This movie has been obsoleted. The new movie can be found here.
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
    • (Ab)using monsters as platforms
    • (Ab)using main character as a critical strike weapon
    • (Ab)using boomerangs to cause massive damage to multiple, superimposed targets.
  • Manipulates luck
  • No death
  • Uses emulator FCE Ultra 0.98.16
  • Genre: Platform
Many of you are probably familiar with Konami’s original Castlevania game, but in case you haven’t played this game, here is a brief description:
Castlevania is loosely based on Bram Stoker’s character, Dracula, and Dracula’s extravagant and creepy castle deep in Transylvanian forest.
The main character is Simon Belmont, a vampire hunter.
Dracula’s hit points reach zero 250 frames (~4.16 seconds) faster than Phil Cote's previously published run. If you subscribe to the ‘end input as soon as possible' philosophy, then the run is 423 frames faster (~7.05 seconds). This version does not feature a higher score, but a high score was sought after.
I would suggest revisiting Phil's Castlevania TAS before delving into this one.

Level improvements:

Level 1: 20 frames faster

  • Enter castle gate faster—1 frame
  • Optimized using the bat as a platform—16 frames
  • Optimized bat boss—3 frames

Level 2: 59 frames faster

  • Cross took 42 extra frames to get.
  • Second whip upgrade avoided—49 frames saved
  • Killed Medusa faster—52 frames

Level 3: 115 frames faster

  • Took four more extra frames to get to the mummies with the cross.
  • Beat the mummies faster—119 frames
  • As for stage 8, it may look like I waste frames, however no frames are lost due to a frame rule. Originally I was going to replay this segment and kill the ravens, but I thought the manipulation of the raven enemies was funny.

Level 4: 29 frames faster

  • Killed Frankenstein faster—29 frames

Level 5: 10 frames faster

  • Optimized using the hunch-back as a platform.

Level 6: ?? frames faster

  • Dracula’s hit points drop to zero 17 frames faster. This could have been optimized more if I had decided to end input in the same manner as Phil, but using Dracula’s ghost to push Simon to where the magic crystal spawns took a significant amount of extra time to arrange.
  • End input 173 frames faster. The trade-off of the previous note.

About abusing the cross:

The cross is meant to hit strong enemies (such as bosses)once then pass through them. Funny thing about the cross is that by hitting two enemies on top of one another, it is actually possible to make the cross hit three or more times in one pass.
This technique is used on that knight enemy at the start of level 2, the bone dragon in level 4, the mummies and on Dracula. In the example of the knight, the cross hits the knight first, then the cross hits the bat, then the knight again. Once the cross hits a second target (bat),it can hit the first target (knight) again so long as the cross is still inside the knight’s hit box. It is as if the cross has been reset to yield damage to a target it previously hit one or two frames ago, but the programmers neglected this error.
The mummies both have a lot of HP, so throwing a cross at them once they are close together makes each mummy reset the cross’ strike on the other mummy over and over and over again. This tactic yields massive damage in a very small amount of frames. Hence, the mummies can be killed solely with 2 crosses because they take 2 damage (from their collective HP address) each and every frame that the cross is inside both their hit boxes.
It was possible to throw crosses at the mummies before I did, but each frame that a cross hits a mummy, it prevents the mummy from moving along his course for one frame thus preventing the mummies from moving together at the first possible moment. Also, both mummies need the same amount of HP in order to die at the same time using only the cross. One would have to hit the last mummy for the same amount of HP as the difference of the mummies' HP once one mummy dies.
It is possible to kill both mummies with only one cross, but it takes more time to manipulate that into happening than it does to just use two crosses.
Special thanks to the Castlevania TAS authors Bisqwit, Genisto and Phil Cote. Without these authors’ ideas and TASes to reference, this version would not have been possible. To be honest, I feel more like a co-author. Enjoy.

