Bisqwit's Solomon's Key movie v6

Introduction

A new movie was in progress. I have reverse engineered the game somewhat and created a robot using that knowledge. It still requires lot of labor, unfortunately though. A bit too much in fact. Project cancelled for now. More information here.

Aim

I'm aiming for
① the best ending (solve all the special hidden rooms, excluding the fairy rooms)
② without using warps (wings).
③Ⓐ least frame count
③Ⓑ biggest remaining timer readings
Goals ③Ⓐ and ③Ⓑ are somewhat adjacent and vary. The timer in Solomon's Key is an object that sometimes runs faster, sometimes slower. An improvement of 1 frame may sometimes cause the timer to count a few extra ticks. I am primarily aiming for fastest level completions frame-wise, but within that goal, I am aiming to optimize for maximum remaining timer reading. However, I do take the hourglass items which reduce the timer to 5000 when possible, because it makes the score tallying go quicker after the room is completed. In short, I try to get the best of both worlds.
I am using FCEUX and Lua.

Progress

For emphasis, I provided a comment for each level in the form of a Japanese-style smiley.
Level v4 time v5 time v6 time Comment Notes
1 9340 9360 9380+176 (^ ^)
2 9210 9220 9230+82 (^ ^)
3 7960 8070 8070 (~_~) Lost many frames. Bleh.
4 9310 9330 (if take icon, next level is fairies)
5 9000 9230
6 8410 8410
7 9000 9050 wings at 14,1
8 9210 9210 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
9 8900 s8860 >seal 1 at 10,8
10 8220 8290 > (8300 is possible) [3]
11 8360 8730 >
12 8820 8840 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
13 8600;½b4690 s8760;½b4710 seal 2 at 8,9
14 8580 8650
15 8560 8730 wings at 11,12
16 9200 9300 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
17 8610;½4700 8980;4340 >seal 3 at 14,2
(+luck abuse to get an extended fireball)
18 8860 8950 >
19 9140 s8950 >seal 4 at 5,5
20 8150 i8130 >icon at 11,2
Special 1 - 9200 (4 seals and icon needed). page of time
21 8990 s9000 seal 5 at 11,6
(+saved a fireball)
22 rg45000 rg45450
23 9180 9260 wings at 4,12
24 8880;½4660 8990;½4700 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
25 9300 9350 >
26 9480;½4690 9560;½4720 >
27 8460 8640
28 7270 7580 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
29 9250 s8960 seal 6 at 8,11
30 7590;½3260 8120;½3490 (I hate this map.)
31 8620 8760 wings at 15,12
32 d9980 9180 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
33 7840 8050 8180
34 8490 8510 8520
35 8770 8790 8840
36 7090 7400 7430 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
(This is a really difficult level to play optimally.
I used the fireball. Without using a fireball, I
could only get 7290.)
37 9130 9290 9280
38 7100 7670
39 w8660 8870 wings at 1,7
40 - 9240 >(if take icon, next level is fairies)
41 - 8750 >
42 - 8720
43 - 8570
44 - i6060 >icon at 1,5
Special 2 - 8770 (6 seals and icon needed). page of space
45 7800 7960
46 8900 s8600 seal 7 at 14,1
47 8950 s7640 seal 8 at 15,1
48 6860 7020 icon at 5,4
Special 3 - 7860 (8 seals needed). princess
Solomon 8900 8900
½ = Used the item that resets clock to 5000
g = Used the item that multiplies clock value&speed by 5
b = Took extra time to pick up a blue bottle
r = Took extra time to pick up a red bottle
w = Took extra time to pick up a wing
i = Took extra time to pick up an icon
s = Took extra time to pick up a seal
d = Used death
> = skipped if a wing was taken
Interpretation of comments:
Comment Meaning
(~_~) Nothing new here
(^ ^) Minor optimizations
\(^o^)/ I'm proud of this result
\(◎o◎)/Totally incredible based on my earlier experience
(・_・?) Uncertain
\(-_-)/ (Lazily) yay.

Notes

Resources

There's a very invaluable FAQ/walkthrough for Solomon's Key.

Timing weirdness

Solomon's Key timer is evil. It does not seem to tick at regular basis. Investigation results here: Forum/Topics/8893
Also, the Japanese version of this game (ソロモンの鍵) apparently has a different, slower timer.
The record times at High level challenge can't possibly apply to the USA version.

HomePages/Bisqwit/Projects/SolomonsKey last edited by adelikat on 4/14/2024 3:10 AM
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