Tremane & willwc "Mega Man IV" in 35:53 also known as Rockman World 4 (ロックマンワールド4 in Japan) is the fourth installment in the handheld version of the Mega Man series. The game continues the quest of the protagonist, Mega Man, in a never-ending struggle with his long-time nemesis, Dr. Wily. Mega Man IV features the ability to purchase items with drops found throughout each stage. The Mega-Buster received an upgrade after Mega Man III, and Mega Man now gets knocked back by recoil when firing a fully charged shot. As with previous Game Boy releases, the game incorporates gameplay elements and bosses from two sequential Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games: Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 5.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.9.1
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck (tremendous)
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses no passwords
  • Restart the Game to skip a Cutscene in the Beginning

willwc and I were working on this game since the end of 2014 with a small break in March, since both of us had no time there.


About the Game

Mega Man IV is the fourth game on the Gameboy. The Plot is the same as the 3 previous games. Dr. Wily is trying rule the World and Mega Man has to stop him. In this Game, we fight 4 Robot Masters from Mega Man 4 NES Pharaoh, Ring, Toad, Bright and 4 from Mega Man 5 NES Charge, Crystal, Napalm, Stone. The Mega Buster receives an upgrade. Compared to Mega Man III, the half-charged shot is not wider than the uncharged, just faster. The fully-charged shot causes recoil after shooting, which we abuse in Crystal Man's Stage to use a shortcut. The game features solid gameplay, good music, AND probably the best Cutscenes in any Mega Man Gameboy game.
It is worth mentioning that after each Boss fight, the player has to stand in the middle! Boss bubbles don't have to leave the screen to activate the Get Weapon animation earlier.

Stage by stage comments

Pharaoh Man:

We start with Pharaoh Man. He gives us arguably the most valuable weapon of the game, the Pharaoh Shot, which can shoot in any direction except straight down/up. It deals 2/4/6 damage to several enemies, including the last Dr. Wily phase!
The Stage itself is straight forward. Only the last jump off the moving stone platforms is difficult, as it has to be done at the right moment to allow making the jump to the higher platform (Hence the delay before slide jumping).
Pharaoh goes down with no problems (Note: doing the 3-1-3-1... pattern is faster then simple charging).

Ring Man:

Pharaoh Shot allows for finishing this stage as fast as possible; as mentioned above, Pharaoh Shot is very versatile and does a lot of damage to the enemies in this Stage (e.g. a cannon in Ring Man's Stage takes 5 buster hits, but only a half-charged Pharaoh Shot to be killed).
The fastest route requires 1 big refill and 2 small refills, which are collected at the most appropriate times.
Ring Man takes 2/4/6 damage from Pharaoh shot, so a 6-2-6-2-4 cycle is used to kill him (Note: A small shot can be fired while charging a big shot by sliding, releasing the B button, then standing up OR pressing the other direction, and pressing B again. A video can be added showing this step, if requested).

Toad Man:

This Stage was done by "willwc" Thank you for that!! Toad Man's Stage is pretty straight forward, same as Pharaoh Man's Stage. Collecting the small refill right at the beginning is faster than refilling 2 bars later! The planning of the Stage is pretty solid. The first Snail Midboss can be skipped by precisely jumping over it. Killing birds and parachute guys in the rain decreases lag.
The Toad Man fight begins with a fully-charged Pharaoh Shot, and he is finished with nicely placed Ring Boomerangs in the face and back.

Bright Man:

Along with Crystal Man's Stage, this is the laggiest Stage. After receiving Rush Coil from Toad Man, Rush is used to get over the spikes and to climb some ladders faster. Ring Boomerang is used to kill enemies and to spare Pharaoh Shots for the Bright Man fight. Otherwise, steps are taken to decrease lag as much as possible.
Bright Man´s weakness is Rain Flush. This is slow in that it takes a long time to start the rain and hit Bright Man (Note: he takes 6 dmg per Rain Flush because he is hit twice per use). Instead, Pharaoh Shot + duplication trick is used to finish him off quickly (Buster charges are: 30/half/ - 90/full/ | Pharaoh charges are: 41/half/ - 71/full/ ), that´s why we use Pharaoh Shot instead of Mega Buster.

Quick note: The "B E A T" letters are not collected, since it costs 30 seconds to receive Beat and he doesn´t even speed up the gameplay significantly.

Satellite/Ballade #1:

After a long cutscene, in which Mega Man somehow shoots down the giant robot castle, a fight begins against the Satellite. It is weak to Pharaoh Shot. It should be mentioned that from this point onwards, weapon energy won´t be refilled between stages anymore. Still, it is faster to use Pharaoh Shot here and get a refill later!
Ballade has no weakness (except Power Stone, which deals 2 dmg per hit and can double hit, which is covered in the #2 fight), so the 3-1-3-1... Buster strat is used to finish him off. As mentioned in the Forum, it´s not that relevant where Mega Man or Ballade are since the teleport out is a fixed action.

Charge Man:

For the next 4 Robot Masters, Charge Man is visited first, despite only having Crystal Man's weakness. Collecting Rush Jet now saves more time in Napalm Man's Stage than using Power Stone saves on Charge Man.
The Stage is pretty straight forward, using the Buster all the way. From this point on, the "W I L Y" letters MUST be collected.
Charge Man goes down as mentioned above using 3-1-3-1... cycles

Crystal Man:

After Charge Man, it´s time for Crystal Man. Rush Coil was tested in the beginning, but was found to not save time due to stupid platform placements and less than optimal use. :( Rush Coil is still used later on in the stage, enabling one of the appearing pillars to be skipped.
The fully-charged Buster shot is used to evade one of the Diamond Joes and save time by not going around him. Ring Boomerang is used to collect the "W" from the other side of the wall. After that, the route splits into 2 directions. The top route is faster than the bottom route, even though damage is taken 3 times! The rest of the Stage is straight forward.
The Crystal Man fight is laggy with his Crystal Eyes. It is faster to just do the fight as it is, as there is no method to be hit by 3 Crystal Eyes (removing the Eyes and the lag) and still hit him as fast as possible. It requires collecting another big refill or 2 small refills to make it a worthwhile strategy.

Napalm Man:

The Stage starts with a little bit of waiting time on the Blocks, so the jump down is done as early as possible. After that, Rush Jet is used to cross the big pit, and the bottom route is taken as the top is inaccessible with Rush Jet, which saves a menu. It´s very tricky to access the bottom route, since it requires being close to the screen transition but also standing on Rush's nose so as to not be caught in the ceiling after the transition. Rush Jet is used to collect the letter from the left, and changed to Crystal Eye for the Boss fight. Changing to Flash Stopper or something different would just lose time.
The Napalm Man fight is easy. Stay away from him, hit him as early as possible, and finish in the center.

Stone Man:

The Mega Buster is used until the first Hippo fight (which cannot be skipped :< ). Pharaoh Shot is used to finish it off, then Ring Boomerang until the #2 Hippo fight. After that, Pharaoh Shot is refilled before switching back to Ring Boomerang, which is also refilled. Ring Boomerang is used to get the "L" letter a little bit more to the left, which saves some frames!
The Stone Man battle begins with a Ring Boomerang for 1 dmg, and Napalm Bomb finishes him off with 3 damage per hit.

Ballade #2 + escape:

After showcasing all 4 letters, there is a small stage where the player could get some extras (refills, lives etc...).
After all that, Ballade appears for a final showdown. This time, he places explosives on the ground and can shoot some projectiles. With some manipulation, he just jumps around like a frog. (✌゚∀゚) Power Stone is his weakness, which is exploited this time for 4 damage per cycle despite the lag.
There may be a way to save more time in the escape route, but it presents a problem with weapon switching and what to use in which spot. The method in the run seems to work fine.

Wily Spaceship:

