Planning on a Sonic 2 speedrun. Any helpers? [locked]

Edit history:

blackbelt: 2005-05-16 05:06:21 am

2005-05-10 10:42:54 pm

Light Speed! *shoom!*

This'll be my first speedrun, mainly because I'm kinda tired of seeing a big blank space where all the sonic games should be. Sonic games are very technically demanding because of the high speeds they're played at. I've already seen the Nesvideo run of Sonic 2, and I'm trying to pick out what parts of that I can and can't use.

If anyone would like to help me, that would be great. I already have a little help here at home, but I'm gonna need a lot more. For the moment, I'm a little absorbed in finishing up school and a few really stupid relationship kinks, but I'm actively practicing what I can.

Update

So far, I've got a few times for the first few acts of the game.

Best Runs
Emerald Hill
Act 1: 0:21
Act 2: 0:41
Chemical Plant
Act 1: 0:25
Act 2: 1:21
Aquatic Ruin
Act 1: 0:33
Act 2: 1:08
Casino Night
Act 1: 0:47
Act 2: 1:33

Acceptable Times
Emerald Hill
Act 1: 0:23
Act 2: 0:50
Chemical Plant
Act 1: 0:30
Act 2: 1:30
Aquatic Ruin
Act 1: 0:35
Act 2: 1:20
Casino Night
Act 1: 1:00
Act 2: 2:10-2:30

I'm currently using some of the nesvideo routes for the levels, and some levels with modified routes to fit my specific needs or inabilities (and laziness).

If anyone still wants to help, that would be nice.

Thread title:

This'll be my first speedrun, mainly because I'm kinda tired of seeing a big blank space where all the sonic games should be.  Sonic games are very technically demanding because of the high speeds they're played at.  I've already seen the Nesvideo run of Sonic 2, and I'm trying to pick out what parts of that I can and can't use.

If anyone would like to help me, that would be great.  I already have a little help here at home, but I'm gonna need a lot more.  For the moment, I'm a little absorbed in finishing up school and a few really stupid relationship kinks, but I'm actively practicing what I can.

[i]Update[/i]

So far, I've got a few times for the first few acts of the game.

[u]Best Runs[/u]
Emerald Hill
     Act 1: 0:21
     Act 2: 0:41
Chemical Plant
     Act 1: 0:25
     Act 2: 1:21
Aquatic Ruin
     Act 1: 0:33
     Act 2: 1:08
Casino Night
     Act 1: 0:47
     Act 2: 1:33

[u]Acceptable Times[/u]
Emerald Hill
     Act 1: 0:23
     Act 2: 0:50
Chemical Plant
     Act 1: 0:30
     Act 2: 1:30
Aquatic Ruin
     Act 1: 0:35
     Act 2: 1:20
Casino Night
     Act 1: 1:00
     Act 2: 2:10-2:30

I'm currently using some of the nesvideo routes for the levels, and some levels with modified routes to fit my specific needs or inabilities (and laziness).

If anyone still wants to help, that would be nice.

DK64_MASTER

2005-05-10 11:24:08 pm

You could watch the tool assisted one for some strategies? It's probably too difficult to do some of the tricks though.

I've never personally owned the game, so I can't be much of a help... :-/

blackbelt

2005-05-10 11:42:13 pm

Light Speed! *shoom!*

I did check out the video. A lot of the tricks early on are possible, but some of them are just too hard to pull off. If you watch the run, there will be a part early on in CPZ act 2 where he catapults past a large section of the level just by jumping at the right time. There's probably just one frame's worth of difference between success and a faceplant into the wall. Later in the level, he does something similar to bypass a really annoying part. I've done that a few times, but not that well, and not consistently. I can gain hints on the best routes and stuff mostly from the run being almost glitch-free. The one on ARZ where he falls through the floor is probably illegal, but it only saves a second or two anyway.

Bp_

2005-05-10 11:56:00 pm

i just bought the sonic colelctio on my cube, i will try to find some cool stuff on sonic2

i know iw as pretty fast when i was plaiyng it on sega Tongue

mikwuyma

2005-05-10 11:58:31 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Falling through the floor is not illegal according to SDA rules. Only if you had to go off the screen (outside the game world) to fall through the floor it would be illegal.

blackbelt

2005-05-11 12:27:28 am

Light Speed! *shoom!*

Glad we got that floor-warp thingy cleared. I was talking about the kind of warp you see on the nesvideo for Sonic 2. He falls through the floor more than warps through it; it's not the same type of warp you see in Sonic 3/Knuckles. So far, I'm doing pretty good on my calculations for the first few levels. I'd say that CPZ act 1 might be about 35 seconds, but I'll try for as fast as I can with my current route. It follows the same route as the nesvideo does. I'll check out a few other things.

NintenDan

2005-05-11 01:52:21 am

Is this going to be a single segment run or individual level runs?

