I’ve finished my current Any% Beginner TAS No Opposite Inputs (no Left+Right / Up+Down) in 1:44.250.

After recently setting my first new PB in four years, I wanted to dive deeper into the game and its route, so I fired it up in an emulator and started working on my first TAS.

This work builds on a substantial amount of previous Die Hard TAS research. Special thanks to Kirkq, ajfirecracker and Coiser for their previous TASes, routing, RAM research and technical findings. Their work, particularly on the Advanced TASes, provided a major foundation for this Beginner project.

The restriction for this project was No Opposite Inputs, no simultaneous Left+Right or Up+Down. Frame-perfect inputs and normal TAS optimization are still allowed, but every controller combination must be physically possible on a standard NES controller. I specifically wanted to explore an optimized Any% Beginner route under this restriction, since much of the previous Die Hard TAS work and research focused on Advanced.

During the project I did extensive RAM testing for foot damage, event timing (Heinrich/Detonator) and enemy behavior. I spent quite a bit of time optimizing the foot-damage setup. In the final route I leave Floor 33 for Floor 32 at 4 lost foot bars and 244 sub-damage. This still allows me to get the desired Heinrich spawn while reaching the relevant Floor 32 timing much earlier than I initially expected. During testing I found working Heinrich setups across roughly the 36–42 second range on Floor 32.

Reaching an earlier cycle by itself did not result in a time save, so simply reducing foot damage or reaching Floor 32 earlier does not appear to automatically improve the route. The setup is also somewhat sensitive to enemy behavior/RNG. Small changes elsewhere can alter enemy interactions and cause the Heinrich setup to change even when the general stair and foot-damage route remains the same. I also tested both relevant medkit routes extensively. Even with favorable enemy/RNG situations, the farther medkit was approximately slower, so the closer medkit is used in the final route.

That’s been known for years, but I didn’t want to leave it out.

The final frame-counted time is 1:44.250, Video Frames: 6255, Video FPS:60, Console Time:104.2449857733382 seconds, leaving approximately 16 frames to Sub 1:44. I have tested earlier and later C4 cycles on the Helipad, but so far I haven’t found a configuration that saves those remaining frames.

A late improvement came from manipulating Floor 35 enemy behavior with the timing of an earlier shot, which produces a clean Helipad.

Helipad manipulation comparison:

Full TAS:

Searching for the Last 16 Frames. I’m making the BK2 available in case anyone wants to continue the optimization. If somebody can find the remaining 16 frames for sub-1:44, I’d be very interested to see it.

BK2 / notes: https://github.com/freeHippie/Die-Hard-NES-Beginner-TAS

That was my first TAS and after realizing how much work and time actually goes into TASing, it might also be my last one😄. I definitely have a new level of respect for TASers now. It was a fun project and I learned a lot, but I think it’s time to leave the frame-by-frame work behind, fire up the NES again and get back to running the game on real hardware.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to Die Hard speedrunning and routing, and for all the amazing work that helped push the game to such incredibly fast times.