Post subject: Clash at Demonhead
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Clash at Demonhead is an fun platformer with awesome dialogs. There's a published run of the game here. There's a topic here that discusses this game, but I thought it best to create a topic solely devoted to discussing this game. Any moderator is of course free to merge these two topics. I have made a full TAS of the game that beats the game in 18:11, 4 min 5 seconds faster than the published run. This TAS is more of a testrun (although quite optimized), so I will redo it before submitting anything. The input file is here: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1242884796/clash_at_demonhead_randil_v1.fm2 Major changes are: *A new trick that allows me to only use up half as much of the power boots as you usually do: when running you gain momentum, increasing by 1 per frame, up to a maximum of 16. When you release the D-pad, your momentum will decrease by 1 per frame and you will continue moving until you lose all your momentum. The power boots meter does not decrease when you don't press the D-pad. So what I do in the TAS is to run for 16 frames and then releases the D-pad for 16 frames - I will move at top speed by doing this, but only deplete the power boots meter for the 16 frames I hold down the D-pad. This trick basically makes the power boots item last twice as long. This makes the power boots item very desirable as they now last around 40 seconds, compared to the normal 20. *I don't make the detour to route 22 to change in my gold for money, as I don't need that money. *I climb mount Demonhead without getting pulled down. This saved about 1 minute. *Bosses are killed faster, in particular the first boss. *Less shopping, and done in better places. I would love to hear any improvement ideas you might have (even crazy ones). As I said above, I will make a new version before submitting anything - there are some things I want to test, and I know of a few frames I can shave off.
Ambassador, Experienced player (696)
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Great run on an awesome hidden gem game. I remember thinking the published run seemed a bit slow. This definitely does the game justice though. Could it be possible to get a jet pack before that first shaft climb? That's the only part that seems slow. Other than that I don't really have much to say, this looks really good. Have you figured out how enemy drops work and is there any way to improve your luck? The route is pretty straightforward I think, especially once you get teleport.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
TheAxeMan wrote:
Great run on an awesome hidden gem game.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
TheAxeMan wrote:
Could it be possible to get a jet pack before that first shaft climb?
Interesting idea, I'll look into it. The testrun showed that I can spend some more money without worrying about being broke by the end.
TheAxeMan wrote:
Have you figured out how enemy drops work and is there any way to improve your luck?
The drop physics are fairly simple: The game has a kill counter (RAM address 00E6). When you kill an enemy, this counter increases by 1. In order to find out what the enemy drops, take the value of 00E6 modulu 16, and find the drop from the following table: 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 950$ 4 - 5 Apple 6 - 7 - 8 950$ 9 - 10 - 11 950$ 12 - 13 Heart 14 - 15 - I have occasionally made the kill counter increase by 2 for one kill (I don't know if it is present in the TAS though, as it's hard to replicate). I don't know under what circumstances this happens, but it's another thing I want to investigate more for the next version. If I can master this trick, I can get a lot more money quickly.
Editor, Experienced player (852)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
Any progress, Randil?
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Oh! Well, I did start a new run a short time after my last post in this thread, and I did make some progress (I managed to squeeze out a few frames from the first minute or so). However, due to lack of time, I did not get any further. So this is yet another one of my projects that kinda died away. I've actually considered submitting the posted run. As I see it, there are pros and cons to this: Pros: *It's a complete run that is significantly faster than the published run. *I don't think I will redo it any time soon (I don't have any plans to do so). Cons: *The run is known to be improvable. How much is hard to say. My guess is that if I were to redo it, it would be about 5-10 seconds faster, and would look a bit "cleaner" in terms money (end the game with close to 0 money). What do people think? Should I submit the run I posted?
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3584)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4738
Location: Tennessee
I think you should submit it. If we are going to have a stale improvable run published for years to come, it should be the better of the two.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11264
Location: RU
Submit it, known improvements are okay as long as they aren't applied yet. May I start encoding the WIP above?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden