FatRatKnight's comments

As per rules of Dream Team Contest 4, I hereby submit the winning run of Rockin' Kats.
Our hero this time is clearly an acrobat. Or acrokat, maybe? Wanting to get back in time to watch his favorite Saturday morning cartoons, he abuses grapple physics. I need to learn to grapple like that if I'm ever going to get anywhere on time.

About the game

Not a game I grew up with. However, it was the DTC4 game, so here I am, trying to describe something I'm unfamiliar with.
Your character is some sort of cat (or Kat?) wearing a tie and armed with a useful spring-loaded punching glove. A fairly typical platformer, but does have basic grapple physics when you hook onto various objects and swing off them. There are five channels, the first four of which you can pick in any order, while the fifth one is opened only when you clear the first four.
The basic story is that Jill is captured (5 times!) and you must rescue her.

About the run

As a team, we... Had a hard time getting ourselves into this run. Though, judging from what the other teams did, they also had a difficult time. What with all the lag and the many ways to get through each part, it was tough just to get any willpower to TAS the game.
With the general lack of manpower, I realized we probably wouldn't stand a chance if someone doesn't keep pressing on. And I didn't bat an eye at any potential improvements, as long as it was reasonably optimized, so as to stand some chance against a competent team, by having any complete run by the deadline. I did what I could to rouse my team into making at least a few tests, so that I feel something is going on, that I'm not the only one doing the work. That did get them going, at least somewhat, but they will say I was still the one charging through the game almost single-handedly.
Well, apparently the other teams were hit with the lack of motivation harder than we were. Or, at least, harder than I was. We win primarily due to that. ... We need a different Dream Team Contest game.
As far as scripts go, I didn't develop much. Just a little something to scan the RNGs using the disassembly MESHUGGAH got. And another something to reveal what was supposed to be tile information, but I only got the palette of each 16x16 tile instead. Regardless, it was somehow enough to see the invisible platforms in two of the auto-scrolling stages, as they used a different set of colors for some reason. Finally, I made much use of a modified MtEdit, which merely tracked what frames had lag.
But at least we're through it. So, in the spirit of the Dream Team Contest, I give my cheers, even if it ended somewhat poorly for over half the teams. I hope to see this run obsoleted soon by Team 1.

MESHUGGAH's comments

First, I'm glad I had scrambled with professionals (check lineup). While we worked as a team, this submission was mostly FatRatKnight's amazing attitude's result. I enjoyed this project even this game was a piece of clap (use japanese pronouncation). I mostly did some debugging stuffs and deliberate attempts to decrease lags (mostly unsuccessfully). It worths mention that the game has MANY emulator issues, which won't be fixed in the near future, therefore I don't motivate you to improve it, unless you are good at vomitting. Also take a look at FatRatKnight's awesome subtitles, at least I enjoyed them =)
Possible improvements (this notes regards to FCEUX 2.1.5 old PPU, newer versions won't sync due emulator issues)
  • You need to plan very carefully your route because hex-editing in improvements will make the game out of sync (you have something like ~1000 frames where you can avoid out of sync, it depends a lot on how you abused the emulator indirectly (by playing the game).
  • You can change the lag pattern after the 7th frame (notice we intentionally ignored this to avoid accusations of abusing the emulator) by inserting different input that doesn't changes the menu handling (for example holding B earlier than you would need to at "fast-text"). You can adapt this through-out the whole run, with the combination of reducing/extending various inputs on various frames. This can be only done on some special conditions (due to emulator issues).
  • The Chapter 2 auto-scroll section can be improved with grappling on the invisible platform, similar way as in Chapter 5 auto-scroll section.
  • A further investigation of suitable RNG calls for different mid and final bosses.
  • You can skip Chapter 5 "pre-light changing" section mid-boss by going out of the screen, as Team 1 did.

DarkKobold: Congrats Team 2! Judging!
feos: Added HD encode with Authors' soft subtitles.

DarkKobold: Congrats once again to Team 2, accepting.
sgrunt: I'll take it from here.


