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Posted: 2/4/2006 6:45 AM
Post subject: Earthworm Jim 2
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
Long time watcher, first time speedrunner here. Messed around with the first level of an EWJ2 speedrun in my friend's room after we watched a couple, and was surprised at how much fun it was. Now, after that practice run and two or three irritating desyncs that forced me to start over, I think I'm getting the hang of it. While watching M.T.'s EWJ video, I realized that EWJ2 is much more suited for speedrunning; Andy Asteroids are gone, no long force-scrolling segments like the one in Level 5, and the recurring Puppy Love levels are a good bit easier to watch (and I'm considering trying something fun like syncing the marshmallow swivels and dives to the music). Lorenzo's Soil offers a hugely cool viewing experience with the potential for shooting down just the dirt necessary to get by. Most of the levels, while utterly bizarre, don't put obvious boundaries on the speed of player, again with the exception of Puppy Love. So I've started my run on Difficult, and have the first two levels beat with a time of 4:27, 16006 frames and 1621 rerecords. Basically aiming for the fastest possible time, but I'm also wondering what you guys would like to see as far as some of the neat little bonus things in this game: i.e. the quiz show and memory game in Blind Sally and whether or not it's worth doing Totally Forked. It'll probably extend the total time by about three or four minutes, but it could make the video more entertaining; this is an insanely weird and imaginative game, and just flying past many of its charms and quirks might not be as much fun. Thoughts/preferences? I can upload the .smv as well if anyone wants to see what I've done so far. Edit: Actually, probably a good idea to just include it, since I'm so new here. http://www.lockntoad.com/homyguyz/amhaynes-ewj2b.smv
Posted: 2/4/2006 8:23 AM
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JXQ
Experienced player (761)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
NES TAS of 2008 Speedy TAS of 2008 SNES TASer of 2007 TAS of 2007 SNES TAS of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
I don't know anything about the game, so the second level looked strange to me (mostly, I was just thinking "This would take FOREVER playing normally"). The first level looked good though. I'm hoping in later levels, there are more places to use the...um, snot?...grappling beam to get speed boosts. That would look really impressive in the right circumstances. Not knowing the game doesn't let me make many informed comments on it, but mostly I just wanted to say welcome!
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Posted: 2/4/2006 10:26 AM
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
Thanks. :) The snot swing tends to not be incredibly useful for covering ground fast, as most of the areas you can use it require it to clear some pit or obstacle anyway. Apart from the last level, about all you can do is maximize your speed gain. And if you think that level's weird, wait until you see....well, pretty much any of the others. The first level is pretty much the only normal one.
Posted: 2/4/2006 4:20 PM
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Zer0
Former player
Joined: 9/12/2004
Posts: 184
Location: Austria/Styria
Ok, I watched it. Looked very good :) Uhm, my sound was fucked up though, I hope this was just because of my settings and not because you needed to do something with it for desyncworkarounds or something. I'm highly awaiting more, have been interested in this for long, just always thought the puppy love levels would kill a movie of it, awaiting to see how you handle it. Well, and for things like the quiz show; I'd say skip them as good as possible. If one wants to enjoy the game as a whole he should just play it, we are here to rush the games ;) Well, but it's up to you how you do it.
Posted: 2/4/2006 8:03 PM
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Spacecow
He/Him
Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 247
Location: New Hampshire
Run looks good so far, I'll be following this with bated breath. :) As an aside, my sound was also really awful.
Posted: 2/4/2006 8:52 PM
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atro_city
Active player (256)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Yeah, it's not all that impressive when all you have to do is look up all the quiz answers on GameFAQs anyway. Ever since I got the ROM, I have run into those same sound problems Zer0 described. Very annoying, considering the level music for Lerenzo's Soil is one of the only few good ones in this game. Anyway, the run looked great. I liked the part where you barely got to the clock before time ran out, as well as how you handled the second boss. Can't wait to see what you do for ISO 9000 and Level Ate (my favorite levels). Also, was there any particular reason for tapping the fire button in Lorenzo's Soil instead of holding it down? Does it destroy the dirt faster?
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Posted: 2/4/2006 9:03 PM
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Zer0
Former player
Joined: 9/12/2004
Posts: 184
Location: Austria/Styria
atro city wrote:
Ever since I got the ROM, I have run into those same sound problems Zer0 described. Very annoying, considering the level music for Lerenzo's Soil is one of the only few good ones in this game.
I love pretty much all music in this game, really liked the usage of the 1st and 3rd movement of Beethoven's Sonata Quasi Una Fantasia :) Some may say it's cheaply stolen and they couldn't come up with some own music, but I thought they did a good job :)
Anyway, the run looked great. I liked the part where you barely got to the clock before time ran out, as well as how you handled the second boss. Can't wait to see what you do for ISO 9000 and Level Ate (my favorite levels).
ditto, it was awesome when you hit the clock just in time :) I was always fascinated by the level ISO 9000, just like I was with the End Of Time in Chrono Trigger.
Posted: 2/5/2006 1:05 AM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
The run is looking very good ATM. Please keep updating, and welcome! :D
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 2/5/2006 2:00 AM
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Zer0
Former player
Joined: 9/12/2004
Posts: 184
Location: Austria/Styria
Hm if you don't mind redoing what you did so far, I'd recommend using the Genesis version. Gens only seems to have problems with 2 songs (the Beethoven pieces :( ), and it's just that there's one track (right hand playing on piano, as I know these songs myself) missing on these songs, not that it's all messed up. I think messed up sound takes quite some entertainment value. But it's up to you what to choose.
Posted: 2/5/2006 2:06 AM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
He/Him
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Was this all caused by that volume envelope height thing?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 2/5/2006 2:08 AM
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Zer0
Former player
Joined: 9/12/2004
Posts: 184
Location: Austria/Styria
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Was this all caused by that volume envelope height thing?
<ExistenZer0> I tried everything in the sound settings and didn't get any proper sound ...yeah, I think it's just not well emulated.
Posted: 2/5/2006 3:53 AM
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moozooh
Senior Moderator
Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5777
Location: Away
Yeah, it seems so. I tried different emulators and rom versions, but it's all the same. It sounded great on my SNES however. :) The Genesis version is a viable alternative, but… you know the general difference between SNES and Genesis hardware capabilities, right? :\
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Posted: 2/5/2006 3:55 AM
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Zer0
Former player
Joined: 9/12/2004
Posts: 184
Location: Austria/Styria
moozooh wrote:
Yeah, it seems so. I tried different emulators and rom versions, but it's all the same. It sounded great on my SNES however. :) The Genesis version is a viable alternative, but… you know the general difference between SNES and Genesis hardware capabilities, right? :\
Well, I know the Genesis version is slightly inferior, but I'd really prefer a run with (almost) proper sound. Was just pointing out this alternative, it's up to the runner.
Posted: 2/5/2006 4:01 AM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
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Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
You could also wait for ZSNES to fix it, if you really want to.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 2/5/2006 4:56 AM
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atro_city
Active player (256)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
The music sucks in the Genesis version, though. And just for the info, which songs are the two Beethoven pieces in (I never listen to classical music, so I'm not familiar with them).
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Posted: 2/5/2006 8:07 AM
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Was this all caused by that volume envelope height thing?
I don't think so. The rom itself seems to do a pretty poor job with the sound regardless of what settings I use. Increasing the buffer length helps a little, but not much, it still cuts out halfway through ABT and Lorenzo's Soil still completely dies not far in. Any regular runs I've done through the rom sound terrible as well. Lorenzo's Soil Y-Tapping: It seems to help with both the speed and timing of the level; tapping Y allows me to cancel the fire animation when changing firing directions and while jumping, and hits the individual dirt chunks at the moment when it's possible to do so. For small dirt-short areas it's essential, but for longer ones it may be possible to allow the animation to play normally; I haven't researched far enough to tell exactly how it works in a frame-specific sense. From what I can tell, chunks of dirt higher than the one at the edge aren't shootable for a few frames, so I pretty much just cancel and reshoot until they are. There could be faster paths than the one I used -- I tried a few different things and ultimately just went with the one that seemed to work best. Puppy Love on Difficult lasts almost six minutes for the full five rounds. I don't really have the patience for luck manipulation, so between that and the level-leaving animation I may end up with some extra time. Doing everything I can observe to save time, though. Up to Blind Sally/Villi People now (level 4). May be taking a break to finish a project for another community, but will check in with updates sometime in the near future. Thanks a ton for the comments, everyone. :)
Posted: 2/5/2006 8:41 AM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
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Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
So you tried all the other emulators already?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 2/5/2006 3:14 PM
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Zer0
Former player
Joined: 9/12/2004
Posts: 184
Location: Austria/Styria
atro city wrote:
And just for the info, which songs are the two Beethoven pieces in (I never listen to classical music, so I'm not familiar with them).
'Villi People/Jim's Now A Blind Cave Salamander' and 'See Jim Run, Run Jim Run'
Posted: 2/6/2006 6:29 AM
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
Bag of Magic Food wrote:
So you tried all the other emulators already?
Well, 9x, GENS, and ZSNES. It would barely even run on ZSNES for me, and almost always froze up on the first two levels. I think the sound was a little better, but still nowhere near SNES-quality. The reason I picked the SNES version, apart from simply preferring the platform over the Genesis, was that the Genesis version doesn't have a weapon-switch command, which could make things annoying in later levels. The better sound quality is nice, but it does weird graphical things with some levels, and doesn't look nearly as good. What did you mean by waiting for ZSNES to fix it?
Posted: 2/6/2006 6:30 AM
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Less_Ashamed_Of_Self
Joined: 6/4/2005
Posts: 130
Location: Ontario, Canada
I don't believe I've ever seen this rom properly emulated.
http://lukewilliams.org http://thestratfordsketcher.com
Posted: 2/6/2006 6:50 PM
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
That's what I was thinking. I remember playing it alright a long time ago, but even then I vaguely remember there being something flaky about it.
Posted: 2/6/2006 7:04 PM
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atro_city
Active player (256)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
'Villi People/Jim's Now A Blind Cave Salamander' and 'See Jim Run, Run Jim Run' Ah, now I feel so stupid for not knowing the second one. Good luck with "The Flying King." That level always bugged the hell out of me.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Posted: 2/7/2006 12:39 AM
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
Actually, I was thinking that would be the most fun to play/watch, since after struggling with it endlessly in normal playthroughs, we'll finally have a chance to see it done in like forty seconds. :)
Posted: 3/8/2006 5:19 PM
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Aaron_Haynes
Joined: 2/3/2006
Posts: 69
Gah. I think the last puppy-throw-out of Puppy Love Part II, Round 5 forces you to sacrifice one. I've been trying to save all of them for the past ten minutes and I'm starting to doubt it's possible. http://www.lockntoad.com/homyguyz/ewj2puppylove2-5.smv
Posted: 3/8/2006 6:07 PM
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atro_city
Active player (256)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Hah, I always knew there was something fishy about the last few rounds. I kept thinking "That's not possible, dammit!" If you're that far already, could you post a WIP? Pretty please?
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
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