Bonk's Adventure - August 15th, 2009

2009-08-15 08:50:42 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.

Rob 'Mickey_Mage' Whitener's run

Verifier Responses

Thanks to Mr. Insane-o, a terrifying trend of verifying has started on SDA. Sad

Quote:

Video quality: looks like a bit better rip than the last one. Still looks like VHS transferred to DVD, in which case, it came out about the best it could. Should have used the black SGB border but it doesn't affect what the final presentation will look like.
Audio: fine
Lag: merciless
Person holding the controller: quite competent

Well it's Bonk's Adventure, the game everyone loves and rushed to verify. I stand by my original opinion that you have to play the Bonk series to enjoy it or perhaps even recognize it.

As a child this was one of the GB titles I loved for the big fun sprites, and they came with lag sometimes. Of course, this game is miles ahead of Kid Dracula in that respect (another household name right there), but I appreciate the effect it has. But that's been brought up sufficiently now that I've received the runner's informative comments before watching.

Round 1: You can't get more straightforward than this. Only error of any sort was the boss. Kinda makes me wonder what the trick was, since you sweep it under the rug in the rematch. Still, OK

Round 2: First two areas is the first real example here of lag city. Some excellent climbing in area 3, very speedy. As you said, in the 4th area you lose a second during your first invincible form from the accidental bounce, which is unfortunate. Also a second or two lost reaching the final platform and the elevator decides not to cooperate. Boss well done. OK

Round 3: Swimming Bonk is certainly a frightening sprite to see. No avoidable time lost that I see. Boss basically optimal. OK

Round 4: THERE IS SEVERE CHEATING IN THE RUN AT THIS POINT

At about 8:09 in the video the runner makes a standard jump up to a ledge. The game screws him over and makes him miss it by what is, near as I can tell from comparison to other jumps, a single pixel. This SEVERE CHEATING on the part of the physics engine did not escape this verifier's watchful eye. As if that wasn't enough, the game then advances a circle - yes, a small circle with eyes that makes faces - and makes it clip Bonk during the descent of the second jump. Now let me ask you something: how creative do you have to be to make an enemy that's a circle? There is no cheating on the part of the runner but SEVERE CHEATING nonetheless by the guy that designed the enemies in this game.

(/tribute) I see nothing wrong with the meat usage and the boss is optimal. Really, I think collecting meats in this game probably always saves net time with the speed boost... not sure why others may have questioned it. I have an idea that bonking certain enemies could reduce lag, but that would not really be a significant timesaver here. OK

Round 5: First area, some nasty platforming perils right at the start, maybe 5 seconds lost. Not a huge deal since it's a very tricky climb. Area 2 and 3 go fine. Good improvement, earns an OK

Round 6: No real mistakes in the areas. Some more good climbing. Two hits taken from the dancing sheep but they don't really cost time as he wasn't going to get a hit in there anyway. Good work on the car. Takes one hit on the final boss losing a second. Earns an OK

I timed in VirtualDubMod from first movement in Round 1 to the boss's eye glazing over and got 66369 frames, 18:26. The SGB multiplier yields 18:52.67, so depending on whether you drop the decimal, it's either 18:52 or 18:53.

A substantial improvement to the execution of a fairly straightforward route, and optimal boss strategies. You've done well to improve your time and there's maybe 10 seconds total errors.

Accepted.

Quote:

First big point: I'd say on a relatively short/easy (if sluggish) game, an error in the first stage, particularly first 3 mins, probably ought to be worked out unless the preceding performance is particularly difficult to replicate. If the second hit on the first boss is possible, I'm guessing it takes half a cycle off the fight (damage to boss + keeping damage multiplier). If the powered-up forms are faster (and I'd believe they are, I just never stopwatched it), you're also sacrificing some speed in the start of stage 2 timing out on Stone Head earlier. I'll see whether this is offset by later achievements.

Real smooth up the tree in stage 2.

