• Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.28
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Uses death as shortcut
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck
This run beats the current one by Deign by precisely 2000 frames (33.33 seconds). Improvements come from a new glitch abuse, better precision for the star shots and controlling the character; and using lots of new strategies.

Glitch used

If you shoot a star on the top of a block it will naturally bounch upwards. Same simplicity with shooting it on a side of the block or under it - it will just bounch in the opposite direction as it has when it hits the block. But what about hitting it exactly at one of it edges? In this game the result of this is that the star enters the edge and start bounching on the vertical sides inside the block. What you want is to have at least one block under the one you're "edge-shooting" (or a block at least 32 pixels high, what ever you want to call it), let the star bounch between the walls inside that block and then bounch up by the block below, then have the block leave the block it entered - and depending on what angle and speed you shot it with it will either bounce forward or backward where forward is usually the wanted direction. This trick will let you travel on stars where you couldn't before since the bounching inside the block takes the time just to make you catch up with the star. Check for yourself in frameadvance if this was unclear (It's used in the first star shot).

Enemy drops

Actually, in this game the "enemy drop" RNG can easily be followed without memory watch (so you can see if you like). The only thing that affects it is the score. To get something from an enemy the second and third last numbers in the score has to be the same(see table below). I get quite a lot items this way throughout the run.
NumberGet
00Healing potion
11Fireball
22Bomb
33Fireball
44Bomb
55Healing potion
66Bomb
77Fireball
88Bomb
99Fireball

Improvement

LevelFrames savedTotal frames saved
Level19797
Level2187284
Level3574858
Level43151173
Level51661339
Level66612000

Level 1

Used the star differently in room 1 and 3, the rest is from optimization.

Level 2

Used the glitch before the boat ride, and used new strategies after it. The boss was killed faster by jumping while pushing him, had to wait a bit at the end since he had to draw his saber before leaving the screen.

Level 3

Major changes became possible thanks to the glitch and new strategies. For example in the last area I used the down slope at the beginning to gain about two seconds, and this time Gimmick had seen his therapist before this level and no longer commits suicide by the waterfall.

Level 4

Better boarding and jumpoff of Nessie and then I found a way to use the star in the desert part. The rest in the level is through optimization and glitch abuse. At the boss I found that it has a 3-frame interval during its spawning time when it can be hit.

Level 5

Got the first star to last longer plus some changed strategies. A surprisingly large amount of frames was also gained on the boss.

Level 6:

The fight with the two rat warriors went much faster and many other things were changed as well. Early input ending FTW:)
Thanks goes to Deign, Nitsuja and Teowind for their contributions in the previous runs. Thanks also goes to Sami whose "all-levels" run used some strategies I could apply.
I choosed to make this run over the "all level" run because I prefer to do the runs that give the fastest times and that I think the extra level is the least interesting one.
Have fun with the toy!

mmbossman: Nice improvements! Accepting.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2244: Aglar's NES Gimmick! in 06:08.73
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1286
Location: Finland
Loved every second of it, this game was just MADE for TASing. Ten points to you, sir.
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Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away
Amazing run of an amazing game. It seems this game is really generous on its opportunities for optimization. I certainly didn't expect an improvement this large. :) Please tell me you're doing the longer version too!
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Skilled player (1402)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Great strats and fast pacing the entire run... very, very nice!
Banned User
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Nice one, voted yes. Working on an encode. edit: High Quality AVI file, for your viewing pleasure.
Gone.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Thanks for the encode, nineko, I appreciate it. This game really makes for a great TAS, and like moozooh said, it seems like there's a lot of room for optimizations. Hopefully this won't be the last TAS we see of this game. The run kept me very entertained the whole way through. Big yes vote from me!
Joined: 6/26/2007
Posts: 147
A very nice improvement to a very underrated game. I'm with moozooh for the 100% run. Hope you'll do that one too.
Editor, Active player (429)
Joined: 9/29/2008
Posts: 706
Location: Canada
Just watched the encode (thanks nineko) Yes vote. Amazing game to TAS and an amazing run.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I always get this game confused with Widget, which is why I was pleasantly surprised on watching it to realize that it's an entirely different game that doesn't suck. :) Nice run!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Former player
Joined: 8/20/2005
Posts: 643
Location: Mikkeli,Finland
Very nice! I love this game and TAS was awesome. Yes vote :)
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Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (39)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1911
Location: Floating Tower
That was awesome! I'm also glad the death is gone from here - it just ruins the flow of the game. ^^ Hope you do the best ending version too - I actually like seeing that over this, but this was still awesome to watch. :)
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
nineko has sexy encodes. Just watched it, this is WAY more than enough to get a yes vote.
Expert player (3578)
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
moozooh wrote:
Please tell me you're doing the longer version too!
zdude255 wrote:
I'm with moozooh for the 100% run. Hope you'll do that one too.
Sir VG wrote:
Hope you do the best ending version too
Maybe I'll consider doing that then since I can copy quite much from this run. Time will tell:)
feos wrote:
Only Aglar can improve this now.
Joined: 3/7/2006
Posts: 720
Location: UK
Excellent work, Aglar! I particularly liked the 'lazy' final boss kill. :)
Voted NO for NO reason
Joined: 8/3/2008
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A big fat YES from me, even though this is so obviously going to get published already. My favourite final boss fight to date XD
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
That was a really big step quality and entertainment-wise, and is not that the previous movie wasn't a good watch. Laugh at the last boss.
No.
Experienced player (822)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
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LagDotCom wrote:
Excellent work, Aglar! I particularly liked the 'lazy' final boss kill. :)
Me too:) Great job Aglar!
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Yeah that final boss part is priceless, I had to watch it two or three times before I got what happened :) When I first watched the movie I saw the "Movie end" message and I was like "wtf?"...
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Good job and thanks a lot. Unless I'm forgetting something, this is my favorite TAS so far this year. Favorite since Earnest Evans.
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Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1284] NES Gimmick! by Aglar in 06:08.73
Joined: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
lol, you spelled gimmick wrong in the moviefilename (gimmik) :P. Nice TAS, I would've voted yes.
"No love for the game gear"
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Location: italy
Wockes wrote:
lol, you spelled gimmick wrong in the moviefilename (gimmik) :P.
That's my fault. Nice, my first approved encode, and it's wrong. I have a 100% failure rate.
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Joined: 3/11/2008
Posts: 583
Location: USA
Likewise in the subtitle. Everyone makes a mistake now and then.