Alright, this is my second attempt at a Clash at Demonhead run, at 22:17, 1:26 faster than my first attempt.
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Aims for fastest time
First the specs, I used FCEU since Famtasia messes the game up pretty bad.
Clash at Demonhead is a fun game that is sadly not as well known as it should be. You play as Bang, a special ops agent sent to Mt. Demonhead to rescue Professor Plum and retrieve his Doomsday Bomb. The came is comprised over various 'Routes' which are connected at certain nodes. Each Route is a side-scrolling stage with two exits, which will take you to two other nodes. You progress along the map like that, ando nce you get the Hermit's teleportation ability moving around becomes much faster. Your main goal is to collect the 6 Medallions, four of which are gotten from beating four standard bosses, the other two require a bit of runaround to get. There are a couple of other goals that need to be reached, and there's even one or two that are not required to finish the game (beating Pandar, meeting Joe) which I have opted not to do for the sake of speed.
I won't get into the huge description of the run like I did last time, I'll just document them major changes over the first unpublished version:
Early on I made a minor route change, instead of backtracking out of Route 3 I continue on and enter Route 11 from the other end, this shaved off probably the single greatest amount of time.
Just about every boss battle is improved a bit, especially Max.
I summon the shop much earlier, as soon as I beat Gahz, actually. As a result money was a tad tighter but it still made the run much more fast paced, overall.
As a result of being short on cash, I make a brief detour after beating Shark, and go to Route 22 in order to exchange my gold bars for cash. I spend about a half a minute or so getting there, but I get $12000. In the end of the run I have spent virtually all of my cash, so I beleive this side trip was worth it.
I buy one Scuba Suit, compared to using none in the first version. Swimming is much faster in the Scuba suit, and the battle with Shark is made faster with it as well.
Another time saver I discovered is the fact I managed to skip one brief dialogue scene. On Route 39 as I approach the top of the Demon's Tower I manage to enter it before Bang starts speaking about where the entrance is, shaving off a few seconds.
As a result of having more items than I did the first time around, climbing up Mt. Demonhead on Route 42 is much faster.
On that same Route you'll notice I summon the Shop twice. This is because the first trip Jetpacks were not available, but they were on the second. This is something that cannot be manipulated by luck, the stock in the Shop is set by a pattern. Either I summoned the Shop twice there, or I summoned it for no reason early on. Either way I needed that other Jetpack. I couldn't buy an extra one in the previous Shop call since you can only carry a max of 3. Planning out the item use and shop calling was probably the trickiest part of this run. There may still be some improvement in that area, though I haven't seen it yet.
Not much is different in the final battles, That Samurai Guy is beaten just a bit faster.
The few times I remove items throughout the game, even though it looks like I didn't have to, I did. In those cases I had to keep myself from losing the item sooner than I needed it.
Again, I'll state that the life I 'lost' during the first battle with the Demon was mandatory, and there was no way around it.
I believe I have 100% accuracy this time. I take less damage as well, so all n' all this run is much much smoother compared to the last one.
The planning of this run had a few stages, first there was deciding on the optimal Route to take, and even that was revised a few times in the process of making it. Secondly was the planning of item usage, which was no easy feat. Taking into account that Bang moves much faster with the Boots, faster still with the Jetpack, they cost $5000 and $8000 respectively, you can only carry 3 of any item at one time, the few other items I HAD to buy, and the fact that the stock in the shop wasn't always available each time, plotting item usage was a real pain. Though it has improved greatly in this run over the last one.
So that's about it. I'd like to thank everyone who has given comments and criticism on the first version, and hopefully this second version is up to everyone's standards of a good time attack.

DeHackEd: By popular request (and a good-looking run) I'll encode it.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #482: Spoony_Bard's NES Clash at Demonhead in 22:16.53
Joined: 8/1/2004
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Location: Seattle, WA
A great submission, but I had one quick question... In one area, you have to climb up the left side of a red cliff thing. As soon as you reach the top, you activate your boots to make a jump across the chasm and leave the area. When you leave, your boots seem to die. I think you could save a few frames/seconds if you activated the boots right when you land on the 2nd tiny platform in the cliff area, which would let you jump up the majority of the wall (rather than climb at slow speeds). Your boots would still last to the end of the area, and so their exhaustion wouldn't be a total waste. I may be wrong about something here, but thats just what I saw. Otherwise, good show. Voted yes.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
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Excellent job, everything looks good. May be improvable, but certainly an excellent, well-planned run through this game.
Fihlvein
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I think it was very nice speedrun. There wasn't many parts where clash had to walk with no speedups and that's really nice. Good work with collecting money.
