Posts for Lord_Tom

Posted: 2/26/2018 6:43 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Mitch showed a way to kill BoomBoom that causes a glitch that skips the death animation and goes straight to the world map. For posterity, here's a demo and explanation; the linked video has closed captioning, sorry couldn't get it to embed. Youtube video fm2 demo Mitch originally did this with hammers, which do 1 hp damage for each hammer every frame. Obviously fireballs are way slower, but clearer for demo purposes. Even with hammers, saving time is very doubtful as you need to wait for the proper moment as described below; not sure if there are any BoomBooms where this can save time. BoomBoom's HP are stored at $7cfa; the value starts at 37 and he normally dies when it hits 32. However, if the 5th and 6th hits are delivered on the same frame, the hp jumps from 33 down to 31 with BB still alive. Once HP are at 31, you then have to bring them to 0 to kill BB again. If you deliver the killing blow when BB is pausing to swoop ($51c > 0) then when the $51c timer hits zero, you'll exit to the world map. This is because the timer at $51c is used by the game in multiple places, and the game isn't expecting BB to be killed by HP reaching zero anyway. Achieving simultaneous fatal fireball hits on the W1 mini-boss while $51c is non-zero causes a glitch kill, but the boss just falls offscreen and Mario is stuck on the empty boss screen forever. It's probably the same with other mini's, but might be worth checking. Bowser uses the timer as well, but seems to die normally regardless of this effect.

Posted: 7/13/2017 1:45 PM

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Lord_Tom

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An interesting write-up on the game and this TAS: http://kirkdev.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-robotic-ruler-of-river-of-no-return.html

Posted: 4/6/2017 3:54 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Koh1fds wrote:

http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/38162546198177288 If You need a movie with this glitch.

Nice. I figured out why it works. You don't need to double tap jump; just do a morph-unmorph then wait about 9 frames before jumping. The reason it works relates to the y velocity ($308) and y velocity sub-pixel ($312). When you jump normally, y velocity gets set to 4 and velocity sub-pixel to 0. $312 then starts increasing by 24 every frame, increasing $308 each time it rolls over. When you unmorph, for some reason $312 gets set to 26 -- and if you jump right away $308=4 but $312 will increment to 52, 76, 100, etc, resulting in an inferior jump. But if you wait to jump until $312=234, i.e. about to roll over, then on the frame you jump $308=4 and $312=4, or essentially a normal height jump. However, because the unmorph puts you in the air, you get about extra pixels of height and can make the ice beam jump.

Posted: 4/6/2017 2:40 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Well, that is very surprising to see! Back when I was TASing, I recall that was a jump that everyone somehow (including me) thought was possible but couldn't actually execute, including by morph-jumping but I'm sure I never tried a double-tap. It'll be interesting to check this out in emulator and see what's going on.

Posted: 1/14/2017 6:42 PM

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Lord_Tom

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I'll give this a try as well.

Posted: 1/9/2017 3:53 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Was just thinking of this game the past few days and happened upon this thread. I like the WIP; it's great that stage progression works as it does as it gives a sizable advantage to TAS which wouldn't necessarily be found in an autoscrolling game like this. For the extra seconds related to the energy pod it is what it is; since there aren't really great entertainment options you could think about spacing out your kills (maybe even touching the pod to kill a few enemies) so you get the final kill just as the pod despawns. I definitely agree with doing the 2nd tunnel, especially with how short this'll end up being. Do I vaguely recall there's some benefit to crashing into the ring-shaped wormy creatures in one of the later stages? It's been 30 years so memory's a bit foggy...;)

Posted: 12/30/2016 4:48 AM

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Lord_Tom

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Just saw this, congratulations on finishing your first publication! I know you worked on this a lot over several years...the end result looks very good and that skip with the initial dialog window was such a great find, I'll have to crank up your Lua script when I get a chance and see what that hit-box looks like. One thing that wouldn't improve time but would be nice for any future run of this game would be to distribute the pause-glitch (that keeps the item timer from running down) usage to avoid having to pause in chapels, where the music effect is most jarring.

Posted: 12/18/2016 8:00 PM

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Lord_Tom

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That was fast, thanks!

Posted: 12/18/2016 7:54 PM

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Lord_Tom

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[3232] NES The Legend of Zelda by Lord Tom in 22:17.53 Mentioning because the prior run was starred...not sure if keeping the new one in Moons was intentional or not (either way is fine)

Posted: 12/15/2016 8:09 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Dwedit wrote:

I saw a key inside a monster somewhere, could that have been used in the key route?

