Game objectives
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Manipulates luck
  • Emulator used FCEUX 2.23
This run is 5107 frames (85 seconds) faster than my old run.
New tricks: Holy water glitch: For some enemies, throw holy water to make it just hit enemy that kill it by one hit.
Long jump: When Simon stand on a moving platform, walk forward and jump without direction at the first frame after stop walking.
Cancel level up sequence: Just level up at edge of screen before screen changed. This was discovered by Fortranm.
Continuous floor sinking: Do floor sinking and whip at opportune frame again, it can through under 3 blocks height floor.
For this run, I use my route owing to Fortranm's run was not faster than mine. Only less improvement in the open air which almost did by long jump. Most of it made in mansions. In the first masion, I killed less enemies because holy water glitch let me to collect more hearts before. Second masion, optimized warp and use continuous floor sinking. Third mansion, continuous floor sinking again. Fourth mansion, no improvement. Fifth mansion, I use another way to break fake wall that reduce some lag. Last castle, the hero continuously through 4 floors!
Note: I was going to cancel the second level up sequence and kill the hero to restore health, finally I change my mind because I found that I must wait the skeleton move to the edge of screen and one more laurel.
You can see I jump in some places with no reason, actually it reduce a couple of lag.
Thank to Fortranm for his work of the game, guyze for his encode.

feos: Updated the submission with a 663 frame faster version per author's private request.

Nach: Nice run, decent feedback. Accepting as improvement to existing run.
feos: Pub.
feos: Updating again, with a 360 frame improvement. And resetting to Judging underway.
Nach: Decent update. Agreeing with what I said earlier.
Spikestuff: You're holding 2 already. Author of one is updating their work, so I have to wait. The other one is 3 hours. Publishing + Mass Encoding. (feos forgot about this, and wrote that I can take it)
Nach: Updating movie file as discussed in thread.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5418: zggzdydp's NES Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in 28:11.11
Challenger
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Great work, zggzdyp! Liked the new tricks, principally the Continuous floor sinking. You improved a lot of mansion 2 and Dracula's castle, as well as better optimization during the overworld. Yes vote. What will your next TAS, someday?
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Post subject: temp encode
guyze
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Sweet! I appreciate you taking the time to improve the old Castlevania runs, and this one was very nifty as well. I enjoyed the new tricks and movement - I only wish there were more ways in the game to long jump. The tornado jump caught me by surprise. As it is, another enthusiastic yes vote for an excellent submission.
Fortranm
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Congrats on finishing the run! You didn't jump while doing the second wrong warp in 2nd mansion. Is not jumping actually faster? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqZ4MEhnlp8 It's around 9:43 in my run. Edit: Couldn't port the run to Bizhawk, probably because there is too much difference in lagging. Edit2: Tried it on FCEUX. Jumping during that wrong warp saves around 7 frames. Probably not worth it to redo the second half of the movie for this.
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Great run. I have a question though.. In the very first grinding scene, why fight werewolves? They take two hits and skeletons just take one hit. Is there a way to grind with skeletons, or some combination of skeletons and werewolves? -------- now that I think about it though, I suppose any time savings or heart gains may not be useful due to the forced waiting of the day/night cycle.
Kung_Knut
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Very entertaining run, even the grinding was a joy to watch. A n00b question: That cross you get from killing the flying head, why is that necessary or why does it save time?
Fortranm
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dave_dfwm wrote:
now that I think about it though, I suppose any time savings or heart gains may not be useful due to the forced waiting of the day/night cycle.
Yes, it is the same as long as you get enough hearts before the end of first night.
Kung Knut wrote:
A n00b question: That cross you get from killing the flying head, why is that necessary or why does it save time?
It unlocks the bridge to Dracula's Castle.
jaysmad
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O.M.G. that yolo jump!!! Easy yes :)
andrewC
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I hate to break it to you, boss, but you did miss out on some minor places that can be improved, including a merchant in Ondol that sells a Morning Star whip. Throwing a Holy Water at the two blocks toward the left side (in red) will get you to the lower level a few frames quicker than taking the stairs. In other places/towns where you buy stuff during the day, the layout may be inverted where the blocks can also be terminated toward the right side. I have not estimated exactly how many frames you might save from this, but it's worth a try.
"I don't play games. I abuse them." ~ andrewC
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OMG I CAN'T STOP MY HAND. Something forces my hand to press the YES button, I'm sorry. Yeah, it is this run that was amazing.
I still learn more about English. https://www.youtube.com/user/McBobX100
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Between the extremely good music, relatively high number of glitches and sheer nostalgia value, this run is sufficiently entertaining for me to give at least a moderate 'yes' vote.
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Thanks all guys' feedback. andrewC: just tested the morning star room, it saves 190 frames. Where is the other places I buy stuff? I don't quite understand your words, can you show some pictures? In view of obvious mistakes people point out, I will redo the run.
andrewC
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So far, it looks like the Morning Star whip merchant in Ondol is the only one I've seen in your attempt. I did notice the floor sinking glitch you did there, however. So once that glitch is executed, Simon should land right next to that part of the blocks (in that picture I posted) and immediately throw Holy Water toward the blocks on the left to continue getting to the very bottom​. Apologies for anything else misleading, the only two indoor merchants I seen in the run was the Holy Water in the first town and the MS whip in Ondol. If I have to, I'll review the video later because I'm at work at the moment, but that's all I can remember so far.
"I don't play games. I abuse them." ~ andrewC
Stovent
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I thought that they was no glitches and then you went through a wall, so yes vote ! for HD encode, see here
[17:37:00]<TheCoreyBurton> It's N64 - it's ALWAYS bad news.
Challenger
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zggzdydp wrote:
In view of obvious mistakes people point out, I will redo the run.
Using hex-edit (or editing your movie, i think), you can fix these paths.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Fortranm
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Challenger wrote:
zggzdydp wrote:
In view of obvious mistakes people point out, I will redo the run.
Using hex-edit (or editing your movie, i think), you can fix these paths.
I tried that when I fixed the second wrong warp, but the RNG doesn't sync.
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Challenger wrote:
hex-edit
Are you serious?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Challenger
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feos wrote:
Challenger wrote:
hex-edit
Are you serious?
Well, I don't know much about hex-edit or editing movie inputs, so I get confused.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
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"The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night." How about vanquish this horrible game?-James Rofl On another note, this run was fun to watch. Yes vote on my part!
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Thank you Challenger and Fortranm. I don't think hex-edit works fine for the serious randomness game, I'm redoing. I find a new timesaver in mansion 3, the new run will coming soon in several days.
Dwedit
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Yeah, Konami games do have that crazy RNG that is essentially a CPU cycle counter. Number of CPU cycles left on the frame determines the next RNG value. It may be possible to manipulate it back into sync, but that would be hard to do.
Fortranm
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Probably a little late to ask this, but did you test the strat in Mansion 3 in this run(http://www.speedrun.com/run/wzpdj28z) around 19:24?
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Can you explain how the holy water glitch works?
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I have rewatched the movie with the changes, and I can say I was very pleasantly surprised. It's even more entertaining now.