Rollerblade Racer

Rollerblade Racer is a game where you race through a number of courses on rollerblades and eventually take on the Super Rollerblade Challenge, if you have what it takes.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.4
  • Win the Super Rollerblade Challenge (20000 points)
5000 points are required in order to enter the Super Rollerblade Challenge. Finishing with 10000, 15000, and 20000 gets you 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place respectively. You do still see a credits screen for finishing as low as 3rd place. Initially I ended with fewer thank 20000 points and intended to make 1st place a part of the goal choice, but when I went back to improve the score I also found improvements that allowed me to reach 20000 points without losing time.

Controls

  • Up - accelerate
  • Down - decelerate
  • Left/Right - move left/right
  • B - crouch to skate down stairs or curbs
  • A - jump
  • A+B - Helicopter jump
  • select - skate backwards

Strategies

The basic strategy is pretty straight forward, get to the max speed (896 in a 2-byte value at 0x4AE) and keep it. Achieving the required score means doing a lot of jumping, and you do lose some speed each time you land. Generally your speed goes down to 888 and then back up to 896, and it seems this is high enough to avoid losing time.
Normally jumping at full speed (backscratcher jump) nets you 75 points, but we can get a big head start on points in the Neighborhood stage by doing helicopter jumps. The idea behind the helicopter jump is that it takes more air time to execute and therefore must be done over a curb or stairs. The Neighborhood curb is the only curb that seems to work, but it also only checks if you cross over, so we can jump up, down, or even just out over the curb and back. Since the helicopter jump is good for 300 points this gets us a good start. The other main sources of points are from jumping over barrels and for time remaining on the clock at the end of a stage.
The RTA run uses a strategy at the beach to move to the left sidewalk, and while this is much easier it also loses time since it takes much longer to get up to the max speed.

Stages

  1. Neighborhood
    • Helicopter jumps for points
  2. Barrels
    • There are barrels
  3. City
    • Backscratcher jumps for points
  4. Cones
    • There are cones
  5. Beach
    • The hard way is slightly faster than the easy path on the left
  6. Half-Pipe
    • There are half-pipe tricks, but it isn't worth stopping
  7. Park
    • Avoid all of the things
  8. Super Rollerblade Challenge
    • This is just a combination of the barrel, cone, and half-pipe stages. Also we make sure to get enough points for 1st place.

Improvements

  • The game doesn't have direct lag, it captures input on every frame, but it looks like maybe there is some variability when there are more enemies. Perhaps if there really is lag there could be something to optimize there.

Thanks to:

  • The TASMania team

Screenshots:

