Joined: 7/18/2016
Posts: 106
Location: United States
Bagel Brothers is done, and another 10 seconds of time save has been found for both TASes! Incredible! Though the video enters the level as Berzerker, you would actually enter as Cyclone in the full-game TAS. Not to worry though as there is a hidden Berzerker helmet near the start.
Favini also describes a time-saving technique I've never thought of nor have I seen anyone else discuss (edit: RandomPieIV has talked about it before). If you align the camera in a certain way when touching the flag (i.e., aligning the screen edges to the block grid), you can reduce the number of blocks on-screen and therefore the total time it takes for the screen to transition to the holodeck style. Even the types of blocks on screen make a difference—blank and background tiles appear to be removed at a rate of 7 per frame, while solid tiles convert to gray at a rate of 3 per frame. Favini saved 6 frames in this video just by taking all this into account. I calculate that at the two extremes (all-blocks misaligned vs no-blocks aligned) the holodeck transition can take anywhere from 40 to 105 frames.
Link to video
Joined: 7/18/2016
Posts: 106
Location: United States
I don't think anyone is tackling improving those TASes right now, though there are many known improvements that have been discovered but not yet reported in a centralized manner. Maybe I should do that one day in this thread. Anyway, Favini's main focus seems to be on TASing the ROM hack Kid Chameleon 2: Heady Metal's Revenge, and a TAS of the full game was being worked on for a while, but I believe the project had to be put on hold for a bit due to the immense amount of work involved. I don't blame them, optimizing movement in this game can be a real pain.
Joined: 7/18/2016
Posts: 106
Location: United States
Alright everyone, time for another update from Favini01!
A huge time save was found in the Land Below that utilizes the backwards bouncing off enemies trick to full effect. Reworking this into a full-game TAS context, this means we would do the Maximum Levels TAS strat of using Skycutter for the second half of the level instead of Eyeclops, avoid the telepad and collect the 10 diamonds (so that's 10 extra diamonds for the Any% TAS) and then get a hyperspeed bounce off the scorpion in the hallway. This would end the level as Skycutter with 1 HP, so it would also save a full transformation animation in the Final Marathon.
Link to video
A brand-new technique which we have given the rather appropriate nickname of "Edging" is a strat as fascinating as the nickname is sensual, LOL. As Favini describes it:
To sum up, you can fall off a ledge and land on the same ledge. Just make sure to duck before falling; otherwise, you would fall down since you would instantly go 1 pixel lower after falling. This method allows you to inflict damage every 6 frames.
Below is a video where Red Stealth uses Edging to obliterate Shishkaboss. In a full-game context, it looks like this technique may go on to only yield a timesave in Boomerang Bosses (no video of this yet), as the new methods for beating Shishkaboss and Bagel Brothers with Berzerker appear much faster.
Link to video
And yes, the strat also works with Maniaxe!
Link to video
Breaking through the Beneath the Twisted Hills rock block wall as Kid. That's right, you can now break a block even if you are adjacent to it from below. How is this possible? As Favini says:
If the character is near a wall and he turns around right before a bounce, he will break the block of the wall right above him.
The question is, can it be done with Micromax? Not to worry, this trick works with any helmet!! I would guess that Micromax can beat this level even faster than Kid, as no manipulation of the nearby shifting blocks would be required. Thus, this discovery just straight up saves at least 25 seconds over the current Any% TAS. Truly remarkable.
Link to video
