On this site, we make perfect movies, and then we beat them. Of course, if we can beat them, they weren’t perfect in the first place, but who would have known?
This submission beats the published Rockman movie by about 48 seconds (2887 frames). It breaks down to these improvements:
  • Elecman: 88 frames
    • New glitch-techniques (~20 frames)
    • New playing-techniques (~58 frames)
    • Better precision (~10 frames)
  • Iceman: 64 frames
    • Water scene (better precision): ~35 frames
    • Lift scene (better precision): ~20 frames
    • Tunnel (better precision): ~10 frames
  • Fireman: 697 frames
    • Better precision
    • New glitch-techniques (MAJOR)
  • Bombman: 884 frames
    • New glitch-techniques (MAJOR)
    • Better precision
    • Less refills
  • Gutsman: 42 frames
    • New playing-techniques (beginning, refill approach)
    • Better precision
  • Cutman: 454 frames
    • New glitch-techniques (MAJOR)
  • Wily1: 82 frames
    • New playing-techniques (~20 frames gained at refill, ~30 frames gained at the Boss)
    • Better precision
  • Wily2: 184 frames
    • New glitch-techniques (~60 frames)
    • Better precision (~40 frames)
    • New refill strategy (~60 frames)
  • Wily3: 84 frames
    • New glitch-technique
  • Wily4: about 280 frames
    • New playing-techniques (most notably, the Wily fight is very different)
Most of the new strategies come from finalfighter. Some came from Morimoto. Huge thanks to both of them. A few were discovered by AngerFist and Bisqwit during the making of the movie.
The precision of the making of this movie was greatly improved from the past. What most influenced that outcome, was an emulator feature, an FCEU extension, that shows the following things each frame:
  • Position and speed of Rockman (X, Y) at subpixel precision
    • This allowed to make optimizations that weren't immediately visible, but only affected in the long run
    • It also helped solve many mysteries of the game that were previously without answers
  • Positions and ages of each Magnet Beam
    • Combined with the data collected at Rockman Data, this allowed to predict exactly where and when to place each beam
  • Indicator of boss and enemy hits
    • This saved a lot of trial&error work.
Other software that were written for the tasks specialized for this game:
  • BisqBot, a rerecording robot, was used to manipulate the weapon refills and to fight the Wily3 boss.
  • A C++ program was made to predict the randomness needed to make Bombman act in a certain way at Wily4.
A lot of wall-passing / wrapping / zipping techniques are used in this movie. And this “a lot” means... adjectives are not enough to describe it. It has became increasingly difficult for even an expert player to comprehend what is going on in this movie. In a few situations, what appears on the screen is not what happens in the game. For example, Rockman may appear to pass through a spike unharmed or jump from air. In such situations, he’s usually temporarily inhabiting the “next screen” that is different from the one being displayed. Except, when he really actually hits a spike and still survives (this happens in Bombman stage).
The foundation of all of the techniques used in this movie are explained at Rockman Tricks, but the applications are myriad and complicated. There currently exists no documentary of those applications, but if you keep asking, something like that may be built in the progress of answering your questions.
If you are interested in the source code of the programs/tools mentioned in this post, ask Bisqwit.

EDIT: This submission was originally submitted as a Rockman movie, but as I tried out how it works in USA Mega Man, and noticed it desyncs in the last battle, I tried to make a compatible USA version movie on the side of the Japanese version. However, the USA version movie ended up being faster (due to no particular reason), so I’m actually replacing the old submission with this new one.
If played on Japanese version, it desyncs in the second part of the last fight. Use the USA version.

