I just noticed that Nintendo Power. I'm lovin' sub title for Super C; can't go wrong with Extra Terrestrial Jungle Action. I also find it great how DYNOWARZ is also featured in this issue... like it's destined to be run by Heidman.
I'm gonna check out that tutorial later. It'll take a while to get through it all, but I'm sure it's worth it
Man wish people would go that in depth for every game they run, though for someone not actively working on the run it is hard to sit through a lot of that haha. There are so many little tidbits that a runner picks up and never shares publicly that is just gold/so helpful for future runners, so thanks man!
I've worked on the bubbles in area 4 and I've got some good news and some bad news. Let's start with the bad news. They are totally random. Every single bubble is random. There are at least 3 different heights and they can move left or right. While you can walk under the high drops you can't walk under the medium drops that I've tested and of course you can't walk under the low drops. The good news is that I've figured it out and we can setup scenarios for testing.
Memory Addresses 0755 - 20 This is the number of bubbles that each turret can launch. 06F1 20 drop counter - Every time a bubble is dropped a 20 frame counter is activated and the next bubble will drop once this counter hits 0 0023 Bubble RNG address - this value of this address when the counter hits 0 is what will determine the direction and height of the bubble drop. This may or may not also be the address for the game's Random Number Generator.
What memory address 23 does is truly random. Even loading the game from a save state and pointing the gun up and down while walking right changes the pattern. As it relates to flame shot my best recommendation would be to freeze the address on a particularly tough pattern and try and come up with a strategy that will work. My current thought is a charged shot upward. You would need to not have any bubbles dropping down and to the left on the mid or low level in order for this to work. The charge time for flame is 33 frames and the bubbles spawn every 20 so this is still problematic. If you want to try a strategy against a few specific patterns this is the cheat:
Address 0023 11 Medium to the right 12 High to the right 13 very high to the right 28 Low to the left 8D low to the right
This doesn't cover every scenario for flame because it looks like a mixture of patterns is what can trip you up and so my recommendation would be to use a save state for practice.
How would pausing a frame or a set of frames effect the accuracy of the bubbles hitting the player? If they spawn at a set interval, would pausing give a larger window of safety?
I'll have to see if the medium drops move up and out of the way after a certain number of frames because that would be the only situation where pausing would help that I can think of. I'll probably use Pasky's hitbox viewer and do some additional testing. I'm thinking that pausing wouldn't make you much safer because the longer you pause the more likely you'd be to get hit by another bubble moving toward you. If you could give me all of the scenarios that you're thinking of I'll try and test them tonight.
There is a new submission at TAS Videos that has found a glitch in area 8 that saves 3 seconds. As soon as I get back from work today I'll try and see if there is any hope of doing it in real time. If it is possible in real time this could get around the time lost by the ceiling sticking glitch that is causing major time loss in the 2 player run.
Edit: Oh wow, I watched it more closly and realized that yes, this does save time. It does not really look like it at first due to the deaths, but it comes after that as there are only 2 sets of pits to jump over rather than the usual 5 sets. I wonder how this works exactly...
I guess someone/a bunch of people really wanted me to play this again...
i still need to figure out the crazy glitch from my childhood... but it probably requires 2 players. still baffle me... skipping the boss after the spider.
Just tested it. Save 3 seconds real time in any% so low% should have a larger gain. Really easy to do as well. So... Any% goal time of sub 13:15 and low% goal time of 14:27 (yes I am aiming for a 3 second gain because I hate this game).
Everyone knows this is my top priority. But school slightly wins out. I will be getting back into this during study breaks (about an hour somewhere between 2 - 4pm Mon-Thur and sporadically Fri-Sun). I say keep the Contra IRC open and just be notified that way. I think Blat make the bot tweet as well, I could be mistaken as I dont know much about it.