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I'm pretty sure that there is no way to pass this massive quicksand passage without waiting for the creature to destroy it for you. This are solid blocks that you can't destroy yourself in any case.
The only thing that might work is to use the X-Ray scope climb and the out of area tricks to somehow get through this room however I'm not sure if it still would be faster than the legal way. Kejardon is one of the experts in this stuff so maybe ask him for some hints if JXQ is at this point.
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I ment other statuses like boosting speed up to 99 but which is allowed till 16 legally. The evade will of course stay at 99 in the New Game+ as it is a legal change but it won't affect anything in the battle at all. All you need is maxed out speed magic and power. Lavos has a 100% hit value so it doesn't matter how much evade you have. The only thing that could possibly be useful is Marles Strike/Hit Value which would up the damage of the Bow. But I'm not sure if it would change anything in the battle either as the main damager is Cronos Luminaire.
If there is still something of use that could be faked into the SRAM file (which I can hardly believe) then just look at this one as a legal SRAM-file (it's fully proveable by checking the statuses).
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JXQ wrote:
The SRAM can be hacked to give the characters higher stats than can be achieved during normal play
No this won't work. You can't get any higher than the max level of each status. All the needed statuses in my savefile of this movie were maxed out to 99 by using Tabs if a character couldn't reach them himself at level 99 (for example Magic Tabs on Chrono or Power Tabs on Marle). Also I think if you transfer a hacked SRAM file to a New Game+ it will be set to legal values again otherwise the game wouldn't recognize it.
This movie beats the game as fast as possible with the best possible conditions you can get and this is the point of this movie. It's absolutely frame-perfect and I took very much effort for it. However if no one sees a point of a New Game+ TAS competition (I do) then reject it.
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Fabian wrote:
I've been bored the last few days and have tried this a few times. It made me realize how much I suck at actually playing games, although I did get to Vanilla Dome 2 on one occassion without making any mistakes. The SDA record for this is really impressive I think.
I totally agree. The 100% run was finished in only 1:31:30 in a single-segment which is only 8 min slower than our TAS and the author managed to go through the entire game without dying once even in the most difficult and tricky stages. It's just awesome over such a long time-period.
This run can be found here: http://speeddemosarchive.com/MarioWorld.html#*96
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Almost no progress the last week because I was very busy at work and away in the weekend. Just got the Energy Tank and the Super Missile and am right before the Spikes where I have to find the best damage moves in the fastest possible time. When I find some free-time I will record it further. Can't promise too much currently.
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Nightcom wrote:
Super Hard Metroid or something, anyone played that hack? I couldn't find a download link to it, many people said it was too hard and very hard but interesting -- so if well made it could perhaps be a good candidate for an impressive speedrun.
Yes I played it to test the difficulty and get some ideas for my extremely hard type hack I worked at this time (now I have delayed it because of the RBO run).
It's a very interesting hack with many tricky and confusing parts which require alot of searching and exploring to find your way through therefore I don't think it will make a good speedrun because of the endless labyrinths in the layer which will cost you extremely much time to pass.
I also did a walkthrough for this hack and ended with a time of around 3 hours mainly because of tons detours as I didn't know where to go imediately.
To get the hack I recommend to contact the author personally via email (I got it on this way). Just look at the official topic of this hack at SCU to get all information: www.samusforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=5177
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JXQ wrote:
How can you get a blue suit with a crystal flash? I thought it was gotten by speed-jumping into Draygon when his energy is low enough to kill him that way.
Unfortunately I can't get a speed-jump in water without Gravity Suit so there is no other way except Crystal Flash. You have to activate a Ice-Shield (with help of a power bomb and the Ice Beam only) and then imediately make a Crystal Flash. Now if Draygon gets killed by the Ice-Shield during the Crystal Flash animation you get a Blue Suit which allows you a free charge at any time. This special glitch works only on Draygon because he is the only boss who cancels Samus' position to "standing" after he gets killed which somehow affects a byte that causes this glitch to work.