Why the bounce on the big heart flower in stage 2 rather than walking through it w/ invincibility?

Stage 3- Iirc, Turtle swims a bit faster than normal Bonk. I would expect that passing up the turtle "meat" has been timed and proven more efficient than grabbing it for transformation time (and needing to take a hit to get out of it) if that's what you're doing in a submitted run, but it would be nice to hear so formally.

Confirmed: that was a smooth and lucky Shark battle. Doing it sans damage and only 7 minutes into the run makes me further question the no-turtle decision.

Stage 4 intro (~7:14?)- Was that a spring-floret (white-white) you passed? I think so... if so, you may gain a fraction launching off it rather than using so many flips to clear the lava.
Again ~7:19.
7:29... I'm beginning to hope this was intentional and you have times to prove it.

8:12: ouch. Forgiven, since the next meat was right there and taking it as Stone Head is just as good as Angry.

8:21: alright. white-white isn't spring. I was thinking of white-gray. Ignore the intro comments.
8:41... or was I? If the floret used to get that 1-up isn't a spring, I'd be surprised, and offhand I can't see much difference in coloring. I'm gonna need to go and check what floret is what, or get assurance that you've done timing/testing of your own in this department.

8:54: wtf? Never seen a car do that...
8:58: again with the floret disambiguation...
9:17: and again with the car, not that it matters

9:30 smooth & lucky Lizzie. Hearing some odds on how frequently these boss fights go smoothly might allay some of my concerns in the levels.

Stage 5: 10:10 yeah, that's a couple seconds.

Stage 6:12:29- turtle ahoy. Make with the explaining.

Good to see you know your way around the bone climb.

4:16: wait, was that a first-charge second-hit on the triceratops without any trickery? Yeh, might want to rethink the first boss fight.

A second smooth Shark run. I'm thinking the second-time bosses could really be a make-or-break period for a good run of this game. Again, odds of getting a good second-time boss set might put the rest of the run in context.

16:45 confirmed- I can vouch that this guy's hit box is on the ridiculous side. That was a clean fight.

17:08: Tell me that text isn't manual-advance and I'll believe you, but I can't remember offhand myself.

Drool: 3 hits per dive is fair, as is playing it safe at the end of a run. In some of the Bonk games, however, I seem to recall being able to flip even more quickly off a grand bonk and land more hits in succession.

Overall: This was a one-pass done-at-work review, but I wanted to get something on the books fast after completely missing last round. Around breaks for the comments, my stopwatch is almost certainly less accurate than VLC's timer. Overall... could I have done this run? No, even though the game was perhaps the second I ever beat and I can play it end-to-end casually. Is this run as good as claimed? Debatable. If the runner can provide written assurance that the various caveats I brought up were mostly investigated, I'd say accept the run as a fair baseline for later attempts. If there wasn't as much research or trial and error done to verify strategies, the game is short enough that I wouldn't mind seeing another take or two at least to tighten up the first boss, and comments to clear up the turtle and floret ambiguities. I can replay the game myself and clear up some questions if need be, but it will be a few days before I have a good chance.

Quote:

ACCEPT

Cheating: None
Video quality: Not bad
Sound quality: All right
Execution: Good
Planning: Good

This is a solid run of Bonk's Adventure, which I clocked at 18:28. It's a significant improvement from the last submission, which the runner was nice enough to redo after us verifiers had rated the run as borderline. The gameplay is much better, and stays that way throughout the game. There are some mistakes, of course, but they're relatively few and I can't see much more than 20-25 seconds being saved using this route. Overall, good job!

Decision: Accept

Reason: It's a significant improvement over the last (rejected) run.

Thread title:

Game Page: Doesn't exist yet.

Rob 'Mickey_Mage' Whitener's run

[b]Verifier Responses[/b]

Thanks to Mr. Insane-o, a terrifying trend of verifying has started on SDA. :(

[quote]Video quality: looks like a bit better rip than the last one. Still looks like VHS transferred to DVD, in which case, it came out about the best it could. Should have used the black SGB border but it doesn't affect what the final presentation will look like.
Audio: fine
Lag: merciless
Person holding the controller: quite competent

Well it's Bonk's Adventure, the game everyone loves and rushed to verify. I stand by my original opinion that you have to play the Bonk series to enjoy it or perhaps even recognize it.

As a child this was one of the GB titles I loved for the big fun sprites, and they came with lag sometimes. Of course, this game is miles ahead of Kid Dracula in that respect (another household name right there), but I appreciate the effect it has. But that's been brought up sufficiently now that I've received the runner's informative comments before watching.

Round 1: You can't get more straightforward than this. Only error of any sort was the boss. Kinda makes me wonder what the trick was, since you sweep it under the rug in the rematch. Still, OK

Round 2: First two areas is the first real example here of lag city. Some excellent climbing in area 3, very speedy. As you said, in the 4th area you lose a second during your first invincible form from the accidental bounce, which is unfortunate. Also a second or two lost reaching the final platform and the elevator decides not to cooperate. Boss well done. OK

Round 3: Swimming Bonk is certainly a frightening sprite to see. No avoidable time lost that I see. Boss basically optimal. OK

Round 4: [size=4][b][u]THERE IS SEVERE CHEATING IN THE RUN AT THIS POINT[/u][/b][/size]

At about 8:09 in the video the runner makes a standard jump up to a ledge. The game screws him over and makes him miss it by what is, near as I can tell from comparison to other jumps, [b][u]a single pixel[/u][/b]. This [size=4][B][U]SEVERE CHEATING[/U][/B][/size] on the part of the physics engine did not escape this verifier's watchful eye. As if that wasn't enough, the game then advances a circle - yes, [b][u]a small circle with eyes that makes faces[/u][/b] - and makes it clip Bonk during the descent of the second jump. Now let me ask you something: how creative do you have to be to make an enemy that's a circle? There is no cheating on the part of the runner but [size=4][B][U]SEVERE CHEATING[/U][/B][/size] nonetheless by the guy that designed the enemies in this game.

(/tribute) I see nothing wrong with the meat usage and the boss is optimal. Really, I think collecting meats in this game probably always saves net time with the speed boost... not sure why others may have questioned it. I have an idea that bonking certain enemies could reduce lag, but that would not really be a significant timesaver here. OK

Round 5: First area, some nasty platforming perils right at the start, maybe 5 seconds lost. Not a huge deal since it's a very tricky climb. Area 2 and 3 go fine. Good improvement, earns an OK

Round 6: No real mistakes in the areas. Some more good climbing. Two hits taken from the dancing sheep but they don't really cost time as he wasn't going to get a hit in there anyway. Good work on the car. Takes one hit on the final boss losing a second. Earns an OK

I timed in VirtualDubMod from first movement in Round 1 to the boss's eye glazing over and got 66369 frames, 18:26. The SGB multiplier yields 18:52.67, so depending on whether you drop the decimal, it's either 18:52 or 18:53.

A substantial improvement to the execution of a fairly straightforward route, and optimal boss strategies. You've done well to improve your time and there's maybe 10 seconds total errors.

Accepted.
[/quote]

[quote]First big point: I'd say on a relatively short/easy (if sluggish) game, an error in the first stage, particularly first 3 mins, probably ought to be worked out unless the preceding performance is particularly difficult to replicate.  If the second hit on the first boss is possible, I'm guessing it takes half a cycle off the fight (damage to boss + keeping damage multiplier).  If the powered-up forms are faster (and I'd believe they are, I just never stopwatched it), you're also sacrificing some speed in the start of stage 2 timing out on Stone Head earlier.  I'll see whether this is offset by later achievements.

Real smooth up the tree in stage 2.

Why the bounce on the big heart flower in stage 2 rather than walking through it w/ invincibility?

