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  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Manipulates luck
  • Emulator used FCEU0.98.27
Castlevania 2 TAS by zggzdydp. This run is 2 minutes 23 seconds faster than my previous run, improvements come from new planning, new tricks and a few lag reduction.
In this run, I ran with a new route which is very different from the previous one. Compare to the previous route, there is no waiting time in this one, I arrived at the towns in the day time which the guys with crystal are there. And I got a powerful whip (morning star) very early in the route, some mansions were finished smoother. A shortcoming of the route: it needs to collect lots of hearts to buy items, so I had to kill many enemies in beginning and a few more enemies in Laruba mansion.
New glitches: in Rover mansion, I warped to a secret mansion (in fact it's a part of Laruba mansion, but no enemy in it), this is a good shortcut for completing the mansion. In Brahm mansion, I used "off stair glitch" after bought the oak stake, then I zipped into the wall to go out and save my time. In some mansions, I killed a few enemies to reduce lag.
Many many thanks to klmz for the route planning and some tricks, also thanks Bisqwit and Walker Boh for their contributions, and every author who improved FCEU emulator.
Bisqwit: Cool improvement. Accepting.
NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also corrected the ROM name.
  • You indicated Castlevania II - Simon's Quest (U).nes
  • I updated it to Castlevania II - Simon's Quest (U) [!].nes
Bisqwit: Removed screenshots, apparently it had desynced…

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Posted: 5/31/2008 4:12 PM
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TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1997: zggzdydp's NES Castlevania II: Simon's Quest in 29:45.02
Posted: 5/31/2008 4:13 PM
Post subject: Re: #1997: zggzdydp's NES Castlevania II - Simon's Quest in
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Bisqwit
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Most unexpected. I will watch it curiously.
Posted: 5/31/2008 5:35 PM
Post subject: Re: #1997: zggzdydp's NES Castlevania II - Simon's Quest in
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Bisqwit
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Nice route you used in the under-lake mansion. Excellent improvement. Accepting.
Posted: 5/31/2008 5:43 PM
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girfanatic501
Joined: 1/27/2008
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Before it becomes an actual run, I must boldy press the Yes button for awesomness. I will now self-destruct. *click* *boom*
See Youtube page (GIRfanaticTAS) for all runs and stuff.
Posted: 5/31/2008 8:13 PM
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VANDAL
Experienced player (614)
Joined: 4/24/2005
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Very nicely done. The new route seems to be pretty solid. Yes vote and congrats on improving your old run by so much :)
Posted: 5/31/2008 9:15 PM
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Rising_Tempest
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Simon is back, and he's quite pissed about being cursed.
Posted: 5/31/2008 9:46 PM
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p0rtal_0f_rain
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Definitely a + ! I can't wait to see the video, or put me in charge of encoding?! =)
Posted: 5/31/2008 10:11 PM
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dave_dfwm
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Very nice route change. It looks as if this is going to be get published before most members even see it was submitted! (yes vote from me, but obviously unnecessary at this point...)
Posted: 6/1/2008 3:56 AM
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p0rtal_0f_rain
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I gotta post again, truly unbelievable! I never thought Simon still had a faster speed coming off that tornado from the Jam Wasteland. I didn't realize that Simon could move a few more pixels to the left just to glitch through a wall. And I never even knew there was a hidden area at the underwater mansion! I call this the best of the best!
Posted: 6/1/2008 5:33 AM
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klmz
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Yeah my "alternative route", the stair-walk-off glitch and "tornado jump" etc all work so great! (Pride +1000!) Yes vote of course.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
Posted: 6/1/2008 6:40 AM
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Bisqwit
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Also missed the stair-case trick on the first watching. Very cool. (Encoding.)
Posted: 6/1/2008 9:22 AM
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nitsujrehtona
Joined: 3/17/2007
Posts: 97
Location: Berkeley, CA
If the game's thinking hard enough to lag all the time, why does it let you get away with all these tricks? I generally find this game painful to watch, but I like what you've done to it.
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Posted: 6/1/2008 8:46 PM
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Highness
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Joined: 8/24/2004
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Not sure if it's just my imagination, but is the lag reduced when Simon is jumping without whipping or throwing holy water? At least that is what it looks like at some places. Especially when there are more than one skeleton on the screen at once. Anyhow, this was an awesome run. A couple of new glitches, bugs and route changes. I'm impressed. Cheers! A Yes from me.
Posted: 6/2/2008 7:23 AM
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Bisqwit
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Highness wrote:
Not sure if it's just my imagination, but is the lag reduced when Simon is jumping without whipping or throwing holy water?
