After a member of the community realized that you don't need to get the roof door key I was inspired to take ajfirecracker's TAS and modify it to show the new strategy. Not wanting to grind against any rng before Heinrich, I started with aj's inputs and then branched out from there to pickup Heinrich's submachine gun and complete the run, updating the last ~40% of the input file. It feels like plagerizing to restate everything about the run that aj did in his comments regarding his submission, and the only update to this run is that you don't need to get the roof key, as you can shoot it instead to open it.
The roof door has 64 hp and both the machine gun and pistol do two damage to it. Punching and hitting it with the axe both do no damage, and c4 also registers zero damage on it (despite the fact that using c4 on it blows up the entire floor...quite a feat!). This means you optimally want to get to the roof door with exactly 33 ammo (15 pistol and 18 machine gun) so you can shoot the door to 0 hp and then have one round left to shoot it open as this lets you skip the cut scene about how many rounds are left in your pistol when going to the roof (you can accomplish roughly the same with 49 ammo, which leaves 1 round in the submachine gun when heading to the roof which also skips the cutscene). I didn't investigate why it has 64hp and bullets do 2 dmg to it vs 32hp and bullets do one but thought it was interesting.
As mentioned before the rng is this game is very difficult to keep up with, and most of my testing was done with the try-and-see-what-happens method. I'm able to get to nearly every floor sooner than as shown in this run, but total overall time is lowest in this version due to issues with enemy rng on the roof.
For anyone speed running this game I'd recommend skipping the med kit for both difficulty settings. Picking up the med kit is worthwhile for the TAS b/c of the door clip but for RTA attempts it was faster in all my iterations to skip the med kit.
  • Best Ending
  • Takes Damage To Save Time
  • Uses Hardest Difficulty
  • Genre: Action

Samsara: File replaced with a version that truncates several seconds of blank input, ajfirecracker's name added to the submission as their input was used... And judging.
Samsara: Ah, the classic strategy of "when all else fails, GUN". Lovely little improvement! Most of the content is the same, so I'm accepting this to Vault as an improvement to the published run. Excellent work!
feos: Pub.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15584
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7014: ajfirecracker & Coiser's NES Die Hard in 01:41.23
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2643)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6438
Location: The land down under.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Samsara
She/They
Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2238)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
I started with aj's inputs and then branched out from there to pickup Heinrich's submachine gun and complete the run, updating the last ~40% of the input file. It feels like plagerizing to restate everything about the run that aj did in his comments regarding his submission, and the only update to this run is that you don't need to get the roof key, as you can shoot it instead to open it.
ajfirecracker should be added as a co-author if their input is used. EDIT: I've done this, also I've replaced the file with a fully truncated version that finishes on the final necessary input.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Coiser
She/Her
Player (31)
Joined: 1/25/2021
Posts: 2
Location: Texas
Re: EDIT: I've done this, also I've replaced the file with a fully truncated version that finishes on the final necessary input. Thank you, this is my first submission here and I wasn't sure how to go about doing that. I saw an input field for 'extra edit privileges' but didn't seem like it should go there. I tried to credit him in the comments and make clear that I was using his work for the initial half of the file.
Samsara
She/They
Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2238)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
No worries! In the future, if you're actively working off of someone else's input, you want to add them as a co-author through the Nickname field on the submission form. The Extra Edit Privileges field is there in case you want them to be able to edit the submission as well, however in this case it doesn't seem necessary as ajfirecracker wasn't actively involved in making this movie.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15584
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4394] NES Die Hard by ajfirecracker & Coiser in 01:41.23
ajfirecracker
He/Him
Player (63)
Joined: 10/11/2017
Posts: 32
Nice! Thank you Coiser for making this update I've been playing around with the game a little bit lately but have been exploring other strategies rather than making this change. The most interesting behavior I've found so far is: If you press A+B on the same frame in the menu of most elevators, it will store the input to change floors but let you out of the elevator. Entering the elevator from a different floor can overflow or underflow elevator movement. Example: From floor 32, enter the elevator and press Up to place the finger over floor 33. Press A+B on the same frame and the elevator door will open, walk out of the elevator and go up the stairs to floor 33 and enter the elevator in 33. The elevator will go up past floor 34, 35, the roof, and either crash or reload the copyright screen. Relevant addresses: x0065 - Floor ID (0-7 for normal floors, 16 is copyright screen, 31 is victory screen) x0787 - Cursor in elevator menu x0788 - Elevator button light (array of bits) x078B - Elevator target floor (array of bits)