My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/SuperC.html
Marko 'MASTER-88' Vanhanen's run
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Reason: This run is mostly on par with vgmr's.
Marko 'MASTER-88' Vanhanen's run
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Last time I said that 10-20 seconds faster would probably do it.
I am sorry but I can not pass this six seconds improvement. There is still a bunch of unnecessary stops. Mr. Hanson's run is still a little bit more impressive from my point of view.
I have already pointed out a lots of things that can be improved so I will not bother pointing it out again
This is very close to accepted but I have to reject it.
I am sorry but I can not pass this six seconds improvement. There is still a bunch of unnecessary stops. Mr. Hanson's run is still a little bit more impressive from my point of view.
I have already pointed out a lots of things that can be improved so I will not bother pointing it out again
This is very close to accepted but I have to reject it.
Quote:
Same AV quality as the last run. No cheating or deaths.
This is better than the last one but still not quite as fast as the current NTSC run. The overall time is three and a half seconds slower once you factor in the difference in PAL vs NTSC timing.
Overall the run is cleaner than the old one, except for level 5 is much worse this time around. Also he still shoots that egg in level 7 so I'm wondering if maybe you can't leave it alone in the PAL version? That single action accounts for almost a second of the difference right there. Level 8 is much, much improved.
Verdict: I'd say my answer this time is a weak accept, only because it's still a bit slower overall than the NTSC run, even if it's faster in places.
You can stop reading there unless you want to see where I've detailed where the runs differ.
I've detailed where the current (N) runs and this (P) have mistakes that the other does not. I checked the level transition times and PAL takes a little longer before it starts playing the victory music, but shows the 'AREA X' screen for less time so it ends up that PAL is slightly 'faster'. (6 frames?) All times for PAL are adjusted to NTSC timing.
Level 1
(P) Shooting an 'M' powerup and having to dodge it.
(N) Dodging a thrown grenade in the 'wrong' direction.
(P) Missing a shot or two on the boss.
Overall: (N) is one and a half seconds faster.
Level 2
(N) Bad dodge after the second wall, before the first tank.
(P) Gets caught on the first tank while trying to walk around it.
(N) Takes slightly longer to kill the two tanks.
(N) Two bad dodges right after the second tank.
(P) Bad dodge right before the bridge.
(P) Shoots enemies on ledges instead of dodging their shots (minor).
Overall: (P) is one second faster.
Level: (P) is two seconds faster.
Level 3
(N) has lag in several spots during the level.
(P) has a couple of spots where he turns around to shoot enemies rather than let them accumulate and cause lag.
These last two are probably a wash, and honestly comes down to luck. The previous PAL run had fewer enemies spawn so it was less of an issue.
(P) Had a second or so lead at the level start but loses most of it by the time he gets to the spider miniboss. Not sure where exactly, possibly the turning around?
(P) Takes a bit longer on the final boss. Quarter of a second?
Overall: Perfect tie. The bosses explode within 2 frames of each other.
Level: (N) is one second faster.
Level 4
(P) Minor delay on the second bubble shooter.
(P) Takes slightly longer to jump up after the first collapsing ceiling.
(P) A few slower jumps before reaching the second collapsing ceiling.
(N) The (P) run looks a little sloppier for some reason, but it actually beats the boss a quarter of a second faster.
Overall: (N) is one and a half seconds faster.
Level: (N) is one and a half seconds faster.
Level 5
(N) Misses a jump and has to avoid bullets.
(P) Hesitates instead of dodging a bullet.
(P) Hesitates picking up a weapon, then realizes it's one he can get anyway and grabs it.
(P) Slow jump while grabbing 'R'. Does he even need this?
(P) Turns around to shoot accumulating enemies. Luck, since the NTSC run has fewer enemies at this point.
(N) Boss fight is a second and a half slower.
Overall: (N) is three and a half seconds faster.
Level: (N) is two seconds faster.
Level 6
(P) Slower diagonal dodging throughout the level.
Overall: (N) is four seconds faster.
Level: (N) is half a second faster.
Level 7
(P) Very slightly slower on the purple 'drool pods'.
(N) Much slower on the 'digging' section. The PAL run nearly catches up entirely here.
(P) And then promptly loses most of it on the eggs right after. Worst part of this run. Specifically that damn extra egg again. Is there something about the PAL verison that requires killing it?
(-) The boss fights are comparitively identical, from touchdown to death is almost frame equivalent.
Overall: (N) is three seconds faster.
Level: (P) is one second faster.
Level 8
(P) Minor hesitations and one missed jump in the first half.
