I'd love for someone to explain how 2 turns, with revolution & build city, is sufficient to meet the requirements for beating the game.
It sounds to me like someone screwed up the language of the category rules, and things need to be tightened up so players actually have to accomplish something? :P
This current 28 second record doesn't appear to me to accomplish anything or serve any purpose in the context of speedrunning???
I normally wouldn't make a forum post about this, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to announce that Challenger has come out of hiding, and will be making a new PoP SNES TAS for the Any% Warp category. I expect it will be somewhere around 8:35 in length.
In anticipation of this new TAS, I've been grinding the category to get a proof of concept for best human strategies. Last night, while working on a demo recording, I made a small mistake, and decided to see how low I could go if I just kept playing the rest of the run. Magic happened!
The new World Record is 8:39.84387 = 31,242 console frames.
Console + TV setup and all cables shown at 12:10, and I say hello at 14:52!
I'll be sure to update you guys when Challenger drops the new TAS!
Hi guys! Ever since I came to pop1-snes on this website, I've been grinding away at best possible times for each individual level with the glitched sprites that allow running or jumping through closed gates.
Two weeks ago, I made the last big update to one of the levels that gave me a projected time below 23 minutes, including glitch setup, and completing all 20 levels start to finish without any Warping to skip any portion of any level.
In celebration, I've made a compilation video of every level segment. I have calculated an average best transition time of 346 console frames for the short transitions, and 440 console frames for the long transitions (with a Princess Bedroom scene). This is counting from the first frame of the Select Menu during the "end of level" music until the first frame of the next level.
Adding up all the 346's and 440's, and best times for each segment (glitch setups and full levels), the projection sits at 82,927 console frames = 22:59.8442. The compilation video (link to youtube below) tracked the transition times as closely as possible, and the final time comes in at 22:59.9167, a few frames slower, but safely under the 23 minute mark.
I will be spending the foreseeable future grinding out an official speedrun following this route, and hope to get something around 23:15 - 23:25. Even with no mistakes, microscopic inaccuracies add up very quickly, so I would consider anything under 23:15 to be absolutely incredible, once in a lifetime.
If I'm able to do this, I might want to have a discussion with the MODs about making some slight changes to the categories, so this route can fit in somewhere. After all, it will be the fastest possible way to beat all 20 levels without Warping! But we can save that discussion for another day. For now, enjoy this cool video!
"22:59.8442"
Hey guys. So as you know, I've been working on this "gate skip" stuff for a while, with the glitched sprites that allow the prince to jump through closed gates.
I think I want to do a new challenge where I acquire the glitched sprite, and then complete all 20 levels without warping. My projections are that it can be done in about 23.5 minutes, and presents players and viewers with a great showcase of the full scope of the game, by seeing every level, while significantly cutting down on total time from the original category. Perhaps we could call it "20 Levels (Gate Skip)." But we can discuss that later, when I'm ready to submit a video for it.
In the meantime, I thought we might start by updating the name of the original "Any% (No Warp)" category to use another title that's been used on this website, with a good example being Super Mario Bros. 1 (NES) category extension called "Glitchless." I think that would be the most accurate way to describe and distinguish the "original" category, "Any% (Glitchless)", as this would allow for the possibility of a new category to exist that uses glitches without specifically "warping." For clarification, we could stipulate in the Rules for "Any% (Glitchless)" that jumping past guards is allowed, and not considered a major glitch; but that warping, sprite manipulation, kill button, etc., are disallowed.
hey Tocaloni, I've come up with some new routes for the Any% category, so if you can add those, I'll submit a new video.
The current submission for Any%, at 20:15, is for the route called "Warp 6."
I have created a new route which warps to level 8, so we can create a route label for that called "Warp 8."
And I've also created a new route which warps to level 16, and the official time is 12:12. I'll be continuing to work on that one to bring it down below 12 minutes. This will need a route label called "Warp 16."
Let me know when you have set those up, and I will go ahead and submit my 12 minute video for "Warp 16."
While you're at it, you might as well create route labels for the other category, "Any% No Gate Skip." The current submissions there use the "Warp 8" route. I'm working on an alternate "Warp 16" with no gate skipping, which will belong in that category.
Hey, Toca, I wonder if you could expand on the idea of filtering different routes. I looked at Dark Souls as your example, but I didn't see any available route filters. I did, however, see tons of categories, including a number of miscellaneous categories.
I wouldn't see the harm in having an "Any% Gate Thief" category here.
My main concern is that I would like to actively compete on these different routes, since they are very different -- they make the game & strategy very different. Skipping gates is huge! I would hope that I can submit different runs for Regular Warp, and for Gate Thief. Will that be possible without an extra category?
I have just completed my first SNES WARP speedrun using the Gate Thief sprite scramble. Any time you use a Warp Glitch in SNES version, the Prince's sprite is scrambled. Many different combinations of animation frames are possible, depending on where, when, and how many glitches you do.
As you can see in the current submissions for SNES WARP, the level 8 warp causes the Prince's running animation to alternate between a running and a standing pose. He makes a weird crouch while climbing, and temporarily becomes a brown Sword (it looks like a red ribbon) at the end of the climbing sequence.
Other warps can cause the Prince to temporarily look like a guard, skeleton, or even Jaffar. The Gate Thief is a little bit of everything. Sometimes the Prince, sometimes a guard, and sometimes a Sword. When you are the Gate Thief, some of the Sword frames are parallel to the ground, and at that moment, the Prince can slide underneath a closed gate.
This ability has its limitations. It is by no means easy in all instances. And if you make a mistake, you can still collide with the gate, and lose time.
Because this limited ability makes such a huge difference in the game, and the different routes that can be taken, I think it is appropriate to have a different SNES "Gate Thief" category for runs using these glitches.
Personally, I am very interested in leaving the SNES Warp category the way it is, with no gates skipped, so that I can compete in that longer format.
My record for Gate Thief is 20:15.993. This is 4 minutes 13 seconds faster than the SNES Warp record.
I will provide a link now, to YouTube, so that everyone can see the run, and the details, while considering my request for a new category. If the idea is approved, and the new category created, I will officially submit this run for it.
I'd appreciate it if we could get some further clarification from the MODs, concerning my previous question, for Pop1 SNES Warp category.
RTA rules clearly states that timing begins on the first active frame. But the current #1 record for this category is starting later, after the player has played the game for a little bit, and performed some necessary tricks to prevent the level 8 warp from freezing the game. Then, after they've done some early tricks, they start level one from a later time, and not the original state, and not from the first active frame.
If you don't have to show the setup before the warp, as a part of the run, then I'm about to submit a sub-18 minute run, and let everyone wonder how I set it up.
[edit #1 -- I have edited this post to single out the #1 record. -- I have confirmed on my console that Zotmeister's #2 record is legitimate, and was correctly performed, recorded, and timed.]
[edit #2 -- MODs have updated rules, and top submission has been redone to comply.]