IRF

Ah, I was playing in Trainer mode - perhaps that explains why I didn't see the solar beam!? (And why I didn't notice any difference in the Particle Collision Chamber?)

Now that I think about it, in Particle Collision Chamber do some of the bouncing balls bounce sideways (whereas they previously only bounced vertically?) I must admit I didn't even notice the solar beam in Balloon Popping!

There's some interesting and novel guardian behaviour within the four new cavern layouts. I like the simultaneous upward and downward 'Skylabs'. Point of clarification - there are actually six caverns in this test file (but only the first four are new; the last two are apparently the same as two of the later caverns in 'Manic Panic').

Nice mix of BRIGHT and non-BRIGHT colours in the latter file. 🙂

Yes, I did consider whether the flags might be affected differently, but took the view that it didn't matter in the context (as you have now confirmed 🙂). The equivalent commands in Manic Miner could also benefit from the same optimisations.

#8F14 is a two-byte RLC A command; I can't see any reason why it couldn't be a one-byte RLCA?

I presume FPS = Frames Per Second?

POKE #8FBB, #00 (POKE 36795, 0 in decimal) - Willy can jump a bit further horizontally off the end of a rope.

The only potential adverse effect of that might be when jumping off a rope, where the RET at 36795 means that the 'Move Sideways' part of the 'Move Willy' routine doesn't get executed in that time-frame - so if Willy is facing leftwards on a rope and you hit Right+Jump simultaneously, then he might jump off the rope to the left rather than to the right? (In which case, to be sure that he leaves the rope in the direction you wanted, you would have to face Willy in the correct direction first, then hit Jump in the next time-frame.)

I wonder whether the effect could be reduced by shuffling the code around, placing 36674-36716 after 36795? So that straight after Left-Right movement keypresses have been stored in E, the Jump keypresses are dealt with (the code for which doesn't involve E), before the value in E is used to update the direction/movement flags (34256), and then flow of execution progresses straight into the code at 36796.

RB, I've just noticed a comment you made in one of your videos (the sub-20minute one), where you said "The semi-colon button failed". Am I right in my interpretation that you use the semi-colon button (on a PC running a Spectrum emulator) as a shortcut key for "Left+Jump" buttons being pressed simultaneously, in order to perform a leftwards jump (an example of the use would be to avoid risking walking off a precipice, as can happen if you press the separate Jump button too late)? But that it doesn't work in all circumstances (in this case it caused a vertical jump instead), so it isn't entirely reliable for that purpose? ** Incidentally, I've just established that the Hash key has a similar effect for jumping rightwards using a single keypress. i.e. Hash is a shortcut for "Right+Jump" buttons being pressed simultaneously. But perhaps that is similarly unreliable?

I won't disagree with that. On the other hand, I think the time saving you would gain by perfecting the 'stair clip' is probably at least as much, if not more than, the 2 second difference that you've just established between the 'Offy First'/'MegaTree first' routes!

I had those vertical guardians down as being Bats, so it seems you agree with me on that point! (I can't think of any other flying rodents!)

One final word on the relative timings for Off Licence first versus MegaTree first - I think the difference* would be even more marginal if you were comparing the two routes being conducted with only two spare lives remaining at the start of each run. (*By which I mean the absolute difference in seconds - i.e. Off Licence first would be the same percentage faster, but both runs would be shorter anyway, if you see what I mean?)

I've just tried out the jump/fall-through-the ramp-and-over-the-saw in one jump manoeuvre in 'Foot of MegaTree', and it's actually quite easy to pull off. You just have to make sure that Willy is in his 'feet wide apart' stance next to the base of the ramp, at the point when he begins the jump.

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! 🙂

Nice investigative work, RB! By the way, when you say 'stair clip', are you referring to jumping through the ramp in 'Foot of MegaTree' without landing on it? i.e. getting the start position of the jump right so that Willy doesn't land on a ramp cell with his back foot, so that he jumps and falls through the ramp in a single manoeuvre - which in this case allows him to get ahead of the saw so he doesn't have to wait for it to move ahead and then jump over it later?

I might have a go at trying to do a recording of that section, for comparison with your run through the equivalent section - although I'm not sure whether my personal degree of aptitude is up to it! 🤔

I'm one step ahead of you there! If you have ventured out to collect the item in 'Under the MegaTree' on the way down the MegaTree [e.g. to take advantage of the time saving from having kamikazed a life in 'Out on a Limb'] - as per my suggested schedule about ten posts back - then the saw is well out of the way at the point when you jump through the ramp in 'Foot of MegaTree', so in that scenario the saw doesn't cause any delay in proceeding down to floor level and walking out to the right. 🙂

You may well be right in general to be sceptical about the potential time saving from a 'MegaTree then Off Licence' route. However, I've just checked, and after walking into Foot of MegaTree from the bottom-right (as if returning back from the Offy), Willy only has to wait for 7 time-frames before he can walk directly behind the saw, and then do a sideways (leftwards) jump over the saw to exit to The Drive. 7 frames is less than the time it takes to collect the Bathroom tap at the start of the game...