Good luck btw, you're going to need it. You're not the first person to attempt a sonic 2 speedrun and chances are you wont be the last

blackbelt

2005-05-11 02:10:38 am

Light Speed! *shoom!*

Thanks, and I will need it. :\ There are places where tricks depend on an area of one or two frames... That kind of precision is not on my list... I'll be updating the best times and I'll soon add expected times, or time goals.

I'm going to try for single segment, but I might just end up doing single act runs. If I do a single segment, then I'm going to do the first two acts as flawlessly as I can, then just let any minor mistakes slide in the remainder of the game. So far, I've found that most of the tricks in the nesvideo run to be effective, but I've only tried speeding through EHZ through ARZ. I'll try the other levels soon enough.

I'll try and record some .gmv movies of some of the levels. If any of you want to see them and give hints or tips, then PM me for my MSN or AIM (in that order).

david

2005-05-11 02:21:25 pm

where is this sonic 2 video you speak of?

NTG

2005-05-11 03:54:10 pm

I'm indifferent towards YaBB 1G - SP1!

Quote:

I'll try and record some .gmv movies of some of the levels.

When you record the actual run, are you going to be playing on a real console (you need to be for the SDA rules)?

Frezy_man

2005-05-11 04:38:08 pm

bläää

I have think about this run myself and have beat the game just below a hour (nice :P)..I don´t now how fast a human can beat the game but a sonic speedrun is very hard and it´s not Importent to earn some seconds in the first stage...off course it looks nice!

I think the first stages is very funny but this oil stage, mystic cave (what is it called?) and the "fly" stage before you land on the big ship is very boring...And off course the last boss is a "killer" like "kennyman" sayed to me. That sucks to die there!

And is there a version difference between geneis and mega drive? (i don´t think so but just ask annyway)

Good luck with this run...Train hard Wink

blackbelt

2005-05-11 10:03:56 pm

Light Speed! *shoom!*

To reply to a few people:

Quote:

When you record the actual run, are you going to be playing on a real console (you need to be for the SDA rules)?

I understand the rules, and I plan on working with the original Sega Genesis for the official run. I'm just working on an emulator for now because I can perfect specific segments, and because an emulator movie is easier to distribute.

Quote:

I have think about this run myself and have beat the game just below a hour (nice :P)..I don´t now how fast a human can beat the game but a sonic speedrun is very hard and it´s not Importent to earn some seconds in the first stage...off course it looks nice!

I think the first stages is very funny but this oil stage, mystic cave (what is it called?) and the "fly" stage before you land on the big ship is very boring...And off course the last boss is a "killer" like "kennyman" sayed to me. That sucks to die there!

And is there a version difference between geneis and mega drive? (i don´t think so but just ask annyway)

Good luck with this run...Train hard Wink

I've seen the game beaten in about 45 minutes by an amateur speedrunner, so I'm hoping to go for about 30-35 minutes. Sky Chase is a fixed level time, so it is just going to be me showing off as best as I can, or having Sonic "dance" to the background music. Wing Fortress is actually shorter than most people know, especially since speedrunners found the trick with the propellers in the beginning to cut off well more than half of the level.

And no, there is no difference between Genesis and Megadrive other than a few minor regional tweaks. Megadrive was the European/Japanese name.

To reply to a few people:

[quote]

When you record the actual run, are you going to be playing on a real console (you need to be for the SDA rules)?[/quote]

I understand the rules, and I plan on working with the original Sega Genesis for the official run.  I'm just working on an emulator for now because I can perfect specific segments, and because an emulator movie is easier to distribute.

[quote]I have think about this run myself and have beat the game just below a hour (nice :P)..I don´t now how fast a human can beat the game but a sonic speedrun is very hard and it´s not Importent to earn some seconds in the first stage...off course it looks nice!

I think the first stages is very funny but this oil stage, mystic cave (what is it called?) and the "fly" stage before you land on the big ship is very boring...And off course the last boss is a "killer" like "kennyman" sayed to me. That sucks to die there!

And is there a version difference between geneis and mega drive? (i don´t think so but just ask annyway)

Good luck with this run...Train hard ;)[/quote]

I've seen the game beaten in about 45 minutes by an amateur speedrunner, so I'm hoping to go for about 30-35 minutes.  Sky Chase is a fixed level time, so it is just going to be me showing off as best as I can, or having Sonic "dance" to the background music.  Wing Fortress is actually shorter than most people know, especially since speedrunners found the trick with the propellers in the beginning to cut off well more than half of the level.

And no, there is no difference between Genesis and Megadrive other than a few minor regional tweaks.  Megadrive was the European/Japanese name.

NTG

2005-05-11 10:23:35 pm

I'm indifferent towards YaBB 1G - SP1!

Good to see a console run of this coming at last then. Good luck Grin

Bp_

2005-05-11 10:26:46 pm

where can you find the other run on sonic 2 ( like th etools assisted one?

so i can see how it is and try to do some too Smiley

blackbelt

2005-05-11 10:33:59 pm

Light Speed! *shoom!*

http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/

That's the site you need. Check out a bunch of the movies, and I'm sure you'll find something you can use.