I'm not aware of any keys carried by monsters that are on-route but not collected. Taking a one-room detour (off-route and then back) for a single key, such as going right at the start of L1, would take more time than the biggest delay I use. You may be referring to the key carried by a mummy in L5. I leave that key behind to go get the whistle, but do collect it en route to the boss. Obviously, if you id a key I missed then tell me the room and I'll check, as that would be a bad miss! I do leave a mummy-carried bomb behind en route to the whistle. That's because there was bad luck with enemy movements and I knew I'd be able to get nearly free bomb refills after getting the whistle (since I have to kill a bunch of mummies for keys, and mummies are a type of enemy that drops bombs)

Posted: 12/15/2016 5:21 PM

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Lord_Tom

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RAT926 wrote:

The new TAS is also wonderful. Although it was late to find it is a slight improvement route for another 1ST quest. If these were discovered last year, it would have been more complete TAS.

That's an interesting new glitch! It's weird that it takes the key and starts the door-unlocking timer but doesn't stop Link from moving forward off the ladder. It's impossible to know if this would result in a "bankable" savings with the RNG, but it's a great find!

Posted: 12/14/2016 3:36 AM
(Edited: 12/14/2016 3:38 AM)

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Lord_Tom

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c-square wrote:

Very nice. I loved the commentary too. A couple things: First, is it possible to kill Ganon any closer to the door, so it takes less time to leave the room? Second, I was surprised there only one stairs warp and no whistle warps, and that it was faster just to walk most places.

Thanks! Ganon isn't killed closer to the door b/c every time he's damaged he reappears (invisible) at either the bottom-left or bottom-right. While he's invisible, he doesn't teleport, he walks around at 1px/frame -- slower than Link walks -- making it faster to just kill him as quickly as possible at the bottom and walk to the door. It's fastest to have him bottom-left for the final blow, so you can zig-zag up-right to the door. The screen-scroll glitch makes a big difference in decreasing the value of using the Whistle or Power Bracelet to travel in the Overworld. For instance, IIRC to get from L7 to L8 I tested blowing the whistle once to get to L2 and walking the rest of the way to L8. Nope -- with the needed item swaps, it was faster just to walk.

Posted: 11/14/2016 12:39 AM

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Lord_Tom

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Congrats! I wasn't expecting such a big savings. What'd you do?

Posted: 11/6/2016 2:46 PM

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Lord_Tom

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boct1584 wrote:

I'm curious, how much time is it to enter a Toad house as compared to how much time would be saved with a Frog Suit for 3-F2? Because if memory serves, the Toad House in the secret part of World 2 is a guaranteed Frog Suit, and it's right on the way.

IIRC it's about 10 seconds to go to a Toad house. Add another second or so to equip the Frog suit, and (on average) another second to get Fire back afterward, and another few seconds for the slower boss fight - call it 15 seconds. Tompa did the timing on this, so I don't know the exact #, but as I recall it wasn't really close for 3-F2. The frog suit seems much faster in water than it actually turns out to be, I think this is because it can change directions instantly at full speed. Fast swimming with the frog suit gives speed 32 (2 px/frame). Non-frog max swimming speed is 24 (1.5 px/frame). So ignoring the need to accelerate, the frog only swims 33% faster, which isn't going to get you in the ballpark of saving 15 seconds.

Posted: 10/13/2016 1:01 AM

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Lord_Tom

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franpa wrote:

2) I greatly appreciate the inclusion of subtitles, however as a small bit of feedback for future implementation of subtitles for this game please display them at the start of a room/screen transition instead of after the transition is mostly complete. That way there is a greater chance of being able to read them before the event their mentioning, occurs. Also various subtitles seem to appear for too brief a time to read them without pausing the video (usually short 1-liners are displayed for too short of a time).

Glad you like the subtitles. They make a huge difference in my enjoyment of other people's movies, so I try to at least hit the high points. I put them together in kind of a hurry for this run, but I'll see if I can refine the ones on my channel at least. Will post here if/when I do so.

Posted: 10/9/2016 10:46 PM

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Lord_Tom

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This movie is such a great watch, awesome job! Stylistically, I like how you handle the big-enemy fights, you barely ever even see Link's sword. Also, the death abuses grabbing items look really slick.

Posted: 10/6/2016 5:23 PM

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fsvgm777 wrote:

Lord Tom: Do you have the FM2 file with the subtitles, per chance?

