(Link to video)
Alex Kidd in Shinobi World is a platformer for the Sega Master System. It is the final entry in the Alex Kidd series and it is a parody of Shinobi, a ninja themed action game also by Sega. Alex Kidd must save his girlfriend who has been kidnapped from planet Shinobi. Many interesting features are added to the series such as wall jumping, the ability to turn into a fireball after swinging on a bar or post and zipping from ladders and tornados by holding U+D/L+R. This TAS is a 2817 frame improvement to the published movie.

Tricks and Techniques

Alex’s speed when in a fireball is 0x0300 which is higher than normal walking speed 0x0180. Once this fireball phase ends pressing right will make him snap back to the normal walking speed. Not pressing right makes him slow down by 8 velocity units per frame. So letting go of right until 0x0180 speed is reached again saved time. Sometimes jumping can be used to extend this period by a frame or two. This is also applicable when leaving downward slopes and is used in the published TAS.
It is possible to zip on ladders by holding up and down or left and right or some combinations of buttons involving U+D or L+R. Depending on which combination is used, Alex gets shot in a certain direction sometimes up to 60x walking speed. Usually U+L+R is useful since it sends you up rather than down. While this was used in the published TAS it is extended here and is the source for most of the time saved. This TAS adds a zip across a screen without a ladder by zipping across a screen transition. Also, this TAS introduces a similar zip using the tornado powerup. Many of these major improvements have been found within the RTA community.
A minor new trick is wall jumping to gain speed. When falling through a tight gap then moving left or right it can take a long time to build up speed. But if you wall jump the speed is nearly instant. The only places I found to use this were in 3-2

Useful RAM Addresses

X0x020D
X (Sub)0x020C
Y (Big)0x0212
Y0x020B
Y (sub)0x020A
Screen X0x0051
Screen X (Sub)0x0050
Screen Y0x0063
Screen Y (Sub)0x0062
X Velocity0x0211
X Velocity (Sub)0x0210
Y Velocity0x020F
Y Velocity (Sub)0x020E
Boss Timer0x031D
Recovery0x0228
Tornado Timer0x0220
HP0x022E

Individual Level Comments

1-1 (-2 frames)

For some reason killing the enemy at the start actually saves time. I was able to save 2 frames on the jump up the second pole.

1-2A (-570)

This level consists of an upwards section followed by a horizontal section. The zip upwards was used in the previous TAS but the horizontal zip is new. I managed to save some time on the upwards zip. Getting the horizontal zip is very strange. Originally my method was to glitch the graphics on the horizontal screen so that there was a ladder there that I could use to zip after the screen transition but I found a faster method which lets you keep the speed across the transition.
In testing I was able to skip the transition completely but I wasn’t able to replicate it after many hours trying even though I knew the exact position that I did it. It’s probably the case that I unknowingly loaded a savestate after the screen scrolled which would have produced that result. Interestingly there seems to be a portion of 1-1 underneath this level which can be accessed by zipping. It remains fairly in tact and even has a properly loaded tileset!

1-2B (-34)

I was able to save 10 frames at the start of this room due to my remaining invincibility frames from the previous screen. The previous TAS didn’t have this luxury as it took the damage much earlier on the previous screen. I save the other 24 frames from optimization of breaking the blocks and moving around the walls while falling instead of bonking them.

1-3 (Boss)

This boss looks simple, but optimizing it was quite difficult since it’s hard to avoid his bounces while still hitting him as fast as possible.

2-1 (-2)

There wasn’t much to this level. I managed to save 2 frames from what I think was entering the door. Inside, I needed to kill the enemy to avoid hitting it during the zip.

2-2 (-4)

I saved a frame on the second damage boost and a frame entering the door. Another 2 frames were saved inside the room. I don’t know exactly how, but my theory is I managed to take a small amount of speed through the door.

2-3 (Boss) (-16)

This was the hardest level to TAS without a doubt. At this level the previous TAS desyncs on Bizhawk 1.11.9. The helicopters are completely random. My strategy for optimizing it was to get as many helicopters to spawn as quickly as possible, then worry about which way they fly. There can be 8 helicopters on the screen at once and you have to kill 14 to beat the boss. While I was fairly happy with my RNG manipulation, I could never be completely satisfied with this boss.

3-1 (-1656)

Here is the first instance of tornado zipping. I do a jump before touching the tornado power to get some more height. I couldn’t figure out a way to zip that avoided a small section of upwards zipless movement so I take that section at the top of the screen. It’s extremely easy to break the map by zipping and cause the loading zone to become inactive. Even worse, sometimes the loading zone ends up with a strange property where it sends you infinitely up resulting in a softlock. There Is a glitchy portion of 2-1 underneath the vertical scrolling part of this level.
The horizontal scrolling made a lot more sense than the vertical scrolling. The strategy here is to hold ULR to send Alex way above the level, then start holding DLR to get very fast right and slightly downward movement. These need to be balanced since if you are too high you have to wait for Alex to fall down and if you go too low you die.

