This 1 player run of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2 is a 45.35 second improvement over fisker N.'s submission through much more aggressive boss fights and general optimization.
Game objectives
- Emulator used: fceux 2.1.6 with TAS Editor (new PPU)
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Genre: Platform
When I saw fisker N.'s attempt on the submission feed the comments noted various instances where they believed there could be a few improvements so I thought I would give it a shot.
In the end I saved much more time than I initially expected. The improvements from the movie are almost equally split between pure optimizations of the routes shaving a frame to a second off the platforming sections and optimizing the bosses. The main gain on the bosses was to simply take a much more aggressive approach and picking up and throwing the items at the bosses as soon as was possible where fisker N. tended to hold back a little while.
In the end on ever section (from fade in to fade out) I either saved frames or matched the previous attempt, excluding the final boss.
The last boss caused a problem in that between the older versions of fceux and 2.1.6 lag was handled slightly different and the last boss became slower by a quarter second. The lag change was strange and unexpected because it was the only part of the run that changed between fceux versions as fisker N.'s run actually desyncs unless you switch over to the old ppu. With the lag change it resulted that there were very few moments during that boss fight where you were able to move and not introduce more lag frames slowing the movie. As a result I have decided to go with a more minimalist style on the last level to save frames and to add cohesiveness so there isn't random period of non-movement (do to lag reduction) surrounded by sporatic jumping and twisting around.
I would like to thank fisker N. for his run as it gave me very specific goals for levels to beat and helped come up with a few time saving strategies I did not think of on my own.
I hope you enjoy.
Baxter: Accepting to be published alongside the 2-player TAS.
