A simple script I used to validate my Meong submission. Action 52 managed to fill this basic RAM search task with a shocking amount of jank. You'd think I could just check if the Y coordinate decreases every 4 frames, right? WRONG. You go through 06 twice, for reasons unknowable. So my code has to account for that.
#638273167943803772 - Action 52 - Meong Checker
a52_meong_checker.lua
85 downloads
#638266238020257523 - Lollipop(s) improvements
lollipops improve.fm2
In 01:47.01 (6431 frames), 3807 rerecords
89 downloads
Some improvements to Lollipop(s). Interestingly, I only use the lollipop in level 1, now!
"You" is nymx, because you did some tests during the judging process. If you are not nymx, sorry.
Level 1
I straight up don't understand how the manipulation works at the beginning. Afterwards, though, I noticed that because you don't keep him on screen for as long, you get an extra candy wrapper enemy afterwards. By slowing down a bit, I was able to keep the pink guy on screen, spawn block that candy wrapper, load a little idiot who gets stuck in the wall, and then spawn block the enemy you jump over at 1464. Saves 2 frames.
Seems like you can't do spawn block strats with two enemies of the same type. It's like they reposition the same enemy to the new spot. Weird...
I found a new way to do the ending, which saves about 10 frames over yours.
50 frames saved over submission, 24 frames saved over your test.
No framerules between stages, so GG.
Level 2
It's actually a frame tie to smack that little pink think vs jump over him at 4029, but then an extra enemy spawns at the peak of the hill, slowing me down. Since I have to kill this newly revealed enemy, he can't be used to spawn block anything.
There's actually a frame perfect trick where you can kill the guy in the pit at 4219 without otherwise slowing down, but it just doesn't work out to climb the three groundpops at the end. You want to wait and jump across the whole pit.
I saved 16 frames at 4382 by waiting to hit the ledge instead of swinging my lollipop and waiting on the enemy. This was the only improvement I could find.
16 frames
Level 3
Couldn't find any improvements. Remember that you have to jump immediately because of weird collision on the starting platform, so I can't do the first pair of enemies optimally.
That second pair of enemies (that I creep up on) seems promising, but that only loses 8 green frames. A lollipop swing seems to lose about 15, and on top of that, more enemies will load and cause me more problems.
#638256808684726895 - Action 52 - full run proof of concept
full_run_test2.fm2
In 16:55.23 (61014 frames), 438 rerecords
System: Nintendo Entertainment System
3 comments,
86 downloads
I'd always pictured that an Action 52 run would consist of all 52 games played in a row, so here's a proof of concept for that. It consists of all the submissions and publications I could find, which is 8 by LogansGamingRoom and 2 by me. One of those is Meong, which I have not submitted yet, but I will. The submissions guide says if I submit more than 1 run in a day, they'll delete my account and set my house on fire, so I think I'm gonna wait until next weekend!
Ooze, Dam Busters, and Sombreros all had desyncs. I think they had to do with RNG, and I think the RNG is fed directly by your button presses (as opposed to, say, X subpixels or sprite slots), because I was able to despawn some enemies by wasting shots.
But what does this accomplish that a simple YouTube playlist wouldn't? Honestly, it just satisfies my misplaced sense of purism. We can't even get Cheetahmen on here because they played that on revision A.
Syncs on 2.3.0.
#638255087602508378 - Four Color a Dinosaur - Ultimate Ultimate ULTIMATE Submission Candidate
4color_2023_ultimate_ultimate_ultimate.fm2
In 08:09.93 (29444 frames), 17309 rerecords
115 downloads
Am I done yet? 62 frames saved over the previous submission candidate. These hot takes are backed up by FractalFusion's adjacency lists. Thank you for those!
Crested Duckbill (11)
Saved 24 frames by fixing a gray chest region that could obviously have been yellow. It was right along the way, too.
Saved another 6 by swapping the gray and yellow mouth regions.
30 total
Mini Stego (13)
Saved 22 frames from changing that one spike to yellow.
T-Rex (14)
Saved 10 frames by changing that one toenail to pink.
#638253472486465559 - Four Color a Dinosaur Ultimate Submission Candidate
4color_2023_ultimate_ultimate.fm2
In 08:10.96 (29506 frames), 16683 rerecords
89 downloads
Can I be done with this yet? 178 frames faster than the previous submission candidate.
Spino (2)
Saved 24 frames from better routing around those fingers.
Tricera (5)
Realized one of those pupils could be purple, saves a measly 5 frames.
Implemented my routing improvements from morefix, saved another 9 frames. Still waiting for 10 frames on that final A press, though... This seems to be inevitable. There's just no way to fill all the grays in one pass without waiting.
Saved another 8 frames by doing the pink horn region thing first. All button presses are now frame perfect except for the very first (1 frame slow), the left pupil (2 frames slow) and the very last (10 frames slow). Cycling from gray back to pink also happens to cost 13 frames, so it MIGHT be possible to break even with a color cycling strat. Why is this game so good???