Stage 3- Iirc, Turtle swims a bit faster than normal Bonk.  I would expect that passing up the turtle "meat" has been timed and proven more efficient than grabbing it for transformation time (and needing to take a hit to get out of it) if that's what you're doing in a submitted run, but it would be nice to hear so formally.

Confirmed: that was a smooth and lucky Shark battle.  Doing it sans damage and only 7 minutes into the run makes me further question the no-turtle decision.

Stage 4 intro (~7:14?)- Was that a spring-floret (white-white) you passed?  I think so... if so, you may gain a fraction launching off it rather than using so many flips to clear the lava.
Again ~7:19.
7:29... I'm beginning to hope this was intentional and you have times to prove it.

8:12: ouch.  Forgiven, since the next meat was right there and taking it as Stone Head is just as good as Angry.

8:21: alright.  white-white isn't spring.  I was thinking of white-gray.  Ignore the intro comments.
8:41... or was I?  If the floret used to get that 1-up isn't a spring, I'd be surprised, and offhand I can't see much difference in coloring.  I'm gonna need to go and check what floret is what, or get assurance that you've done timing/testing of your own in this department.

8:54: wtf?  Never seen a car do that...
8:58: again with the floret disambiguation...
9:17: and again with the car, not that it matters

9:30 smooth & lucky Lizzie.  Hearing some odds on how frequently these boss fights go smoothly might allay some of my concerns in the levels.

Stage 5: 10:10 yeah, that's a couple seconds.

Stage 6:12:29- turtle ahoy.  Make with the explaining.

Good to see you know your way around the bone climb.

4:16: wait, was that a first-charge second-hit on the triceratops without any trickery?  Yeh, might want to rethink the first boss fight.

A second smooth Shark run.  I'm thinking the second-time bosses could really be a make-or-break period for a good run of this game.  Again, odds of getting a good second-time boss set might put the rest of the run in context.

16:45 confirmed- I can vouch that this guy's hit box is on the ridiculous side.  That was a clean fight.

17:08: Tell me that text isn't manual-advance and I'll believe you, but I can't remember offhand myself.

Drool: 3 hits per dive is fair, as is playing it safe at the end of a run.  In some of the Bonk games, however, I seem to recall being able to flip even more quickly off a grand bonk and land more hits in succession.

Overall: This was a one-pass done-at-work review, but I wanted to get something on the books fast after completely missing last round.  Around breaks for the comments, my stopwatch is almost certainly less accurate than VLC's timer.  Overall... could I have done this run?  No, even though the game was perhaps the second I ever beat and I can play it end-to-end casually.  Is this run as good as claimed?  Debatable.  If the runner can provide written assurance that the various caveats I brought up were mostly investigated, I'd say accept the run as a fair baseline for later attempts.  If there wasn't as much research or trial and error done to verify strategies, the game is short enough that I wouldn't mind seeing another take or two at least to tighten up the first boss, and comments to clear up the turtle and floret ambiguities.  I can replay the game myself and clear up some questions if need be, but it will be a few days before I have a good chance.[/quote]

[quote][color=green]ACCEPT[/color]

Cheating: None
Video quality: Not bad
Sound quality: All right
Execution: Good
Planning: Good

This is a solid run of Bonk's Adventure, which I clocked at 18:28. It's a significant improvement from the last submission, which the runner was nice enough to redo after us verifiers had rated the run as borderline. The gameplay is much better, and stays that way throughout the game. There are some mistakes, of course, but they're relatively few and I can't see much more than 20-25 seconds being saved using this route. Overall, good job![/quote]

[b]Decision[/b]: Accept

[b]Reason[/b]: It's a significant improvement over the last (rejected) run.