3-2A (-12)

I was able to save 10 frames near the end of the level, just before the rope by performing a wall jump. This makes Alex turn around much faster than normal. I saved 2 more frames on the ending of the screen.

3-2C (-32)

I saved a lot of time overall on this screen but it was scattered across many small places. The main technique that saved time was wall jumping to get up to full speed faster after falling down a narrow gap. I also saved some time with velocity management in the cases where I had to slow down.

3-3 (Boss)

There’s not much to this fight, but the first time I did it I lost 2 frames. I don’t know why that was but I redid it and got them back.

4-1A (-16)

I found some useful techniques with the slopes. When going up a slope there seems to be a very specific spot you can land on where you can jump off again and lose no speed. When starting to go down a slope your speed drops from the standard 180 to 100 before going up to the speed of 200 for going down a slope. This is a speed cap so by letting go of right Alex slows down to 178 for the 2-4 frames that would usually be 100. Using these techniques I saved 2 frames on the first downhill slope, 2 on the second, 2 on the uphill slope after the chest, 3 after the spikes, 6 on the last slope and 1 frame entering the door.

4-1C (-419)

Here the tornado glitch saves a lot of time. The same strategy as the horizontal section of 3-1 is used. Interestingly, if you hit the bottom of the screen towards the end of the level the game freezes. This is most likely because the pitfalls in the level send you to a map below in the same spot but the right side of the upper screen is past the right boundary of the lower screen.

4-2 (-44)

The previous TAS gets health in the first room. I don’t need the health since I zipped across 4-1C and didn’t need to damage boost there. This saves 42 frames. Somehow I also saved 2 frames in the Kabuto refight.

4-3 (Final Boss) (-10)

I use a different strategy for this fight. Instead of putting the boss against the wall in the second phase I just do it as fast as possible without relying on the wall. This means I lose 4 frames in the second phase. However, I end up closer to the boss in the third phase which gets 14 frames back.

Thanks

RobynS: For creating the published TAS which was a great basis for this one.
Btrim: For suggesting this as a TAS game and making me aware of the possible improvements
KrazyRasmus: For finding the original horizontal zip across 1-2 and giving advice for recreating it.

Masterjun: Judging.
Masterjun: Great improvements with crazy zipping! I also liked the commentary video. Accepting to Moons as an improvement to the previous run.
Fog: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5369: The8bitbeast's SMS Alex Kidd in Shinobi World in 05:27.84
Challenger
He/Him
Skilled player (1634)
Joined: 2/23/2016
Posts: 1033
Excellent new skips and optimizations! Yes vote. Well, Heli's randon RNG is the reason why the previous TAS only desnycs on Bizhawk 1.11.9 (Due of some changes/fixes that have occured on SMSHawk). And also thanks for the others for the contribuition.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Expert player, Publisher (2254)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6324
Location: The land down under.
If you still have the raw audio or the one with the game audio in the background can you please make the game sounds a bit quieter. By about 20-40% quieter. Due to the mic quality your voice blends with the game at points making it a bit harder to hear you.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. These colours are pretty neato, and also these.
Post subject: Commentary Volume
The8bitbeast
He/Him
Expert player (2492)
Joined: 11/26/2015
Posts: 183
Location: Australia
I've turned down the game volume a bit and put it here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sjzj3zts38vqda3/AABQWfpRCp_qp7UgJEsx6XSma?dl=0 I've also included the Audacity project in case it needs further changes.
Editor, Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2081
Short and sweet, and I appreciated you taking the time to make voice commentary for the run. Yes vote.
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
I can definitely say that the Commentary is what brought it all together and helped make this a yes vote. It's nice to hear what's going on, rather than having to read tons of paragraphs before watching the movie and hoping you remember it all.
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Active player (432)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3516
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Resounding yes vote. Amazing how teared up this game is now when I first tased it. Easy yes vote and if anyone has the time, feel free to upload a lossless encode.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Really strong improvement! I sort of miss seeing any semblance of gameplay in 3-1, but the new zips are pretty awesome. As AngerFist said, this game has come a long way since the first runs.
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 (945)
Joined: 10/13/2014
Posts: 408
Location: nowhereatthemiddleofnoone
Amazing improvements, easy yes vote.
GAW sms... Totally destroyed
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3330] SMS Alex Kidd in Shinobi World by The8bitbeast in 05:27.84
Zucca
He/Him
Joined: 8/22/2008
Posts: 118
Location: KUUSANKOSKI, Finland
Whoa! Now I finally know how to get those two chests under the wooden platform. :P Anyway great zipping! While watching this run I remembered that I had accidentaly activated a glitch on the first ladders few times as a kid. I remember that jumping onto the ladders could possibly freeze the game. That's why I always avoided jumping on them. :P
trazz wrote:
Killing the skeletons sooner or letting the skeletons live (unlive?) won't affect that at all.