Just to clarify, you can't cycle your color during a fill animation. You gain access to A (fill), B (select color), select (select palette) and start (finish drawing) on the same frame. You CAN cycle the color while the pencil is moving, but that doesn't apply here.
22 total
Ptero (7)
Saved 15 frames using my hot take.
Mini Stego (13)
Non frame perfect delays:
9, 3, 13, 5, 3
Looks like there are 33 frames of potential timesave from pencil routing.
First pass:
6, 3, 13, 5, 0
Saved 6 frames by altering the toenail order.
The 13 and 5 are gonna be tough to crack because it's the little sliver in the bottom right. Making that inner crotch region yellow is also really tough.
New route:
3, 3, +13 for the loopback, +1 for the extra yellow transition
In this crazy new path, I switch colors early so I can have frame perfect transitions out of those tiny secluded regions.
Apparently adds up to 5 frames all told.
11 total
Proto (16)
Saved 106 frames using my hot take.
#638253299285074921 - Four Color a Dinosaur - new submission candidate
4color_ultimate_safe.fm2
In 08:13.92 (29684 frames), 15095 rerecords
91 downloads
Alright, here's the splice. Looks like it's 132 frames slower, but that's OK.
Differences from the published run:
Differences from the published run:
- Stego (1) - My fixes & improvements from April
- Spino (2) - My fixes & improvements from April
- Tricera (5) - Randomno's fixes from June (which are an improvement!)
- Vinny (6) - My improvements from April
- Ptero (7) - Unchanged, no hot takes. This has already been complicated enough for the judges...
- Mini Stego (13) - Randomno's fixes from June
- Proto (16) - Unchanged, no hot takes
#638252789553792720 - 4color_2023_morefix
4color_2023_morefix.fm2
In 08:08.95 (29385 frames), 15046 rerecords
217 downloads
My Four Color a Dinosaur publication has some pretty glaring mistakes, which people noticed after it got published, and Randomno is working to fix. Feel free to not believe me, but I did notice some of those mistakes back in April, and was working on a movie to address them. I noticed the toenail thing on #1 and the eye thing on #2, but #5 and #13 slipped by me a second time. Apparently I had some hot takes on #6, #7, and #16. Get out your Voronoi diagrams...
Compared to Randomno's submission, my #1 is 8 frames faster, and my #2 is 34 frames faster. I'll see if I can't work your fix into my improvements to #5; your #13 will be spliceable.
Here is my original notes draft file:
Stego (1)
I realized one of the toenails, which I considered to be at a corner with another, might actually be a proper adjacency. I went and recolored it ugly, and in the process, I saved 4 frames.
I sacrificed 2 frames to show the eyes.
Future note: Apparently I saved another 4 frames by doing pink first.
Spino (2)
I actually bothered to redo this with the yellow spots routed into the main yellow pass. 16 frames.
Then I realized I left both the eyes pink. How embarassing! I also realized I could color that nostril pink, saving some frames. This actually saved another 7 frames.
Tricera (5)
I managed to combine more long waits with long movements. 16 frames.
Vinny (6)
It's always vague with these large outlined regions, but I realized Vinny's right pupil could probably be considered touching his yellow body. I changed it to purple, which saved me 5 frames. Not only from avoiding the fill, but from avoiding a slight backtrack to reach it as well. I sacrificed 2 frames so you could actually see this.
Future note: I can't help but wonder why I decided to color it yellow in the first place...
Ptero (7)
I realized that little leg...socket...thing could be yellow, since it touches the body at a corner. 15 frames
Proto (16)
I changed my mind about that last splotch. It's only a corner, so I saved 106 frames for free.
Total = 169 (not incl. time/ent tradeoffs)
On Corners
Having seen all these drawings, you might think it's a little cheesey that the corners are allowed to be the same color. Well, that's just the way the theorem works. I believe the stego would be impossible if corners counted, but to really drive this point home, consider this dinosaur:
It's got 8 wedges all touching in the center, so you'd need eight colors. You could slice it into as many wedges as you want and there'd be no bound on the number of colors required. So yeah.
#637792162013061522 - Rockman 2 Basic Master - Snake 406 frame improvement
Rockman2BM-snake-406frame.fm2
In 03:23.00 (12227 frames), 11814 rerecords
167 downloads
This movie file contains Shinryuu's improvements in Gemini, which I forgot to encode. He reduced lag and killed the second penguin without stopping.
Snakeman's stage is now done with a super fast new zip that doesn't involve the yoku blocks. We also added a couple extra Gemini scrolls to save even more time.
#637789489750540174 - Rockman 2 Basic Master - Gemini 176 frame improvement
Rockman2BM-cabin-176frame.fm2
In 01:53.00 (6778 frames), 26852 rerecords
1 comment,
147 downloads
Here's how I saved time. See the YouTube description for more details.
- Killing the penguins
- Keeping to the ground. Walking is faster than jumping.
- Jumping higher to fall faster past walls.
- Careful lag reduction on the Galaxy Man dudes
- Killing tadpole eggs to save a TON of lag
You can probably shoot the remaining two eggs and save a frame or two, unless that's really laggy. I forgot to try.
