It does get long and repetitive in a way, but I actually find it interesting ... especially now that you're destroying enemies with 3x your HP (you'd have as much as them normally), just from finding better weapons on the way, which proves that the damage done depends much more on strength and attack power (weapon) than the level, which is a good thing for such a run too.
That 3 minute improvement to where I stopped my old one was already good, I think I was estimating it to end at around 2 hours back then too ... this is progressing well, so I guess we'll find out before too long, hehe.
What would be really funny (but maybe not possible) is if you get underleveled enough later in the game that the enemy's HP bars would overflow and loop back (at 4x the amount needed for a full bar, so just over 10000 for orange), but you'd have to get near the end around Level 20 for that to happen, and not pick anyone with over 2000 on the way ...
I tried this game myself about a year ago (that was one of my old favorites too), twice too:
1 - 29:53, a little farther than the Lu Bu part2 - 9:14, after the fight with Hua Xiong
My second one got to Hua Xiong almost 2 minutes faster than yours, here's what was mostly different in mine:
- I didn't get the starting gold and rations (I get enough from all the boss fights already)
- I didn't recruit Song Ren and Song Yong
- I didn't get Chen Deng, but got Mi Zhe
- I went to the inn between most fights, it might have cost some time but allows me to use All-Out more often, like in the 3rd battle
When using All-Out all the way doesn't work, you can manipulate luck during the fight by interrupting All-Out with B and doing it again. Only do manual actions if single turn All-Out still isn't enough.
Tactics are useless at the start, but not so much once you get the one that does 150-200 damage (around the later Lu Bu fights), then the stronger ones later and obviously An Sha at the end ...
I'd say the more interesting part when doing a run for this game will be how you manage to get through the later parts ... since you're going to be underleveled and will have to fight enemies with more than twice as much life as you (soon after where I stopped my 1st one, I get one that's 300 vs 800 and seems very hard if not impossible), the trick will be to recruit all the best ones you can find on the way, since they'll usually be stronger than the main characters (where I stopped my 2nd one, I wanted to get Hua Xiong, but it seems this will be hard to manipulate).
00D0:07 shouldn't cause any desync, as I used that exact code through the run while making it (and my older ones) ... else it'd be hard to not only find my way, but also avoid battles (I have to pause at the exact frame before I reach the next tile).
But I remember it desync'ed Genisto's run near the end (not sure why it would, the cheat is only a visual effect), and setting it any higher than 7 just looks weird anyway.
Waiting before the last attack would affect it, I didn't try it but I'm guessing it'd be useful to make the next battle come sooner (1 tile per frame waited), which might save up to 2 seconds by not having to walk extra tiles (like for the last metal slime, I had already gone through the short area they show up in).
The same effect can be gotten by idling on the map (unpaused), but it only works by multiples of 16 frames ... I did use that one for the metal slimes to avoid walking long ways or waiting longer, that's when I spin around. Pausing the game is different, each frame paused seems to randomize 87 times.
As for the wings, that was also done in the previous run (Genisto's in 18:43) ... it's faster because it requires one less key and no exiting/entering Rimuldar, the path length is about the same.
The intro involves going down the stairs of a tower with 2 characters, one of which wields a club, and after some random battles in there, encountering a boss that completely destroys the party as a scripted part of the storyline.
This sounds very much like Paladin's Quest (on SNES) to me:
Axe Knight does about 25-45 damage (kills in 1-2 hits) and never misses, takes 4-5 hits to kill, but sometimes uses Sleep ... now if you could force it to always use Sleep and make it fail each time (wake up right after), it'd be beatable, but Sleep always seems to last at least one turn.
Also, if it's ever possible to go first against a Metal Slime on Level 1 (if the above doesn't work), you can get the Erdrick's Token without any healing, avoiding the whole trip to town ... but I haven't been able to get this to work either.