Mickey_Mage

Edit history:

Mickey_Mage: 2009-08-16 10:39:45 am

2009-08-15 10:01:30 pm

Glitching EB 1 flying man at a time

Firstly, other than probably a little more criticism than the last run, I'm glad this got through a little better than before. I thought I'd post this before commenting on each verifier. I will admit I didn't actually time everything in this game that I should have, but the meat gathering thing I definitely timed sometime last year before going back to this. I guess going back to improve this, again, wouldn't kill me but, this is definitely a game that's last on my things to do, especially as much as lag pisses me off in this. I guess with all the comments, there's enough to improve that I could possibly push this closer to 18 minutes, but maybe not sub, depending on what this time ends up being.

Comments to the first verifier:

I can't remember if my comments with the run included what I intended on doing with the first boss, but here goes. I think it would only save at least a second, but mainly that trick I made up was first hitting the boss as soon as he lands and, without landing, just keep flipping and hit him the last two times to kill him, which I have actually done faster than the normal way. Also, the reason I made up that trick was because I have hit his behind so much in the past, that I feared it happening too much to frustrate me. I admit, I should have restarted there, though.

The beginning of round five I have nightmares about so much... I swear that level hates me, since at least 3 out of maybe 10 attempts possibly, I make some sort of jump error because of the severe lag.

I have thought about killing some enemies on the way during levels that have lag, and it helps me in one area of Round 6 (killing the ostrich thing), but it's hard to kill all incoming enemies. I'll look into it for some other areas, but I don't think it'll help much everywhere, as you said.

To Second Verifier:

Like I already said, I didn't exactly time everything in this run I should have, so I do apologize for that. You caught much more than the last 3 verifiers did, and this will most likely get me a huge improvement over this run, if I ever feel like going back to this unforgiving game (depends a lot on time I have, and other runs...).

I already explained the trick to the first verifier, so you'll read that before this anyway, most likely, but it was probably a trick I should have just passed on. It became much more of a gamble each time than I thought at first, and like you said would only save about a second or so (half a cycle, but barely).

OK, I should have tested the turtle before now, SORRY. It is faster than going through the water normally. I made a test run up to that point before doing this post and, compared to this run is approximately 10 seconds faster (give or take a few seconds because my test run had a couple more mistakes getting there). So, that definitely warrants an improvement, since there are two water levels (the second one, running through it casually is a bitch with the turtle, though, but I'll work something out).

The accidental jump on the floret in round two was a brain-lapse on my part, and I do apologize.

8:41 comment: You're talking about the extra heart I end up getting here, right? I can't find any way to pass that efficiently, and the amount of bounce it gives, is similar to the beginning of the round with jumping over the lava (your 7:14 comment I think). Any floret that just has an item in it has no bounce. So, missing those is a priority, except for the one I get here with the extra heart, since landing next to it is really hard, and getting over it is equally as hard, I believe.

It's funny you comment on the cars that just glitch down below the ground in those levels. I also found it weird, but it happens every single time I do that level quickly, and I can't explain it. Tongue

I make sure I don't jump near any of them either, the ones I walk through, because you can hit them out of the ground, which is even stranger.

Having good boss fights in this game is pretty essential with me keeping a run (as well as good levels, with exceptions of just human mistakes and such), and I can't really give you exact odds on beating each boss, but here goes with my luck with these guys:

Triceratops: Except for the stupid mistake on him in this run, both fights normally go about the same, with very occasionally a mistake like this; I normally restart if both fights go badly, since this one fight cost only about a second and a half.

Pterodactyl: You can't really compare the two fights for this boss, as the hit box on this guy is incredibly small, so doing the same trick on him the first time will not work without pure luck. I'm glad you confirmed he had a bad hitbox; because I always thought he did (testing hits on him casually), just never could prove it since I can't do TAS-like tests.

Shark: These two fights all depend on how high he comes out of the (ground?), and for him to do that in both fights is fairly rare from playing so much. I don't have a fast way of killing him when he comes out too high, which is why you see both fights with him being lower to the ground.

