Posted: 8/21/2018 9:55 PM
Post subject: Bugs Bunny, The - Crazy Castle II
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Aran_Jaeger
He/Him
Banned User, Player (9)
Joined: 10/29/2014
Posts: 176
Location: Bavaria, Germany
Here is an updated Test-TAS of Bugs Bunny, The - Crazy Castle II (for Gameboy, made with Bizhawk's version 1.12.1.1, and the same holds for the other movie files): http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/49309440532276193 . There is also my older slightly different Test-TAS, http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/49200451424783435 , with the difference in the second to last stage (stage 28), where I moved Bugs Bunny over with an upwards arc midair during a jump from a jump plate to grab onto a rope, which takes slightly longer than bonking onto the ceiling right above to move down during the jump and directly grab the rope without the slow arc movement (which is fixed in the updated movie). Any (comparison) statements about the Test-TAS below also apply to the updated Test-TAS. - - - About the game: The game has 29 stages (4*7 stages plus 1 final boss stage), and there's 1 WR speedrun on twitch of the game that I used for a quick overview of the individual stages. One starts with 5 lifes, and every finished stage adds 1 additional life. There exist passwords for the stages, and there also exist maps of all stages on VGMaps: http://vgmaps.com/Atlas/GB-GBC/index.htm#C Some list of different objects that exist in the game (and states in which they can be): Player character: * Bugs Bunny (can be - stationary standing, - walking sideways (on ground but also with a walking animation midair which sometimes can add lag), - going up or down stairs, - entering and exiting doors or pipes, - initiating or ending a teleportation (using warp plates) - exploding/dying from enemy contact, - jumping (from a jump plate) or falling, - moving sideways in an arc motion midair (with or without walking animation meanwhile; and only if there's a platform at that side) - in exit door entering animation, - blinking due to an elixir, - having a protecting sphere around him (using the sphere item) - pushing an object (like a treasure box or 10 tons weight) - turning around) Other characters: * Sylvester (cat), * Yosemite Sam (cowboy), * Wile E. Coyote (coyote), * Floghorn Leghorn (rooster), * Tweety (bird), * Sniffles (mouse), * Barnyard Dawg (dog) * lamb * Sam Sheepdog (dog) * vulture * Daffy Duck (duck), * fire flame (can be - waiting, - walking (including downwards on slopes and on dirty floors) or climbing along ropes, - going up or down stairs or using pipes or door stairs or ladders, - dying from getting hit by a bomb or arrow or moving object or by touching an invulnerable Bugs Bunny with elixir effect (with explosion animation), - falling and can turn around with a turnaround animation) Pickups (the collections trigger specific short sounds): * elixirs (for temporary invulnerability and killing any enemy upon body contact; its effect starts at collection but it is only active outside key rooms), * spheres (for temporary invulnerability but without killing enemies upon contact) * keys (all 8 of them per stage are meant to be collected in order to advance; when the last key of a stage is collected, a sound occurs), * arrows (of which multiple can be collected to have more than 1 simultaneously, and they can be fired sideways and then either hit an enemy or some wall from where they'd fall straight down and then either hit an enemy or explode and vanish), * bombs (of which multiple can be collected to have more than 1 simultaneously, and they can be planted at Bugs Bunny's position or dropped midair and then they can either be recollected or they stay there and possibly hit an enemy when it is about at most 1 tile away from it; and for a given stage there can either be arrows or bombs but not both at the same time), * hammers (allow to desstroy rocks) * pickaxes (allow to climb over boulders) * clocks (which freeze all enemies in a stage temporarily) Weapon objects: * treasure box * 10 tons weight (which can be - stationary, - moving sideways, - falling straight down, - hitting an enemy or a wall or the ground and vanish) Environmental objects (of which some have different graphics in different stage types): * stairs (for some of them one can walk past them at their bottom) * door stairs (2 doors close to each other on different floors connected by stairs that one can either go up or down) * ladders (at which one can stop midway and walk off them sideways and one can also turnaround midway) * pipes (within which enemies don't interact with Bugs Bunny; and in these, it seems one is forced to keep going the same direction without turning around or taking a break inbetween) * horizontal ropes (which Bugs Bunny and enemies can climb along or drop down from) * jump plates (which will only force Bugs Bunny to execute a jump on them if he's standing on such a plate without holding Left or Right, and in this case, he moves up either until he bonks a ceiling and moves down again or Bugs Bunny holds sideways inputs to land on a platform or climb along a rope; enemies cannot use these) * key rooms (they are entered through doors; in those rooms, by which I don't only refer to those that actually contain a key but also the cases when they are empty or contain a different item, the rate of non-lag frames generally is much higher with roughly every 2nd frame being a non-lag frame than in the rest of a stage, and sometimes there's even 2 non-lag frames in a row; they also serve as method to temporarily stop the movement of any on-screen or off-screen enemy) * warp plates (which come in pairs and work like jump plates except they slowly teleport Bugs Bunny) * exit doors (which require all 8 keys to be collected in order to finish a stage) * grey rocks (that can be destroyed only by Bugs Bunny and only with a hammer if one was collected previously in the stage) * black boulders (which only Bugs Bunny can move over and only if a pickaxe was previously collected in the stage) * diagonal slopes (like 1-way stairs) that one can only walk downwards * dirt floors (on which only Bugs Bunny moves with roughly half the usual walking speed) * walls, floors (of which there also exist fake floors) and ceilings * outside of stages