#57070174403385324 - Mega Man 2 Zipless - Cabin Route
cabin_route.fm3
In 18:47.64 (67770 frames), 64141 rerecords
652 downloads
My route for Mega Man 2 zipless. It's the fastest of the three I considered, so it's the one I'm continuing with. It beats the RTA route by 104 frames, and aglasscage's route (Metal late) by 46 frames.
The route:
Q M B F H A W C
Encode:
Comparison Video showing all three routes side by side
I made an improvement in Heat, which is contained in this movie. I didn't feel like implementing it twice and re-encoding both movies, so both this route and aglasscage's route are 8 frames faster than what you see in the videos.
#57070172610851898 - Mega Man 2 Zipless - aglasscage Route
aglasscage_route.fm3
In 12:22.30 (44612 frames), 15694 rerecords
675 downloads
aglasscage's route for Mega Man 2 zipless. It beats the RTA route by 58 frames, but loses to mine (Metal early) by 46 frames.
The route:
Q B F H A M W C
(lol ham)
Encode:
Comparison Video showing all three routes side by side
I made an improvement in Heat, which is not contained in this movie. I didn't feel like implementing it twice and re-encoding both movies, so both this route and my route are 8 frames faster than what you see in the videos. This movie file is actually only 50 frames faster than the RTA route.
#57070171144531459 - Mega Man 2 Zipless - RTA Route (v2.3)
rta_route.fm3
In 18:52.50 (68062 frames), 86620 rerecords
624 downloads
The classic RTA route for Mega Man 2 zipless. It turns out it's way faster to use Item 1 in Air, even though almost every other stage becomes slower in the process.
The route:
A Q M B H F C W
Comparison Video showing all three routes side by side
Compared to v2.2, I saved a bit of time with an early switch in Metal, which broke the frame rule. This time was ultimately lost in Bubble due to bad RNG. I did some more optimization and cleanup, which saved no time.
This is not the perfect version of this route, though. I've saved 58 frames in Crash due to optimization and better understanding of offscreen ladder grabs. There's no real reason to apply these improvements to an obsolete route, so I'm not going to.
#52299635407908344 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless v2.2 (Part 2)
mm2_zipless_2.2.fm3
In 19:01.05 (68576 frames), 83746 rerecords
815 downloads
The Robot Masters are done! On to the Wily stages. This movie actually plays through Wily 1, but it's pretty rough right now. I didn't encode it.
Compared to my previous userfile, this movie finishes Crash Man's stage and does all of Wood. But there are also some changes to the earlier stages, which are detailed below.
Metal Man
Switching at the beginning of the stage always saves 13 frames. It turns out that shooting the drill only saves 9 frames...so the early switch is worth it. This plus a slightly better Item 2 placement at the end were enough to break the menu frame rule and save 8 frames! Hooray! But the rest of the run got desynced...
Bubble Man
I was able to copy and paste inputs for this stage with minimal changes. But there was a problem: when entering the boss room in an optimal way, I could not get good RNG, resulting in a much slower fight. I had no option but to slow my entry by a health bar frame rule (a confusing feat due to underwater lag), which caused me to miss the menu frame rule. Normally I'd be sad about that, but it actually synced the run back up, meaning I didn't have to redo any more stages!
Flash Man
Shinryuu showed me that you can abuse the ice physics to get perfect subpixels every time you need to turn around. I did that, as well as optimize the tin can man section a little bit. Unfortunately, this was not enough to break even a health bar frame rule.
Crash Man
In addition to finishing the stage, I found a nice timesave in the second screen. It appears slower, but my first Item 2 despawns much sooner, which is what makes it faster. This saves 12 frames, which gets transformed into 16 by the frame rules. I also saved a lag frame by facing left for no reason, so I actually saved 17 frames.
Wood Man
New content! I love new content!
Watch as I defeat the first Friender. There's a frame perfect ladder grab there that lets me avoid hitting the first ledge, and get my fireball in sooner. It only saves 2 frames, but it's still pretty cool.
Watch as I defeat the first Friender. There's a frame perfect ladder grab there that lets me avoid hitting the first ledge, and get my fireball in sooner. It only saves 2 frames, but it's still pretty cool.
I'd like to point out that my boss fight is one frame faster than the published Any% TAS. Does it beat a frame rule? No. But who cares about those? :D
#51038834863691531 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless v2.2
mm2_zipless_2.2.fm3
In 13:41.67 (49382 frames), 64878 rerecords
879 downloads
I've added several new tricks, and played my way through Flash and a good chunk of Crash. Enjoy!
Air Man
If you've been following this run, you can skip this. Nothing's changed.
Quick Man
Implements Visan's ride, a sick new Item 2 strat! Thanks to Visan for inventing this, and ellonija for telling me about it.
Metal Man
I did some weird Item 2 stuff to save a couple frames. Even when doing frame perfect jumps, conveyor belts slow you down for a frame; Item 2's do not. Also, conveyor belts apply their speed to you for one frame when you bonk them from below, gaining you a pixel each time it happens.
Bubble Man
Different RNG prevented me from doing the pacifist strat against those shrimps :/ I had no idea how lucky I was when I first did that!
