Pulls of some graphical glitches, (which has no inflicts on the game at all. Just funny.)
Ok fellas. I finaly made, what I think, is a decent run of this great game for Genesis. It was extreamly hard at some times. Took alot of patience to put this together.
I do by purpose miss some shots. This is to charge the weapon up so that I can fire a more powerful shoot.
Some times you might notice that I jump around alot, and just looking silly. This is because you can't charge the weapon as you walk. How ever it does charge as you jump. So I do save time even though it looks stupid. Jumping around all the time though won't be good for time. Only at some points as I see it.
I don't use the other powerups I'm getting. Only those small red balls. This is to charge the weapons even faster. This help cutting time down alot. Those lightningbolt icons is a special attack, but it seems as powerful as the normal weapon loaded to max so. It's not saving any time because he pulls of a long annoying animation.
This would be all for now I suppose. Please post any comments in the forums. If you feel like posting critisism, please do so in a constructive way. Cheers!
I liked the run. You were moving forward the whole time while avoiding obstacles and shots. I really couldn't find anything to whine about. The speed and a good number of enemies/obstacles kept me entertained the whole time.
Even if you say you miss some shots on purpose I really couldn't notice them. I think you missed one shot at the twin snakes -boss, but I'm not sure.
The texts that come after completion are quite funny, it's more like the game programmers are sorry that you had to play all the way through. :)
'YES'.
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home."
( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
I think you missed one shot at the twin snakes -boss, but I'm not sure.
When I enter that boss room I fire a shot before I even can move. But the charged shots after that does not miss. Slow down to 10% speed if you are unsure. ;)
The only real question about the run is: When you get the lightning spell (I'm assuming it's a spell), you seem to drop down a pit, and kill a pink slim wall thing to get it, and then climb back up the other side of the pit. You then don't seem to ever use the spell, was getting it required for something?
Also, while not posted here, in the other section of the forum someone notes that the fairy at the end is naked. It seems that this is only true in some versions. When I watched the movie the fairy was wearing her pink dress, but there is a version where she does appear naked. Possibly this is the only different between revision 0 and 1?
Edit: Yes it appears I was correct, as I just went through it with revision 0 and she appears naked it in. It also seems that this is the only version that she is naked, as I beleive she is in the pink dress in the American release. As there were no desyncs i'm guessing that is infact the only difference. I guess someone noticed this and complained, heh.
The lightning spell you talk about is pretty much worthless in a timeattack. They are about as powerful as a full charged "psycho" (regular shot). I just get them for fun since I'm not loosing any time doing it. At the pit you're talking about I do this while waiting for the elavator to get down.
I could go directly to it but I won't be able to jump up all the way anyways. So I did this extra because I found it more entertaining than just stand on the elavator waiting for nothing.
Some questions:
First of all: I have never played this game previously and only two minutes now before I watched your video, so everything I say might be uninformed stupid non-issues.
It seems you lose all your speed when you land, if and only if you are currently charging a shot. In some parts it seems like you carry around a charged shot for very long, making many unneccesary stops and accelerations. Have you considered this?
Some bosses seem like they are not hit as soon as possible. I'm thinking for example of the first sub-boss, where you are to the left when firing; the first boss which jumps before you shoot the first time (perhaps you don't gain control soon enough, I don't know) and the black flying boss at the end, who seem to stop flashing some of the time before the next shot hits.
Did you try different weapons at the last boss? He doesn't seem to have a cooldown persiod like the others, which makes me think the flamethrower might be effective.
Sometimes, when you wait for a flamethrower to stop, it seems you wait as close as possible to it and start walking just as it stops shooting. Wouldn't waiting a few steps away and starting to walk a moment before it ended make it faster?
It seems you lose all your speed when you land, if and only if you are currently charging a shot. In some parts it seems like you carry around a charged shot for very long, making many unneccesary stops and accelerations. Have you considered this?
Yes. I do loose speed when landing. But jumping has to be done since I still wanna move forward and charge at the same time. Would be so boring and ugly to stand still and wait for the power meter to build up and then continue to move.
