WIP V1 TAS that hits the killscreen ->
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/46029671199000949
This is a very crude and probably far from optimal effort, but I still decided to put it up here for three different reasons:
1. As a baseline for comparison of a different strategy I want to try out in V2.
2. To get feedback and suggestions for improvements beyond simply needing to learn how to manipulate the rabbit spawns.
3. To illustrate a glitch in the game that seems to have been revealed for the first time in this TAS (because
this roughly comparable RTA run on TG doesn't have it).
This V1 WIP run is based around the general strategy of, whenever possible, hitting the rabbits after they have grabbed the carrots, as this gets 10 points per rabbit vs. 5 points if you hit them before they grab the carrot. The upside of the strategy is that this means fewer rabbits to hit to get to the required 1,300 points for the killscreen. The downside is that you are still depleting your carrot patch doing this (because the removed carrots aren't replaced when you hit the rabbit) and each "cutscene" to fully replenish the patch costs at least 250 frames (exact amount is RNG-dependant because the "cutscene" can play out differently each time it occurs).
V2 WIP will have the strategy of simply hitting rabbits as soon as possible regardless of how many points each one gives. I already suspect for some circumstances it would be faster than the current strategy, but won't know without testing whether it overall is actually faster than the one in V1 due to more rabbits having to be hit using it. I will keep the community updated on this as I work on V2.
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Newly Discovered Glitch:
If you cross the 1,200 point threshold with any rabbits on screen that normally come from the left side holes and hit them, the rabbits will "moonwalk" to the right edge of the screen and get stuck zipping back and forth in a small area between two right side holes! At the killscreen, they will not despawn but instead will be seen running in place on the right edge of the screen. Doubtless this is linked to what causes the killscreen in the first place and gives a possible idea of why it happens.
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Conjectural Killscreen Theory:
There are 10 holes on the screen, alternating left and right as you go down from the top. (Why the alternating pattern? The limitations of the system - look up "Venetian Blinds trick" to get a better idea of why.)
Let's assume that behind each hole, on the edge of the screen, is an invisible (colored to match the background) rabbit sprite facing toward the center of the screen. The programming to control the movements of the rabbits would then go something like this:
* Look up RNG value to determine which row(s) will spawn a rabbit.
* Set an "in use" flag for the chosen rows (so that the game won't try to spawn more than one rabbit on a row at a time).
* Start the rabbit moving by having its sprite be redrawn a certain X distance from its previous value each frame (lets call it VX for brevity's sake), that value being determined some way from the player's current score.
* When rabbit sprite meets or exceeds a certain X value (corresponding to the center of the hole on screen), it changes color to become visible and collision is turned on.
* Redraw rabbit "moving" by the VX value for each frame, checking for collision conditions afterward. (The illusion of movement is enhanced by constantly cycling the sprite through several poses every fourth or fifth frame.)
* If X value of rabbit sprite is > or = X value of carrot sprite, set rabbit X value = carrot X value, despawn carrot sprite, flip rabbit sprite and continue previous movement by VX.
* If X value of rabbit sprite is = X value of player shot, freeze rabbit's X position, change sprite to "hit" state by turning off collision detection (and blinking colors), and flip sprite if not already previously flipped. After this, continue previous movement by VX.
* When rabbit sprite reaches previous X value corresponding to the center of the hole it "came out of", turn off collision (if not already done so) and recolor sprite to background colors again.
* Flip sprite, stop movement and clear "in use" flag when edge of screen is reached by invisible sprite to prepare for next rabbit spawn.
This loop of programming above would be followed each time a rabbit is sent out by the game, and works until you get to 1,100 points. Once you hit that score, you start to have problems (presumably related to the previous score rollover).
At 1,100 points, the rabbit sprites will cycle back and forth within a range of X values each frame, the middle value of this range moving "normally" (although at a slower speed than before the score hit 1,100). This could be caused by the movement routine trying to make the rabbit appear in two different places at once.
At 1,200 points, the movement routine seems to break down completely and rabbits will only appear for a few frames outside the right side holes. The VX value ends up set so that all rabbits will travel to the right side of the screen and stay cycling within a certain range of that side of the screen, even rabbits that "shouldn't be over there".
And finally at 1,300 points you have the killscreen. VX in this case would somehow be set to zero for all active rabbits, which means they would never move from the right side of the screen and will remain permanently unhittable. At this point the code is stuck in an unresolvable loop and all you can do is turn the game off.
Apologies for the long post, but the rabbits getting stuck makes things a little more interesting to watch toward the end, and I hope I can keep it in the final product. (All depends on RNG, of course...)