The pacifist strat only saves time because it involves a 1-frame jump, whereas the Metal Blade strat requires a 2-framer.
Heat Man
Now home to one of the least impressive frame perfect tricks you'll ever see: the first Item 2 throw.
Flash Man
New content! This is optimal to the best of my knowledge.
Crash Man
I decided not to encode it just yet, but a good chunk of Crash Man's stage is played in this userfile.
#50737928605177965 - Visan's Ride
visans_ride.fm3
In 05:59.49 (21605 frames), 46775 rerecords
848 downloads
Invented by Japanese runner Visan, this strat saves 51 frames over my previous buster strat. A frame rule eats 3 of these frames, but still.
Branch 8 is the buster route, branch 9 is the Item 2 route (or just don't load any branch). I didn't encode it, but in this file you can see that Metal Man's stage doesn't desync at all, even if the boss fight does.
#50726496611103426 - Quick Man Freezing in Place
quickman_freeze.fm3
In 04:25.35 (15947 frames), 45313 rerecords
1 comment,
907 downloads
I stumbled across this weird little glitch when redoing this fight. I thought I'd upload the movie in case anyone wanted to take a look at what causes it.
It actually extends his invincibility by a few frames, which means I sadly can't show it off in my TAS.
#50491715316358744 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless v2.1
mm2_zipless_2.1.fm3
In 09:58.67 (35980 frames), 38845 rerecords
888 downloads
I managed to get ahold of Shinryuu on Discord. Even though he's retired, so to speak, he's been more than willing to talk shop, answer questions, make suggestions, and all that good stuff. It's been a ton of help. Thank you, Shinryuu!
Persuant to these conversations, I tried some new stuff, much of which ended up saving no time, but much of which did. I'll go stage by stage and tell you what's new.
Air Man
A frame perfect menu on the title screen which I was previously unaware of lets me get into the action one frame sooner. It throws off RNG (and some other stuff) though, so say goodbye to all those extra lives :(
Another small optimization in the fan fiend section lets me get to the end even sooner, for a total of 2 frames saved...but I had to throw it all away to RNG. The rest of the run doesn't even desync if you paste in the old inputs. But in case it does later, I've decided to swap out the time/entertainment tradeoff (which doesn't actually lose time) for a perfect segment. You never know!
Quick Man
The stage is the same, but the boss fight plays out a little differently. Shinryuu pointed out that these fights don't end on a timer, but rather, as soon as Mega Man teleports fully offscreen. As such, it saves time to end the fight as high up as possible.
By ending the fight on the upper ledge, I manage to make the previous frame rule and save 8 frames. I actually sacrifice a frame to get up there, but the frame rule is indifferent to it.
Most NES Mega Man games have some property like this.
Metal Man
The Item-2 section has been updated. By using the Item-2 lower down, I'm able to hit the ground sooner and save some time. A slick mid-air weapon switch allows me to dispatch the scrubbing bubble guy quickly, rather than waste frames jumping over him.
Metal Man himself doesn't put up much of a fight. Actually, I discovered some interesting properties of his AI.
Metal Man will jump in two situations:
- When you get too close, he jumps to the other side of the room (I call this violating his personal space).
- When you press B (a bullet does not necessarily have to spawn), he jumps at a height determined by RNG.
What happens when these two conditions occur on the same frame? Well, it turns out the B press one takes priority! So, with frame perfect shots, you can keep him on one side of the arena no matter how close you get. This is probably already known, but it's nice to put it into writing.
New Stuff
In addition to these improvements, there are two new stages for you to enjoy! Once again, these comparisons are to my Zipless v1.0 TAS.
Bubble Man
Stage save: 38 frames Boss save: 18 frames Total save: 56 frames
Where did all this come from? Well, for starters, there's the terrible double frame rule for Bubble Man's health bar. It's already been discussed on I think finalfighter's website, so I'll briefly summarize it: health bars tick up every 4 frames, but being underwater makes that not happen every 5 frames. It's easy enough to manipulate once you know about it, but I did not get lucky on v1.0.
However, this only accounts for 4 frames. The rest is simply due to sloppy play. For instance, in 1.0, I did a jump with a Metal Blade and let the throwing animation play out after I landed...just holding right. I also killed the hermit crab in the first room instead of taking damage from it (the faster method), improperly dealt with a throwing animation at the end, and let a bit of lag through at various points. Plus, I didn't know that double death saves time, so I didn't look into it; that accounts for 16 of the 18 frames saved in the boss fight!
In this version, I'm particularly proud of the part before the second angler. There I'm able to jump (the timing is frame perfect) and shoot the shrimp, completely avoiding the throwing animation which we resign ourselves to in realtime runs.
As I write this comment, I've discovered a 4-frame save in Bubble. However, I need a 7-frame save to beat the next frame rule. Still seems worth pursuing, though.
Heat Man
Stage save: 50
I didn't finish this one yet. I kinda didn't feel like doing the boss fight... But I managed to save 50 frames in the stage, which is kind of hard to believe! Here's how I account for that:
- Poorly timed jumps and weapon switches
- Wasting time before shooting the Item-2 at the 3rd pillar
- Wasting an Item-2 energy early on kills 19 frames of super fast movement
- Sprite flicker during the switch to bubble.
