Submission #7259: Challenger's SNES Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame in 07:59.84

Game objectives

• Emulator used: BizHawk 2.4

• Aims for fastest time

• Uses death to save time

• Takes damage to save time

• Heavy glitch abuse

Development of the run

Table of improvements:

• The post-level 5 cutscene loads 6 frames slower for unknown reasons, so 6 frames were lost.

• Adjusted running jumps on the first two rooms, saving 6 frames.

• On the fifth room, delayed a running jump for 6 frames to gain more distance between this room and the next room: not only I gained 3 frames but the landing after the next running jump was better this time, gaining more 3 frames (previously he was pushed back for 7 pixels when landing).

• On the seventh room, apparently there's nothing at the very left of this room, but in this version there's an invisible ledge that allows you to fall to the next room, with the cost of getting hurt when landing (it takes much time to recover). Once he starts moving again, I didn't need to optimize those running jumps, saving some time at the end of this level.

• If you fall into the pit of the sixth room, apparently it leads to a mysterious "completely dark room" and he still continues falling down before actually dies for some reason. This small amount of time was an opportunity to test: with some cheating (poking x position address), it's possible to reach the screen transition that leads to the pre-docks room, triggering the checkpoint but unavoidably dies because he is out of bounds.

• Initially I tried this shortcut by doing a running jump earlier than intended and ignoring the ledge of the next roof (requires holding down button, though it only works when he isn't very close to the edge), but unfortunately he falls down so much that dies, with only one pixel away from reaching the screen transition.

• Trying to solve this problem, I have something I've discovered but went unused during the work of the previous run: on the previous room, if you get hit by a guard while climbing up, he will be knocked back into a wall at the same time he draws the sword and automatically turns direction, causing him to zip leftwards.

• This glitch looks good but he gets out the wall of the next room and falls into the pit when tries to sheathe the sword - the little amount of time you have as soon as he starts zipping and the unavoidable turnaround contributes for this problem too. Facing leftward stops zipping but prevents him from running unless if you turn direction, though it causes him to zip again.

• After some frustration, I found an alternate way to clip which solves the entire problem, though the setup costs some time:

• 77 frames were gained at the end of this level + 3 frames gained with another better optimization after restarting at the checkpoint.

• Once restarting at the pre-docks room, for some reason he was able to climb down at the very first frame possible when this game isn't supposed to do it. Strangely it also works at the start of level 4 after you beat the previous level, but this level isn't useful at all because it leads to a much slower (and completely useless) route.

• This unintended weird glitch saves 9 frames at the end thanks to an extra running jump.

• This time I don't need to wait 3 frames before entering the next room because...

• You can skip the puzzle if you sink the last tile then climb down from the second-to-last tile, causing him to zip directly to the exit after he starts sinking, saving 98 frames.

• Starting this level with a standing jump instead of running.

• On the third room, the turn direction mechanic when holding the sword is used for the first time - it requires good positioning because he can fail to grab onto that ledge. This is faster than doing a turnaround while running.

• When entering the next room, normally you must break a loose tile to open that gate, but this time this can be skipped thanks to gate clip discovery.

• After passing through this gate, turning direction twice (with precise positioning) is a good option for faster falling.

• At the exit room, for some reason I managed to remove 2 lag frames by pressing down button for a single frame while he is about to climb up.

• At the start of this level, displaying "X minutes left" message (by pressing L button) for no reason looks suspicious, but somehow it helped me with one of the rooms of the next level. This game makes no sense.

• After improving the first 2 levels again, a frame was lost on the exit room for some reason. I tried to fix it, but no success.

• I reverted to the old strat between the third and fourth rooms because this time you need enough distance to grab that upper ledge which can boosts you to the ledge below.

• After landing and going to the next room, here comes a nasty problem: a single frame of difference can mess up with the gate while is still opening, messing up with the first running jump. I don't know exactly why this problem occurs, but I managed to fix it during most of my progress.

• Better optimization during the rest of this level.

• I improved lava glitch setup by forcing the skeleton to fall into the lava with a frame perfect strategy:

• The entire bridge section is skipped thanks to gate clip in the next room (in this version, that gate only opens when the bridge starts collapsing).

• After passing through this gate, unfortunately I can't do a standing jump when turning backwards after he sheathes the sword because the collision detection sucks. So the option is climbing onto the ledge in order to progress, and I turn direction technique before he falls down, allowing a ledge grab. Some time is lost with additional climbing but this skip is indeed faster.

• The next room looks simple but when optimizing this game, this room adds 1-2 more lag frames for some reason. I don't know why it randomly happens, but I managed to avoid this problem with trial-and-error (alternating some running jump patterns before reaching this room).

• In this level, getting hit by a medusa head can be broken when doing a running jump, messing up his y position but this glitch can be really useful in the fourth room for 3 reasons:

• During the update of this run, I delayed 4 frames before going to the fourth room (one from before starting this level and the other three frames are from waiting on the third room before he starts running) due to different RNG, affecting the other rooms too.