Well, sure, whipping and throwing holy water requires extra processing so it makes sense that it would lag more. However, there are three situations where the author does that: ― When killing an enemy: Reducing enemies reduces lag. ― When manipulating the coordinates for a subsequent falling-through-floor trick. Not really avoidable. ― When trying to lengthen the jump: I guess this makes the movie marginally faster where it occurs. I don't remember seeing it being used in laggy situations.
Posted: 6/2/2008 8:07 AM
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klmz
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Hmmm, it makes me wonder why you didn't kill the mummy in the grave yard using the "killer holywater" glitch to reduce some lags.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
Posted: 6/2/2008 8:08 AM
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Bisqwit
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klmz wrote:
the "killer holywater" glitch
What's that?
Posted: 6/2/2008 8:26 AM
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klmz
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It's a glitch to one-shot-kill (any?) enemy using holywater.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
Posted: 6/2/2008 8:29 AM
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Bisqwit
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klmz wrote:
It's a glitch to one-shot-kill (any?) enemy using holywater.
Uh, how does that work?
Posted: 6/2/2008 8:34 AM
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klmz
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Bisqwit wrote:
Uh, how does that work?
I just know how to perform it but I don't know how it works.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
Posted: 6/2/2008 9:51 AM
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zggzdydp
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*Highness: Hm, yes, the game lags terribly when they happen. Sometimes I did that, it's luck manipulation for the floor sinking glitch working. Bisqwit is right. *klmz: I think it still lagged even if kill the mummy by holywater glitch, because holywater itself made the game lag, not killing enemy. Overall the movie could be a little faster if minimize lag, but it's diffcult. klmz, please explain how to perform holywater glitch. :)
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Posted: 6/2/2008 10:30 AM
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klmz
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zggzdydp wrote:
I think it still lagged even if kill the mummy by holywater glitch, because holywater itself made the game lag, not killing enemy.
But you would have got rid of the mummy after the extra lags, and no lags caused by it afterwards.
zggzdydp wrote:
klmz, please explain how to perform holywater glitch. :)
I did have explained how in the comments on the glitch demo. EDIT: Well, I quote it:
klmz wrote:
Throw holywater at edges and let enemy run into it when it is just about to disappear.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days <adelikat> no doubt <adelikat> klmz, they still do
Posted: 6/2/2008 8:21 PM
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Highness
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Bisqwit wrote:
Highness wrote:
Not sure if it's just my imagination, but is the lag reduced when Simon is jumping without whipping or throwing holy water?
Well, sure, whipping and throwing holy water requires extra processing so it makes sense that it would lag more. However, there are three situations where the author does that: ― When killing an enemy: Reducing enemies reduces lag. ― When manipulating the coordinates for a subsequent falling-through-floor trick. Not really avoidable. ― When trying to lengthen the jump: I guess this makes the movie marginally faster where it occurs. I don't remember seeing it being used in laggy situations.
What I also thought about is that Simon is not actually moving his limbs while jumping, and thus reduces lag, right? Is Simon moving faster while walking or jumping, or is it equal perhaps? If it's at least equal (maby not true in all scenarios depending on lag reduction) it would be favourable to jump a lot when encountering lag, just to reduce it.
Posted: 6/3/2008 6:07 AM
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Bisqwit
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I think chances are that the jump curve calculations are significantly heavier than swapping the walking sprites.
Posted: 6/3/2008 4:41 PM
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Lord_Tom
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Loved the run, nice to see such a big improvement here! The off-stair glitch is especially sweet because the setup made me wonder what the heck was going on for several seconds before I noticed Simon levitating... Would you mind saying (or pointing me to) a few words on how the falling through floor and off-stairs glitches work?
Posted: 6/3/2008 5:55 PM
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Bisqwit
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The falling through floor glitch has been featured in a couple of the previous TASes. It's exactly what it looks like. Simon walks across the edge of a platform, and the exact moment he'd start dropping, he throws the whip. A glitchy animation frame will be shown, and Simon will fall through the floor. However, a luck component is present: sometimes, Simon won't fall through the floor even though the glitchy animation frame is shown. My theory is that it has something to do with either the horizontal or vertical subpixel positioning. And as for why does it happen... It's might be that this game does collision checking only on even or odd frames. Even normally, when you jump or fall, Simon will sink a few pixels into the floor before being normalized. With good luck, you can sunk fewer than a few pixels before the game does collision checking, and by that time, it's too late: he's already in.
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