RuffledBricks

If this was the Olympics then I'd definitely be dropping out for mental health reasons after my MM run yesterday!
Part 2 is tonight (6pm), and features the long-awaited [citation needed] WRITETYPER race between me and DigitalDuck. 

If this was the Olympics then I'd definitely be dropping out for mental health reasons after my MM run yesterday!
Part 2 is tonight (6pm), and features the long-awaited [citation needed] WRITETYPER race between me and DigitalDuck. 

If this was the Olympics then I'd definitely be dropping out for mental health reasons after my MM run yesterday!
Part 2 is tonight (6pm), and features the long-awaited [citation needed] WRITETYPER race between me and DigitalDuck. 

Just a reminder that this kicks off tonight at 6pm BST. 😲

Just a reminder that this kicks off tonight at 6pm BST. 😲

Just a reminder that this kicks off tonight at 6pm BST. 😲

Hi all. Slight bit of self-promo here, but UK Speedrunner Gathering have decided to host an entirely ZX Spectrum themed speedrun mini-marathon. It'll be from Aug 6th-8th (from 6pm BST each night), and will feature the entire original Miner Willy series being ran in various forms, including a few runs from myself. Full schedule is below:

https://horaro.org/uksgmini/zx21

 
The whole marathon will be streamed from UKSG's Twitch channel here:
https://www.twitch.tv/uksg_marathon
I believe it's the first time ever that an entirely Spectrum-based speedrun event has been held, so please do drop in if you're free. Personally, it's the most risk of high stakes Game Overs I've ever had in one marathon, so I'm just hoping I can complete all my runs with a modicum of dignity. 😅

Thanks for this. 🙂
I'll do my upmost to 'virtually attend' if I can.

Hi all. Slight bit of self-promo here, but UK Speedrunner Gathering have decided to host an entirely ZX Spectrum themed speedrun mini-marathon. It'll be from Aug 6th-8th (from 6pm BST each night), and will feature the entire original Miner Willy series being ran in various forms, including a few runs from myself. Full schedule is below:

https://horaro.org/uksgmini/zx21

 
The whole marathon will be streamed from UKSG's Twitch channel here:
https://www.twitch.tv/uksg_marathon
I believe it's the first time ever that an entirely Spectrum-based speedrun event has been held, so please do drop in if you're free. Personally, it's the most risk of high stakes Game Overs I've ever had in one marathon, so I'm just hoping I can complete all my runs with a modicum of dignity. 😅

Hi all. Slight bit of self-promo here, but UK Speedrunner Gathering have decided to host an entirely ZX Spectrum themed speedrun mini-marathon. It'll be from Aug 6th-8th (from 6pm BST each night), and will feature the entire original Miner Willy series being ran in various forms, including a few runs from myself. Full schedule is below:

https://horaro.org/uksgmini/zx21

 
The whole marathon will be streamed from UKSG's Twitch channel here:
https://www.twitch.tv/uksg_marathon
I believe it's the first time ever that an entirely Spectrum-based speedrun event has been held, so please do drop in if you're free. Personally, it's the most risk of high stakes Game Overs I've ever had in one marathon, so I'm just hoping I can complete all my runs with a modicum of dignity. 😅

Yes, that's right. Weirdly they were the first jumps I discovered when I started playing JSW on stream last year and I actually didn't even realise you could vertical jump without turning on the spot until someone in chat helpfully pointed that out!
So it is normally reliable (over 99% I'd say). However, in the week prior to that stream mick_jo had been discussing how he found those jump buttons occasionally didn't seem to work when running the game in 128K on Fuse, and then all of a sudden I started experiencing similar (albeit very sporadic) issues. So I think it might be more emulator-related than anything bigger.

Yes, that's right. Weirdly they were the first jumps I discovered when I started playing JSW on stream last year and I actually didn't even realise you could vertical jump without turning on the spot until someone in chat helpfully pointed that out!
So it is normally reliable (over 99% I'd say). However, in the week prior to that stream mick_jo had been discussing how he found those jump buttons occasionally didn't seem to work when running the game in 128K on Fuse, and then all of a sudden I started experiencing similar (albeit very sporadic) issues. So I think it might be more emulator-related than anything bigger.

So, it seems I may have led you down the garden path, both figuratively and literally... 😜
Still, it's nice to see that triple jump in Out on a Limb in action, swiftly followed by the BOGOFF death jump! 🙂

So I tried out @IRF's suggestion on stream this evening - I did almost two hours of playing around with different routes for the MegaTree/Off Licence section and, owing to my somewhat rusty playing, I didn't manage to get a full comparison of every single scenario I wanted. I did, however, get a good comparison of the main contention discussed in this thread: whether Off Licence should come before or after the MegaTree in an optimum OL/OOAL deathwarp route.
I timed the route via RTA on 128K Spectrum (Fuse emulator), starting from entering At The Foot Of The MegaTree and ending upon entering The Drive. Both I started with eight lives. The results were as follows:
MegaTree before Off Licence - 3:51
Off Licence before MegaTree - 3:49 (and this was WITHOUT stair clip, just FYI)
There were obviously minor variations here and there in the execution of each room, but nothing that I believe would have affected the final conclusion: Off Licence before MegaTree is, for whatever reason, faster.
 
