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About the game

The game is a sequel of Akumajou Dracula Chi no Rondo on PC-Engine. In 1797, the vampire hunter Richter Belmont was controled by evil force, Dracula's son Alucard must save him and defeat his father again. Japanese version named 悪魔城ドラキュラＸ 月下の夜想曲.

About the run

Goals
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programme errors
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses a password
  • Emulator used PCSX v006
  • Colors Dracula
Tricks & glitch
At prologue battle, if holy water and item crash hurt Dracula simultaneously, he loss HP heavily. And you can get a heart refresh if spend all of your hearts.
Big toss, if a enemy hurt half or more of your HP, you would be tossed very long distance. I think everyone knows this.
Edge travel, stand next to screen side, move to make the screen roll and game-pause simultaneously (use heart refresh, level up, etc), you can move over the screen.
Wlof glitch, dash to a slope as a wolf, jump at a proper moment when you close it, you would sink into the slope.
Infinite wing smash, enter the smash command repeatedly during wing smash.
Shield skill, equip Mablung Sword (or Shield Rod) and any shield, press square and circle. I used Alucard Shield skill that kill last bosses in couple seconds. So, Dracula was colored!
Description
I used a password to unlock luck mode. In the mode, the hero has less HP, so big toss is easier to do. The mode is better for glitch run. There is a little waiting times in clock room in castle center, I played with a flea man to make it not too boring. Some bosses were killed quite fast, in fact I manipulated lot critical on them, thanks pirate_sephiroth gave me memory adress. Before go to invert castle, I did normal dash there because I didn't have shield, equiping shield would spend more menu time.
note 1: The encode. Thanks arukAdo for making it.
note 2: possible improvement, I manipuleted 6 Manna prisms, but they seem not very enough, so I think that using the waiting time to get more would save several seconds more, perhaps.

Suggested screen shots

Thanks to

  • mobile_suit for his awesome speed run.
  • pirate_sephiroth for his help and memory adress.
  • arukAdo for his help and encode.
  • mz for his great work on emulator development.
hope you enjoy
adelikat: I think accepting this run is a no brainer. Congratulations on having such a ground breaking TAS :)

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Posted: 1/21/2009 12:29 AM
(Edited: 1/21/2009 12:34 AM)
Quote
arukAdo
Experienced player (961)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 939
Location: Castle Keep
PSX TAS of 2011 PSX TAS of 2010 Rookie of 2009 New systems TASer of 2009 New systems TAS of 2009
To access royal chapel normaly (and dont crash the game...) you need to have the door relic, that make you meet maria To crash the game in first jap version you need to come from the opposite way (her back, royal chapel) without having meeted her already (witch is the case, when you shortcut) That clear so far? In usa release, they KNEW you can access coloseum OR clock tower WITHOUT the door relic, THUS you can reach maria from her BACK So they fixed the crash resulting from that problem... they KNEW you can access coloseum or clock tower without double jump... wow ... i never tough would be that complex to explain My point was simple, you sayd it was not intend, i say it was knew ... hence the bug would not have been fixed (if its not intend and impossible....) Now you can interprete as you want, from my point of view, if they knew it, then they agreed to it (and thus fixed the bug...) Edit: removing the candle is probably as easy as to fix a crash, so my argument is very valid
Tasvideos.org personal page
Posted: 1/21/2009 12:32 AM
Quote
Cpadolf
Skilled player (1444)
Joined: 7/15/2007
Posts: 1468
Location: Sweden
SNES TASer of 2009 Rookie of 2008 SNES TASer of 2008
Satoryu wrote:
sorry, i couldn't understand.
From what I understand this is what he means. In the original Japanese version of the game this SB was present, and could cause a crash if you reached some area when you where not supposed to. In the American version this crash had been fixed, meaning they knew you could get into that area out of order, but they didn't make it impossible to do so. (EDIT: a little late) Anyway, I'm not really for a natural route run, but rather a run without any major skips. Which would probably mean save Richter to get to the inverted castle and collect all the Vlad parts to get to Dracula. This would also for consistency disallow the glitches that makes these skips possible. Either that or just an all bosses run, or as earlier suggested an all relics run.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
Posted: 1/21/2009 12:38 AM
Quote
Satoryu
Joined: 7/1/2008
Posts: 272
sorry for not being clear. i understand the bug and the fix. i misinterpreted what arukado meant by "this was intended". i'm retarded. carry on.
Posted: 1/21/2009 12:41 AM
Quote
arukAdo
Experienced player (961)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 939
Location: Castle Keep
PSX TAS of 2011 PSX TAS of 2010 Rookie of 2009 New systems TASer of 2009 New systems TAS of 2009
That not exactly what you asked for cpadolf, but its somehow connected, this run (very glitchy...) is about to take all relics, within the smallest map possible, in case you would be interrested http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wFxLa9ivfk Just a (irrevelant?) remark, theres not the same number of relics depending the version you run, so its version depend (28us vs 30jap) Edit: im retarded too satoryu so it doesnt matter ;) I still maintain that removing the candle was easier than to fix the crash, so its a common aggreement betwen konami and me that its leggit and possible, for short, it was intended somehow :D
Tasvideos.org personal page
Posted: 1/21/2009 12:51 AM
Quote
Satoryu
Joined: 7/1/2008
Posts: 272
arukAdo wrote:
Edit: im retarded too satoryu so it doesnt matter ;)
i was being sarcastic.
Posted: 1/21/2009 1:10 AM
Quote
Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Satoryu wrote:
that's some Twin Galaxies shit right there. i don't think even they would disallow the wolf kick.
Um, okay? This is relevant?
i facepalm at the thought of "natural route" TAS. that's an oxymoron, as the natural route goes against everything TASes are supposed to be. namely, entertaining.
So you're going to tell me that I'm not a good judge of what I find entertaining? Or are you saying that what I find entertaining is so far from what everyone else on this site finds entertaining that runs I like shouldn't be published here? Except that there are quite a few people on this forum who have expressed interest in these kinds of runs.
the run would be nothing more than a frame advanced Let's Play.
And this is a problem?
the fact that TASes are supposed to show superhuman control is already playing the game outside the manner the game creators intended. (speaking of which, you're going to have a hell of a time telling me which order of obtaining the Vlad items is intended. or better yet, telling me the intended route for Super Metroid.)
You'll note that I made several references to the Metroid series as a series where there wasn't an obvious intended order. Thus the type of run I'm proposing here wouldn't make sense for Metroid. Similarly, as you pointed out, there's no significant barriers to progress in the upside-down castle, and thus no intended order there, so whatever order the TASer wants to pick there is fine.
and getting the Silver Ring without the Spike Breaker doesn't use a glitch or a programming oversight.
I think it's an oversight that the momentary invulnerability that you get from using a potion allows you to open doors that you normally aren't able to open because of damaging terrain. It's an oversight of design, not programming, but it's still an oversight.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 1/21/2009 2:10 AM
Quote
Satoryu
Joined: 7/1/2008
Posts: 272
do i really have to put "i think" in front of everything i say? i think a natural route TAS of this game and others wouldn't fly here because i think the majority would not find it entertaining. and i think disallowing everything is a silly idea (which it feels like that's Twin Galaxies' policy, by the way. their rules are tighter than a gay man's jeans.)
Posted: 1/21/2009 2:45 AM
Quote
Blaise
Joined: 12/28/2004
Posts: 210
This topic has been coming up like CRAZY lately. Every forum, every topic, every page, everywhere. Make www.tasvideoslite.org? Bisqwit? As for the actual run, 8/9 from me.
Posted: 1/21/2009 6:22 AM
(Edited: 1/21/2009 2:16 PM)
Quote
mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin wrote:
For whomever encodes, I hope there's a way to AMP the music while leaving the sound effects low, at the very least.
I don't think Bisqwit would accept that, but I made a quick encode with your idea here: csotn-tas-zggzdydp.avi. About the movie, I don't know what to say... I've already seen it like 20 times between this version and the first one. For me, this is the best TAS I've ever seen. I always dreamed about seeing a SOTN TAS someday, and when I saw zggzdydp's fist movie it blew my mind. It was so much better than anything I could've expected; for every second I was "WTF!!!!!". And of course, this version is even better (although in this one he doesn't jump right after Maria leaves, when Alucard first meets her... I thought that was really funny).
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 1/21/2009 7:17 AM
Quote
Mr._Kelly_R._Flewin
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
Satoryu wrote:
Derakon wrote:
Yes, I'd say that in a glitchless run you wouldn't be allowed to use the wolf kick to get to Olrox's Quarters.
that's some Twin Galaxies shit right there. i don't think even they would disallow the wolf kick.
While I don't like the way you dropped TG in there, I do follow where your going... but I can say with all due sincerity, you're dead on the money when you speculate about TG not banning the Wolf Kick. It's a perfectly acceptable tactic, just like with Metroid, how you can use a normal enemy/tactic to escape the need for a bridge to get to Norfair. You're simply being creative in the games intended parameters. But then I don't mean to continue on with this as it detracts from the original purpose of this thread, which is to discuss about this fantastic TAS. I may not agree with the use of the Luck code... but it works. Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:12 AM
Quote
Rick
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Cardboard wrote:
This run steals men's souls and make them its slaves :(
Perhaps the same could be said of all TASes! Anyhoo, when I saw this in the submission queue just now and I saw this at 20 minutes, needless to say, I was completely shocked. I think I ran out of tape to keep my jaw from falling back on the floor. I'm gonna check this out tomorrow. I have a good feeling I'm not going to be disappointed any.
http://wiki.rustedlogic.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor The Cutting Room Floor wiki.
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:20 AM
Quote
klmz
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (2156)
Joined: 5/22/2007
Posts: 1134
Location: Glitchvania
NES TASer of 2018 GBA TASer of 2018 GBA TAS of 2016 Lucky TAS of 2016 GBx TASer of 2008 NES TAS of 2007
arukAdo wrote:
In usa release, they KNEW you can access coloseum OR clock tower WITHOUT the door relic, THUS you can reach maria from her BACK So they fixed the crash resulting from that problem... they KNEW you can access coloseum or clock tower without double jump... wow ... i never tough would be that complex to explain My point was simple, you sayd it was not intend, i say it was knew ... hence the bug would not have been fixed (if its not intend and impossible....) Now you can interprete as you want, from my point of view, if they knew it, then they agreed to it (and thus fixed the bug...) Edit: removing the candle is probably as easy as to fix a crash, so my argument is very valid
How do you know that they knew the very crash and intentionally fixed it? Couldn't it be that they just tried to fix other things and this crash was unintentionally fixed by chance? This make sense if the crash was caused by wild pointers/uninitialized values etc.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
Posted: 1/21/2009 10:58 AM
Quote
arukAdo
Experienced player (961)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 939
Location: Castle Keep
PSX TAS of 2011 PSX TAS of 2010 Rookie of 2009 New systems TASer of 2009 New systems TAS of 2009
Well you know, im not realy going to debate on that, they fixed other bugs while releasing usa version, not only the maria meeting, theres many crash in that game, where talking about one in particular, while theres dozen of ways to crash the game I know they fixed it because they fixed some other, now of course if you want to say its luck... well why not after all... but that ridiculous imo (you need to remember this game is very buggy...) The crash was caused by : alucard entering the wrong side of the cutscene, basicly it put him underfloor (maria push him or whatever...) I dont see how the luck can put alucard back on the solid floor.... :/ If that still doesnt convince you, look a bit in the thread, its been sayd already that jap version is way more buggy, i dont believe luck is the responsible for fixing all of them, actually, i think that its much more pragmatic to say they fixed it... themselves
Tasvideos.org personal page
Posted: 1/21/2009 12:17 PM
Quote
LagDotCom
Joined: 3/7/2006
Posts: 720
Location: UK
Whatever the weather, this is one entertaining TAS. Arguing for 'can I have a glitchless natural route no caps no coin duckjump only' TAS is great and all, but don't expect it unless you do one yourself. Looking forward to more PSX TASs from non-overrated series. :D
Voted NO for NO reason
Posted: 1/21/2009 1:00 PM
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negjay
Joined: 9/26/2007
Posts: 55
Location: Michigan
I'm glad to see that the idea for a 100% relic run has traction. The more of this game I can see actually manhandled, the better. As for how far people are willing to go with glitches, well, I still say Harmony of Dissonance is an excellent example. Let's suppose that with more experimentation it's discovered that you can literally warp from the very first door to the ending credits. Or let's say Super Metroid, that some completely bizarre glitch is found where if you shoot 3 missiles into the ceiling then dry hump the wall for three minutes, you're teleported back to your ship and just have to press down to initiate the ending. Those still valid, even though the game is completely broken? There's two runs for Zelda 3, why can't their be two runs for this game, it's certainly popular enough to warrant such a thing. As for arguing entertainment, you can't do it. One man's drag car race is another man's mantrain. As for a natural path run, I'm in favor of supporting it as a voluntary option as well. They would fit nicely into the Special Categories or even directly under Concept Demos section. I see little reason to immediately and intensely dismiss the idea. Naming other games that don't actually have a pre-defined path? What about Chrono Trigger, after you bring Crono back. You're given free reign to do things in any order you want. This also applies for the World of Ruin in Final Fantasy 3. Some games simply do not have a pre-defined path. Of course there's also Metroid Zero Mission, which gives you intentional sequence breaking opportunities for more experienced players. In such cases why not simply pick the path that is fastest, the point of such movies would be to show everything, right? It's just a frame-perfect longplay? Yes, yes it is, with no exposition. In a weird way without using these gamebreaking glitches it sort of becomes an impossibly high standard for realtime speedruns. I have a whole lot of downloaded single segment runs from SDA, which in my opinion are the most pure displays of skill. I view segmented runs as partially tool assisted, and some runs like the Half-Life 2 one as completely tool assisted. Would a TAS longplay Special Category truly be such an abhorrent thing? If people are willing to make them and people are willing to use their bandwidth to feed the torrents? There seems to be room on the site for them since it's so well organized anyway, you won't even trip on them.
Posted: 1/21/2009 6:34 PM
Quote
petrie911
Joined: 7/16/2006
Posts: 635
So, is there a Youtube/other encoded version of this run yet?
Derakon wrote:
the fact that TASes are supposed to show superhuman control is already playing the game outside the manner the game creators intended. (speaking of which, you're going to have a hell of a time telling me which order of obtaining the Vlad items is intended. or better yet, telling me the intended route for Super Metroid.)
You'll note that I made several references to the Metroid series as a series where there wasn't an obvious intended order. Thus the type of run I'm proposing here wouldn't make sense for Metroid. Similarly, as you pointed out, there's no significant barriers to progress in the upside-down castle, and thus no intended order there, so whatever order the TASer wants to pick there is fine.
There wasn't an obvious intended order for SM? It seemed fairly clear the intended order was getting everything up to bombs in the usual manner, getting supers from Spore Spawn, getting High Jump, then Varia, then heading through east Norfair for Wave and Speed Boost, then going through west Norfair to get to Crocomire, the Power Bombs, and Grapple. You get the Ice beam now if you didn't get it before west Norfair, then head up to the Wrecked Ship for Gravity, through Maridia for the Space Jump, giving you access to Lower Norfair. The Screw Attack is supposed to get you through the room full of bomb blocks, getting you to Ridley. Then, obviously, Mother Brain. Really, just because they didn't try/care to SB-proof the game well doesn't mean there wasn't an intended order.
Posted: 1/21/2009 6:40 PM
Quote
Kirkq
Player (210)
Joined: 7/7/2006
Posts: 798
Location: US
The youtube link is hiding in the submission text.
Twitch Stream, Twitter, Youtube, TASVideos Profile
Posted: 1/21/2009 7:21 PM
Quote
mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
I also made an encode where the music is a bit louder than the SFX: csotn-tas-zggzdydp.avi.
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:00 PM
(Edited: 1/21/2009 9:10 PM)
Quote
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
loved the run, going to watch it again soon :)
petrie911 wrote:
There wasn't an obvious intended order for SM? It seemed fairly clear the intended order was getting everything up to bombs in the usual manner, getting supers from Spore Spawn, getting High Jump, then Varia, then heading through east Norfair for Wave and Speed Boost, then going through west Norfair to get to Crocomire, the Power Bombs, and Grapple. You get the Ice beam now if you didn't get it before west Norfair, then head up to the Wrecked Ship for Gravity, through Maridia for the Space Jump, giving you access to Lower Norfair. The Screw Attack is supposed to get you through the room full of bomb blocks, getting you to Ridley. Then, obviously, Mother Brain.
Funny enough, IMHO this is wrong. You need walljumps to get the wave-beam w/o grapple. ball -> missiles -> bombs -> super (spore spawn) -> [maybe charge beam] -> high jump -> varia -> speed booster -> ice -> power bombs (red brinstar) -> to crocomire via the PB blocks before ice beam -> grapple -> [maybe wave] -> Grav Suit -> space jump -> ridley -> done. Not sure if wave is actually needed for WS or anywhere later. Edit: oops :)
m00
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:08 PM
Quote
Cpadolf
Skilled player (1444)
Joined: 7/15/2007
Posts: 1468
Location: Sweden
SNES TASer of 2009 Rookie of 2008 SNES TASer of 2008
Tub wrote:
ball -> bombs -> missiles ->
Nah... But anyway yeah, the intended route through Super Metroid is pretty obvious. What would be much harder is to determine what SB's where intended/known about before the release.
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:41 PM
Quote
Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Okay, yes, fair enough. :) Mainly it's the presence of techniques that the developers clearly knew could be used for sequence breaking (as evidenced by the use of bomb jumping in one of the demos). A normal player will probably find the Etecoons at some point, and assuming they don't quit in disgust after saving in an impossible-to-escape location, learn to walljump. After that, all bets are off -- any marginally inventive player can find all sorts of sequence breaks. You don't need to have access to GameFAQs or online forums dedicated to the game to realize just how out-of-order it's possible to do things in. Hell, I went the "wrong way" in the Brinstar shaft long before I found TASVideos, just so I could grab powerbombs early. I had to kill all the enemies in the shaft with super missiles, but it was totally doable. It's a much fuzzier issue if things like the mockball, or arm pumping, were intended (and thus the ability to get past shutters that would otherwise require the speedbooster). I'd say no on both, but I know others who have disagreed. Anyway, all of the sequence breaks I've seen in SotN are of the "you have to be an obsessive gamer to find this" type, which is what I mean by them not resembling how a "normal player" would play the game. Realistically, how likely are you to try unmorphing from wolf form in midair? And then trying to use a move that plenty of people never realize they have even if they do have the leap stone?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 1/21/2009 8:50 PM
Quote
arukAdo
Experienced player (961)
Joined: 12/3/2008
Posts: 939
Location: Castle Keep
PSX TAS of 2011 PSX TAS of 2010 Rookie of 2009 New systems TASer of 2009 New systems TAS of 2009
That where you see, the limit stand between perfection and experiments You can see it from many point of view Mine would be, why on the hell they put hundred of collectable items, if the player not suppose to try to get them all Why is there is a ennemy list, same reason, for the player to complete it? Yes or no a question that only the player can answer, if he did like the game, better bet he will play more and try to obtain everything To get all items, all relics, all %, all familiars to lvl99 ect... it take a long time In that meanwhile, i assure you, your more than likely to fall on a bug, even minor... but theres a lot of chances you can fall on one at least Now of course... the wolf glitch to get underfloor... i agree that not something you find just by luck Anyway, this is clear this game was rushed (iga will not say opposite i believe, he did aknowledge on bugs), but its a great game, at first it can look like a classic 5-10 hours castlevania game, but trying to obtain everything ect... youll end up over 20-30 hours (on first attempts i mean) Edit: for the sake of contradiction, see the last psp release, theres a bug on first meeting with death, you dont need anymore to fly trough the room, just to backdash quicly when you enter, this one was finded and on gfaq board like within the hour the game was release, no need to be a veteran to find this one
Tasvideos.org personal page
Posted: 1/22/2009 1:24 AM
Quote
DarkKobold
Skilled player (1652)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
Location: Killjoy
Arcade TASer of 2010 PCE TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 Lucky TAS of 2009 Lucky TAS of 2007
Who is arukAdo, and why is he so vehemently defending someone elses movie? Is arukAdo another name for the author?
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Posted: 1/22/2009 1:35 AM
Quote
mz
Emulator Coder, Player (79)
Joined: 10/26/2007
Posts: 693
He's one of the people who possess the most knowledge about this game. I think he's one of the admins of World Beyond Walls, a community focused in finding bugs in SOTN. And no, it's not another name for the author, as far as I know.
You're just fucking stupid, everyone hates you, sorry to tell you the truth. no one likes you, you're someone pretentious and TASes only to be on speed game, but don't have any hope, you won't get there.
Posted: 1/22/2009 1:58 AM
Quote
J.Y
Skilled player (1174)
Joined: 5/24/2008
Posts: 81
NES TAS of 2022 Homebrew TAS of 2022
Wow! It's a good job and give me more surprises. well done :D 9/9
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