Submission #1093: AngerFist & DeHackEd's NES Mega Man 4 in 34:34.38

This is it. Second version of Mega Man 4. There are a lot of things to mention but we would like to first thank Shinryuu for discovering how to skip the first Hippo in Ring Man and taking hits in Pharaoh Man in order to slide on the spikes. Also Finalfighter for finding that fine trick in Cossack 4 were he zipped through the wall. Everyone who cheered and supported us (you know who you are), it meant a lot. Special thanks goes out to Bisqwit who helped and guided me in Pharaoh Man and Cossack 4 and Baxter for making me always be sharp and keeping my motivation up.

This submission is 2226 frames faster or 37.1 seconds faster than our current published run.

I (DeHackEd) will be talking with italicized text. This run was delayed by many things, most of which can be blamed entirely on me. AngerFist is a little upset with that, and he has every right to be. Now, on to the submission, which is quite verbose.

We were only aiming for a ~15 second improvement when we started. Honest.

I would also like to appologize for the following submission. AngerFist found some inspiration from SDA, so I'll just blame them.

"The journey begins with Pharaoh land with the everlasting sand. The golden yarrow Pharaoh is ready for battle but he will be confused by DeHackEd's rattle."

Stage: Gained 184 frames, how? Inspiration and ideas came from Shinryuu as he beautifully destroyed our previous effort in Pharaoh Man. I understood what I did wrong, revised Shinryuu's version and gained even more frames on his WIP and obviously from our previous run. When you see me monkey around by jumping on those moving platforms, dont think Im having fun or anything. Im jumping to avoid lag. This stage was the hardest one. Im extremely satisfied with the stage.

Boss: Gained 44 frames, how? A quirk with the Mega Buster and improvement on what I call the Amortized Shot.

"As the Fist dismissed the hiss of the spiny spikes, he flees to seek the addressee to meet thy Bright. DeHackEd smacked and whacked the uptight Bright backlight."

Stage: Gained 144 frames, how? Managed to avoid that horrible lag during the second spike area by been able to create one Balloon Adaptor instead of three Balloon Adaptors. Overall, much more aggressive playing.

Boss: Lost 7 frames, how? Bad luck with luck manipulation. The amortized shot was basically ruined and I couldn't fix it, despite ~7 full boss battles trying.

"Through Balloons, Mega Man progress like a goon to immune the buffoons. Though Mega Man with his blue crested is tested, Ring Man is soon bested."

Stage: Gained 383 frames. how? Once again I owe to my man Shinryuu for his awesome discovery of skipping the first Hippo. Besides that big improvement, I gained quite a few frames on the ladder parts. By making Mega Man not waste any frames after pointing out his hand when he is climbing because when he does that, he obviously stops climbing for a very brief moment. Even though the gain during the ladder parts are not significant frame-wise, from my point of view, I destroyed our previous (former run) attempt.

Boss: Gained 6 frames, how? The only thing I can think of was positioning for the killing blow.

"While Mega Man and Dust Man discuss about investment trust, Mega Man just bust the disgussed Dust with combust to express his mistrust."

Stage: Gained 33 frames, how? I waited as much as I could before terminating those red enemies during when the red blocks appear from the ground. Because the more you wait before shooting, you'll avoid creating lag. Also a bit faster during the moving wall area.

Boss: Gained 65 frames, how? Despite being unreachable while jumping, it does put Dust Man closer to the middle of the room, more ideal for the killing blow.

"Lots of null skulls spreaded around the shawl-looking hall for Mega Man to cull. *Boom boom boom* sound of scattered skulls from Skull Man as DeHackEd cracked his bones."

Stage: Gained 39 frames, how? Much more aggressive, butterfly-style playing approach :)

Boss: 40 frames faster, how? Mostly better positioning for the killing blow.

"Dive Man dies as AngerFist and DeHackEd high fives when they dive with style to strive revive lost pride."

Stage: 42 frames faster, how? same as above stage; Aggressiveness!

Boss: 72 frames faster, how? A revised version of Bablo's trick. Nice find Bablo. Just needed a slight tweak to squeeze frames out of it.

"Mega Man was dressed to kill a certain drill, because it had forgotten to take care of the hundred dollar bill, so we gave the drill a sleeping pill to go for the kill. Was it God's will?"

Stage: gained 37 frames, how? By utilizing earlier Flash Stopper which I didnt do in our previous run.

Boss: gained 51 frames, how? Better positioning for the killing blow.

"Communicating through morse code, Operation "Toast a Toad" forebode a smooth road, we had to reload our binary code to decode Toad Man's secret road so Mega Man could continue his victory road."

Stage: gained 17 frames, how? Didnt fire early as possible on some enemies which minimized lag and other minor things.

Boss: gained 4 frames, how? Lag reduction. AngerFist had a few words of wisedom which, despite my already knowing the rules, needed a bit of reinforcement.

Stage: gained 38 frames, how? Did not switch to Flash Stopper at the beginning as I did in our previous run, because those red cylinder shaped enemies would move towards you and therefore your shots connects faster + better climbing technique (used same method as in Ring Man).

Boss: Gained 9 frames, how? Luck manipulation. He's never out of my reach anymore.

Stage: Gained 58 frames, how? by using the same Balloon-ladder method as in previous stages, also I discovered a new form av zipping which I will call "Diagonal zipping." It aint a significant trick but it saved us 19 frames (compared with our previous run).

Boss: Gained 4,7 seconds, how? I found by accident that you could luck manipulate the boss to immediately get into the shape where you can fire at it. Otherwise, it would first come at high speed towards you, and then coming as a combat shape. And what a find. I've never seen this behaviour when I played on the console, and I played a lot, so I just assumed it was impossible.

Stage: Gained 53 frames, how? Less lag in every zone, used Balloon Adaptor in Zone 2 (=non-scrolling room) which saved us approximately 30 frames. And a bit of resource conservation thanks to me.

Boss: Gained 36 frames, how? Avoided less lag compared with the old run by standing still during when the second boss appears.

Stage: Gained 312 frames, how? By using Finalfighters trick and some minor things.

Boss: Gained 14 frames, how? Better positioning of Cossack's vehicle when his HP is low enough to end the battle.

Stage: Gained 33 frames, how? Minor things (less lag etc).

Boss: Gained 20 frames, how? A bit of lag reduction by repositioning Mega Man.

Stage: Gained 61 frames, how? Minor things (less lag etc).

Boss: Gained 7, how? Throwing off the sequence of battle using the famous Window of Opportunity.

Stage: Gained 6 frames, how? Probably just the usual increase in precision.

Main Refights: Gained 37 frames, despite my imposing a ridiculess requirement that would slow down the Bright Man and Ring Man refights by possibly 5 frames in all.

Wily's Death Machine, both forms: Gained 73 frames, mostly in the form of lag elimination.

Contrary to what's normal, AngerFist did much of the Drill Man and all of the Ring Man refights while I was busy at work. Except for these two, I am in control for the rest of the whole game starting at the Toad Man match.

Stage: Gained ~20 frames, how? Smaller weapon pickup.

Boss: Basically identical. I had to significantly alter FCEU's handling of NES RAM in order to make this battle as fast as the game would allow. Here's to Unix's mmap() function, which came in handy in a strange way. For such a simple battle, I spent a lot of time figuring out the mechanics of it.