After some more messing around recently, I found this:
- If a battle I want only comes up after a lot of walking, waiting a bit with the game unpaused can shorten it by multiples of 16 tiles (for every 16 frames)
- You go first if (your agility * random 0-255) > (monster's agility * random 0-63)
- Highest possible at the start is 6, and Metal Slime got 255, so the odds for the above are around 1/21. Low, but possible! (after leveling up, agility goes up to 12 and the odds become 1/10)
- I managed to get it to work with fairly short waits, for all 4 battles up to Level 7
By not going to town at all, doing this, and getting Erdrick's Token from the shorter side of the swamp (but the path is longer and the metal slime area is small), I saved 27 seconds over the current published run:
Up to Erdrick's Token
But unless I can find more ways to improve it, the rest will stay exactly the same (just redone), maybe a few seconds faster if I can get better luck manipulation ... I tried thinking of several ways but they all had more loss than gain:
- Axe Knight isn't beatable on the first trip to get Erdrick's Token, its Sleep always lasts at least one full turn before the 1/2 chance to wake up can work
- I'd save almost 2 minutes by not getting Erdrick's armor, but lose it all back (+ more) at the end, from needing healing and not having enough MP to use Hurt all the way against the Dragonlord
- I can try to get both Wings (Rimuldar and at the end) and use the first one instead of dying when going out of Rimuldar, but getting it (and the gold for 2 more keys) takes too long to be worth it ... same if I want to use it after getting Erdrick's armor
- It might be possible to kill the Axe Knight and Goldman in one less hit each, if it doesn't require near perfect luck (for monster HP and damage) that'd add too many seconds of waiting
- Rimuldar is unreachable on Level 1 without healing
But a 27 second improvement is already good, even if it's all from a single change ...
I've done 1-1 again just now myself, you don't even need Megagon: 4140 frames (still improvable if Baxter can do it in 4128 ...)
There's also my previous attempt at an improved Amagon run that got up to 2-2 about 11 seconds faster than Tailz's run, if it can help.
The game does have minor lag at times too (at least in 2-2 near the start), but I'm not sure how well it can be avoided ... if it happens from having too many enemies + bullets at once on the screen, shooting them one by one as soon as possible should work.
I remade it from when the "spiny satellite things" start coming up, they do take forever to destroy but give enough points (1000) to be worth it even when I have to miss a few regular targets. I also took much more damage, since I finished 2 of them when they were hitting me at the bottom of the screen, but gained 3580 points:
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/emu/nes/fceu/fcs/guardianlegendscore2.fcm
Score: 20460
Recorded with FCEU 0.98.13 v6, 0.98.15 works too
Guardian Legend, The (U).nes
Recorded from power on (there's no other options)
With no desync, I destroy everything on screen, don't miss any shot, take some damage but still finish with full life.
I'm guessing it's when the siren (then boss music) starts and the autoscrolling stops, or at least it's where I stopped mine.
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/emu/nes/fceu/fcs/guardianlegendscore.fcm
Score: 16880
It's all about destroying everything (getting hit works too) ... only the last part with the cannons is harder, since you have to destroy them (500) but also let them shoot as much as possible first (60 each).
- You had enough life to use Up+B for the bosses in 1-1 and 1-2, except maybe at the end for 1-2 where I also used the punch attack
- That elephant in 2-1 can't be avoided, but it can be killed without slowing down (just barely) if you start shooting early. I also avoided the first elephant without stopping
But things I noticed that seemed better than in my run:
- You go around and shoot enemies a lot more (while I only killed what was in the way), which was more interesting, and you scored more points
- Killing the 2 elephants at the end of 2-1 seems a little faster than what I did (jumping past them, dying and waiting for them to exit on the right)
Other than the few things I pointed out (my run was 11 seconds ahead at this point), it does look pretty good, and I'd also like to see what the second half of the game is like since I didn't get that far.
I tried Amagon too, earlier this year, I never finished it but got about halfway through the game (3-2) in 9 minutes ... simple game to make a run of (since it's just run and shoot), but still looks cool with the perfect reflexes.
