Hello TASVideos,
Here's a long time lurker (like 3 years or so) who decided to finally learn how to TAS and give back to the community.
I must admit at first I was clueless as how to even enter frame advance mode, but thanks to the guides I made it through.
So let's get on to bussiness, I'm such a fanboy of this game (and the secuels) I decided to start with this game. I beat it like 4 years ago but I'm familiar enough with it as I got the closest to 100% map completion I could get, and when you dedicate that much time to one particular game it's hard to forget. It helps though that there's this awesome fan page (on japanese, you guess it) that has all the maps and item locations for it (
http://www2.oninet.ne.jp/t_sera/) that will serve me well for route planning.
I think this game has potential for TASing, as this game on the fastest speed (changed conveniently as soon as the game stars) is not that slow. I have known of people who have thrown this game off just by its somewhat slow normal speed, without knowing you can change it. Also there's several decisions to be made involving resource management and route planning (eg. Which items to get, which monsters to kill) for optimal speed, aside from the standard first possible frame input and luck manipulation.
Here's a WIP for the first 3 levels of the game (There are 40+ levels of increasing difficulty):
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/917768916/Brandish%20TAS%28WIP1%29%20by%20Uncle%20Mario.smv
What do you think? By what you've seen, worth a shot?
*****************************************
Some technical stuff
Jumping (4 pixels/frame) is always better than walking (2 pixels/frame) as long the path is equal to 4 or more squares before you have to turn. This means: turn (takes 10 frames), jump, turn is not faster than strafe walking if there's 3 or less squares to be walked in a double turn on the map.
Superjump
Sadly, this is only a graphical bug as far as I've investigated it, because you're still on the same position on the map if you verify it. To do it, after using a sledgehammer on a weakened wall, there's a lag that will come from ~15 to ~31 (variable) frames after it, as anything you do as walking or jumping will delay the lag . Point is you have to be on jumping animation and value 24 (2 bytes) on address 7E42D2 when it comes, you'll notice it because the value will get stuck more frames than usual (2). If you done it right you will apparently jump 3 squares instead of 2 and can enter inside of walls you face front, however, as I said, this is only a graphical bug because your position on the map is the same and will turn off as soon as you turn.
This bug is featured on the WIP around frame ~13780. It's a shame this didn't grant me abilty to pass through walls.
Useful addresses so far (Data size: 2 bytes)
7E42D2 = Remaining pixels to walk/jump vertically. Y speed is figured from this. When jumping value 0 is the first possible frame to input again. When walking, 4 or 1020 (depending on direction).
7E42D0 = Remaining pixels to walk horizontally. X speed is figured from this. When walking value 4 or 1020 (depending on direction) is the first possible frame to input again.
7E0596 = Current exp.
7E0590 = Arm strenght.
7E058D = Luck (stat). Loops up/down, no apparent way to manipulate it until I get a certain item.