As a reward for finishing the ground station, Mega Man wins a trip to space! There's also an opportunity to buy something from Dr. Light, which is, of course, refused. (゚ヮ゚)/
This is probably the longest stage in the Game Boy series, except for the Wily Star Station in Mega Man V Gameboy. It has 3 Midbosses (Crane + 2x Hunter) and several tricky parts. First off, Mega Man is greeted with some Rockets and 2 Met-Cannons. Those go down with 8 Ring Boomerangs. After that is the "Crane." Its weakness is either Beat or Pharaoh Shot. Right after the fight, Mega Man uses the Flash Stopper to not get hit by those rockets that come out from the ground. Next, a falling stone section can be ignored by using Rush Jet. ;> Rush Jet is also used to climb some ladders faster or to avoid fighting some enemies. The first spikes are passed with a damage boost. After that, it´s simply using Rush Jet and Flash Stopper to avoid enemies.
The first "Hunter" or "Wily Eye" is up next. Its weakness is Napalm Bomb or Pharaoh Shot. Since this first form is flying around like a maniac, it´s best to use Pharaoh Shot here. Doing some "over the Head" hits saves some weapon energy, and killing 2 of the copies speeds up the fight significantly.
In the next section, Flash Stopper disables the Rockets and allows for an easy kill on the chicken. There is another damage boost over spikes, and Rush Jet usage, then Charge Kick is used to avoid unnecessary fights.
In the second "Hunter" fight, Napalm Bomb is the weakness. In order to save some Pharaoh Shot for the refights, both parts are destroyed in the top left corner so the health refill can be collected immediately, preventing some lag.

Refights:

There may be a better route to fight them, but this method is one of the fastest with the least amount of menus. Counter-clockwise from the top left is the way to go. There is not much to say about the fights..

Wily fights:

  • First phase:
The weakness is Crystal Eye. There are 2 patterns, either the one that shows in the run or another where he slams the ground and creates a lot of lag. Of course, the pattern without lag is used and the fight finishes with Mega Man perfectly centered.
  • Second phase:
The weakness is Ballade Cracker. It is best to shoot as early as possible. The last hit is delayed in order to go to the right as far as possible, since the last phase starts when Mega Man leaves the screen to the right.
  • Third phase:
The weakness, and this is a huge change compared to the first 3 Mega Man Gameboy games, is not the Ballade Cracker! Even if it deals a good amount of damage to Wily, the Pharaoh Shot deals 6 damage, finishing the fight before he even starts.
After that, Dr. Wily makes his escape once again and Mega Man escapes from the Space station with some help...No spoilers here! (✌゚∀゚)..
The Credits start to roll...

Other comments

  • Last Input is on frame "128609" which is the last textbox input!
  • Final hit on Wily is at frame "123665"!
  • Final Input before the last hit is "123638"!
The whole run is great to watch, at least for everybody that likes the Blue Bomber. The Crystal Man, Napalm Man, Stone Man, and the Wily Space Station Stages are ESPECIALLY great to watch!!
There are definitely spots that can be improved. Still, the Run was planned by us (willwc & tremane) who, I think, have the most experience with the game and have tried a lot of things that would speedup the process!

I´d like to say THANKS:
  1. willwc for helping me with this run!
  2. Mothrayas for getting me started with TAS'ing!
  3. Bag of Magic Food (bomf) for the other great Mega Man Game Boy TAS'es
  4. TASVideos for providing these runs!
  5. Barnowl & Protomagicalgirl for some Strats and ideas!
  6. All I forgot ♥ ♥ ♥

Screenshots frame: 44905, 57022, 61950, 61966, 62043, 62222, 68498, 118000, 118660, 120092, 123645, 124701

