User Files for Ninja Gaiden

Movie goals:

• Emu. used: FCEUX 2.2.3
• Takes damage to save time
• Aims for fastest time
• Has some slowdowns

Game Objectives

• Emulator used: FCEUX 2.4.0
• Take damage to save time

• 3 frames improved at 5-2 final screen by better manipulating bird slot 6 by adding 2 delays to spawn it later, this way it won't have enough time to accelerate back to the top vertically
• 1 frame lost at 5-3 2nd screen because slot 3 sub y is bad, probably unrecoverable
• 1 frame delay added at the end of 5-3 4th screen (required for next screen knife bitch's knife)
• 1 frame recovered on 5-3 5th screen

• use spin slash instead of windmill star to clear 2-2A (-1)
• take better 2-2C bat boost. now the upcoming tosser cooperates because of the different timing. (-1)
• kill one enemy with down+b due to lack of ninpo (+1)
• act II ends a frame sooner (0-1-1+1=-1)

• 1 frame faster 5-3 1st screen by better wallclimbing (Scumtron's improvement)
• 2 frames faster 5-3 3rd screen by jumping 1 frame later into the wall
• 1 frame faster 5-3 5th screen by changing slot 7 sub x, also different knife bitch knife / route.

• There's an extra frame at the end of 4-1 to change slot 6/7 sub x. Useless for pacifist.
• Funky wallclimbing when jumping across the ladder (5-2 2nd screen start for example)... is it possible? Doesn't seems to be.

• 2 frame save ruins 5-3 edit2: 1st screen slot 6 tyson 4th screen slot 4.
• 3 frames save ruins 5-3 2nd screen slot 7/4...

• 16 frames faster 5-1 using RTA boost (Scumtron's route)
• 2 frames lost on 5-2 last screen to get a better knife bitch (delay added before birdy so we can escape it too)
• 1 frame lost on 5-3 3rd screen due slot2 bat
• 5-3 5th screen: 1 frame lost due jumper and 3 frames due knife bitch

• Going without delay: second knife hits us while jumping over him
• 1 empty frame: first knife hits us while climbing the platform
• 2 empty frame: second knife hits us while jumping over him

• 22230-23350: Wasn't sure if some subpixel management was going on here, but I tried something different and it worked.
• 23412: First guy banished with 3 L-presses.
• 23670: Climbed the right wall to go over backwards and give up a pixel (R @ 23719) to set up the next two dudes for optimal removal.
• 24091: Bird spawning late had me worried, but a one frame delay before it gets right of Ryu and another during the boost jump kept things moving.
• 24346: LR on the first frame of regaining control to trade a half-pixel for one more spawn prevention. Bird ends up being super cooperative too!

• 1 frame faster 5-3 2nd screen (to dodge shuriken)
• 2 frames faster 5-3 3rd screen by better positioning at the first few enemies

• 5-2 last screen changed slot4 sub x to recover 5-3 2nd screen 1 lost frame (at the very end to dodge the shuriken earlier)
• 5-3 3rd screen start changed a bit but slot2 sub y is bad (not sure if it's possible to manipulate somewhere), same length
• 5-3 5th screen slot5 knife bitch is very bad, unable to boost from her/him.

• Added interrupt jugglings to places where Scumtron mentioned in previous WIP comments, subtimer is optimal now (3 frames)
• 5-3 5th screen knife bitch improved by 1 frame with better positoning.

• 5-3 2nd screen slot1/2 needs a 1 frame slower 5-2 3rd screen
• 5-3 3rd screen slot4 change ruins next screen slot4 bat

• avoid 5-2 3rd screen ballerinas (2dmg)
• avoid 5-2 last screen knife bitch's knife (1dmg)
• boost from slot7 bird (3dmg)

• 5-2 3rd screen 13 frames longer (ballerinas)
• 5-2 last screen 13 frames faster (look above)
• 5-3 1st screen 3 frames faster by better jumping between tysons and at the very end (Scumtron)
• 5-3 2nd screen lost 1 frame because bad slot1 or slot2
• 5-3 3rd screen has bad slot4 so 2 frames lost but very end jump is 2 frames faster (Scumtron)
• 5-3 5th screen 5 frames faster by better jumping at the very end (Scumtron) and different method to approach knife bitch

• The RTA trick in 5-1 feos found a way to make TAS-worthy the other day only turned out to save 2 frames since it had to be traded for another damage-boost due to health limitations. It's also possible to grab the windmill star in 5-1 and trade 1 frame for 4 more health, but seemingly not without killing the slot 6 bird from the unused boost at the same time.

