Hyperzone - April 21, 2014

Edit history:

SDAVerification: 2014-04-21 07:55:08 pm

2014-04-05 01:59:22 am

Game Page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/HyperZone.html

Hyperzone (Any %) (Single Segment)

Decision: Accept

Congratulations to Patrick 'PJ' DiCesare!

Thread title:

SDAVerification

2014-04-05 01:59:23 am

Run Information

Hyperzone (Any %) (Single Segment)

Verification Files

http://v.speeddemosarchive.com/hyperzone/

Please refer to the Verification Guidelines before posting. Verifications are due by April 19, 2014.

Please post your opinions about the run and be certain to conclude your post with a verdict (Accept/Reject). This is not a contest where the majority wins - I will judge each verification on its content. Please keep your verification brief unless you have a good reason otherwise.

After 2 weeks I will read all of the verifications and move this thread to the main verification board and post my verdict.

PJ

2014-04-05 10:33:47 am

Is PJ

If you don't want to bother downloading this run, I uploaded it to youtube awhile ago:

The run in verification does have audio commentary that may or may not be informative, so you might want to watch that version anyways.

UraniumAnchor

2014-04-05 05:45:51 pm

Not a walrus

I was going to say something about how this game looks like F-Zero and Metal Morph's flying sections had a baby, but this doesn't make me physically ill to watch, so there's no way Metal Morph had anything to do with it.

I'll give a real response later.

CyberBotX

2014-04-06 10:49:09 am

Insane Killer Robot

I'm not sure if a PJ runs constitutes an auto-accept or auto-reject. Oh wait, we're supposed to go by the run, not the runner...

A/V is good, no cheating detected. PJ's audio commentary is very well done, as is the run itself. It's a very, very large improvement over the current SDA run. Even though PJ does point out a few of the mistakes, the amount of time that could probably be saved is mere seconds. I'm giving this an accept.

Hsanrb

2014-04-06 12:54:28 pm

Having watched the youtube video, no A/V issues, no cheating, everything looked good... only major ways to improve
1) Don't get hit, runner clips a few things driving forward and hasn't perfectly mastered the timing of things that appear from behind you
2) Play 2nd loop so you use OP ship during an OP run.

I'd point out its possible to get an upgrade after every level, but the aim of his charge shots make the small boost from it negligible. Boss fights looked clean for the most part, probably 3-4 missed charges with 1 more that was poorly timed to when the boss came out of invulnerability periods. Rest of the missed uncharged shots was the fact the bosses go horizontally faster than you so you couldn't possibly string weak shots together.

Beats the run on site, could probably come down to 23:45-23:40 under perfection. Strong accept, great soundtrack helps.

PJ

Edit history:

PJ: 2014-04-06 01:05:04 pm

2014-04-06 01:04:32 pm

Is PJ

I mentioned some things in the audio commentary and my notes, but neither are in the youtube video. Although it is possible to get a ship upgrade in every level, it is actually not ideal. I tried to finish level 2 with just under what I need for another ship upgrade so I get two upgrades in level 3. That would skip one "ship upgrade" animation (instead of 5 total, I'd only see 4), which saves like 8 seconds. So that was the logic behind that. Unfortunately, I missed the second ship upgrade in stage 3 by just a few hundred points, so it didn't matter.

All of the other mistakes are legit mistakes. Haha. Sometimes a level goes perfectly, and other times you get hit once by an enemy from behind and lose your rhythm. Ideally, the run would not get hit at all, but I didn't care enough to do that. Tongue

ktwo

2014-04-06 01:49:10 pm

I like this sentence from the comments of the current run on the site: "This run could have been a little better, with me dying part way through an area, but overall, I did much better than any of my other runs.". Well, the submitted run certainly corrected the mistake of dying and must also have improved quite a few other things as well (I admit not having watched the current run, but the time difference gives an indication). This might not be the best game for speedrunning, but I certainly think it's a legitimate one with so many ways to gain and lose time. Even if there's still time to be saved in several places (also mentioned by PJ), it's definitely about time to get an update to the current run on the site.

Accept

zallard1

Edit history:

zallard1: 2014-04-07 03:57:38 pm

2014-04-07 03:55:02 pm

B+Left, Left, Up+B, ★

Considering I was probably the only person who offered to verify this run, I could probably say a thing or two. Ideally you would want the speedometer to reach 448 and stay there for the entire duration of the run if you could, but if you get hit it goes down slightly and comes back. The hit detection in this game feels wonky sometimes, which makes it pretty easy to get hit. Also if you try to get "out of bounds" which is signified by the walls on the top and bottom of the track, you slow down and take damage. I recently picked this game up because it is probably one of the cheapest SNES games out there that I remember liking (got a copy for 3 bucks including shipping). I think the second playthrough from scratch that I did actually beat the SDA run by 3 seconds, which my "run" had like 5 or 6 deaths or something silly.

PJ gets hit a handful of times, but it is pretty negligible compared to good boss fights, and man, these fights are good. PJ makes them all look easy like they all have huge hitboxes or something; they don't. Bosses 3 and 7 are probably the most easy to hit, but bosses 4 and 5 are super tricky. Also I always had trouble hitting the one in stage 6 after a while, not sure why. It always looks like you are breaking off "corners" of it when it zooms in close, but trying to hit those corners always seems tricky without charges.

As far as where PJ is gaining time over the old run, it is mostly through bosses. The old run charge shots all bosses all the time, whereas PJ just mashes them to death, which deals waaaay more damage per second than charging. Your ships all have a "3 shots on screen" rule, so if even one bullet misses a boss, you will have to wait until that bullet leaves the screen to continue mashing fast again. No deaths anywhere is also good Tongue

In conclusion, accept. I wanted to reject because I don't see him getting 333 at the end of every stage for ultra secret useless 1ups, but this is probably ok anyways.

Considering I was probably the only person who offered to verify this run, I could probably say a thing or two. Ideally you would want the speedometer to reach 448 and stay there for the entire duration of the run if you could, but if you get hit it goes down slightly and comes back. The hit detection in this game feels wonky sometimes, which makes it pretty easy to get hit. Also if you try to get "out of bounds" which is signified by the walls on the top and bottom of the track, you slow down and take damage. I recently picked this game up because it is probably one of the cheapest SNES games out there that I remember liking (got a copy for 3 bucks including shipping). I think the second playthrough from scratch that I did actually beat the SDA run by 3 seconds, which my "run" had like 5 or 6 deaths or something silly.

PJ gets hit a handful of times, but it is pretty negligible compared to good boss fights, and man, these fights are good. PJ makes them all look easy like they all have huge hitboxes or something; they don't. Bosses 3 and 7 are probably the most easy to hit, but bosses 4 and 5 are super tricky. Also I always had trouble hitting the one in stage 6 after a while, not sure why. It always looks like you are breaking off "corners" of it when it zooms in close, but trying to hit those corners always seems tricky without charges.

As far as where PJ is gaining time over the old run, it is mostly through bosses. The old run charge shots all bosses all the time, whereas PJ just mashes them to death, which deals waaaay more damage per second than charging. Your ships all have a "3 shots on screen" rule, so if even one bullet misses a boss, you will have to wait until that bullet leaves the screen to continue mashing fast again. No deaths anywhere is also good :P

In conclusion, [u]accept[/u]. I wanted to reject because I don't see him getting 333 at the end of every stage for ultra secret useless 1ups, but this is probably ok anyways.

SDAVerification

2014-04-21 07:55:12 pm

Decision posted.