there's also an overworld map with the stages and the fixed path through them - - - Optimization aspects: In some cases if one moves Bugs Bunny to the bottom end of some stairs from beneath, one is forced to wait shortly before one can approach/use them. The most important part of the optimization seems to lie in the order in which one collects the keys together with which paths one uses to do so (basically a Travelling Salesman Problem with enemies chasing Bugs Bunny). Micro-optimization & finetuning that can still be done and tested out: - some other routes can still be tested and optimized and compared with each other in the stages where the best route isn't as obvious (even though in almost all stages there's only 1 predetermined path that one can go, sometimes with doors spread throughout a stage that lead into empty rooms to confuse the player) - maybe dfferent directions should be pressed in some cases to make Bugs Bunny move forwards to reduce lag/change the lag pattern (since Up, Down, and Forwards make Bugs Bunny move forwards, with Up and Down also making Bugs Bunny move/transition up or down whenever possible); or one could also leave some directional inputs out since not all of them are needed for movement - in some cases when enemies generally don't need to be manipulated to be out of the way, one could anyways mess around and test different manipulations of their movement (by pressing directional inputs), since this most usually leads to lag differences - maybe some strange effects could be achieved by using left+right or up+down; or maybe lag differences could be induced by adding more new button presses to the usual ones (like select or holding multiple directions at once); or holding some buttons instead of releasing them could reduce lag - it probably would also be useful to figure out the general AI that the enemy types use, and memory addresses for the frames in which they check for inputs could be useful (aswell as further memory addresses for all kinds of other aspects) - maybe there'd be ways to climb up walls or keep the falling state or prevent falling to hover over gaps or to prevent death when running into an enemy, or maybe there'd be methods to interact with an item that is further away (above or right below Bugs Bunny for example) to collect them from different places - one can also play around with the timing of using bombs or arrows for influences on lag, or maybe it could be possible to kill multiple enemies with the same weapon/attack (and maybe even short detours in some stages might be worth it to kill another enemy early on to reduce the accumulated lag for the rest of a stage) - maybe some glitches with different events happening simultaneously could be possible (by combining elements of the list of objects and states from above) - - - Some (ordered by stage) route & strategy comparison movie material (I didn't test many different routes yet and almost always just took a look on what the stages were like and estimated which route would be best if there were no enemies around): 1. In the following ''stage 5 slow bomb rush'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479701879430053888/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_5_slow_bomb_rush.tasproj I tested the case of not slowing down to keep 1 more bomb for later and instead used all of them up before getting to the last, right-most part of the stage at which I then was seemingly forced to slow down by waiting for an enemy to move out of the way, which turned out to be slower than keeping a bomb for this part but waiting shorty for an earlier enemy passing by. 2. In the following ''stage 7 no shield'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479703773489397760/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_7_no_shield.tasproj I skipped the 2 steps to take a sphere/shield that protects Bugs Bunny temporarily from dying upon enemy contact, which worked out for a while but would eventually at the top of the stage get me into a situation in which I'd need to take a slight detour to avoid running into a cat, so that taking the sphere was faster. 3. In the following ''stage 8 bow skip test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479705651887472650/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_8_bow_skip_test.bk2 I could locally save time due to avoiding a 2 step detour that would get me an arrow to kill 1 enemy on my path, but realized that this wouldn't let me progress quickly past the Coyote, since an enemy afterwards is stuck and right on the path that I'd need to take. 4. In the following ''stage 8 jump over mouse test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479709523117080599/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_8_jump_over_mouse_test.bk2 I free the caged mouse as soon as I reached it and used the jump platform to move above it to get past it, but this turned out to be slower than delaying the freeing of the mouse a bit in order to bounce up and down past it. 5. In the following ''stage 9 manip test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479711638149398540/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_9_manip_test.bk2 I tried out the initial approach of going as far as I could without delaying any local progress for planning purposes, until I ran into the problem of going around a duck at the bottom of the stage on the way leftwards, and found a quick manipulation to lure the duck into turning around away from me. However, right afterwards already the next enemy would be in my way and slow me down significantly. 6. In the following ''stage 9 arrow skip test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479713151391367172/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_9_arrow_skip_test.bk2 I tested if I could avoid the duck (since I didn't have a way of quickly killing it otherwise) on the far left near the top without delaying my movement to manipulate the duck, which was not the case. 7. In the following ''stage 9 arrow skip, duck manip'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479714608509353985/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_9_arrow_skip_duck_manip.bk2 I skip getting the arrow at the far right near the top of the stage's last section, but ran into a problem near the bottom afterwards with a walking flame enemy being stuck and on my path without me being able to kill it quickly. 