User Files from ktwo

63f improvement for #10044: ktwo's NES The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man in 11:01.328

Test of completing 1-1 without going to the limbo zone

Will be further improved, but uploaded as a first draft of what will hopefully end up as a submission

Created with the purpose of being used for code analysis in fceux (2.6.6 used)

Improvement for #9902: ktwo's NES The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World "best ending" in 10:03.76

Improvement for #9901: ktwo's NES The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World in 07:15.35:

To replace the current movie in #9901: ktwo's NES The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World in 07:15.35: - 24f saved from a faster first level (the Junk). Credits to Randomno for pointing out the route. - 8f lost at the first boss (RNG) - 8f saved in the stalactite section in the ice cavern (RNG) - 8f saved in the vertical sections of the ice cavern (known improvement, but not used in the previous movie due to resulting in bad "RNG" and lag in later levels) - 3f saved from less random lag in the later levels

Improved room solutions in 7-4, 7-5 and in Belzebut's room. As an unintentional side-effect, a few lag frames were eliminated (in PR13).

Saves 8f over going around the totem pole

23f faster in room 15 than the currently published TAS

In each tower, the top section can be made to "glitch" (https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Castelian_(NES)/Game_Mechanics#Glitched_tower). While the mechanic has been known, it was only recently seen implemented in RTA runs. Presumably first by YuaRyuc, https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1902842971?t=0h7m50s.

The uploaded movie saves almost half a second in tower 5 thanks to the new finding. When continuing to TAS the remaining towers, the uploaded movie file is at one point 33 frames ahead of the current TAS (due to favorable "random" lag). However, it falls behind during the transition to the bonus level of tower 7 ("random" lag) and never recovers, clocking in 3 frames after the current TAS.

It seems like it should be possible to (e.g.) play around with the screen transitions of the earlier towers to find a combination not resulting in the extremely laggy screen transition to the 7th bonus level. However, that is nothing I plan to do.

Conceptual solution of A4R3 that is faster than the currently published TAS. The movie is far from optimized, so better rat (and block?) management could likely save more time.

Room numbers as labeled in the code (Area: $33, Room: $32)

Demonstration of clipping into the wall on the left, with minimal (?) inputs

A few frames faster palace room 11 route. The movie is not frame-optimized. The purpose is just to demonstrate the new route.

Movie originally created by Aqfaq in FCEU 0.98.15. The intention of the uploaded movie is to sync Aqfaq's movie on a modern emulator. The movie desyncs near the end of chapter 6 (a bit before Aqfaq's movie stopped).

Player position, health and inventory

47 frames of improvement over the current TAS (4838M). This was the result of a fairly quick test (without even using RAM-watch) and is probably possible to optimize further. The last three towers don't sync, but it's just a matter of lag, so would be trivial if anyone is interested.

75 frame improvement over the submitted movie. The time save comes from better Lizard King manipulations in level 4.

Test of collecting an object and tethering it through the underwater section of planet 12. The detour for collecting the object turned out not to be compensated by a corresponding time save from the "tether speed-up", but still worth documenting.

In the any% category, the "anti-gravity" (AG) or the "double-strength boosters" (DSB) can be bought in the shop.

AG:

+ Allows the pod to reach a speed of 4p/f in the y-direction if tethering an object, instead of the normal max speed of 3p/f. Since there are some vertical sections that need to be traversed in planet 13, this has the potential to save time.

+ Saves 256 frames of menuing in the shop, compared to DSB

+ Not impacted by gravity (or gravity balls) while activated

- Speed boosting in the x-direction while tethering objects is negatively impacted

DSB

+ 4 times the acceleration of the default boosters (both in the x- and y-direction)

Despite starting out with a lead of 256 frames on planet 8 from less menuing, compared to buying the DSB, only about 1/3 remained near the delivery of the 1st fuel cell. At that point, no reasonable solution was found for navigating the last part to the small wormhole without major time losses.

While some time can be expected to be gained back due to additional speed boosts possible with AG, there will also be several big time losses along the way due to slow cornering with the default boosters that AG can only partially cancel in the y-direction (and not at all in the x-direction). The test therefore ended early on planet 13 as it was obvious that AG would be a lot slower than DSB with the approach that was used.

The second bonus room (in the right Landing) improved by 4 frames. The same 4 frames were immediately lost due to stair mechanics though.

1. Grouping the the right side of the hallway together instead of the 1st floor 2. Better health route in the freezer/furnace area

Uploaded for the purpose of having a comparison between the left and right paths through stage 3.

Non-optimal route, only uploaded for reference.