I just want to say, I watched the double dragon II runs, and that is some highly impressive work. Excellent job by the runners. Until I recently discovered this site, I never would have imagined people would finish my favorite NES games so quickly. I got out my DD2 cartridge that hadn't been used in years and gave it a shot, but I kept dying the later stages with the annoying jumps.
In other news, runs lately have not been going well but I'm still taking cracks at it. I looked at the 2P TAS notes and it says Mission 6 skip requires not only a pixel-perfect jump but the player's y-subpixels need to be good, so this isn't viable without a good setup for it.
Ok, so I did some testing on the Stage 6 skip, and here's what I've found.
The basic position to jump is easy enough, but that doesn't make the trick work. The TAS notes state a "good sub-y value" but doesn't detail what the sub-y value is. Turns out the sub-y value has a TON of values that can work, and until I can get fceux to actually lock the value (doesn't seem to work for me right now) I can't find a pattern to it.
So how do we manipulate it? Even though the stage is flat, by holding up or down, we can change the sub-y value (up increases, down decreses) through a set of 255 values (0-254). At first I thought, "Well, we enter the level with a set sub-y, then tap up/down a few times until we get a good number." That doesn't work for 2 reasons. The first is the sub-y value carries over between levels. The second is how the sub-y value is calculated.
For every frame you hold either up or down, the sub-y value is changed by 2. When you let go, the next frame changes the sub-y value by a number between 130 and 136 (changed on me a few times, my testing method might be flawed). What I can say is that I could consistently start with a specific sub-y value, tap up a few times, tap down the same amount, and come right back to where I started. The bad news is since the sub-y value can be different everytime you enter the level, I still haven't come up with a reliable way to manipulate the sub-y to ensure the jump works everytime.
If Mr. K wants to chime in on this it would really make things easier.
Ok, so I finally was able to get fceux to lock down a sub-y value for me, and now I'm even more confused. I went from 0 up to 75 without finding a value that worked. However, I KNOW that 45 should've worked since that's what the TAS uses to do the jump. Apparently the starting position is just as important as the sub-y value.
I'll be grinding out more attempts at sub-11:15 after the marathon, I've been getting decently consistent with sub-12s on my practice runs and feel I can pull it all together soon now that I have a bit more free time.
So, apparently this happened. Billy Mitchell is comin for me
New sum of best times is 9:55
That was an incredible new PB! I was wincing in a lot of spots where I knew the game tried to make you it's bitch, and then cheered harder as you grabbed its fist and shoved it in its filthy mouth! Very nicely done! Sub 11 definitely looks like it will happen soon with such an improvement!!
Congrats on the new PB, Jay! That was a sick run and I need to catch up to it, definitely will be working in some of your strats like punch canceling the Right Arms in Stage 8.
Haha, that was awesome. I was thinking that has something to do with the extra jump height thing you can do in the mansion. Probably pixel perfect with the correct positioning, I wonder if a tas could use this to get up the train faster?