User Files from FatRatKnight

Yo! Items! Taking 1st place every track is also a goal.

Of course, a run that actually aims for fastest time instead of picking up all these things should beat this run by at least a few frames. For whatever reason, I chose to shoot some car at the start of some tracks, even though this can never save time, aside from specifically taking time to set up the yellow/orange car's absurd speed. I'm not actually expecting this particular run to be published, but it's something I felt like doing in my spare time.

Do enjoy this demonstration, though.

Before I forget, Config => Video => Drawing Area => NTSC first line = 0 & NTSC last line = 239 is apparently expected of this game.

Numbers.

... Okay, I'll give more than one word.

Left: Position
Middle: Facing and momentum
Right: Speed and maximum speed
Bottom-left: Checkpoint identifier

And the stuff on the upper-left part of the screen is CPU car speeds.

... I still can't bring myself to be chatty. I'm recovering slow, and it's hard to stretch my mind.

Break time! How well can I race the first course of the game? I make a very comfortable distance between myself and the CPU cars.

Alas, this is one of those "go on forever" games. I am aware of Dimon12321's TAS, and the point where it stopped, the third time it collected the NINTENDO letters, seems to be a good spot. This sample should show what sort of improvements one can make over that TAS.

Let's see... Any tricks, uh... Here's one:

The game very slowly adjusts your momentum to match your facing, and while they are far apart, your maximum speed is reduced. But there is a limit to this difference, and turning past this limit instantly affects your momentum. So turn hard to make the curve, then steer back to straighten yourself to minimize lost speed.

I am curious if TAS can race these things indefinitely, or whether the supply of ammo will prove decidedly finite against the cheat-fast CPU cars later on. In any case, here's a small TAS while I stall my write-up for Gauntlet.

https://youtu.be/CsuVDfzdRLI - Thanks solarplex!

Did I mention I hate being sick? While recovering, a second sickness hit. Awful, I say. But my life story isn't what you want to hear.

I've beaten [392] NES Gauntlet by nesrocks in 12:24.65 by 2675 frames. As usual of any submissions I want to make, I want to put subtitles in first. That, and I have a submission text to make, as well.

... I'll get around to it when I'm feeling more in a mood to write. Being sick doesn't help with that.

Too lazy to post a room-by-room breakdown of frame counts. FODA's world 2 was pretty robust, though. (I'm calling it 'world', although it's probably a bad term for a cluster of approx. 20 rooms)

Notable differences include spending a potion to get rid of some massive lag, fetching two keys from secret walls and skipping one different key, and fetching a potion allowed by the spare key. I haven't really found any other convenient potions in my mapping, though. Killing that lag by potion apparently saved over three seconds.

Seems I'm getting closer to improving yet something else. Oh, how fun.

This maps things really, really well. I hope. Since the script knows of the basic walls, and that it also knows of all map objects, this should cover everything there can possibly be in the stage.

Hit space to get a map sprawled out into the Output Console, as well as an object listing. I use "B" for whatever reason, to have the script spit out potential exits. I can confirm that room 98 really has no exits.

This doesn't actually peek into the ROM, only whatever is loaded in RAM. So I still need to reach the room in question to map it, and it still wouldn't get all the variations of it (treasure room exits, for the most part). Still, this gives me a near-perfect knowledge of each room so I won't miss any detail.

I did believe I wouldn't make a significant improvement. Alas, my belief failed me.

Let's see... What tricks have I learned...

As for each level:
r01 - (-002) I saved two lag frames. I did also save a not-lag frame, but lost it somehow...
r05 - (-031) I go to the right after breakable wall. Also lets me line up a stylish shot.
r09 - (-003) Lag. Everywhere. Yah. Honestly, I was lazy here, but I'm still faster.
r10 - (-013) Shot the secret wall from a better angle. Also phased through Death.
r11 - (-117) Skipped the key. This will cost me, however.
t13 - (-006) According to my notes, FODA lagged the treasure room. How?
r14 - (+028) I pick up the earlier key. Faster than r11 key by less than 5 frames, apparently. Other key skipped.
r17 - (-043) The upper panel is skipped. I get the key blocked off by a secret wall, faster than r14 corner key.
r18 - (-006) Not sure what I did different.
t19 - (-002) These two frames were due to the pre-transition input.

r20 - (-017) I thought for a moment. Each dragon head has 100 HP. Elf arrow does 1 damage, 2 with Extra Shot. It costs about 300 frames to get Extra Shot. I doubt I can shoot a head with less than 2 frames per arrow.

188 frames for the first world, plus another 17 frames for the first level in the second. Measurements are done by finding the first non-lag frame after the room fade-in transition.

As far as scripting goes, I actually have very little need of an active script. The only numbers I'm using are the ones shown in this script and my X,Y coordinate. I don't see what other information would help. Well, other than a suite of complete mapping functions, anyway.

... I am not fixing the filename typo.

Most of this script is the DrawNum function. The tiny bit at the bottom of the code is the interesting part.

All it does is try to find objects on screen and paints hexadecimal numbers: ID number of object and the spare number the object may use. It does, however, spot all the walls that might disappear when shot or a flashing tile is touched.

In other news, foda's run syncs just fine in FCEUX. There's a surprising detail in that dragon is immune to damage if currently throwing fire.

I have no clue why I just analyzed this game. I don't believe I'll make notable improvements.

This may be the final version, depending on whether I try to improve my TAS later.

Not a lot was added, though. I did figure out the numbers behind bouncing off cars, and now I color things fabulously. Also, the script has its separate calculations to work out the piecewise function behind steering speed. And lastly, I think I found some more precise info on the road curve, but that still needs further work.

Anyway, to recap this HUD:

Top: CPU car info

Right: RNG list; If it's not inside the cycle, a new list is shown

Game HUD, left side:

Game HUD, left of tachometer: Info about curves. Needs analysis.
Game HUD, below tachometer: Left/right position and sub-position; Steering power
Game HUD, right of tachometer: Car bounce speed and subpixel
Game HUD, below speedometer: Speed and sub-speed
Game HUD, below progress meter: Distance traveled, distance lost, distance left

The last number on the right side is the course ID. And the extending line between HUD and road display is a visual representation of how much of the current course is done.

This is my shorter input entry. Not my style. I prefer a faster ending.

The input file may be 382 frames shorter, but it takes 152 more frames to reach the ending.

Now, this is to avoid anyone silly enough to trim frames off my actual submission and spark some sort of heated debate. I trimmed it off first, now don't go taking it.