Vampire Killer is the MSX2 version of Castlevania, released in Japan, Europe and Brazil. Rather than a linear action-platformer like the NES version, Vampire Killer contains more elements of an adventure game, with collectible items strewn about the levels, some of them hidden in the walls. In each stage, a white key needs to be found to proceed to the next stage. Over a minute has been shaved off the previous movie through new routes and optimization as well as a few new boss strategies. Additionally, more efforts have been made to reduce lag over previous versions.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: openMSX 0.8.2 - Due to changes in emulation timing, this run -will not- sync on the most recent version, openMSX 0.9.1. Use version 0.9.0 or 0.8.2 to view this movie, which you can find here: EmulatorResources/OpenMSX
  • BIOS used: Panasonic FS-A1WSX
  • Aims for fastest possible time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Genre: Platform

Stage by stage comments

Level 1 (Stages 1 - 3)

More Big Hearts are collected through the means of luck manipulation than before. Vampire Killer utilizes the full MSX keyboard to determine the RNG, which is handy, as it means you can manipulate any drop or enemy behaviour you want without wasting time. Big hearts have a frustratingly rare drop rate however, which comes to bite you when you try to coordinate the luck manipulation with other actions. Most of the stage is fairly unchanged.

Level 2 (Stages 4 - 6)

The first big timesaver comes in Stage 4, where a route change saves 587 frames total. It also allows me to pick up several additional big hearts. In stage 6, I take the extra time to whip a medusa head out of the way to avoid taking damage from it, so I can finish the stage with full health.

Level 3 (Stages 7 - 9)

The center room of stage 7 is the first time I go out of my way to reduce lag. The candles, skeleton and fleamen are just a bit too much for the game to handle, so I help it on its way, saving a total of 41 frames in both trips through it. Small route change in Stage 8, I grab a feather, which lets you jump higher, to take a more direct way to the white key, which saves about 2 and a half seconds overall. I finally max out my hearts to 99 in Stage 9, but it's not gonna last forever. You can also notice me getting a small heart in the mummy boss fight through a glitch, this is an unintentional side effect of the fastest way to kill the mummies. Because my hearts were maxed out at 99 previously, this is a convenient way for me to round my heart counter back up to a number that is divisible by 5, for neatness' sake.

Level 4 (Stages 10 - 12)

Small optimizations in the cave section end up saving 20 frames. In Stage 11, I trigger a treasure chest to open earlier than in the previous run, which saves 16 frames. Stage 12 features a route change which allows me to pick up the speed boots, traversing the maze section much faster. I wasn't aware of this at the time I started the run, but a 102 frame gain was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, the speed boots have have the drawback that you're not to position yourself as precisely when fighting bosses, which forced a different strategy to be used against Franky. Nethertheless, the new strategy saved 8 frames over the old one.

Level 5 (Stages 13 - 15)

Oh, the dreaded dungeon level with its vexing skeletons and resilient axe armors. Smarter use of the stopwatch item ends up saving a fair amount of time throughout the level. Unfortunately, a skeleton in Stage 13 wouldn't cooperate the same way it did in the previous run, forcing me to take damage from it. An Axe armor in Stage 15 is manipulated to fire faster as well.

Level 6 (Stages 16 - 18)

The new route in Stage 17 is the entire reason I wanted to do this run. Whereas the old run would do a huge detour to get to the white key without Simon trapping himself with no way out but death, the new run features a far more direct route with a key which was originally put out of reach. Other than that, I also take the detour to collect a stopwatch in this level, which'll come in handy later, as well as the knife from the merchant. It costs the same amount of hearts as with the merchant in Stage 18, but he needs only one whip swing to sell it. Don't ask me about this weird lag that happens while the merchant is used, there seems to be no way to avoid it. The bulk of improvement comes from this section, with over 30 seconds saved. I only use the knife when necessary, as it seems to slow down the game when used. I also collect the speed boots in stage 18, as I deemed them worth it in the long run, despite the distance you can cover with them being relatively short. With 15 hearts, a stop watch and the knives, I approach Dracula.

Boss: Dracula

What is this "stopwatch whoring" you speak of!?
I need to use the stopwatch twice on Dracula's first form, as it's not possible to finish him off in a single cycle. This delays his second form from appearing, unfortunately, but it's far preferrable to letting Dracula teleport out and waiting for him to spawn again. It also allows me to perform a small sound glitch on him while he has 0 HP but is still able to take damage. I also can't stand to the left of Dracula, as his hitbox only covers the upper half of his sprite, making my knives pass through him while standing on the ground. His second form features one more use of the stopwatch to keep his bats from getting in the way.

Other comments

"Oh well, expect an improvement in the next couple of weeks. " -myself, June 18th 2012.
Well, I certainly won't be getting an award for punctuality on this one, but version 3 is finally done, featuring far more route changes than I had originally anticipated, saving a huge amount of time. Turns out Nach's original prediction on the first run wasn't so far off after all. As of this, I hope that the new route changes make the run more interesting to watch and hope that you enjoy the run. As usual, I'd like to thank the MSX crowd, Quibus and Vampier for their continued enthusiasm and support, as well as Nach and adelikat. Shoutouts also go out to FerretWarlord for being a bro on irc. Enjoy
-scrimpeh

feos: Accepting this improvement to Moons.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4049: scrimpeh's MSX Vampire Killer in 15:47.75
Patashu
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Posts: 4043
Loved the damage boosts in 15 and 17, yes vote :)
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
mklip2001
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Funny enough, I didn't know this run was coming, and when I was flipping through random runs today, I rewatched the published run for this. It may have helped prepare me for this run, because I was fairly familiar with the old route choices and strategies. Holy hell, you've done a great job here. Stage 8 is incredibly streamlined. Stage 17 was a big welcome change (especially since you don't have to whip a salesman four times now in Stage 18), and the new Dracula fight is quite smart. Lastly, with the greater number of hearts you managed to get this time, you could spare some for entertaining weapon usage. This is finally approaching the entertainment level of the NES Castlevania run. (I don't mean anything bad against your run, but the NES run is still utterly spectacular with all its high-score combos.) Yes vote indeed!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Emulator Coder, Player (31)
Joined: 4/24/2010
Posts: 73
Location: California
I vote yes because I know this game inside out and still Scrimpeh surprised me with a few really good damage boosts and routes. Excellent work!
MSX Game specialist / openMSX team member
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2444] MSX Vampire Killer by scrimpeh in 15:47.75
Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
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Maybe this isn't so well known in the western world, but you got 18k+ views on nico, nice: Link to video
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu