User Files for Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship

Removed frames after last input.

This tool assisted speedrun saves about 4 and half minutes from the previous best TAS thanks to two new discoveries.

The first is a glitched warp from planet 1 to planet 12. This is an expansion of a known glitch to warp to planet 8 which was used in the previous TAS by ktwo and eien86. By abusing CPU overloading, the warp can be further duplicated to go to many other places, including 12.

The second glitch was first encountered by MickeyDadRad, where he clipped through a wall by bumping into an enemy. I was able to reproduce this glitch by again exploiting CPU overloading. Without the previous glitch, this actually would not save quite as much time because there is more money to work with in the route and an intentional death back to the start is viable. Without playing through planet 13 though, an intentional death is not as appealing.

This run is by no means optimal. I am hoping to continue making improvements, but the nature of these glitches make it very challenging to setup. The following sections specifically can be improved:

- Collecting the shield - General movement on planet 12 (using carryable items) - Setup for the wall clip - Warpship part room - Boss eye despawn (The former best TAS includes this but I could not replicate it) - Boss kill (better RNG)

This glitch is performed by maxing out the cycles of the NES CPU during a specific point in the code's execution during a frame, causing an interrupt that prevents the enemy that spawns the warp from despawning when hit by a bullet. I was able to hit this CPU cycle window 5 times in a row to produce a total of 6 warps to planets 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Based on ktwo's and my own research

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.

https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637964084780842333

But with a soft-reset to avoid the title screen.

Now resynced the current TAS to warp to world 8 (instead of 7)

This movie should be used as a base for future TASes of this game.

Happy TASing!

https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637964055937122633

Resynced to Bizhawk

This is a movie that showcases that it is possible to get fast warp to stage8 using the TAS route.

Fast Warp 8 was previously demonstrated on console by ktwo (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1565313484), but now we've got it in a TAS.

Next steps:

1) Resync this to NESHawk

2) Use the bot to Refine the route to get the warp faster

Showing off the second warp that sometimes appears in planet 1. The second warp leads to planet 8. Using this warp is several minutes faster than the currently published TAS. The movie is uploaded to allow analysis of the mechanics behind the second warp appearing.

We're having trouble syncing my Solar Jetman TAS on console. If this version works, I'll slap my headband. This version omits the initial reset and inserts 512 frames, all of which ended up being lag that doesn't read the controller.

There should be two blank non-lag frames followed by a start press on the third non-lag frame.

Exact script I've been using in my TAS of Solar Jetman. Wait, why didn't I upload this earlier?

Can be run without TASEditor engaged. The display works fine without it, don't worry.

Shows the following:

If you're going to complain about the fact I use hexadecimal often, I do it because it is not intuitive for me to recall that the maximum speed is 768 rather than 0x300, and 768 does not instantly tell me that it's 3 pixels per frame, while 0x300 does. It gets really bad on screen space if I decide to divide 768 by 256 so I see 3 at max speed but 2.99609375 when I'm really close. Also, if I do divide by 256, how am I supposed to memorize that 0.00390625 is the smallest unit? How much of a full pixel if I see a decimal 98, anyway?

If the numbers line up cleanly in decimal, I would have used it. Most of them don't, for my purposes. So I read them in hexadecimal. Makes sense to me. This is the exact script I'm using, specifically for my use, except TASe_XOR_SJ.lua is the filename I use. This is likely the final version of this script, as my TASing attempts for Solar Jetman is near its end.

Seems that eye boss uses the RNG to determine when to open those eyes after the first time. I have not figured out how to prevent an eye from spawning, though I did figure out how to get those eyes to open exactly when I wanted them to. The time they take to close again is fixed, that can't be manipulated. 10 HP, only enough time for nine shots before they close, but they can re-open very quickly.

The last stage is tiring. Was not a fun thing to TAS when I've got a lot of time for interesting nothings in particular.

Note my weapon bar is draining the whole time. The game forgot to shut off the Anti-Gravity I had. Has absolutely no effect here either way, so it empties without any interference.

188 frames saved (edit: where's my math skills?). Skipped the Time Bomb, plus I optimized getting Planet 13's ship part.

After I aligned the RNG back to what I had in my prior TAS, it synced perfectly. Note player 1's input at the crystal results screen. That's a bit of work I don't have to do now. Of course, I also removed the extra movement necessary to select the item after the bombs, as I no longer have them. Still syncs.

This is the version with two Anti-Gravity items bought and used.

See me drag that wormhole through the maze even though you never see me use the wormhole itself. I need its mass to go fast. The Anti-Gravity helps make things very fast.

Destiny summons.

Without the Anti-Gravity, it's kind of difficult to fool around with wormholes. I can't get vertical speed boosts with gravity either capping the speed or going against the direction I want. I probably could get horizontal boosts if I tried, but this time I haven't.

In any case, it's less interesting, too. Good thing I also did an Anti-Gravity run where I bought a second one. It synced just fine when I inserted several frames for the extra purchase.

It takes very little time to buy, I have to remove my time bomb to save it anyway, and carrying that wormhole around for the boosted speed appears very useful.

It beat my older time by a fairly decent margin, too. Reported Down+A at 41326 -- Old time at 42147, 821 frame saved!

Since that made pretty heavy use of the special jetpod for dragging wormholes, I have no doubt it's worth spinning the crystal. Hope to beat this game soon!

... It's tricky dealing with things to swing. I'm never really sure if I am keeping things as tight as possible.

Here. Have my updated progress!

I like TASEditor. It lets me tweak for the slightest adjustments without having me to remember all of what I did in my complicated steering. Except for certain things like keyboard controlled precision edits, but I'm using a lua workaround for that.