8. In the following ''stage 9 initial arrow & fake floor shortcut improvement'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/479722930524127271/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_9_initial_arrow__fake_floor_shortcut_improvement.bk2 I additionally took the first arrow (and didn't have to wait as long anymore afterwards to manipulate the movement of an enemy for later), and kept enough arrows afterwards to reduce detours for arrows, and I fell through a fake floor as shortcut which I overlooked in the Test-TAS, which allowed to locally save 149 frames over the Test-TAS in this stage. This improvement remains to be incorporated into a future TAS (probably alongside further bits of improvements and possibly adaptions in later stages to keep the timesaves). 9. In the following ''stage 13 ground right block early slower'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481230623256870920/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_13_ground_right_block_early_slower.bk2 when I get to the lowest floor above the ground, I immediately took out the rock to the right of Bugs Bunny before continuing leftwards, which turned out to be slower than taking the block out on the way back afterwards. 10. In the following ''stage 13 left blocks 3 frames slower'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481231687376830474/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_13_left_blocks_3_frames_slower.bk2 I took out the blocks to the left of the pickaxe which was barely slower than taking the blocks out on the right side. 11. In the following ''stage 13, 48 frames improvement'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481535742066294789/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_stage_13_48_frames_improvement.bk2 I took the 3 keys above the black boulders and went back all the way left first and then all the way right, which (as another path-routing test that I overlooked) seems to save 48 frames over the Test-TAS and remains to be implemented into a TAS. 12. In the following ''stage 14 bomb rush approach'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481233391866347550/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_14_bomb_rush_approach.bk2 the main difference to the Test-TAS is that all bombs are used up when enemies blocked my way at the bottom of the stage, instead of dodging them, which left me without any bombs for the final part where one would then have to slow down considerably. 13. In the following ''stage 14 killing bottom right guy slower'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481236094923571200/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_14_killing_bottom_right_guy_slower.bk2 I killed the enemy at the bottom right of the stage instead of dodging it, and also killed the enemy afterwards at the warp, which turned out to be slower than the approach in the Test-TAS. 14. In the following ''stage 14 ladder going lower 1 frame slower'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481237018760708116/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_14_ladder_going_lower_1_frame_slower.bk2 near the top of the stage, on the right side, I went the ladder to the Coyote fully down to the ground before moving sideways, which turned out to be 1 frame slower compared to the Test-TAS. 15. In the following ''stage 14 late 1st bomb slower'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481237758652710912/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_14_late_1st_bomb_slower.bk2 I killed the 1st Coyote after getting the 1st key, which turned out to be slower than doing these things vice versa. 16. In the following ''stage 15 down first & keeping & using bomb'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481240646837993473/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_15_down_first__keeping__using_bomb.bk2 I wait for the lower bird to not have to use a bomb on it, which allowed me to keep another bomb after the bottom cat which is used for the next cat to reduce accumulating lag, and finally use a bomb for the top left bird, which however took too much time compared to the Test-TAS. And in the ''stage 15 down first & keeping bomb'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481242024557674506/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_15_down_first__keeping_bomb_.bk2 the same is done, except that the remaining bomb wasn't used on the later cat, which caused more lag during the rest of the stage. 17. In the following ''stage 16 bad pipe route test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481245669986926602/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_16_bad_pipe_route_test.bk2 I took the long pipe near the end of the stage, which ended up being slower than the Test-TAS, and got me into a problematic situation with an enemy on my path without a method to quickly get rid of it. 18. In the following ''stage 17 thunder with door switch'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481252067550167040/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_17_thunder_with_door_switch_slower.bk2 I switched the order of entering 2 doors on the left side of the stage for keys after using the lightning item, which was slower than the Test-TAS. 19. In the following ''stage 17 without thunder slower'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481253012677853185/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_17_without_thunder_slower.bk2 I skipped entering a door for a lightning item, and hence some enemies stayed alive and kept accumulating lag which ended up being slower than the Test-TAS. 20. In the following ''stage 18 reroute case speedrun order test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481256509653778452/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_18_reroute_case_speedrun_order_test.bk2 I delayed taking out a block with the pickaxe so that I would collect the 8th key beforehand, which turned out to be slightly slower than the Test-TAS. 21. In the following ''stage 18 reroute slightly behind but good RNG'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481258220602785793/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_18_reroute_slightly_behind_but_good_RNG.bk2 I changed the order in which the 6th and 7th key from the Test-TAS are collected, which turned out to be slower. 