Elevator Action was originally an arcade game before being ported to the NES. Your goal is to descend each office building while collecting secret files hidden behind red doors. Enemies will try to stop you by shooting you, and they do so more aggressively with each level. This run completes the first 4 levels ~10 seconds faster then Brushy's previous run.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: FCEUX 2.2.2
  • Beats first 4 levels (game is endless)
  • opens all red doors

Comments

This is one of those games that I just look at on and off over an extended period of time. I had long wondered whether or not I could eliminate some of the longer waiting sections in Brushy's run, and it turns out I could by studying the rules that elevators follow and abusing them to my advantage. Elevators follow these rules:
1. Elevators always spawn at the top of their shaft, unless you die in which case they spawn at the floor you are spawned on.
2. Elevators are on something like a global timer, and if you don't spawn them until a cycle of the timer goes by, they won't start their route until the next one starts.
3. An elevator will not go more then 2 stories below where the player is. If the bottom of the shaft is further down then this, the elevator will not go all the way down but instead turn around and come back up.
It's a bit hard to describe what I actually did to change the route, but you can compare my level 2 in the video to the original to easily see what I mean. Levels 1 and 3 had no significant waiting periods so I wasn't able to improve those. Level 4 was improved as well using the same ideas.

Other comments

Well despite the fact that the end result here is rather boring to watch, it was actually a kind of fun little challenge to work out what was going on here that I could improve. This run developed over many, many months, and like a lot of things I would get stuck and then after an extended break I would return to it only to have a solution magically become obvious. I'm not sure what can be further improved, maybe a slightly faster route can be found somewhere but I'm not sure where to look. One final note here is that there is actually an unseen enemy behavior that I noticed during some of my tests and research. Apparently enemies can also lay prone and shoot you, thereby avoiding both high and low shots. I'm not entirely sure at what level this appears at, or if it's worth playing up to that level to see it. I'll leave that decision up to the judges/audience.

Tompa: Time for judging.
Tompa: Improvements are always welcome. Accepted!
fsvgm777: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5028: Alyosha's NES Elevator Action in 06:47.33
mklip2001
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Good improvement! For a repetitive arcade-style action game, this is fairly interesting, especially when you get into some crazy firefights in Level 4. It took me a second to realize that some of the waiting around in Level 2 was actually to manipulate the elevator patterns. That was a nice touch. I went with Meh on this one.
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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Yeah elevators! Action! Meh vote though.
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Spikestuff
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Nice quality Meh right here. Good Job!
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Good movie, especially in the character of the last pass go a really great, and while maintaining the speed. Yes vote.
Working on: [NES] Downtown Special - Kunio-kun no Jidaigeki Dayo Zenin Shuugou! (J) ''2 players 100%'' Plan: [SNES] Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba (Japan) _________________ My English is pour. 
Post subject: Re: #5028: Brushy, Alyosha's NES Elevator Action in 06:47.33
Joined: 11/13/2005
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Wow, a great improvement! Nice to see someone else working on this run. Good job, Alyosha. And since I didn't really do anything for this improvement, I'd like my name taken from this run. Credit where it's due and this is all Alyosha.
Alyosha wrote:
One final note here is that there is actually an unseen enemy behavior that I noticed during some of my tests and research. Apparently enemies can also lay prone and shoot you, thereby avoiding both high and low shots. I'm not entirely sure at what level this appears at, or if it's worth playing up to that level to see it. I'll leave that decision up to the judges/audience.
The enemies do that from the first level on, I think. I remember that trying to play the third or the fourth level in real time and it was just impossible due to two enemies being in the same spot, one proned and one standing just shooting non-stop. This game is really difficult, even though it doesn't seem like it looking at a TAS.
Alyosha
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oh, thanks for the feedback Brushy : ) I put your name in mainly because I didn't really change level 1 or 3, but if you want it removed that is fine too. Oh so prone enemies must just be rarer in earlier levels then. I remember seeing them while hacking around to different levels but didn't know what made them appear.
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1. meh vote, sorry. 2. Just curious, how "infinite" is this game? Is it like arcade pacman with a killscreen, or does it loop over?
Alyosha
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^ oh, good question. There are 4 addresses associated with 'level' in this game. That is, they increment every time the next level is loaded. 058E 0689 068D 06E0 They seem to be interconnected to determine score, enemy behavior, and level layout, but basically you can set any or all to FF at the end of a level and they will roll over and the next level will start without issue. So while I don't know the exact behaviour of what happens if the game is legitimately played up to that point, there doesn't seem to be a kill screen.
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Alyosha wrote:
So while I don't know the exact behaviour of what happens if the game is legitimately played up to that point, there doesn't seem to be a kill screen.
According to AdamL, the level counter rolls over after Stage 256, and you go back to Stage 1. The enemy fire rate gets totally nuts starting in Stage 4, and I have to assume the game becomes unplayable shortly thereafter. But there's a neat trick you can use, as long as you can survive the initial 10 floors: get all four enemies on the other side of a wall, ideally on the 18th floor, and let them fire at you endlessly, until the shots are so constant they sound like rain on a tin roof. After a certain amount of time, the enemy aggression counter will suddenly roll over to zero (or at least one assumes this is the underlying functionality), the hail of bullets will stop, and the enemies will behave as mildly as they do in Stage 1. WashYourFace discovered this trick at NintendoAge. It only lasts until the end of each level, or until your character gets killed.
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I liked it! Hilarious dodging of 3 enemies shooting at once in a hall sometimes.
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goldenband wrote:
The enemy fire rate gets totally nuts starting in Stage 4, and I have to assume the game becomes unplayable shortly thereafter. But there's a neat trick you can use, as long as you can survive the initial 10 floors: get all four enemies on the other side of a wall, ideally on the 18th floor, and let them fire at you endlessly, until the shots are so constant they sound like rain on a tin roof. After a certain amount of time, the enemy aggression counter will suddenly roll over to zero (or at least one assumes this is the underlying functionality), the hail of bullets will stop, and the enemies will behave as mildly as they do in Stage 1. WashYourFace discovered this trick at NintendoAge. It only lasts until the end of each level, or until your character gets killed.
On the same stage? I guess the NPC's ran out of bullets. ;)
Post subject: Movie published
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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. ---- [3094] NES Elevator Action by Alyosha in 06:47.33