• That 2 frame difference set up a new boost in 5-3E which saves another 3 frames. Reaching that point at least 2 frames sooner would also save save another frame, but oh well.

• Those improvements finally fixed the two tossers in 6-2 that were each costing 1 frame to deal with.

• changed some slots position on edit: 5-2 start by being half pixel behind (without losing frame), but couldn't get a better final screen (slot6 bird)
• final screen changed because of different slot4 (knife) pos

• 6 frames improved on 5-3 3rd screen by avoiding bat differently while delaying gunner to avoid dmg boost and added even more interrupt jugglings to get ahead of the 3 NFL guy
• 3 frames lost because of subtimer.

• 5-3 3rd screen 5 frames improved by avoiding bat by jumping (to manipulate Y pos) and without interrupt juggling. 1 frame delay at first enemy required for better slot5 next screen
• 3 frames improved because of subtimer (and added a few more interrupt juggles)

• 5-1 1 frame improved by avoiding instead despawning last to final enemy
• 5-2 3rd screen 2 frames improved by better walljump right at the end
• 5-2 last screen 5 frames improved because of better knife bitch. 1 frame delay added after knife bitch boost (at the wall) because of slot 6 bird
• 5-3 3rd screen 1 frame delay added at first enemy for better slot 5+7 next screen

• only 1 suicide route test, final (non-boss) level is a miserable series of interrupt juggling.
• I can't kill the core with damage boosting, because it doesn't come down and Ryu doesn't jump high enough, feos or scumtron, any tips on this?

• this WIP includes the 4-1 end improvement but it's nullified because of 4-3 knife bitches
• 2 frames improved on 5-2 1st screen because of better slot5 position
• 6 frames improved on 5-2 last screen because of landing further the edge of last platform and manipulating final slot 7 bird. 1 frame delay added because 5-3 2nd screen slot7 was bad.
• 1 frame lost on 5-3 4th screen because the avoidable slot7 bullet was bad.
• 3 frames saved on 5-3 5th screen because of better knife bitch boost
• 3 frames lost after boss battle because of timer.

• 1 frame improved on 5-2 last screen knife bitch
• 1 frame improved on 5-3 4th screen end by avoiding last to final bullett better

• 15 frames improved 5-2 3rd screen by ballerinas boost
• 3 frames improved 5-2 4th screen by better knife bitch but maybe improvable by 1-2 frames (had to manipulate birdy)
• 7 frames improved 5-3 4th screen by avoiding 1 bullet at the end
• 7 frames improved 5-3 5th screen by better positioning for knife bitch
• 3 frames improved because of timer after boss battle

• no dmg boost at 5-2 3rd screen start (jumping ballerinas/roundhouse kickers), they have 2 dmg
• no dmg boost at 5-2 4th screen first and last bird
• dmg boosting from tyson 5-3 1st screen (1 dmg)
• dmg boosting from knife bitch 5-3 5th screen (1 dmg) instead of bird

• 5-2 3rd screen dmg boost jumping ballerinas (14 frames, 2dmg)
• maybe better knife bitch on next screen (knife bitch / knife 1dmg)
• 5-3 4th screen avoid 2dmg bullet boost (7 frames)
• maybe better knife bitch on next screen (knife bitch / knife 1dmg)

• 1 frame saved on 5-3 1st screen by jumping longer from the floor. With different positioning, it's possible to make a very long interrupt sequence (while riding up on the wall), making slot4 (edit: 4th screen bat) positions better, but this way the 3rd screen improvement will be lost.
• 1 frame saved on 5-3 2nd screen by faster landing on the ladder platform
• 1 frame saved on 5-3 3rd screen start because better slot 7

• added post boss dance for stage 2
• 12 frames faster 6-1 by avoiding 1 dmg boost. 10 frames of ducking probably improvable with despawning the enemy
• first try of 6-2 1st screen. knife bitch removed because very bad throws edit: and the next bat would be too high to avoid it and final enemy removed but slower than feos' route.

• 1 frame improved on 5-3 2nd screen by removing the delay around the start
• 2 frames improved on 5-3 2nd screen by manipulating flying star thrower higher (to jump earlier to the ladder platform)

• improved 5-3 4th screen with 3 frames by better boosts at the end
• improved next screen with 2 frames because better slot 6 maybe... unsure about it

• removed 1 frame delay at 5-2 end
• improved 2 frames at 5-3 3rd screen with different dmg boost
• improved 15 frames at 5-3 4th screen by avoiding bat and dmg boosting twice with bullets
• lost 3 frames after boss fight because of timer

• added 1 frame delay at 5-2 end
• improved 3 frames at 1hp scene
• improved 1 frame after gameover
• improved 21 frames on next screen (dmg boost from bullets instead of bat)

• 570 frames faster so far

• improved 23 frames at the 1hp scene with better tyson manipulation

• improved 6 frames at 4-3 knife bitch
• lost 2 frames at 5-1 start (slot5, slot7)
• 2 frames came back at 5-2 end because of different knife bitch route

• changed location of suicide (to refill hp) but traded frames to dance with 1 hp left. something 15 frames saved
• knife bitch strikes again, changed route.
• 530 frames faster at 6-1.

