periwinkle | (2'58"3) Cave Story+ Minimal Items (3 HP) Hell speedrun @periwinkle. | Uploaded August 2020 | Updated October 2024, 14 hours ago.
SUB-3 BABY!!!
As anybody who's played Cave Story before knows, getting a time under 3 minutes in Hell with 55 HP and full items (Spur/Snake, Super Missiles, etc.) is already pretty impressive...but I managed to do it with only 3 HP and the bare minimum set of items that the game forces you to collect!
This isn't the end of the journey, though. This run had a few mistakes that I'd like to fix, the biggest being missing the 1-cycle kill on Ballos phase 3 (which alone loses around 10 seconds or so). So, I'll be trying soon to get an even better run that doesn't have any of those mistakes. Be sure to catch me at twitch.tv/periwinkle9 if you want to see me LIVE trying to lower this time even further!
(UPDATE 2020/09/06: We did it! youtube.com/watch?v=kekfi6py-FE )
For those curious, the time in the top left corner is the total amount of time I'd spent doing full attempts, over the 4 streams that I spent doing these attempts. It does not count practice time (using modified practice saves), which would probably total even more time than I spent doing runs. So yeah, I definitely didn't do all of this in one sitting :P
The exact time of this run, according to my Profile.dat, is 10698 (in-game) frames, which comes out to 2:58.30 at 60 FPS. (At 50 FPS, this would have been a 3:33.96.)
No turbo or other form of tool assistance was used in this speedrun.
Twitch highlight with my commentary: twitch.tv/videos/721510899
SUB-3 BABY!!!
As anybody who's played Cave Story before knows, getting a time under 3 minutes in Hell with 55 HP and full items (Spur/Snake, Super Missiles, etc.) is already pretty impressive...but I managed to do it with only 3 HP and the bare minimum set of items that the game forces you to collect!
This isn't the end of the journey, though. This run had a few mistakes that I'd like to fix, the biggest being missing the 1-cycle kill on Ballos phase 3 (which alone loses around 10 seconds or so). So, I'll be trying soon to get an even better run that doesn't have any of those mistakes. Be sure to catch me at twitch.tv/periwinkle9 if you want to see me LIVE trying to lower this time even further!
(UPDATE 2020/09/06: We did it! youtube.com/watch?v=kekfi6py-FE )
For those curious, the time in the top left corner is the total amount of time I'd spent doing full attempts, over the 4 streams that I spent doing these attempts. It does not count practice time (using modified practice saves), which would probably total even more time than I spent doing runs. So yeah, I definitely didn't do all of this in one sitting :P
The exact time of this run, according to my Profile.dat, is 10698 (in-game) frames, which comes out to 2:58.30 at 60 FPS. (At 50 FPS, this would have been a 3:33.96.)
No turbo or other form of tool assistance was used in this speedrun.
Twitch highlight with my commentary: twitch.tv/videos/721510899
![[TAS] Cave Story Outer Wall, but I do a thing with the Booster](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EwHRftTF7cY/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] Cave Story Outer Wall, but I do a thing with the Booster
How high can you go on just one tank of Booster fuel? The answer may surprise you.
Explanation: By unequipping the Booster v2.0 while boosting, youre able to keep the speed even after you stop boosting. This mechanic is fairly well-known and typically applied to horizontal movement (see the world record-level Hell speedruns), but it also works vertically as well. Essentially, you can turn even the tiniest upward boost into a full mid-air jump. The menuing required to pull this off is a bit obnoxious, though.")
![[TAS] SMB1 Minus World (non-FDS) frame save + setup in description (1:35.559 RTA timing)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FOxL6Uhgowo/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] SMB1 Minus World (non-FDS) frame save + setup in description (1:35.559 RTA timing)
So much for 1:35.576 is the perfect Minus World speedrun...
By adjusting Marios subpixel positioning to take advantage of the whirlpools, I managed to save one frame over the perfect speedrun. Here is a human theory TAS demonstrating this frame save.
Setup: YOU MUST GET R14 EXITING 1-2. This is important because whirlpools affect you based on the parity of the frame counter, which starts counting from the start of the black screen after you enter the warp pipe in 1-2.
(Youll get 1:35.593 if you do this setup with R13.)
Upon entering -1, hold D+R and then swim on the first frame that you touch the ground. (In other words, you should touch the ground for exactly one frame.) Then play the rest of the level normally without slowing down. The exit pipe has about 6 subpixels of leeway so as long as you dont get a terrible exit, it shouldnt be too difficult to get this frame.
Alternatively, instead of doing a frame-perfect input like that you could just do a wiggle that loses between 5-11 subpixels, anywhere before the first whirlpool. Note that the more you wiggle, the less leeway you will have on the final pipe entry.
(Fun fact: By further manipulating your position in the final whirlpool, it is possible to get 1 subpixel away from another frame save. I dont think that frame is possible, though.)")
![[TAS] QuoteClip in 12.64s](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HWylfpabg_8/hqdefault.jpg "[TAS] QuoteClip in 12.64s
this is peak content right here
This clip is subpixel-perfect: To clip between two slope tiles like this, Quote needs to be on the exact x position in between them (the window for this is 1/512th of 1 pixel). Needless to say, this is far too precise for human hands to achieve unassisted, unless you get insanely lucky or something.
The time in the video title is from game poweron to the frame that Quote first touches the ground beneath the slope tiles.")
