A hockey game from 1991. The weird referee is the final boss of the framewar.

Difficulty: Pro

Control: Manual. This setting means that we have to press a button to take control of the player who has the puck. This allows ending input early when the 3rd period begins as our computer-controlled players can do goals while the one human-controlled team member does nothing. (In 'automatic' setting the control is instantly given to the human player when the puck is touched, so our team can never do anything with the puck after input ends.)

The faceoff is weird. We need to manipulate some luck, so that the game begins faster.

This game does not progress automatically, so we need to extend input to the beginning of the 3rd period.

If there was no lag we could take the puck to any place and just wait for the timer to end. But because of lag we need to have as few players on screen as possible. The problem is that if we keep the puck for 30 in-game seconds, then we get a penalty for delaying the game. To avoid this we need to give the puck to the goalie and then back to the player again. If the goalie keeps the puck for too long, then the offscreen players rush in for the action, causing lag. But if the non-goalie player has the puck, then everybody is moving away waiting for the offense, which never comes. So we keep the puck for 29.9 seconds, then give it to the goalie for a few frames and back to the player again until time runs out.

I was able to get very close to zero lag frames, but there is another challenge that is much more difficult, maybe even unsolvable.

The period ends only after the referee has collected the puck and returned to its lair. The referee is not cooperative. He will ruin your run.

I have seen a fast referee puck pickup that took only 302 frames, but I was not able to replicate it, so I get 310 and 304, losing a total of 10 frames. I don't think the 302-frame result is even the optimal solution and I have no method for optimizing it. The referee has weird rules of movement and can sometimes zip towards the puck. We can use other players to try to adjust the puck position and player position. My rare 302-frame result was caused by bumping into random opponent, which means the optimal solution may require a very long and random setup, so it seems nearly impossible to optimize.

760 up
1153 start
1973 timer start
10973 timer 00:00, period length: 9000
11283 white frame, 310-frame referee puck pickup (8 or more frames lost)
11362 press start

In the 2nd period I let the opponent win the faceoff because it seems to save 3 frames. It also causes 2 frames of lag, so we only win 1 frame. This game is trolling us with chaotic lag frames.

11997 timer start
20999 timer 00:00, period length: 9002 (2 frames of lag)
21303 white frame, 304-frame referee puck pickup (2 or more frames lost)
21382 press start, end input

15D8
15DA
15DC
15DE

Find a better pattern for referee puck pickup or save a few frames in the weird faceoff screen? The sky is the limit because the game is weird and surprisingly difficult to optimize to the last frame. If you like impossibly hard puzzles, then this weird referee puck pickup is definitely one for you.

No hurry processing this.

nymx: Claiming for judging.

nymx: If I can remember, this is the best out of all your hockey submissions. Why? You basically start the last period and let is coast from the very first frame. So...there is no reason to believe that your optimization isn't good; however, I do agree with you that the only improvements can come from getting the end of each period to manipulate the referee into picking up the puck faster. Although, I can't say what would make it faster though. Aside from any potentials...All looks really good and great job!

Accepting to "Standard".

r3gamerz: Processing...