(Link to video)
I did Ki! I did it!
~ Arino Shinya, GameCenter CX

Game objectives

  • Uses warps
  • Uses a game restart sequence
  • Genre: Platform

Comments

The Quest of Ki (カイの冒険) is a video game developed by Namco in 1988. It is part of the Tower of Druaga series (in fact, it serves as a prequel to the series). The player controls Ki, a priestess sent by Ishtar in order to retrieve the Blue Crystal Rod, which was stolen by Druaga.
In this run, warps were used. The warps route is as follows: 1 -> 6 -> 11 -> 19 -> 28 -> 37 -> 44 -> 51 -> 58 -> 59 -> 60. Note that there are special floors after floor 60 (floors 61-100); however, after talking to senior judge Noxxa, I decided to not include them. However, I do think they should be included in a warpless run, should one ever be made.
Ki can float for as long as the A button is held down, which is a trait not found in a lot of other platformers.

Tricks

Skipping Namco screen

A simple soft reset at the beginning bypasses this screen.

Skipping intro

Selecting "Continue Start" instead of "Normal Start" bypasses the intro. NOTE: Since the game just freshly booted up, I will still start at Floor 1, so I consider it fine.

Skipping intermissions

Pressing Start or Select before the intermissions (screens with Ishtar or Quox) show up skips them.

Instantly landing on floor

When Ki moves at a certain X speed and the A button is released at a certain moment, Ki will instantly land on the floor when she reaches it instead of levitating on it for a moment before landing on it. There may be subpixels at work.

RAM Addresses

Floor-by-floor comments

There's not much to talk about the floors, except that it takes about 4-5 seconds between grabbing the chest containing a warp and the warp actually taking effect. By the way, you can still die in that time period and have to re-do the entire floor again. I decided to at least make something interesting out of these periods.

Floor 58

Getting the orb at the right side of the level (makes you invincible against Will o'Wisps (insanely fast-moving enemies that you can't avoid in Floor 58)), then going back to the left side where the Will o'Wisp is is faster than getting the Wing at the left side, then go back to the spiked area at the right side, from my testing.

Floor 59

This floor was a nightmare to do, especially because of the section where the invisible floating wizards are. I did my best to optimise it as good as I could.

Possible improvements

Improvements are never excluded. It all pretty much boils down to better optimisation.

Other comments

I first heard of this game by watching a Japanese show called GameCenter CX (ゲームセンターCX), where a middle-aged comedian called Arino Shinya attempts to beat a retro game, while being supported by various ADs (Assistent Directors). Check out this Wikipedia article for more details. It's a pretty fun show to watch, actually (if you don't understand Japanese, check out SA-GCCX, a fansubbing group (link below)).

Special Thanks

The BizHawk devs: For making such a great emulator.
SA-GCCX: Without them, I likely wouldn't have discovered the show and this game in the first place.
My will: For pushing me through TASing this game.

Suggested screenshot

Frame 2456
ゲームはナムコ~

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: Good, nice and short run. Accepting for Moons.
fsvgm777: Hooray!

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4768: fsvgm777's NES The Quest of Ki "warps" in 02:28.69
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Short enough to not get boring, and the entertainment sections helped with that. Good work, fsvgm777. Voting Yes!
NitroGenesis
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What are the contents of the 61-100 floors that warrant them not being played through?
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
PCachu
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Personally, wondering why the game spells out her name as "Ki" when the kana pretty clearly say "Kai".
Zarmakuizz
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Maybe add in the description why you are able to fly ? I got the answer on the Wikipedia page, but you can't fly in most platformers.
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This is quality work. I am happy to see you have graduated beyond April Fools' Day submissions. :)
fsvgm777
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NitroGenesis wrote:
What are the contents of the 61-100 floors that warrant them not being played through?
They're "special floors" that are only available after beating the regular game, which ends at Floor 60. There are warps in the special floors; however, they actually take you back to the regular game (with the notable exception of the Floor 61 warp, which takes you to the same floor). Beating these special floors triggers a completely different ending. After asking Mothrayas, he suggested that if these floors were to be shown off, a full warpless run should be made (100 floors in total), which would take a long time until it's done. For the record, the ending you get at Floor 60 directly leads to the events in The Tower of Druaga, so it's the de facto "canon" ending.
Zarmakuizz wrote:
Maybe add in the description why you are able to fly ? I got the answer on the Wikipedia page, but you can't fly in most platformers.
Yeah, it's part of the game. Will add it to the description.
£e Nécroyeur wrote:
This is quality work. I am happy to see you have graduated beyond April Fools' Day submissions. :)
This was pretty much the next step for me.
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Cooljay
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Congrats on finishing this TAS fsvgm777. It really did turn out fast like you said it would and quite entertaining too. Yes vote from me.
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. ---- [2900] NES The Quest of Ki "warps" by fsvgm777 in 02:28.69
fsvgm777
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Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.