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After the success of Nintendo's 1981 Donkey Kong, the Japanese developer launched two sequels a spinoff called Donkey Kong Junior which ended up having its own spinoff: Donkey Kong Junior Math. In the 'Calculate' mode (there's an A and a B with the latter being harder), Donkey Kong stands at the top of the tower holding a number which the two Juniors (I and II) must race each other to make using the numbers hanging on vines and operations on platforms. This TAS aims to beat Calculate B in record time by uniting the Juniors and maybe by manipulating the luck juuust a bit.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8
  • Aims for fastest completion
  • Uses hardest difficulty
  • 2 Players
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses death for timesaves
  • Allows L+R/U+D
This is my second attempt at creating a TAS of this game over the course of about 3 weeks after finding an unsubmitted one someone had previously made which was almost 3 seconds faster. Anyway, I finished it with a "better" understanding of RNG manip and it's 833 frames faster than my other and 663 faster than the former fastest.

RNG Manipulation

Before, I thought the boards and order of operations you got depended on the frame the level was loaded in. Wrong. It turns out that inputs determine this and so I put in many hours trying any and every combination I could just to get the absolute best RNG possible. Despite all this, I'm not all too happy with levels 3 and 4 in particular although I didn't manage to find a faster alternative.

Killing Junior II

Usually, the round will end and the loser will play out the death animation (see round 5). The game will then move on once it has ended. However, it doesn't actually check the reason behind why it played and so Junior II can be killed just before Junior I wins the round to end it sooner than expected. This saves about 57 frames on each level, meaning that around 228 frames (3.8 seconds) were saved just from this.

Possible Improvements

The main potential improvement is better RNG since there might be better boards that I didn't come across while experimenting. I wouldn't be all too surprised if someone managed to TAS a 50 or lower.
Possible screenshot: frame 3648
slamo: Claiming for judging.
slamo: Nice work on this one, and clever usage of the second player to save some time. "Calculate B" is the appropriate branch name because it's a separate game mode. Accepting.
despoa: Processing...

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Posted: 5/30/2022 4:58 PM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7514: Cephla's NES Donkey Kong Jr. Math "Calculate B" in 00:55.99
Posted: 5/30/2022 8:56 PM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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adelikat
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Joined: 11/3/2004
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TASer of 2010 NES TASer of 2010 DS TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 NES TASer of 2008 NES TAS of 2008 Funny TAS of 2008 TASer of 2007 NES TASer of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
Nice improvement :) Thanks for putting the work into this TAS, I enjoyed it.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Posted: 5/30/2022 8:58 PM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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ShesChardcore
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TASer of 2022 Rookie of 2022 NES TASer of 2022 Atari TASer of 2022 Lucky TAS of 2022
I like me some math. Nicely done. Yes vote!
Posted: 5/31/2022 12:58 AM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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Darkman425
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SNES TASer of 2023 Sega TASer of 2022 GBA TASer of 2022
Junior II thinking he's in swim class somehow saving time is such a silly strat. Yes vote!
Switch friend code: SW-2632-3851-3712
Posted: 6/13/2022 1:50 AM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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slamo
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Joined: 5/21/2013
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DS TAS of 2022 Computer TASer of 2016 Computer TAS of 2016 Computer TASer of 2013 Computer TAS of 2013
The dump this movie uses is strange, but the movie does sync on this verified good dump: 
Identified from BootGod's database

------
BEGIN NES rom analysis:
Found iNES header:
pr=16,ch=8,wr=8,vr=0,ba=0,pa=1|0,brd=MAPPER000,sys=
Since this is iNES we can (somewhat) confidently parse PRG/CHR banks to hash.
headerless rom hash: SHA1:A5030E82D7C38F2D51016D947CB29E6FF788367C
headerless rom hash:  MD5:1CA706896A8D4F2A2B5480D941130A4A
Since this rom has a 16 KB PRG, we'll hash it as 8KB too for bootgod's DB:
  PRG (8KB) + CHR hash: SHA1:059454A557AE902E6A43130D27B8482CBDFFF7C7
  PRG (8KB) + CHR hash:  MD5:0DF19EA102F9013EE7494F809F83C66D
Could not locate game in bizhawk gamedb
Chose board from nescartdb:
pr=16,ch=8,wr=0,vr=0,ba=0,pa=1|0,brd=NES-NROM-128,sys=NES-NTSC
Final game detection results:
pr=16,ch=8,wr=0,vr=0,ba=0,pa=1|0,brd=NES-NROM-128,sys=NES-NTSC
"Donkey Kong Jr. Math"
Implemented by: class NROM
END NES rom analysis
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Posted: 6/15/2022 9:00 PM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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Fortranm
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there's an A and a B with the latter being harder
"Calculate B" is the appropriate branch name because it's a separate game mode.
The other publications for the series on NES don't use the difficulty choice "Game B" as a branch name though. [1352] NES Donkey Kong by Phil in 01:08.67 [3926] NES Donkey Kong Jr. by Aglar, Aqfaq, Ferret Warlord, Jigwally in 01:03.84 [2175] NES Donkey Kong 3 by MESHUGGAH in 00:56.54
Posted: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM
Post subject: Movie published
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TASVideoAgent
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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. ---- [4722] NES Donkey Kong Jr. Math "Calculate B" by Cephla in 00:55.99