I found a trick right after my “all instrument” run was finished that boosted link several pixels, but I wasn’t sure how I specifically did it and if it worked on the DX version. This run started when I verified that the trick worked and worked its way from there.
- Emulator used: VisualBoyAdvance re-recording v22
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses glitches
- Manipulates luck
- Takes damage to save time
Tricks used
Up/down + A or B combos
This allows link to do a variety of glitchy things with items such as the sword, shield, shovel, etc… Using up/down/b allows the owl text near the sword to be skipped.
Corner Boosts
When you walk past a corner you can move into it slightly to push Link a maximum of 2 pixels forward. Often you can only save 1 pixel due to the sideways walking mechanics.
Screen Transition Boosts
This is the new trick I found. First off, this trick only works when Link is traveling vertically between screens. By clipping as close as you can into a wall that leads to the next screen and pressing the direction you’re headed plus the direction of the wall (for 1 or 4 frames depending on diagonal movement mechanics), Link gets a “boost” when he can first start moving on the next screen. This saved around 2-3 pixels. Ideally, you want to just press the direction for 1 frame, because you usually loose a frame if more are held, but it can’t be avoided in some cases. An area where this doesn’t work in this run is after killing the 2 enemies and walking back to the house when exiting the screen with the 2 kids playing since Link can’t clip the few pixels into the wall getting him as close as possible.
Useful memory addresses
0000FF9A – x speed (in subpixels)
0000FF9B – y speed (in subpixels)
0000FF98 – x coordinate (in pixels)
0000FF99 – y coordinate (in pixels)
0000DBB5 – number of enemies killed in the area below town.
Improvement list
Obtaining the Sword
-Using a transition boost while entering the screen with the kids playing saved 1 frame. (1 saved)
-Using another transition boost saved 3 more frames. (4 saved)
-Lost 1 frame right before entering the screen with the first damage boost (either from screen loading lag or subpixels). (3 saved)
-Saved 3 frames by moving on certain frames while pushing the enemy. (6 saved)
-Lost 1 frame during the sword text? (5 saved)
-Lost 1 frame while bringing up the save menu from a frame rule (I tested delaying finishing the text by both 1 and 2 frames and it ended up being the same time, but waiting 3 frames lost 4 frames). (4 saved)
Stealing stuff and setting up the doghouse glitch
-Saved 1 frame stealing the bow from a better shopkeeper cycle or something. (5 saved)
-Saved 10 frames boosting off Bow-wow. Link was 1 extra pixel higher since this was the best manipulation I could get during the Bow-wow boost. I don't actually know if this lost time due to how I'm comparing the runs.
Also manipulating bow-wow was a pain. I resorted to testing random shield inputs on the prior screen until I got movement that looked decent, and worked off that to find if it was. (15 saved)
-Saved 1 frame due to a transition boost. (16 saved)
-Saved 2 more frames from another transition boost. (18 saved)
-Saved 3 frames killing the enemies since the lower enemy starting moving towards the left sooner (the only reason I can think of why this happened is since I got there faster). (21 saved)
-Saved 5 frames due to a transition boost and possibly less loading lag. (26 saved)
-Saved 5 frames by shield bouncing off Bow-wow (with <v>) after the slash boosts. (31 saved)
Getting to the Boss
-Saved 4 frames by having better randomness on the glitchy tiles on the screen where the little Bow-wow lives. I believe the randomness had to do with Link's subpixel values which I believe changed a bit during the shield boost. (35 saved)
-Saved 1 frame on the next screen, not sure how. (36 saved)
-Saved 4 frames on the screen where the tiles start by pushing link backwards a bit. No idea why I saved some here either. (40 saved)
-Saved 1 frame right before entering the boss battle from having better pixel placement. (41 saved)
The good ol’ Boss fight
-Saved 3 frames on the "blob" form of the boss for some reason. (44 saved)
-Saved 1 frame after killing the worm form due to better manipulation of where the worm died. (45 saved)
-Saved 1 frame around the 3rd sword attack or so on Ganon somehow. (46 saved)
-Saved 2 frames because the eye form opened 2 frames earlier. (48 saved)
-Saved 8 frames from lucky eye manipulation. This was the part of the run which I wasn’t looking forward to, and with good reason. Manipulating the eye form is so random from what I’ve tested. Anyway, on my first go, somehow I was able to make the eye “blink” after the 1st damage wave. By blink, when the eye closed, it only closed for 1 frame (verses 9-14 or so in the last run). After that I had terrible manipulation and when I finished I was only 44 frames ahead total.
I redid playing with the boss before the eye first opened and got it to close for 13 frames. After that I got lucky and got it to blink which saved some time. It MIGHT? Be possible to get the boss to blink twice, saving like 12 frames, but I had no luck.
Total frames saved was 56, almost a second.
Possible improvements include finding some way to manipulate the eye boss so that it only closes for 1 frame each time. I was unable to do this, but it theoretically should be possible. Another thing that might help improvements is if there is a way to watch Link’s current subpixel address. I tried finding it, but had no luck.
Nach: I was a bit shocked to see such a run, as I don't think there's a place for it on the site. I was even more shocked to see that there are past glitched runs for LADX that have already been accepted. I don't think this branch has a right to exist under our current structure and rules, and don't even know how there was such an oversight when the previous runs were accepted.
The precedent seems to be that if a run is a good improvement to an existing run, and the audience likes it, it is accepted despite the issues. Since this is indeed a nice improvement to an existing run, and the overwhelming majority of the audience seems to want the run, I will be accepting it. However, at some point in the future, we'll be needing to clarify our rules and consolidate these runs into a single branch, or reorganize them according to a new site structure.
