Submission #4122: Noxxa's GB Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge in 16:56.99

Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge in 16:56.99 by Noxxa

Encode (lsnes):

Game objectives

• Emulator used: BizHawk v1.4.1 (But also runs in lsnes rr1-Δ18ε2)
• Aims for fastest time
• Takes damage to save time
• Manipulates luck
• Obsoletes [336] GB Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge by Bag of Magic Food in 17:11.30

About the game

Improvements

Table of improvements

• Due to the difference in boss rush route, it isn't possible to directly compare times in the route. These are the individual changes in each boss rush fight:
  • Quick Man: +265 frames
  • Flash Man: -12 frames
  • Bubble Man: -298 frames
  • Heat Man: -8 frames
  • 23 frames (BizHawk)/5 frames (lsnes) were lost due to additional loading times in between the fights.

Stage by stage comments

Cut Man

• A large amount of the stage-by-stage comments from Bag of Magic Food's submission still apply to the overall run. This run mostly uses the same strategies.
• One of the first things that motivated me to continue the run in the first place was a 4-frame save at the first enemy by better subpixel/acceleration manipulation.
• The post-battle dance after Cut Man's fight probably took twice as long as the boss battle itself. I spent a lot of care at trying to make them as entertaining as possible. It's also, to me, the most memorable part of Bag of Magic Food's run. Hopefully I succeeded on the entertainment here (and in the other bossfights).

Elec Man

• The way the stage is laid out with several ladders allows for a lot of room for subpixel optimization. In most rooms here, I saved at least 1 frame from subpixel optimization.
• Near the end of the stage, at the second room of the last big ladder section, I save 1 frame by jumping up to the middle Octopus Battery instead of walking into the bottom one. This is because the middle one is 1 pixel closer and thus can be hit sooner.

Ice Man

• On ice, jumping costs a few subpixels when landing. Therefore, I minimize the amount of jumps in this stage.

Fire Man

• On the first Hothead enemy, it turns out Bag of Magic Food overkilled him by one damage point (it has 10 hit points, buster shots do 1, and Elec Beam does 2 per hit). I use 1 buster shot more, so it is destroyed with one Elec Beam hit less.
• The last room with all the Hotheads was very hard to optimize. A lot of precision is required to optimally hit the Hotheads. One of them can't be destroyed in one shot due to its position.
• I move a bit to the left during the Fire Man fight to manipulate him to walk further to the right. This saves a few frames.

Wily Castle

• The first really big timersaver happens here. Pressing A or B at certain frames (or just autofiring A and B for the same effects) allows me to save 183 frames in the pre-Wily Castle cutscene.
• The second Mole room, near the end of the stage, was by far the hardest room to optimize in the entire game. Both Mole rooms are hard, because the position of the moles is dependent on the frame you destroy them and your position. Do anything slightly different and a Mole will come in your way and block your path.
• I take a different route for the boss rush, taking on Quick Man first instead of Bubble Man. This is because Bubble Man's fight is very laggy, so it's better to have that one done as fast as possible. Quick Man's fight is nearly lagless.
• Starting with a Mega Buster shot also saves some frames in Flash Man's fight.

Wily Space Station

• As if the cutscene time-saver before Wily Castle wasn't large enough, the pre-Wily Space Station cutscene allows you to skip an entire section, saving over 15 seconds in one go.
• The trick with Carry to put it so close into a wall it disappears can be done at the end of the first room, saving 17 frames.
• Carry ammo is weird. Look at the ammo consumption the last time I use it.
• Like Bag of Magic Food, I end input two frames later than is necessary, so no more input can stall the ending. (You can still press A+B+Start+Select to soft-reset during the ending, but let's just ignore that).

Other comments

Recommended screenshot:

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