 
 

Anyhow, onto stuff that I know definitely will save time in the run, here's a rather pleasing find from @crem's algorithm:
 
Beach rope warp can now do a full 2 seconds worth of time saving. And despite how it looks, it's actually a pretty forgiving strat - seems to have a pretty decent range of timing and positioning that will allow you to pull it off.

It is, but for my own sanity, it's one of those 'take or leave' strats for me. Nice to have it in a run if you can get it - and I do certainly try going for it in a full run - but just not consistent enough to really be like "Well, it's this strat or the run's dead."

So I tried out @IRF's suggestion on stream this evening - I did almost two hours of playing around with different routes for the MegaTree/Off Licence section and, owing to my somewhat rusty playing, I didn't manage to get a full comparison of every single scenario I wanted. I did, however, get a good comparison of the main contention discussed in this thread: whether Off Licence should come before or after the MegaTree in an optimum OL/OOAL deathwarp route.
I timed the route via RTA on 128K Spectrum (Fuse emulator), starting from entering At The Foot Of The MegaTree and ending upon entering The Drive. Both I started with eight lives. The results were as follows:
MegaTree before Off Licence - 3:51
Off Licence before MegaTree - 3:49 (and this was WITHOUT stair clip, just FYI)
There were obviously minor variations here and there in the execution of each room, but nothing that I believe would have affected the final conclusion: Off Licence before MegaTree is, for whatever reason, faster.
 
 
 

It is, but for my own sanity, it's one of those 'take or leave' strats for me. Nice to have it in a run if you can get it - and I do certainly try going for it in a full run - but just not consistent enough to really be like "Well, it's this strat or the run's dead."

Absolutely, but that isn't an argument for doing it the other way round. At best, it suggests that it doesn't matter that much if you're doing a casual speedrun and you prefer to do MegaTree first. But it's still not going to be as optimum as the currently favoured route.

I'm glad you find it easy. I really struggle a lot with that one. The biggest issue is I tend to turn left too early and end up not jumping through the stairs at all, which is a real pain to fix. That's why if I'm going to fail it, I try to fail it by turning too late, as then you can just default to the 'follow the saw' timing I used in the videos.

Also, the timing's really tight. It's not a position that you can take your time over setting up. You have to literally hit it the moment you get to the bottom of the stairs if you want to jump over the Saw AND not get killed by the last Flying Rodent. So there's a lot of ways in which it can go wrong.

That's right. So if you got stair clip into the Offy First route then the difference in time would be even more pronounced.

So I tried out @IRF's suggestion on stream this evening - I did almost two hours of playing around with different routes for the MegaTree/Off Licence section and, owing to my somewhat rusty playing, I didn't manage to get a full comparison of every single scenario I wanted. I did, however, get a good comparison of the main contention discussed in this thread: whether Off Licence should come before or after the MegaTree in an optimum OL/OOAL deathwarp route.
I timed the route via RTA on 128K Spectrum (Fuse emulator), starting from entering At The Foot Of The MegaTree and ending upon entering The Drive. Both I started with eight lives. The results were as follows:
MegaTree before Off Licence - 3:51
Off Licence before MegaTree - 3:49 (and this was WITHOUT stair clip, just FYI)
There were obviously minor variations here and there in the execution of each room, but nothing that I believe would have affected the final conclusion: Off Licence before MegaTree is, for whatever reason, faster.
 
 
 

It is, but for my own sanity, it's one of those 'take or leave' strats for me. Nice to have it in a run if you can get it - and I do certainly try going for it in a full run - but just not consistent enough to really be like "Well, it's this strat or the run's dead."

Absolutely, but that isn't an argument for doing it the other way round. At best, it suggests that it doesn't matter that much if you're doing a casual speedrun and you prefer to do MegaTree first. But it's still not going to be as optimum as the currently favoured route.

I'm glad you find it easy. I really struggle a lot with that one. The biggest issue is I tend to turn left too early and end up not jumping through the stairs at all, which is a real pain to fix. That's why if I'm going to fail it, I try to fail it by turning too late, as then you can just default to the 'follow the saw' timing I used in the videos.

Also, the timing's really tight. It's not a position that you can take your time over setting up. You have to literally hit it the moment you get to the bottom of the stairs if you want to jump over the Saw AND not get killed by the last Flying Rodent. So there's a lot of ways in which it can go wrong.