Jenka's Nightmare is a popular Cave Story mod. It was originally developed to 75% completion, and then revived with a bad ending, until finally being completely redone and made way better.
I went ahead and made a TAS up to the first boss:
Link to video
Most of the info I use comes from nitsuja's original TAS. I'll go ahead and post all the relevant info from that:
Jumping to control speed
Speed on the ground oscillates rather than staying capped at a maximum. By decelerating in the air, the speed can be tweaked such that the oscillation peaks at a higher value on the ground. Jumping again can then freeze the oscillation at that maximum speed until landing. This is why I tend to stay in the air as much as possible.
Horizontal Enemy Boosting
Until I get the Booster 2.0, I'm normally limited to a maximum speed of 845, but by lowering my speed to below 512 and then clipping the corner of an enemy, the enemy pushes me forward and I can reach speeds of up to 1023. This is usually very difficult to do, since it requires hitting an exact position on a moving enemy and reaching a specific velocity value at the same time. This trick is why I get hit so much early on in the game (to push myself forward faster than normal and save a bunch of frames every time). Note that it only works on certain types of enemies, because not all enemies have the type of solid collision that can push the player around.
Invulnerability Reset
Normally the player blinks for a while after getting hit and can't get hit again during that time, but some things (such as the end of a boss round) can reset the invulnerability time and allow you to immediately get hit again. Most importantly, opening the menu resets your invulnerability. This was used to get hit twice in a row by a bat to skip a bunch of backtracking in Grasstown. I didn't discover this trick.
He also luckily had plenty of memory addresses. The most important ones are:
0049E66C d s 0 X velocity
0049E670 d s 0 Y velocity
0049E6E8 d s 0 booster fuel
004A5B00 d s 0 wait length
004A5AFC d s 0 waited frames
d = 2 bytes
s = signed
The mod can be found here: http://www.cavestory.org/forums/index.php?/topic/5050-jenka-no-akumu-3rd-demo/
It's not completely finished yet, but it will be soon.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter
- some loser
Hey.
I saw your TAS WIP on youtube and wanted to let you know I released the full version of the game earlier today.
The full version's release topic is {here} (external link), in case any one else is interested in helping this TAS out.
Some spoiler-ish things concerning speed-running:
In case you aren't aware: Later on, in the Sand Zone's teleporter puzzle, you can use the Dog Whistle to reset the teleporters. I put in a shortcut wherein resetting the teleporters actually sets Booster's teleporter directly to Misery.
I also made the Critter Juice subquest no longer require talking to Monster X to initiate it, so that should help cut down on some time too, by simply heading straight for Chaba. That said it MIGHT be possible to skip the entire thing with frame-perfect boosting across the death spikes in Labyrinth W, but I'm not entirely sure.
This thing is a large-scale game with its own story. And when I say 'large-scale', I mean 'quite possibly larger and longer than the original Cave Story'.
Incidently, someone on the CS forum pointed out this morning what might be a game-breaking bug late in the game, so while it shouldn't affect immediate progress on this TAS, I'm going to try getting a version update out tonight (~12 hours or so from now).
So if you get stuck in Jenka's House, that'd be why.
I figured out what said bug is, and it shouldn't affect your playthrough at all, unless you go back and do a NG+ run. Regardless, a new version will be up this evening.
Oooo, Jenka's Nightmare is finally done? Awesome! From what I remember of this it would make a great TAS (it helps that Cave Story is amazing for TASing period ^^)
Oh, another really obvious thing that I remembered, that will help with the TAS:
Resetting the game as soon as the text box opens for Curly to start talking will skip the entire opening cutscene (I'm not sure how many frames, if any, there are between the skipflag being set and the textbox opening, though).
EDIT:
New version is out, see full version topic. At the time of posting this, the correct version is 1.0.1.1.
Did some testing
-The Snake is still useless, mainly due to its slow recharge time and damage over time effect. Since you only have it for 3 battles anyway it's faster just to skip it. Saves ~8 seconds from picking it up and about 4 seconds of leveling.
-Damage boosting is pretty handy.
