It might not work if you just click on it, since Geocities can be tricky like that. Did you copying the link into the address bar, or right-clicking it and choosing something like Save Link Target As?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
It might not work if you just click on it, since Geocities can be tricky like that. Did you copying the link into the address bar, or right-clicking it and choosing something like Save Link Target As?
________
I've tried it all. But I have to say Geocities might be banned somewhere as some hackers spread virus through it.
But I feel thankful of Bag of Magic Food. You have changed the link so that I see your wonderful performance.
I think your way to pass is better than I plan.
Well, they aren't really random like that. I think the way it works is that there are four of them altogether, and each one is set to spawn a set distance to the right of MegaRockMan going in a set direction after it's been removed from the screen somewhere else. So it causes the annoying problem that the faster I destroy the Moles, the faster they reappear in my way again. That's why it's really valuable to take hits going forward, as it'll take the Moles an extra long time to finish drilling through the air and respawn in front of you as you casually run past. I was actually surprised this turned out so well--normally I have to stop and throw one more cutter before taking that second hit, and I have a devil of a time getting knocked onto the next platform rather than getting knocked backwards or knocked against the wall. So when I got one to knock me forwards just running along, I just accepted that, as it was about sixty frames faster than what I had been doing before, even if that jump at the beginning was a little too much.
Okay, I just improved the FlashMan battle by 6 frames because I saw a few mistakes I made.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Yeah, this level will take a lot longer to finish, simply because I need to find the best strategies, and I hadn't done any tests on it at all before. There are places where Carry will be helpful to jump over enemies, jump onto the backs of enemies to take damage going forwards, jump across the ends of spike pits early, possibly jump up ladders a little faster, or even just avoid switching to something else for a while. But I can't switch to Carry in every possible instance, or I'll run out. I also need it for three obligatory wall jumps, and likely a fourth time after that for the downward section with the split path, either to jump to the upper/right path to avoid the first two enemies, or to possibly get further to the right at the end of the lower/left path to reach the bottom corner more directly--but it may be more likely I'll need it to pass the electric beams in the upper/right path more efficiently. I don't know. But if I jump up to reach the upper/right path, I'll also be forced to use Atomic Fire, which I might try keeping all the way to Dr. Wily, as that's his first form's weakness. So I've got the decisions for when to use Carry, when and how to take damage, and which path to take at the fork right there.
And I should also look at what weapons I'll use when I'm not using Carry. Bubble Lead would seem to be the best all around, as it'll kill Bigeyes and Cutting Wheels in two hits and Changkey Makers and Sniper Joes in three hits, but I don't know if it will work on the birds so well, especially in that ladder-climbing part. For them I could try Fire Storm, which is what I usually do, since the spinning shield will take the birds out as they come at me, possibly without having to shoot on the ladder itself and waste time. Or I could try Time Stopper. For some reason, the Time Stopper in this game shuts off when you scroll the screen vertically. So although it drains fast, I could still use it multiple times to keep all the birds away. Sadly, it doesn't seem possible to freeze the electric beams at a time when they're turned off, so I'll have to decide whether to wait for or get hit by them, too.
Another idea I had was that if I'm going to be using Time Stopper on the ladder section, I could use it in the previous section to avoid the last Super Cutter. The high ones I don't have to worry about, and the Cutting Wheels I'll probably destroy with Bubble Lead if that seems advantageous to switch to, but the low Super Cutters will force me to stop to avoid them as they swing back around. I don't want to freeze them ahead of time, since I can't jump completely over them at the beginning if they don't move, but I was thinking that I could freeze the last one after jumping over it. But that might cause me to run out of Time Stopper before stopping all the birds. There's also the possibility of freezing the cutters with Ice Slasher instead, although it seems like a long shot, but I should probably test.
So you can see I have a lot to toy around with before I can make the finished version of this level. Part of me wants to just pick one way of doing it and not worry about time so much, but I know that wouldn't be fair to the viewers. As always, I'm open to suggestions, even if I doubt their validity for a while.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Wow, that wasn't as bad as I expected. Here's my plan.
Once I switch to Carry, I'm going to just stick with it all the way until the last two Screw Drivers, where I'll switch to Rolling Cutter because the Carry's energy should be all gone by then, and Carry would only save a couple of frames over the Cutter there anyway. (Actually, now that I think about it, Carry would probably waste time because I'd need health refills to take damage there.) There are a few other places where I could use the Carry to save time but won't, because they don't save very much and will cause me to run out before I've used it in the most helpful spots. It also won't help to use a weapon in the middle of the stage to beat some enemies for refills because the combined time lost from not using Carry in those few places I mentioned are less than the total weapon switching time, and defeating enemies there saves almost no time anyway.
