Contra III

2010-12-22 01:06:03 am

Is PJ

I meant the blue marble orb pattern, of course. ^_^ That one is the most fun for me to play, even if it's the riskiest pattern. I don't think I'd use it in a legit speed run, but I definitely use it when I'm playing around. Haha. I do like the walking blue pattern a lot, too.

I agree that the grey and red orbs are probably the best patterns for damage, but I thought it was strange that I was still killing the boss during the fourth round. I am hitting him a lot during each round, but definitely not as much as the grey/red/blue walker rounds. I'd definitely be interested to hear about how the damage works in detail for this boss, though. It does not seem consistent. Either it is inconsistent, or my memory/counting skills are utter garbage. Both are equally likely. Wink

Heidrage

2010-12-29 09:14:18 am

Willing to teach you the impossible

Quote from Heidman:

If you can, I would like to see the HQ vid. There are some things I could not determin because the LQ is only 20 fps (I think, might be 30)

Any chance of a HQ vid Mr. K?

Mr. K

2010-12-30 11:28:39 am

Yes

Sorry for the delay, here it is in HQ:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=E4S7UQ20

Heidrage

2010-12-30 06:11:45 pm

Willing to teach you the impossible

Thank you sir Smiley

Hurblat

Edit history:

Hurblat: 2011-01-07 04:04:02 pm

2011-01-07 02:10:35 pm

Interesting timing for this, seeing that Mike is about to do his Contra III run at the marathon.

I just (about 45 minutes ago) finished a hard mode any% Swede run of Contra III in ~14.53. Video is encoding right now, and I will be uploading it tomorrow Sweden time.

Not sure it's good enough to be submitted though.

Edit: videos
LQ: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1106239/Contra3_hard_1453_LQ.mp4
MQ: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1106239/Contra3_hard_1453.mp4
HQ: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1106239/Contra3_hard_1453_HQ.mp4

Heidrage

2011-01-08 12:23:19 am

Willing to teach you the impossible

Can you add a MQ AVI version as well please? I can help you with the timing, but I need an .avi to do so. I can get you a time with the mp4, but I feel better with an avi.

Hurblat

2011-01-08 12:40:35 am

Thanks for the offer!
I'm on my way to Jordan for a vacation right now though. I could get you an avi when I get back in about a week.
However, I will not be submitting this run. There are just too many mistakes in it.

Good runs at the marathon Heidman!

Heidrage

2011-01-08 01:49:42 am

Willing to teach you the impossible

Thanks, glad to know you were watching. I will see if I can get you a good time with the mp4 before you get back

MASTER-88

2011-01-08 10:38:07 am

Master-88

Mike new run was super awesome.

Thats really cool because he beat it in marathon and i think he have to beat it his 1st attempt. I wonder if he didn,t submit it.

Heidrage

Edit history:

Heidrage: 2011-01-09 01:22:19 am

2011-01-09 01:19:51 am

Willing to teach you the impossible

14:54. I would still like to time it with the avi to be sure, the frame count was really close to 14:53

cyghfer

2011-01-16 10:04:09 am

why are people not hype about this run

it fucking BEAST

great job hurblat!

Hurblat

2011-01-16 02:45:24 pm

Heidman: Here's the MQ .avi if you still want to time the run. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1106239/ContraAVI.avi

cyghfer: Thank you for your kind words Smiley

PJ: It seems like the brain takes more damage during the "blue balls" pattern. In the run above, the brain goes down during the fourth round, even though I mess up and select the "orbiting orbs" twice. I think said balls save me from wasting time on another round. This should probably be researched further.

PJ

2011-01-16 07:02:55 pm

Is PJ

Thanks for semi-confirming my theory about the blue orbs. Maybe someone more ambitious than me can look into it and actually find out if it's true or not. Smiley

Great run, btw!

Heidrage

2011-01-17 01:58:51 am

Willing to teach you the impossible

I have it clocked in at 14:53.092

mikwuyma

Edit history:

mikwuyma: 2011-01-17 07:27:58 am

mikwuyma: 2011-01-17 07:25:38 am

2011-01-17 07:14:31 am

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Okay what really confuses me about this run is that Hurblat has the worst final boss fight ever, yet he ties me in terms of final boss time. Aside from that the run looks fine, except for some really stupid mistakes like crouching in stage 2 and the first stage 3 mid-boss. :-/

I might try to improve this, but I don't want to touch this game for a while, especially since I don't know how the final boss works.

EDIT: I should give him credit for better stage 5 skip and better stage 2 boss fight, and his stage 4 boss fight might have been better (I know he started with better positioning for first missile salvo).

Mr. K

2011-01-17 11:39:51 am

Yes

First off, thanks for posting this, Hurblat. This is a great run. I can't say I'm not jealous, it's very well done. The mistakes are what they are but the time for this game can keep going lower and lower and we're finally getting some competition going. It's a breath of fresh air. You broke 14:59 even with the mistakes because of great execution in various places and a keen attention to detail.

Going forward, the main question on my mind after watching this run is about whether or not it could be possible to kill the brain in 3 cycles with the blue orbs. We'll probably just need game genie to get invincibility and see if we can kill the brain phase in 3 cycles by hitting blue orbs. If we can't get it down to 3 cycles it's probably too risky.