-Blue Shirt Igor dies in 3 seconds to the Level 3 Polar Star.
-There are tiny collision holes in -5 HP spikes that you can stand in. I'll be abusing this in grass town to save a tiny bit of time.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter
- some loser
I really wish I wasn't reading about this right before I need to sleep! Definitely looking into this tomorrow, very pumped for this finished mod as well as a TAS for it. Original Cave Story and nitsuja's TAS are in my top 5s, respectively. <3
edit: A little sad about Snake not being helpful, but oh well! I'm not sure if the Spur can make an appearance, but I'd love to see it get some use.
Currently obsessed with: Mega Man 2 hacks, SFA3, Super Metroid Zero Mission, MM8BDM (Skulltag MegaMan mod, it's amazing!)
The Snake is very situational, but I actually did nerf it between D3 and the full release (one less hit, resulting in 5 hits of 2 damage instead of 6 hits of 2 damage). The reason why being: If you play NG+ (loading finished profile from original CS), the snake from that game will become an infinite ammo snake in this game later on. It was surpassing the Blade for damage output at that point.
Also there's something early on in your WIP that bugs me. From the tip of the slope with the critter on it at 1:14, you should be able to jump onto the blocks above and to the right of it, and then you can continue your way up the map without having to turn around more than once.
There's also going to be another new version out tonight, but it'll be a minor one and shouldn't affect the TAS in any way.
EDIT: New version [1.0.1.2] is up on the CS forum. Fix list is the most recent post on the topic.
Link to video
Revised it with new stuff, now it's over a minute faster.
-One minute saved by skipping the opening.
-I figured out how to get Quote to higher speeds. Turning left a frame before hitting the ground makes Quote go 2 pixels faster, up to a max of 845. This even affects how he walks, surprisingly.
-Route change in the First Cave that's slightly faster.
-Saved a bit of time in the Blue Shirt Igor fight.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter
- some loser
2:12 - I'd have to agree; I'm not sure if you're advancing the RNG or not, but it was pretty noticeably slow when you jumped and held your h-position there.
Yeah, I just noticed the EXP collection is a bit slow. I'll revise it again, but I'll just put it as a part of WIP 2 instead of another video again.
Edit: Ok, done with revising the first section. Saved about 3 seconds.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter
- some loser
I would love to play this game, but I'm having an issue with the gamepad support. Analog works, but I just want to use the D-pad, and I can't figure out how to make that work by itself. I tried searching for other people who had the same issue, but came up empty.
4:41 - If you don't approach Suto and instead use the door, he notices you and drops down to block the way out. I'm not sure whether the dialog change from doing this would be faster including him leaping up and back down, but it has the added benefit of keeping him closer to the door so you can leave the room faster afterward.
I'm wondering if it's possible to sequence break the fight entirely by using the Mannan facing right @ 4:38 and somehow shoot it, jump to the right into the attack it creates, and damage boosting to the hanging platform to the right of it. It'd require testing, but if you pull it off you'd be able to enter the generator room from the lower entrance and skip both the fight and having to backtrack to Jack to get the key at all.
7:30 - Damn, that was sweet.
There's probably going to be another update to the game tonight, but again, it shouldn't affect the TAS at all. Just some routine bug fixes later in the game.
4:41 - If you don't approach Suto and instead use the door, he notices you and drops down to block the way out. I'm not sure whether the dialog change from doing this would be faster including him leaping up and back down, but it has the added benefit of keeping him closer to the door so you can leave the room faster afterward.
I'm wondering if it's possible to sequence break the fight entirely by using the Mannan facing right @ 4:38 and somehow shoot it, jump to the right into the attack it creates, and damage boosting to the hanging platform to the right of it. It'd require testing, but if you pull it off you'd be able to enter the generator room from the lower entrance and skip both the fight and having to backtrack to Jack to get the key at all.
7:30 - Damn, that was sweet.
There's probably going to be another update to the game tonight, but again, it shouldn't affect the TAS at all. Just some routine bug fixes later in the game.
-I didn't know leaving did anything. I'll test it out tonight.
