This run beats the current published run by 1040 frames (~17.3 seconds). This is mainly due to a major time saving trick in area 12, but there are many other improvements throughout the whole game. It's sort of an interesting game to make a TAS of as there's not really that many situations where optimization is a big issue. Searching for the best strategies is mostly what adds to the rerecord count. Once you've found the best strategy the optimization almost comes with it, even though there did exist some situations where it was necessary to carefully manipulate the subpixels in order to get a certain trick to work.
Improvements
In this game, there's an 8-frames rule that controls when the screen can start to fade out so each improvement is a multiple of 8.
| Area | Frames saved | Total frames saved |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | 8 | 8 |
| 5 | 24 | 32 |
| 3 | 40 | 72 |
| 6 | 64 | 136 |
| 9 | 48 | 184 |
| 7 | 16 | 200 |
| 10 | 56 | 256 |
| 11 | 16 | 272 |
| 12 | 768 | 1040 |
Area 15
Dispite the the small improvement a completely different swinging approach was used in the outdoor part.
Area 5
Some more rapid swinging, as if it wasn't enough before. Most of the time was gained in the second tower-climbing part.
Area 3
I managed to enter the first door much more effectively by tight y-subpixel management, the margin is 2 subpixels. Some new swinging maneuvers indoors.
Area 6
Quite some time was gained in the "Donkey Kong" part before the boss room. A new strategy at the boss saved a bit of time as well.
Area 9
Took a different route at the start of the long horizontal room before the boss.
Area 7
Small improvements here and there, nothing that can really be spotted if you don't compare the runs side by side.
Area 10
Quite some different strategies throughout the level resulted in this improvement.
Area 11
As with area 7, just some slightly changed swinging strategies.
Area 12
The new trick saved most of the time here, and it also made it possible to take a new loop route in the first part. Furthermore I found a new strategy to destroy the barrier computers, faster movement to get down to the second one of those, and a slightly faster escape.
My thanks goes of course first to Phil for his good run that contained many tricks that I might had missed otherwise.
Furthermore Feitclub for making the first TASes of this game. Genisto for making the first TAS that really showed (on the japanese version) what potential this game has. JXQ and Cardboard for improving upon that run. Also Bisqwit who apparently found the Pulled off to other side glitch which doesn't surprise me as I can hardly think of anyone else that would get an idea like that.
Have fun :)
feos: Accepting this improvement to the same tier the previous movie was in.