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Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.7
  • Primary goal: speed (no time-entertainment trade-offs)
  • Takes damage and uses deaths to save time

Game mechanics and route discussion

I've tried to document as much as I could of speedrunning-related information about this game: https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Addams_Family_(NES) .
I will mention one additional thing here, since it's TAS-only. The number of frames to load a room (or splash screen) can differ. This can often (but not always?) be manipulated by adding e.g. a small jump before. That's the reason for some of the seemingly random jumps in the movie (the others are probably to manipulate bats, birds or hop along with the music). I found this just as I was about to submit. I went through the movie again and saved a few more frames, but it's possible there are some left that I didn't find since I don't know how to tell what the minimum number of frames to load a given room is. Instead of spending too much time on jumping around in every room, I decided to document it here. In case someone decides to work on an improvement in the future, hopefully they can use this knowledge from the start instead.

Comments

There aren't any major new tricks or other discoveries since #4557: ventuz's NES The Addams Family in 11:11.11. This movie is essentially just several improvements over the previous one that add up. Below, I will list what I consider to be the more noteworthy changes.
  • Skipping Thing and two money bags reduced the time spent in the right Landing by 1142f. The two money bags were compensated by picking up two extra in the blue bone room (cost 594f). Not having Thing is 22 frames slower in the kitchen/freezer/furnace and 171 frames slower on the roof. Overall, a time save of 355f. Note that this comparison is made based on using Thing once in the freezer and twice on the roof, which is different from what the previous TAS did (but the fastest option when having Thing that I've found).
  • A new death abuse while collecting a money bag in the gallery (after giving the right music manuscript to Lurch). This made the room 122f faster than jumping to the top and collecting the money bag at the end. However, as a result, a 1-up had to be picked up in the freezer (8-12f, depending on the cycle of $45A) and going after a more out-of-the-way money bag while waiting for Lurch to play the left music manuscript (79f). Overall, a time save of not more than 33f, but visually noticeable.
  • Death abusing in the kitchen after the furnace saves 106f compared to walking through the room. It's also generally better from a health management perspective, allowing more damage to be taken elsewhere, saving even more time.
  • The swim mechanics were puzzling at first, to say the least. But I feel that I now have a good understanding of them, which made more optimal movement in the pond possible. The new movie is 368f faster.
  • Skipping a death abuse in the green bone room. While it's 28f faster to leave the room by dying at the top (while collecting the bone), like the previous TAS did, the next death in the garden outside the crypt will be much slower because of the full lifebar and the invincibility period from the death in the green bone room still being active. Overall 117f saved.
  • 64f saved by a more direct route in the tree.
Some comparisons above are with the fastest alternatives I could think of and not directly with the previous TAS and some comparisons are a bit uncertain due to not being able to synch the previous input file (I couldn't find Bizhawk 1.9.1 and none of the other versions I've tried managed to play it back correctly). That being said, these points add up to 1039f out of the total improvement of 1395f. The remaining time save just consists of many small things.
Memory: Claiming for judging.
Memory: Replacing file with 81 frame improvement.
Nice improvement over the previous run! I don't think I watched the previous run but this was a fairly interesting tas. I liked the floating glitches a lot even tho they were probably in the last run. Accepting as an improvement to [2776] NES The Addams Family by ventuz in 11:11.11.
Memory: Replacing file with equal length file per author request.
despoa: Processing...

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Posted: 6/27/2022 6:27 AM
(Edited: 7/8/2022 7:23 AM)
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TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7561: ktwo's NES The Addams Family in 10:47.90
Posted: 6/27/2022 7:10 AM
(Edited: 7/8/2022 7:23 AM)
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eien86
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Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 262
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NES TASer of 2023 PC TASer of 2023 NES TAS of 2023 PC TASer of 2021
I used to own this game as a kid. I loved all the secrets and tricks, but hated that it was so hard (it would be a great game if it had infinite lives). Really enjoyed the previous TAS so it's amazing you were able to shave 22 seconds off of it. Easy YES vote!
Posted: 6/29/2022 6:43 AM
(Edited: 7/8/2022 7:23 AM)
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ktwo
Active player (251)
Joined: 8/10/2008
Posts: 116
Requesting the submitted movie to be updated with https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637925686656955820 The temporary encode has also been updated.
Posted: 7/6/2022 9:15 PM
(Edited: 7/8/2022 7:23 AM)
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ktwo
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Joined: 8/10/2008
Posts: 116
I hope there is still time for replacing the movie file. I watched the TAS again and noticed there was an unexplained change in how the two secret rooms were solved (one at the end of the pond, the other in the right Landing). It turns out the route at the end of the pond was 4 frames faster. Implementing that route in the secret room in the right Landing worked for the 4 frames saved, but they were then immediately lost due to stair mechanics in the hallway (it seems like you can only move on stairs on specific frames, determined by some global counter, which did not pass a cycle from these 4 frames). Even though there was no overall time saved, I still think it's better to include the faster route in the secret room in the final movie: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637927384474000109
Posted: 7/6/2022 11:38 PM
(Edited: 7/8/2022 7:23 AM)
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£e_Nécroyeur
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Arcade TASer of 2017 Arcade TAS of 2016 Exotic platforms TASer of 2014 Exotic platforms TAS of 2014
ktwo wrote:
Even though there was no overall time saved, I still think it's better to include the faster route in the secret room in the final movie: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637927384474000109
Agreed. Thank you for the update, ktwo.
Posted: 7/8/2022 7:23 AM
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. ---- [4759] NES The Addams Family by ktwo in 10:47.90