This is my improvement to Walker Boh's NES "warpless" Rygar; I save 14169 frames (283.38s) for a final time of 15:43.32, again using the PAL ROM.
One of the glitchiest games ever, now even more brokener! This run benefits from a wide variety of improvements. I use a different route which powers Rygar up in Lapis 1st, saving a lot of time in early boss battles. New shortcuts in Garloz, Sagila's cave, Garba and especially the Sky Castle saved a huge amount of time; some of these were made possible by new grapple weapon glitches. I die once to save a long trek in Garloz. I also used pause/unpause to manipulate (or eliminate) the projectiles fired by some bosses. No snails were harmed in the making of this run.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.16 (PAL Emulation)
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Does not use warps
  • Massively abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses death as a shortcut

Rom Choice

The Sky Castle shortcut saves 100 seconds and is only possible in PAL. End of story.

Glitch Glossary

As far as I know, I discovered the grapple-release, floor-run, and wiggle-spawn glitches; the rest have appeared in previous runs, especially those by Walker Boh.
  • Grapple-fall: throwing the grapple just before falling to either climb down or fall through the bottom and climb through the ceiling
  • Grapple-release: transition from climbing to standing when Rygar would otherwise be stuck on the grapple; this new glitch is performed by holding left or right along with turbo B for several frames
  • Floor-run: grapple-falling or floating until stuck inside a floor allows Rygar to run with his head stuck in the floor. This is important because while running (as opposed to falling) in the floor, Rygar can still jump and use the grapple weapon.
  • Wiggle-spawn: going back and forth by a pixel or two and spawning a new enemy each time; used for tone accumulation in Lapis and Dorago's palace
  • Air-walk: duck-and-move, duck-and-move repeatedly; allows Rygar to walk on air
  • Air-float: holding turbo-B while walking off a cliff; Rygar floats slowly downward

Route Comments

The Beginning to Lapis

The run starts out identical to my warp glitch run. See those comments for details; the key is that when I kill that rolling enemy over and over again I'm actually spawning 4 of them on top of each other to rack up tone (weapon power) very quickly. Surprisingly, my calculations showed that the optimum amount of tone to accumulate here was the same for both runs. One minor change is that I start "attack and assail", which hits everything on the screen for ten swings, 2 hits earlier on the robots because only 5 hits are useful for Belzar.
The Belzar fight is slower than in the previous run because I'm fighting him first instead of fifth, but the fight is very tightly optimized. I walk back and forth through him mostly for show. Unlike previous runs, I never jump once I'm near the sidescrolling bosses (except Ligar, where it's required to hit him) because Rygar's jumps are big and floaty and waste a lot of time above the boss' hitbox. I also get him to skip throwing one of his projectiles by pausing/unpausing for a few frames. I use this technique sparingly in the run as it is often necessary to pause for up to 16 frames to get the desired behavior, but it's invaluable, especially for Ligar.

Eruga

The levels are several seconds faster due to the one-hit smashiness of my powered-up diskarmor. The boss fight lasts only a handful of frames longer than it would take to run across the room. I jump while approaching Eruga because while in the air you can attack while still moving forward.

Sagila

Bad luck costs me a few frames having to take an extra jump and wait for a fireball while on the wind pulley. The shortcuts I take use both grapple-fall and grapple-release glitches discussed above. The first grapple-drop I do, where I float down across the pit first, may look slower than just jumping across the pit and climbing down normally, but it's not because then you have to climb all the way to the floor on the next screen, which is slower by maybe half a second. Sagila also goes down very quickly due to greatly increased tone.

Dorago

En route to Dorago I take a new shortcut across the grass to save a few seconds. Dorago's palace itself is lamentably unglitchy, but I did find a sweeeet way to abuse the spawning of those crawling doglike creatures (CDC's). Using the 'wiggle-spawn' up to five of them spawn on top of each other; they're worth 15 tone apiece and have very short invincibility which makes them ideal for tone accumulation. Alas, I only kill a few of them as I'm almost at full tone by this point, but if someone ever finds a way to reach Dorago's palace without the wind pulley and crossbow, this could be a big time-saver.
Using attack and assail on Dorago allows me to score the first few hits earlier, with a net savings of about 1s. Because only 4 "attack and assail" hits are useful to save time, I start it earlier to save a few frames killing CDC's and trees. The Dorago fight is otherwise straightforward; dying afterwards saves about a minute of backtracking en route to Garba. Killing Dorago puts my hit power at 124 points/swing; the max is 127, but 124 kills all remaining enemies on my route with the minimal number of swings.

