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Um... do you mean the Zulag 2 skip? If so, yeah, that's a good spot to use the DDG and I starting to get ideas, thanks again.
About the any%, it would be great if the Zulags were loaded from the start of the game; it would be possible to go straight to Zulag 3! But they're only loaded after completing Stockyard Return :(
I'm pretty sure the developers knew of the existence of the DDG and the Auto Turn Delay, but instead of eliminating the glitches, they decided to minimize its possible uses...
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Thanks for the tip, I'll make sure to test it as soon as I reach that point, but I confess to you that I can't quite remember where it is...
I'm at Paramonia, near the bee hive. So what? Well, I don't know if it will save time or not but I'm going to include the DDG here also.
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With tools like frame advance and save states I would be lying if I say it was hard, but it will be painful to do in real time, I guarantee that.
edit:
Here's the wip featuring the new strategy, 8907 frames ahead up to Paramonia;
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/5011673052167962
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It will, I mean, it's already included :)
I'm almost done with Scrabanian Temple, just two doors to go. I'll post a wip with the new strategy as soon as I reach Paramonia.
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I'm thankful to all the people who spend their free time to watch and vote on this run, thanks also to FractalFusion for the acceptance of my run, but a new strategy developed by Samlaptop obsoleted this run by 1614 frames. It's not possible to hex edit the improvements, so a new run will be made soon. Sorry about that.
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The new strategy is 1614 frames faster than the old one. But it's not really a DDG the way we know it; Abe can survive falling from high ledges, the orbs can't kill him and wells do not cancel the trick. Passing through Bird portals cancels the trick, otherwise it would save a lot of time on the rescues in Scrabania.
I'll try to put as much details as I can in my new submission on what I'm doing in every screen while Abe is invisible, but I think it's best to also cancel or delay my any% run.
In any case, I'm still puzzled by this new form of DDG and know how it work the way it works may lead us to other skips, but I'll leave it for the new any% run.
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Thanks for the speedy answer! There's no need for a video demo, I got it. Too bad I can't test it right now, but you bet I will as soon as I get home. Thanks again, Samlaptop.
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Samlaptop wrote:
Sligfantry and I both tried it at the start of Scrabiana and the well doesn't cancel the glitch.
Now you got me confused; you guys managed to set up the trick at the start of the stage? And even passed the well without cancelling it?!?
I'm assuming you did it on the PC version, right? On the PCSX I'm struggling to find a place where the trick can be triggered without wasting more time than it possibly would save.
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Thanks for the tip, Samlaptop! I'm at Scrabanian Temple, looking for shortcuts at the moment.
So far, I only found a way to set up the auto turn delay, the one used to walk through walls, from above a ledge instead of below it.
But there's only a few of those "special" ledges which allow me to do this, fortunately, this one saves some frames.
I'll test your strategy tonight, but we have a problem; there's a well right before the spot where this trick could save more time :(
(those pesky wells have the ability of canceling the trick)
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Yeah, to learn the stop&turn is a must. You can save a little bit of time in a lot of places where you need to climb ledges in the oposite direction.
Not to mention rooms that are interconnected, but are separated by walls. Know how to use this trick combined with the auto-turn delay is the only way to find such rooms.
Each TASer has their favorite methods, but I prefer to use VSync Advance instead of Frame Advance. It's a lot easier to perform complex tricks advancing frames this way. Well, I wish you good luck!
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Something related to speed, perhaps? As in Mario 64, I mean. Too bad PSXjin is not working on my PC :(
Anyway, I also have a good feeling about these new tricks. Keep up the good work!
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skychase wrote:
I still have some tests to do, I found a way to walk faster in all directions by pressing: up-left, left, down-left, left. I tried this on a wall and started walking in the air for few seconds. Seems like this game will be broken soon. ^^
Very good news indeed! How could I not have noticed these new posts early?
In any case, I know that it is obvious, but have you tested it on the over-world?
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Looking for my lost roms, I found an invaluable item for my collection; a complete NTSC-US Atari 2600 roms with lots of manuals in pdf format.
I know it is irrelevant, and may be even off topic, but the first manual I searched for as soon as I unpacked the download was exactly "River Raid".
Well, now for a more constructive comment, I'd like to thank you for creating this run. The goal choice seems pretty solid and is a good way to end the movie before it gets boring. My vote is Yes.
Oh, just one more thing, sorry if you already answered this, or if it's too obvious to deserve an answer, but would it make any difference to your goal, I mean timewise, if you play the game on another difficulty setting?
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I did some messing around with the Ram Poke tool and here's the results:
Washington Part 3: ~89 frames faster avoiding 2 clocks
San Andreas Fault Part 1: ~118 frames faster avoiding 2 clocks
With better luck on Los Angeles Part 1, this stage can be ~200 frames faster,
also, avoiding some kills and items, when it's lag-free, would save a little
bit of time, so, sub 19 minutes may be possible, but will not be so easy...
My published run: 9:08:46 if everything work on the above test: ~9:05:00
It may sound silly, but I'd love to have one of my runs obsoleted by someone else,
the way it is now, looks like only I have interest on playing the games I play :(
So, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to improve this run, I hope someone else does.
