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1-Up!
Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Contra.html

Contra (Low %) (Single Segment)

Verifier Responses

Quote:
Well we don't need another pyramid, but there really isn't a lot to say about this run that's not self-evident. It's faster than Frezy's and potential spots for improvement are few and hard to spot.

Ship it.

Though the V copy does have about 4 frames of a failed attempt right at the start.


Quote:
Stage 1: Almost got an item twice. Looking like a TAS!
Stage 2: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! Perfect
Stage 3: Looking good, Mr. TAS
Stage 4: Another Achievement. 200G is Near. PERFECT
Stage 5: The TAS's biggest enemy did Perfectly.
Stage 6: The flame walls cooperated really well compared to the current run. looks like a TAS!
Stage 7: It's really hard to jump on top of those spike walls. he does it perfectly. the wall spike combo was done TAS style.
Stage 8: The Red Falcon went perfectly, And so did the REAL final boss!

List of Achievements unlocked

Untouchable (10G)
Tunnel Runner 1 (10G)
Infiltration (15G)
Tunnel Runner 2 (15G)
Tough Guy (20G)
Bulletproof (25G)
Full Assault (30G)

Obsoleted TAS's

1st edition Any%

Total:  125 Gamerscore and an obvious ACCEPT


Quote:
Ridiculously awesome in every possible way.

I hesitate to use the term after what transpired last time but: Formality.

Accept


Quote:
I love this run.  I'm not one to dispense with formalities so I'll try and go into some more detail.  This run has much better execution overall than the published run.  As it stands now, it's a six second improvement over the last run.  Given the quality of the execution of this run it would have been even faster than the published run.  There are some interesting reasons why the published run's time is as low as it is which I'll explore in the comments.

Stage 1
The runner has a more aggressive pattern on the base wall that saves a noticeable amount of time compared to the last run.  That's the only noticeable difference.  If we're talking frames, the published run wasted a frame dodging the M.  That problem is fixed with this run.  In this run, the runner lets the sniper before the second R upgrade live.  It's like they're friends or something.

Stage 2
The execution in the base rooms in this run is just better than in the published run.  The runner pulls a little bit ahead in each room.  It's not more than a few seconds in each room, but the lead keeps compounding.  The boss fight in this level is a bit of a pain in low percent.  The runner does each of the base rooms faster than in the published run.  In the published run, the runner struggles a bit on the last core, but gets a really good boss kill.  In this run, the runner takes out the cores much more cleanly but is a bit slower on the boss kill.  This is certainly forgivable because the movement patterns of this boss are just wonky and hitting it with peashooter is not fun.

Stage 3
In this submission the runner doesn't miss a cycle on the last moving platform.  I'm really surprised that this jump was missed in the published run.  The runner for the published run makes up most of the time by getting a two mouth cycle kill on the boss.  In this submission, the runner was one shot away from getting a two cycle kill.  Unfortunately with the other arm still there the mouth takes slightly longer to open again.

Stage 4
Let me just say that in this submission the base rooms are just faster.  If you put these videos side by side you'll just see that in this submission the runner is more aggressive and that  comes from walking the line.  I noticed that in the SDA run that stage 4 boss fight was about 3 seconds faster than in this submission.  On closer inspection the SDA run was able to get the glitch kill on the heads. I was quite surprised to see it happen and even more surprised to see it exploited.  This glitch lets the SDA run catch up a bit to this run. 

Stage 6
There were some bad spawns in this submission that cost some time and the global timer luck was not ideal.  In the SDA run on the other hand the runner was able to go straight through.  This submission ended up gaining time through a significantly better boss fight.  Ducking over the projectile shows a real strong understanding of hitboxes. 

Stage 7
This runner destroys the spiked barriers slightly faster than the last runner did.  After comparing both runs, they're pretty close.  The SDA run had some extraordinarily bad spawn luck at the end of the level at the last gunner and it costs several seconds. 

Stage 8

I don't have much to add to this stage.  A frame was lost dropping down near the spread pickup.  The mashing is excellent.

The runner did an excellent job dealing with some of the unfortunate spawns.  This is a longer run and the absence of spread makes them harder to deal with.  It's more likely that something bad will happen with spawns as the run is just longer.  I wouldn't expect additional improvements over this reason. 

Here are the areas where this run can be improved:

-Slightly faster boss kill on stage 2 (it's a real pain)
-Two mouth cycle kill on stage 3 boss (I'm terrible at it, but it can be done)
-Glitch kill on stage 4 boss (this is harder than it is in any %)

Taking off my critical hat, it's a deathless run that manages to better pull out mashing and execution than the published run.  Good show!
Decision: Accept


Quote:
Flip Rizer, Contra report...

I'd hate to nitpick as any mistakes are extremely small and would only be truly noticed by the most knowledgeable people in this game, outside of not getting the 2 rounder on the Waterfall Boss.

ACCEPT is a formality.


Quote from Hurblat:
Hurblat here. This is a very very good run. Most of what I will be commenting on are really small mistakes, that are very hard to pick up if you haven't played this game a lot. See this more as further insight into the game than criticism.

I will try not to repeat what too much of what verifier #4 has already pointed out.

Tight positioning is a major part of this run. In a lot of places, the runner would have died had they been one or a few pixels off in a lot of places, especially in Base 2 and Hangar.

On to the run!