Oh, and thanks, NTG. I'm going to need it X_x;

blackbelt

2005-05-12 08:04:05 pm

Light Speed! *shoom!*

... Seems like I'm becoming unpopular again. :\

Bump.

Exinex

2005-05-12 08:15:54 pm

O_0

Good luck! I'd love to see a human speedrun of this game. I wish I could offer some tips, but I never owned a sega and barely got to play this game. It'd take a lot of skill to get a good time.

Bp_

2005-05-12 08:57:18 pm

i just need to be able to watch this dam sonic2 video and i coem back with help ^.^

NintenDan

2005-05-12 10:19:08 pm

Good news and bad news time - It's related to this topic

Good news. Rolken (site administrator of soniccenter.org) showed up in the chat yesterday, and we found out about everything that happened. So since Rolken is back, we can expect the site to be up soon

The bad news? The site crashed while it was updating without Rolken knowing and the earliest availible backup is from december last year. The only major issue this brings up is for the people who joined the site, but only submitted a few times, because we probably wont be seeing them again. This sort of takes away from the competition feel. On The Sonic Center, you could look at all of the times submitted for emerald hill and see a good 40 times submitted, but now there might only be 15 or 20 :(. It's not the end of the world though. As for the first place records, those will obviously be outdated by 5 months, but I think that it shouldn't be a problem because most of the record holders are a big contribute to the site (they visit it daily). So they can simply just re-submit their times, and since most of the videos are recordings of record times, we can expect most of them to be back as well

I'll let you know when the site gets back up. When it does, you can bring this up in the forums, and perhaps get some input from the experts themselves.

Good news and bad news time - It's related to this topic

Good news. Rolken (site administrator of soniccenter.org) showed up in the chat yesterday, and we found out about everything that happened. So since Rolken is back, we can expect the site to be up soon

The bad news? The site crashed while it was updating without Rolken knowing and the earliest availible backup is from december last year. The only major issue this brings up is for the people who joined the site, but only submitted a few times, because we probably wont be seeing them again. This sort of takes away from the competition feel. On The Sonic Center, you could look at all of the times submitted for emerald hill and see a good 40 times submitted, but now there might only be 15 or 20 :(. It's not the end of the world though. As for the first place records, those will obviously be outdated by 5 months, but I think that it shouldn't be a problem because most of the record holders are a big contribute to the site (they visit it daily). So they can simply just re-submit their times, and since most of the videos are recordings of record times, we can expect most of them to be back as well

I'll let you know when the site gets back up. When it does, you can bring this up in the forums, and perhaps get some input from the experts themselves.

blackbelt

2005-05-13 01:03:07 am

Light Speed! *shoom!*

I'll make sure to check up on that when I get a chance. Thanks for the info. As for the people asking for the video of Sonic 2, do a Google search of nesvideo, and it should be the first hit on the list.

Bp_

2005-05-13 01:28:22 am

i watched the asisted tool run

1 word to say
omg ( ok its 3 word ^.^ )

blackbelt

Edit history:

blackbelt: 2005-05-13 02:56:26 am

2005-05-13 01:36:10 am

Light Speed! *shoom!*

I know. omg is a good word(s) for that run. My reaction time must be slipping or something because I keep getting very stupid little mistakes, and the same ones 3 or 4 times in a row. I'm a little worried about doing any really good level runs, especially later. So many mistakes can result from a reaction that's off by about a quarter of a second or a few pixels or frames. It's crazy. Try doing the trick in the beginning of Chemical Plant Zone 2. Literally impossible for me.

EDIT:

Speaking of the CPZa2 trick, I found that they catapult themselves straight into a wall and somehow turn themselves mid-air. Whenever I try it, I can't turn after my body hits the wall. I keep going in a straight line. If anyone can figure out this trick, let me know, please.

NintenDan

2005-05-13 05:12:59 am

For years, it was thought that the lowest percent you could beat Metroid Fusion with was 1%

but now, through emulated run, 0% has been achieved! But it's pretty much humanly impossible!

The sonic games will always have room for improvement! New wacky tricks will be found and developed over and over again. Remember though that those tricks were done by the emulator, so don't try to match up to the machine!

CHILLACHONGAA

2005-05-13 10:07:50 pm

i can HEEEEll, i can HEEEEEl, i cAn help out-uuuuuuh

TATATATTATA TU FAH HU

blackbelt

2005-05-14 03:22:07 am

Light Speed! *shoom!*

I now officially have my old Sega Genesis up and running. After a little bit of tweaking to get it working again (Port 1 had some faulty solder points, so certain buttons wouldn't work at all) and some hefty cleaning, I can finally play the game with decent quality. The original has so much better quality than the Gamecube version. Blech. X_x;