Introducing sq1opt Version 2 qqwref 2023-06-24 | Introducing a new Square-1 alg searching program which can find algs in 2gen, suboptimal algs, orientation algs, and more!Download it here: github.com/qqwref/sq1opt
Masyu solve (20x20 Normal in 2:02) qqwref 2023-04-21 | Try it yourself: puzzle-masyu.comI'm second overall on the site now, so I figured I should record something.
Sabre Wulf 100% in 1:45:35 (TAS) qqwref 2023-04-10 | Sabre Wulf is a lesser known GBA puzzle platformer by Rare, who are known for the Banjo and Donkey Kong series, Goldeneye 007, It's Mr Pants, and many others. The goal is to steal golden relics from a wolf and then resell them to help pay for your private zoo, plus some other stuff about saving the world and collecting flowers.This is a tool-assisted Low Optimized Movie Based on Real Effort (LOMBRE). That mainly refers to the effort made by jlun2 in making the original TAS and another movie that collected all the animals/keys in each level, and for documenting a ton about the game in the tasvideos forum. He never ended up making a 100% movie, but I would have had a much harder time without his work, even though I didn't directly use his inputs. I'm also indebted to B_G from GameFAQs for his 2004(!) walkthrough of Challenge Mode.This movie finishes a file with 100%, which as far as I know hadn't been properly routed or completed on video before. I was inspired to do this because I did some any% speedruns of this game in the distant past, and recently checked speedrun.com recently only to notice that no runner had completed the 100% category - although I thought it would be more approachable to do it with tool assistance first. This run took 10 days, about 20k rerecords, and takes 1:45:35 to the last input necessary for 100%. The rest of the video just shows off what you get from doing 100%, like the changed title screen.100% requires the following:- Complete the main 64 levels of the game.- Actually, do 16 of those again, because you need a gold treasure in each one to unlock all the levels in Challenge Mode.- Collect every animal, from bags in the main levels as well as buying them in the shop. You also have to buy the compass.- Finish the cow costume quest and the five orchid quests.- Finish all 8 bonus areas, unlocked from keys you collect in 8 of the levels.- Finally, with 94.4%, complete the non-lab levels again in Challenge Mode with at least a gold rating. This movie gets all Rare ratings because it's faster.Movement is usually pretty simple. You lose time when you land and acceleration from a standstill is slow, unless you jump immediately. Falling too far without touching ground makes you trip and costs time, unless your jump was from something springy or you have Phoenix on. You can turn around instantly in the air, but on the ground it takes some time.I had trouble trying to plan out gold. To buy everything you need requires 1270 more coins than you're guaranteed to get. You can get those coins from chests (hidden in the overworld and most of the levels; the level ones respawn each attempt), the bouncing coins that appear when objects are destroyed, selling treasure, and the chain/hit combo system that I don't really understand. Here I tried to get any chest that wasn't more than a few seconds away, but later in the run I realized I had way more coins than necessary, and ended up with about 1000 coins extra. You probably don't need any chests and could save a few minutes from not getting them.Movie file on tasvideos: tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638166865030533079Chapters:0:23 - Campsite2:53 - Blackwyche Village9:13 - Karnath Jungle16:57 - Underwurlde Mines24:09 - Entombed Swamp33:26 - Mount Knightlore48:35 - Nightshade Mining Company58:06 - Temple of Imhotep1:11:26 - Dragonskulle Town1:24:24 - Challenge Mode
Sokoban, the RPG any% in 1:27:01 qqwref 2022-11-14 | After playing this I thought it would be fun to do a few runs. Improvable for sure, but I'm happy with this. I solved the puzzles as I went from memory, but someone could potentially memorize the optimal solution, although I don't expect anyone actually will. Thanks to Buurazu for pointing out that RPG Maker games you can speed up text/cutscenes by holding the action key (spacebar).I lost a bunch of time here and there from small puzzle mistakes, but not a ton in any one place. The death in the chase sequence was unfortunate, but that part is pretty hard. This is on the MV version (as opposed to VX-Ace), I'm not sure what's faster but the VX-Ace ending seems longer. The riddle answers are 3254, 368, multiply by 5 once and 2 three times, 1, 5 14 7 20 10 29 86 43 129 128 ... 1, 1 ...128 127 254 253 506 505 1010 1009 2018, 5, 7 8 10 1, 9. I skipped 4-11, 5-4, 5-8, and 5-9 which should be the slowest four levels. The last two choices in the game seem equally fast either way.