Stage 1 (Jungle)
Probably close to frame perfect. Bonus points for slick dodging and keeping enemies alive.

Stage 2 (Base 1)
The runner has solid timing for firing so that the cores take damage as soon as they are vulnerable.
Note how the runner does not kill any enemies standing in front of the cores. Doing so would have wasted 1 shot per enemy. The boss kill could have been better, but that doesn't mean it's not awesome.

Stage 3 (Waterfall)
Wasting a minimum amount of time between jumps is key here. The runner does a great job of jumping as soon as Bill hits the ground. The only noticeable mistake before the boss is killing the last soldier hiding in the waterfall too late. The first shot aimed at him hits the weapon dispenser and the enemy gets his shot off. This leads to the runner having to wait for the three exploding shots to clear before jumping up. Time lost here is about half a second.
Missing the two cycle on the boss means about three seconds lost, but getting the two cycle is hard.

Stage 4 (Base 2)
Notice how many times the runner is extremely close to hitting an enemy, but only does so when intended. It's all intentional, and very smooth.
I counted three missed shots in the boss fight, which isn't much at all. This fight is where a significant amount of time can come off this run. It would be extremely hard to pull off, since it requires activating a glitch by hitting the boss on a specific frame. The short explanation is that if you hit the one of the heads on the very frame before it splits apart, it will not become invincible. You can see how the runner shoots at the heads when they are split to see if the glitch was activated.

Stage 5 (Snow Field)
Bad luck with an enemy spawning from behind and getting a shot off at an unfortunate time, making the runner have to dodge. The runner is understandably not going for the frame perfect jump over the bombs by the R power-up. Waiting here is a half second lost that I would take any day of the week. Bad luck again with an enemy appearing right in front of the runner, but luckily this enemy didn't shoot a fraction of a second earlier. That could have meant the end of the run. Destroying the tanks shows how both fast and consistent the runner's mashing is.

Stage 6 (Energy Zone)
Notice how the runner turns around in mid-air just before the first flame to kill the enemies to the left, without losing forward momentum. Nice. Having to turn around and kill the two enemies after clearing the gap is bad luck. If you're very lucky, the first horizontal flames will let you pass without having to duck for the lower one. It's very unusual though. These flames are on a global timer that starts once the console is powered on, so it's not something you can really control. The runner is a tiny bit late on the second set of vertical flame jumps, causing them to have to duck under one flame instead of dropping down immediately.
This boss is the most random in the game. It behaved somewhat nicely in this run, only jumping twice.

Stage 7 (Hangar)
The global timer was in a really good spot going into this stage. This results in the runner not having to wait for the first set of claws, and hardly having to wait at all for the two claws before the turret. Getting here this quickly means the runner can jump over the first bullet fired from the turret. An average run would jump over the second bullet. At the second set of claws reaching for the floor, after the spike walls, waiting at the second claw sets the runner up for having the global timer at the right place coming up to the two long reaching claws before the section with the mine carts. We get to see some very tight positioning at the last spike wall. There are not many pixels to work with here. The last stretch before the boss has an unusually high amount of enemies.

Stage 8 (Alien's Lair)
Not much to say about this stage.

All in all, this is an amazing run!
ACCEPT aggressively.

Edit: Some comments on other comments.

Quote from Verifier #2:
Stage 6: The flame walls cooperated really well.

Actually they didn't. See my comments for more on this.

Quote from Verifier #2:
Stage 7: It's really hard to jump on top of those spike walls.

It's hard if you keep holding right all the time. If you start the jump off of the first spike wall neutrally, and then hold right as soon as Bill is in the air, you're safe.


Decision: Accept

Congratulations to David Heidman Jr.!
Thread title:  
Edit history:
Heidrage: 2013-04-22 10:11:36 pm
Heidrage: 2013-04-22 10:08:56 pm
Willing to teach you the impossible
Quote from Hurblat:
Quote from Verifier #2:
Stage 7: It's really hard to jump on top of those spike walls.

It's hard if you keep holding right all the time. If you start the jump off of the first spike wall neutrally, and then hold right as soon as Bill is in the air, you're safe.

For the record, I dont do a neutral jump.

Overall I dont like this run, like much at all. I was very close to ask for this submission to be removed from the queue. But I decided why not let this go on and Ill just remove it the proper way later. Hope yall enjoy it for now. Thanks again for the comments.

Edit:
Quote:
Obsoleted TAS's

1st edition Any%

Lol, I did not know that. http://tasvideos.org/675M.html

Edit2: And I would like to make an official apology to Frezy_man for removing all of this NES Contra runs from SDA. Took a long time though. Thank you for being one of my larger inspirations in speedrunning. 
Edit history:
DK28: 2013-04-22 11:46:08 pm
General Kong - Bullets and Bananas
Quote from Heidrage:
Overall I dont like this run, like much at all. I was very close to ask for this submission to be removed from the queue. But I decided why not let this go on and Ill just remove it the proper way later.

I just won a bet with somebody somewhere...
My feelings on The Demon Rush
Just saw this run and it is incredible. Having started to casually speedrun Contra myself I can definitely say this run is sick.
Edit history:
Heidrage: 2013-05-26 10:39:06 pm
Heidrage: 2013-05-26 10:38:44 pm
Willing to teach you the impossible
meh

Edit: It is beatable, just like all of my NES Contra runs.

I am the new overlord!!!
General Kong - Bullets and Bananas
Coming for you...