Posted: 4/22/2005 3:07 AM
(Edited: 4/22/2005 4:36 PM)
Post subject: Kiwi Kraze: The New Zealand Story
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Monthenor
Joined: 3/7/2005
Posts: 41
I've learned quite a bit about timeattacking since starting Cocoron, but as much as I love my pumpkiny little buddy I needed a break. I also wanted to pick a (slightly) more popular game so I could use some real FAQs to help plan everything out. Enter Kiwi Kraze (aka The New Zealand Story), (U) ROM version. It took a couple days to make this attempt. I was about to make a Kiwi Kraze thread but, like a good little forumer, I did a search first. josh l. has a warpless run in this thread and it showed me several different places to improve my route. His earlier boards are pretty tight -- he must not warp as often as I do :) So I went to work again this afternoon and came up with a new run that combines the two. Like Voltron, it is made of cats the strongest run yet, clocking in at 14:04. So that's where it stands right now. Hook up your best stereo equipment to your computer and partake of one of the catchiest themes in the NES catalogue. EDIT: NZ Story, not NZ Adventure. My bad.
Founding member of GerbilMechs
Posted: 4/22/2005 7:10 AM
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Highness
Player (71)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
Haha!! Funny game. I must send this to my Kiwi friend in NZ. :)
Posted: 4/22/2005 8:23 AM
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NrgSpoon
Joined: 6/14/2004
Posts: 646
I may be wrong about this, but it looks like you fall faster when dismounting a floaty thing (for lack of a better name). If this is true then you most likely could use this to your advantage. I know there's a least one point in one of the volcano themed levels where you dismount and then walk into a hole immediately after. Also, maybe you can find some way to manipulate a weapon drop for the first boss fight to speed it up somehow. I'm also unsure if there's more than one weapon upgrade level but if there is there's that aspect too.
I like my "thank you"s in monetary form.
Posted: 4/22/2005 4:28 PM
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Monthenor
Joined: 3/7/2005
Posts: 41
NrgSpoon wrote:
I may be wrong about this, but it looks like you fall faster when dismounting a floaty thing (for lack of a better name). If this is true then you most likely could use this to your advantage. I know there's a least one point in one of the volcano themed levels where you dismount and then walk into a hole immediately after.
That surprised me too. I didn't even notice that when I was making the movie, it's not that blatant at 25% speed. I knew that Kiwi falls faster without a balloon, but I didn't see that dismounting actually shot me downwards. I will have to go back and find all the places where I can dismount straight into a hole.
NrgSpoon wrote:
Also, maybe you can find some way to manipulate a weapon drop for the first boss fight to speed it up somehow. I'm also unsure if there's more than one weapon upgrade level but if there is there's that aspect too.
That laser on the last level was just a lucky drop. My jaw hit the floor when I saw it...my reward for cutting 1:14 off my previous run, I guess. Kiwi Kraze only has three weapons: Arrow, Laser, and Bomb. Laser seems to be 1.5 times as powerful as Arrow. I'm guessing Bomb is 2 times Arrow, but it's pretty rare and its short arc means I'd lose a lot of frames getting into position. Even worse, your weapon gets reset to Arrow at the beginning of each stage. I've tried affecting enemy drops but it seems a lot of the stuff in this game is set at enemy spawn time and can't be changed. For instance, enemies will drop different items if you shoot them directly as opposed to popping their balloons, but I've tried shooting one guy at every point in a 30-frame window and he dropped the same thing every time. Right now I only kill three guys in level 3-4 but I can see an opportunity for six without slowing down too much. If Laser == 1.5 Arrow, then it would cut 11 shots off the battle (66 frames). I think I might be able to manipulate something within 66 frames.
Founding member of GerbilMechs
Posted: 4/25/2005 5:21 PM
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Monthenor
Joined: 3/7/2005
Posts: 41
New version! Kiwi Kraze v04 I did another clean run right from the beginning, optimizing everything along the way.
  • I shot fewer guys since lag isn't a big problem in this game
  • I framed more jumps to perfect distance and height
  • Level 4-2 had an easy shortcut through a ceiling I hadn't remembered
  • Flapping your wings can be done every 9 frames, not 10. Helped in the two places in the entire game that flapping is useful
  • Abused the falling faster/balloon dismount glitch
The 4-2 shortcut cut about 3 seconds off that level time and the dismount glitch was useful a couple times, so I expected to beat v03 by 300 or so frames. What actually came out is 797 frames faster, another 14 seconds off the time! I have no idea what happened to get me those extra 500 frames but I'm not going to argue. The run is now a very respectable 13:50 and looks smooth throughout. The balloon dismount glitch is weird. It gives Kiwi a solid boost to the already crushing force of gravity -- he is a flightless bird, after all. A normal fall of one block takes an average of 8 frames, but under dismount boost it takes 5.5. We see it in its purest form at frames 8577 and 40989 where I have a non-bouncing balloon to work with. I spent about 100 rerecords at 6030 trying to wring out an extra lateral pixel, but the angle was too severe unless I came to a full stop on the block. It also happens while going down a shaft around 12260 when I glitch a lead balloon into the wall. That was a lucky break, since I would have lost a lot of time waiting for that balloon to descend. Also, I figured out the manipulation of items...it is frame-based, but is weighted so heavily towards apples that it's nearly useless. On top of that, sometimes an enemy just refuses to die on a certain frame, probably due to a rounding error inside the code somewhere. Turns out it doesn't matter because Laser is exactly equal to Arrow in terms of power. Laser's only advantages are that it travels faster and goes through walls, both useful in normal play but pretty lame for a timeattack.
Founding member of GerbilMechs
Posted: 5/7/2011 7:54 PM
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NitroGenesis
He/Him
Editor, Experienced player (557)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
I've been working on a warpless TAS of this game. Here is a test of the first world and 2-1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvOSvBTy3N0 Feedback would be appreciated.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Posted: 5/7/2011 9:47 PM
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Edmund
Joined: 12/16/2010
Posts: 18
NitroGenesis wrote:
I've been working on a warpless TAS of this game. Here is a test of the first world and 2-1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvOSvBTy3N0 Feedback would be appreciated.
I must admit I have no idea what's going on in this game, but the "floating up on the balloon thing" at 1:03 in the youtube-video looks a bit unoptimized? Same thing at about 1:37 with the swimming. Other than that, to this untrained eye it looked good.
I'm not a girl, not yet a woman.
Posted: 5/8/2011 1:11 PM
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NitroGenesis
He/Him
Editor, Experienced player (557)
Joined: 12/24/2009
Posts: 1873
Completed Testrun Now I will start an optimized version.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.