I don't particularly dislike the walk to the Off Licence - I'm just trying to apply the logic you set out (as to how the game runs faster when you have fewer lives left) to that long walk out and back. Here's a crude attempt at the maths/science, in broad brush strokes (i.e. ignoring horizontal deviations when moving vertically, and vertical deviations when moving horizontally): Climbing up the MegaTree involves going up through three rooms (the Tree occupies three levels), each of which entails ascending by 13 character rows, and then back down again. Whereas walking to the Off Licence involves traversing the bottom of three-and-a-half rooms (the right half of 'At the Foot...', 'Under the MegaTree', 'The Bridge', and 'The Off Licence'), each of which entails passing through 30 character columns, and then back again. Now, jumping up is a slower process than walking horizontally, because Willy ascends higher than the platform he is about to land on, and then drops down a bit before he can make the next jump. (N.B. the maths is a bit complicated here - jumping up by two rows is more efficient than a jump which only takes you one row higher). But on the other hand, when it comes to dropping back down the Tree, falling is quicker than walking horizontally (when falling you descend by half a character row per frame, whereas walking horizontally Willy passes through a quarter of a character column per frame). So, taking all of that into account, it seems to me that: - climbing the MegaTree first (kamikazeing once), and then doing the Off Licence journey with one less life; would have a bigger net time saving than: - doing the Off Licence journey first (kamikazeing in there), and then climbing the MegaTree with one less life. ?

I realised that, which is what led me on to consider whether doing the full length of Foot of MegaTree at ground floor level, from right to left, might minimise the waiting around for the saw. (And it turns out that it does reduce the delay caused by the saw compared with going from top-right to bottom-left of Foot of MegaTree.) And that in turn led me to wonder about the benefits of climbing up the MegaTree before venturing to the Off Licence (the subject of my next post after the one you've just quoted).

I think it's worth it. The exercise has revealed some very neat and nifty manoeuvres which I've managed to replicate myself - first in Manic Miner, and now in JSW. 😀

In a similar vein, if you are kamikazeing a life somewhere in the MegaTree (whether it be in Out on a Limb, Under the MegaTree or Cuckoo's Nest), then wouldn't it make more sense to do that before walking all the way to the Off Licence? So that the traverse along the ground level of the equivalent of seven rooms - from the base of the MegaTree to the far end of the Off Licence, and all the way back again - is done with one less life needing to be printed on the status bar? Putting all of the above thoughts together, how about this for a quicker route through the 'garden' area (starting just after emerging from 'Under the Drive' into 'The Drive'): The Drive At the Foot of the MegaTree [no need to collect the items yet, you'll have to jump through their location on the way back anyway in order to get over the purple saw - unless you think that the processing of drawing them all for longer slows down the game perceptibly?] Inside the MegaTrunk Cuckoo's Nest Inside the MegaTrunk Tree Top Out on a Limb - triple-hop, then collect both items in one kamikaze jump [or vertical jump for the upper item first if you don't want to risk missing it], respawn, then drop down into... On a Branch over the Drive Inside the MegaTrunk At the Foot of the MegaTree - exit upper right Under the MegaTree (upper level) At the Foot of the MegaTree - enter upper right, exit lower right Under the MegaTree (lower level) The Bridge The Off Licence - kamikaze after collecting all the items The Bridge Under the MegaTree (lower level) At the Foot of the MegaTree - you have to wait a few frames for the saw to move away, but then jumping over the saw you can collect two of the three items in the same jump, then collect the final (leftmost) item in a jump out to The Drive (unless you already collected the leftmost item jumping in from The Drive at the start - but that's risky as you can end up in an Infinite Death Scenario if you hit the Fire cells) The Drive I realise that would mean climbing the MegaTree with one more life remaining compared with doing the Off Licence first, but surely the time saving from doing the Off Licence after the MegaTree should be greater, because the rooms are all twice as wide as they are long? It might be worth doing an experiment by speedrunning the above sequence (starting with two remaining lives/music off), and see how it compares with the timing of the equivalent run out from The Drive and back in your previous best performance video?

But since the triple-hop in Out on a Limb would save you about 12 seconds (by my reckoning), I think it should more than outweigh those factors? Another thought: since both Under the MegaTree and Cuckoo's Nest are out-and-back journeys from the centre of the MegaTrunk, you could do one or both of them on the way back down the MegaTree, thereby speeding them up after having lost a life in Out on a Limb? EDIT: Actually, that might mess up the timings with the guardians in Inside the MegaTrunk (because if you try to climb that room from below, you have to wait around for the red skull to get out of the way; whereas if you come back in from Cuckoo's Nest then by the time you've hopped over the green bird, the skull has already got out of the way so you can climb straight up). But I'm fairly sure it's true of the out-and-back to Under the MegaTree - there aren't any guardians in either the core or the right-hand side of At the Foot of the MegaTree, so venturing out to Under the MegaTree and back should be just as easy on the way down the MegaTree as on the way up?