Here a post from Metroid2002 of Kejardon, the glitch-master of Super Metroid about this glitch:
Kejardon wrote:
Crystal Flash uses a certain byte in data to check which frame of the crystal flash animation to display. Coincidentally, this same byte is used as a counter to see if Samus can super jump. If the crystal flash is aborted in the middle, the byte will be left at some non-zero value, and the game will think that Samus still has time to super jump. But because Samus never properly charged for a super jump, the timer isn't decreased every frame as it normally is.
There are two ways to cause the Crystal Flash to stop. The first is to let Draygon hit you with gunk, then pick you up. Be careful not to use the super jump after getting out of Draygon's grasp, though. The second way is to kill Draygon *while* doing a crystal flash. The crystal flash can't kill Draygon, and you can't do anything during the crystal flash to kill Draygon, so you have to set up a beam shield before crystal flashing to kill Draygon.
Crystal Flash doesn't (directly) get Samus blue suit. It only gets an unlimited time, single use Super Jump. But since you can do a Super Jump underwater, you can use that super jump to kill Draygon and get a blue suit.
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I really work on the run, but Brinstar has very tricky parts which require much more testing than usual therefore the progress is slower.
Torgen wrote:
Saturn: I'm not sure if you've mentioned it yet, but will you be getting the grappling beam? It seems like it might give you better mobility in several of the water rooms (making up for the lack of Gravity Suit), although I'm not sure if the detour would end up being worthwhile, or if there's a silly rule in the game like, "You can't use the grappling beam underwater without the gravity suit." Even if you did get the grappling beam, it would still be faster just to pepper the boss with super missiles than to use the grapple trick, correct? (ie. Water doesn't slow down your rate of fire--or does it?)
I'm not taking the Grapple Beam because in my RBO run I'm not allowed to fight mini-bosses at all (except unavoidable), this is my general rule for this run. I also think I will still save some time not fighting Crocomire at the end as it would take more time beating him than passing Maridia without Grapple using the best speed tricks there.
Water doesn't slow anything down except the movements of Samus so I could use the Grapple Beam without Gravity Suit too and the Fire-Rate would be the same. I'm not sure if the Grapple kill on Draygon would be slower than Super Missiles if executing correctly. This needs to be tested to know the exact result for both variations. However I can't use any of this methods in the RBO run because I will have to use another Crystal Flash in order to get a Blue Suit which allows me to super jump out of the vertical room just before Draygon. There is no other way to get out of this room, so without this glitch a RBO run wouldn't even be possible at all.
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Wow JXQ this songs sound really professional, respect!
My favourite of them is "As I write" 'cause I like the rhythm, the background sound effects and this song is pretty cool and chilling.
I know exactly that writing the lyrics and the beat proper to them is hard work because my cousin also makes such rap-songs in his free time. You have talent man. :-)
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Highness wrote:
Saturn - And it's not possible to bomb-jump out of it either right?
Like place a bomb that detonates the very same moment as you grab the item?
Sounds interesting but it won't work. When you touch a item everything gets paused (even the background animation) imediately. It doesn't matter if a bomb explodes in this moment or not.
And about the any% time discussion:
I personally believe that Teri's run can be improved by at least 3 minutes using all the newest speed tricks perfect optimized in every room. Mavbe the arm pumping won't save a full minute alone but at least a half during the entire game. The acceleration of it is much greater so it is even more effective in short distances to use which are alot available in the game.
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Tub wrote:
woah, this whole discussion turned into something.. well.. something not smooth.
So I'll just add one question.
Saturn wrote:
I'm glad you guys like my idea and the run so much. This gives me an enormous amount of motivation to work on it further, thank you all!
If kind words can motivate you to work faster, how much kind words would it take to have you finish the run in.. say.. one week? I'm prepared to type all night if needed :p
Of course I didn't meant it that exactly. The progressing speed mostly depends on the amount of testing I have to do in later situations which I can't plan ahead. Also I don't always have much freetime for TASing but I try to progress. There is no way for me to get to Ridley in one week because I will be pretty busy in the next days. Sometimes I get too tired in the evening which doesn't allow me to record a good TAS so I better let it be until I feel better.
Highness:
There is no way to use any tricks you mentioned during the pause screen. I tested different button presses during the screen but nothing works. The in-game timer stops during all Item-screens anyway so I don't lose time picking a item at all
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EscapePlan9 wrote:
I know it's been a while... I just returned to school last week. To say the least, life has been hectic. A lot of my free time is spent with my friends and neighbors, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Anyhow... I've completed another couple tracks, but still haven't finished Division A of Bogmire. I'm not feeling very inspired to complete these Division A's - 16 tracks per planet is too much!
