User Files from PoochyEXE

Started making a TAS for Contest Mode. Currently done through level 19.

I'm up to 309 frames and 7 seconds in-game time saved over the published version now.

I found 2 more optimizations in Normal 1/4 and Hard 1/3, but they desync the RNG state and go into the next round with a worse state that would likely result in a net time loss. If I can't figure out a way to avoid those time losses, I might submit this as-is.

Working on a V2 of my Time Race TAS. This saves 246 frames and 5 seconds IGT over the published TAS.

Almost there! Just a little more!

A new twist on a classic: Maxing out a 6-digit score counter, with Scroll (a.k.a. Exploding Lift) on to allow for unlimited-length chains.

Making a more optimized version of my Round Game TAS. Movie currently ends at the end of R82, about 2 1/2 minutes faster than the published version.

Almost there! Everything but Hard 5R is done, and I'm currently 81 seconds ahead of the published TAS. Unfortunately next I have to do Hard 1/5, which has to be the worst designed level in the entire game.

Currently 51 seconds ahead of the published run going into Hard 2/2.

Round 24~26 (frames 18177~19978): On R24 I optimized the times I'm holding Down and luck-manipulate so that the red bomb lands on the middle column before clearing the white diamond. Then near the end of R25, I press Up to directly drop the stack of cyan monsters. Finally I sync up the RNG state partway through R26. Net time save: 31 frames

Round 27 (frames 20611~21555): Rerouted the setup and optimized when I hold Down. Net time save: 114 frames

Round 36~37 (frames 30278~32409): Optimized movement and when I hold Down during the setup in R36, then some minor changes in pause durations in R37 to resync the RNG state. Net time save: 80 frames

Round 38 (frames 33315~34493): More setup movement optimizations. Net time save: 48 frames

Round 41 (frames 37861~38492): More optimizations to get more bomb falling speedup from holding Down. Net time save: 31 frames

Round 45~46 (frames 42826~44283): On Round 45, I press Up to drop the white bomb faster, which saves 9 frames, then Round 46 has more fairy manipulation optimization to save another 7 frames.

Total time save over V3: 320 frames

Spotted a few optimizations, next thing I know I've spent the rest of my night (and staying up way too late) going through the entire TAS to looking for optimizations and resync RNG states after each one.

Round 16: Start holding Right slightly later (frame 11088) at the end while waiting for the yellows to clear, so that Toad doesn't start climbing the yellow stack before the hitboxes clear. No time save, just looks cleaner.

Round 26: Optimized movement starting at frame 19904. I move Toad right then hold Down to let the white bomb fall before I set off the chain, thus saving some time after the chain resolves. Unfortunately I can't simply drop the white bomb ahead of time, as it would match prematurely. Time save: 16 frames.

Round 34~36 (frames 29041~31922): I originally forgot the victory animation skip in round 34 and 35, but when I added them back in, the RNG state desynced. I originally thought this was unrecoverable, but I came back to this and managed to find a way to sync it back up. Time save: 113 frames.

Round 59~61 (frames 60676~64345): In R59, I figured out how to adjust my movements in a way that allows me to manipulate the green bomb to spawn in the middle column. Unfortunately this also advanced the bomb color seed one time less, which desynced the RNG state in R60, but some movement optimization and I was able to add enough frames of holding Down to make the RNG state catch back up. Then R61 changes were mostly getting the fairy position RNG state to sync back up, plus one movement optimization prior to spawning the red diamond. Total time save: 100 frames.

Round 66 (frames 71036~71356): Small movement optimization by picking up the cyan and blue and pressing Up to get on top of them instead of climbing up by holding Right. This saves 3 frames and looks cleaner, but I lose the 3 frames at the end of the round to manipulate bomb spawn positions in R67. So no net time save, but it still looks cleaner.

Round 69~70 (frames 75155~756329): Another movement optimization by letting the top yellow monster fall instead of walking underneath it. This saves 11 frames in Round 69, but forces me to lose 10 frames to manipulate luck in Round 70, so in the end this was a lot of effort to save a whole 1 frame.

Total time saved: 230 frames

Slightly modified version of https://tasvideos.org/7322S that lets the special fanfare play out upon clearing Round 99 before proceeding to the ending cutscene.

This is the only speed/entertainment tradeoff in the movie, making it 291 frames longer. However, by Speedrun.com standards it would still clock in with the same time, since for RTA the timer would start on frame 431 and stop on frame 123,839 for a total length of 123,408 frames or 34:16.80.

Almost there!

Final world! Let's go!

3/4ths of the way there!

Almost 3/4ths of the way done now. The later levels are falling faster than I expected, probably because there are more monsters to work with.

Had a flash of inspiration and made a bunch more progress on this. More than 2/3rds done now!

Finished another 3 rounds, only to realize that I had been forgetting to skip the victory animation since R34, so I went back and added them as much as possible. R34 and R35 caused the RNG state to desync in R36 to the point where it was practically unrecoverable, but R37 onwards were doable, so I painstakingly redid every RNG manipulation in R37 through R62 by hand. I even had to redo R56 entirely, but managed to resync the RNG state for R57.

Made a bit more progress. I'm now done with 3 out of 5 worlds.

Came back to this WIP after 5 years of it just collecting dust. Halfway done now, sort of -- the later levels are probably going to take longer than the earlier ones though.

Reaches 1st dan rank in MFC DS in a single match, through lots and lots of luck manipulation. In theory this can be done in 3 hands instead of 4 but that would require luck-manipulating a roughly 1 in 800 miracle (oya yakuman + baiman or 2x oya sanbaiman in the first two hands, both requiring that no AI player declares riichi in the first two hands) and the tile draw sequence is fixed once the hand starts. The game doesn't pick up any entropy from individual inputs or idle frames as far as I can tell. The AI appears to be the only thing that seems to advance the seed during a hand, and even then it can't affect the tile draws until the next hand.

To hit 1st dan in a single game, you must win a total of 80000 points across hands (plus another 100 points for every 200 points you lose from losing hands, rounded up to the nearest 100). The 300-point bonuses from honba count towards this total, but not the 1000-point riichi antes or the 5000-point bonus for coming first. Meanwhile, the scoring is zero-sum and the match ends if any player goes broke, and the 3 AI opponents start with 25000 each, so I need to get them close to 0 without going under then send at least one of them deep into the negative in one blow.

A third done now. Movie ends at the start of R34.

The first quarter of a run of all 99 rounds of Round Game mode. Completed up through the end of round 25.

WIP, movie ends in the stage transition fading into stage 2. Compared to the current single-stage WR on the Steam version, this goes into the boss fight ahead by 11700 points, gains another 11640 points during the boss fight, and another 20000 in the end-of-stage Boss Destroy Bonus.

Recorded on Dolphin 4.0-4523.

A proof of concept of a run on Expert mode with a 17 combo and 3 All Clears. It's 123 frames and 5 seconds of in-game time slower than my current submission, but it demonstrates an alternate path that may show some promise.

This movie successfully maxes out the score counter in Endless Mode, ending the movie as quickly as possible. Input ends after 10339 frames, but it takes a bit longer for the AI to die and award the stage bonus that pushes the score over 999,999,999.

Next (final) steps: Finish off the AI as quick as possible, then suicide to properly end the game (and enter "TAS" onto the leaderboards).