Mosaic 20x20 Hard in 4:36 qqwref 2022-06-07 | Hard puzzle, relatively good solve. Lots of room for potential improvement.You can try this puzzle at puzzle-minesweeper.com/. I helped write the puzzle generator code.
Minesweeper logic puzzle solves qqwref 2022-05-17 | Some random solves on a new Puzzle Team puzzle: puzzle-minesweeper.com Still inconsistent, but I'll practice more. I helped write the code to generate puzzles.
Slant solve (15x15 hard) qqwref 2022-04-06 | You can try it at chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/slant.html
Helicopter Cube sim: 11.604 single, 14.414 avg5, 15.692 avg12 qqwref 2021-12-13 | single @ 26:03avg5 @ 12:46avg12 @ 6:20Sim: mzrg.com/js/qheli-v2.html
Curvy Copter sim: 21.653 single, 24.745 avg5, 26.601 avg12 qqwref 2021-11-15 | The avg5 is at the start avg12 at the end. I'm still getting used to the controls so this is improvable.Sim: mzrg.com/js/qheli-v2.html
Sudo-Sweep 6x6 in 146s qqwref 2021-10-24 | Second time beating this, first on video, WR probably. The last click to fix the sudoku part took like 12s, but oh well, it takes a lot of luck to finish this mode at all.
Sudo Sweep 4x4 in 17.017 qqwref 2021-10-19 | WR I guess. I haven't finished the other two modes yet, although to be fair the 6x6 mode needs a lot of luck, and the 9x9 mode may not be doable by anyone.Game link: gamesforcrows.itch.io/sudo-sweep
Minesweeper Expert 40.54 qqwref 2021-10-16 | My best time since I got the 38.96 in 2016. The start was really nice so I played the rest very carefully.The G34125 in the name area is because I got this while playing for an online tournament which is using that as a cheat prevention system.
Finishing the 256x256x256 qqwref 2021-04-24 | I and five other people worked together to solve the 256x256x256. It took about two months, and a total of a little under 96 hours of work. Here is the final session.Speedsolving.com thread: speedsolving.com/threads/256x256-rubiks-cube-solve-world-record-attempt.79808
69x69x69 in 5:08:43 qqwref 2021-04-01 | My first big cube done with the clearing optimizations (although I found them after the first center). Piece/second WR of 1.499, which is also something like 0.15 better than my previous best for an odd cube. Final time 5:08:43.339, 45191 moves at 2.440 moves/sec.
20x20x20 in 27:11 qqwref 2021-03-21 | I recently thought of an optimization for all clearing stages, which also saves a little time on the 4th center. This solve is a demonstration of it as well as the current WR. Final time 27:11.384, 4595 moves at 2.817 moves/sec.The idea is to do an extra U (or U2 D2) move instead of a rotation, so that you can only move pieces into one area, and not have to group pieces together in one area and then move them all somewhere else. This saves 1 rotation, costs 1-2 extra moves, but should save many slice moves on average.Here is the optimization written out in cube notation. Imagine you're clearing the m'th column, so mR is "an R turn of the m'th layer". I will also write "?U" for "some number of U turns on varying axes". The current center 1 clearing would look like this:?U (mR') y' ?U' y' ?U2 y' ?U y' (mR)The new method is this:?U (mR' U) ?U y ?U2 y ?U' y (mR)And for center 2 clearing, the current method is:?U (mR U2 mR') y' ?U' y' ?U2 y' ?U y' (mR U2 mR')The new method is:?U (mR U2 mR' U) ?U y ?U2 y ?U' y (mR U2 mR')For center 3 clearing, the current method (at a different angle from what I use) is:?U2 (mR') y2 ?U2 y2 (mR)The new method is:?U2 (mR' U2 D2) ?U2 y2 (mR)For center 4, you should only use this for the first half of the columns, and only for the first pass on each column. The old first pass would look like:?U2 (mR U2 mR') y2 ?U2 y2 (mR U2 mR')And the new first pass is:?U2 (mR U2 mR' U2 D2) ?U2 y2 (mR U2 mR')In all of these stages, feel free to do the additional U, U2, and D2 moves wherever they are convenient. You don't have to do them before the ?U2 moves.
