11/2011
Posts: 53
Thanks! It kinda happened by accident. haha PJ found an even better setup near the end of stage 1. This would be a better spot to do it so you can still death warp after getting the helmet (invincibility glitch goes away if you die from stuff that can still one-hit kill you). It takes of advantage of enemies sometimes screenwrapping. Link to video
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