Denver, CO, USARules have been updated to clarify that. Milliseconds have been added and I'll be retiming all runs this morning using the first frame of fadeout as the start frame.
@lackattack has a run pending in this with a time of 5s. This time save is due to pressing A to play the cartoon vs pressing start. There is a clear difference between pressing A and pressing start. Per the manual - "To view your cartoon from the beginning, press the start button. (To view from the current frame forward, just press the A button)" Pressing A excludes the title screen, so I would say that the full "cartoon" hasn't been played in that circumstance. The game itself even says "start = play" so it's intending you to play the entire thing with start. Using A almost seems like a preview as opposed to a "finished" product. I'm a huge fan of outside the box strats (hell that's what CharStrats are) and I like Lack so this isn't malicious, this is just me spending more time and energy than I should on a meme game that surprisingly has more than 2 runs on it haha.
So I'm posting here to collect thoughts on the matter before making a final judgment on this, but I'm leaning toward the A button start being "incomplete" unless someone wants change my mind.
GG! I never even thought about goaltending being faster.
Shout out to Bill "Steph Curry" Cartwright.
The in game timer runs weird. A rolling timer byte goes from 0 to 60 and when it hits 60 it increments up one second. However if the game is paused (hitting the select button) when it hits 60 it goes all the way to 255, back to 0 and back to 60 to try again. You can abuse this to skip one second on the timer, as long as you're not unpaused when that byte hits 60.
Past that you just want to line up in the top center, pause, wait for the daily planet building to show up and hit up to walk in.
I am typically not a fan of having multiple platforms per game even if they're similar. I might be in the minority with that opinion but I feel like it's more organized to have a separate SRC entry for each version of the game.
I would suggest setting up an SRC board for the GB version unless the Loopz community wants it here. In that event there would be a variable per console to keep the consoles separate from each other.
I was watching Niss this morning and noticed a peculiarity. During transitions/kid switches between dark areas, the game seemed to load faster. This is probably due to not having to actually render all the obstacles. Most room transitions turn into 40-60 frame savings which should add up quite a bit. Of course the drawback is having to play in the dark haha
Here's a not at all optimized WIP for discussion or suggestions.
To add to Ness' awesome research, the #3 option which is shown in the video (which may be desirable in some situations that I may or may not be routing out currently) is around a 2 frame window, and it's got a bit of a delay to it so just going ham is probably not gonna hit #3, but luckily #4 is a huge window and is probably more RTA friendly than what I'm working on.
I broke stuff again.
Basically using enough new kid walks delays Ed's movements (and timers and stuff) so you can encounter him before the security room. If he's "in" the GT room when you go in he can't actually spawn there though he can move in from the red hallway. For some reason this bugs out GT (but Ed will finish his walking to the door to answer the bell.)
I didn't do it in the video but you can new kid walk through the GT room to reduce lag.
Trying to figure out how to best make this useful since he answers the door and that costs some of the time you saved.
This is on topic for once. I found an even faster Fred Skip.
Basically you throw the switch and run back out the door. Do a new kid storage as the lab screen is loading (select then A on new kid, then Start at the right time.) Fred's cutscene starts faster than doing the new kid to someone else and then back to Dave. This saves around 2s.
I poked around with the prototype today. Outside of the stuff that Nintendo made them remove, the game appears identical even down to the bugs and glitches. It's basically the same exact game but with more visible boobs.
Since I've been turning this thread into a vod archive. Here's a TASed 5:35 without a lot of optimization using Edna juke and opening the valve as early as possible. I actually have to do that new kid walk toward the gargoyle or else I can't close the valve in time. It's that tight. This could easily creep towards the 5:30 mark but I want to share the ideas as maybe someone else can build off it.
I was messing around with stuff today and found that you can pre-store a New Kid command and activate it in certain situations. Could be useful for setting up dungeon skips ahead of time, plus it can be used during cutscenes.
Basically during a screen transition (this can also be between most doors/rooms) or a regular new kid switch you would hit select, then press A on New Kid while the screen is fading out. If done right, your next A press (or start during cutscenes) will immediately bring up the New Kid menu interrupting whatever is happening. I believe this works by queueing the "GET" command but overwriting it with New Kid, which the game just lets you do in most situations for some reason.
I'm not as familiar with meteor police % but could this be used to regain control in Fred's lab as the little police dude is running through it? Edit - in this video there was already a capture cutscene involving purple tentacle to bypass the new kid lock out in the lab.
While we're at it here's a 5:39 RTA equivalent TAS with a new route that is probably not RTA viable. Don't try this at home kids!
Threw together a theory TAS (some inputs were borrowed from Arc's published TAS on TASvideos) and it clocks in around 6:09 by RTA timing. Not sure if the route is optimal but I'll try a couple things today.
The reduced lag is significant, and I feel like moving the capture to the beginning of the Lab sequence lets us multitask a little bit more beforehand. I'm working on TASing stuff out to see how it all shakes out in the end but I have a feeling this is going to lead to a ridiculous time. I'm glad I got to see it live!
I don't value my free time whatsoever so I did a human theory TAS of Cyberball. Clocked in at 8 minutes, but 8.5-9 minutes is a more realistic goal. There may be optimizations that I missed as well but this should provide a good blueprint for the overall route.
Advanced mode against the Pro team lets you burn more time off the clock per play, so the objective is to use every down. Defuse the ball first time it's critical, then intentionally blow up on the 1-2 yard line on the second time the ball goes critical. This pins the AI team into safety position which seems to work more often than not when they're in that spot. Call the Prevent defense to cover them downfield and the QB just kinda stands there. Once you get the safety, run out the clock as you've already won.
However, be careful that your QB doesn't get hit too many times, else you'll turn it over when he goes kaboom. Incomplete passes or running out of bounds don't stop the clock in this game. Just watch out for interceptions.
Have fun!