Ballerina dino: I can't predict when she is going to do her spin move, and can only determine it's random. Whether she does that in the first fight determines how fast it'll be. In the second fight, I tend to be a little more careful because of this, although I sometimes take risks and end up getting hurt more of the time than not. Getting hurt doesn't always hinder me, but that all depends on her movement after she lands.

Car Monster: Umm, I hate the hitbox on this guy? LOL, I don't really know what to say. This guy is random with me. Sometimes I get 3 hits per pass, sometimes I miss one because I'm being a little careful, sometimes I miss two. Meh, I have on and off days with him.

King Dino: Missing him once is normal for me, as the timing on that guys' small hitbox on the nose is hard to hit precisely 3 times. I also say below that the best I've done is not getting hit at all, and that is more or less common, but I still try to be somewhat more careful against this guy since death is a lot easier with too many misses.

I think the reason I didn't perform the same trick on the triceratops twice is because I thought I'd just make things worse. And, doing it the normal way doesn't really lose but half a second to a second compared to using the trick. That far in the run, I don't know if it's worth it, yet.

No, the text at the end before the final boss is not skippable :(. I hate that since I get more anxious to fight the final boss that way. Oh well.

I have never been able to get more than three hits off the final boss on the way up, and taking a risk to try to get more might make things worse. Normally I'd try to hit him faster, but timing the hit on his nose (a fairly small hitbox), I am more likely to miss... Too many fancy things on the final boss can really ruin a run fast. Not getting hit at all is the best I've ever done on this guy and, without assistance from a TAS, this is the fastest way I can possibly think of doing (on a human skill level).

To the third verifier: I guess I can see about 20 seconds of improvement (using the turtle), but we'll see if I, or someone else, gets around to it.

If I missed anything any of you want me to clear up, let me know, either on here or pm. I might have missed something Tongue

Edit: Oh yea, and I am sorry about the video problems because I go from VHS to DVD... I just don't have the technology to record straight to DVD, nor do I know how, sorry. Sad

Plus, I think the final product will look a little better once Nate encodes it to the site (with the different qualities, too, obviously).

Edit2: Added above a few corrections and such, as well as commenting on my usual luck with the final boss.

[b]Comments to the first verifier:[/b]

I can't remember if my comments with the run included what I intended on doing with the first boss, but here goes. I think it would only save at least a second, but mainly that trick I made up was first hitting the boss as soon as he lands and, without landing, just keep flipping and hit him the last two times to kill him, which I have actually done faster than the normal way. Also, the reason I made up that trick was because I have hit his behind so much in the past, that I feared it happening too much to frustrate me. I admit, I should have restarted there, though.

The beginning of round five I have nightmares about so much... I swear that level hates me, since at least 3 out of maybe 10 attempts possibly, I make some sort of jump error because of the severe lag.

I have thought about killing some enemies on the way during levels that have lag, and it helps me in one area of Round 6 (killing the ostrich thing), but it's hard to kill all incoming enemies. I'll look into it for some other areas, but I don't think it'll help much everywhere, as you said.

[b]
To Second Verifier:[/b]

Like I already said, I didn't exactly time everything in this run I should have, so I do apologize for that. You caught much more than the last 3 verifiers did, and this will most likely get me a huge improvement over this run, if I ever feel like going back to this unforgiving game (depends a lot on time I have, and other runs...).

I already explained the trick to the first verifier, so you'll read that before this anyway, most likely, but it was probably a trick I should have just passed on. It became much more of a gamble each time than I thought at first, and like you said would only save about a second or so (half a cycle, but barely).

OK, I should have tested the turtle before now, SORRY. It is faster than going through the water normally. I made a test run up to that point before doing this post and, compared to this run is approximately 10 seconds faster (give or take a few seconds because my test run had a couple more mistakes getting there). So, that definitely warrants an improvement, since there are two water levels (the second one, running through it casually is a bitch with the turtle, though, but I'll work something out).