22. In the following ''stage 18'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481258931142787112/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_18.bk2 I changed the order in which the 2nd, 3rd and 4th key from the Test-TAS are collected (namely to taking the 4th first, then the 2nd, then the 3rd) which was slower, and afterwards I went for the Test-TAS's 7th key after the 5th key, which go me in front of an enemy that would take long to dodge. 23. In the following ''stage 19 test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481269011074646046/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_19_test.bk2 I changed the order of taking the 5th and 6th key from the Test-TAS, which ended up being slightly slower. And in the ''stage 19 another test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481269759216844801/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_19_another_test.bk2 I tested the same, but took a different pipe which also was slower than the Test-TAS. 24. In the following ''stage 19 same speed'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481271116195954698/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_19_same_speed.bk2 I took another pipe after the 6th key, which was just as fast as the Test-TAS. 25. In the following ''stage 22'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481274917501927424/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_22.bk2 I skip going into the first door to take the 1st bomb (and take the 2nd and 3rd key from the Test-TAS in the other order), and end up with an enemy on my way that I could not get past in any quick manner compared to the Test-TAS. 26. In the following ''stage 23'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481279111797538816/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_23.bk2 I switched the order of the 6th and 7th key from the Test-TAS, and ended up having to wait for a bird enemy to move out of my way, and hence this was slower than the Test-TAS. 27. In the following ''stage 23 faster door order slow test'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481286294497132559/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_23_faster_door_order_slow_test.bk2 I took a sphere after the 7th key to be able to move through the dog afterwards, but this already took too long compared to the Test-TAS. 28. In the following ''stage 24'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481279960099586059/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_24.bk2 I skip taking an arrow before the 2nd key, and get 2 enemies coming my way on my way to the right after the 2nd key, where I'd have to slow down considerably compared to the Test-TAS. 29. In the following ''stage 24 arrow & slow teleport'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481288628883030036/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_24_arrow__slow_teleport.bk2 I skipped the key in the bottom left corner of the stage early on, in order to get it near the end using the teleport from the far right back to the left corner and teleporting back, which however was slower than the Test-TAS. 30. In the following ''stage 27'' movie, https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481304238727888919/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_27.bk2 which has it's difference to the Test-TAS in stage 26 and just reaches stage 27, I first take the keys at the center of the stage together with the pickaxe before continuing to the bottom of the stage for further keys where the pickaxe is needed, followed by the keys on the right side, and then the far left side and going back to the top, but this route turned out to be slower than the route of the Test-TAS. - - - Observations (partially with corresponding movies): 1. Bugs Bunny moving sideways, backwards onto a platform during upwards movement from a jump (near the end of the movie): https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/218520158963105792/481243168822657034/Bugs_Bunny_The_-_Crazy_Castle_II_USA_WIP_TAS_stage_15_moving_over_during_jump_facing_other_way.bk2 2. It seems that whenever Bugs Bunny enters a key room, the direction that Bugs Bunny is facing is swapped (basically to give the impression that one's seeing the door from the other side), but for a split-second, both sprites (the previous one from entering the door and the new one depending on the direction one's walking) appear on screen: 3. The following screenshot demonstrates the possibility to climb past a temporarily stunned enemy next to a black boulder without dying: 4. In the following screenshot, the instance is shown in which it seemed to be impossible on the way back (from the right to the left) to move left with an arc midair on the way up from a jump (induced by a jump plate) 5. There's a stage that has an exit door right next to a destructible rock, and there's a frame during the animation that Bugs Bunny does when he enters this door in which one can trigger the animation in which Bugs Bunny destroys the rock (which delays the end of the stage): Apparently in some cases it is impossible during a jump on the way up to directly grab a horizontal rope when it is right above Bugs Bunny and instead (in order to grab the rope) one is forced to move forwards in the (slow) arc motion. Edit: Here's a video for the TAS: Link to video
collect, analyse, categorise. "Mathematics - When tool-assisted skills are just not enough" ;) Don't want to be taking up so much space adding to posts, but might be worth mentioning and letting others know for what games 1) already some TAS work has been done (ordered in decreasing amount, relative to a game completion) by me and 2) I am (in decreasing order) planning/considering to TAS them. Those would majorly be SNES games (if not, it will be indicated in the list) I'm focusing on. 1) Spanky's Quest; On the Ball/Cameltry; Musya; Super R-Type; Plok; Sutte Hakkun; The Wizard of Oz; Battletoads Doubledragon; Super Ghouls'n Ghosts; Firepower 2000; Brain Lord; Warios Woods; Super Turrican; The Humans. 2) Secret Command (SEGA); Star Force (NES); Hyperzone; Aladdin; R-Type 3; Power Blade 2 (NES); Super Turrican 2; First Samurai. (last updated: 18.03.2018)