GoddessMaria: Judging.
GoddessMaria: This a is a very good movie with very solid optimization and also very positive audience response! Nicely done, gentlemen!
Accepting for Moons~
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4759: Tremane & willwc's GB Mega Man IV in 35:53.26
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#2125: Bag of Magic Food & PreddY's GB Mega Man IV in 35:23.12 is 30 seconds faster than this submission, and was rejected for being suboptimal. Can you explain?
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yeah they stopped their timing at final hit of wily wheras i stopped timing on the last textbox. the reason i do this is the textboxes need input to advance and only after that the game credits start to roll. compared to their run if i timed it on last input before the hit on wily it´s roughly 45 seconds faster. edit: i just checked that if I use their timing it´s a 34:30
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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SmartFrame wrote:
yeah they stopped their timing at final hit of wily wheras i stopped timing on the last textbox. the reason i do this is the textboxes need input to advance and only after that the game credits start to roll. compared to their run if i timed it on last input before the hit on wily it´s roughly 45 seconds faster. edit: i just checked that if I use their timing it´s a 34:30
Oh, I see. Thank you for explaining. Edit: Having watched the run now, I can say it was very entertaining. I especially enjoyed the health management in Crystal Man's stage. Yes vote.
Post subject: submission
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you´re welcome ,)
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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There are definitely spots you could impove on.
I'm pretty sure this needs to be expanded on.
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encode?
TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
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here is the run https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY8QNwsnDVc
There are definitely spots you could impove on. I'm pretty sure this needs to be expanded on.
well for example the escape after the 2nd Ballade fight, there might be a faster way to do it, or other small optimation that saves some frames here and there (lag management etc. )
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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about that goddessmaria i have to say i´m sorry, i edited the txt file because i found somebody to proof-read it for me ( i´m not a native english speaker sorry :< ) and therefore she got deleted somehow ( i thought it was a global thing that she would judge this run )
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
GoddessMaria
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It's fine. It was an accident so no worries.
Current projects: failing at life
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GoddessMaria15 wrote:
It's fine. It was an accident so no worries.
thanks for letting this one slip :)
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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Quick note: The "B E A T" letters are not collected, since it costs 30 seconds to receive Beat
Not necessarily. If you get game over for whatever reason, you get Beat, and the Beat acquiring cut scene is never played.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
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Nach wrote:
Quick note: The "B E A T" letters are not collected, since it costs 30 seconds to receive Beat
Not necessarily. If you get game over for whatever reason, you get Beat, and the Beat acquiring cut scene is never played.
well.. to get the game over screen i have to die at least.. 3-4 times?! so even that would just waste time, but thanks for letting me know that a game-over would cancel it out :)
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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SmartFrame wrote:
Nach wrote:
Quick note: The "B E A T" letters are not collected, since it costs 30 seconds to receive Beat
Not necessarily. If you get game over for whatever reason, you get Beat, and the Beat acquiring cut scene is never played.
well.. to get the game over screen i have to die at least.. 3-4 times?! so even that would just waste time, but thanks for letting me know that a game-over would cancel it out :)
Whether it wastes time or not depends on what else you're doing. If one would be intentionally dying to get energy refills, or access the upgraded arm cannon, then it wouldn't waste time.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
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Nach wrote:
SmartFrame wrote:
Nach wrote:
Quick note: The "B E A T" letters are not collected, since it costs 30 seconds to receive Beat
Not necessarily. If you get game over for whatever reason, you get Beat, and the Beat acquiring cut scene is never played.
well.. to get the game over screen i have to die at least.. 3-4 times?! so even that would just waste time, but thanks for letting me know that a game-over would cancel it out :)
Whether it wastes time or not depends on what else you're doing. If one would be intentionally dying to get energy refills, or access the upgraded arm cannon, then it wouldn't waste time.
well despite the fact that even if you aim to get the arm cannon upgrade it will show a cutscene with dr.light saying you got it which would waste time.. i understand your point, but I believe dying a lot and abuse the fact that you get all your weapons be refilled after a game over is not the way of handling this game :P
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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SmartFrame wrote:
well despite the fact that even if you aim to get the arm cannon upgrade it will show a cutscene with dr.light saying you got it which would waste time..
Uses time for getting the upgrade, but not for Beat.
SmartFrame wrote:
i understand your point, but I believe dying a lot and abuse the fact that you get all your weapons be refilled after a game over is not the way of handling this game :P