-It seems like it's possible to use that Mannan. Would really save a lot of backtracking if it's possible.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter
- some loser
(Incoming wall of text):
So I've been doing some thinking, and the largest make/break in this TAS would be that labyrinth sequence break I mentioned above (just using precision boosting per frame to skip the death spike pit after Monster X, and then exit the labyrinth without wasting time there).
However, the biggest issue with doing this is the Super Missiles, as well as the missiles themselves. I made it so the more missiles you have when you get the Super Missile Launcher, the more missiles the SML will have, with the catch being it's a one-way process. At the earliest opportunity, you can get to it with 27 missiles, which translates to 9 Super Missiles (Dividing it by 3). Which, depending on the situation, may or may not be faster to collect another missile upgrade before getting the SML. It would have to be carefully calculated and tested, which would be a very time consuming process.
The second issue is where you get the SML. It's in the Labyrinth, if you go counter-clockwise in the central maze. This is an issue because you need to detour to Chaba to get the key from him to open the maze to get to this area. It will take at least a few minutes even at optimal speed, even if you simply leave the labyrinth afterward through sequence breaking past Monster X.
So the biggest question is a game-long detail: do you collect the Super Missile Launcher to make quick work of later bosses? Or do you bare with the regular Launcher's lower (by almost two thirds) damage output? I'm really unsure which is faster, since it takes until the very end of the game to determine time saved vs time lost...
Second to this is the Blade, which has a sidequest all its own that will also take a few minutes. But since it's easily the highest DPS weapon in the game, it's hard to plan a TAS around that as well. Blade + SML completely destroys anything in a matter of seconds, but it will take a number of minutes to attain either, or both, of these weapons.
...I imagine by the time this TAS is finished you'll have pulled out a lot of hair.
EDIT: New game version [1.0.1.3] is out now. Hopefully this'll be the last update for a while.
Yeah, it is hard to determine. Both upgrades take nearly 3 minutes to get, which means they would need to save me over 3 minutes. Which won't happen, really.
I say this because in nitsuja's TAS, just the super missile expansion saved about 30 seconds. And that was getting them roughly halfway through the game, roughly the same time you get them in Jenka's Nightmare. This equates to about 7-12 bosses he used Super missiles on, if you count multiple phase fights.
So taking over 3 minutes to get either of them probably won't really help in the long run. Unless I'm missing something, this means I'll only be using the Fireball and Missile Launcher.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter
- some loser
Well, the Blade is likely the faster one to get, and it plops you out in the location you'd have gone if you never got it. So if you did get one of them, the Blade would have a lower time loss.
I just worry that the regular missiles will be too weak later on, but it's hard to say with a TAS. There's at least two upgrades with the regular missles that would only have two or three seconds of loss each, so it's all up to figuring out how many you'll need to do consistent damage for the bigger bosses later on.
The meanest boss for time would probably be Jenka's Nightmare, which is effectively a reskin of the Undead Core. Reason being there is a long waiting time for it to reach the left side of the room before it starts attacking, and when it reaches the right side of the room it stops attacking until it reaches the left side again. The only way 'around' this is to deal enough damage within that span of time that it hits its desperation attack, which will make it vulnerable regardless of which direction it's going.
It's pretty easy to kill it fast enough in a non-TAS with the SML alone, but I really couldn't tell you if it's possible with lesser weapons. You'd be losing upwards of 20 seconds or so waiting for the boss to re-enter attack mode if you can't kill it fast enough.
Another one would be Genesis, which is effectively Ironhead with gravity. That kind of goes without saying with how it behaves.
Yes. Go talk to Jenka after Itoh and Momorin pick up Sue.
Or you can just talk to Curly to make the credits roll sooner. (but where's the fun in that?)
EDIT: I lied, there's probably going to be one more update tonight sometime this weekend. The last one, if I'm lucky (I'm not).
Was rewatching the TAS WIP 1 & 2 and saw something I missed last time I watched it. At 7:01 you head over and activate pillar 5's fans... But wouldn't it be slightly faster to do so after turning on #6's? Removes about 2 seconds of 'backtracking' there, I imagine.