Bisqwit: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1305: Morrison's NES Castlevania in 11:34.12
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Where did this come from??! Good work Morrison!
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Wow. I thought Phil's run couldn't be improved that much but looks like it was possible after all. Nice job!
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I was watching Morrison's WIPs, and I can say this run deserves everything good one could say about it. Awesome improvement, man.
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Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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WHAT ROM
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The same, Castlevania (Konami Classic).nes.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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That's not a GoodRom!
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Though the checksums don't match, the run seems to be working ok with PRG1. PRG0 desynchronized almost immediately.
Morrison
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That's odd. Anyhow, I used Castlevania (KC) with the exact same rom name and checksum as Phil's.
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The run played all the way through on PRG1, looked pretty good! What do the roman numerals do?
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great improvement! Voted hell yes.
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Morrison
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The roman numerals are multi-shot upgrades for the secondary weapons. Without the II and III items, only one secondary weapon can be on the screen at a time. For example, on Dracula, without holy water and a II, it would be impossible to stunlock him.
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BTW, will this run going to have this "luck abuse that is nearly impossible to duplicate, etc." line? Cause if it will, that would be for the third time already (talking about impossibility, yeah). :D
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Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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Amazing work.
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You used the game's most powerful weapon, , for most of this run. It might be anticlimatic, but especially when combined with , it was refreshing for me to see that instead of . And you also used , but that wasn't news. The music transition from stage 17 to stage 18 was almost seamless. Cool. :) You used one less whip upgrade. As you predicted, the delays in stage 8 looked suspicious, but I'm glad you explained it. The mummy battle had suspicious delays. What were those limitations you speak about? It's a shame there were no new shortcuts. I'd still like to see some shortcuts in this scenery: http://bisqwit.iki.fi/kala/snap/cv1annoy.gif
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It's indeed a different run, more traditional because of the cross being used, but I wonder if this game can be pushed any farther? I don't think it's necessary to vote since it's being published but I'm going to anyway.
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Finally got the time to view this run. It was totally unexpected that you were improving Phils run and doing that aint always easy so bravo.
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
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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
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VANDAL wrote:
It's indeed a different run, more traditional because of the cross being used, but I wonder if this game can be pushed any farther? I don't think it's necessary to vote since it is being published but I'm going to anyway.
One major possible improvement I discussed with Morrison in IRC was trying to somehow cut the waiting time near the platforms in stage 10. I guess, currently we can't tell for sure if it is or isn't possible, but if it is, it would cut the game time to sub-11:30 at least.
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Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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moozooh wrote:
One major possible improvement I discussed with Morrison in IRC was trying to somehow cut the waiting time near the platforms in stage 10. I guess, currently we can't tell for sure if it is or isn't possible, but if it is, it would cut the game time to sub-11:30 at least.
I attempted this many times with no results. I cannot manipulate the platforms into spawning in a way you describe. I also attempted just go 'the normal way', but this was ~3 frames slower.
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Aww, so it's perfect then? What a disappointment. :\
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Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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Bisqwit, what do you mean by that animated gif? Morrison takes a shortcut there at the beginning by getting hit by the skeleton.
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He may have been talking about this, how do you do this by the way? I don't think that is possible unless you are coming back. (hotlinked straight from "Sites" 'Obsolete screenshot collection').
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Great stuff, I especially liked the way the mummies were disposed off... quick and easy! Voted YES.
VANDAL wrote:
He may have been talking about this, how do you do this by the way? I don't think that is possible unless you are coming back. (hotlinked straight from "Sites" 'Obsolete screenshot collection').
Hmmm, from which run was that taken from? Or was it intended just to be a conceptual time saver kind of thing? Looks like manipulating the enemies into that position may take a while... there are 3 imp thingys there, meaning the player has to wait for at least 3 bird spawns. And to get them to be in the right positions to bounce the player to the top of the screen, maybe someone can test it to see if it is indeed a time saver, that is if you can walk to the other side.
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VANDAL wrote:
He may have been talking about this
Correct. Here's a FCM that shows how to do it. I'm hoping for someone to devise a way to do it in reverse. http://www.w-create.com/%7Ebisqwit/nesvideos/obsolete/drool1.fcm I don't know if it can ever be done, but it's one of the things I'm hoping...
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I don't think it would be possible unless somehow you could bypass the invincibility period, after jumping and getting hit, making it either a shorter period or not apparent at all and get hit a second time to gain an even greater height. Second thought, you would have to get hit three times at least. Bypassing invincibility is not possible, as far as I know, as well.