Necessary info:
- About bullet:
| ID | Name | Max bullets | Damage | CD | Others |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | 2/bullet | 3 | |||
| 01 | S | 10(2*5) | 2/bullet | 4 | |
| 02 | C | 3 | 4/2 frames | 5 | Sometimes miss(takes no dmg) |
| 03 | H | 5 | 2/bullet | 4 | |
| 04 | F | 2/2 frames | |||
| 05 | L | 7 | 3/bullet | Can't shoot until all of the previous bullets disappears |
Also, there are some other difference between 2D and 3D mode:
- In 2D mode
- For S gun, shoot 5 bullets in each time. And only could shoot again while a set of bullets are disappearing. (Especially, if 3 bullets of the first set disappears, and 2 of the second disappears, you can't shoot next new set of bullets.)
- For L gun, you'll shoot a long laser if you press Y button at one frame.
- In 3D mode
- weapon system is similar to nes contra.
There is no CD RAM. Or I didn't find out it... Normally, pressing Y button discontinuously is faster than continuously. - Movements is same as Jackal. X or Y speed always equals 2. Not only on horizontal or vertical, but also on diagonal.
- movement is not friendly. I searched the speed and position RAM though, speed is not so intuitive. Instead, calculating the position's change is important. And after comparing the different rotation angle, walking on the 45° angle is the fastest. (The actual speed = 2*√2=2.8284)
- For S gun, you can shoot S bullet just when any bullet disappears.
- For L gun, you can only shoot ONE bullet in every 2 frames. If you want to shoot a long laser, you need to press Y button continuously.
- weapon system is similar to nes contra.
It's hard to manipulate RNG, different from nes contra games, but similar to ds contra 4. You can change RNG by shooting C. Because C explodes randomly every time.
6 more lag at the beginning... Though I saved 1 frame by pressing START earlier. I don't know how to compare between snes9x 1.51 with bizhawk 2.3.2. So hope someone could help me make a comparision list to show that difference.
And I'll show you a comparision without the emulators' difference.
| Stage | Frames saved | Total saved |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | -17 | -17 |
| 2 | 503 | 486 |
| 3 | 454 | 940 |
| 4 | 470 | 1410 |
| 5 | 563 | 1973 |
| 6 | 2109 | 4082 |
Level-by-level notes
- Stage 1
Due to more players on screen, I got more lag. But it saved some time at boss fighting.
- Stage 2
Two players saved a half of the route.
Better weapon choice and better weapon used.
Better weapon choice and better weapon used.
- Stage 3
- Pay attention: After that plane boss, there are 8 tracking bullet, and they are attackable. And they will bomb while moving out of the screen. It looks like hit by the player. To make sure if they are been hit by me, you can find their HP RAM and do a test. RAM changes by getting damage, otherwise it unchanges. My RAM list includes them.
- Pay attention: After that plane boss, there are 8 tracking bullet, and they are attackable. And they will bomb while moving out of the screen. It looks like hit by the player. To make sure if they are been hit by me, you can find their HP RAM and do a test. RAM changes by getting damage, otherwise it unchanges. My RAM list includes them.
Faster boss fight with better gun choice, better gun used, and double damage.
- Stage 4
Just faster boss fight.
- Stage 5
Specially, that red spider out from the nest has 32 HP. And it decreases 1 HP in each 8 frames if it is in the whirlpool. You can watch the spider's HP by $0D46 or $0D86. And if the nest is ruined, the spider will die. Also, if the spider killed by the player, the player's score will increase 200 or 500.
- Stage 6
Better weapon choice, better bullets shooted, and better luck manipulation (Especially for the heart boss).
Specially, the final boss r2, you need at least 3 rounds to beat it. And after a round, boss's HP will decrease 1/2. And each attack form has its own timer. Here a picture shows every timer.(It's not absolute, it's around that value.) So player's damage in the first round is 1/4, in the second round is 1/2. So you need to choose a shorter timer form in first two rounds.
It's different from the fastest goal, I choose the same type for the round 2 as round 1 this time. Because those enemies can't be killed.
It's different from the fastest goal, I choose the same type for the round 2 as round 1 this time. Because those enemies can't be killed.
RAM watch
Because running ram watch window is much slower with bizhawk, I used lua to watch them, instead. And I'll give you the lua file in the forum.
- Other RAM I used
Some ram I didn't show in the lua, So I will give you here.
| Address | Size | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1E44 | 4 bytes | Hex | hi score |
| 1FA0 | 4 bytes | Hex | 1p socre |
| 1FB6 | 4 bytes | Hex | 1p bonus life rest |
| 1FE0 | 4 bytes | Hex | 2p socre |
| 1FF6 | 4 bytes | Hex | 2p bonus life rest |
| 1C02 | 4 bytes | Hex | clear bonus socre |
| BD80 | 1 byte | signed | if it's 2D stage |
| 1F84 | 1 byte | signed | 1p 1st gun |
| 1F86 | 1 byte | signed | 1p 2nd gun |
| 1FC4 | 1 byte | signed | 2p 1st gun |
| 1FC6 | 1 byte | signed | 2p 2nd gun |
| 0D46 | 1 byte | signed | red spider HP |
| 0D86 | 1 byte | signed | red spider HP |
Memory: Judging
Memory: So this TAS appears on the surface to be well optimized. It can probably be optimized further but it is good enough for an improvement and unlike the other submission, this one does beat all known records.
There wasn't too much feedback since the author has deleted their temporary encode, but what there was was positive for the most part. There was questions over using 2 players to obsolete the published pacifist TAS that uses 1 player. Ultimately, 2 players makes pacifist more entertaining since there are now 2 players that have to dodge enemies instead of just one and still maintains a distinct feel from fastest completion. A TAS that doesn't use the game end glitch that uses 1 player could potentially be published alongside the existing branches if it is considered uniquely entertaining, but I do not feel pacifist is the place to fill that niche.
Accepting to Moons to obsolete [2440] SNES Contra III: The Alien Wars "pacifist" by McBobX in 14:05.31.