I also found some new techniques to speed up the ladder-climbing section. One involves using the Carry on a ladder to get a neat boost up the screen, although it seems to only work when the ladder is against a wall on the right with space on the left. For the ladders that are the other way around, the Carry just disappears when I try to make it, so I guess I'm stuck using the Carry the regular way unless somebody figures something out. Another trick I learned was how to make the Bomber Bird Pipi appear on the side of the screen I want it to so I won't have to tangle with the birdies at all. And finally, just after the ladder section, I found a way to use what's normally a detrimental bug to conserve the Carry's energy. Oh, and I won't take the upper path because it would waste a stupid amount of time, and the Atomic Fire is pretty worthless for fighting the Scworms because I can't carry a charge across vertical scroll points.
So as usual, the most irritating part of making the movie will be coming up with effective waiting dances, such as for the block-jumping sections and for when Dr. Wily's second form isn't firing.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Make sure to make the fight against Wily 2 look very cool, stand as close as possible :)
Some moving to the left when he's not firing would also improve the cool factor, as when you do that, you become unprotected.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
I'm thinking I'll move around a bunch to guide the chomper into almost hitting me, then dance around it a little. I can also probably get away with turning on the Mirror Buster for just the one frame on which it deflects the shot. This will make the effect nearly imperceptible, so I can get the viewer to say, "What the heck did he just do???" Or I could turn it on and off quickly for some kind of cool strobe effect.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Oh, I started adding them for convenience. They're save files you can use in read-only mode. 1 is the beginning of Dr. Wily 1. 2 is the series of bosses at the end of Dr. Wily 1. 2 is the beginning of Dr. Wily 2. Of course I won't submit those in the final zip file...
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
I guess I'll go watch it, I just hope I don't run into another crazy problem with this one :P
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
I noticed the run for this game on the "runs to improve from 2004/2005" pages, and given the gameboy fanatic that I am I checked it out a bit.
My attempt at a lua script
http://pastebin.com/ZXK3NxJG
What it does:
Display enemy HP (it's a bit buggy though)
X/Y pos, X cam, RNG, life count, HP, HP bar,
lag count (because VBA's is inconveniently offscreen)
X cam might be buggy due to the way I implemented it, but whatever.
Probably I'm going to check the game out further and might even try to make a TAS.
EDIT:
Added Xspeed.
Jumping speed is faster (234) compared to walking speed (200) so the run is improvable.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1039958465/GB-rockman.vbm
(VBA 24m, Japanese ROM)
Cutman stage done. Went well, Cutman was a bit annoying.
My movie has 82 more lagframes, and is 31 frames behind Bag Of Magic Food's movie. The additional lag is due to more accurate emulation - right when the game starts I get 20 more lagframes, and when the game goes to the password screen, and possible in other places too. So in theory I saved 51 frames.
Nice work. I'm sure you'll save a lot of time throughout the game.
In the published run, there are rooms that make you wait for platforms to appear to get across a floor of spikes. Would it be faster to jump across the levels with the platform-making weapon and then manipulate a weapon refill from an enemy?
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4089
Location: The Netherlands
8+ year bump! :D
I've been working on an improvement on BoMF's published run. Not that the run itself didn't look very optimized - I'm just making it even more optimized.
So far, every improvement consists of minute single-digit frame improvements in rooms, using slightly different tactics, lag optimization and heavy subpixel optimization. (The majority of improvements come from the subpixel optimization.)
Here's a WIP of the first two stages (Cut Man and Elec Man):
Link to videoUser movie #10078756355232612
This run improves Cut Man's stage by 23 frames (22 frames in the stage, 1 frame in the bossfight) and Elec Man's stage by 51 frames (44 frames in the stage, 7 in the bossfight). However, due to using a different emulator, it also loses 18 frames by longer loading times in the menus. (The game also lags slightly more overall.)
So far, the net gain is 56 frames.
(Note that the frame counts are compared by AVI frames, because VBA's frames are inaccurate).
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
Nice job sir! :) :)
Now why didn't you get the energy ballancer? It would save time for the menu switch to refill the rolling cutter.
Also, should've grabbed an Energy Tank in the first level, so you could've used it to refill in the second, and thus take more damage boosts throughout the level.
Those who know this game well will understand the above comments better than those who don't.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
10 frames saved in Ice Man's stage (10 in stage, 0 in boss)
28 frames saved in Fire Man's stage (21 in stage, 7 in boss)
16 frames lost by longer menu loading times
In addition, before the start of the first Wily Fortress stage, I saved 193 frames by skipping through the Wily Fortress cutscene faster. (Yes, it's possible to do that by pressing A or B at certain frames. It's subtle, but makes a difference of multiple seconds.)
The total amount of frames saved is now 88 frames at the end of Fire Man's stage, and 271 frames by the start of the first fortress stage.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Keep up the good work Mothrayas! I'm looking forward to the complete TAS. This is one of the first Mega Man games I ever played, and I'm impressed that you've found so much (relatively speaking) to improve over BomF's previous TAS. I thought his was nearly flawless when it came out.