Also another feature I found out is that the character actually jumps a tid bit higher than without the charge. The first time I thought of this really to be a fact is in level 6 when I jump off an elavator to shoot a pink wall.
Another reason I carried around those charged shots is that I planned more so I didn't by putpose had to do any "missed" shots. But since this is more or less unavoidable I changed this later in the run so I don't carry the charges for too long.
Some bosses seem like they are not hit as soon as possible. I'm thinking for example of the first sub-boss, where you are to the left when firing; the first boss which jumps before you shoot the first time (perhaps you don't gain control soon enough, I don't know) and the black flying boss at the end, who seem to stop flashing some of the time before the next shot hits.
It was harder to time earlier in the game due to I don't have many of those red powerups. And the first sub boss you think of is actually the second, the first one is killed before it's visible on the screen. This seems to be a problem at some points though. For example that worm had some issues when tried to kill it faster. The shot went straight thru it instead of killing it. There for I waited. Of course I tried to manipulate this more. So I didn't actually give up on it straight away.
At the first boss this was also hard. Since he builds the power meter so slow I had to wait a bit longer before jumping. If I do this run again I will try to optimize this as much as possible though. The level 7 boss was kinda tricky. If I jumped before he stopped at that position he would do some other stuff that was alot slower. As I see it, it is an optimized move, but ugly.
Did you try different weapons at the last boss? He doesn't seem to have a cooldown persiod like the others, which makes me think the flamethrower might be effective.
Yes, I have tried to use diffrent weapons against the last boss. But they all sucked. The psycho is the most powerful weapon in this game. Thats why I don't use the others. Also it helped me to keep closer to the boss so I didn't have to go all the way to the left and wait longer for my shoots to reach him. The flame thrower won't be good at all there. He fires diffrent shots all over the place. I found that the psycho can make just about engouh room for me to jump over all those things and pull off another shot as soon as I re-charged. So this is a huge optimized thing to concider.
Sometimes, when you wait for a flamethrower to stop, it seems you wait as close as possible to it and start walking just as it stops shooting. Wouldn't waiting a few steps away and starting to walk a moment before it ended make it faster?
Yeah. I know it doesn't look to good. But I found it to be the best way. I don't say it is the best way. Those flame throwers act very weird some times. The damge zone seems to be left there for some frame after the graphic is gone. So I wanted to wait just a little longer so I'll be sure. Those flame scenes has some 10 perhaps re-records each. Maby it's not that much. But I didn't know at the time how to optimize it more. I didn't get that much support from the Mystic Defender topic I made.
But if I was to make another run at this game I would sure put in all optimizers I know about.
This was more or less the first serious run I made of a game. I never did think that my WWF Royal Rumble would get accepted. I just made it anyways.
But this is my real test.
Next round I will probably play on about 3% of the speed.
Thanks for your comments though. And I hope the answers are good enough for you. :)
>Yes. I do loose speed when landing. But jumping has to be done since I still wanna move forward and charge at the same time. Would be so boring and ugly to stand still and wait for the power meter to build up and then continue to move.
Hm, yes, but this is not quite what I had in mind. I mean that if you are not holding a charge, you can continue at your current speed when landing. If you are holding a charge, you will stop when landing and have to accelerate again, which takes time. In level 2 you carried a charge a very long way up the stairs, which made you stop every time you landed. It looked like you could have started charging later and not made all the stops.
Same thing in that first level with the flamethrowers, after you get the quick charge you can charge fully in just one jump - no need to walk around with a full charge.
About the first boss - I understand the problem. It's not possible to carry your charged shot from one screen to another, I suppose?
Another thing I noticed now - the diamond subboss in the level with the yellow goo. You shoot him from the left side. The game starts scrolling directly when he's dead, isn't it possible to stand on the right side?
No need to thank for the comments. You wanted critizism, after all. (And you would probably have gotten it even if you didn't want it. :P )
By the way, did you try to set the country to Japan? A lot of the graphics are changed, for example the protagonists dress, and the whole intro (quite possibly the story too, didn't bother to translate it). I didn't play trough to the end, but the princess might have green hair. (Not sure if that's her in the intro.)
