User Files from Invariel

Game: Bugz - Uzebox

Draws the player's positions for the previous and next X frames, and displays useful position information at the top of the screen.

Change line 21 to alter the text colour.

Change line 22 to alter Player 1's line colour.

Change line 23 to alter Player 2's line colour.

Change line 25 to adjust how many look behind / look ahead frames to draw player positions for.

(Fixes an issue with the previous script where I had mostly removed a piece of information that was unnecessary.)

Game: Bugz - Uzebox

Draws path lines for the six bugz, as well as displaying their coordinates at the top of the screen.

Change line 26 to alter the path line colours for each of the bugz in order. Change line 28 to alter the information text colour. Change line 29 to adjust how many look behind / look ahead frames to draw positions for. Comment out lines 61 through 68 to remove the information text.

Progress through the first third of the game, not quite a second ahead.

Different damage strategy, different magic usage, now with better doors.

Temp Encode: https://youtu.be/pv7mTb8aMHI

This file is a little bit ahead of that temp encode, which is 44 frames ahead of the published run. The project file is 68 frames ahead, and a couple of rooms farther in.

Emulator: BizHawk 2.4.2

Displays enemy statistics, player statistics, RNG value and bits, and other useful counters.

With half the game down and half to go, I figured it was time for an update.

4500 Golds have been acquired, three K Keys purchased, and I am now on the road to the Black Onyx. After that, there are three bosses left to take down (the Dwarf with the Battle Helmet, King Grieve, and the Evil One), so a lot of what is left to do is movement optimization.

While I continue to be sad that the Long Sword route ends up taking longer, I've long argued that weapon choice is a routing issue, and keeping the Dagger, in this case, is the fastest route for the game that I know of.

Current lead: 934 frames. (00:15.57 seconds)

YouTube link: , available once it's done uploading.

So, it turns out that the Long Sword, while amazing, costs way too much time to buy (walking to the room with the shop + screen transition + walking to the door + screen transition + walking to the shopkeeper + selling the Wing Boots (140 frames of just gaining money) + another shopkeeper interaction + buying the Long Sword (160 frames of just losing money) + leaving the store + screen transition + returning to the screen with the Guru). At the point where I decided I had done the appropriate research, I was behind Lord Tom's run by 1724 frames. I went from a 12-second lead to a 30-second loss. I estimated that in order to most obviously make up the time, I needed to save five seconds in each boss fight just to tie. Checking Lord Tom's run, he beats the first such boss in under five seconds. So, as much fun as it was to theorycraft, and as much fun as it was to try, getting the Long Sword is, at time of writing, not viable.

With that out of the way, I had to see what I could salvage. I had the following issues:

Reconciling those two facts, I needed to end up with enough health to survive a mage's Deluge so that I wouldn't lose time against the triple bees. Further, I wanted to keep the Triple Kill because I think it looks amazing. I lose 23 frames in that room, but I have a lower health total because of the Mattock room's new strategy (which saved almost a full second) and can't tank a hit from the bee, so I consider it a win, both in terms of strategy and in entertainment, and had to find a way to just barely survive. Fortunately, the enemy that I chose to take damage from to save a Deluge earlier in the run (the room starting frame 18134) deals five damage, the bee I no longer get hit from deals three, and the mage's Deluge deals eight. Victory.

With that out of the way, and several other problematic rooms deciding to behave, everything is resynched up to the second death of the game, and I am starting the process of farming Golds for King keys.

The file currently ends at frame 35349, upon leaving the room the Wyvern dies in; for comparison, Lord Tom leaves that room at frame 36208, giving me an 859 frame lead, ~750 of which come from the beginning of the game, meaning 109 frames have been saved through optimization and routing.

Enjoy.

This upload represents the major branching point between the existing TAS and my work. At frame 29357, the first frame of the text box for Wing Boots collection is printed. From here, I will be making eight screen transitions to collect a second pair, then continuing along the projected route. If that proves ultimately to be slower (it shouldn't), then a future TASer can start from here and follow Lord Tom's Dagger route with a 124 frame lead (and slightly lower health and one available shot of Deluge).

A YouTube encode is forthcoming.

Edit:

Finally in Forepaw, fortuituous frame saves in fights finish farming 115 frames ahead.

New content starts at 4:54.

117 frames ahead of Lord Tom, and this time I collect the coin in Eolis, so that I am on track with how much Golds I should have. This gets to the end of the first dungeon/tower.

24 frames ahead of Lord Tom's published movie.

The first town, complete to pressing 'A' to dismiss the "I've used key." dialog.

I managed to shave off a few more frames in Eolis, and at that point am 18 frames ahead of Lord Tom.

This heads into the dungeon with the Mattocks, and while I use the key to enter the dungeon 129 frames ahead of Lord Tom, I am 236 Golds behind him. I plan on making that gold up by killing an additional two mages outside of Forepaw.

Encode: http://youtu.be/lLnHGm9cDT0

Enters and leaves Eolis. Less-than-stellar placement in the final room, so I lost seven frames during the fight and am now only 11 frames ahead of Lord Tom.

Encode at https://youtu.be/UVIDXxJRnbU

From power on to talking with the Guru, this WIP is an attempt to beat Lord Tom's excellent submission at http://tasvideos.org/1877S.html

So far, holding A at frame 1802/1803 turns the enemy on that screen to the left, getting me hit 19 frames before Lord Tom. As a result, this is, so far, a 19-frame improvement over his work.

On the 3DS's version of SMB2j, going 'down' through this pipe warps you ahead a short way through 8-1. On the FDS ROM that checksums with the published movie, it instead warps you back to the start of the level.

I apologize for the quality (or lack thereof) of this video - I wanted to remove the needless pausing at the end, but I can't read the hex output to save my life. I am sorry. (Feel free to remove it on your end.)

Game is paused right beside the second vertical pipe of 8-1.