Garba

I tested exhaustively for ways to use the grapple weapon glitches to speed the ascent up Gran Mountain to get up to the Tower. The efforts were unsuccessful, but did lead to the discovery of the "grapple release" glitch so useful for Sagila's Cave and Garba. Taking a speed boost from the falling bird is what allows me to jump off the second bird to save a rope climb, saving about 50 frames.
My strategy in the tower is dramatically different from Walker's, because I don't need to kill the snails for tone and can use the grapple release glitch to ascend (killing the snails causes a rope to appear; trying to use the normal grapple fall-through-the-floor trick results in getting stuck in the ceiling). The part where I run with my head stuck in the ceiling (my favorite part of the run, btw) requires falling straight down with the grapple weapon until I stop. Attempting to move forward before "landing" gets me stuck in the ceiling in the "falling" rather than "running" state, which makes it impossible to throw the grapple weapon again to escape upwards later.
The boss, DeathPigor is difficult to optimize because to kill him as close to the door as possible requires using grapple-release, air-walk, and air-float while delivering the last few hits.

Sky Castle

The first thing to mention here is that I save about 10 seconds climbing up the tower to get to the sky castle by repeatedly using grapple-fall rather than climbing all the way up as the current run does.
The sky castle shortcut uses the same sort of glitch that allows taking shortcuts in Garloz. I found it using a low-tech version of bisqbot: set emulation speed to 800%, mash the d-pad and turbo buttons, and observe for unusual behavior. In doing so it emerged that the lower left corner of the castle has a small cleft (unlike in Dorago's palace, where the corners are squared off) which can be exploited to run directly to Ligar's lair, saving over a minute and a half.
The power-up spell is useful for Ligar because it gives improved range, making it much easier to dodge his pizzas and still attack. However, manipulating the requisite triple-star proved impossible -- Rygar starts with zero mind points after dying. The same applies for attack and assail, which Walker's run uses; it would save about 2s, but there's no way to get the needed 5 mind points. The Ligar battle did benefit significantly from using pause-unpause to skip the occasional pizza delivery.
For comparison among Ligar fights in the various runs, I look at the average interval between hits. Walker's was 33.8f/hit, with power-up and attack and assail cast; Cardboard's achieved 41f/hit without spells; my time is 31.9f/hit, also without spells. If one considers 30f/hit, Ligar's minimum invincibility time, the fight could theoretically be improved by about 61 frames...give it a try!
Finally, I finish the game with one life point left; I didn't find a useful place to take more damage. Speed boosts in Rygar net up to 10 frames.
I mentioned above that no snails were killed in the making of this run, but I do go back after the run is finished, kill them all, and have a big escargot party. Oh, and I eat the dove from the ending, too.

Suggested Screen-shot

Frame 38715.

Future Improvements

The run could benefit from better manipulation to get triple-stars and then use "attack and assail" to score the first hit on Eruga, Sagila and Ligar a bit earlier. As has been noted by previous Rygar TAS'ers, though, such manipulation is quite laborious, and total time savings would be a few seconds at most. A faster ascent to the Tower of Garba from Garloz would be awesome, but I convinced myself that it is impossible...prove me wrong!