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To my knowledge, every boss takes one damage from every kind of attack, but thrown objects and the hammer weapon do three damage to normal enemies. My team threw the first miniboss's eggs back at her to reduce lag (they would bounce across the screen otherwise). Grabbing the candle and throwing it at the boulder in channel 5 might actually waste time; I only did that because we were out of time in the contest and I thought it looked funny. Incidentally, you can also pick up power ups (the hearts, money bags, and extra lives) and throw them at enemies. Our run should drop below 16 minutes with all the optimizations we found at the end, so look forward to seeing that very soon!
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Kumquat wrote:
To my knowledge, every boss takes one damage from every kind of attack, but thrown objects and the hammer weapon do three damage to normal enemies. My team threw the first miniboss's eggs back at her to reduce lag (they would bounce across the screen otherwise). Grabbing the candle and throwing it at the boulder in channel 5 might actually waste time; I only did that because we were out of time in the contest and I thought it looked funny. Incidentally, you can also pick up power ups (the hearts, money bags, and extra lives) and throw them at enemies. Our run should drop below 16 minutes with all the optimizations we found at the end, so look forward to seeing that very soon!
Nice! I'm pretty sure that even sub 15 (maybe sub 14 with correct RNG calls) is possible with correct lag optimizing and throwing in every improvements/tricks/techniques.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1901] NES Rockin' Kats by FatRatKnight, Tompa, pirate_sephiroth & MESHUGGAH in 16:33.71
mklip2001
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Congrats guys! If a big improvement is on its way, I'm really looking forward to it! However, I have one question nobody's addressed here. In this game, you can get other weapons in the shop. Do any of those damage bosses more, enough to save time in a run?
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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mklip2001 wrote:
However, I have one question nobody's addressed here. In this game, you can get other weapons in the shop. Do any of those damage bosses more, enough to save time in a run?
All hits to a boss deals 1 damage, no matter the source. The invincibility will not wear off any sooner, either. Therefore, using a new weapon will have no effect. Although, the spiky weapon can knock away projectiles, any possible lag reduction must make up for purchasing it from the shop as well as the time taken to equip it. Other items have not been found to be useful. Even the jet shoes don't help us against any of the bosses, as plain jumps are typically enough to reach most of them, and we can't get enough extra hits against end boss 3, that clown dog, to destroy it before that invincible roll around. Part of why our route is to test items against end bosses, while still making decent progress. Not a single case worked out for us for any item.
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FatRatKnight wrote:
Although, the spiky weapon can knock away projectiles, any possible lag reduction must make up for purchasing it from the shop as well as the time taken to equip it.
Unfortunately with this weapon you cannot grapple, so you have to reequip it every time. Thus this way of lag reduction doesn't pay off (at least it didn't pay off in my old tests, although maybe I wasn't managing lag as efficiently as possible, because there was no Lag Counter tool in 2006).
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mklip2001 wrote:
However, I have one question nobody's addressed here. In this game, you can get other weapons in the shop. Do any of those damage bosses more, enough to save time in a run?
=(
Three posts above you, Kumquat wrote:
To my knowledge, every boss takes one damage from every kind of attack, but thrown objects and the hammer weapon do three damage to normal enemies.
Also, since this got published before my team finished our new run, should we keep going (~40 second improvement, I predict, that will be done in a few days), or should we start completely over (~2 minute improvement that will not be done for a while)? Jet sneakers let you skip minibosses 1 and 4!
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I vote for deeper & later improvement! PWN that game!
Kumquat wrote:
Jet sneakers let you skip minibosses 1 and 4!
HOW???
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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You can jump over them. (Also, I was mistaken; you only need jet sneakers to skip miniboss 4, and if skipping miniboss 2 is possible, you will almost certainly need them for that, too.)
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Voting for a better improvement later on, please pwn this game further. :)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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Yeah, I agree. Take your time, improve it as much as you can, and submit it whenever you finish.
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Kumquat wrote:
[Also, since this got published before my team finished our new run, should we keep going (~40 second improvement, I predict, that will be done in a few days), or should we start completely over (~2 minute improvement that will not be done for a while)?
I would vote to start over so that you can make that gigantic improvement.
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mklip2001 wrote:
However, I have one question nobody's addressed here. In this game, you can get other weapons in the shop. Do any of those damage bosses more, enough to save time in a run?
RAM Watch shows that bosses are gets absolutely the same damage
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Excellent TAS for such a small time, i'll be waiting for further improvements. :)
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Kumquat wrote:
mklip2001 wrote:
However, I have one question nobody's addressed here. In this game, you can get other weapons in the shop. Do any of those damage bosses more, enough to save time in a run?
=(
Three posts above you, Kumquat wrote:
To my knowledge, every boss takes one damage from every kind of attack, but thrown objects and the hammer weapon do three damage to normal enemies.
Also, since this got published before my team finished our new run, should we keep going (~40 second improvement, I predict, that will be done in a few days), or should we start completely over (~2 minute improvement that will not be done for a while)? Jet sneakers let you skip minibosses 1 and 4!
Any news, Kumquat?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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4K 60 FPS YouTube encode: Link to video