Love it! Nicely done!

So when it comes to submitting, do we have to check the time from the frames? I noticed the other times got adjusted as well.

Very good!

Oh and @Sarvets I didn't think you or the mods had noticed it or that you would have done it deliberately or anything, hopefully it didn't come off like that.

Personally I don't see a problem with limiting the runs to a specific configuration/version of the game because at least it would make it clear and arguably easier for new people to come in since you'd know what to use. When it comes to Amiga, you often have to make a call anyways because of loading times and whatnot. With this game at least the loading times and running speed seem to be consistent when it comes to the NTSC version.

EDIT: limiting the version and configuration is mostly an issue for OG hardware runners but that shouldn't be an issue with this game. Most Amiga hardware people use downloaded WHDload installations anyway nowadays it seems.

Thanks for the reply! The manual says that the game will run on any Amiga so it shouldn't be a chipset issue. I'm pretty sure it was designed for A500 but seems to run at the same speed on A1200. They do mention the A1000 in the manual as well so that supports my theory that it's universal.

Oops! I thought this went directly under the Amiga game forums but should have clarified in the title that this concerns the Amiga board only.

Hi!

Hopefully this doesn't come off as hostile, just found it interesting. Noticed some inconsistencies while practicing the speedrun and did a frame by frame comparison between the podium runs. You can already see in the first screen that the robot upstairs is running faster in the WR run compared to the 2nd and 3rd place. When the helicopter reaches the apex, the robot is touching the black pixels on the wall in all runs but at this point the WR is already like .5 seconds ahead. I would even argue that the WR falls behind the 2nd and 3rd place paces because the robot travels further by the time the player is exiting the screen.

While the helicopter jump is done more efficiently I don't see how this run is faster than the 2nd and 3rd place runs when it comes to the execution, especially when it comes to the last shot.

So as Voxandra stated on their run, the exact Amiga model/configuration, CPU and whatnot, should be standardized. From what I can tell, the 2nd and 3rd place runs run at the same speed and that's what you get when you use your run of the mill amiga_model=A1200 and fast_memory=2048 config on FS-UAE. I don't know what's going on with the WR run.

Nah, it's valid criticism. There is apparently trick with the passwords where you could modify an earned password to gain loads of money and maybe then run through the whole game with shields from the 2nd world onwards but I feel that should be a category named something else than any %, or should it? I've rearranged the categories now but maintained the single segment name. Thoughts?

Oh and about that other statement, currently SNES, Amiga and Mega Drive categories are run with Amiga being the most competitive. I've heard other people planning SNES runs and BazBadger and I have been planning a co-op Amiga run.

In Any % you're allowed to use passwords you earn during your run. Personally I find the category to be useless and instead we should have single segment categories for each platform instead.

Yeah, no worries, it's an intimidating run because of those last levels. That's why I haven't run the full game yet, only the levels separately.

Hey! Just submitted a Mega Drive run. I guess the people over at Sega thought the game was too hard so they call the default difficulty setting "Hard" and added easier difficulties "Medium" and "Easy". These should be added as their own categories obviously (you get more lives to start with, it's easier to get extra lives with points and the enemies die with fewer hits).

My run was done on easy difficulty because it's the fastest and most consistent difficulty to run. So we could start out with just renaming the Mega Drive / Genesis category Single Segment (easy difficulty) or something and then add other categories if people start running the other difficulties too.

Oh wow someone actually doing a full game run, GG! I wonder if we should retime this taking away the loading times for stages? I'm counting like 14 s extra per loading screen.

As a tip, you might want to skip the unnecessary extra times in stage 7 to skip most the countdown at the end.

New tricks used:

• 1-3: Shooting diagonally in the middle room after the rings for consistency.
• 1-3: Activating the middle node with throwing bombs over the tree instead of going back and forward with the keys (saves ~5 seconds).
• 1-3: Running past the spitters instead of shooting them (should save almost 2 seconds).
• 1-4: Activating the last node with a more precise bomb throw (saves 1 special weapon and some time).
• 2-1: Going for the extra life in the beginning because of the new death skip in 2-4.
• 2-1: Killing more monsters in the middle room to offset the lower money haul from 2-4 because of the new skip.
• 2-4: Going through the middle in top left like BazBadger does so I make it through the steam faster (saves 1-2 seconds).
• 2-4: Doing the bottom right room differently to allow bypassing the save point and thus getting a MASSIVE deathskip after the node (saves about 18 seconds).
• 3-1: Ramming the first hand (saves 1-2 seconds).
• 3-4: Activating the "last" node by throwing a bomb over the wall from the top. There seems to be a relatively consistent damage bug at the end of the level with the dumbbell but it's not really needed if you don't screw up earlier in the level. This saves about 2 seconds.

