Lets racing time

Apparently Mediafire has a 200mb limit, so I need to figure another method out.

We need to run the race again or in a different way, because my computer crashed while trying to render the video (and I screwed up getting my audio, anyhow). Perhaps we should schedule it for a time that I'm in the radio studio so I can use better audio?

I don't know how I screwed up at life yesterday night, but many things went wrong. :P

Good thing I didn't try to record last night, my first attempt to save a long video file ended in failure. I just did a successful test at 35 minutes, I'm going to see if I can make one that's about an hour. Worst case scenario, I'll just have to remember to save and start a new video once an hour (or try a different recording software).

Do you have a Dropbox account? You can upload larger files that way.

The optimal path through NES Bionic Commando is, to the best of my knowledge:

15 (need orange communicator for 12)
5 (need rocket launcher for 6)
3 (I don't know why, but it's required)
6 (need permit for 14)
14 (need blue communicator, don't know why, but you do)
9 (need 3-way for 7)
7 (rescue Joe)
10, 11, 12 (endgame)

Although I always complete 1 first for the pills.

It's also helpful to know you can exit a stage at any time by pressing A+B+Start. This gets you out of the two neutral zones, and lets you play 7 with the rocket launcher.

I guess we'll check with Torgo, but I have no problems doing another Mega Man 2 race without all the technical issues.

I've been tossing around Mega Man X as a potential race, too.

Just did a test run with HyperCam and it went much more smoothly. Recorded 3 hours of the intro loop of Mega Man 4 for a total of 7 GB without any problems, and HyperCam seems to use fewer resources than CamStudio, because emulation was smoother all around. I'm definitely ready to make the switch, now all I need is to have the time to actually race with you guys.

There's one reason I'd be reluctant to race MM2, and it's Wily 1. Mostly the Mecha Dragon. If you can reliably beat that boss, you are better than I am at MM2.

Are you running easy or hard difficulty?

We ran Normal difficulty.

I really think the race is gonna be thrown out because of technical issues, but...

I know I died twice there. In fact, I think I died to every Wily boss except for the Wily Machine.

Funny, the only problem I ever have pulling that stage off consistently (in terms of speed) is the three item 1 room, I usually make it but failure and running out of weapon energy is just so harsh. For the dragon just make sure you're always standing on/jumping over the leftmost edge of the top platform so any hit knocks you onto the lower platform. He's not going to win a damage race, you just need to not fall into the pit.

Yeah, that's the other reason. You're better off taking the continue if you run out of energy there.

I haven't tried a Normal run in forever. What's your stage order? Hint: Metal Man first, always, forever.

You guys are playing on normal? I just one-lived the mecha dragon on my 3DS this morning on Japanese Normal. (to be fair I had to continue like 4 times on the final boss earlier this month because I was terribly out of practice, we'll see how he goes with the fight fresh i my mind later tonight).

If I were going for speed it would be a toss up between airman and heatman first. Item 1 makes the Air Tiki section much faster, but item 2 can likewise make heatman's block section a lot faster. If you can handle heatman's blocks I'd think you save more time not screwing with the Tikis, really.

Having one of the two is critical for grabbing extra lives and E-Tanks in the rest of the stages (and I can think of several places 2 is a decent time saver). After that just follow the weakness chain so the boss fights go fast (though only Crashman and Woodman are really slow without it, and on normal it's not too bad).

Yeah, I think we should just scrap what we have. Without any of Umby's footage it pretty much leaves things pretty unsalvageable. I had the idea of cutting out all the audio, putting in music, and presenting it as a "B-side" to a second run, buuuut I think we're better off just setting up a time to redo.

Pity, I would've liked to see Umby's Air Man meltdown.

No, this is no good. There's no source of instant death before the dragon, which means your only option is to sit and take damage for 'x' number of lives. You're better off going back down to the bottom of the tower and farming from the toothpaste dispenser.

• Air Man (for Item 2)
• Metal Man (for Metal Blades)
• Flash Man (for Item 3)
• Bubble Man, Quick Man, and Wood Man (in order of preference)
• Heat Man (for Item 1)
• Crash Man

A few notes on that boss order:

• Air Man is first because Item 2 specifically lets me get the E Tank at the end of Metal Man's stage, which isn't optimal for speed, but good for survival. Item 2 in general is handy through tough parts.
• Metal Man is second because obviously.
• Flash Man is third because Item 3 is useful for some out-of-reach item pick ups and making a few sections easier/faster (the first shifting block room in Heat Man's stage comes to mind).
• At that point you pretty much have what you need to do Bubble, Quick, and Wood efficiently in any order.
• You can do Heat Man any time after beating Bubble Man.
• I do Heat Man before Crash Man because Item 1 allows me to skip those abysmally slow rooms with the moving platforms.
• Though more versatile, nothing really comes to mind that suggests to me to get Item 1 sooner than "before Crash Man."

I suppose if I were a little more practical, I might do Metal Man first and shift Air Man into the mid-game, though frankly I don't know why you would. His proper weakness doesn't make him any easier or faster to kill, and his stage is kind of a slow-paced slog no matter what since the one Item that could make his stage faster is the one you get from finishing it.

edit:

That's not a bad thought actually, but I will always take Tikis over shifting blocks. Besides, if you save Heat Man for later, Items 2 and 3 combined pretty much make the entire level a non-issue, as opposed to just a couple sections of it. To me the real time killer in Air Man's stage is the Floaty Cloud Lightning Dudes, and there just ain't much you can do about that.

God, I don't know which way I would go for a speed run. I know I can arm-cannon airman pretty easily, so maybe I would follow that path. Crash man sucks without wood-man's weapon, maybe I'd go Air, Metal, Bubble, Heat, Wood, Crash, Flash, Quick?

