Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1934
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Alright, I finished the first level. Being 1881 frames ahead of Zurreco. Some of that time was because I took damage in the run, which he didn't.
VBM
Is there enough interest in this run so that I should continue working on it?
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1934
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Well, one year later I decided to upload the WIP to youtube for some reason. Also included a little bit from the second level.
I stopped working on it because of lack of interest. Might continue on it one day, but not yet. It also needs redoing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_xsozUPuaw
Well, Earlier today I was looking back at the previous submission of this game when I noticed some odd things.
#2069: turtle's GBA Drill Dozer in 1:54:27.92
Tompa, You were ~10 seconds ahead at the beggining of Stage 1. But at the end, you end up ~13 seconds slower than him. His dashing technique also seems suspicious but might also be faster due to the drill traveling a small distance and having the ability to cancel it immediately. I'll need to have another look.
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1934
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Before I started working on the run, I believe I knew about the cancelled Japanese TAS. But during the making, I completely forgot about it and had never seen it before.
The reason why he's faster in the first level is because of a different route. One that I was stupid enough to overlook because I haven't played this game enough :/.
Anyway, I'll try to improve your WIP a little.
Edit: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1619004605/Drill%20Dozer%20TAS.vbm
9 frames faster.
Link to video
I first encountered this glitch on console a while back. It happens in that boss fight if you mash the dpad while drilling at a certain point in his pattern. No idea if it could lead to something else.
Dying and choosing continue makes the game lock up. Choosing quit doesn't.
EDIT:
Apparently it works elsewhere while swimming. Triggering a transition locks the game up.
EDIT 2: Another video
Link to video
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
I've been working on a Drill Dozer Any% TAS for the last fews months. I have a LOTAD from start to end, and have now started to go back to the very beginning and try to really optimize the levels.
Here is my WIP of the first 3 levels (1-1, 1-2, and 2-1)
[video = 320x240]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1m6eN9r1X4[/video]
Would love any feedback.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
After those first 3 levels, it's about 26 seconds ahead of the LOTAD and about 2:45 ahead of turtle's old canceled TAS.
Since the LOTAD I've gotten much better at movement, worked out exactly how damage works, and wrote some lua scripts to monitor loaded objects (position, health, etc).
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1934
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
Very nice to see that someone is picking up this game! I had several plans to get back to it again, but never did. I've tried to watch the latest WIP I made, but I can't get it to sync with any VBA version I've tried so far, so I don't know...
Keep it up!
Made it through my least favorite area (2-2) if anyone's interested in seeing the WIP.
Link to video
There are a couple spots in this WIP that look a little iffy to me still and I will probably go back and double check. Please let me know if you spot anything you think could be done better.
I also went back and saved 79 frames on the last 3 areas I posted in the last WIP.
Does anyone have any insight into the locked-camera rooms where you fight multiple enemies? I know enemies spawn every 12 frames unless there are 4 enemies already spawned (including dead sprites waiting to despawn), and that there are 25 enemies that spawn in total. This sets the theoretical minimum time for these rooms, however I'm not sure this time is achievable. Basically, anytime you have to switch sides of the room, frames are going to be lost. So spawning as many enemies on the same side as possible would be best. However I can't figure out the logic for what side enemies spawn on. Sometimes the game's logic seems to choose what side they spawn on randomly influenced by your position or actions (which would mean the fastest time may be achievable). Other times it seems to just always spawn them on the opposite side as the side of the screen you're on (which would be time loss you won't be able to avoid). I'm currently losing about 30-40 frames (compared to theoretical minimum) every one of these rooms :/
If anyone would be interested in seeing how low they can get one of these fights, I can modify the lua script I'm using to track the # of lost frames in these rooms.
hmmm.... I see. I still don't think the timesave will out weigh going out of my way to collect 278 extra chips, and navigating the shop menu. I'll definitely look further into in the next day or 2.