(N) Minor hesitations and one missed jump in the first half, but in different places. Also not quite as severe.
(-) NTSC picks up the fire weapon, PAL sticks with spread. This leads to...
(N) Half a second slower on the final boss.
Overall: (N) is three and a half seconds faster.
Level: (N) is half a second faster.
This is better than the last one but still not quite as fast as the current NTSC run. The overall time is three and a half seconds slower once you factor in the difference in PAL vs NTSC timing.
Overall the run is cleaner than the old one, except for level 5 is much worse this time around. Also he still shoots that egg in level 7 so I'm wondering if maybe you can't leave it alone in the PAL version? That single action accounts for almost a second of the difference right there. Level 8 is much, much improved.
Verdict: I'd say my answer this time is a weak accept, only because it's still a bit slower overall than the NTSC run, even if it's faster in places.
You can stop reading there unless you want to see where I've detailed where the runs differ.
I've detailed where the current (N) runs and this (P) have mistakes that the other does not. I checked the level transition times and PAL takes a little longer before it starts playing the victory music, but shows the 'AREA X' screen for less time so it ends up that PAL is slightly 'faster'. (6 frames?) All times for PAL are adjusted to NTSC timing.
Level 1
(P) Shooting an 'M' powerup and having to dodge it.
(N) Dodging a thrown grenade in the 'wrong' direction.
(P) Missing a shot or two on the boss.
Overall: (N) is one and a half seconds faster.
Level 2
(N) Bad dodge after the second wall, before the first tank.
(P) Gets caught on the first tank while trying to walk around it.
(N) Takes slightly longer to kill the two tanks.
(N) Two bad dodges right after the second tank.
(P) Bad dodge right before the bridge.
(P) Shoots enemies on ledges instead of dodging their shots (minor).
Overall: (P) is one second faster.
Level: (P) is two seconds faster.
Level 3
(N) has lag in several spots during the level.
(P) has a couple of spots where he turns around to shoot enemies rather than let them accumulate and cause lag.
These last two are probably a wash, and honestly comes down to luck. The previous PAL run had fewer enemies spawn so it was less of an issue.
(P) Had a second or so lead at the level start but loses most of it by the time he gets to the spider miniboss. Not sure where exactly, possibly the turning around?
(P) Takes a bit longer on the final boss. Quarter of a second?
Overall: Perfect tie. The bosses explode within 2 frames of each other.
Level: (N) is one second faster.
Level 4
(P) Minor delay on the second bubble shooter.
(P) Takes slightly longer to jump up after the first collapsing ceiling.
(P) A few slower jumps before reaching the second collapsing ceiling.
(N) The (P) run looks a little sloppier for some reason, but it actually beats the boss a quarter of a second faster.
Overall: (N) is one and a half seconds faster.
Level: (N) is one and a half seconds faster.
Level 5
(N) Misses a jump and has to avoid bullets.
(P) Hesitates instead of dodging a bullet.
(P) Hesitates picking up a weapon, then realizes it's one he can get anyway and grabs it.
(P) Slow jump while grabbing 'R'. Does he even need this?
(P) Turns around to shoot accumulating enemies. Luck, since the NTSC run has fewer enemies at this point.
(N) Boss fight is a second and a half slower.
Overall: (N) is three and a half seconds faster.
Level: (N) is two seconds faster.
Level 6
(P) Slower diagonal dodging throughout the level.
Overall: (N) is four seconds faster.
Level: (N) is half a second faster.
Level 7
(P) Very slightly slower on the purple 'drool pods'.
(N) Much slower on the 'digging' section. The PAL run nearly catches up entirely here.
(P) And then promptly loses most of it on the eggs right after. Worst part of this run. Specifically that damn extra egg again. Is there something about the PAL verison that requires killing it?
(-) The boss fights are comparitively identical, from touchdown to death is almost frame equivalent.
Overall: (N) is three seconds faster.
Level: (P) is one second faster.
Level 8
(P) Minor hesitations and one missed jump in the first half.
(N) Minor hesitations and one missed jump in the first half, but in different places. Also not quite as severe.
(-) NTSC picks up the fire weapon, PAL sticks with spread. This leads to...
(N) Half a second slower on the final boss.
Overall: (N) is three and a half seconds faster.
Level: (N) is half a second faster.
Quote:
Hi,
I'm not Frezy_Man!
video: seems fine
audio: seems fine, though only listened to by laptop speakers
cheating: i don't see any
All timings are in the actual levels between spawn and final hit to the boss. Time is based on PAL, with 50fps.
