Former player
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 1107
When you say I lost time because I waited for enemies to move, do you mean I could have not waited with the enemies in the same position, or is poor luck manipulation the only thing I did wrong? Also, which minibosses are you referring to that I walked through? I remember the cat, and I think I tried a little to manipulate luck so he wouldn't be in that position, but I wasn't able to. The other one I remember is Peg Leg Pete, and if I remember correctly the screen flashes when you kill him, so walking through him after touching a knife is the fastest way. Anyway, it's too bad the shooting for fun caused lag, I found all that shooting kind of cool-looking.
Joined: 8/7/2004
Posts: 51
One neat trick is you don't have to actually beat the wizard to beat the first level. Although, I doubt it will save time since you kill him so quick, and his shots tend to cause lag. ... I played this game when I was little...
mew.
Former player
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 1107
One neat trick is you don't have to actually beat the wizard to beat the first level. Although, I doubt it will save time since you kill him so quick, and his shots tend to cause lag. I knew that already, but after walking under him to get the key, he comes back down and you can't get past him. Touching him will kill you, so you can't go through him. I'm pretty sure I tried jumping over him and that failed, and waiting for him to come back up is obviously too slow, so killing him is the only solution.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
An old topic revived: As most of you know, I submitted a run of this game a few days ago. CtrlAltDestroy found some possible improvements in it, so I'm redoing my submitted run. I will post my progress here, so please give feedback on it if you have any. Download the current WIP here. So far, it's 98 frames (1.65 seconds) faster than my submitted run. This is entirely due to tricks found by CtrlAltDestroy, so my biggest thanks to him. I'll continue to post my WIPs here, because I want this run to be as good as it can get. I'll look into the game's physics some more, trying to find optimal ways to climb up a ladder and stuff like that. Enjoy the WIP! :) EDIT: Replaced the movie with a new one, about 30 seconds longer.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Looks good so far. Too bad you had to pause for a second to manipulate Minnie's weapon.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Looks good so far. Too bad you had to pause for a second to manipulate Minnie's weapon.
Yeah... I had to stop for exactly 4 frames I think... Now that I have green light from you, I'll continue working then. :) Perhaps I can have a new WIP up withing 2 days.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Hey, I just thought of something. It might be worth it to think about skipping Minnie's weapon. The extra time spent on the boss fights might be canceled out by skipping the 3 rooms and the flashing screen needed to pick up the weapon. My main concern would be the really, really laggy rock-throwing monsters in the Forest level. Other than that, this theory seems plausible. Just a thought. Edit: Also, don't forget to try manipulating a fairy to get past the falling light fixture faster.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I have some bad news... I accidently dropped my laptop (twice actually), and now it's all screwed up. It works, but barely. I won't be able to TAS for a while now, until the laptop works fine again. :( I'm really sorry about this, but it's nothing I can do. If I'm lucky, I can get my laptop up and working withing two weeks or so. I can still borrow a computer now and then to check the forum, and even watch a TAS or two.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
That's unfortunate, I was looking forward to helping you with this. I guess I'll go look for some memory locations for you. Be sure to say when you get your computer issues straightened out.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Thanks for the support. I'll try to fix my computer as soon as possible - it's in my interest too to TAS this game. :) If possible, it would be really helpful if you found the memory addresses for pseudorandom events, like where enemies spawn and what you get when destroying a lamp/window. Those would proove very useful as you can understand. I've already found the more trivial addresses, like position, screen position, Mickey's HP, and stuff like that. I'm gonna be pretty busy now with new-years-eve and all that, but as I said, maybe I can be up TASing again withing a few weeks (At least sometime in January I hope). In any case, I'll keep in touch.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I just wanted to let you all know that my computer is getting fixed right now, and I'll have it back by the end of this week. This means that I can start TASing this game again somewhere around Saturday or so. Just so you know that I haven't forgotten about this. :)
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Great, but now MY laptop is in the shop. By the way, I found another fairy that can be used to instant-kill the level 3 boss. It's hidden in a flower. I also found a fairy in level 2, but it's useless. You have to stand on a cliff for your shots to reach it, and it's impossible to kill the boss with it since the battle is taking place on the top of the screen and it disappears way too soon. So, if you don't even have to kill three of the five bosses, I think that skipping Minnie's weapon is definitely something to look into. My new concern with doing this is shooting the fairies. They each take 8 shots to attain and it's extremely difficult (impossible?) to blast one open before you get to it, even with 3 bullets.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Great, but now MY laptop is in the shop.
Do you know when you'll get it back?
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
By the way, I found another fairy that can be used to instant-kill the level 3 boss. It's hidden in a flower.
Could you explain what you mean with "instant-kill" more exactly? I thought fairies flew away once you entered a boss area with them.
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
So, if you don't even have to kill three of the five bosses, I think that skipping Minnie's weapon is definitely something to look into. My new concern with doing this is shooting the fairies. They each take 8 shots to attain and it's extremely difficult (impossible?) to blast one open before you get to it, even with 3 bullets.
Right. It sounds like it needs quite some planning whether or not to pick up Minnie's weapon. Once my computer is back, I'll do some testing. It would be great if we found the memory address for whether or not Minnie has a weapon. If so, we could just shut it on and off, testing different areas with and without her weapon.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
I found that memory address, but it's on my laptop. I hope I'll be getting it back by Sunday. Just like with the final boss, you can easily kill the level 3 boss with the fairy. The fairy keeps you invincible until it flies off the screen completely, and entering a boss room only makes it *start* to fly away.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Allright, my computer is fully back up and running again! I can't TAS as much as I have lately, because school started again, and I've started playing World of Warcraft, and such things. :P I should be able to work at least 3-4 hours per week, if not more. It all depends on how motivated I am. CtrlAltDestroy: Do you know exactly how randomness in terms of where enemies appear work? It's obviously frame-based, but in some rooms I think I've managed to change the enemies spawning-places but holding down the "up" or "down" button on the controller while the new screen is loading (I might be wrong on this, but I think I remember this happening to me once or twice). This should probably be investigated further before continuing with the movie.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Got my laptop back today. The fan was busted, they installed a new one. I'll look into more stuff with this game this week, and I'll post the memory locations I've discovered. Don't let WoW eat your soul!
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
Before my computer broke down, I spent about 30 minutes one day searching for some memory locations: 00BC - Weapon 0 = No Weapon 3 = Both Weapons Other = Mickey's Weapon 00F0 - Number of times the secret has been hit (8 will reveal it) I'll get more later.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Thanks, those will come in handy. I've found quite a few myself. I'll see if I can post them here tomorrow or so.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
So, it's been a while since the last update, so here's an update with all the relevant memory addresses I have right now: 007D: Mickey's horizontal position. 007E: Minnie's horizontal position. 007F: Mickey's vertical position. 0080: Minnie's vertical position. 00CD: Your current HP. 00A2: How many shots that Mickey can fire at the moment. For xample, a value of 0 means that you can't fire any more shots, and a value of 2means that Mickey can fire 2 additional shots. 00A3: The same thing as above, but for Minnie. 006F: The screen's position. This is relevant on all the sidescroller levels. 00BC: Has the value 0 if you have no weapon, 1 if you have only Mickey's weapon and 3 if you have both Mickey's and Minnie's weapon. 00F0 Number of times the secret has been hit (8 will reveal it). If you have anymore relevant addresses, CtrlAltDestroy, please let me know. I'll edit this post and add more in if I find any.
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
I've been looking for the location and identity of the secret object, but I'm having no luck. Searching for the location of the object brings up some really crazy results, leading me to believe that I need to search for a X and Y location instead of a position index. Searching for the identity brings up even worse things. All I know right now is that the identity of the object is determined when you enter a room, just like the position. Edit: I'm also starting to think that they could be encoded in nibbles, making them extra hard to find.
jaysmad
Other
Experienced player (834)
Joined: 12/1/2006
Posts: 629
Location: Mom's
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Before my computer broke down, I spent about 30 minutes one day searching for some memory locations: 00BC - Weapon 0 = No Weapon 3 = Both Weapons Other = Mickey's Weapon 00F0 - Number of times the secret has been hit (8 will reveal it) I'll get more later.
How did you find these memories? Do you just try randomly? And is it the same in most games?
Active player (325)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
I used FCEU's Cheat Search feature to find those.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Sorry for being away for so long, but I (finally) made another WIP today. In this WIP I don't pick up Minnie's weapon, which saves about 1000 frames, or 16.7 seconds. But 've had some really bad luck on the first boss this time around... Here's the WIP. CtrlAltDestroy: If you have time, could you please check if you can do the first boss faster (or at least give some constructive feedback if you have any)? I've tried really hard, but I had some terrible luck on him. Compared to my first submission, this time he jumps much sooner, making it impossible to pass under him. That's why I jump over him instead (wasting 32 frames). I guess it could be possible to manipulate luck to make him jump later, but this would probably waste more than 32 frames... Besides the boss fight, all other parts went pretty smooth. :) EDIT: For those who want to know, this WIP is currently 1061 frames (17.68 sec) faster than my first submission. I will loose some time later on though due to skippoing Minnie's weapon. EDIT2: I managed to beat the boss 31 frames faster today. So this attempt is now only 1 frame slower than in my first version. I'm satisfied with that result. Here it is if anyone wants to see. EDIT3: To avoid double-posting, here's another edit including my progress: I beat the first level 1098 frames (18.3 sec) faster than in my previous submission. I beat level 2 by 4 frames, but I lost 24 frames on the boss due to not having Minnie's weapon. 24 frames isn't that much of a loss seeing that I saved around 1000 frames by skipping Minnie's weapon. We'll see how it turns out, but it should still be worth it. Here's the WIP. Is there any interest in this run whatsoever...? :P I haven't gotten any feedback so I'll just continue on in this manner unless someone stops me. :)
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Sorry Randil, I didn't notice the update. I've been in Spring Break (brain OFF) mode all week and haven't been paying attention to a lot of things online. I'll take a look at this as soon as I get home. Edit: I think I found a faster method for the boss. The Leave Early trick is really complicated to pull off here, but it's still possible. http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4548/leaveearly.fcm Also, there has GOT to be a way to avoid hitting that cat on the way back.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Sorry Randil, I didn't notice the update. I've been in Spring Break (brain OFF) mode all week and haven't been paying attention to a lot of things online.
No problem. I hope you had a nice break. :)
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
I think I found a faster method for the boss. The Leave Early trick is really complicated to pull off here, but it's still possible.
Nice find. That trick saved 9 frames. :)
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
Also, there has GOT to be a way to avoid hitting that cat on the way back.
I did some testing today, and this is what I found out: Getting hit by the cat while backtracking wastes 31 frames. Killing the cat the first time you meet him wastes (EDIT: now optimized) only 9 frames. So killing him saves 22 frames. I'll have to redo this level again, this time killing the cat the first time I visit that room. I wonder how many times I'm gonna have to redo this? :P If you have any more ideas, or some general tips when I'm redoing the level this time, please post them as soon as you can. I'll do more testing about optimizing ladder-climbing and such stuff now, to see what I can find out. EDIT: CtrlAltDestroy, have you found the memory address for boss HP? I've been looking for it, without luck...