• Before going to the second-to-last room, I pause this game three times for manipulation: the first one is necessary because otherwise the second medusa head will defeat you, and the other two pauses are from the medusa head of the exit room - normally doing a running jump a bit earlier isn't a good idea but this enemy can be avoided if you pause and unpause after some frames (perfect timing and positioning).

• Some frames were lost with this different RNG, but fortunately I recovered them with the last medusa head improvement.

• Usually getting crushed by a gate kills you, but if you hold the sword and get crushed, you can press down button to sheathe the sword (you must wait a bit because otherwise he will be crushed again), allowing you to continue. As soon as the gate is opened, you must wait until this gate closes. There's a switch button after this gate but it instantly closes completely, so waiting is unavoidable.

• While I wait for the closing, I open the tunnel on purpose because when climbing up to the next section, this room lags.

• When successfully sheathing the sword after getting crushed, normally he crouches down because hitbox, but it's possible to avoid this problem with perfect positioning.

• This glitch works like the lava glitch: you can fly everywhere and walk through walls but you can't press switch buttons unless you reset the gameplay. Fortunately this level has a checkpoint so this glitch can really benefit through the first half.

• Despite having 0 HP, unfortunately this glitch doesn't make you invicible from sword traps.

• After restarting in the checkpoint room, I optimized positioning before going to the next room to save time with the turn direction. Jumping through a sword trap only works when moving rightwards, for some reason.

• The climbing section is pretty annoying, because you must avoid getting hit by that medusa head. Fortunately I got a very good RNG pattern and I improved 6 frames before climbing by drawing and sheathing his sword instead of doing a step.

• On the next room, I discovered that the ghost glitch can be obtained by getting hit from a falling tile while crawling under the sword trap, costing frames but saving a ton of time for the next level.

• As I said before, I obtained ghost glitch so no more backtracking anymore!

• Different route between the second room until the fourth room: instead of climbing down to the third room and across some rooms before returning to the ground (due to running jumps optimization), it's faster going to an empty room located at the left of the second room because the ghost glitch also allows you to climb down from thin air, leading to the fourth room.

• When falling down to the fourth room, you must grab onto a ledge because otherwise he dies for falling too far. I wait a bit before landing because otherwise this snake will kill him.

• The rest of this level is straightforward.

• This level has a weird problem: sometimes an extra lag or two appears while acrossing this level. Like level 5 this problem can be avoided through trial-and-error.

• Meanwhile, I managed to improve this level with better optimization and a slightly new route.

• A new route between the last two rooms: if you already activated ghost glitch, when he climbs down at the very first tile, he will be pushed back to the previous room and lands into the air.

• Sometimes that loose tile lasts longer to break (this room is laggy), but this problem can be avoidable with a single frame of difference.

• After landing, I must optimize positioning so he can climb down without turning backwards at all.

• In the eight room, it's possible to climb up to the tenth room, but you can't move because he is inside a wall. Fortunately drawing his sword allows you to move and the turnaround mechanic also helps in this room. Initially I optimized theprevious route, but this new route is surprisingly faster by a few frames despite losing time for being unable to freely move.

• In the thirteenth room, instead of breaking that loose tile in order to climb up to the next room, it's faster going to another room because there's a ledge that leads you to the intended room. In this run he grabs onto an unintended ledge at the very start of this room - since he is inside a wall, you only can notice this ledge grab by disabling Background Layer 1 on emulator.

• In the intended fourteenth room, breaking that loose tile avoids lag when returning later to this room, with the exit door open.

• The next room is accessed by the intended way this time because it's possible to avoid that birdman without fighting at all with a nice running jump. And after climbing up, I managed to remove a lag frame while he starts the next running jump.

• Better optimization for the remaining rooms, and the exit switch button is pressed with a running jump + perfect positioning.

• More mistakes from my previous run: going to the exit room without closing that gate at all is actually possible by turning around a bit farther after landing, and I wasted time in the exit room by turning backwards before returning to the ground.

• So most of this level is ignored this time, saving a lot of time.

• The running jumps are the same as the previous run.

• On the aforementioned exit switch room, I managed to remove a lag frame by pressing down while he is about to climb up.

• The loose tile of the first room sometimes breaks much later, but if you pause the game (as I did on the previous run) or start this level a frame later (I choose this option this time), that tile will break without delay and you can go forward without waiting at all.

• The rest of this level is better optimization with different running jumps.

• When entering the flame room, doing a running jump requires precise positioning enough to avoid that birdman and trigger the exit without the need to move further.

• With this nice positioning, I can avoid that enemy again without problem - that death glitch to make him invicible wasn't necessary after all.

• Before returning to the previous room, for some reason this room adds a lag frame when doing the first running jump as soon as possible. Fortunately I managed to avoid it (this one is very stubborn).

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