Here's my Rad Gravity run. I must give thanks to Spoony Bard. Without his first version, I would never have been motivated enough to make this run. My general route is basically the same, but with lots of optimizations in each level.
I discovered that the disk that allows you to fly isn't actually neccesary. However, it does allow for a nice shortcut. I only need to use it once, so I only get two energy tanks (it costs two full energy tanks to use it).
I only discovered this after I had already reached Telos (the last level), so I had to go on some exciting hex editing adventures to correct the problem. Of course, I ended up having to redo much of what came after the change (level 2), but the hex editing still saved me hours. Nesmock is VERY useful.
The collision detection is very quirky in this game. If you can get inside a wall, you can travel very fast to the left, but but you can't go to the right at all. I abuse this in a number of places. After I get the teleport beacon (asteroid level), it gets even more interesting. You see, if you go off the screen where it's not intended (like through a wall), you usually end up in another adjacent area on that same planet, often saving long walks. Utopia can be completed ridiculusly quickly because of this.
Here's a rundown on each level:
Cyberia isn't all that interesting. It's just running back and forth, killing robots and occasionally dodging bullets. Effluvia is more of the same, but without the robots.
Turvia is interesting, because after I get the blue gravity thing, I would normally have to walk all the way to the left and use the bubble to go down into the hole at the end. However, if you fall up into an earlier hole at exactly the right time, you end up in the same area as if you had taken the bubble much further to the left. Usually you would end up in the same area but further to the right. Make sense? No. Turvia is a crazy place. I also fall right through an evil block once.
Vernia is a very boring planet. Especially because you have to watch a part of it twice. Sorry about that. I also had to redo this ENTIRE planet after the hex change because of the extreme random factors. Ugh. I hate Vernia. I abuse the pause trick a number of times. If you pause at the exact moment you get hit, after you unpause you won't get stunned. I also use this in Turvia because it's cooler than getting the vertigun first (like you're supposed to).
Asteroid field isn't that interesting, but at least I get the teleport beacon here. Woohoo! Utopia is quickly taken care of after this level.
Volcania is an interesting planet. The teleport beacon saves lots of time. Normally, you would have to walk all the way to the right on the surface, then go down into a crater and walk all the way to the left again. I go into the the first crater and then use the teleport beacon to go through the wall, skipping a large chunk of the level. I get the disks here because they allow for a shortcut later. Otherwise I wouldn't get them. When killing the green spires near the end, some badguys pop out. I kill them to prevent lag.
Telos is completed very quickly, thanks to the disks and the teleport beacon. I skip at least half the level, if not more. You can put up a disk in mid-air if you jump and press B at the exact right frame. I use this as a shortcut, saving maybe 20 seconds or so. I'm sorry the second-last boss isn't very interesting. Looking back, I guess I could have at least tried making it more fun to watch, but the thought of doing Kakos again is too frightening to think about. I don't think it's possible to beat him faster, though.
Kakos (the very last boss) is the biggest pain in the ass boss, ever. I finally managed to kill him quickly, but I'm sure it's possible to do it faster.
Like I already said, I had to do some hex editing in the process of making this movie, so there's no ROM name embedded in the movie file. I hope this is okay. I did manage to hex the md5sum and the savestate/reset bit back in, though.
FCEU was used. No passwords. Plenty of programming error abuse. Damage was taken to save time. No deaths. Pure speed.
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