Submission #8595: berrimeow's DS Peggle: Dual Shot in 1:33:39.72

Game information

• Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9.1
• Starts from a fresh save
• Genre: Puzzle

Comments

• Shot Angles: The angle at which each ball is shot is most efficiently controlled with the touchscreen. Since the touchscreen has a resolution of 256x192, it means there are about 588 possible angles each ball can be fired at. It's best to tap either the left/right (y=24 to 191) or bottom (x=1 to 255) edges of the screen to get the most precise angles; tapping further away from the edges tended to give the exact same results and is most likely arbitrary for angle finding anyways. Precise pixel shots often allow for balls to be able to hit specific orange pegs fast, weave perfectly between other pegs/obstacles for a better hit on something more meaningful, or hit a combination of pegs that hits/clears room for multiple oranges the quickest.
  • For extreme fevers at the ends of levels, I tried as best as I could to line up each shot with where the prize buckets appear, since hitting extra pegs or the platforms between each bucket loses time.
  • Pixel shots have been documented way more by speedrunners for the Peggle games on PC. Peggle Dual Shot has slightly different ball gravity, obviously a much smaller resolution, and overall has been studied much less, so finding exact pixel shots is something I mostly did on my own. There's probably some optimization still left to go but I was able to get what's probably about the best possible shots.

• Shot Timing: On some occasions, purposefully stalling shots in order to line up timing with the free ball bucket, moving pegs, or moving obstacles helps land the shots you'd ideally want as well. Finding good pixel shots on levels with any moving pegs/obstacles is generally a lot harder, and "losing time" to save time is often worth it.

• Fast Forward: Obviously an intended feature, but still worth mentioning as it's what really helps make this whole run miles faster than it'd be otherwise. Holding down the Y button to fast forward works during level intros, in between shots, during extreme fevers at the ends of levels, and even more.

• Peggle Master Abilities: Each five levels you play as a different Peggle Master which each has a unique green peg ability, some more helpful than others. Normally on PC the orders you play their levels in are a bit different between Peggle and Peggle Nights, but in Peggle Dual Shot they're the exact same for both Adventures:
  • Bjorn: No significance at all, really.
  • Jimmy: It tends to be pretty helpful to have the second ball that spawns from the multiball to clear a different set of pegs than what the other ball is already covering. The angle the pre-existing ball moves at after hitting the green peg changes too sometimes, strangely enough.
  • Kat Tut: Usually the large free ball bucket is a detriment for balls being able to leave the screen quickly but occasionally it's good for clearing tricky oranges near the bottom of the screen.
  • Splork: Pretty nice free AOE clears, the more pegs they're around the better.
  • Claude: Since the flipper timing is something that can be controlled, it's pretty helpful for combo strings. Thwacking balls down to quickly end shots with no better outcome is also sometimes helpful.
  • Renfield: The ball reappearing at the top is usually a waste of time, but the one good thing about it is that since it falls back down at the angle it was in at the bottom of the screen, it occasionally helps clear oranges along the edges or other parts of levels that would be slower otherwise.
  • Tula: The sooner you use the green pegs the better, literally. They each clear 20% of the remaining orange pegs with a maximum profit of nine orange pegs (25 * 0.2 = 5 → (25 - 5) * 0.2 = 4), so using them in the first few shots is definitely the way to go.
  • Warren: The prize wheel is somewhat consistent, with magic hat & triple score always being two of the four prizes. The third prize will be either magic hat or an extra ball, and the fourth will be another random Peggle Master's ability. Magic hat is helpful by basically making the balls bouncier and their hitboxes larger, and out of the other Masters' abilities Splork's and Tula's are probably the best to get.
    • In Warren's levels in the Peggle Nights portion, it's possible to receive later Masters' abilities too, making Cinderbottom's easily the best.
    • The wheel's prizes usually change with each shot; sometimes it's probably better to wait before using green pegs for the best abilities.
  • Cinderbottom: Without a doubt the most overpowered ability. Fireballs phase through pegs without a care in the world allowing for tricky oranges to be cleared way more easily, and fireballs always get a free bounce if they hit the free ball bucket allowing for even more insane comboing. The only thing that rarely gets in the way of them is level obstacles, still never a huge deal though.
  • Master Hu: Not much significance, although sometimes zen shots can reach seemingly impossible angles that land better combos.
  • For the master levels, the last five levels of each Adventure, the game lets you choose any master to clear them. Cinderbottom is overall the most consistent and what I chose for all of them, although in certain scenarios it may be possible for others like Splork or Tula to come close.

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