United StatesBecause I have done plenty of research for this game for TASing, I am happy to answer any questions you have about game mechanics. If I don't know the answer, I will research it. The questions here may help in any future tutorials or guides, and possibly even to future strategies.
Research Todo List: How the guards' and camera's line of sight works, and when it is enabled. More info on the non-prisoner flag of digit 10, bit 5. More info on the unknown prisoner of digit 21 bit 3. Why the password screen is not loaded sometimes when chosen after dying. Why the snake sprite is messed up initially when loading a password that is rank 3. Why double input happens. Why the random pause happens.
Here is my lua script, which was requested by Plywood. This has many features that are more useful for TASing that have been turned off through settings, but the info displayed can help with speedrunning, particularly the spawn timer. If you have any questions, let me know. I didn't document things because I didn't think others would be using it.
The definition for 100% has never been decided. The basic definition is everything that counts in the password:
- All weapons (but not full ammo)
- All equipment
- All 25 prisoners rescued, including fake Dr. Pettrovich (menu to cancel the pit to rescue easily)
- All 10 bosses defeated
- Glitches are allowed
But there are a couple questions now that I look at this again:
- Should 0 quantity mines, remotes, explosives, and rations be allowed at the end? Those items disappear in the menu when there are none left. I would say yes for the sake of less potential backtracking. All that would matter is that they were collected during the run.
- Should the transmitter be a required item despite it being a bad item? My original idea was to add an extra challenge and make it different from the other categories, but it is somewhat obnoxious to run, and it removes the use of the silencer. There is also the risk of accidentally removing it when trying to use a ration. Also, the MSX version's 100% does not require it, so perhaps this should do the same. This is the one question that needs some discussion.
I made a run on console a few years ago that I never uploaded using the rules as they are written now because I wanted to have a decision on the definition first. I suppose I should upload it to show the route (and especially to show the Fake Dr. Pettrovich "rescue"), but not submit it until 100% is defined.
I am TASing the MSX2 version, and am currently researching the game. I found a way to speed up the end of the Green Beret section (the upper left screen in the second pass where the beret goes up to where Dr. Pettrovich is) by alerting him (not at the very start of the screen or he will go the wrong way) and going to the next screen at the same time as him. He will appear on the next screen still running. This can be done at the start , but he will run the wrong way at the end. For a speedrun, a punch is possibly necessary after the alert to ensure that there is enough time to get to the end of the screen before he does. This is the reason for the punch on the following screen.
I am not sure if this is possible on the VC (unfortunately death warping won't work on VC, jaguar_king checked), and I don't know how much time it will save since the VC runs fast and also taking damage here might interfere with Running Man, and the alert will probably count for those running Big Boss Rank, but it is something worth looking into. Here is a video: (out of date) I am still researching ways to be able to alert earlier and even a way to get the green beret to desync; both would speed the section up quite a bit.
