The Normal Stuff
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses programming errors
- Ignores delays caused by bonus effects
- Suggested Screenshot: Frame 3879
Timetable
| Level | Time | Frames Improved |
|---|
| Green Hill 1 | 0:24 | 8 |
| Green Hill 2 | 0:13**** | 215 |
| Green Hill 3 | 0:30* | 14 |
| Marble Zone 1 | 0:40**** | 247 |
| Marble Zone 2 | 0:52 | 0# |
| Marble Zone 3 | 1:12 | 0# |
| Spring Yard 1 | 0:22 | 1 |
| Spring Yard 2 | 0:28 | 3 |
| Spring Yard 3 | 0:58 | 0# |
| Labyrinth Zone 1 | 0:40 | 0# |
| Labyrinth Zone 2 | 0:51 | 0# |
| Labyrinth Zone 3 | 1:07 | 0 |
| Starlight Zone 1 | 0:21 | 9 |
| Starlight Zone 2 | 0:16 | 12 |
| Starlight Zone 3 | 0:42* | 69 |
| Scrap Brain 1 | 0:32 | 0# |
| Scrap Brain 2 | 0:41 | 0# |
| Scrap Brain 3 | 0:18 | 0# |
| Final Zone | 1:13 | 5 |
Times in bold indicate an in-game timer improvement, with the number of time units improved represented by the number of asterices next to them.
Levels marked with a # are entirely unchanged from the prior TAS.
General Improvments
Shortly after the previous run was submitted, a subtle trick which can be used to reach top speed 5 frames faster from a standstill was discovered -- on the ground, Sonic accelerates at a rate of 12 per frame (this is increased to 24 while in air), but he brakes at a rate of 128 per frame. So pressing the "wrong" direction for a frame, and then immediately reversing it causes sonic to have a speed of 128, instead of the 24 (or 36, given a jump to increase acceleration) that holding that direction for two frames would achieve. This was used to shave 3-4 frames off of most levels.
Some further improvements were achieved by better optimization of rolling at the start of slopes, and downslope jumping for the speed boost.
The improvements were performed by Upthorn, but levels, and level segments, which could not be improved, were left as they were in JXQ's recently published TAS.
Specific improvements
- Green Hill 2 - New strategy of zipping from the wall to the goal discovered by Upthorn and optimized by JXQ
- Marble 1 - A freak accident while attempting to gain back frames lost due to a bat desynchronization lead to the discovery of a four second shortcut.
- Labyrinth Zone 3 was modified very very slightly to recover from a lag variation. You probably won't notice the difference.
- Starlight 3 - Better optimization of slope roll and slope jumping allows for some sick speeds here.
- Final Zone - A method similar to what is used here to avoid being crushed allows the player to fall through the floor and die.
Thanks to
- Adelikat, Fabian, Moozooh and Xebra for their tireless words of encouragement over the long and hard five days that went into making this run.
Enjoy.