Truncated: Splendid. Accepting this improvement.
Bisqwit: Processing for publication.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14776
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1957: Lord Tom's NES Rygar (Europe) "warpless" in 15:43.32
Active player (432)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3516
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
I have absolutely no idea at all some of the things you did in the run but all I know is that you glitched the hell out of the game, which I am big fan of. Tremendous improvement, easy yes vote.
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
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
<moozooh> i wonder if walls in this game serve any purpose. <Truncated> these walls were made for walkin' <moozooh> hahaha I approve of this movie. I thought that Dorago's palace had the worst music in videogame history, but moozooh proved me wrong. 1942 beats it.
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5769
Location: Away
Yes vote from me as well. Good job. :)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 4/2/2008
Posts: 70
So what exactly is it about the PAL version that lets you do that glitch in the final castle? Worse hit detection, or something to do with the frame rate difference?
Skilled player (1430)
Joined: 7/15/2007
Posts: 1468
Location: Sweden
Oh awesome :) I've been waiting impatiently for this ever since your (even more) glitched out run, I love the game, I love the runs and a close to a 6 minute save over the old run tells me I'll love this one to. You can expect my yes vote in a few hours.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
Only 5 minutes of improvement considering how totally you changed the route and abused the game's holes? Meh. No, really, the vote is yes :P
Joined: 6/5/2005
Posts: 139
Garba and Sky Castle were just fucking AMAZING! I wish I could use your "wiggle-spawn" to put 5 yes votes on top of each other. ( And I don't give a shit how cheesy that just sounded) This is my favorite run so far this year...great job once again!
I like stuff...
Expert player (3556)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
It's always a pleasure to see this type of runs, that are so glitched out that you'll almost get most surprised if a room is taken on the way it was meant to. It's amazing how you always completely crush the previous records of the games you try out, no matter how short or long you still find minuts to cut. Will you try SMB3 next?:). The yes vote was written somewhere between the lines.
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Lord_Tom
He/Him
Expert player (3271)
Joined: 5/25/2007
Posts: 399
Location: New England
UraniumAnchor wrote:
So what exactly is it about the PAL version that lets you do that glitch in the final castle? Worse hit detection, or something to do with the frame rate difference?
Short answer: I don't know. Long answer: The overhead-view glitches that involve passing through boundaries can be very sensitive to sub-pixel positioning. The specific glitch used in Sky Castle requires the player to be airborne and near a cleft, then press down+right for one frame, followed by right to enter the wall. I haven't verified, but it seems likely that the available sub-pixel positions in the US version are just different due to the different frame rate and/or decreased effect of gravity. I put significant effort into trying to replicate this type of glitch in the US ROM back when I was working on the warp glitch run, but was unsuccessful (using my TomBot method). If someone were to ascertain that there are exact sub-pixel requirements for this glitch to work, it might be possible to replicate them in US. I doubt it, though. ;)
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
So the day has finally come..
/Walker Boh
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
This run is boring. However, only if watched in long bursts. I find it becomes immensely enjoyable if you take a break from it every 5 minutes or so to talk on IRC for about 30 seconds, then resume the movie. I also find that this game's white dungeon around the 30000 fame mark is about as creative and original as Faria. Voting "yes".
Perma-banned
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 380
Location: Finland
Rocking. Glitchfest of immense proportions. What's there not to like. Easy yes.
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home." ( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
Lord_Tom
He/Him
Expert player (3271)
Joined: 5/25/2007
Posts: 399
Location: New England
Bisqwit wrote:
Only 5 minutes of improvement considering how totally you changed the route and abused the game's holes? Meh.
I'm so lame I actually fell for this at first and was just getting ready to feel indignant...;)
phunqsauce wrote:
I wish I could use your "wiggle-spawn" to put 5 yes votes on top of each other. ( And I don't give a shit how cheesy that just sounded)
I feel certain that having "phunqsauce" and "wiggle-spawn" appear in the same post is prohibited by obscenity laws.
Aglar wrote:
It's amazing how you always completely crush the previous records of the games you try out, no matter how short or long you still find minuts to cut. Will you try SMB3 next?:).
Thanks, though I think it's more that I choose obscure games that only Walker Boh and I have ever played... Finally, the "music" in Dorago's palace is literally four notes repeated over and over again. I really need to check out the music in 1942 now...
Skilled player (1430)
Joined: 7/15/2007
Posts: 1468
Location: Sweden
Awesome all the way through, I just genuinely love it when games get so extremely broken. Half of the time it looked like you where playing a debug version of the game which let you do anything. Amongst my favorite parts where the glitching in the skylevel and the towerlevel, just pure greatness. Yes vote if that was not clear enough, for one of the best TASes this year. (and this year has started extremely well) Also on a side note, as has been said. The music in doragos palace is really one of the most annoying tunes in the history of gaming, seeing as how almost all the music in the game is totally kickass it is surprising that the makers where so lazy and worthless in that particular place.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
This video is full of win. おめでとうございます! Runs like this make you want to play this game so badly, just to get frustrated because your character doesn't fly like in the movie. Haha.
No.
Joined: 7/20/2004
Posts: 45
Words cannot express my reaction to watching this. Well, they can, but they'd have to be HEAVILY censored! Wow. Just...WOW.
Joined: 4/30/2006
Posts: 480
Location: the secret cow level
Truncated wrote:
I thought that Dorago's palace had the worst music in videogame history, but moozooh proved me wrong. 1942 beats it.
I don't think it's possible for a game to have worse music than 1942. It was just a sound repeated over and over. BEEP BEEPBEEP BEEP BEEP BEEPBEEPBEEP BEEP BEEPBEEP BEEP BEEP
Lord_Tom
He/Him
Expert player (3271)
Joined: 5/25/2007
Posts: 399
Location: New England
Wow, I just listened to it. That really has to be heard to be believed. Awful.
Skilled player (1430)
Joined: 7/15/2007
Posts: 1468
Location: Sweden
Yeah every sound effect in that game pretty much gives you the sensation that you are using a razorblade to trim your brain.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
Joined: 6/5/2005
Posts: 139
Lord Tom wrote:
phunqsauce wrote:
I wish I could use your "wiggle-spawn" to put 5 yes votes on top of each other. ( And I don't give a shit how cheesy that just sounded)
I feel certain that having "phunqsauce" and "wiggle-spawn" appear in the same post is prohibited by obscenity laws.
After I posted that I was thinking pretty much the same thing.
I like stuff...
Active player, Editor (296)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
Truncated wrote:
I thought that Dorago's palace had the worst music in videogame history, but moozooh proved me wrong. 1942 beats it.
Surprisingly, 1943 on the other hand is quite a different story. But this is off-topic.
Xkeeper wrote:
This run is boring. However, only if watched in long bursts. I find it becomes immensely enjoyable if you take a break from it every 5 minutes or so to talk on IRC for about 30 seconds, then resume the movie.
That's what it must be like to be ADHD, I guess. But then again, that's probably exactly what I did as well. I rarely watch something in one sitting nowadays anymore. Damned modern age and its efficiency religion that teaches people to multitask lest they be replaced. Very anti-zen.
Editor, Experienced player (729)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Bisqwit wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
This run is boring. However, only if watched in long bursts. I find it becomes immensely enjoyable if you take a break from it every 5 minutes or so to talk on IRC for about 30 seconds, then resume the movie.
That's what it must be like to be ADHD, I guess.
Not everyone who has ADHD has trouble watching long movies. I always am watching movies of great length all the time. In fact, I find it hard how people do get bored of movies longer than 5 minutes, even though I too have ADHD. Just like people are unique, ADHD is unique with each person.
Homepage ☣ Retired
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5769
Location: Away
Maybe it's a misdiagnosed ADHD then? Due to overall failure to properly determine its presence and the fact that modern culture more-or-less makes people easily distractable, it's hard to say. Based on my own experience, I can say that I've always been easily distractable from processes I didn't enjoy much, but the real problems started only a couple years ago when I suddenly lost the ability to concentrate on anything (literally) for more than several minutes, regardless of whether it was fun or not.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Post subject: Re: #1957: Lord Tom's NES Rygar in 15:43.32
Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
NesVideoAgent wrote:
This is my improvement to Walker Boh's NES "warpless" Rygar [...] I die once to save a long trek in Garloz.
Hmm, can't watch the video right now. Could you (or someone) explain what exactly this shortcut by death means? In the past the "warpless" version of the Rygar run was equivalent to "uses no death", as at that time dying was the only known way to warp to the final boss. (Of course this changed later when it was discovered that it was possible to perform the warp without dying.) At those times it was also under discussion whether using death as a shortcut at all was stylistically acceptable (at least at that time it was a bit controversial to die in a "perfect" run, as it could be seen as the run being "imperfect"). Nowadays the view about this has changed (ie. basically anything goes that makes the run shorter). However, what I'm thinking is whether it's reasonable to use death as a shortcut in a warpless run... (I also cannot help to feel that using death as a shortcut was a "cheap" trick to get a much better time than walker boh, who made his run with the mindset that using death as a shortcut is not ok in a warpless run.) I suppose it depends a lot on how you used the death for the shortcut.