Level 1:
Almost the same. Jim gains a bit because of better slope jumping, Master counters with grenade skip. Master loses his time nearly completely at the first turret.
+1.6s
Level 2:
Master is faster on the first tank by about half a second and about a second on the two tanks. He gains about 1.5 more seconds as Jim had to dodge a bullet directly after this.
-2.9s
Level 3:
Master starts shooting at the morsar a bit too late and has to wait about 0.2s. Around the lakes both have a noticable amount of lag, as Master didn't turn around and shoot them again. When he did the first time, there was too less lag for that to be profitable.
+1.18
Level 4:
Master loses a tiny bit of time because shooting upwards at the bubbles and a small bit because of shooting too late at the ceiling. The timing of his jumps is a bit worse than Jims. Master jumps off of the first elevator maybe 0.2s late. The bossfight did add something around 0.4s.
+1.52
Level 5:
Jims misses the third jump once and Master takes the lead. Unfortunately he had to wait soon after that because of a shot heading upwards, so it's quits again. Before the Rock 'n' Roll area he walks too much to the left and right of plattforms, losing roughly a second. During the R'n'R and until the top he loses another second. On the way down to the boss he turns around once to shoot the enemies behind. Being a tiny bit faster on the boss, he is still slower in the end.
+2.54
Level 6:
He has bad luck at the end of the plantfield and has to dodge a mouth. After the blue field Master goes directly to the middle again and has to dodge a shot. He makes up for that with shooting the barrier faster.
+0.44
Level 7:
Master is a bit faster on the drool pots, except the last one. They reach the green slime nearly at he same time, but Master gains about 4(!) seconds here. He loses about 2.5 by playing it a bit safer with the pods and his bossfight is maybe half a second slower also.
-1.06
Level 8:
He is a bit faster than Jim up to the second alien head, but misses to jump directly onto the slope. But this time he has the better jump timing and gets ahead a tiny bit again. He accidently stops a moment on the downward slope before the crushing ceiling and again after jumping off of it. He is behind by nearly a second but makes up some time at the boss fight.
+0.40
Overall he is slower by 3.76s or about 190 frames or 0.44%.
The run itself is really good and looks fluent. There are no real noticable mistakes, just some things that could be done faster and tiny things, like stopping for a split second. If there wasn't a run already up, I wouldn't have thought a minute about whether to accept.
But I accept it anyways, as this run looks SDA worthy and differs in many details from the NTSC run. So having it on the site can't hurt.
I'm not Frezy_Man!
video: seems fine
audio: seems fine, though only listened to by laptop speakers
cheating: i don't see any
All timings are in the actual levels between spawn and final hit to the boss. Time is based on PAL, with 50fps.
Level 1:
Almost the same. Jim gains a bit because of better slope jumping, Master counters with grenade skip. Master loses his time nearly completely at the first turret.
+1.6s
Level 2:
Master is faster on the first tank by about half a second and about a second on the two tanks. He gains about 1.5 more seconds as Jim had to dodge a bullet directly after this.
-2.9s
Level 3:
Master starts shooting at the morsar a bit too late and has to wait about 0.2s. Around the lakes both have a noticable amount of lag, as Master didn't turn around and shoot them again. When he did the first time, there was too less lag for that to be profitable.
+1.18
Level 4:
Master loses a tiny bit of time because shooting upwards at the bubbles and a small bit because of shooting too late at the ceiling. The timing of his jumps is a bit worse than Jims. Master jumps off of the first elevator maybe 0.2s late. The bossfight did add something around 0.4s.
+1.52
Level 5:
Jims misses the third jump once and Master takes the lead. Unfortunately he had to wait soon after that because of a shot heading upwards, so it's quits again. Before the Rock 'n' Roll area he walks too much to the left and right of plattforms, losing roughly a second. During the R'n'R and until the top he loses another second. On the way down to the boss he turns around once to shoot the enemies behind. Being a tiny bit faster on the boss, he is still slower in the end.
+2.54
Level 6:
He has bad luck at the end of the plantfield and has to dodge a mouth. After the blue field Master goes directly to the middle again and has to dodge a shot. He makes up for that with shooting the barrier faster.
+0.44
Level 7:
Master is a bit faster on the drool pots, except the last one. They reach the green slime nearly at he same time, but Master gains about 4(!) seconds here. He loses about 2.5 by playing it a bit safer with the pods and his bossfight is maybe half a second slower also.
-1.06
Level 8:
He is a bit faster than Jim up to the second alien head, but misses to jump directly onto the slope. But this time he has the better jump timing and gets ahead a tiny bit again. He accidently stops a moment on the downward slope before the crushing ceiling and again after jumping off of it. He is behind by nearly a second but makes up some time at the boss fight.