• reminder to myself: check feos' suicide route.

• reminder to myself: remove 5-1 first bird boost because we won't have enough hp on stage 5-2

• jumping 2 frames later when killing the soldier behind us
• slightly different ending

• 5-1: Attacks on frames 22761, 23014 delayed one frame to fix slots 5 & 6 subpix values so 2nd bird-boost works.
• 6-1: Jumps/attack changed before axe-tosser to avoid axe
• 6-2A: Check out that club that Ryu nearly runs into. Scary!
• 6-2B: Jumps/attack changed so tossed axe gets killed and fixes xsub for booster enemy 2 screen ahead
• 6-2D: Less windmill action for now, $BF causes ghoul to stand in the way
• 6-2E: Tosser still not cooperating, so still losing 1 frame to get through here. Adjusting spawn iterator (interrupt@33781) in dead frames on platform jumps isn't quite enough to fix it either.
• 6-3C: disc-guy killed one frame earlier so the bird cooperates. (xsub again)

• Removed the 2 frames delay before stage 4-2
• Since bird slot 6 was sentenced to death (unmanipulatable without that 2 frames delay), improvements remain intact
• Knife bitch at 5-3 defeated with a different jumping (0 cost)
• Stage 6-2 boomerang festival changed so we can easily boost off the soldier
• A bird killed because he had a bad slot at 6-3 3rd screen.

• removed the 2 frame delay before stage 5 start
• killed bird 6 in the process, losing 2 frames because of that
• movie syncs up to stage 5-3 final knife bitch (which is resyncable by sacrificing 1 frame).

• Problem was not enough spiritual energy to perform jump and slash attack so I gathered a few in stage 4-2
• We still have 2 frame delay before stage 5
• First desync is at ~23890 second (slot 6) birdy boost to the pillar, seems to be remanipulatable

• the slot7-6 tysons (resyncable by slashing 3-4frames later)
• the slot7 machine gun position (resyncable by slashing 1-2 frames earlier)
• the slot7 jumping girl (resyncable by jumping and slashing her)
• the slot5 turret gun which is magically killed in the previous ("Ninja Gaiden--Scumtron-39110f.fm2") TAS.

• Implemented Scumtron's half pixel save successfully (2 frames)
• Stage 4-1 improved by 8 frames thanks to a 2 in 1 manipulation of a bullet guy and the dog and a good knife bitch
• Stage 4-2 loses 7 frames (from 10 frames improvement) because of bad knife bitch and birdy

• As scumtron spotted, removed my useless interrupt on 2-2 wallclimbing
• resynced up to 3-3. timer is now 60 instead of 1 (-2 from interrupt)

• Slot 7 tyson for recovery walljump and 2-1 starting tyson and dog and guardian of ladder on 2-1 2nd screen
• Slot 6 (dog) for 2-1 second tyson and 2-1 2nd screen tyson
• Slot 4 (tyson)

• 2 frames save preserved up to 4-2 start, but different bitch and bad positions results in 1 frame loss (so only 1 frame saved)
• 3 frames saved on 4-2 second screen due to different timer and poses and route
• desyncs at 5-1. I still have the worst subpos at the start (the NFL soldier from the sky gets worst slot), which affects nearly all of the next enemies in a bad way...

• 2-2 3rd screen: a half pixel save is not enough to improve it.
• 3-2: no matter how you sacrifice position, birdy won't be good for 2 times like in these WIPs
• 4-2: probably unimprovable

• 4-3 second screen: 6 frames saved by boosting off knife and not taking damage later but wait.
• 4-3 third screen: 2 frames lost because bullet guy's 1st bullet would go left if I don't freeze enough (timer...)

• 4-2: 3 frames saved by improving subposes for the route and final birdy.

• His Y position. Since the bird follow's Ryu's Y position, we need to sacrifice that 1.5px to touch the sticky ledge to raise his target Y pos (ourselves).
• For same reason, Ryu needs to jump down from that upper platform too let the bird fly high.
• To combine these, bird should be manipulated to hit us at desired Y position (which would be 128 peak jump) by manipulating his X position which either ruins the "upper platform route" or takes too much time to engage us.