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/emu/nes/fceu/fcs/Amagon-1.fcm
Mine is about 5 seconds ahead at the end of 1-2, I think most of it is because:
- I jump off platforms at the last possible frame (gives me a little boost ahead while sliding off the corner)
- I used Up+B to beat the minibosses (and I only got one on 1-2, not 2)
- I didn't have to stop running at all (the only time I did was in 3-1, something was in the way and took 16 shots to kill)
- You lose 1 frame when jumping, so I minimized the jumps (but then shooting everything you can in front of you would be nice)
There's also a glitch at the end of 2-1 and 3-1, where I die but still finish the level, instead of having to kill the enemies there (16 shots each).
Even if you use herbs, you'd just waste a turn and get hit for even more HP than you healed ...
Axe Knight does about 25-45 damage (kills in 1-2 hits) and never misses, takes 4-5 hits to kill, but sometimes uses Sleep ... now if you could force it to always use Sleep and make it fail each time (wake up right after), it'd be beatable, but Sleep always seems to last at least one turn.
Also, if it's ever possible to go first against a Metal Slime on Level 1 (if the above doesn't work), you can get the Erdrick's Token without any healing, avoiding the whole trip to town ... but I haven't been able to get this to work either.
Other than that, I can't think of any new improvements ...
Both look the same, but most things during gameplay move faster in NTSC (same frame timing), so this did give me an advantage with faster controls and chains ... ignoring possible lag differences, it's maybe 10-15 seconds faster than if it was done in PAL (but then you get even faster action), out of a 52 second improvement.
This always desyncs near the end for me, for some reason (Stoneman fight that shouldn't be there, in the last area before the Dragonlord's room) ...
But from what I can see, the time saved/lost from the changes mostly evens out until the end, where you had 1 more MP than me, allowing to use Hurt one more time (the whole fight even) and gain about 30 seconds right there.
And looking at the re-record count being almost 10x higher than mine ... was most of it from the Dragonlord fight, to get Hurt to work?
Tetris, not Tetris Attack ...
But I decided to give Tetris Attack on Endless a try myself, and I'm about twice as fast as this published run so far (51423 points in 0:37 play time (0:58 movie time), ready to start the 4th x13) ... at this rate, I'd be a whole 50 seconds faster at the end!
Having multiple chains going on at once (usually 3) really helps, and frame-precise controls are often needed to manage this.
Like how I ended my Tetris run with a Game Over instead of cutting it off the instant I hit 999999 ... the earliest frame once you have the max score and can't avoid getting Game Over should do.
Yeah, considering those fast 10 second wins are already possible with normal play (sometimes not even hard) and that it's mostly the same thing 12 times, it's not so interesting after the first few ...
There's also Stage Clear (clear a certain amount of rows per stage at increasing difficulty, 6 sets of 5 = 30, then Bowser) and Puzzle (2x 6 sets of 10 = 120), but Endless is probably still better than both, just because the simple 99999 score goal is less repetitive and still enough to be impressive.
Input too, I noticed it was skipping numbers when doing frame advance ... sometimes up to a few dozen or hundred even, like when the game is loading something.
I did a short test run of Tetrisphere (just cleared 1:1 and 1:2 fast in Rescue mode), worked pretty well except for the already known bugs, and my gamepad can handle the analog controls so I don't have to worry about that (although Tetrisphere doesn't use the control stick anyway).
But one minor bug I noticed that I don't think was mentioned, and maybe it's just the sound plugin, but when I use frame advance, there's no sound after I unpause emulation ...
About the story mode, I was just curious to see it, since even if the AI isn't too hard it'd be interesting to see their screen get flooded all the way up from massive combos. Maybe I'm wrong and it'd be boring, but I didn't think the Kirby's Avalanche one was that bad.
I tried it once before, the fastest way is to do a lot of combos early rather than x13's and such, and just enough to make the opponent lose (else the blocks are delayed more) ... I did the first 3 stages in Super Hard and won them in about 10 seconds each:
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/emu/snes/snes9x/smv1/Tetris%20Attack-1.smv
The later stages would probably get even faster, because the CPU tends to scroll up more ...
