Rockman 2, aka. Mega Man 2 in difficult mode, completed without using
passwords.
About this movie
Movie length: 90600 frames / 25:10 min.
It is 25 seconds (1479 frames) faster than
the previous record by Morimoto & FinalFighter.
- aims for fastest time as possible
- takes damage to save time
- abuses death
- abuses programming errors (a lot)
- uses no passwords
Old techniques:
New techniques:
- Route (order of the first eight stages) was changed.
- Improved precision. Using the frame advance feature of FCEU in conjunction with RAM reading, we have been able to precisely measure the most effective means to kill enemies, and to jump/walk.
- Better boss manipulation. Many boss fights are faster in this version than in the previous movie.
- Better timings at switching weapons. Weapon switch resets vertical movement, and it can be done during the transformation animation. Utilizing these facts there can be 1―11 frames to be gained at each weapon switch.
- Substituted scrolling technique. In some circumstances, it is possible to make the screen scroll to the right when it should scroll to the up or to the down. It allows significant shortcuts, especially in the Airman and Crashman stages. This technique depends on lag to occur in conjunction with right player/enemy movement, and it is impossible to predict when it will exactly happen. A robot was used to optimize all of these instances.
- Damage transfer technique. This technique allows the damage from an explosion to be transmitted into an enemy where Rockman takes damage from. It was used in the Wily4 boss. As a secondary advantage, crash bombs could now be utilized in the second Quickman fight, giving even more advantage.
- Surprise attack at boss. When Rockman is in the wall at top of screen, by jumping, he can progress such that in the next room, he is in the floor instead of the ceiling. This technique was utilized in the Woodman and Bubbleman bosses, saving time.
- Slight Item-1 elevation inside wall. While getting pushed into a ceiling by an Item-1, there's a brief window of opportunity where by jumping, Rockman can land on an Item-1 that is further up, saving about 20 frames. It was used whenever possible (whenever we could afford the extra Item1 use).
- Death at boss: by dying just a few frames before the boss dies, Rockman will be suspended in the air, possibly resulting in shorter travel time to the top of the screen when he teleports away. It saves 1-10 frames per use.
- Item-2 assisted zipping (used in Bubbleman stage)
- Sticky metal blades (up+down or left+right)
Shinryuu's words
Finally this PAIN is over!
Over a year ago I started making a Rockman2 tool-assisted speedrun,
because I wanted to beat Morimoto's & Finalfighter's Record.
Morimoto's & Finalfighter's movie was
so insanely cool and I wanted to be the same as them.
I'm a big Rockman fan and I'm so happy because this pain is now over :)
Bisqwit's words
I'm glad to have helped in this project.
Originally, I simply helped
Shinryuu in optimizing some
difficult places (especially by programming a robot to play
through scenes that depend on unpredictable unlikely factors),
but in the end, I had actually manually played through a couple
of stages and beaten a couple of bosses, making me an equal participant.
The making of this movie took a long time, but it was interesting all
the time. Sometimes there were moments of despair, especially at the
boss of Wily4, but in the end, everything worked out mostly fine.
I am thoroughly in awe of the Japanese fellow mr. FinalFighter, who has
single-handedly discovered so many of the techniques used in this movie.
I am thankful that he has been friendly towards this movie, even though
it obsoletes
his older movie,
to the degree that he has helped us by illustrating the esoteric glitches
and techniques using video animations and explained them carefully
in a chat despite a language barrier.
