I've always liked melee weapon-based martial arts games, so Shinobi III is a bit of a special game to me. The range of moves available in this game is impressive: jump-kick, slash, wall-jump, dashing slash, etc... all performed with a single action button. I'd say Shinobi III is my favorite Sega game.
This walkthrough doesn't aim to be a pure time attack. Here are its properties:
No Shuriken usage allowed; I think the gameplay is more impressive if I'm restricted to meleeing. (I use a cheat code to prevent Shurikens from being picked up.)
No Ninjitsu usage allowed.
Highest difficulty.
Must kill all enemies (no running past).
Must open all boxes.
Be as fast as possible, given the above constraints.
http://mint.aaanime.net/sega/shinobi3_1.gmv
This is just a quick test run (no re-records), and I haven't played this game in a while so I'm kind of rusty and made quite a few mistakes. It only covers stage 1.
Comments?
But what you said brings another question to my mind. There was talk of it being possible to bring input logging to Dos and possibly Windows games. But these games (nearly always) need to be installed on your hard drive. Sometimes you can even customize your installation. W/ the way a game has to root itself into each individual user's computer, would it even be possible to share movies over the internet like we do w/ classic consoles and expect it to run. I mean game updating or patching is another issue.
I don't know much but that looks close to impossible to me(unless, of course you'd capture video).
For DOS games, what about running them in a DOS emulator? Do there exist any DOS emulators that can record/playback input just like SNES/Sega/etc. emulators do?
It's been a while since I played Prince of Persia, but here's my thoughts from what I can remember:
Level 1: It's supposed to be possible to just run straight at the first guard without stopping, then perform a running jump. He will swing his sword at you but miss. (Instead of luring him to the screen edge first.)
Level 7: Do you have to drink the slow-fall potion? You could instead lower yourself down and lose 1 HP from falling; might be faster.
Level 8: I loved how you lured the guard into the thing that chops him in half! XD I used to do that every single opportunity I had (same with making them fall in spikes, pit, etc.).
How did you avoid having to wait for the mouse to open the door for you in level 8? I'm guessing you were so fast that it hadn't closed yet?
Level 10: When dealing with the first guard (where you have to run a couple screens to the right, and then run across these loose panels that fall on top of his head, though strangely they don't damage him), would it have been faster to crouch when moving under him (so that he doesn't hear you and turn around), then climb up behind him and surprise him? Instead of running all those screens to the right.
Did you have to kill the yellow guard instead of running past him? I remember trying to reach the switch in the ceiling after running past him but I don't remember whether that was possible. Perhaps pressing "up" (to try to reach the switch) caused me to draw my sword again, or maybe I didn't have enough time and got hit (and killed, since I didn't have my sword drawn).
Weird... after the prince lets the guard kill him and gets the flame, he's supposed to automatically go to his dead body and lie down on it and re-merge with it. o_O
What happened in the level where you have to wait for the mouse to open the gate for you (time index: -6:45)? The gate was already open but the prince waited for the mouse to step on the switch that would have opened it anyway. Is this just a glitch in the NES version of the game?
4) In PC version, level one, you can skip looking for the sword and fight by making the enemy go close to you and doing a go around. But because in NES version enemies can't cross screen, this can't be done.
In the PC version, there's an even faster way of completing the level: Just jump through the first guard (he'll swing at you and miss) and then you'll reach the end of the level without getting the sword. Does that not work in the NES version?
1) You can't jump over some of the enemies, and they don't fall off from platforms.
Can you lure them into that trap that chops you in half? Hmm, I guess that's impossible to do in many cases due to not being able to change sides.
7.5) In level 6, theres a guard know among my friends as "el gordito", it's a bit tougher than normal guards, and have a different look. Of course, in NES version there's no "gordito".
In the PC version, I killed "El Gordito" by just changing sides with him and then hitting him once (even if he blocks), causing him to fall into the pit. :)
Same with Jaffar.
Oh yeah, NES version adds this annoying ever-present 8-bit background music!
It looks like you can't see the entire screen all at once in the NES version; instead it scrolls a bit to the left or right.
Apparently, if you reach above you onto a switch that's on the screen above, you have to actually climb up there for the switch to activate.
Skeletons don't have infinite HP.
After merging with your mirror image, in the PC version there's some tiles that don't appear until you step on them. They're already there in the NES version. (This whole place was supposed to be a bit of a puzzle: First you have to figure out you're supposed to sheath your sword instead of killing your mirror image and thus yourself, and then you're supposed to figure out that you can run into what appears to be a pit but the floor will actually appear for you.)
After that part, there's two screens where there's loose ceiling tiles that shake and fall after you enter the screen. In the NES version, they have already fallen.