• 4-1: 2 frames saved by changing subposes and route. Final birdy still unoptimal.

• 2*1.5px (avoidable, used to manipulate birdy X position speed)
• 1.5px (next to last ledge, but otherwise birdy has worse Y pos... maybe unavoidable?)
• 1.5px (final ledge, depends on route to avoid it)
• 3~4 frames longer from best (9~10) boost

• 3-2: 6 frames saved by deleting/despawning a missile guy too
• 4-1: 1 frame saved probably by manipulating the bird
• 4-2: 1 frame saved by different knife boost, final bird boost still looks improvable

• 4-1: 5 (6-1) frames saved by deleting bullet guy on end of first screen. 1 frame sacrificed because of subpos manipulation for last screen. Using any other positioning/manipulation on last screen doesn't works...

• 3-2: 6 frames saved by despawning last knife guard. It's impossible to jump over him because of the bird and his wide hitbox. Bird seems unimprovable.
• 3-3: 1 frame saved because of the "Sometimes levels start 1 frame earlier" phenomena.
• 4-1: 1 frame saved with better subposes.

• 4-1: 1 frame saved by better final birdy manipulation
• 4-2: 3 frames saved by better final birdy manipulation + 4 frames with different positioning
• 4-3 3rd screen: 5 frames saved by better final bullett manipulation + 8 frames probably at beginning and overall changes
• 5-1: saved few frames, can't resync without bigger manipulations (a bird bat wants to f*** Ryu so badly)

• 5-1: 38 frames saved by using new techniques (despawn mostly)
• 5-2 1st screen: 2 frames lost (subposes)
• 5-2 3rd screen: removed a suicide, probably we will need it later...

• 4-2: 10 frames saved
• 4-3 3rd screen: 8 frames lost but kept 8 frames total (worse beginning, better ending)
• 4-3 last screen: 2 frames saved
• 4-4 (boss): 3 frames saved by better jumping and positioning.
• and 3 frames from timer rule

• 2 frames saved on 4-1 first screen by better positions/positioning
• (13 frames) improved 4-2 with despawns, probably improvable but need to come up most optimal route. Birds are cruel, 7th slot jumping idiot is.. irritating.
• (2 frames) improved 4-3 second screen.
• (75? frames) improved 4-3 third screen.
• 1 frame saved on boss?... I think I need to update feos pacifist times.

• 8 frames saved by avoiding damage boost and dodging bullets instead with half pixel interrupts (timing is important since we need to fire and wait for 2 bullets)
• 2 frames gained because of timer rule, so boss length isn't improved

• 2 frames saved by better despawning bitch while keeping cheetah away, missile guy a half pixel away and not let spawn bullet guy's 4th bullet to go for the walljumping route

• Saved 1 frame on 3-2
• Lost 11 frames on 4-1 because of bitch. Currently despawning is the fastest for that scene.
• Regarding scumtron's old suggestion: a bullet won't let us do the wallclimbing route.
• Resynced somewhere 4-2 start.

• 4-1 despawning is 11 frames long sacrifice. If we would go for the longer, "no 2nd birdy boost" on 3-2, we would reach the area few frames later. Going to test it. edit: 14 frames slower without bird and only 6 more ticks: unoptimal
• Check every shit (respawn,despawn,prespawn subpos)

• 1 frame saved on 2-2 3rd screen by better positioning (enemy subposes)
• 4 frames saved on 3-2 with better subposes on 3-1 and different positoning. For birdy, we need 1110 pos on my marker. Any bigger value will make birdy off screen or slower on second boost, just like sacrificing from it.

• Her "ticks" is at ~60 when approaching, we would need ~9-11 frames to get over her, probably a few more to avoid the knife too...
• Despawning is too long (not enough enemies), something 9 frames slower than "good bitch" route.

• 2-2 3rd screen last bitch will stab you behind if you get any pixels faster than this route.
• 3-1 important slot 4 and half pixel manipulations for 3-2
• unfortunately couldn't get good 3-2 first "birdy wall boost" because of slot 4 knifeguy has still bad subpos. it would save something 5 pixels minus the additional sacrifices.

• try to minimize sacrifices for 2-3 bitch and afterwards (low chances)
• try respawning enemies in 2-3 to save something
• maybe document how to do it? (if the spawn point is still on screen and the object left the screen, you can respawn it by going backward for 1 frame. Maybe... and what happens if the slots already filled?)