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Sorry, had not noticed your post. I had some suspicion about tally screen at the end of the levels, but as the underwater level has a tremendous amount of lag if I do not collect the items or kill less enemies I thought it would be weird if I avoided items in a stage and collect up all in another. But improvements are welcome in any run and I'm sure willing to improve it as soon as I have some free time.
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Consistent; as if there is just one TASer doin' it throughout. Entertaining; as if every trick's done for the first time, even when you watch it over and over. Well, it's hard to find a single highlight in this run, I loved it all, but I'll go with 6-5: The Very Loooooong Cave as my fave part of the run :) Thankyou for making such an exceptional run, Yes.
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Samsara wrote:
I've long lost and forgotten the RAM address that contains boss/enemy HP.
I found some memory addresses, but they're on a different range and some of your tricks work a little different in BizHawk; the landing cancel must be done in the same frame you land.
--Run Saber Useful Memory Addresses
memory.usememorydomain("WRAM")
while true do
gui.text(10,40,"Alow X: "..memory.read_u16_le(0x000E10))
gui.text(10,50,"Sewa X: "..memory.read_u16_le(0x000E30))
gui.text(10,60,"Alow Y: "..memory.read_u16_le(0x00E12))
gui.text(10,70,"Sewa Y: "..memory.read_u16_le(0x00E32))
gui.text(10,80,"Cam. X "..memory.read_u16_le(0x00548))
gui.text(10,90,"Cam. Y "..memory.read_u16_le(0x0054A))
gui.text(10,100,"Boss H: "..memory.read_u8(0x00E54))
emu.frameadvance()
end
In BizHawk you'll have to wait longer to start the game, so even with two players I'm only 37 frames ahead of you at the first miniboss.
edit: the camera positions...
Here's a small two player testrun, it's only 40 frames faster than your one player wip and since the climb through walls still have some possible uses, and is easier to do with one player, I'm not going any further with this test.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/4633504251639592
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I don't know if it's an intended feature of Snes9x, but creating a save state and then switching to read/write won't clear everything after that point on my runs.
I only need to switch back to read-only and then everything I did before is still there, making it easier to test different strategies.
But on BizHawk, if I switch to read/write everything I did after that point is lost, unless I keep a back-up with the section I'm working at the moment.
It may be me being lazy, but I miss that feature on BizHawk.
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I'm also willing to help as long as I can with this project. I never did a multi track run, but I did a lot of tests with what is, at least to me, a really confortable way to TAS a two player game; an Xbox 360 controller, or any controller with two analogue sticks. You can then assign the movement of the first character to the left analogue stick, the right one will be the second character. Through the run you'll rarely need to use buttons other than Start, B, R and Y, so those buttons will be on the controller, the others can be on the keyboard. The directional pad will take care of the Save/Load, Next and Previous slots. I like to advance frames on the Left Bumper and Pause/Unpause on the Right Bumper. Something I miss on Snes9X 1.43 is the ability to load a state and still have things I did after that point intact. Testing different strategies is a lot easier on that emulator. It's also possible to have a similar effect on BizHawk, but you'll need to keep a back up of the complete run, or the stage you're working on.
I'n any case, a two player run is something that must be carefully planned. Starting all over after a few stages because of a new trick is undoubtedly something disheartening. But we are persistent, otherwise we would not be TASers :)
So, I'll take all tips and tricks you posted, your wip too if you don't mind, and will do a two player testrun which may give you new ideas, see you guys in some weeks.
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Samsara wrote:
it seems like you can ceiling dash while you're under the level.
To tell you the truth, I didn't know it was possible to dash while hanging on a ceiling... but yes, the ceiling dash can save some frames, it's also possible to avoid the sacrifice; keep turboing the B button a little longer, but it's still slower than fighting the miniboss.
I also tested the two players trick to walk through walls, but the character which locks the camera does just that; locks the camera. The other character cannot advance while the camera is locked, so it's no use.
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There's a new way to be inside walls; the camera sometimes won't let you backtrack, especially if you try to be above the screen boundary, it will respawn you on screen again. Pressing the B button repeatedly slows you down enough to trick the game into respawning you inside the wall right below you.
I can't think of any place where it can save time with just one character, but I'm going to test it with 2 players, as they tend to spawn near each other, it may be possible to lock the camera with one character and enter the wall with the other.
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Samsara wrote:
Might also record a video of the climb through walls glitch just for fun, too.
I was trying to find where you did the "climb through walls" glitch when this happened; a mid-boss skip:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/4368592115093889
But unless we find another way to pass through walls it is pretty useless; kill him is a lot faster :(
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I did a few tests on Snes9x 1.51, but the biggest time saver that I found is playing the game with 2 players.
Sadly, a hard drive crash took almost my entire Rom and CD Rom image collection away along with some of my unfinished projects :(
I already have a new HDD and I'm looking for my lost Roms, but it will take some time to complete.
edit:
I'm quite sure it was ~100 frames faster with 2 players up to the mid-boss; you can advance with one player and kill some enemies with the other.
But the camera won't let you advance with only one character, so you have to alternate the walker and the killer character from time to time.
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