Joined: 6/27/2004
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Location: New York
Indeed. It looks great, a lot of improvements from the last one. The only thing that kind of bothered me was that it seemed like a lot of hits were taken which could have been avoided, but they didn't take away from your time. I vote this game having the ugliest characters of any game, Michael topping them off. I also vote it having the most "final bosses". When you killed demon, I thought it'd be over. Then when you killed whoever was next, I thought it'd be over. Then there were about 4 more of those. Good show, yes from me.
Joined: 12/20/2004
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A great run, I remember having this game when I was really young and never knowing where to go. The only complaint I have (and this is really minor) is what Blechy said about some of the damage you take could have been avoided.
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 91
This is an amazing run of one of my old favorite NES games. My only curiosity was with the "hat" governor. It seems like a couple of seconds are spent waiting for a projectile from one of the "ladies" to explode so the governor would appear. Perhaps it would have been possible to shoot the top "lady" before the other two to avoid this? Of course, you probably already considered that, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway. Yes vote all the way!
Joined: 1/23/2005
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Bump? Just wondering why this hasn't been posted yet, since there are 14 "yes" votes for it. I am a bit of a newbie though...
ventuz
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I think Bisqwit or whoever actually wanted comment that if it is really "done quick" before publishing ;). To me, it *looked* fast to me, but I myself never played it. It look like a fun game to try out.
Joined: 6/27/2004
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I like this run a lot, it's one of my favorite ones in the submissions list.
Joined: 8/17/2004
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I thought it being as fast as possible was really a given on this site, actually ^_^ I certainly don't see any way the game could be improved in any large extent, save for some minor aesthetic details. Unless, of course, someone comes upon a time-saving glitch that I'm unaware of (I've been playing around with the rom lately, actually, just to make sure there isn't, so far nothing). Of course if I find something like that then I'll re-do the run, using frame-advance a lot more as well just to make it smoother. But other than that, I don't see how it could be made a lot faster. I've been wondering myself why it hasn't been published, or even a question on it actually. ^_^
Joined: 1/23/2005
Posts: 22
Bumping this up again, since there seems to be no firm reason why it hasn't been posted...
Fihlvein
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There is no reason. This movie is great.
Joined: 8/1/2004
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Not wanting this excellent publish-worthy movie to be forgotten, I'll throw my two cents in that this movie should definitely be high on the publishing-priority list!
Joined: 1/23/2005
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Yeah, I agree. I've wanted to see this in AVI format for a few weeks now.
Fihlvein
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I'm getting angry this not being published while other new ones getting imediately. Yes votes: 16 No votes: 0 Pardon me for my negativeness, I love this site every day more and more: :*
Joined: 11/27/2004
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Location: Calgary, AB
Excellent movie. It deserves to be published.
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Well I can understand the admin being busy with other submissions, real life, etc. And those other movies which have been published almost immediately were either awaited submissions from much more experienced individuals or considerate improvements over existing movies. I'm a new guy and Clash at Demonhead really isn't as well known as other games. This is pretty much why I haven't poked any of them directly. Though, I would at least like, perhaps, a comment or a question from one of them. As far as I can tell the admin haven't even glanced at my movie yet, or if they have they never commented. There isn't even a criticism or request for improvement so I can only assume they haven't rejected it, and it's just that my queue hasn't come up...
Joined: 1/23/2005
Posts: 22
Whatever the reason, it has now been several weeks. You might want to e-mail / page them if you can, since myself and others seem to be clamoring for this run.
nesrocks
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this is nice, i didnt know this game and now i do. its an action game with a funny history, dialogues and lots of items to use. even though i dont know the game, it was an impressive watch. yes vote
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [295] NES Clash at Demonhead by Spoony_Bard in 22:16.53
Joined: 1/23/2005
Posts: 73
Location: Pekin IL
i only have one...beef...about the movie. There are a few points which it looked like you played realtime, and didn't erase mistakes. Early on you jump 3 times for a small easy jump, some item optization seems weird. (one boots wore off, then you waited 4 seconds to put on the new boots) This is one game i do not have in my NES collection, and it is a very good movie to watch anyway.
Joined: 8/17/2004
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I addressed those issues when I was initally doing the run, perhaps you weren't around at the time. The places where I jump several times to fit into a narrow passageway are necessary. It's just the way the game is programmed (each jump brings Bang another pixal 'closer' to the gap and he needs to jump at least twice, sometimes thrice to make it) The item usage may have seemed sporadic, but any moment I wait to put items on, it would be because they would wear off before I needed them later. If the game only allowed you to carry more than three of one item at a time it would probably go a lot smoother, but I'm sadly restrained by the game's engine ^_^ Though I am very happy that it has finally been published.
Joined: 1/23/2005
Posts: 73
Location: Pekin IL
that makes more sense on the jumping thing. I am pretty new to this area. I don't remember specific examples of the item useage, but i'll take your word there too. This is one of the few carts i do not own, so i'll be playing this soon.
Joined: 9/26/2004
Posts: 217
What's a cart? Seriously, though, I'm happy this finally got recognized. Nice job.