+0.40
Overall he is slower by 3.76s or about 190 frames or 0.44%.
The run itself is really good and looks fluent. There are no real noticable mistakes, just some things that could be done faster and tiny things, like stopping for a split second. If there wasn't a run already up, I wouldn't have thought a minute about whether to accept.
But I accept it anyways, as this run looks SDA worthy and differs in many details from the NTSC run. So having it on the site can't hurt.
Quote:
Evening Mike,
Probotector 2, status report ~
Audio/video is okay.
No cheating evident.
Level 1 - Still a little bit of bad timing acquiring the F upgrade. The helicopter looks a little better, but still seems a little off. Better than before though.
Level 2 - Some bad luck just before the bridge with some enemy fire, causing the runner to do a circle away from it. Otherwise good.
Level 3 - Starts well, has one turn back before the cannon to shoot an enemy, then does another one before the end of the forest. Runner just needs to fully commit to moving forward and shooting down while jumping to eliminate enemies from the left. The mid-boss goes well. A slight mis-calculation on the fortress offensive fire causing a duck and erratic jump.
Level 4 - Pretty identical to the last run until the boss. Destroys the first half quickly, but seems to lose time finishing it off.
Level 5 - This time I noticed the runner being pretty conservative going up the mountain and did another left turn to kill off a line of trailing enemies coming down the structure. The boss was done quick enough.
Level 6 - Excellent
Level 7 - What is it about those stupid green eggs that messes people up? And they are stationary targets. This time the runner goes down the right side and has to correct halfway down. It's somewhat painful to watch. Great job on the boss though, and he didn't let the missed red projectile mess up his focus as it swings around.
Level 8 - Definitely an improvement here. And better completion through the falling ceiling portion. The game wants him dead so bad it spawns enemies out of the floor. Interesting. The final boss doesn't stand a chance.
Overall, still some minor flaws, but a better level 8 which seemed to be the biggest gripe last time. But this was a few seconds faster to nail the sub 17 minute time. So, I again - APPROVE.
I timed this run at 16:55.
Probotector 2, status report ~
Audio/video is okay.
No cheating evident.
Level 1 - Still a little bit of bad timing acquiring the F upgrade. The helicopter looks a little better, but still seems a little off. Better than before though.
Level 2 - Some bad luck just before the bridge with some enemy fire, causing the runner to do a circle away from it. Otherwise good.
Level 3 - Starts well, has one turn back before the cannon to shoot an enemy, then does another one before the end of the forest. Runner just needs to fully commit to moving forward and shooting down while jumping to eliminate enemies from the left. The mid-boss goes well. A slight mis-calculation on the fortress offensive fire causing a duck and erratic jump.
Level 4 - Pretty identical to the last run until the boss. Destroys the first half quickly, but seems to lose time finishing it off.
Level 5 - This time I noticed the runner being pretty conservative going up the mountain and did another left turn to kill off a line of trailing enemies coming down the structure. The boss was done quick enough.
Level 6 - Excellent
Level 7 - What is it about those stupid green eggs that messes people up? And they are stationary targets. This time the runner goes down the right side and has to correct halfway down. It's somewhat painful to watch. Great job on the boss though, and he didn't let the missed red projectile mess up his focus as it swings around.
Level 8 - Definitely an improvement here. And better completion through the falling ceiling portion. The game wants him dead so bad it spawns enemies out of the floor. Interesting. The final boss doesn't stand a chance.
Overall, still some minor flaws, but a better level 8 which seemed to be the biggest gripe last time. But this was a few seconds faster to nail the sub 17 minute time. So, I again - APPROVE.
I timed this run at 16:55.
Quote:
Okay Master-88, you successfully changed my opinion. I no longer want to reject your run, I just could care less now. Your run is slightly slower because of a slightly sloppy stage 5 and some pauses in stage 8 (that still irritate me), but it's still mostly on par with vgmr's run so I give this run a big fat MEH.
Sorry, if you want to impress me, you'll have to keep the F gun throughout the entire game (yeah, it's faster to keep it).
Also, you can improve stage 1 by jumping earlier into the ditch near the end so that the gun pops up earlier.
Sorry, if you want to impress me, you'll have to keep the F gun throughout the entire game (yeah, it's faster to keep it).
Also, you can improve stage 1 by jumping earlier into the ditch near the end so that the gun pops up earlier.
Decision: Accept
Reason: This run is mostly on par with vgmr's.
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