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Posted: 4/2/2006 12:06 AM

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Aqfaq

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Yeah, the final boss is one of the hardest parts when playing normally. It would be quite impossible with so few hearts and without any healing stuff.

Posted: 4/1/2006 11:42 PM

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Aqfaq

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I had to edit the submission text a couple of times because there's no preview button available. Hopefully it's readable now.

Posted: 4/1/2006 11:39 PM

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Aqfaq

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Sorry for making you guys wait. :)

Posted: 4/1/2006 5:54 AM

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Aqfaq

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Finished in 42:10:26. I need to check a few things before submitting anything.

Posted: 3/30/2006 4:52 PM
(Edited: 6/4/2022 5:00 PM)

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Aqfaq

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Just in case someone is interested, a new version of Dosbox has been released today: http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

Posted: 3/29/2006 9:30 PM

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Aqfaq

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1. Yes, I manipulate the enemies. It looks bad, but should be the fastest solution. I might have used fire magic there, but I need to save that for later. 2. Normally, there are always 2 stones rolling, but if you kill Gragg JUST when it's going to release the stone, the stone disappears completely. That way I have plenty of time to smash Glagg because it releases only 1 stone. I guess that's a minor programming error. 3. I wait to manipulate as short questions as possible. The text goes very slowly and can't be sped up. Only 4/5 of the questions must be right to proceed. It was slightly faster to answer wrong once.

MattyXB wrote:

Only one from the SaveStates work for me. All other desync the movie by me.

Only one savestate (BOSS-3.gs1) is for the movie. The other savestates demonstrate bugs. Thanks for watching the movie!

Posted: 3/29/2006 4:16 PM

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Aqfaq

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There's no way to hex-edit anything (except menu handling) because of the "random" enemy movements. Heeh... After two minutes of gameplay the irritating penguins have reduced my 53 frames of improvement to 17 frames! However, the 17 frames may turn into a large improvement, if the monsters in the later screens act nicely. The only way to know is to continue recording. --- Edit: I lost everything. Gaining 53 frames at the ice world passage seems to have saved no time at all. The monsters moved differently and dodging/manipulating them cost more than 53 frames. This game has unique requirements for luck manipulation. I'll get back to the old movie now. If everything goes well, I'll finish this project quite soon.

Posted: 3/29/2006 2:42 PM

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Aqfaq

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I enjoy glitches. This movie is full of glitches. So, I enjoy this movie very much. Now I believe that all my movies are improvable even though I can't see any mistakes in them.

Posted: 3/28/2006 12:48 AM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 7:40 PM)

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Aqfaq

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Hah! I found a funny bug that makes switches rise higher than they should. Unfortunately, there's no place where it could be used to save time. Here is the updated WIP and two savestates that demonstrate the new bug: [removed] Tyrant Dragon is defeated, but I'll test some improvement ideas before continuing. Edit: I found a way to use an enemy to get inside a wall. I updated the file with a new savestate. Edit-2: I saved 53 frames in the passage that leads to the ice world. I'm redoing the movie from there. Edit-3: Purposeless link removed.

Posted: 3/23/2006 8:49 PM

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Aqfaq

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Yup, it's impossible to climb in the dark. :/

Posted: 3/23/2006 2:29 PM

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Aqfaq

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Fabian wrote:

You work really fast and the results are really really good.

The good thing about long games is that the closer the end you get, the easier the recording becomes. For example, I've learned how the character moves, so I don't need to think about it all the time. That leaves more brain capacity for other things. Thanks for watching the WIP.

Posted: 3/23/2006 12:43 PM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 7:37 PM)

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Aqfaq

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The Ice Bomber is defeated: [link removed] What do you think about that? Edit: Purposeless link removed.

Posted: 3/20/2006 8:13 PM

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Aqfaq

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Looks funny. The faster version looks much better, it's cleaner somehow. 100% kills in all levels would probably get repetitive. I'd say try to change the style between levels while being as fast as possible, if that's possible. Good luck with the bosses, their movements seem to be quite manipulatable.

Posted: 3/20/2006 10:30 AM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 7:36 PM)

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Aqfaq

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Sphinx defeated: [link removed] Collecting the secret magic stuff in the pyramid costs about 11 seconds. The bosses have invulnerability period of 30 frames. So, 22 Power hits is enough to gain back the seconds. I wait 48 frames before entering the Sphinx room to get as short questions as possible. The set of questions changes about every 16-128 frames. (Only the in-game clock affects this.) One letter costs 6 frames. Here are all the possible questions, bold is what I got: Which of these items is not sold at the Wanderer weapon shop? (61 letters) After defeating Gragg & Glagg, what did you receive? (52) What’s the name of the queen in the elf village? (48) What item helped you to traverse Maugham Desert? (48) Which of these monsters did you battle first? (45) Which of these stores does not sell weapons? (44) What’s the first type of magic you acquired? (44) Which key do you need to enter the Pyramid? (43) What’s the name of the dwarf village? (37) How much does a charmstone cost? (32) This went extremely well. I think it might be impossible to be any faster at this point of the game, unless some major improvement was found. You'd need to be at least 1,5 seconds faster at the Sphinx door to save any time at all. Next stop: Ice-World. That will be one of the hardest parts, I guess. I've been trying to use the enemies as platforms, but failed to reach high enough. I included a savestate in the ZIP, so you can try it too. Edit: Purposeless link removed.