Note that, for whatever arcane, terrible reason, the underwater lag actually persists from Bubble Man's stage, but only during the teleport-in animation. As luck would have it, I got a lag frame on the first jumpable frame for this stage...so I can probably save that. I'm actually right on the cusp of a frame rule for the Bubble fight, to the point where I cannot afford to waste a single frame.
#49606539655244104 - Silver Surfer 3rd Quest Genocide - Level 1
silver_surfer_S4FHFB.fm3
In 02:56.73 (10621 frames), 6713 rerecords
1020 downloads
A fun little TAS I whipped up. This whole game is an auto-scroller, so the only goal is to be as entertaining as possible until the boss fights. I don't know if I can maintain this level of energy over a 30-minute run, but we'll see. I feel like the first stage is pretty fun to watch, at least!
This movie plays the first level; the fm3 contains a bit of level 2, which I decided not to encode.
A movie of this game was already published back in 2012. The authors decided to go for a pacifist playthrough (feel free to laugh at my title, Undertale fans), which wasn't very popular among the viewers. It got rejected, only to be resurrected and locked in the Vault. A lot of the comments said, "why not use the third quest (hardest difficulty) and kill all the enemies instead?" So, 6 years later, that's what I've decided to do.
Goals
The goal of this run is to kill the maximum amount of enemies. But, since you can sit at the boss of this stage and kill piranhas forever, this number is technically infinite. Therefore, I've implemented it as a secondary goal, i.e., kill as many enemies as possible without losing time.
Note that most bullets have health and can be destroyed like an enemy. For the purposes of this run, these do not count as enemies. Nobody wants to see the Silver Surfer farm bullets for a half hour!
Potential Misunderstandings
Here I've laid out some questions you might have about this movie:
You used a password! Isn't that against the rules?
Not in this case! The password S4FHFB is only used to unlock the hardest difficulty mode.
Why do you waste so much time on the password screen?
The characters can only be incremented/decremented every 16 frames, but the cursor can be moved every other frame. I took advantage of these properties to input the password in the most confusing way possible.
You let some bad guys get away!
Believe me, I know :/ In the first stage, it's just not possible to kill every enemy; I picked the path that would let me kill the most. I tried using my bomb, but the enemies up top are too strong to die to one bomb. By the time I get more, there are no more branching paths to mess me up. I'm sure they will come in handy in later stages, though.
Techniques
Finally, I want to detail some techniques I used.
- Pressing left every other frame causes you to sit still relative to the world. But you have to do it on the correct frames, otherwise you'll end up moving left.
- Most of the time, start only needs to be held, not pressed, for the menus.
- Bullets can only be shot every 5 frames.
- The orb moves before shots are fired, so you can press AB on the same frame and still have the bullets change directions. I use this every time I need to press B for maximum excitement!
- Power-up drops are not RNG. Certain enemies are set to always drop certain power-ups. I suppose this isn't that big a deal if you're already killing everyone anyway.
#49364838704578513 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless v2.0: Part 2
mm2_zipless_2_part2.fm3
In 05:59.19 (21587 frames), 16989 rerecords
904 downloads
Quick Man
Stage save: 36 (0 from previous) Boss save: 69 (51 from previous) Total save: 105 (51 from previous)
I've saved an additional 51 frames off the boss fight (69 from v1.0), so I've started my notes and my encode here. I utilized a more aggressive manipulation strat to keep him pinned over on the left side, taking damage twice to facilitate this. Due to the damage boosts, it loses 27 frames to a theoretically perfect 19 frame boss fight...which I'm convinced does not exist.
I made an interesting discovery along the way: Quick Man's supposed RNG jumps (where he jumps 1-3 times) are actually the product of him getting stuck in the wall (video to be uploaded soon), which plays out unpredictably--but it's not RNG. This only applies to the outer walls, so if you see him charging up against any other ledge, you know you are about to see 3 jumps.
Also, he always shoots boomerangs on the second jump, so that should help if you're unsure of how many jumps got stuck in the wall.
Also, he always shoots boomerangs on the second jump, so that should help if you're unsure of how many jumps got stuck in the wall.
Metal Man
Stage save: 40 Boss save: 10 Total save: 50
In v1.0, it slipped my mind that you can save time by shooting the drills. But not this time. The second drill actually saves much more time; rather than jump over two drills, I'm able to stay on the super speedy conveyor belt the whole time.
I also improved the Item-2 usage. In v1.0, there was an awkward landing where I hand to hold still for a second and jump over the springy guy, but here, I managed to land just to the right of him. This move is just barely possible, at least for the frame I used Item-2. Let me explain:
When dismounting an Item-2, it's not necessarily best to just hold right. By letting go of right and even pressing left at certain times, you can influence your position to be a pixel or two further to the right. My current approach is to try randomly until it works...
But even this is not quite enough. The rightmost possible position still results in a collision with the springy guy! That is, unless you're 8-aligned.