I'm asking myself is it worth getting Anti-Gravity from the second shop. I only have to scroll past one item to get it, and it should let me carry that wormhole all the way to the last fuel, taking advantage of the 4.0 pixels per frame the whole way.

TASEditor reports that I press down+A at frame 42147, which is when I select to go back into the item menu to get my bomb and spare thrusters. A note to myself for when I go back and retry with the Anti-Gravity.

Actually, after I get all the items in the area, I still drag a wormhole for slightly longer. This is not for show -- Dragging stuff around allows me to reach speeds up to 4 pixels per (non-lag) frame, where the usual maximum is only 3. I keep this speed as long as I do not make a thrust that would otherwise add speed to the same axis.

Because of this unforeseen speed boost, I'm a lot more confident that dragging wormholes is worth the crystal spins necessary to get this fancy jetpod.

Also, I'm used to thrusters that barely push me around, and sorely lacking when it comes to tethering items around. Having something this strong is taking some time to get used to it.

Cleared Planet 7 while giving that crystal another spin. 354 frames saved over my last attempt. I also collect the money necessary for my shopping, with plenty to spare.

With the way I handled getting through with a tethered crystal, I'm now constrained by how quickly I can give that crystal a whirl. I held on to it up until I get to that large wormhole with the Golden Ship Part.

Planet 8 is just a quick warp to Planet 13. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting to Planet 12 at this point. I'm given the impression that this game is pretty sync-stable, with the only thing to worry about is future RNG. Using player 2 can deal with any RNG related mess.

... I seemed to have gotten back to this one. Sorry for those who expected more Soul Blazer.

... Uh, what is going on?!

Turbo to the end of the movie (apologies for not savestate anchoring it). Here I am, minding my own business, TASing like usual, when... This happened.

Those stationary big enemies I need to get past? They're... Not so stationary.

Uh... What is going on?!

Manipulating them takes a while. But progress exists, I tell you!

There is one enemy I missed on the way through, a high-value enemy that could give another 28. I did go back to get it, but even with identical RNG state for later, it desyncs. This isn't motivating. I blame an ADC instruction being used without a known carry flag state for my Y speed, thus moving me 30 subpixels up.

For whatever reason, while trying to add P2 to my file, I ended up resetting the rerecord count. It was 7545 before this reset. I haven't manually added in this number, at this time.

For your entertainment and information, I added a few subtitles.

A bit over 1000 frames slower than skipping the crystal (1068 by my measurements). That's less of a loss than I expected.

I don't know how many frames it would save to drag around wormholes, but 1000 frames doesn't look to be a hard goal to achieve. Might want to look at a few routes and estimate whether it would save roughly 20 seconds or so.

All it needs is a little optimization and some extra enemies to manipulate. Note, however, that fuel is really, really tight. With all the walls I've been crashing into, I had to stop thrusting because one more frame meant I lose the pod. I should be glad for that canister I shot.

No crystal spinning. It's this fast without spinning up that crystal.

Minimal luck manipulation attempted. Only enough has been done to avoid enemies making well-timed fatal shots at me. Presumably, I can pull a little more money out of spawning a few easily shot enemies along the way. Mostly, I want to see how fast I can get through this planet.

Compare the published run. From first frame of Planet 7 to clearing the "travel to next planet" animation, I took 924 more frames compared to the published run. This is due to the fact I skipped some planets that would have given me items to go faster with, such as time bombs and boosters. However, the direct warp from 1 to 7 saves somewhere over 20000 frames, as opposed to going through Planet 2 and a bit of 3.

I went back a bit to conserve the jetpod fuel. The moment I pick up the first fuel cell is where things are different. Even more abuse of maintaining height where that calculation error helps. 12 frames slow, but ensures I have enough fuel to get through, and I got through the tunnel saving another 8 frames, for a net loss of 4.

I abuse a 1-frame invincibility to enemy sprites called pausing the game at the exact moment. Instead of losing the pod, I bounce off the enemy harmlessly.

Hard to say how many more frames can be saved in the fuel collection. Optimizing that looks difficult.

I found a way to avoid slamming into the ground. 38 frames faster than my previous attempt which does slam into the ground. Point of measurement is the moment my Y position exceeds 0x700.

Lets see what this abuses...

I am successful in getting past the big enemy through that terrain now. Note the game didn't expect me to skip a few pixels, and a piece of terrain in the lower-left corner isn't loaded properly.

It's not just position, but angle as well. I did crash into the ground at the same X-position in a few different attempts, but if I'm going to the right at some speed, it won't let me through. Left motion or no X motion seems to work. For the most part, doing this kills my momentum, but it still looks faster than killing the thing and bouncing once. More careful comparisons still need to be done, however.

One attempt through the tunnel. The horribly jagged ground looks to be nearly unavoidable. As for the bounce off the ledge near the small wormhole, I might want a higher angle than that. Picking a different method is also a possibility.

Fuel also looks to be a concern. Would like to keep the pod intact past the second big enemy.

... By destroying its 48 HP, one bullet at a time.

I attempted to optimize Planet 1 for a bit. Every subpixel I could save. Wasn't enough for another frame (still get there by 892).

I did optimize the initial pick up of that fuel cell so that I would rush to that enemy faster. I also shot some enemies who were off screen.

Navigating the next part in a speedy manner looks tricky... Corner ricochets have strange properties, but apparently not good enough here...

I still am lost as to how to bypass the big enemy without destroying it. My attempts at maxing out the enemy counter didn't work out.

Warps route.

I believe the ROM I'm using is (U).

Takes the warp to planet 7 by frame 892. If anyone has ideas on speeding this up, go ahead.

Reportedly, it is possible to slip past that enemy at the end of this movie, but I'm not having success. I hit the wall, and one frame later, I hit the enemy beam. Is this (E) only?