GB Mega Man II in 16:58 by Tremane & Noxxa

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 2.2.1
  • Beats Dr. Wily in some kind of parallel universe
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Takes damage to save time
This run improves upon the published movie by 1013 frames, or 00:16.96 seconds, mostly by improved RNG and strategy changes.

Stage-by-Stage comments:

Metalman

By avoiding the floor cleaner we are able to damage boost through one of the moles instead of the falling-hammer and manipulate the RNG so that the next mole will drop a big health refill.
Rest of the Stage is unchanged.

Woodman

Nothing in the Stage has changed, except small improvements.
To describe the Woodshield one would say: "A shoe too large trips one up" - normally it should keep sprites out, but there are so many openings Megaman just has to fill them with metalblades.
sidenote Megaman loves to shot like a Shotgun in all directions :^)

Airman

Nothing big changed..

Clashman

The start of the stage is identically to the old run, before the long fall it is indeed faster to shot the can-guy and slide all the way.
Clash fight is worth watching! You may not notice it but Megaman does a slide in mid-air because of bad programming.
The right side of the screen, somehow, behaves like a blackhole. All sprites (clouds from the airshooter) that leave to the right are instantly gone and thus enable Megaman to hit Clashman faster.

Magnetman

With good RNG a big health-refill has been dropped by one of the enemies giving Megaman the ability to slide through the last enemy before the bossdoor.
In the middle of the Stage those magnetic-zones which pull Megaman to the right are abused to get a little bit faster through the long hallway.
Magnetman fight is unchanged..

Hardman

Nothing big changed, again..

Topman

Now it's getting interesting, Megaman equipped with the Infinity Gauntlet blazes through the game and nothing is able stop him..

Needleman

By sacrificing some minor frames collecting refills Megaman is able to save even more in the long run the pathway with all those damn needles which run on a global timer..
After seeing Megamans dance moves Needleman decided to detonate and at least try to hit Megaman with some particles but to no avail..

Quint

Figured out that Sakugarnethe pogostick has a fixed appearance after 128 frames, with this knowledge Megaman can take his time and divest himself of Quinthis older?/younger?-brother by 8 shots from the buster and 4 precise punches from the Infinity Gauntlet Quint has 32 HP - hardknuckle deals 6, clashbomb 4, other weapons 2, buster 1

Wily

After the loss of his brother Megaman seeks revenge and hops into Rushmarine Rushjet Rushmissile ✔ and hunts down the nasty old Dr.Wily
Using every last drop of strength, Megaman awakens his ability to make an airjump by clenching his fist with the Infinity Gauntlet this avoids going to the menu or waiting for those platforms to appear
Using Sakugarne the pogostick is -to my astonishment- faster then using buster, as a nice gimmick Megaman doesn't even have to change back to buster.
After the fight, Dr.Wily tries to escape to another galaxy but one little snap with the Infinity Gauntlet makes him disappear..

Frametable

Here is the Frametable for the Mega Man II TAS.
Frames gained are marked with - minus
Stage name Frames total
Startup -1 -1
Metallman Stage -52 -53
Woodman Stage -34 -87
Airman Stage -6 -93
Clashman Stage -101 -194
Magnetman Stage -72 -266
Hardman Stage -19 -285
Topman Stage -226 -511
Needleman Stage -184 -695
Quint Fight -52 -747
Wily -266 -1013
Total -1013

Version differences

Here are the differences listed [dead link removed] credits to the cutting room floor only the shortcut in Topman stage is really useful, rough estimate is a save of ~30 frames

How RNG works

There are several addresses which store RNG values: for TASing purposes FFFB,FFFC,FFFD,FFFE are enough.
FFFC indicates what your next drop will be from the table below
RNG only advances:
  • when Megaman is standing!
  • an enemy is killed advances the value - FFFC gives its value to FFFB
  • an enemy e.g. Metdozers in Topmanstage pulls RNG
  • Bossdoor opens/closes
  • an air-bubble leaves Megamans nose/mouth
  • after a boss has died
RNG Value Drop Droprate
0-2 1-UP 1%
3-5 Big Weapon-refill 1%
6-9 Big Health-refill 2%
10-37 small Health-refill 11%
38-76 small Weapon-refill 15%
77-255 nothing 70%

a BIG THANK YOU

Goes to Noxxa for all the values he found, without this I wouldn't be able to improve this run by so many frames
I hope you enjoyed the run, eventhough the music might not be everybody's favourite! :^)