It all boils down to what type of run you're doing. If you're aiming for a 100% run, it certainly is an option to consider.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
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Nach wrote:
SmartFrame wrote:
well despite the fact that even if you aim to get the arm cannon upgrade it will show a cutscene with dr.light saying you got it which would waste time..
Uses time for getting the upgrade, but not for Beat.
SmartFrame wrote:
i understand your point, but I believe dying a lot and abuse the fact that you get all your weapons be refilled after a game over is not the way of handling this game :P
It all boils down to what type of run you're doing. If you're aiming for a 100% run, it certainly is an option to consider.
and there we go together ;) in 100% i would absolutely be on your side - but as i said i doubt it being faster in any%
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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What a cool game! I might have to get this from the 3DS eShop now. That was well done, classic Mega Man TAS action. Very entertaining, yes vote!
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When I had this game as a kid, I was surprised at how difficult the second set of stages was. The Crystal Man stage, for instance, really gives you some unusual route choices and has the parts where you wait for the moving pillars. The escape part after Ballade 2 is deceptively hard too, and I was very amused to see the Charge Kick used in this run's strategy for it. This looked like a very solid run. It didn't feel as polished as some other runs for GB Mega Man games, but maybe that's because this game is just a little slower anyway. Nice job.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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mklip2001 wrote:
It didn't feel as polished as some other runs for GB Mega Man games, but maybe that's because this game is just a little slower anyway. Nice job.
i´m interested in which spot you think it needs some more polish :)
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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I’m pretty sure I saw vids by Mothrayas of this game. Was he TASing it as well or something? Were the runs compared?
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ALAKTORN wrote:
I’m pretty sure I saw vids by Mothrayas of this game. Was he TASing it as well or something? Were the runs compared?
as far is I know, moth didn´t do anything for mm4gb. he has improved mm1gb and has done the TAS for mm5gb - i asked him to help me with mm4gb but he said he had no time/interest in doing this game. so he just helped me getting started
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
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I forgot to mention in my first post that some of the route choices were pretty surprising in this run. For instance, in Ring Man's stage, I didn't know you could slide for that 1up and jump right away without any solid ground underneath you. That was a cool timesaver. The spike skip in Bright Man's stage was WTF-worthy.
SmartFrame wrote:
mklip2001 wrote:
It didn't feel as polished as some other runs for GB Mega Man games, but maybe that's because this game is just a little slower anyway. Nice job.
i´m interested in which spot you think it needs some more polish :)
Alright, I'll rewatch the movie and try to find points that seemed suspicious. Pharoah Man's stage: Many of the vertical shafts feel suboptimal. You don't prejump before them to go in with more vertical momentum (though I don't know if that would actually help), and you swing pretty wide in the fall. You can see this in any of the wide shafts when you finish moving right and fall into one small room. Ring Man's stage: Whenever you fire a small Pharoah shot up-right, to kill a little planet enemy, the game lags a lot. Perhaps it would save more time to jump closer to the enemy before firing. You'd lose some horizontal momentum, but you'd get rid of lag. You notice something similar when you fire at one enemy near the BEAT letter. Toad Man's stage: Like in Ring Man's stage, I wonder if it's really worth it to kill some of the enemies overhead. You get some lag from Pharoah shots, I think. Bright Man's stage: When setting up the Rush Coil jumps over the spikes, you seem to have some small awkward adjustments before doing the first coil jump. Would it make more sense to make the platform do two medium-size descents instead of one big descent followed by one adjustment? I think it would use the same amount of break time, but the platform would spend less time rising. Ballade 1: Perfect. Charge Man's stage: I feel like you lose more time than normal in the boss fight letting Charge Man do his charges. There may not be much you can do about it to make this fight faster. I know you're manipulating away his real time-wasting move already. Crystal Man's stage: Perfect. Napalm Man's stage: I feel like the last few shots on Napalm Man could be done more quickly. You seem to lose some time with the first shot when he jumps in the air. Stone Man's stage: With the second hippo, you shoot a small shot at first, instead of coming in with a charged shot. If you could do a big-small combo at first, it seems like it would save you some time. Is that not possible with the amount of ammo you have? Ballade 2: I can't think of anything concrete to make the escape part better. Perhaps more usage of Ballade Cracker would be good, but it does produce lag. Wily Space Station: After the first miniboss, you have a couple uses of short-lived Rush Jet to jump over enemies. They seem to create some lag. For the last chicken and skull guy, would it be better to use Flash Stopper earlier? You don't seem to run into ammo problems with it. Side question: when you fight the second hunter miniboss, your 4th Napalm Bomb hits the wrong one, but the boss still takes damage. Why is that? In the Pharoah Man refight, why don't you instead manipulate him to charge his big shot? He'd stay still for that, and this time you have a flat floor to fight on. It seems like he creates more lag jumping and firing small shots. In Wily 1, you deliver one last blow using Rush Coil. Instead of making that last shot, why not make it the first shot? It seems like you have a little spare time to make that work when dodging the shot the boss shoots at you. In Wily 2, you have a noticeable pause before firing the last shot. What is that for?
