Objectives
- Reach credits as fast as possible
- Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.4.2
- Earn 0 tapes
- Obtain bronze medal for all 3 competitions
- Abuse menu glitches
- Requires memory card
Replay Glitch Synopsis
By holding Z+Start for a couple seconds, the game will soft reset to the main menu, but retain game progress. By doing this in certain menus, you can 'store' an invisible menu. After saving a replay, I use this strat. By hovering over a locked level in Single Session, then loading the replay and pressing 'A,' the game uses 'Retry' from the invisible menu, letting me play in the level like normal, except that it thinks I'm in the locked level and loads its goals.
I first use this to get the bronze medal for Skatepark. By retrying before using the glitch to load into Burnside, I only need the score high enough for Skatepark's medal (~5k/heat) instead of the ~15k/heat Burnside would need. Using the glitch on the judge score menu lets me carry those scores over to Burnside for its medal. Now I do the same medal swap with Burnside for Roswell, since Roswell needs ~25k/heat.
Improvements
- By soft resetting immediately at Power On, I access the main menu faster than normal.
- Using two controllers, there are times on the main menu where I can alternate button presses every valid frame, whereas a single controller would have to release for a frame to not get a hold. This makes up for the extra frame it takes to pass the 'Two Player' option when choosing 'Single Session.'
- For the first two comps/4 heats, I use a trick before hitting the wallride. This lets me use a lower walljump and land sooner than the old run. While 'Madonna' has the highest base score, it cannot be completed before hitting the wall since it takes 2 frames longer than 'Benihana.' 'Rocket Air' is also shorter than 'Madonna' by 1 frame, so I don't need as high of a jump after the wallride to complete it as 'Madonna' would. By optimizing score this way, I can angle towards the wall, and buffer a wallride and trick before pausing and hitting 'End Run.' By doing so, I crash into the wall. The game doesn't load the next menu until I fall low enough - by falling instead of jumping like the old run, this menu comes up significantly faster. Crashing lowers the judge's scores, but the optimization to the trick makes up for this.
- There are a couple different points during the judge's scores where the replay glitch will work. By testing out all of them, it was fastest for the first medal swap to do it on the leaderboard screen while it's still loading the other skaters' scores. Roswell crashes the game if using the glitch at this time though, so the final medal swap is done from one 'A' press later, after the entire leaderboard has loaded.
- In the first heat of the final comp, I jump towards the wall earlier - this gives me time to add a 'Kickflip' before the Wallride, and a lower jump from the wall. Notably, if I use a trick immediately off the wall the 'Kickflip' will not register in my combo string and score, but a single frame delay keeps it. There is just enough time to squeeze in a 'Varial' and 'Benihana,' which maximizes the possible score at this lower height. A 540 spin off the wall with it gains enough points to win bronze. Getting the shallowest 540 possible lets me jump towards the quarterpipe after 'End Run', again getting me lowest the fastest to load the ending menu.
- Because of opponent score RNG, I can't copy the first heat exactly for the last comp. Adding a small extra combo at the beginning is a couple frames slower than the first heat, but makes up enough to secure the final 3rd medal.
Closing Notes
- Although I couldn't quite improve the IGT seconds in any heat, I did come close and saved many frames in all of them.
- Despite Bizhawk loading times being significantly worse than Project64, using RTA timing I beat the RTA record by 1 second.
- Geoff Rowley and Kareem Campbell can both obtain special in a single trick without use of a wallride (Fastplant 360 Madonna). They can then use a glitch by hitting their special grind input then flip trick+grab trick to use their special grind in the air with no rail. I tried utilizing this with Geoff, but it was still slower than the Tony strats I ended with. It also takes a relatively long time to switch more than one character. I tested out Bob and Elissa as well since they're adjacent to Tony and have different stats (notably higher Ollies), but I couldn't find any way to beat Tony's times with them.
- I estimate all my improvements saved ~15 seconds over the old run.
Darkman425: Claiming for judging.
Darkman425: Input file replaced with one that removes the blank input at the end for a more accurate time.
While this is a short run the small optimizations here and there, from additional menuing tricks to a different trick order to end runs faster, add up a fair amount to beat the current publication by a fair amount. Nice work!
Accepting to Standard as an improvement to [4156] N64 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater "replay glitch" by Fog in 02:11.92.
fsvgm777: Processing. Dropping. I cannot get it to sync reliably using AngryLion (unless I missed something).
fsvgm777: Figured out how to get it to sync whilst dumping (basically, do not press the Pause key to pause the emulator). Processing for real now.