Made with BizHawk interim but syncs on 2.9.1. I also used a modified ROM to show the X and Y positions as RAM Watch isn't really usable, but this didn't affect sync either.
Quite interesting to route and TAS. Movement is 1 pixel per frame with no acceleration. Annoyingly they would sometimes stand still for one frame upon landing, so I changed up the jumps to avoid this where necessary. The last level took far longer than any of the others, and it's definitely still improvable.
DrD2k9: Unclaiming for judging and joining as co-author.
When I grabbed this original submission for judging, I stumbled across a quick glitch improvement on the very first level (explained below). I checked to see if Randomno wanted to investigate the glitch further or if I should more fully examine the run myself to see if the glitch was an option beyond the first stage. I ended up doing the more detailed evaluation of the run for further glitch use and any other improvements (as the original submission notes suggested there may be improvement possibilities in the final stage).
Fade-Out Glitch: I quite accidentally discovered that pressing either character's jump button just before stage 1 started caused the level graphics to fade back out immediately after fading in. The two characters were still visible and moved as normal, and the stage's geometry remained unchanged. The stage was still completable as normal by getting the characters to the doors. The fade-out glitch simply eliminated the need for a fade-out after reaching those doors which eliminated the fade-out delay after completing the stage. This glitch saved 15 frames in the first stage. Unfortunately, I was unable to repeat the glitch for any other stage.
All other improvements were from movement optimizations. The chart below shows where improvements were made. The total difference between this current version and the original is 41 frames.
Stage | Stage Difference | Total Difference | Improvement Notes |
---|
1 | 19 | 19 | 15 frames saved from from fadeout glitch and 4 from optimized movement |
2 | 0 | 19 |
3 | 1 | 20 | optimized movement |
4 | 0 | 20 |
5 | 2 | 22 | optimized movement |
6 | 1 | 23 | optimized movement |
7 | 0 | 23 |
8 | 0 | 23 |
9 | 1 | 24 | optimized movement |
10 | 17 | 41 | optimized movement |
I've updated the temp encode. I have also updated the submission to show BizHawk 2.9.1 as the emulator used (as that's what I used, even though the original was on an interim build).
Of an interesting note, I also learned that pressing the jump buttons on the end-game screen causes the characters to jump up from below the bottom of the screen.
Resetting to New for another judge.