Uses FCEU 0.98.15
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses programming errors to save time
- Takes damage to save time
- Manipulates luck (only once)
What you see here is my third attempt at a Ninja Gaiden TAS (or twenty-sixth, depending on how you count) The first was 39886 frames. The second was 39872 frames, and after refining that, I ended up with this. It's 39781 frames (11:03), making it 168 frames (2.8 seconds) faster than Slotermeyer's published run. The rerecord count in the submitted file is incorrect. Actual rerecords were 5345.
What I did faster than in Slotermeyer's run:
Level 1 (3 frames):
- gained 1 frame by pressing start to bypass the level intro one frame earlier
- gained 2 frames by not using down+b
Level 2 (7 frames):
- gained 6 frames from faster/more precise wall jumps
- gained 1 frame by dropping off a ledge instead of jumping
Level 3 (75 frames):
- gained 1 frame from faster/more precise wall jumps
- gained 74 frames from a revised boss strategy (I kill him in just under two seconds)
Level 4 (27 frames):
- gained 13 frames from faster/more precise wall jumps (most notably in the first screen of 4-3 where i grab the inside of the wall on my way up, saving 7 frames. I do this again in the first screen of 6-2)
- gained 14 frames by bouncing off a bullet instead of an axe
Level 5 (30 frames):
- gained 10 frames from faster/more precise wall jumps and fewer uses of down+b
- gained 20 frames by bouncing off the bird at the end of 5-2
Level 6 (26 frames):
- gained 24 frames from faster/more precise wall jumps, dropping off a ledge instead of jumping and fewer uses of down+b
- gained 1 frame in the Jaquio fight and 1 frame in the Demon fight (I'm really not sure how or why)
Time savers that didn't work out in the final version:
- In my earlier versions, in the second screen of 4-3, I jumped over the knife-thrower and was able to bounce off his knife at the exit. This was 2 frames faster than what you see in this version, but after I changed the level three boss fight, I could not get it to line up.
- Sometimes, depending on when you exit the previous screen (or probably more precisely, when the boss screen loads... but that can't be directly manipulated) the timer for the boss fight will appear a few frames sooner. This, predictably, results in the timer reaching zero sooner, which means that the cinema screen starts three frames sooner. This happened for the Kelbeross (level 4), Masked Devil and Jaquio battles in my previous versions but I wasn't so lucky in this final version.
There you have it. The only ways I can see this being improved upon significantly is with a better understanding of how enemy behavior is determined or the discovery of new glitches.
Special thanks to BoltR and Slotermeyer. I learned a lot from their runs.
Enjoy.
Truncated: Accepting because it improves on a previous version.
Edit: Improved this by 33 frames. Cancelling and submitting the new one.