That dragon in Wily 1 isn't that bad overall, but every now and then I'll get killed by the slowdown, and that suuuuuucks. Playing on "hard" would make me really dread the wall boss as I've never learned the optimal way to beat that thing in one go.

Do you know something I don't or is this a typo?

I don't think the Buebeams are any different on Normal mode aside from dealing a bit less damage. You don't get any extra weapon energy, do you?

The other reason I'd do heatman first is if I'm going to miss a jump anywhere in the first eight stages, it's between the second and third thunder chariots in Air Man's stage, for me that's the trickiest jump in the game (tied with the short hop in the Item 1 room of Wily 1), so having item 1 there is always nice.

Totally agree about getting Item 2 as soon as possible, I bet you could actually save a lot of time in Metalman's stage by skipping some of the conveyers. And you want item 1 for Crashman to skip the moving platforms. But why go out of your way to get Metal Blade early? It's an amazing weapon, but I can't think of places where it really lets you go faster. Take things on safer, sure, but most places it's good I think it's just faster to keep running forward than to stop and kill something before it becomes a threat.

And collecting e-tanks isn't optimal if you're amazing at the game, but even on normal I don't think I can consistently one life the game. Certainly not without at least two E-Tanks for insurance on boo-beam (hell, I used one for the Gutz dozer on my last run).

The bit in the part of the level where you have to ride on the thing while the little cans with eyes come after you. So much easier to just put up a shield. Though I guess you can skip some of those rooms with the right item, maybe?

I thought the crash-bomb wall boss was different somehow on easy. Maybe I'm wrong.

Wood Man and Bubble Man's stages are utterly trivialized with Metal Blade, moreso than others. Most of the threats in Wood Man's stages are not on the same horizontal plane as Mega Man (bats, gorillas, birds, the rabbits in the back half), and the Metal Blade let's you rip through them without even having to stop. The hot dogs also die faster to Metal Blades.

Metal Blades are good for Bubble Man because there's a lot of crowd control in his stage (frogs, fish). The Blades clear cut the spawn in one shot, and kill the source in two shots. They also make the Robo-Metroid things, which spawn off the top of the screen in walls where you can't get at them, a total non-issue.

Metal Man is also trivially easy with the buster. Wood Man and Bubble Man are easy too, but not quite as, and both take (a bit) longer to kill without.

I suppose you could do Flash Man before Metal Man if you wanted to. He goes down like a chump and the Blades don't really make his stage any easier, but there's nothing in Flash Man's stage that makes Metal Man any faster to do, while the Metal Blades do ultimately make quicker work of Flash Man.

edit: on second thought, does Time Stopper stop the spike crushers on Metal Man's stage? If so, that's something to consider.

See, I experimented with using metal blade in woodman's stage the other day after you guys announced this, but the only thing that I can see it speeding up is the dogs (which is a good reason to get it). The rabbits you just jump over, the gorillas I couldn't consistently kill with the blades without stopping, so may as well stop a little sooner and arm-cannon them. Bats you ignore or can jump and shoot normally without breaking your stride.

Totally agree with bubble man, clears the fish/shrimp a lot faster. Metroid guys should never touch you if you just keep moving and the frogs I can usually kill without breaking stride. Actually pretty decent for the crab section, may be better to just skip with Item 2, never tied.

But neither gives you a weapon that really speed anything else up or an item, so you can kinda do these whenever.

Yes, it does. Possibly the conveyer belts, too? Also you'll generally want crash before flash so you can take the shortcut just before the boss door.

So you could do air-crash-flash-metal to start if you are confident with the air tikis and beating Flash man with the buster.

You want heat before crash so you can skip the platform section.

Think my order would be Air-Heat-Crash-Flash-Quick-Metal-Wood-Bubble. Though I'd love to see if I can do Heat-Air faster than Air-Heat consistently...

So I just glanced at several youtube MM2 speedruns and most seems to start with flash man. They vary on where to go after that, though.

I would suspect it's because with a speedrun where you throw away bad runs you want to front-load the challenge so you're throwing away as little as possible, and starting with Flash-Quick does that (plus item 3 gets you everything extra in quickman's stage).

funny enough, none of the ones I saw went flash-quick, but a couple did go flash-metal.

I imagine most speedruns start with flash to deal with the chompers in metal man's stage, not to avoid the lasers in quick man's stage. And I don't imagine they use flash man's weapon against quick man himself, as its slower (although safer) than using the buster effectively.

Metal blade allows you to deal with a lot of enemies in every stage, and is really good against most any boss, weakness or not. There's never a reason to not use it.

Huh, I assumed it was to damage Quick Man, but if you're a better man than I suppose rapid fire would be faster.

The order I went with was Metal, Bubble, Flash, Quick, Air, Wood, Crash, Heat, and I think Umby was taking a similar path. I actually got Air and Wood backwards, because I don't usually do Metal Man first and having him missing after Quick Man made me brainfart.

I died like a chump in Quick Man lasers a few times.

Yeah, I was gonna say that I really don't look at the order I threw out as any sort of optimal path. I honestly shoot from the hip and I'll admit that starting with Air Man is directly inspired from ye olden Nintendo Power recommendations, but I stand by it.

I never even gave boss order any serious thought until a couple days ago when I was test recording. I was doing Crash Man (because Heat Man last is just how I do) when it occurred to me, "Wait, Item 1 would make this so much easier."

I feel like I got a boss order from Nintendo Power too, but it's odd to me that it would be different from Torgo's, so it's probably more of some childhood "Do this guy first" thing from school.

You might need to teach Torgo how to do this >.>

http://keepvid.com/