No, I just did YouTube subtitles. But if it's helpful I can throw some in the .fm2 in the next day or so. If I'm doing that, would anyone object if I edit in the glitch entrance to the arrow shop suggested by RAT926? It won't affect time, just some extra glitchiness.

Posted: 10/6/2016 4:42 PM

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Lord_Tom

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JSmith wrote:

How far ahead was the cheap meat detour? Is it possible to make up that difference with perfect rupee manipulation?

The cheap meat route saves 40 rupees at a cost of about 300 frames, or 7.5 frames/rupee. I don't believe it's possible to get 8 more blue rupees (or whatever combo of yellows) with that little delay. The reason is the cheap meat route already gets many more rupees (102 vs 42) from enemy drops than the published route. Every drop taken was the "lowest hanging fruit", i.e. the most rupees for the least frames. So adding 40 on top of that forces you to do things like kill enemies you'd normally run past, which entails much greater delay. In the testing I did on this, the projected delays quickly ran up over 300 frames, so I took the cheap meat option.

Posted: 10/3/2016 3:43 AM

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Lord_Tom

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Dude, you are seriously unstoppable. (for those not motivated enough to load the .fm2's, it shows using a title-screen entrance for the shop where I buy the arrow being 3 frames shorter; it's actually 5 frames shorter taking advantage of down-left corners). This doesn't look like it can save time for this movie as 5 frames doesn't help getting the right pattern for the Moblin bomb refill afterwards, but another great find.

Posted: 9/30/2016 2:13 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Kung Knut wrote:

Great TAS, Lord Tom, very impressive indeed. I have a question: Why does screen-wrapping not work in dungeons? If a way to do it would be discovered, since a group of dungeons all belong to the same "internal map" (1-6 and 7-9), would it be possible to warp from one dungeon to another? Would the other dungeons item(s) and triforce be loaded and what would be the effect of collecting them? Would the other dungeons exit be loaded and usable?

Thanks! The screen-wrap (and move-onto-block) glitch works by throwing off Link's walking pattern such that a collision check is missed. This is done be pressing sideways (e.g. L or R while Link is walking up/down) at a particular coordinate, at which point Link turns around instead of to the side. This triggering step doesn't work in dungeon doors as the game seems to restrict Link from turning in them -- he can only face up/down while in top/bottom doors, and left/right while in left/right doors. As to what would happen if you DID manage it, I haven't tested it, though I imagine those who worked on the Japanese-version ACE run may know, since early versions involved a fake item that would scroll from room to room without using the door.

Posted: 9/29/2016 10:19 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Yes, Ganon can only be damaged by the sword (until he's ready for the Silver Arrow); he can't even be damaged by the beam sword, it has to be a stab.

Posted: 9/29/2016 8:46 PM

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Lord_Tom

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No, I got sucked into the Zelda run, but am planning on getting back to this soon.

Posted: 9/29/2016 8:44 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Invariel wrote:

That was a delight to watch, but I am left with one question: is it possible to vertical wrap into 4 instead of walking up and taking the raft, and, if so, would that not save a bit of time?

That would save a lot of time if it were possible as the raft would not be needed at all, and Level 4 could be done first (to get the Ladder). Unfortunately, the screen wrap has limits and it doesn't appear possible to reach Level 4 without the raft. The essential reason is that the status bar has "terrain", some of which is impassable. So you can glitch downward from the screen below Level 4, but wherever you try to do so, you can't wrap up to the status bar. For Level 4 the closest I was able to get is screen-wrapping to the left, starting one screen to the right. It still doesn't work, though, because you get stuck in the strips of water on either side of Level 4.

Posted: 9/29/2016 7:21 PM

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Lord_Tom

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Another one from The Legend of Zelda is killing 16 straight enemies without getting hit will get you at least one (and theoretically as many as 8) fairies. I wrote it up under "Fairy Horde" in the movie submitted yesterday.

Posted: 9/29/2016 5:38 PM
(Edited: 9/29/2016 5:55 PM)

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Lord_Tom

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Derakon wrote:

I do have one question: would it be possible to shoot the Patra with an arrow or two to speed up that fight? That's several seconds of stabbing there, after all, and arrows are more powerful than swords, right? Of course you'd need to find some more rupees somewhere.

Patra can only be harmed by a sword or the non-projectile wand. The silver arrow does 4x wooden sword damage, and the wooden arrow 2x. If arrows did work, it'd be trivial to get a few extra rupees in Level 6 or 7.