1243, 6497, 7809, 11791, 14609, 15374

feos: Judging...
feos: Replacing with an improvement.
feos: Replacing with another improvement.
feos: Super Rollerblade Challenge is not an extra level, it's just a way to get the credits. If you don't get 5000 points by then, you still have to play through that level, and you get this screen instead.
I don't have much to say about this game, indeed it feels like Paperboy, with some jumps that arguably make it less boring, but not a lot more complex and elaborate. There was no feedback, and votes weren't too enthusiastic. Seeing how Paperboy got rather low rating, I can't imagine this game doing much better when published.
Accepting to Vault.
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15628
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6763: link_7777's NES Rollerblade Racer in 04:14.71
Blazephlozard
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
I like the idea of reaching the 1st place point goal while sacrificing as few frames as possible, it adds an extra avenue of optimization beyond just reaching top speed and keeping it. If the credits play regardless of place, 1st place could be considered a full completion, so I think it's a vaultable secondary goal. Funnily enough, 1st place has a much shorter final text than 2nd place, saving a few frames on the last input, more frames than getting those points cost, so it's actually faster to get 20k points. But if a low score run was faster, I don't think it would necessarily obsolete this one. It's fortunate that jumping lowers your speed by so little that it doesn't always lose time. However, doing too many jumps in one level can! I was able to save a few frames by reducing jumps. I made up the points with a lot of extra barrel jumps that didn't cost any frames. I also improved the acceleration to max in a couple stages. Level 1 I couldn't save a frame in, even doing a test run trying to reduce the number of jumps as much as possible. Which is good, since its points are quite valuable. So I didn't touch it. Level 2 I went full Donkey Kong on without losing a frame. (And if I remove all jumps after reaching max speed, it still doesn't save a frame) Level 3 I was able to save 2 frames on by removing quite a few jumps. I kept in as many as I could. Level 4 gets no save from removing jumps. Level 5 I was able to reach top speed and reduce low-speed travel by jumping one less time near the start and going between the sand and grass (frame 7670). I saved 21 frames (23 frames ahead). Level 6 hold up yes. Level 7's quest for keeping max speed is pretty complex with a lot of required dodges. I was able to get to max speed sooner with less jumping / direction changing, and preserved speed as much as possible. I saved 41 frames (64 frames ahead). Level 8 barely manages 1st place thanks to more barrels. I also saved 1 frame, probably on lowering total number of jumps. Oddly, you need a little less than 20,000 points to get 1st place (19840 worked), but I added 3 extra jumps without loss, to reach 20,065 and make the goal more clear. 65 frame faster movie: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/63851104284844683 Requesting movie file update and co-authorship I would guess this will end up in Vault. The game has a similar feel to Paperboy, except missing the part of Paperboy's gameplay that actually makes it interesting. It also suffers from repetition, despite being short; I believe the long stages repeat their structure/hazards two or three times before ending, with the grand finale level being 3 previous levels, repeated 3 times. Reaching/keeping top speed is not trivial at all, but not very impressive either. I vote Meh.
Experienced player (878)
Joined: 11/15/2010
Posts: 267
Nice work Blazephlozard! I also suggest the movie be swapped and Blazephlozard be added as co-author. I was thinking that before I read that far into your comment.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1255)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
Blazephlozard wrote:
If the credits play regardless of place, 1st place could be considered a full completion
Based on what criterion?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Blazephlozard
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
feos wrote:
Blazephlozard wrote:
If the credits play regardless of place, 1st place could be considered a full completion
Based on what criterion?
Hmm, looking at the full completion section in the rules, none. So I take it back. A trophy pixel art instead of a medal necklace pixel art is not really anything. So it's fortunate that getting 1st place shortens the text anyway, since it's a nice goal. I just tested editing the score (the individual digits are at 04D4). Having less than 5000 points (the qualifying total) significantly increases the text after a level. For the ending, 3rd place is also slower than 1st place, just like 2nd. Also looking at this explains why a slightly lower score still got 1st place; there's an unshown 250 point bonus added after the time bonus. Edit: Thinking about it more, the longer sub-5000 text is probably why my Level 1 low jump run didnt save any frames. I'm going to try reducing the jumps in Level 1 while staying over 5000 points, and if that saves a frame or two, see if I can make up the points lost.
Blazephlozard
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
I was indeed able to save 1 frame on Level 1, while also losing 1800 points. In order to gain those points back, I consulted... the manual! In the half-pipes, you can do a Flip by moving to the edge of the halfpipe while holding B. It's worth 200 points and affects your speed the same as a jump! And the 300 point jump can be done while going down stairs, so I included a few of those during the Park stage where possible. And maxed out the city/beach with a couple more jumps as well. With all that, I managed to preserve that 1 frame save with only 15 points to spare. Wow. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/63914441365673626
Zinfidel
He/Him
Player (206)
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
[Links updated, see later post.]
Blazephlozard
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 2/27/2013
Posts: 175
Location: Ohio
Zinfidel wrote:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/UzizERBQezQ Other Encodes: https://mega.nz/folder/SdxRHJBK#xX85j0bJQ4mOvU61QVzzLA
I would probably let the credits linger for a bit (possibly for a whole music loop, if it's a short song) if I was encoding it :)
Zinfidel
He/Him
Player (206)
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
Blazephlozard wrote:
Zinfidel wrote:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/UzizERBQezQ Other Encodes: https://mega.nz/folder/SdxRHJBK#xX85j0bJQ4mOvU61QVzzLA
I would probably let the credits linger for a bit (possibly for a whole music loop, if it's a short song) if I was encoding it :)
That can be arranged. I'll update the above post when it's extended.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1255)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
Indeed.
Publication Manual / Movie length wrote:
If the music loops, and the picture does not change, find the frame when the first full loop ends
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Zinfidel
He/Him
Player (206)
Joined: 11/21/2019
Posts: 247
Location: Washington
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15628
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4211] NES Rollerblade Racer by link_7777 in 04:14.71