• 6 frames improved by sacrificing (edit:) 2.0px (0.5px backward) to spawn an enemy on the last frame of his current block "initialization" (green rectangle over the slot @ lua) and sommersault over the ladder. Probably improvable

• Same length, unimprovable (requires suboptimal subpos changes beforehand, ruining 2-1 entirely and also requires an extra delay)
• Delay added on final hit on boss for most efficient 2-1 manipulations (first two tysons, dog on guardian of ladder tyson and himself)

• 1 frame saved by letting "prespawn subpos manipulation" of the guardianofladder scene walking guy. When letting go off direction for 1 frame exactly when he would spawn, his position will remain but his subposition (00 - 80). This works on every enemies except tysons of course and I guess knife tossers. Also note this only usable if you have a frame window to sacrifice 1.5px

• 1 frame saved by prespawn subpos manipulating the burst guy (3 bullets) to make more optimal our route

• Added Scumtron's 1 frame faster start (doesn't changes anything else)
• First level's delay added to boss stage. Probably alters 2-1 route (just like the 7th slot manipulation few frames before dog manipulation)
• Probably my 5th version of 2-1 guardian of ladder tyson route, saving another 17 frames

• Sacrifice position to manipulate dog
• Damage boost while enemy already spawned to go through him (not spawning it isn't benefitable)
• Avoid next enemy

• 2-2 3rd screen: used "highest" position (1598 for Ryu) to jump over BITCH. This way we are 14 (the frames we saved compared to WIP54 beforehand) - 5 (frames required to sacrifice in order to somehow go through BITCH without boost) = 9 frames ahead of WIP54.
• 3-1: different lesser bitch vs dog, lost 1 frame (probably resaveable)

• 1-1: improved 1 frame with tyson manipulation. added 1 frame delay to get "most favourable" RNG (WIP55 lucks)

• 2 frames saved with 10978 enemy positioning with same "time of dog spawn" and better positioning afterwards
• 2 frames saved by avoiding 2 guy spawn to avoid old route boost to platform

• Object spawn avoidment: 5 * opposite direction = -10px in air, much more on ground (next time: 2-3-4 frames later)
• Object spawn delay: -0.5px in air, -1.5px on ground each time (next time: 2-3-4 frames later)
• interrupt juggling: -3.5px~-4.5px each time (since you are zigzagging)

• 3-2: couldn't squeeze more pixels, can't sacrifice position because of our birdy nor the missile and walking guard's bad subpositions. Still think it's probably improvable
• 3-3: 45 frames shaved! looks like we can hit the boss inside his hitbox if we use the opposite direction of attacking. Have no idea why this works.
• 4-1: worse subpositions took 1 frame away but gives a slightly better knife and missile guy positions as well as no dog follows Ryu.
• 1 frame gained on last screen

• 1 frame delay on 3-1 for next level knife tosser
• Changed old "walljumping" to simple platforming to check possible X positions. Only 1110.5 works.
• Keeping the first bird for 2 boosts. While the first one is somewhat as fast as the old one, the second boost let me to ignore waiting for next jumps (Ryu jumps so long in time)
• Minimal subpositioning (taking damage boost at a bit lower levels)

• First level includes headbanging to music. Probably decreases entertainment value, waiting for starman's opinion
• Tried to spend our 1 frame delay elsewhere, but it doesn't helped in later screens
• 2-2 last screen is perfect for me
• 3-1 uses a little bit different route and an extra delay at the end to get better knife tosser for 3-2 (which isn't possible if you don't delay here. This is because you have no control over Ryu while boosting off the bird to time the spawn of knife tosser)

• subpos manipulation on previous non-boss level
• interrupt juggling to maximize X pos
• interrupt juggling for 1 frame between dog and knife tosser sacrificing only half pixel
• using "fastest" knife-cheetah (probably a half pixel can be saved?) positions (interrupt juggling timed/positioned to spawn them as fast as possible)

• sacrificing 2.0px (8097th frame) to get "farther" knify tyson
• somewhat bad timings but pretty good dmg boost with sacrifices
• no sacrificing for endings

• 1 frame saved on 3-1 by manipulating subposes and interrupts after bird spawned before the knife thrower
• 1 frame saved on 3-2 by a differnt RWJ damage boost after bird and different subpos manipulation afterwards for missile guys

• faster bird RWJ
• slightly better missile guy
• bit worse ending missile guy

• 4-1 uses -2.0px to manipulate dog and missile guy. isn't it's possibl e to manipulate it something differently? (with interrupt perhaps)
• 3-2 missile guys always ruins my tiny improvements, how do I know what is the "highest" position for him (to avoid bumping the wall and to get better boost on end of level)
• from 3-1 to further screens: check possible 0 delay RWJ-s and interrupt optimizing.