Wisconsin, USANot sure if the previously linked board still exists, but that link was dead when I inherited the board.
The arcade Galaga group has a server and is very passionate about all things Galaga, so I think it makes sense to just link up with that crew.
I updated the link in Resources, as well as added It to the main board info.
Yeah that glitch has been recorded before (accidentally, in co-op), but no one really knows what's going on or how to duplicate it. You've gotten it in 1P too ptitpetter2? May be some global timer shenanigans, subpixel movement or input timing....who knows. I've tried some testing with positioning and movement to copy the recording or use elements of what was done to try to trigger it, but have never gotten it to happen. It would be a huge time save though, probably a good 10s.
An important note on the crystal counter is that it doesn't advance after an item despawns or is collected on that level. That's used quite a bit to space out the crystals correctly. The Any% route in the guides is the best JohnnyGo and I could come up with, but there may be some other good routes or slight improvements to what we have. Would love to know what an optimized double star rod run would be like, although I think its slower than what we've got, and would involve a ton of just standing around.
Warpless is still the wild west, but there are some good thoughts to start with.
Once the priority list and item conditions are second nature, which it sounds like you understand pretty well already, the run really opens up and gets fun.
Hey, sorry for the slow response, but I agree with everything SchmidttyGames listed above. The boards for classic console games that allow phone emulation are few and far between due to accuracy issues. I inherited the board after the rules above were set, but the emulation direction above is a pretty common standard for any NES platform speedruns.
I took a look, comparing GameT1tan's Low% Easy run (PS4), vs me playing on PC. The PS4 run could fire off 5-6 alternate weapon blasts per second, while I was only able to get about 2 per second. maybe 2.5/second at best. I think the PS4 Any% Easy run is able to get even more shots a second, but its hard to tell because of how the spread shot looks. It was easier to compare on Low% difficulty.
It took 14 power blasts to kill the Level 1 boss in both versions, so the boss HP at least seems the same between versions (I only looked at the first boss...others may be different). However, the first boss's vulnerable cycle is only 6 seconds long, so while the PS4 run is able to easily get a 1 cycle kill (even running away, jumping, and missing some shots), even a perfectly executed cycle on PC wouldn't be able to kill the boss in 1 cycle with low% power shots.
Given that it seems like PS4 players can get about 2-3x damage on the power shot compared to PC based on being able to spam it, seems like the board should be split by console. It would be good to understand how the Xbox/Switch versions operate comparatively.
It also does seem like the PS4 version has slightly higher movement speed. I compared a set distance in the second level running down the hallway, and the PS4 was a few frames faster getting to the same spot.
Sintec really wants others to suffer like he has
Here's a link to the Bubble Bobble speedrun Discord server.
Feel free to try to @JaekRock if you have BB2 questions!
Personally I like the way the Tower of Doom board is set up for multiplayer with 2P, 3P, and 4P in separate categories. It's less about the optimal route for me, but moreso the ability for all members to contribute while the game throws more enemies at the party. There might be more incentive for larger groups to run if broken out as well, which is fun to see. I think most, but certainly not all, multiplayer beatemup arcade boards have multiplayer broken out like this by amount of players.
I've added a Warpless category...have at it! GLHF!
Yeah, that makes sense. Might call the category 'Warpless' in that case just cuz that's a better description. The trophy doesn't warp you, just kills everything on screen. And the bonus gate would be a huge time loss as you'd have to do a mini-game instead of the level, so not really practical.
Just throwing an idea out and looking for feedback. The any% run of this game includes a huge number of level skips, and I'm wondering if there is (a) any interest in a 100% / all levels category, and (b) what the banned items and rules would be for that category.
My initial thought would be that the 100% run would require all enemies to be manually destroyed in all 80 levels. This would ban the use of the umbrella (3 level warp), star rod (major boss warp), trophy (automatically clears enemies/level), and gate (bonus room warp) items. Any I'm missing? Or should trophy and bonus gate be allowed, as you have to at least play part of a level to get those items (although the enemies on those levels would not be manually cleared)? Whatever the banned list would be it would be fine if any of these items spawn, they just can't be picked up. Special bubbles in the levels (water/lightning/fire/star bubbles) could still be used.
If there's any interest and opinion on the proposed 100% run, I'll set up a category for it.
If there is one, I'm not aware of an active Discord server for the game.
Awesome, RedPepper. Some good stuff to ponder on here. 2 star rods is an interesting idea as a strat. The order of item priority is super helpful. It does seem like avoiding hearts may help for crystal collection, but at the cost of stage time. Probably worth it if it helps squeeze another umbrella in the route.
