Goals:
    * Completes the first set of Rounds (Rounds 1, 2 and 3)
    * Completed in the fastest time possible
    * Manipulates luck
    * Uses glitches
This is now my third TAS of this game, obsoleting my previous submission by 51 frames.
Two techniques were used to save frames. The first is an extension of the backstepping glitch. When a player backsteps and then defeats the opponent, they go tumbling across the screen, but if you hit them so they land on the street instead of the sidewalk, they disappear instead and instantly goes to the next round. This glitch saves a lot of frames, but some of those were lost as I have to be a step further back to perform the glitch. This means taking more time backing up in Round 1 and more time moving forward in Round 2, but ultimately saving frames.
The second technique is combining heavy punches with the sliding glitch, and just some polishing in general. Generally, heavy punches are slower than series of light punches, but by using the sliding glitch to move further ahead than normal, I'm able to save frames. I did a lot of testing with all the different punch combinations, and in most cases, heavy punches are best. Light punches are best only for finishing stages. It's also helpful to use heavy punches, even if light punches will defeat the opponent in the same amount, because you can start a round in several different locations, the time lost from doing more than necessary will be gained in the following round. In other words, if my character is further right than necessary to finish a round, I'll be starting further right in the following round. Of course though, I did the bare minimum in Round 3, since any extra distance won't help.
I spent a lot of time testing punches, the glitches, and different combinations of things, so once again, this is completely optimal unless there's still more glitches I haven't discovered. With the speed of the rounds, I would imagine any time-saving glitches would involve cutting down on the between round cutscenes.

Nach: I thought the other ending was more entertaining, but for the length of the video this wasn't bad. Accepting as improvement to existing run.

Brandon: Publication underway.


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Thanks for the information! I always wondered this, but never had the patience to try and see where the different sets of symbols max out. And yeah, I agree a proper TAS should go for the champion rank in light of this new information.
Joined: 8/3/2009
Posts: 158
goldenband wrote:
Thanks for the screenshot. I assume the game continues after that? .
Yep. Here's the complete information from the NES Ending FAQ (by AdamL, from GameFAQs):
URBAN CHAMPION (Nintendo) -Contrary to popular belief, this game technically has a finish. The FAQ on Gamefaqs.com says when you finish Round 99 it stays at Round 99 but that's not the case...and the Round number doesn't even have an affect on how you "beat" the game. For a very early fighting game released in the NES' history (1986), this sounds complicated, but it's actually not. To start with, you can choose between GAME A and GAME B. GAME A is VS. COMPUTER, which is what you will be playing to beat the game. GAME B is simply competing against another human player. In GAME A the object of the game is to knock your op- ponent off the right side of the screen. Do this and you will score a knock- down. It also says Round 2 when you go to the next screen but that is not what we are concerned about. Knock your opponent off the next screen and it will say you are in Round 3. Now knock your opponent off the screen in Round 3 and a girl will appear and shower you with confetti. You will go on to Round 4 but now you will notice you have a little Red Boxing Glove on the bottom right corner of the screen. When you knock your opponent off the screen 3 more times you will get another Red Boxing Glove. Keep doing this and when you earn 5 Red Boxing Gloves knock your opponent off the screen 3 more times and now a Green Flag will replace the 5 Red Boxing Gloves. Now continue on and after you get 5 Green Flags the next symbol to collect will be a Trophy. Collect 5 Trop- hies and then it goes to 5 Small Crowns, then 5 Large Crowns, then 5 Crosses, then 5 Boy Faces, then 5 Girl Faces and the last item you will receive will be 5 Ambulances. So you have to collect 5 of each of these 9 items, making 45 total symbols to collect (meaning 135 knockdowns since you have to knock your opponent off the screen 3 times just to get 1 symbol). Anyway, after you have the 5 Ambulances and knock your opponent off the screen 3 more times instead of getting a new symbol it will actually say CHAMPION in that area of the screen! By now your Round number is pretty high, but like I mentioned that has no bearing on "beating" the game. For those of you interested, you can keep playing and the Round number will keep going up but from this point on it will just say CHAMPION where the symbols were. Just for curiousity I played through to Round 99 and when I finished that it said Round A0. It then went through to Round A9 and then went to Round B0 and so forth through the alphabet (for some reason the letter Q showed as a blank space for that Round but it did continue on to Round R0 after beating what was Round Q9). When you finish Round Z9 it goes to Round =0 through =9 and then you get various symbols for Round numbers but luckily we have a concrete end goal in getting the word CHAMPION to appear after going through all the symbols, so consider that difficult task as beat- ing this game.
Patashu
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I'm more interested in the TAS stopping when there is no new content (difficulty stops increasing). e.g. if there was a Pac-Man [Arcade] TAS, I would want it to stop at the highest difficulty level rather than at the kill screen.
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Joined: 8/3/2009
Posts: 158
Patashu wrote:
I'm more interested in the TAS stopping when there is no new content (difficulty stops increasing). e.g. if there was a Pac-Man [Arcade] TAS, I would want it to stop at the highest difficulty level rather than at the kill screen.
Which one is it, new content or difficulty stops increasing? They are two different things. And in this game's case, you do get new content (the symbols) and the difficulty does increase. So you're covered both ways.
Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
I guess I should say, content that affects how you interact with the game. So purely visual/audio changes not counting. But if it gets harder, the TAS should stop when the difficulty will never increase again.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu