Bisqwit's Solomon's Key movie v6
Introduction
A new movie was in progress. I have reverse engineered the game somewhat
and created a robot using that knowledge. It still requires lot of labor,
unfortunately though.
A bit too much in fact. Project cancelled for now. More information here.
Aim
I'm aiming for
① the best ending (solve all the special hidden rooms, excluding the fairy rooms)
② without using warps (wings).
③Ⓐ least frame count
③Ⓑ biggest remaining timer readings
① the best ending (solve all the special hidden rooms, excluding the fairy rooms)
② without using warps (wings).
③Ⓐ least frame count
③Ⓑ biggest remaining timer readings
Goals ③Ⓐ and ③Ⓑ are somewhat adjacent and vary. The timer in Solomon's Key is an object that sometimes runs faster, sometimes slower. An improvement of 1 frame may sometimes cause the timer to count a few extra ticks. I am primarily aiming for fastest level completions frame-wise, but within that goal, I am aiming to optimize for maximum remaining timer reading. However, I do take the hourglass items which reduce the timer to 5000 when possible, because it makes the score tallying go quicker after the room is completed. In short, I try to get the best of both worlds.
I am using FCEUX and Lua.
Progress
For emphasis, I provided a comment for each level in the form of a Japanese-style smiley.
| Level | v4 time | v5 time | v6 time | Comment | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9340 | 9360 | 9380+176 | (^ ^) | |
| 2 | 9210 | 9220 | 9230+82 | (^ ^) | |
| 3 | 7960 | 8070 | 8070 | (~_~) | Lost many frames. Bleh. |
| 4 | 9310 | 9330 | (if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 5 | 9000 | 9230 | |||
| 6 | 8410 | 8410 | |||
| 7 | 9000 | 9050 | wings at 14,1 | ||
| 8 | 9210 | 9210 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 9 | 8900 | s8860 | >seal 1 at 10,8 | ||
| 10 | 8220 | 8290 | > (8300 is possible) [3] | ||
| 11 | 8360 | 8730 | > | ||
| 12 | 8820 | 8840 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 13 | 8600;½b4690 | s8760;½b4710 | seal 2 at 8,9 | ||
| 14 | 8580 | 8650 | |||
| 15 | 8560 | 8730 | wings at 11,12 | ||
| 16 | 9200 | 9300 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 17 | 8610;½4700 | 8980;s½4340 | >seal 3 at 14,2 (+luck abuse to get an extended fireball) | ||
| 18 | 8860 | 8950 | > | ||
| 19 | 9140 | s8950 | >seal 4 at 5,5 | ||
| 20 | 8150 | i8130 | >icon at 11,2 | ||
| Special 1 | - | 9200 | (4 seals and icon needed). page of time | ||
| 21 | 8990 | s9000 | seal 5 at 11,6 (+saved a fireball) | ||
| 22 | rg45000 | rg45450 | |||
| 23 | 9180 | 9260 | wings at 4,12 | ||
| 24 | 8880;½4660 | 8990;½4700 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 25 | 9300 | 9350 | > | ||
| 26 | 9480;½4690 | 9560;½4720 | > | ||
| 27 | 8460 | 8640 | |||
| 28 | 7270 | 7580 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 29 | 9250 | s8960 | seal 6 at 8,11 | ||
| 30 | 7590;½3260 | 8120;½3490 | (I hate this map.) | ||
| 31 | 8620 | 8760 | wings at 15,12 | ||
| 32 | d9980 | 9180 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 33 | 7840 | | |||
| 34 | 8490 | 8510 | |||
| 35 | 8770 | 8790 | |||
| 36 | 7090 | 7400 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) I used the fireball. Without using a fireball, I could only get 7290.) | ||
| 37 | 9130 | 9290 | |||
| 38 | 7100 | 7670 | |||
| 39 | w8660 | 8870 | wings at 1,7 | ||
| 40 | - | 9240 | >(if take icon, next level is fairies) | ||
| 41 | - | 8750 | > | ||
| 42 | - | 8720 | |||
| 43 | - | 8570 | |||
| 44 | - | i6060 | >icon at 1,5 | ||
| Special 2 | - | 8770 | (6 seals and icon needed). page of space | ||
| 45 | 7800 | 7960 | |||
| 46 | 8900 | s8600 | seal 7 at 14,1 | ||
| 47 | 8950 | s7640 | seal 8 at 15,1 | ||
| 48 | 6860 | 7020 | icon at 5,4 | ||
| Special 3 | - | 7860 | (8 seals needed). princess | ||
| Solomon | 8900 | 8900 |
½ = Used the item that resets clock to 5000
g = Used the item that multiplies clock value&speed by 5
b = Took extra time to pick up a blue bottle
r = Took extra time to pick up a red bottle
w = Took extra time to pick up a wing
i = Took extra time to pick up an icon
s = Took extra time to pick up a seal
d = Used death
> = skipped if a wing was taken
g = Used the item that multiplies clock value&speed by 5
b = Took extra time to pick up a blue bottle
r = Took extra time to pick up a red bottle
w = Took extra time to pick up a wing
i = Took extra time to pick up an icon
s = Took extra time to pick up a seal
d = Used death
> = skipped if a wing was taken
Interpretation of comments:
| Comment | Meaning |
|---|---|
| (~_~) | Nothing new here |
| (^ ^) | Minor optimizations |
| \(^o^)/ | I'm proud of this result |
| ＼(◎o◎)／ | Totally incredible based on my earlier experience |
| (・_・?) | Uncertain |
| \(-_-)/ | (Lazily) yay. |
Notes
Resources
There's a very invaluable
FAQ/walkthrough
for Solomon's Key.
Timing weirdness
Solomon's Key timer is evil. It does not seem to tick at regular basis.
Investigation results here: Forum/Topics/8893
Also, the Japanese version of this game (ソロモンの鍵) apparently
has a different, slower timer.
The record times at High level challenge can't possibly apply to the USA version.
The record times at High level challenge can't possibly apply to the USA version.