But I'm not giving up the run yet. I'll keep on truckin', just it will take me longer than expected.
No problem, I often have the same situation. Let you time as much as you need (I need 1/2 year per good TAS) just don't give up this run please.
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I give my best to keep the quality of the run thoroughly not only in the demo scenes. The Maridia part won't be that slow (overall it should be not longer than 15 min in total with returning) because the pumping arms trick works even in water which increases my speed and gives a much better acceleration which is the most useful thing. And don't worry about the additional item collecting in Brinstar, it will allow me to show many additional crazy tricks which would be lost otherwise and it really won't take much time to get this items.
moozooh wrote:
Saturn, have you finally managed to get past Mt. Doom one of the faster ways while testing (if tested at all)?
Yes I tested this part and there is no way around freezing the crabs to get up there. However (not sure if mentioned here already) I found a way to 1-wall jump up even in water (slow but still) which will cut some time in Mt. Doom because I won't have to freeze the crabs that often this way.
I'm glad you guys like my idea and the run so much. This gives me an enormous amount of motivation to work on it further, thank you all!
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Highness wrote:
I smell a star-vote heading your way when this is done Saturn. Keep it up. I almost get goose-bumps when thinking of the completed material. I will probably have to swallow my heart as my pulse will be so freakin' high that it will jump out my throat while watching the final. :D
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Walker Boh wrote:
That sounds awesome Saturn! So how long is it left? Is it only Ridley left before Tourian? Also, that Crystal Flash, is it when Samus regains health from her supply of missiles and stuff? Because that would be fantastic to see in a TAS because first it's a really cool trick in the game, and secondly, its rarely seen and used. I never uses it anyway when I play the game ;)
I would say the next update will be in at least 2 weeks till one month. And no, Ridley will be the first boss I will face (he is normaly last but I do a Reverse Boss Order run as already known therefor the Boss Order is: Ridley, Draygon, Phantoon, Kraid). Ridley will definitely be the hardest part of the entire movie because I not only fight against him but also against the heat which drains my energy constantly during the entire fight ---> means I will only have a very limited amount of time to kill him and this even without Plasma and most likely without Super Missiles.
About the Crystal Flash: Yes, I regain energy from Missiles (10 each, but 11 Power Bombs). There is no other way to get the Super Missiles without fighting Spore Spawn as JXQ already said. The Crystal Flash is (or was in the 90's) a very rare and top-secret technique. Back in the 90's we only have seen it in one of the demo-scenes at the beginning of the game (when you not press start and wait) and never could find out ourselfs how to perform it, thats why I bought a entire "Top-Secret" Guide to only find out how it works :-)
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Next Update will be after I defeat Ridley. I'm now back in Brinstar to make the final clean-up before returning to Norfair again for Ridley.
In Brinstar I have to use a Crystal Flash to get the Spore Spawn Missile and I have to test on which way I can get rid of all my energy as fast as possible. This part will surely require alot of testing therefor the next update will still take a good while.
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hmmm very strange. Only reason could be that I loaded the playback from a wrong savestate which I did myself at around frame 111000 and until 168000 it did well. I try playbacking it from beginning without any savestates and if it still desyncs I will make a AVI of how the desync look like.
The settings I use are the same as you told me. WIP1, volume envelope and sound samples BTW.
EDIT: It was indeed a bad savestate. It's very strange that the playback was correct such a long time though. After playbacking the movie from beginning and after loading other savestates the movie was in sync all the time. It was my bad.
Just in case someone want to see the desync or maybe find a reason why it has happend just load this savestate while playbacking EscapePlans movie.
http://rapidshare.de/files/11122430/Rock_N__Roll_Racing__U_.002.html
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I noticed that the file-size of "snes9x-v8.exe" you linked to is only 382 KB big. When I compare it to v7 or any other previous version they have a file-size of more than 1 MB. I just wonder why is v8 3x smaller althought it has more features?
Other than that it works fine, and I haven't noticed any errors so far.