But even this is not quite enough. The rightmost possible position still results in a collision with the springy guy! That is, unless you're 8-aligned.
Becoming 8-aligned
All the velocities Mega Man can move at (walking, jumping, knockback, conveyor belts...) have subpixel velocities that are multiples of 16, or 0x10. This means your subpixel position will always end with a 0 (in hex), making you 0-aligned. It may seem impossible to change your subpixel alignment, but there is one object that lets you do so: an accelerating Item-2. When an Item-2 is starting to accelerate, and you land on it in just the right way (going to the left), you'll get your subpixel set to X8. If you can keep it that way until the Item-2 fully accelerates, you will now be 8-aligned. This essentially means you can be 8 subpixels further ahead at any given point in time, which is just enough for me to land to the right of that springy guy! I think I'm going to play around with this section a bit more before I move onto Bubble (doing Bubble and Heat before Flash saves 4 frames in menuing, by the way).
Like my other two discoveries, this was something I found totally by accident while doing playaround/TAS fidget stuff.
Fun fact: This Item-2 section saves 9 frames over inputs copy/pasted from the 2010 TAS! The main reason is that they don't take full advantage of their Item-2; that is to say, they let it run out when they are not on the rightmost tip. And I'm not talking about that weird 8-alignment stuff, either: it's a couple pixels. This happens because they use the Item-2 soon enough that it runs out just after the tin can man jump, which doesn't give them enough time to catch up after landing.
The 10 frames in the boss fight are just due to better understanding of the game mechanics. 5 of those frames are from just the first hit, which I jumped too high for in v1.0.
#49071833918125633 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless v2.0
mm2_zipless_2.fm3
In 04:14.78 (15312 frames), 14598 rerecords
922 downloads
Version 2.0 is here! Rather than push onwards through the Boobeams and boss rush in my v1.0 movie, I felt motivated to start over and fix all my little (and big) mistakes. Currently all the timesaves are grouped into stage saves and boss saves, but I may do a more detailed analysis later.
History of this Movie
To understand all the timesaves in this run, I think it's important to understand this history behind it. While the previous run is called v1.0, it's actually not the first attempt I made at creating this movie. There's a previous version, which we'll call the beta version, that I started on a couple years ago. It was simply a TASed version of the realtime route I was doing at the time, back when I was blissfully unaware that it's faster to do Metal before Flash. That's right: there's a TAS file sitting on my hard drive where I go to Flash before Quick and Metal. This was called "mm2 TAS.fm3", and the file that would become v1.0 was sarcastically named "mm2 TAS ADVANCED route.fm3" for a while.
Because this run was so old, I did it the old fashioned way: savestates, frame advance, and an actual controller in my hand. I also had this weird obsession with keeping the 90-frame screen transitions perfectly clean, so I was always trying really hard to find the first actionable frame of every room. I believe I switched to the TAS editor around Flash Man's stage, but I'm not sure.
When making my ADVANCED route (v1.0), I tried my best to salvage what inputs I could from the beta. I had to redo the bosses (with the exception of Air Man), but most of the other inputs could be salvaged. The beta stopped at Metal Man, so all inputs after that in v1.0 were new. Here we will see just how suboptimal these beta inputs are.
Air Man
Stage save: 50 Boss save: 38 Total save: 88
The boss fight is perfect, aside from a lag frame which I don't think you can avoid. Watching the 2010 TAS's boss fight taught me a lot on how to achieve this.
Compared to the previous movie, you may be surprised there are 50 frames to save in the stage, considering I don't go for any different strats.
Well, for starters, I do go for one different strat: rather than turn around and spawn the bird to the left @3250, I can keep going and shoot the next two eggs without jumping. The second one requires me to shoot a bullet out ahead of time to alter the collision behavior, something I learned from the 2010 TAS. No idea why this works, but it's cool!
However, this only saves 2 frames. My new turnaround subpixel tech also ends up saving a frame...which is lost due to boss fight RNG manipulation. What a shame.
The rest of the timesave comes from two main sources: better horn jumps, and better falling.
You can do the horn jumps without stopping if you jump a little earlier, something I did not know in the beta.
The falling tech is even more embarrassing. Somehow, I had it in my head that a 1-frame jump is always optimal for falling off ledges, when in fact a much higher jump often saves more time; this is a misconception I carried with me through most of v1.0 as well.
But an even more embarrassing timesave comes from that one screen transition hidden behind clouds...I simply was not holding left during it, because I didn't realize I could move. This alone wasted about 20 frames.
You can do the horn jumps without stopping if you jump a little earlier, something I did not know in the beta.
The falling tech is even more embarrassing. Somehow, I had it in my head that a 1-frame jump is always optimal for falling off ledges, when in fact a much higher jump often saves more time; this is a misconception I carried with me through most of v1.0 as well.
But an even more embarrassing timesave comes from that one screen transition hidden behind clouds...I simply was not holding left during it, because I didn't realize I could move. This alone wasted about 20 frames.