Player (24)
Joined: 4/23/2005
Posts: 435
Location: Germany
AngerFist wrote:
MattyXB wrote:
And in one from the Willy Stages its looks like that you wait a bit and lose some Frames. Was this for luck manipulation or lag avoiding? Or for something else. Or was it lag, that it only looks like waiting?
Where do you exactly mean?
I watch again the movie. Yes I think I mean this part. 1. Wily Stage after climb the 2 ladders and equip the weapon from Elecman (near Frame 39600) Looks like waiting for me and shoting in the air much. But why? Near nothing get hit and there seems no use for it.
Last TAS finished: Final Fantasy Adventure (4.0 Warp Glitch Run) WIP in the moment: Tail Gator (GB) Matty
Player (223)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 399
There are bricks megaman has to get rid of either by shooting them with Elec's weapon or throwing them off with Super Arm. Usually there is a major lag, but it's avoided by waiting a bit. I guess.
<adelikat> I've been quoted with worse
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Okay, who voted no?
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
Active player (432)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
MattyXB wrote:
1. Wily Stage after climb the 2 ladders and equip the weapon from Elecman (near Frame 39600) Looks like waiting for me and shoting in the air much. But why? Near nothing get hit and there seems no use for it.
To reduce lag as you suspected earlier, also note that there are some big rocks ahead that you probably did not notice when Bisqwit fired at them. And the very minor delay (just a few frames) getting the refills near the ladder where for luck manipulation.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Player (24)
Joined: 4/23/2005
Posts: 435
Location: Germany
Ok, I test it now with a Save State infront of it and saw these blocks too. Now everything is clear for me. Great job.
Last TAS finished: Final Fantasy Adventure (4.0 Warp Glitch Run) WIP in the moment: Tail Gator (GB) Matty
Joined: 8/13/2005
Posts: 356
Location: Canada
Wow, the dance with Elecman is amazing! This is a (sort of unnecessary) yes. Bombman: "Why can't you just use the door like everybody else?"
Player (223)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 399
I kind of liked the v6's Elecman battle more than this, but it's not a bad idea to make a new movie look different.
<adelikat> I've been quoted with worse
Editor, Skilled player (1939)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247
MM1 movies keep on getting better. This should grab MM2's star. Yes vote.
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Haha... so gooood..... would it be possible to vote no ???? AngerFist, Bisqwit, you guys did great work together... YES !!!
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Wily over. Move = Very Yes. I'm speechless, really. Great job.
Player (79)
Joined: 2/8/2005
Posts: 130
great job guys
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
tool23, I was going to congratulate you for actually hacking that in, until I realized the text was misaligned and figured out it was fake :(
Nach wrote:
Okay, who voted no?
Uh... oops? Sorry, misvoted.
Perma-banned
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 498
Although unlike Tool's suggestion, this one's an actual hack. :) http://www.filespace.org/4matsy/megaman1_bisqwitendingtext.ips Couldn't fit Angerfist in there due to a lack of knowledge of NES-ese in order to expand the available text space, but for now I think it's somewhat sufficient...I even had one tile left over this way, so I left in the extraneous comma for added authenticity. :p
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 275
... This rom should file for abuse and tool-assisted assault. :[ (Yes vote.)
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
Graveworm wrote:
Why would you watch a movie of a game you don't like? I'm asking because I'm curious.
I was intrigued by the comments. Besides, Bisqwit said that "the next Megaman movie will be MAD", or something like that. Well, it is mad enough. :D
Nach wrote:
Regarding entertainment, each person is different.
Absolutely.
Nach wrote:
Unforunetly, it seems others don't notice it, Bisqwit himself told me he didn't notice the faster movment, he only knows it was faster movement because of the tools he made :(
Well I'm not surprised then. I don't know Megaman good enough to say whether he's moving at a normal speed, that kinda reduces the resulting effect. :| On the other hand, I don't like the game quite enough to educate myself further for that kind of issues. P.S. By the way, this one seems to be the most appreciated movie on the site for now. 52 (actually, 53) yes votes out of 53 total is awesome. Is there a game which could, if properly TASed, gather in the similar harvest of votes?
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Active player (277)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Well, I wouldn't say Meggy's "moving faster", but rather just moving along a slightly better path.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Well, I wouldn't say Meggy's "moving faster", but rather just moving along a slightly better path.
He does also move faster, because I ensured that every time*Rockman starts moving horizontally from a standstill (like coming ahead an obstacle or clearing a ladder), the subpixel part of his horizontal position is optimal. For example, if there is a wall at positions 64...128, and Rockman is descending down from the left side of the wall, by the time he clears the wall, his X position is 63.95, rather than 63.10 for example. You can't observe the difference from what you see within the first few frames, but you'll know that you reach some place a frame faster than normally. Similarly, when going left, it's better to wait at 129.00 than at 129.35, when the direction is going to be to the left. If you hold right while facing a wall, Rockman's subpixel X position will fluctuate, but the integer part will be kept at constant value. (Acceleration works even when facing an obstacle; the position is fixed separately.) For example, assume Rockman's X speed is 1.3 pixels / frame. When you hold right while facing a wall, the coordinate may go through a sequence like this:  50.0 (50.0 if there was no obstacle)  50.3 (51.3 -"-)  50.6 (52.6 -"-)  50.9 (53.9 -"-)  50.2 (55.2 -"-)  50.5 (56.5 -"-)  50.8  50.1  50.4  50.7  50.0 Knowing this effect, you can choose to stop movement when the coordinate is 50.9, and then start moving when it's possible for the coordinate to reach 52.2 at once. (Or rather, because of the acceleration delay, time it so that it reaches 50.9 just before the edge and immediately 52.2 thereafter.) Of course, you need to be able to read (and interpret) the RAM to do this, because you can not see the subpixel position from the screen (pixel is the smallest display unit). (* Actually, not every time. I realized this opportunity about half-way to the movie.) Ps: This same thing applies to Rockman 2 as well with exactly the same numbers.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
I really should have replied here earlier. I just watched the movie, and what can I say? It exceeds my expectations, even though I watched pretty much every movie in the Mega Man discussion topic. Rockman v6 was the best example of a tool-assisted speedrun, and this version is nothing less. There is really nothing to criticize!
Former player
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 524
Location: USA
Absolutely a beautiful run. Yes even though my vote hardly matters at this point.
Working on: Command and Conquer PSX Nod Campaign
Joined: 2/13/2006
Posts: 39
Location: Finland
Awesome run! Especially the way Bisqwit entered Bombman's room. The funny thing is that I cursed that I don't have a working FCEU, but then I realised that Bisqwit gave me the sources some weeks ago :) Now I'm just waiting for an encode to be archived. Hopefully the encode is good, unlike some encodes lately.
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Turambar wrote:
Hopefully the encode is good, unlike some encodes lately.
Although it is off-topic, which encodes have not been good lately?
Post subject: Source code of the magnet beam solidifier
Editor, Active player (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
This is the source code of the emulator extension I used in the making of this AVI (not in the making of the movie). It makes the magnet beams look much more solid.
void RockmanBeams()
{
    unsigned a;
    int scrollbegin = RAM[0x1B]*256 + RAM[0x1A];
    //for(a=0; a<256*240; ++a) XBuf[a] = (XBuf[a] & 15) | 192;
    if(RAM[0x1E] != 0) return; // vscroll
    for(a=0; a<16; ++a)
    {
        unsigned power  = RAM[0x5B0+a];
        int      xmid   = RAM[0x5D0+a]*256 + RAM[0x5C0+a];
        int      ypos   = RAM[0x5F0+a];
        unsigned length = RAM[0x5A0+a];
        unsigned units = 1+length/4;
        if(!power) continue;
        
