Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, known as Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo in Japan, is a game that needs little introduction.
What is less known is its downward compatibility mode known as Akumajyo Dracula Peke with PC Engine CD-ROM² System Card of versions lower than 3.0, aka Super CD-ROM².
This run aims to beat this iteration of the game as soon as possible.
Game Choice
One might ask: Is this a legitimate game? The answer is that all signs point to yes.
This mode of the game is clearly intentionally designed, and it's even feathered in all of the subsequent iterations of Rondo of Blood (https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Akumajyo_Dracula_Peke#Unlocking_methods).
This is clearly not some glitched state caused by unintended hardware setup.
Goal Choice
As with most classical platforming games, this game is about running to the right for great justice. At a certain point, the screen scrolling will be locked and it becomes no longer possible to scroll to either direction.
Maria will also appear on the screen after this. Such point can be considered the formal end of this game.
Gameplay
As you would expect from a pre-SotN Castlevania game, there is a button for jumping and another for whipping. What is unique to this game is that Richter cannot whip while jumping, but not that it matters.
The optimal strategy is to take damage boosts by jumping onto the enemies instead of engaging them and thus achieving pacifism in the process.
I also managed to end input early by jumping in the end as each jump is a set parabola that doesn't require further inputs once initiated.
Known Records
As usual, the rule of timing in the RTA scene is different, but of course a technically sound TAS like this wouldn't be less optimized than any currently existing RTA record.
Joined: 10/12/2011
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This has Barney's Hide & Seek Game vibes and as fsvgm777 is more suited to it being an April Fools movie (which it already has been done beforehand).
Abstained.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account.Something better for yourself and also others.
I did some research into this game because I was completely confused why this would exist.
It’s supposed to be a mode that plays if you try to run the CD of Rondo of Blood without the CD hue chip inserted into the PCE, which is what makes PCECD games run.
I can’t figure out if this is some form of anti-piracy, or if it’s just a joke that the devs put in to tell you that the PCECD isn’t set up properly, but I would hardly consider this as a legitimate game due to the nature of how you obtain it.
Voting no.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't
12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!"
Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet
MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish
[Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person
MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol
Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
My only issue with the game is the trivial gameplay. There is only one input that needs to be optimized, and it's the last jump, and that also doesn't affect real time completion anyway.
Due to the jump at the end, this movie reaches the end 1 frame later than #3091: fsvgm777's PCECD Castlevania: Rondo of Blood "Stage X" in 00:15.78, because jumping wastes 1 frame (same as damage-boost). But that jump also makes the movie shorter by 78 frames if you only count gameplay.
I tried comparing with human records and it's hard to determine if they are as fast, because most recordings are 30fps, which makes 1-frame delays almost invisible. Total time spent on reaching the end is different somehow.
It's hard not to call this gameplay trivial. You have 10 frames to make a "frame perfect" jump leading to a damage boost. Final jump is done on the first possible frame, so it's the only input that has to be optimized here. And that's only if you measure this by movie length as opposed to when the game ends.
Now how you end your movie is a stylistic choice, and we have 2 schools of thought here:
Minimize input length, the game should reach a stage where it completes itself, no matter how long it takes.
Game must be brought to a certain completion state as soon as possible, after which no normal game input can prevent the game from completing, even when this lengthens the movie file length considerably.
So there's no gameplay improvement here compared to #3091: fsvgm777's PCECD Castlevania: Rondo of Blood "Stage X" in 00:15.78, just a different ending style. Both movies are equally legitimate in terms of record value. Simply walking right at the end is completely trivial. While ending this movie optimally may take a human a bit of practice, it's the only input that need practicing, and even that won't end the game sooner than completely trivial running right. I can't help but agree that this game is trivial to TAS optimally.
While there are future plans on lowering the triviality barrier (or getting rid of it), it's one of the farther plans. But looking at feedback, I'm not convinced that we should keep this movie in a limbo until then, especially considering that we don't even know when it happens.
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.
By the way, as I mentioned in the TAS I did a long while back, the text you see at the end mentions that you need a Super System Card (which is version 3.0) to be able to play Rondo of Blood. Other games boot to a similar screen (if not identical) if not running from the Super System Card. The PCECD version of Gradius II comes to mind.
As such, I personally don't even think this is acceptable at all.
While there are future plans on lowering the triviality barrier (or getting rid of it), it's one of the farther plans. But looking at feedback, I'm not convinced that we should keep this movie in a limbo until then, especially considering that we don't even know when it happens.
I don’t really agree that this should be kept in limbo. As I mentioned above, this game is meant to be a joke for when the base game isn’t running on the correct hardware. It isn’t meant to be an actual game you can play un-ironically.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't
12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!"
Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet
MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish
[Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person
MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol
Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
I don’t really agree that this should be kept in limbo. As I mentioned above, this game is meant to be a joke for when the base game isn’t running on the correct hardware.
You're slightly off. It is on the proper hardware, but not on the correct software, since IIRC, you could upgrade to the Super System Card (which is an actual HuCard you insert in the PC Engine, just like the other PCECD BIOSes), but using the same PCECD hardware.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't
12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!"
Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet
MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish
[Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person
MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol
Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