The real question now is how low can we get the time to go. Thanks again for this awesome run.

Spider-Waffle

(user is banned)

Spider-Waffle

Edit history:

Spider-Waffle: 2011-01-17 04:45:23 pm

2011-01-17 04:42:38 pm

Don't think! feeeeeal

Which is the blue orb? I remember a blue one that made it walk, but that's easy to ace without invincibility. How does damage work with the different orb cycles? Isn't the memory address for the final boss's health known?

PJ

2011-01-17 06:15:25 pm

Is PJ

Quote from Spider-Waffle:

Which is the blue orb? I remember a blue one that made it walk, but that's easy to ace without invincibility. How does damage work with the different orb cycles? Isn't the memory address for the final boss's health known?

The blue orb pattern is the one that bounces all around the room and makes you cry.

Spider-Waffle

(user is banned)

Spider-Waffle

Edit history:

Spider-Waffle: 2011-01-17 06:20:11 pm

2011-01-17 06:18:56 pm

Don't think! feeeeeal

Oh that one, I remember being able to survive it around half the time, but not sure about damage output. Just play it in slow mo or frame advance to see if 3 cycles is even possible. I thought the sin wave one was the lamest, you have to know the right pattern just to be able to survive and you can't do hardly any damage.

Hurblat

2011-02-16 12:00:15 am

I have a new and improved run up for verification.
Please help and verify it Smiley

Spider-Waffle

(user is banned)

2011-03-01 02:44:09 pm

Don't think! feeeeeal

I'll see if I can dub my old death glitch run soon, I'll let it circulate among those who want to see, I know Mike did, I feel like I owe it to him...

stanski

2011-03-04 02:11:57 am

wise fwom yo gwave

please pm it to me if you aren't publicly posting it

Mr. K

Edit history:

Mr. K: 2011-03-11 11:59:40 pm

Mr. K: 2011-03-11 11:56:18 pm

Mr. K: 2011-03-11 11:53:08 pm

Mr. K: 2011-03-11 11:51:58 pm

2011-03-11 11:50:14 pm

Yes

I just wanted to give all of you an update on the Red Falcon brain fight. I've found the memory address where his health is stored and I'm running some testing now. The whole thing is really quite bizarre. Red Falcon starts with a massive amount of health and after each orb pattern that amount of health is cut in half. The amount of health that this boss starts out with is so massive that even with two players firing point blank crush missiles, it hardly puts a dent and it's only after two cycles (its health gets cut in half twice) that is it within striking distance for the TAS. It does seem as though the marble blue orb deals the brain more damage. I'm trying to get a more systematic way of testing this to go. The difference between the orbs was not quite as great as I had initially thought, but I need to do more testing. At a cursory glance, what this means for us is that the first orb you get is the most critical during the fight and as you go along the gap between getting an ideal orb pattern and one that's not diminishes. It also means that 3 cycles is pretty much impossible. You might think that you're within striking distance because of how quickly you can get the boss to die on the fourth cycle, but you're not. It's the fact that the brain's health got cut in half at the END of the third cycle that makes a fourth cycle kill possible.

I'm not sure how much more testing we need to do here, I'm still curious as to what this could mean for a low % run (more divisions make it critical to get a better pattern), but as far as an any % is concerned, 3 cycles is not possible, make sure you don't screw up the first attack pattern, and that's all that you really need to know. This also means that the blue orb is probably not worth the risk.

I just wanted to give all of you an update on the Red Falcon brain fight.  I've found the memory address where his health is stored and I'm running some testing now.  The whole thing is really quite bizarre.  Red Falcon starts with a massive amount of health and after each orb pattern that amount of health is cut in half.  The amount of health that this boss starts out with is so massive that even with two players firing point blank crush missiles, it hardly puts a dent and it's only after two cycles (its health gets cut in half twice) that is it within striking distance for the TAS.  It does seem as though the marble blue orb deals the brain more damage.  I'm trying to get a more systematic way of testing this to go.  The difference between the orbs was not quite as great as I had initially thought, but I need to do more testing.  At a cursory glance, what this means for us is that the first orb you get is the most critical during the fight and as you go along the gap between getting an ideal orb pattern and one that's not diminishes.  It also means that 3 cycles is pretty much impossible.  You might think that you're within striking distance because of how quickly you can get the boss to die on the fourth cycle, but you're not.  It's the fact that the brain's health got cut in half at the END of the third cycle that makes a fourth cycle kill possible.

I'm not sure how much more testing we need to do here, I'm still curious as to what this could mean for a low % run (more divisions make it critical to get a better pattern), but as far as an any % is concerned, 3 cycles is not possible, make sure you don't screw up the first attack pattern, and that's all that you really need to know.  This also means that the blue orb is probably not worth the risk.

Hurblat

2011-03-12 12:58:47 am

That is an awesome find, Mr. K.
For an any% run, I guess the optimal way would be to pick orbs with lower pattern times for the first three cycles.
Nice to hear that a three cycle kill seems impossible Wink

It will be interesting to see what you can find for the low% run!

bmn

2011-03-12 01:57:45 am

So you're saying that you could theoretically dodge a load of patterns, then at some point the HP would be so low that you can fire one shot and win?