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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Location: Germany
Pharoah Man's stage: Many of the vertical shafts feel suboptimal. You don't prejump before them to go in with more vertical momentum (though I don't know if that would actually help), and you swing pretty wide in the fall. You can see this in any of the wide shafts when you finish moving right and fall into one small room. -> jumping before going down is 1 frame only - and it only saves 1 frame if you did the jump perfectly ( mothrayas tested this for me ) - -> the game has momentum, which means you increase or decrease speed over time so by taking a wider angle i increase my speed in the direction and try to cut some corners ( saving frames ) Ring Man's stage: Whenever you fire a small Pharoah shot up-right, to kill a little planet enemy, the game lags a lot. Perhaps it would save more time to jump closer to the enemy before firing. You'd lose some horizontal momentum, but you'd get rid of lag. You notice something similar when you fire at one enemy near the BEAT letter. -> well lag in this game is some part, in my testings it was better to kill off enemies as early as possible -> that car-enemy is unhitable if he closes his front that´s why i have to wait before i go on - and if i dont kill him at that point he stays on screen and even increases lag :( Toad Man's stage: Like in Ring Man's stage, I wonder if it's really worth it to kill some of the enemies overhead. You get some lag from Pharoah shots, I think. -> same as in ring, not killing them and let them be on-screen is creating more lag :( Bright Man's stage: When setting up the Rush Coil jumps over the spikes, you seem to have some small awkward adjustments before doing the first coil jump. Would it make more sense to make the platform do two medium-size descents instead of one big descent followed by one adjustment? I think it would use the same amount of break time, but the platform would spend less time rising. -> the adjustment is to increase the movement speed in x-direction -> havn´t tested if doing just a halfway dive of the platform is faster ~.~ ( i just believe that going all the way down is faster ;P ) Ballade 1: Perfect. -> thanks (✌゚∀゚) Charge Man's stage: I feel like you lose more time than normal in the boss fight letting Charge Man do his charges. There may not be much you can do about it to make this fight faster. I know you're manipulating away his real time-wasting move already. -> yeah chargeman is a hugh dick Crystal Man's stage: Perfect. -> thank you (✌゚∀゚) Napalm Man's stage: I feel like the last few shots on Napalm Man could be done more quickly. You seem to lose some time with the first shot when he jumps in the air. -> i´ll look into this (✌゚∀゚) Stone Man's stage: With the second hippo, you shoot a small shot at first, instead of coming in with a charged shot. If you could do a big-small combo at first, it seems like it would save you some time. Is that not possible with the amount of ammo you have? -> you can´t charge up a pharaoh shot over such screen transitions :( same as going in/out of those boss doors i would have charged up the pharaoh shot for the tiger in the wily spaceship Ballade 2: I can't think of anything concrete to make the escape part better. Perhaps more usage of Ballade Cracker would be good, but it does produce lag. -> That's the crux of the matter.. find the PERFECT solution to this :< Wily Space Station: After the first miniboss, you have a couple uses of short-lived Rush Jet to jump over enemies. They seem to create some lag. For the last chicken and skull guy, would it be better to use Flash Stopper earlier? You don't seem to run into ammo problems with it. -> well the route is pretty simple with rushjet we can skip those falling stones, changing into another weapon is not worth since you have to use either coil or jet to get over that last spike pit. so my decision was -> stay on rushjet go over the enemies changing weapons cost ~60 frames so i have to save ~120 for changing away from rush and back to rush -> can you explain what chicken and skull guy you mean? i can´t seem to find the right spots you´re talking about Side question: when you fight the second hunter miniboss, your 4th Napalm Bomb hits the wrong one, but the boss still takes damage. Why is that? -> simple: if the eye is open he won´t shot at you, if it´s closed he will shot ;) damage is the same. In the Pharoah Man refight, why don't you instead manipulate him to charge his big shot? He'd stay still for that, and this time you have a flat floor to fight on. It seems like he creates more lag jumping and firing small shots. -> will look into this (✌゚∀゚) In Wily 1, you deliver one last blow using Rush Coil. Instead of making that last shot, why not make it the first shot? It seems like you have a little spare time to make that work when dodging the shot the boss shoots at you. -> you have to be exactly centered to not loose frames for running into the middle and wait before the punch comes in that´s why i change, a normal jump wouldn´t enable me to do this In Wily 2, you have a noticeable pause before firing the last shot. What is that for? -> explained in the submission the 3rd phase starts after megaman walks out to the right that´s why i go to the right side before finishing off.
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Thanks for the responses! With the Wily station, the chicken and skeleton are the last two enemies before you switch back to Flash Stopper. I am suggesting that you change to Flash Stopper earlier and use it to stop those enemies instead. You'd go into the menu the same number of times, use Flash Stopper one or two more times (but it has plenty of ammo), and you'd use Rush Jet two fewer times. Anyway, your detailed comments show me you really did your optimization homework :)
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.