Posted: 3/19/2006 9:00 PM

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Aqfaq

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Good to have you here, maTO. :) I saved 1 frame in the start sequence. The fastest beginning I can get is: 00:19 start 01:22 start 01:30 start Could you try again to see if you still get it faster than this? Maybe the game was desyncing with you. I found out that items can be equipped a bit faster by pressing some buttons simultaneously. I redid all the equipping sequences and hex-edited them to the movie. No desync happened because pressing start stops the in-game clock. 9 frames were saved. I'll be continuing the run now. I'm almost at the Sphinx.

Posted: 3/19/2006 12:48 PM

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Aqfaq

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maTO wrote:

From beginning of the game or from beginning of the 2nd screen (snakes).

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's from the beginning of the game. That makes things very complicated. About the unoptimized beginning... It's been a while when I recorded that part, so I can't remember whether I lose those frames intentionally or not. I'll check it out soon.

Posted: 3/13/2006 4:11 PM

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Aqfaq

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Ok. At 9:52 I don't need to go down fast, you see, I'm on my way to the left. (It's slower to turn in the air.) Same thing with 11:35, I'm traveling to the right at full speed, so it doesn't matter how fast I come down. Actually, I just realized that even the jump at 10:53 does not save time because I need to wait for the spears anyway. At 6:45 the jump really saves a couple of frames because I'm going down to grab the ladder.

Posted: 3/12/2006 1:30 AM

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Aqfaq

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Hey, great if you found some improvements Fabian! (I can't check them out right now because I'm not on my own machine.) I have tried to be perfect with the acceleration, though. For example, at 9:45 it's faster to hit the left wall and then start going right. Also, prejumps aren't always a timesaver. I can easily forget to test some things, so it's good that you keep your eyes on this. Thanks guys. By the way, I was wrong when I thought that this game is completely flawless. As you saw in the Gragg & Glagg fight, I made the remaining one release only 1 boulder when there should always be 2 rolling. Another tiny flaw is that if you leave the cannibal scene (after reading the text: The dwarf child is in danger!), you are unable to cast magic until you go fight the cannibals or visit Inn. :)

Posted: 3/9/2006 7:04 PM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 7:35 PM)

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Aqfaq

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2nd Boss defeated in 12:30. [link removed] There's a savestate so that you (Angerfist?, Fabian?) don't need to watch it from the beginning. If someone manages to find 1 frame of improvement at any point, I'll re-record it. Edit: Purposeless link removed.

Posted: 3/5/2006 10:01 PM
(Edited: 4/14/2006 7:33 PM)

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Aqfaq

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The first boss is defeated again! 2,5 seconds faster compared to the previous movie. About 1,5 seconds were saved with better boss strategy. The file is updated: [removed] Edit: Purposeless link removed.

Posted: 3/5/2006 11:33 AM

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Aqfaq

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Here's some route plan made with Excel. Those who know the game probably understand most of it.

Posted: 3/3/2006 3:47 AM

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Aqfaq

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Interesting. Try pressing the magic button longer, so that the maximum magic charge level of the character exceeds. You can cast level 7 (8, 9, 10...) magic which surprisingly is some other character's magic. The game crashes completely if you hold the charge button for too long. Many interesting things (graphical anomalies, crashes) happen if you hold it for about 7-15 seconds. With some character, some overcharged magic may cause something useful.

Posted: 3/1/2006 11:56 PM

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Aqfaq

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Also, remember to write the submission text on a text editor beforehand to save time.

Posted: 3/1/2006 11:51 PM

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Aqfaq

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Thanks Fabian. The game is quite linear if you know where to go. There's a short description of the non-obvious part of the route somewhere in this thread. I might try to record some easy walkthrough someday. It may be too much to ask someone to create a new tool for this project, but I'd highly appreciate if someone analyzed the item drop mechanism a bit further. Even telling me how to do it is better than nothing, so that I'd get some idea of what I'm asking here. I'm mostly an in-game scientist at the moment.

Posted: 3/1/2006 2:40 PM

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Aqfaq

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Angerfist wants to see this movie done and I would like to record it. All I need is a tool to view the results of item drops at any time and I'm back at this project. I know that the item drops are not manipulatable, they are solely based on the clock. Also, enemies are mostly not manipulatable. It's almost like the whole game universe starts moving at the same time and always does the exactly same pattern. No matter what screen you are positioned in, all the enemies in the game follow the clock. Mostly it's possible to just run through the screens at full speed and avoid every monster by jumping. The huge problem emerges when you have to decide where/how to waste time to collect coins. At some point, some monster's simple movements are synced so that it gets on your way, that's unavoidable. You have to decide what to do: 1) Kill it + collect coins ---> many frames lost, but got some money 2) Hit the monster, but don't collect coins ---> less time lost, but no coins gained 3) Run to the monster ---> waste time, waste health, no money 4) Use magic ---> Best solution, but can be used only a couple of times. The decision is made, but.... Uh-oh, the clock goes *tic-tac* and you realize that the position of all future monsters (relative to you) depends on the decision you made, because different amount of time was wasted. If you're lucky, you can run about a minute without bumping to any monster. It may not sound bad, but there is no simple way to calculate when to use magic, kill monsters and collect coins. Finding the optimal choices would require many (hundreds, thousands?) of full game test runs, a movie-tree. And sub-optimal test runs are useless, because the game clock decides the item drops and monster placement. Here are two small movies that demonstrate the problem. No matter what is done, eventually some monster gets on the way. I'm stuck at 1:20 and the movie is going to be about 40 mins. Well, I've made some experiments with a savestate cracker. I've found out that savestate address FCB8 seems to have something to do with the item drops. That's the highest hi-tech level I can reach. I can't code anything myself. Item drop viewer wouldn't solve all problems, but if I had that kind of tool, I'd have much more motivation to record this run.

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