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I've been considering doing a run for this old Sega Master System game. For those who never saw it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Boy_III:_The_Dragon%27s_Trap
(Wikipedia stub)
Basically, it's a platformer rpg in the loosest sense of the acronym RPG. (i.e. you buy stuff to upgrade your character). The difficulties that would come up in speedrunning this game (for me) are:
1. Controllers.
I gave away my original master system controller years ago, and only have 3rd party controllers. Of those, one of them has a dying button 2, and both have turbo fire. The master system has its pause button on the console itself, which is used to access equipment menus similar to Zelda's subscreens in OOT. The developers of Dragon's Trap realised this, and set all directions on the D-Pad of controller 2 to bring up the pause menu. What I intend to do is build myself a custom controller using momentary pushbuttons, for which I can tape myself playing (if required - would make the vid look a lot worse) and provide pictures of this controller - while this game would not benefit from turbo hugely, I can show that there are no circuits that would do such a thing in it). The turbofire on my working controller is bad anyway (to the order of one push every second or so).
2. The Tasmanian/Kashmir sword.
This sword is hidden in a secret shop in the path to the Lion Man's dungeon. It allows the player to switch between forms outside of the normal transformation rooms and is not required to complete the game. The transformation is undocumented in the manual and is activated by pressing button 1 on pad 1 and button 2 on pad 2 simultaneously while in midair. It allows the player to switch to forms that cannot be normally acheived at that point in the game (the player acquires a new form on completion of a dungeon) and allows the skipping of at least one, but possibly 2 dungeons. I am unsure if it is intended as a cheat or not, since the sword itself is weaker than the ones normally collected at that point in the game. (It is listed down the right hand column of the weapons menu, and all 'magical' weapons are listed in this column: form-specific shields, lava-proof armor, Hades armor, Lucky sword (Improved gold drops), Thunder and magical saber (as spelled in game). It also allows the character to return to Human form, which is not possible normally.
3. The Hades armor bug.
The Hades armor has the feature that if you die while wearing it, your life gets completely refilled and the armor is destroyed. However, the bug is that you can die again and still get revived if you do not change your equipped armor.
4. Speedrunning choices
A 100% run for this game would be, in a word, boring. Basically, it would involve running back and forth collecting gold to buy all the swords/shields/armor, and no combat or skilled evasion that would make a run worth watching.
The choices that come up in an any% run, therefore, are ones of budgeting. Which treasure rooms to raid? What weapons/armor/shields to buy? Stop and collect gold from monsters or keep running?
For comparison's sake, I completed a lazy unrecorded run timed from the point where you press 'new game' until you collide with the salamander cross (thus switching the game into endgame-cutscene mode) as 1h:08min (forgot to stop timing for a phone call, I think < 1hr is easily possible with the Tasmanian sword). I skipped one dungeon with the Tasmanian sword, and only used the Hades armor once (I can only see this glitch invalidating a run if it activates a second time, which is easy to tell - did the player 'die' with no potions and get refilled twice?).
For those doing a segmented run, I would time until you entered the church (the door closes), and keep a clear view of the password on screen, then start recording the input on the password screen (shows that the run is being continued), but start timing once the cursor is over the "END" option.
My plan would be to run any% single segment.
What I'm looking for here, is:
Would a run of this game be accepted?
and:
What 'features' are allowed/disallowed, regarding the Hades armor and Tasmanian sword?
Thanks for reading, and hope this is coherent enough.
(Wikipedia stub)
Basically, it's a platformer rpg in the loosest sense of the acronym RPG. (i.e. you buy stuff to upgrade your character). The difficulties that would come up in speedrunning this game (for me) are:
1. Controllers.
I gave away my original master system controller years ago, and only have 3rd party controllers. Of those, one of them has a dying button 2, and both have turbo fire. The master system has its pause button on the console itself, which is used to access equipment menus similar to Zelda's subscreens in OOT. The developers of Dragon's Trap realised this, and set all directions on the D-Pad of controller 2 to bring up the pause menu. What I intend to do is build myself a custom controller using momentary pushbuttons, for which I can tape myself playing (if required - would make the vid look a lot worse) and provide pictures of this controller - while this game would not benefit from turbo hugely, I can show that there are no circuits that would do such a thing in it). The turbofire on my working controller is bad anyway (to the order of one push every second or so).
2. The Tasmanian/Kashmir sword.
This sword is hidden in a secret shop in the path to the Lion Man's dungeon. It allows the player to switch between forms outside of the normal transformation rooms and is not required to complete the game. The transformation is undocumented in the manual and is activated by pressing button 1 on pad 1 and button 2 on pad 2 simultaneously while in midair. It allows the player to switch to forms that cannot be normally acheived at that point in the game (the player acquires a new form on completion of a dungeon) and allows the skipping of at least one, but possibly 2 dungeons. I am unsure if it is intended as a cheat or not, since the sword itself is weaker than the ones normally collected at that point in the game. (It is listed down the right hand column of the weapons menu, and all 'magical' weapons are listed in this column: form-specific shields, lava-proof armor, Hades armor, Lucky sword (Improved gold drops), Thunder and magical saber (as spelled in game). It also allows the character to return to Human form, which is not possible normally.
3. The Hades armor bug.
The Hades armor has the feature that if you die while wearing it, your life gets completely refilled and the armor is destroyed. However, the bug is that you can die again and still get revived if you do not change your equipped armor.
4. Speedrunning choices
A 100% run for this game would be, in a word, boring. Basically, it would involve running back and forth collecting gold to buy all the swords/shields/armor, and no combat or skilled evasion that would make a run worth watching.
The choices that come up in an any% run, therefore, are ones of budgeting. Which treasure rooms to raid? What weapons/armor/shields to buy? Stop and collect gold from monsters or keep running?
For comparison's sake, I completed a lazy unrecorded run timed from the point where you press 'new game' until you collide with the salamander cross (thus switching the game into endgame-cutscene mode) as 1h:08min (forgot to stop timing for a phone call, I think < 1hr is easily possible with the Tasmanian sword). I skipped one dungeon with the Tasmanian sword, and only used the Hades armor once (I can only see this glitch invalidating a run if it activates a second time, which is easy to tell - did the player 'die' with no potions and get refilled twice?).
For those doing a segmented run, I would time until you entered the church (the door closes), and keep a clear view of the password on screen, then start recording the input on the password screen (shows that the run is being continued), but start timing once the cursor is over the "END" option.
My plan would be to run any% single segment.
What I'm looking for here, is:
Would a run of this game be accepted?
and:
What 'features' are allowed/disallowed, regarding the Hades armor and Tasmanian sword?
Thanks for reading, and hope this is coherent enough.
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