Hi all, am new here!

I speedrun an old C64 game Flimbo's Quest and there are only two of us I am aware of who currently do this. Recently I discovered through memory watching and such tools that the game has item drops similar to Legend of Zelda [on a counter in each level] but more interestingly, that the rng for target enemies is very arcane. Since that discovery I've halted my speedruns because it's going to turn the whole game upside down.

-Game has a memory byte whose value runs between 00 and FF. -At the start of each level there is a fixed uneven distribution so that each value corresponds to a set enemy, and some have higher frequency. There are hot spots for particular enemies or groups. -Each time an enemy is pulled, all slots in the memory with it in, are supplanted by n-1 in the order.

The byte's incrementation is not fixed, I am working on mapping this because it means that there are 'dead' zones on each level where standing in a particular location can freeze or slow it. Because of the distribution this also means that one can sort of manipulate the byte to give higher probability of better enemies.

This manipulation can be achieved by normal means but much, much less accurately because it is not directly correlated with in-game timer. You would know the enemy targeted but have no clue where in the distribution you were, and so further manipulation would be sheer guesswork.

I am curious whether any other games have a feature like this where being able to view the memory [either a. only the byte's value between enemies, or b. the changes during gameplay] makes such a big difference to runs, and further, what those games' positions are currently on the rules regarding memory viewing of any sort, during speedrun attempts.

I am currently inclined to think that it would be reasonable to permit runners to view the static value between enemies, but not to see the changes during play. This would enable you to know what pocket of the distribution you landed in, but would mean you still rely on your skill to manipulate it. Thus the game remains outside of TAS bounds to my understanding. That would be as opposed to having the ability to mess around on screen until the hot spot approached in view.

Opinions, info would be greatly appreciated, the more info I have before consulting the game's other runners would be very helpful.