Show Posts - Comicalflop

Pretty much most if not all of the emultable Sonic games already have a TAS. (For those that don't know, a TAS is a Tool Assisted Speedrun, using an emulator with slowdown and savestates. See TASvideos.org for details.)
The one main Sonic Genesis title remaining is for Sonic Blast 3D. So, I decided to start one. In no way is it THE best of the sonic games, but it's one of the few that has not been done yet, and I think deserves to have one.

I'd probably call myself a very inexperienced Sonic player. I never owned a system that has sonic games, and not even played any Sonic games in any form, on someone else's system or on emulator. This generally is not a problem for me, I'm very adept at TASing games I've never played/heard of before. But I have watched many Sonic speedruns and TASes, so at least I'm familiar with what sonic speedrunning looks like.

Anyway, so far I have Green Grove Zone 1 completed. This was an initial stab, and (read below) is not the final version.

Each time a stage is completed, I will make a new post listing the time and video (downloadable AVI and youtube), and all videos will be compiled here on the first page as well:

Green Grove 1: AVI / youtube In-game time: 0:47 (beats WR by 4 seconds)
Green Grove 1 improved: AVI / youtube (beats WR by 6 seconds)
Green Grove Zone 1 improved again: AVI / youtube (beats the WR by 8 seconds)

I have the vids of 3D Blast to use as reference and know where I'm going (i.e. route.) (I can't view vv2 or ss3, unfortunately. Codec problem.) With these vids, I know where to go and what to do, and from them I can deduce route changes and optimizations. (more so optimizations.)

I just proved my own first attempt to not be 100% optimal, based on my discoveries below. Therefore, I will be restarting.

These things I have found:
All "slope" effects increase/decrease based on the steepness of the slope. Going down steeper slopes gives higher speeds, going uphill negates speed. (yeah, this was kind of obvious. but it had to be tested thoroughly.)

I use the term 'frames', which is a fraction of a second. there are 60 frames in a second.
I also use a number for speed, this is based off of a memory address within the game itself.

-Max running speed takes 36-37 frames to get to from a complete stop. This is about a little more than half a second.
-Max running speed: 76-79 (varies).
-Speed when jumping at max running speed: 77-79
-Rolling/running down slopes speed: 79-82 (increases with steeper slopes, although sometimes sonic is left running in mid air if going too fast.)
-Jumping on a down slope, when rolling/running at max speed: 100+ slight boost
-Jumping before max speed is reached is slower than running to reach max speed.
-Running uphills: 75-79 (based on steepness. Jumping and rolling up hills is to be avoided entirely. Only run or spindash up hills.)
-"optimal" spindash: 119 speed, slowly decreases by 1 over time (more so when going up hills) If used properly on straights, they can maintain a higher than max running speed for a very long time.
(note: A and C are the same button in this game, alternating A and C to charge up faster does not work.)
-from a standstill, an optimal spindash takes 16 frames.
-spindashing down slope jump speed: 127! boost
-You can bounce into walls, and this will rebound you, keeping the same speed with which you hit the wall. You have to let go of direction buttons as you do this, or else the game will be tricked into considering it a stop of momentum and you will almost immediately stop moving.
-When at max speed, if you bounce off of an item or enemy, you do not lose or gain any speed.
-Turning causes a centripetal affect, in that the faster you turn, the more you slide, and your desired speed decreases. It is best to never switch immediately from one direction to another without first using the diagonals to 'ease' your way to your desired direction. This lessens the decrease in speed the most.
-When rolling, your speed stays at the value your maximum speed is for 10 frames (1/6th of a second) and then gradually decreases.

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How much do people want to see a TAS of this game? The game itself sucked and was not good in 3D terms, but watching it speedrunned looks ways better than actually playing it IMO, and I'm positive that I can save time on every single WR there is is, based on how my sub-optimal green grove is still 4 seconds faster.

If anyone wants to offer comments, suggestions, questions, feel free to do so.