Memory: Judging
Memory: Optimization seems very good, impressive improvement on the published run! The version differences were only a small portion of the time saved so it's obvious that alone was not the main source of improvements.
This movie seemingly has it all! Smooth movement, good boss fights, glitches and good music.
...Wait, it actually doesn't have that last thing but it was still a fun watch nonetheless. The audience feels the same way with multiple positive replies and mostly positive votes.
Accepting to Moons as an improvement to [3020] GB Mega Man II by Tremane & willwc in 17:15.75.
feos: Pub.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15578
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6186: Tremane & Noxxa's GB Mega Man II in 16:58.79
Challenger
He/Him
Skilled player (1689)
Joined: 2/23/2016
Posts: 1061
What's the most obvious differences between versions? Meanwhile, I'm voting yes.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Active player (458)
Joined: 1/28/2008
Posts: 143
Location: Germany
Oh, seems like i forgot to implement the version differences - i now added those to the submission, thank you challenger there´s only 1 useful difference, hence i used the EU version in Topmanstage there´s a block missing, which allows to slide underneath a Metdozer, my rough estimate is a save of ~30 frames for that..
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
EZGames69
He/They
Publisher, Reviewer, Expert player (4461)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2761
I gotta be honest, the music in this makes me feel like this is a MegaMan bootleg and not an actual release. that being said, I still enjoy some MegaMan tases. and although this is more of a personal preference, could it be possible to include the GB BIOS into this tas with no changes to RNG?
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
What in the world is that new Hard Knuckle glitch? It makes the run look incredibly different after the Hard Man stage. It seems like it's just interrupting screen transitions to let you climb faster, but I couldn't tell if it also let you skip some sections, especially at the beginning of the Wily stage. Impressive. Nice boss fights.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Active player (458)
Joined: 1/28/2008
Posts: 143
Location: Germany
@EZGames i tried to add the GB Bios and sync it but it just doesn't work at my end - sorry :/ @mklip: the hard knuckle glitch was also used in the last run, but without knowledge of RNG, routing and using all of the possible timesavers was just impossible. I haven´t really figured out what´s causing the glitch, if i had to guess Value "0x0F1D" 1-byte, unsigned: - is 0 when megaman is on solid ground - is 1 when megaman is ascending - is 3 when megaman is falling - is 4/7/8 when climbing a ladder/reaching the top of a ladder - is 12/14(unsure if its 14 but something like that) when going through a screen transition the hard knuckle has a weird behaviour, if 0x0F1D is 3 and you shoot 0x0F1D changes to 15 which makes megaman air-stuck ( he just stands still in the air for several frames) 0x0F1D changes to 0 (megaman should be standing on solid ground) this gives us 2 options: 1) Airjumping as seen in the wily stage to skip the appearing platforms 2) skipping screens for whatever reason and yeah it lets you skip some stuff: In Topman for example you skip the first and second big Cat-enemy In wily you skip the 2nd room with the spike floor, and also the dumb climbing-session completely
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Oh, I didn't even know there were this many improvements, and that's even without considering the Hard Knuckle glitch. By the way, I really recommend encoding at 720p (minimum height 720); it is easily doable (especially since this is GB) even with my 8-year-old computer. This will allow Youtube to display it at 60fps, which is very important for a number of games, especially Mega Man games.
Active player (458)
Joined: 1/28/2008
Posts: 143
Location: Germany
Thanks @FractalFusion i´ll do this in my next submission then, I don't have that much knowledge when it comes to encoding videos - sorry :) I still hope it was decend to watch!
2-do: Smurfs Nightmare, The (EU) GBC 10% fin : Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge improvement: submitted Mega Man II Improvement: submitted Mega Man IV Improvement: submitted Mega Man V Improvement: submitted future plan: -n-
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15578
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3849] GB Mega Man II by Tremane & Noxxa in 16:58.79
Emulator Coder, Judge, Experienced player (729)
Joined: 2/26/2020
Posts: 781
Location: California
I resynced this movie to GBC in GBA mode and console verification of it was successful: Link to video