User Files from RetroEdit

I completed a full 100% run because it was more straightforward than any%.

This is a mix of rewind and manual editing. Certain levels are relatively optimized, while others are bad (2-1 for instance).

This needs a fair bit more work to be ready to submit, but it's a solid baseline.

(Previous movie: WIP_001)

I've been doing some 100% runs of Shrek 2, so I decided to record a full RTA proof-of-concept recently. This was done entirely using rewind, so multi-character levels are very suboptimal. Overall this lacks polish so I'm not ready to submit in the near future, but it's a useful baseline movie.

<< prev / WIP_005

I redid 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 basically from scratch. The main improvement is a new fighting glitch where moving with precise timing while shooting will shoot more projectiles and basically defeat enemies twice as fast.

This was a surface-level second-pass. There are still probably a few seconds of further improvements, but this is already 04:24.08 ahead of my previous movie after only three levels. Some further improvement is complicated by the pistons: they block the path, and you can be stuck in a cycle where you're not saving any time on the part of the level prior to the pistons (essentially a frame-rule; although technically, you can probably save time by reducing lag).

I didn't fully apply the projectile glitch to 1-1, but in my testing, it would only save a few seconds because of having to wait numerous seconds for an extremely poor piston cycle, and I preferred the piston damage boost stylistically for now. 1-2 was pretty clean. 1-3 could maybe be faster by damage-boosting up through the toxic waste pipe instead of destroying the computer console to disable it.

One other potential improvement might be turning off the music and/or the sound effects at the beginning of the run. That would probably reduce the amount of lag, with net gains after just a few levels.

A resync of [1736] GBA Wario Land 4 "Hard" by andymac in 40:04.88 to BizHawk 2.9.1.

See my resync page for more details.

A successful resync of [3228] GBA The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap by Tompa, quo in 1:40:02.18 from VBA-RR v24 svn422 to BizHawk 2.9.1. The lag/load time adjustments were almost completely automated: this required only one manual adjustment for the last input at the end.

Edit (2023-10-29): Ah, I just realized there was a oversight in my automated resync script. So the manual resync at the end wasn't due to game incompatibility.

Apparently, VBA-rr movies *can* be resynced. It just required better knowledge of the scripting behavior and movie format.

Attempted resync of [1478] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow by Kriole in 20:58.62 to BizHawk 2.9.1.

This movie was able to sync surprisingly far with some lag adjustments, but had different enemy movement patterns that damaged the player and desynced in the room at frame 14402 or 4:03 (https://youtu.be/xPpXbxOxceM?t=243).

A resync of this publication. In testing, GBAHawk 2.0.0 emulates Shrek 2's lag perfectly, so it may be sufficient to allow console verification now.

Through collaborative efforts between PinkyNoice, OtakuTAS, and myself, we've managed to improve the movie beyond the previous revision, saving an additional 340 frames.

I am hopeful that this is the final revision for now. I think there may be some minor invisible pixels and perhaps some RNG and puzzle management to squeeze out a few more frames, but I've done the best of my abilities to ensure a quality result.

Part of that work was creating a light-mode Lua script for Dragon Nursery so we weren't fumbling around in the dark. There were also various improvements to minigame routing, some small and some larger, and more generally tighter movement in the flying carpet sections, utilizing newly understood mechanics to gain pixels.

The encode below uses the light-mode script to display Dragon Nursery:

Tweaking the header of https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638257298842653723 to re-add rerecord count, fix the authors field (and add OtakuTAS), and generally fix other oddities.

One of my RTA speedruns from a few months ago. I decided to upload this so that at least one complete any% movie exists on the site, even though this wouldn't be very good as a TAS.