Work sharing
- Flashman: Shinryuu
- Heatman: Shinryuu, optimizing help by Bisqwit
- Airman: Shinryuu, scrolling by BisqBot, optimizing help by Bisqwit
- Woodman: Shinryuu, scrolling by BisqBot, floor-zipping by Bisqwit with Finalfighter's assistance, item1slight by Bisqwit, resyncing by Bisqwit after copypaste
- Crashman: Bisqwit and Shinryuu, scrolling by BisqBot, resyncing by Bisqwit, boss by Shinryuu
- Quickman: Bisqwit, boss by Shinryuu
- Metalman: Bisqwit, boss by Shinryuu
- Bubbleman: Shinryuu and Bisqwit, boss by Bisqwit
- Wily1: Shinryuu, optimizing help by Bisqwit
- Wily2: Shinryuu and Bisqwit, boss by Bisqwit
- Wily3: Bisqwit
- Wily4: Bisqwit
- Wily5:
- Airman2: Bisqwit
- Heatman2: Shinryuu, after Bisqwit
- Woodman2: Shinryuu, after Bisqwit's copypaste of Finalfighter's version
- Bubbleman2: Bisqwit, after Shinryuu; resyncing by BisqBot
- Quickman2: Bisqwit, after Shinryuu; resyncing by BisqBot
- Crashman2: Shinryuu
- Metalman2: Bisqwit, after Shinryuu
- Flashman2: Bisqwit, after Shinryuu
- Boss: Shinryuu
- Wily6: Bisqwit
Major techniques by FinalFighter.
Special thanks
- finalfighter, who discovered new, insane techniques and glitches
- Hanzou for copypasting the Heatman teleport block part and for pointing out an improvement in Wily4 boss
- Everyone who posted in Rockman2 thread
- AngerFist the Mega Man (Rockman) fan
- Randil who watched RM2 Special Wips
AQ (anticipated questions, and actual questions)
Q: Why did you use Flash stopper in the Quickman stage? Wouldn't it be faster without, weapon switches and all considering.
A: Because Rockman passed through the wall in a place where he should have went down instead, he is one screen ahead from where he should be. For that reason, it is necessary for him to walk once for whole screen horizontal width to restore to the right screen. This can't be done safely without the flash stopper.
Q: Why do you use several Item-1 platforms at a time, wouldn't one be enough?
A: Each Item-1 used serves the purpose of elevating Rockman higher in the wall. There are three different ways in which they accomplish that purpose in this movie: To serve as stairs (before the wall); to serve as an alternative foothold (in the beginning of ceiling entry), and to elevate higher in the wall (after the feet are completely inside the wall).
Q: Why did you not use the third crash bomb in the Quickman refight?
A: All crash bombs were used. The third one is only visible for less than a blink of eye. Watch in slow motion and you'll see it.
Q: Why not zip through the tunnel with drills in Wily2?
A: Because there is no possible way to place an Item-1 platform such that Rockman can stand on it in a narrow tunnel like that.
Q: Why the two metal blades in air right before Wily2 boss?
A: For show.
Q: How do you make the metal blades stick in air?
A: By holding left-right or up-down when pressing B.
Q: What were the hops for right before starting Bubbleman's refight?
A: To
manipulate luck. Those hops created two frames of delay (because Rockman walks faster than he moves when he jumps), but in return, they saved four frames in the fight due to decreased lag.
Q: How did you make the screen scroll right instead of down in Airman stage?
A: It's a glitch we don't completely understand. Extreme luck is required to pull it off. Try the one in the Crashman stage (the
second one on the screen with a lift), that should be the easiest.
Q: Is it possible to end the Flashman battle on the highest platform, causing a faster teleport-out?
A: Yes. We tried to fix this mistake and copypaste the rest of the movie, but the gain was lost in other random factors, and thus we left it be.
Q: Why did you take damage? It looks sloppy.
A: It was a deliberate choice. We used whatever resources we could to make the fastest time. HP is a resource too. Even extra lifes are resources, though we didn't actually need to consume those.
Q: Have you seen the glitch that warps Megaman into Wily stages directly from Airman / Heatman / etc stage?
A: Yes, but it cannot be used. The glitch only transfers Megaman into another map (by utilizing the fact that the two maps are actually in one contiguous array in the ROM), but it does not change the fact that Megaman is still in the same stage, and he still needs to clear the eight bosses in order to progress into Wily stages. If you clear the stage while in the cross-over Wily map, you will just clear the original stage, and another stage selection awaits, not the next Wily stage.
adelikat: Accepting. Major improvement over an incredible run.
Bisqwit: I'll encode this movie. :) (I want to use Blargg's audio lib if for nothing else, the scream of the engine at the ending.)