Hm, yes, but this is not quite what I had in mind. I mean that if you are not holding a charge, you can continue at your current speed when landing. If you are holding a charge, you will stop when landing and have to accelerate again, which takes time. In level 2 you carried a charge a very long way up the stairs, which made you stop every time you landed. It looked like you could have started charging later and not made all the stops.
Ah. Damn. If I had known this before I would have used that way in my run. Of course. Hehe. Funny that I didn't saw that during slowdown. :/
Wonder how much it will shave off in the big end?
Perhaps a couple of seconds.
Any one feeling for a competition in this game?
It's not possible to carry your charged shot from one screen to another, I suppose?
Not it's not. Otherwise I would have done that. :)
Another thing I noticed now - the diamond subboss in the level with the yellow goo. You shoot him from the left side. The game starts scrolling directly when he's dead, isn't it possible to stand on the right side?
Yes it is. How ever. Due to the charge is pretty fast built up at this point in the game I need to be on the left because one charged shot has to disappear before I can launch the next set. Normaly you only can shoot him once per time he goes down and open up like that. So thats why I stood to the left of him and not the right.
By the way, did you try to set the country to Japan? A lot of the graphics are changed, for example the protagonists dress, and the whole intro (quite possibly the story too, didn't bother to translate it). I didn't play trough to the end, but the princess might have green hair. (Not sure if that's her in the intro.)
Hehe.. I'd never had thought of it unless you told me about it. Damn his dress is ugly. To bad the movie desyncs while using this mode. Otherwise it would have been fun to watch to the end. Hmm.. I will go ahead and save some states to check what other stuff looks like. :)
Edit: Damnit. Those savestates aren't usable. :/
Never underestimate the effects of small systematic improvement. :) I've seen it happen in many videos. But yeah, since the game is already so short, it's probably a few seconds.
I would try to make a video, but I already have too much on my hands and limited computer time (i.e only weekends). So you're on your own I'm afraid.
>Hehe.. I'd never had thought of it unless you told me about it. Damn his dress is ugly. To bad the movie desyncs while using this mode. Otherwise it would have been fun to watch to the end. Hmm.. I will go ahead and save some states to check what other stuff looks like. :)
That's how I found out originally - the game defaulted to Japan, and your video desynched. If it hadn't desynched I wouldn't have noticed either, just assumed that was how your character was supposed to look like.
I guess you'll just have to play your way trough to check.
Depends on which Japanese version you use. There are both 50 and 60 fps Japanese systems.
Just played trough it, the ending is not different other than that the names of the characters and the game are changed, and the protagonist wears his toga instead of the armor in the ending picture.
Most probably. But that will take a while.
I have alot of work coming up. Besides, I want the advance key feature for next movie.
I will watch the movie a couple of times a day to determine what I can improve more etc. It would be nice if someone helped out more with suggestions. :)
I will optimize the second miniboss + the first boss for sure. Then I'll see if I can improve the second boss a small bit. The first level could perhaps be improved by a second or two. But let's not talk about that anymore in here. Use the other thread for it please. :)
I just hope that this one get's published so that I have a better goal to beat. Feels like a better motivation. :)
I'm guessing this version is not getting published, but I know how you feel. You should probably cancel it if you're making a new version.
There is a frame advance feature in the Gens beta by Jyzero.
I have gotten the version from Jyzero now. So I should be able to begin within this month atleast. I will have alot of work this month so I don't have time for speedruns much right now.
I think you ment to hit the Yes button, right? ;)
No seriously though. That was very immature of you. Gave me nothing to improve the run with. And we all know that the game isn't that bad. You just started a sandbox war mate. I don't feel that its very welcomed here.
This was soo boring I didn't even watch it to the end.
Sorry. Try a better game.
I think you ment to hit the Yes button, right? ;)
No seriously though. That was very immature of you. Gave me nothing to improve the run with. And we all know that the game isn't that bad. You just started a sandbox war mate. I don't feel that its very welcomed here.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
oh i see.. i was sure i had seen that "sorry try anotehr game" somewhere... hehehe... ok now i'm gonna watch mystic defender
edit: done watching. hmm i was most impressed that the character does all that just to meet a naked woman!! O_O
i have never played the game, but can't u take damage to save time?