Quick Man
Stage save: 36 Boss save: 18 Total save: 54
It turns out my calculations were wrong! Doing this stage with Air actually saves 6 frames over doing it with buster. I failed to account for the fact that you can switch weapons 10 frames earlier at the start of each stage. However, the buster route still ends up saving time, because of a cool damage boost tech I stumbled upon. By standing still for a couple frames, I'm able to take damage from the final Sniper Joe such that I recover from hitstun while in the air, saving me an extra jump. I was unable to get this trick in the air shooter route, because the mech gets defeated sooner and the sniper takes longer to fall down. This difference actually puts the buster route ahead by 1 frame!
I also saved time by defeating each hothead without any additional jumps (although 2 jumps had to be a frame or two higher), and jumping over the first Sniper Joe. My turnaround subpixel tech saved a frame, but due to a frame rule that apparently exists, I couldn't defeat the first mech any sooner. What a shame.
For the curious, I've left in a branch of the air shooter route: branch 8. Branch 9 is the frame Quick Man gets defeated in the current route. If you know of a way to do this boss fight quickly with air shooter, I'd love to hear about it!
If you dig around in the branches, you might find some inputs for Metal Man, but I'm putting those on hold until I'm confident in the Quick fight.
#48877130464294925 - New subpixel optimization tech - proof of concept
flashman_3frame.fm3
In 01:32.75 (5574 frames), 120490 rerecords
947 downloads
I've discovered a new subpixel optimization technique! It doesn't always save time, but a subpixel's a subpixel. You never know when an extra couple might come in handy.
When you fall off a ledge and need to turn around, it may seem like you should turn around and brush up against the edge of the wall to get the best position. This is not always the case. Sometimes, you can actually be a few subpixels inside the block; that is, the ejection routine (which runs when you push in the opposite direction) puts you just a bit further out than the first position where you can actually fall. By moving past the wall on the last possible frame, you can save around 0x10 subpixels, depending on your subpixel alignment.
Sometimes, this maneuver may not be possible at all, and it will be better to brush up against the wall and get a X8.00. You just have to try it for each jump.
Note that this does not work if you encounter a left-facing wall (you are holding right) that transcends a screen border; you will be ejected to X8.00. Right-facing ones seem to be OK, though.
To demonstrate this concept, I've utilized it to shave 3 frames off the current TAS (although in reality it's 1 frame + a door frame rule). I simply copy/pasted their inputs and executed proper turnaround subpixels on each relevant jump. I think this stage nicely illustrates all the quirks of when this technique is useful and/or possible.
Branch 1 is the current TAS. Branch 2 is with my technique. Each branch is marked on the frame Flash Man dies. I highly recommend you watch this with RAM watch on (X pixel: 0x0460, X subpixel: 0x0480) to see exactly what's going on.
Fun fact: Much like ladder fidgeting, I discovered this while doing some playaround/TAS fidget stuff. I thought it might look cool to have Mega Man turn around at the last possible frame, but then I realized I was actually landing at better positions when I tried to do that! If you're working on a TAS, I highly recommend you do some silly stuff in your run. You never know what you might accidentally discover!
#48553221790148505 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless: Part 2.5
mm2_zipless.fm2
In 24:41.09 (89012 frames), 27003 rerecords
888 downloads
I found a way to make the Crash Bomb glitch work, but I don't like it. I had to take an extra hit from the final Sniper Joe, which leaves me with an extra Item 1. Although, it'll certainly come in handy for the alien fight, so I guess it worked out (Didn't know about that secret ledge when I set out to make this movie).
It's likely I'll be saving yet another Item 2 in Wily 2, if I'm right that using Wood on the drills will be faster. If I do, being able to get good MadWidth from the unavoidable bullet would be extremely useful. I've had little luck with this myself, but do let me know if you can find a way to make that happen. Bear in mind that this is a rough draft v1.0 type of movie, which will be scrapped for a better version that attempts to fix all the mistakes. Therefore, the frame you might find here will almost certainly not work in v2.0.
#47641550972708655 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless: Part 2
mm2_zipless_part2.fm3
In 24:40.58 (88981 frames), 26163 rerecords
1010 downloads
A continuation of my zipless run. I didn't fix any mistakes, just pressed onwards towards the finish; I figure I'll probably make some more mistakes, so we can fix the old and new ones alike in version 2.0.
This movie plays until the Boobeams, which have me stumped! Going by finalfighter's extremely handy lua script, I can't seem to get a large enough MadWidth. I have to damage boost through that one sniper joe bullet at frame 7720, which essentially gives me 2 choices for MidWidth and MadHeight: 22 or 24. I can only seem to make these variables smaller the further to the right I go, although, frustratingly, you'll see them cycle through some super good ones like 56 before they settle on their final values (frame 7757).
These outlier values seem like a good place to start, but I may also try to take damage in the fight.
These outlier values seem like a good place to start, but I may also try to take damage in the fight.
#47393292247559483 - Mega Man 2 - Zipless
mm2_zipless.fm3
In 19:45.96 (71275 frames), 19378 rerecords
2 comments,
962 downloads
(Note: this file is for the Japanese version, Rockman 2.)