Can you tell what spawns the tree, gate, pencil, and trophy items? I've had a tree or gate ruin getting a crystal in level 59 several times, which is annoying.
Also, can you confirm that getting an umbrella resets the crystal timer? I believe this is the case. Any other items reset it? Maybe star rod?
Also just for clarity, dying and using a continue would totally reset your despawned crystal count, right?
Thanks for diving in, and please share any other exceptions or findings you may come across that seem beneficial!
EDIT: I tried running a 2 star rod method last night, and while I got the first one with a time save skipping from 21-41, getting crystals for the second one took way too long. I think there's certainly a better 2x star rod path than what I did, but seems better to use the info above to help spawn umbrellas and crystals in a more optimized pattern with just 1 star rod.
Yeah, I guess it's not through the next boss fight...it's through the next minigame, or to super drunk if you get it in 61 or later. I think the level targets it set above (close to 41 or 61) would be the optimal times to get it.
Oh, and as for the emulator question....I think that would be ok. Yes, it would still be considered an emulator. Maybe just note that in the description of the run or something. My first submission on this game was on a Classic. I'm not really aware of differences between the Classic emulator and Mesen (which is the emulator I used and is generally recommended per the game rule submission info).
If anyone else has a more educated stance on the Classic emulator vs. Mesen or others, let me know.
Hey Yeves!
Unfortunately there's not a lot of info other than these speedruns readily available out there. You've listed a lot of good ones, but I'll elaborate on those a bit.
LIVES: If you get 8 or more lives, the game will let the enemies out of the bubbles sooner and summon the white whale sooner. Hearts also count as lives. I recently ran a 27:16 run with like 17 lives at the end, so it's not to say you HAVE to die to keep the life count below 8...just that on some levels it might help you manage item drops or other enemies and keep the enemies in the bubbles longer.
STAR ROD: Probably the most important one for an Any% run. NOT collecting 7 crystals will (typically) summon the star rod on the next level after the 7th skipped crystal. I think there are two possible ways of where you ideally want to get the star rod...
Level 41: If you can get the 7th crystal to spawn on level 39, a star rod will appear on level 41. This will let you skip levels 41-60, including the bird boss fight AND the basketball mini game. It'll plop you right into Level 61. The later levels are tough, but skipping the boss fight and minigame are huge saves. I've done this method before I really knew what I was doing in the game, but have not gone back to try it out again. Your first 40 stages will need to go a bit slower to get that many crystals to show up.
Level 61: By getting a 7th crystal on level 59, the star rod will appear on level 61 and skip you to level 79 (Super Drunk fight). A crystal on 61 is not the worst either, which is what i got in my run.
* Just an FYI, if you happen to get the 7th crystal on like, say, Stage 57...the star rod would show up in level 58, and only skip you to Level 61. It just moves through the next boss fight and minigame (or to the final boss fight), depending on when you get it.
ITEM DROPS: Ok...some of this is pure guessing or conjecture. I also don't know which items trump other items. This is the biggest question mark in the game yet, but a bit has been figured out. I won't list all of the items here, just the ones that I typically see in a run. SHOES: Typically bouncing on bubbles 5-6 times will spawn a shoe. If an item has already spawned in a level, the shoe will typically appear on the next level, unless trumped by another item drop. HEART: This seems to be tied to the amount of food you pick up. Not 100% on the amount needed to spawn one. CANDY: Not sure on this one. Amount of bubbles blown/popped? Jumped on? CRYSTAL: Not totally sure here either, but it seems there's some element of time related to this one. Spending more time on a stage, or hitting a certain game time, sometimes causes a crystal to pop up. Sometimes some food needs to be collected before the crystal will come up. UMBRELLA: After collecting two shoes back to back, an umbrella typically appears in the next level. Sometimes this doesn't happen, but the game will delay the umbrella drop until other item drops have cleared out. It seems to be counterproductive to keep trying to get shoes if you get 2 back-to-back and the umbrella doesn't appear in the next stage...the umbrella just kinda comes up when the game's ready for it. Sometimes the game will give you the umbrella if you don't collect the shoes back to back, but I'm not sure how that exactly works either.
MISC: The only other thing I try to make sure to do when running is end the level as close to the lower left corner as possible. It speeds up the transition between stages. Not a huge deal, but it adds up over 40-50 levels.
Anyway, I think that's most of what I know right now. Maybe you already knew that stuff too, but at least it's here for anyone else to start with if they'd like to try the game. If anyone else knows other info about the drops or game, please feel free to chime in!