My run of the NES version progressed some more since then, I'm about halfway through (after 27:59):
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/emu/nes/fceu/fcs/Ys3-1.fcm
00:43 - Intro over, I can move and buy the Short Sword
01:19 - Entering Tigray Quarry
02:03 - Got the Power Ring
02:20 to 02:45 - Leveling (I need Level 2 to hit the red monsters)
02:51 - Level 2
03:34 - Got the key to the first boss
04:07 to 05:24 - Leveling (I need Level 3 to hit the boss)
05:34 - Level 3
05:50 - Defeated the 1st boss
07:13 to 11:01 - Leveling (I need Level 4 for the next boss, and 8000 gold for the Broad Sword)
09:38 - Level 4
11:14 - Defeated the 2nd boss
11:52 - Back to town, I buy the Broad Sword
12:54 - Entering Ilvern Ruins
14:20 - Into the Lava Pit
15:11 - Level 5 (just in time for the boss, which was already killable on Level 4 with the sword)
15:21 - Defeated the 3rd boss
17:24 - Out of the Lava Pit
18:34 - Defeated the 4th boss
19:25 - Back to town
20:34 - Entering Tigray Quarry again to get to the deeper dungeon part
21:02 - Level 6 (just in time)
21:27 to 23:22 - Leveling (I need Level 7 to hit the boss)
24:32 - Level 7
24:54 - Defeated the 5th boss (this one was too easy)
25:24 - Back to town (using the left+right glitch, to avoid backtracking through the entire dungeon)
25:44 - Going to Tigray Quarry one last time to advance the game plot (what would normally happen after the backtracking)
26:45 - Entering Eldan Mountains
27:30 - Reached the cabin, got the Banded Slayer
Planned next was:
- Going back for more leveling, to get all the way to Level 9 (30000 EXP). The next boss is killable at 8 but with very low damage per hit, so it's worth doing the extra leveling. This should also be the last time I have to do this, since the bosses alone will give almost enough EXP for the rest.
- Beat both bosses in the mountains. 3000 + 3500 EXP, I should at least be close to Level 10 (40000) after this
- Ballacetine Castle: just go through and beat the bosses, Level 10 will be enough and I'll get the best sword. 4000 + 4500 + 5000 EXP for the bosses, I'll reach Level 11 (50000) and maybe get halfway to 12
- Galbalan's Island: final dungeon, I should get to Level 12 (65535, max) and beat the final boss
About 25% of the run up to the current progress is forced leveling (running back and forth for required level ups), worst part being almost 4 minutes, it's boring and repetitive but unavoidable ... however, the boss fights go very fast and are the best parts to watch. Regular monsters also get more interesting later in the game when they're harder to kill.
I also almost never get hit since I'd die very fast, I only do against bosses or when I'm about to level up since it refills completely after.
It beats the first 3 rounds (movie ends there), then there's a scene he probably thought was the ending ... then it moves on to round 4 ...
It does make the game seem a whole lot easier than it really is and it's well done, but I'll agree there's better ones to make runs of, and just the fact it doesn't reach the true ending (doesn't beat the game) is enough to vote No.
Lemmings (V1.1) (U) [!].smc
WIP1 timing, fake mute
Snes9x re-recording version 7
I also worked some more on it today:
http://acmlm.cjb.net:2/Emu/snes/Snes9x/smv1/Lemmings-3.smv
Using Select+Start in the first 6 levels saved about 40 seconds, and now this completes 7 to 9 too, for a current total of 6:53.
7: I should probably set the release rate a little higher to save a few seconds, but setting it too high would cost too many builders ...
8: Easy level, and now I get to mess around with all the jobs, which makes it much funner while waiting for all the required lemmings to be saved.
9: This one is even better, since I get more space and 10 spare lemmings to torture. I also try to use (waste) as many of the jobs as I can without wasting time.