This is a popular category to run RTA (I myself run it), but I've never seen a TAS of it. I believe there are two reasons why:
- The zips in Mega Man 2 are some of the coolest tricks in speedrunning. Who would want to remove them??
- The ancient SDA rules make this category a bit ambiguous.
Regarding the first point: Well, I think zipless shows off a few neat things not seen in a regular TAS. For instance, WOODMAN'S ENTIRE STAGE.
Regarding the second point, the rules of this run are as follows:
- No zips
- No delay scrolls
- No screen wraps
- All other glitches are fair game
This might more acurately be called, "No Major Glitches." But whatever.
Encode
(Thanks, feos!)
Blunders
The Quick Man fight
I'm pretty embarassed about this. I take damage twice...
Not for no reason, mind you. I do it to manipulate Quick Man's position and take advantage of i-frames. But I still feel like this fight could be a lot tighter. I could use some advice.
Frame data:
(1st Hit) 40 (+20 frames) 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 58 (+38 frames) 20 24 (+4 frames) 22 (+2 frames) 39 (+19 frames) Total time loss: 83 frames
Crash Man's Stage
In the opening room, I didn't realize you could jump up the first ladder without getting hit, so I utilized a unique buster strat. But apprently we've known about this for 15 years, so...
Minor Mistakes
These don't seem worth redoing, but I'd surely fix them if I did redo the run:
- Shitty RNG for Air Man's last shot
- Didn't think to shoot the drills in Metal
- I don't think I handle mech damage boosts quite right
- Why does no one ever change weapons in the boss rooms?
- Made an unecessary landing in Bubble
- Didn't test many Item-1/2 routes for Crash
Good Things
Buster-only Quick Man strats
For some reason, I thought Quick Man was immune to the air shooter when I was doing this stage. But ellonija mentioned that the old TASes used to use the air shooter? It sounded pretty dope: use air to kill all the enemies, just like RTA, then defeat Quick Man with some super finicky and cool air shots.
But I've done the math, and I believe my uninformed buster-only route is faster:
Air Shooter and Buster both do the same damage to Quick Man, and a perfect fight with both weapons would take the same amount of time, so that doesn't figure into our calculations. As I defeat the mechs at the end, I spend a total of 28 frames not holding right. The menuing to switch from P to A takes 45 frames, so the question becomes: Is it 17 frames slower to do all those jumps when shooting the fire head guys?
Well, Mega Man spends 246 frames in the air during that section. If we assume the air shooter route spends all those frames on the ground (which it doesn't; there are several jumps in that section), we can do some worst case math.
air speed = 01.50 ground speed = 01.60 difference = 00.10 (that's 1/16). 00.10 * 246 = 15.375
This means the buster route ends up 15.375 pixels behind the air shooter route. On the ground, we can make those pixels up in 14.47 frames, call it 15.
So, in this situation which is worse than reality, the buster route is still 2 frames faster than the air shooter route. That is CLOSE! But in reality it's even faster-er, so I believe the buster route is optimal.
Ladder Fidgeting
Not sure if this is a known trick, but it's a technique that provides a way to ascend slightly on ladders in some circumstances.
When climbing ladders, shooting any weapon locks you in a shooting animation in which you cannot gain height. Unlike Mega Man 1, letting go of the ladder and re-grabbing it does not cancel this animation. However, there is a trick to gain a pixel or two that I call the Ladder Fidget, which can be performed as follows:
- Do the following 3 frames of input: A, nothing, Up. This is a frame perfect ladder fidget.
- Check if your Y position is higher up.
- Repeat the process until the animation ends, or you see you've stopped gaining height.
I can't figure out a pattern for when you'll rise and when you'll fall--It's all trial and error at this point. But I believe vertical velocity is being stored from before. It looks pretty silly when executed, and in fact, it started off as a "siliness tech" to pass the time in Crash Man's stage, until I realized Mega Man was actually ascending!
#46508413529735318 - Pictionary - "Any%" (v2.0)
pictionary TAS 2-compact.fm3
In 02:33.75 (9240 frames), 2880 rerecords
787 downloads
Whoops! I accidentally uploaded the wrong file before.
See my previous movie for some basic info.
This file beats the previous one by over 6 seconds, by improving upon it in the following ways:
The "NO," "PIN," "THINK..." sequence is much slower, even if it's the most popular one among RTA runners. According to my research, the sequence "TWINS," "SWAN," "COMEDY..." is faster by far than any other. It's over 100 frames faster than the next slowest, and about 1000 frames faster than average. My estimation techniques weren't 100% accurate, but I'm confident this is the fastest sequence, especially considering the absurdly long frame rules at play.
I had a breakthrough that allows us to get a roll of 6 on the first frame every time. All you have to do is delay typing the final letter for a couple frames; due to the 128-frame rule, the board loads on the same frame, but the RNG is different. I believe this happens because RNG is not advanced on lag frames, making the algorithm take in a totally different previous value as input.
I optimized the box stacking and fireman games a bit more. The fireman game is trivial to optimize, since all you have to do is sit still and let everyone die; just wait to press start until you get a faster sequence.