Posted: 3/1/2022 3:58 AM
(Edited: 2/15/2023 4:14 AM)
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
Not sure if other people have tried this game or is interested to TAS it. I've a quick not optimized first version, I was curious about the RTA and what RNG can be manipulated. things can be manipulated the way we want, like those ends screen we can make those enemies to always spawn at one place. in term of optimization it's pretty much avoid grass/water as much as possible, at the end screen be as close as possible to the gate to throw the arrow. also some optimization on the final boss, especially shooting at as close as possible to get good DPS But in term of fun/entertaining, I think there are some possibilities and work to do. Obviously taking the most risky path and show case the different way to play or manipulate with the enemies. for instance have all the tank spawn for round 1 and zero tank for round 3 here is the TAS I got so far to give an idea, still a lot of work to do Link to video
Posted: 3/2/2022 12:02 AM
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£e_Nécroyeur
Skilled player (1672)
Joined: 7/1/2013
Posts: 448
Arcade TASer of 2017 Arcade TAS of 2016 Exotic platforms TASer of 2014 Exotic platforms TAS of 2014
Yes vote! The topic refers to Secret Commando, but the video uses Rambo: First Blood Part II. Which version do you plan to use?
Posted: 3/2/2022 4:04 AM
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
£e Nécroyeur wrote:
The topic refers to Secret Commando, but the video uses Rambo: First Blood Part II. Which version do you plan to use?
indeed, as far as I found, both games are the same except some sprites. Personally I would choose Secret Commando, that's the one I played when I was kid. I'm not sure if we should consider the same games or sort of a rom hack? For sure the JP version, Ashura, is different, the end of the rounds has shorter bomb time and more enemies need to be killed
Posted: 3/15/2022 9:23 PM
(Edited: 3/16/2022 3:55 PM)
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
I will post some updates here sometimes as I go through the game. I used Emulicious to explore the code with the debugger, I found out how the enemies spawn works the game track the screen progress this way
  • every 8 pixels up the RAM 0x019A is increase, let's call it sub-Y
  • then every 8 sub-Y the ram 0x019B is increase, let's call it Y
there are 2 tables in the rom for defining the spawn X, Y and type
  • Table Y & sub-Y position, reference in RAM 0X01E8
  • Table Type & X position reference in RAM 0x01EE
I've parse the ROM tables in a spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JMGR7M0yEuznjJpkRyIYJlGb-e69qx5x_0drpwkoW-U/edit?usp=sharing every time the sub-Y or Y position change, the game check if Y, sub-Y & X match a spawn from the table. there are 4 slots for enemies spawn (0x07C0, 0x07F0, 0x0820, 0x0850) the game would look if one slot is free. when there is no match from the table, the slots will be populated with a generic enemy (e.g. round 1 --> 14) with a random X position and a random sub type I will explore more about those sub-type, for instance the generic type 14, has 2 different behaviour: shoot 2 time + walk or walk faster and 1 shot as soon as a an enemy die / despawn, the game will very shortly spawn a new one, from the table or a random generic enemy also found out there are some hidden big bonus arrow ammo! in the code (ROM 0x02912), the game check
  • if an enemy is killed on the 2nd shot
  • if an RNG value (RAM 0x081B) or (RAM 0x0C818) match the RAM 0x0246 (probably about screen progress)
then the game give 150 ammos! ($96)
Posted: 3/24/2022 3:30 AM
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
£e Nécroyeur wrote:
Which version do you plan to use?
Going back to that, I think I will choose Secret command, this version is already 2 frames faster for starting the game
Posted: 6/7/2022 1:48 AM
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
I've recently discover the gate can be destroyed earlier. for every level, at the end screen after killing 16 enemies, the game would allow the player to destroy the game with 16 regular ammo (M-60). it's a huge time same, I was able to save 1min in the speedrun Btw, I don't know if TASVideos would care but Rambo was only US release and Secret Command was a Europe Release. Would it be allowed to play secret command on NTSC?
Posted: 2/18/2023 1:04 AM
(Edited: 2/18/2023 1:04 AM)
Post subject: Tas SMS Rambo V0.2
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
Here is another quick/not optimized TAS with the earlier gate explosions after killing 16 enemies. Also I have a faster final boss, the bomb arrow makes 7 damages so only need 3 riffle shots. I'm suspecting going straight is faster than going diagonal, I need to test that. Also check if it's better to walk in the grass or go diagonal. for the end of the level, max would be 3 enemies to make sure the first spawn come faster. because we skip the blinking gate, we don't even see the dropping bomb Link to video
Posted: 3/9/2023 3:35 PM
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arnaud33200
Player (16)
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 45
Location: Toronto (Canada)
Chatting with someone from the Sega Crew discord server, there is another upgrade of the super bomb where it kills everyone on the screen for every arrow shot. I got curious and look at the assembly code, I found out you need to just kill 4 enemies with one shot to obtain it Link to video I think it's great to have it in the run since you can shoot this bomb arrow and quickly destroy the final gate