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Moai Kun TAS by Randil

This is a 18708 frames improvement (5min 11.8sec) improvement over the published run. The improvement comes from a wall zipping trick, jumping on walls, lag reduction and improved strategies.
  • Emualator used: FCEU 0.98.16
  • Aims for fastest possible time.
  • Abuses programming errors.

About the game

Moai Kun is about an Easter Island figure whose pink friends have been captured! He must rescue them all on each of the 56 levels! (at least that's what I think the story is :P )
You can crush blocks with your head, and you can push around boulders too (only one boulder can move at a time, that's why I have to wait for the current one to stop before moving the next, see frame 16380, I have to wait until the boulder hits the ground before I can push another one)
You can also place bombs in order to destroy blocks.
There are also enemies on some levels, but these don't prove too much trouble. You can always kill them with your head attack or by pushing a boulder on them.
Some notes about the levels with ice: When on ice, you move twice at your normal speed, but you cannot turn around normally. The only way to turn around is by bumping into a wall.

Tricks and strategies

The most obvious trick that is used is the wall zipping trick. By jumping towards a wall, and then turning around while you're falling down, the game will not recognize that there is a wall next to you, and you will move through it. However, this can not always be done. You can always zip through a block that is one floor above you (see frame 1890), but you can only zip through a block that is on the same floor as you if there is another block above it (see frame 2018. You'll see that there is a yellow block above the one I zip through.) By turning around twice inside the block, I get pushed out sooner.
Another trick is wall jumping. By doing pretty much the same as in the wall zipping trick, but only moving 1 pixel inside a block, I actually stand on it and can perform another jump (see frame 2291.) this can only be done when there is a block both above and below the one you stand on. On some blocks this can't be done at all however, so you have to test to see if it works in all cases, but it works about 95% of the times.
The wall zipping trick also allows me to jump through block without bumping in to them, saving me a few frames here and there (see frame 698. You'll see that I'm actually slightly inside the block here.)
On the ice levels, by holding down the down button, I can do a heat butt without stopping. This only works on ice levels though.
I'd like to thank Soulrivers for his published run, which helped out in a lot of places.
Enjoy the run!

Bisqwit: Double submission detected. Deleting the double and touching the other to update ID. Edit 2/2.
Randil: Cancelling this due to known improvements posted in the discussion thread. I will make an improved version.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1879: Randil's NES Moai Kun in 16:17.77
Joined: 12/27/2006
Posts: 532
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
You did nothing but crush my time. Fantastic improvement, this is a clear yes vote.
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
Active player (282)
Joined: 3/4/2006
Posts: 341
My old WIP of this game reached the end of stage 29 before I gave up on it. I compared the times: Stage 1: Randil, 3 frames Stage 2: Randil, 8 frames Stage 3: Randil, 6 frames Stage 4: Randil, 33 frames Stage 6: Randil, 2 frames Stage 7: Randil, 1 frame Stage 9: Nitrodon, 22 frames Stage 10: Nitrodon, 150 frames Stage 11: Randil, 7 frames Stage 12: Randil, 39 frames Stage 14: Randil, 15 frames Stage 15: Nitrodon, 3 frames Stage 16: Randil, 12 frames Stage 17: Nitrodon, 59 frames Stage 18: Nitrodon, 192 frames Stage 19: Nitrodon, 39 frames Stage 20: Nitrodon, 353 frames Stage 21: Nitrodon, 127 frames Stage 22: Nitrodon, 35 frames Stage 23: Randil, 57 frames Stage 24: Nitrodon, 20 frames Stage 25: Randil, 38 frames Stage 26: Randil, 110 frames Stage 27: Nitrodon, 15 frames Stage 28: Nitrodon, 115 frames Stage 29: Randil, 130 frames Total: My WIP is 359 frames ahead. Still, I'll probably vote yes after watching the rest of the run. EDIT: See also my unassisted speedrun of stage 33, 3 time units faster than this submission.
Skilled player (1882)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Damn, I didn't consider someone else made a WIP. :P (I got to remember using the search function...) Luckily, this game is quite edit friendly (not entirely, but pretty much) so it's probably possible to edit in the improvements. I'll look into this more next week, it's likely that I will edit in these improvements and update this submission. 359 frames is quite a lot, so I think it warrants a new version. I'll keep you updated on how things work out.
Skilled player (1882)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I have decided to cancel this and work on an improved version, implementing the improvements Nitrodon posted, and perhaps I'll find even more improvements :) Oh, and Nitrodon, if you find anything else or have ideas for a level, just throw me a PM. Until then, see you in the next version!