The accidental jump on the floret in round two was a brain-lapse on my part, and I do apologize.

8:41 comment: You're talking about the extra heart I end up getting here, right? I can't find any way to pass that efficiently, and the amount of bounce it gives, is similar to the beginning of the round with jumping over the lava (your 7:14 comment I think). Any floret that just has an item in it has no bounce. So, missing those is a priority, except for the one I get here with the extra heart, since landing next to it is really hard, and getting over it is equally as hard, I believe.

It's funny you comment on the cars that just glitch down below the ground in those levels. I also found it weird, but it happens every single time I do that level quickly, and I can't explain it.  :P I make sure I don't jump near any of them either, the ones I walk through, because you can hit them out of the ground, which is even stranger.

Having good boss fights in this game is pretty essential with me keeping a run (as well as good levels, with exceptions of just human mistakes and such), and I can't really give you exact odds on beating each boss, but here goes with my luck with these guys:

[b]Triceratops:[/b] Except for the stupid mistake on him in this run, both fights normally go about the same, with very occasionally a mistake like this; I normally restart if both fights go badly, since this one fight cost only about a second and a half.

[b]Pterodactyl:[/b] You can't really compare the two fights for this boss, as the hit box on this guy is incredibly small, so doing the same trick on him the first time will not work without pure luck. I'm glad you confirmed he had a bad hitbox; because I always thought he did (testing hits on him casually), just never could prove it since I can't do TAS-like tests.

[b]Shark:[/b] These two fights all depend on how high he comes out of the (ground?), and for him to do that in both fights is fairly rare from playing so much. I don't have a fast way of killing him when he comes out too high, which is why you see both fights with him being lower to the ground.
[b]
Ballerina dino:[/b] I can't predict when she is going to do her spin move, and can only determine it's random. Whether she does that in the first fight determines how fast it'll be. In the second fight, I tend to be a little more careful because of this, although I sometimes take risks and end up getting hurt more of the time than not. Getting hurt doesn't always hinder me, but that all depends on her movement after she lands.

[b]Car Monster:[/b] Umm, I hate the hitbox on this guy? LOL, I don't really know what to say. This guy is random with me. Sometimes I get 3 hits per pass, sometimes I miss one because I'm being a little careful, sometimes I miss two. Meh, I have on and off days with him.

[b]King Dino:[/b] Missing him once is normal for me, as the timing on that guys' small hitbox on the nose is hard to hit precisely 3 times. I also say below that the best I've done is not getting hit at all, and that is more or less common, but I still try to be somewhat more careful against this guy since death is a lot easier with too many misses.

I think the reason I didn't perform the same trick on the triceratops twice is because I thought I'd just make things worse. And, doing it the normal way doesn't really lose but half a second to a second compared to using the trick. That far in the run, I don't know if it's worth it, yet.

No, the text at the end before the final boss is not skippable :(. I hate that since I get more anxious to fight the final boss that way. Oh well.

I have never been able to get more than three hits off the final boss on the way up, and taking a risk to try to get more might make things worse. Normally I'd try to hit him faster, but timing the hit on his nose (a fairly small hitbox), I am more likely to miss... Too many fancy things on the final boss can really ruin a run fast. Not getting hit at all is the best I've ever done on this guy and, without assistance from a TAS, this is the fastest way I can possibly think of doing (on a human skill level).

[b]To the third verifier: [/b] I guess I can see about 20 seconds of improvement (using the turtle), but we'll see if I, or someone else, gets around to it.

If I missed anything any of you want me to clear up, let me know, either on here or pm. I might have missed something :P

Edit: Oh yea, and I am sorry about the video problems because I go from VHS to DVD... I just don't have the technology to record straight to DVD, nor do I know how, sorry. :( Plus, I think the final product will look a little better once Nate encodes it to the site (with the different qualities, too, obviously).

Edit2: Added above a few corrections and such, as well as commenting on my usual luck with the final boss.