        int screenbegin = (xmid - scrollbegin) - units*8;
        int screenend   = (xmid - scrollbegin) + units*8;
        
        if(screenbegin < 0) screenbegin = 0;
        if(RAM[0x1A] != 0 && screenend   > 255) screenend = 255;
        if(RAM[0x1A] != 0 && screenbegin > 255) continue;       
        if(screenend   < 0) continue;
        
        if(RAM[0x1E] != 0) ypos -= RAM[0x1E]-256;
        
        while(screenbegin <= screenend)
        {
            unsigned x=screenbegin&255;
            int y, ycount=0;
            for(y=ypos-2; y<ypos+4; ++y,++ycount)
            {
                int color=12;
                if(screenbegin > 255)
                {
                    continue;//if((x|y)&1)continue;
                }
                if(y < 0 || y > 239) continue;
                switch(ycount)
                {
                    case 0: color=13; break;
                    case 5: color=13; break;
                    default:                
                    {
                        int offs = y+screenbegin+RAM[0x1A];
                        int hi=0x2C, lo=0x11;
                        //if(power==156 && (RAM[0x23]&1)) hi=0x3C;  
                        //  -RAM[0x23]/8; // frame counter for visfx
                        color = (offs&2) ? hi:lo;                   
                    }
                }
                //if(((x^y)&1) != (RAM[0x23]&1)) continue;
                XBuf[x + y*256] = color | 128;            
            }
            ++screenbegin;
        }
    }
}
This function is placed in video.c and called from FCEU_PutImage() before any other line. (Actually, this is not precisely the same function; the actual code uses a copy of the RAM that is updated on every NMI (to prevent it from predicting the magnet beam locations on next frame), but the difference is small and this one was easier to post.) It has a visual quirk: the decorations in the real magnet beams go \\\\\\\\, but the decorations of this filter go ////////. It renders the beams more properly than the game, so during some zippings you may see the game's rendered beams appearing erroneously in the next screen, due to wrapping.
Joined: 2/13/2006
Posts: 39
Location: Finland
Bisqwit wrote:
Turambar wrote:
Hopefully the encode is good, unlike some encodes lately.
Although it is off-topic, which encodes have not been good lately?
Sorry, I think I said it too harshly, but if I remember right there were one or two lower quality encodes this year (not the DKC ones). I'll investigate, I may have already deleted the videos or I may have been really drunk while watching them. I'll tell you in PM or IRC or something, if I find out.
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 275
moozooh wrote:
P.S. By the way, this one seems to be the most appreciated movie on the site for now. 52 (actually, 53) yes votes out of 53 total is awesome. Is there a game which could, if properly TASed, gather in the similar harvest of votes?
The Mario 64 20-star TAS was getting just as many votes when it first came out.
Joined: 12/13/2004
Posts: 103
I actually think there should be an entirely glitch-free version of this game available too. I don't care much about this one, but I'm sure it will be accepted and obsolete the old one (which also had way too many glitches to be interesting for me). I'll refrain from voting.