Potential improvements:

• Faster execution: There was probably at least 10 seconds lost throughout the run from just poor movement and shooting.
• Actually get the deaths your going for (no unwanted damage bugs). This would save 3-4 seconds more.
• 2-1: If the CPU is to die, have it happen after the last checkpoint so you get a faster exit.
• 3-2: Skip killing the hands at the end (probably could have done that on this run as well and saved 3-4 seconds)
• 3-3: Snatch the key at the start without getting trapped (saves one special but no time gains or losses). This way you're not reliant on the CPU going for money in the 4-1 treasure corner.
• 4-2: Don't have the CPU die when you're supposed to be triggering a special. A death right after the last check point would be great as it would save at least 4 seconds compared to this run.

Solid run! I really like how you implemented the ideas we worked on together and added further tweaks. The run is really evolving now! I've gotten a few more ideas after running this on SNES and DOS so I think we can take this down ever more. Breaking another minute barrier will be tough though so congrats on breaking this one!

Major tweaks and strategies I utilized compared to the earlier runs (SNES and Amiga):

• Killing more enemies in the first world and thus getting more coins
• Skipping the forest treasure in 1-3 (Same as Eino)
• Doing the two pole trick in 2-1 to get both the weapon power-up and the extra life which I leave for the CPU to pick up. This allows me to then take the faster exit because I don't have to pick-up the weapon power-up at the end
• Skipping a lot of enemies in 2-3 and taking a faster exit without going for the extra life
• Utilizing a death warp in 4-4 for a slightly faster path. A lot of kangaroo management throughout the level to balance reliability, coin and time gains
• Faster and more pacifist tactics throughout 3-1 (similar to Eino but more optimized)
• Bypassing the maze in 3-2 (the bobby_zeal special). This is a fast and reliable way to get all the gems.
• Taking different keys in 3-3 to allow for a faster exit
• Skipping the treasure corner in 4-1. I think this is only possible if you buy just two extra lives for the CPU in the beginning. CPU might go for the treasure still but doesn't always.

Hiya!

Been running the game for a few days now and noticed some differences with the Amiga version when I was trying to replicate the SNES runs:

• The Amiga version has a wider screen (you see more of the level).
• Some enemy patterns are different (for example the hulks in the top right corner of level 2-1).
• Gas patterns in world 2 seem to be slightly different (for example in level 2-3).
• Some firing patterns are different (for example the first square holes in world 3 don't seem to aim as well on SNES).
• Preacher seems to get the shield one skill level earlier on SNES compared to Amiga.
• On SNES you don't waste as much money on bringing your health up while using the "complete training"/"all" button. On Amiga you have to train the skills individually to have enough money for the shield by level 3-3.
• On SNES you have more slow-downs and longer loading times when compared to an Amiga HD installation running on A1200.
• The secret treasure room in the beginning of 3-1 only has silver coins on SNES. On Amiga there are some golden rings too.
• Most importantly: on SNES you seem to have a dedicated button for specials. On Amiga you need to stop and charge with the firing button to use specials. This takes time and makes the shield runs especially difficult.

There are probably more differences but these are ones that I've noticed. I recommend splitting SNES and Amiga to their own categories.

Another issue is that Eino's Amiga run has very long loading times due to it being run on Amiga 500 and floppy version (I think). The route and execution of the gameplay is definitely very close to the SNES runs if not better. But I run the game on A1200 with an HD installation which has almost no loading times or slow-downs. Do you have ideas on how to combat this? Can we time how much Eino suffered from loading times and (oh god) slow-downs or should such runs be yet another category? Slow-downs delay the runs but it makes execution easier.

I'm still grinding the game and will do more efforts with an even riskier route but this is my best so far: The time is 20:34 and it's not just the lack of loading times and slow-downs, I did work on optimizing the route (thank you so much for all the runners for the ground work) and minimizing the mistakes BUT it cannot be directly compared to the other runs due to those differences. I will post the run once the categories are set up.

Great job! Glad you found a way to make the roof route viable, would not have thought it was actually worth going for that ammo room in the first building. Cleaning up the run should put it closer to 10:20, maybe even 10:15!

Thanks! It's amazing how hard it is to put a decent run together. Always screwing up somewhere. But at least it means there's still time to be saved! :)

That ending to the marsh stage is pretty much perfect.