13x13x13 in 12:04 qqwref 2021-03-21 | Finally beat my 14x14 time. Odd cubes are hard. Final time 12:04.167, 2159 moves at 2.981 moves/sec.
5x5x5 in 1:02.979 qqwref 2021-03-21 | 223 moves, 3.541 moves/sec. I did a lot of attempts and got several 1:05ish times, this was the best I managed. I guess sub-1 is possible with enough luck, so maybe I will try again later.
4x4x4 supercube in 51.105 qqwref 2021-03-21 | 174 moves, 3.405 TPS. Reduction method. First sub1 with mouse I think (although I have a 37.80 single on keyboard).
7x7x7 in 2:51.836 with mouse qqwref 2021-02-28 | First sub-3 on this. 552 moves, 3.212 moves/second, 3.794 total clicks/second.
6x6x6 in 1:52.457 with mouse qqwref 2021-02-28 | First sub-2 after hours of attempts, even with the OLL parity and LL issues. I guess the corners and edges were just that good. 391 moves, 3.477 moves/second, 89 rotations, 4.268 total clicks/second.
60x60x60 in 4:00:29 qqwref 2021-02-26 | First cage solve to be over 1.4 pieces/second (this was 1.449) and under 0.7 seconds/piece! Including rotations, this solve overall was just over 3 clicks per second. I also had a very low 3.69% mistake ratio according to ben's cubesim.Final time 4:00:29.170, 35292 moves at 2.446 moves/sec.
90x90x90 in 9:26:54 qqwref 2021-02-22 | First 90x90x90 solve by anyone, and personal seconds/piece record (0.715). I actually finished this faster than my 80x80x80 solve a year ago. I think this was mostly due to using a strategy from isaakquing (Nikolay Vasilyev) where the cube is oriented so that every row being used in clearing and centers 4-5 extends horizontally across the whole screen, meaning very little scrolling around the cube is required.Final time 9:26:54.403, 78091 moves at 2.296 moves/sec. Done in 5 sessions from February 13th to 21st.
4x4x4 in 35.954 qqwref 2021-02-19 | I've been doing a lot of 4x4x4 with mouse the past few days. I also had a 38.056 with double parity.
Google Minesweeper Hard in 57 seconds [Former WR] qqwref 2021-02-08 | Improvable. Just wanted to beat the 1:02 on speedrun.com.
Google Minesweeper 100% in 1:42 [WR] qqwref 2021-02-08 | I hit the timer late, so this is a 1:42. You just have to beat the 3 difficulties in any order.
10x10x10 in 7:19 qqwref 2021-02-06 | Final time 7:19.541, 1445 moves at 3.288 moves/sec. I did this to beat soup since he took the mouse-controlled world record with a 7:42.This was also part of a 7:40.228 average of 5 and a 7:59.763 average of 12.
20x20x20 FMC in 3129 moves qqwref 2021-02-03 | Done on ben's cubesim, in multiple sittings. This video is at 12x speed. I used CubeExplorer to solve the 3x3x3 at the end. This is WR for now, but Ben looks to be on track to beating it using reduction for at least the first two centers.
Beating carykhs Minesweeper Variants qqwref 2021-01-20 | In 2016 youtuber Cary Huang (carykh) made a version of Minesweeper with many different variants. The video is at youtube.com/watch?v=GZAm6Pt9jOg, and the game can be found here: htwins.net/minesweeperIn this video I beat all of those variants on Expert difficulty, except for Horiz which requires an unrealistic amount of luck. I did these games from January 6th to 11th. They're ordered based on my best time on video. These times are all beatable, but I think they should generally be pretty decent.00:00 Normal in 58.0101:06 Hexagon in 1:16.4802:28 No Up in 1:34.3504:07 Orth in 1:52.1406:06 Pawn in 2:00.0008:15 No Vert in 2:08.8910:33 Doubled in 2:20.3013:00 Far Orth in 2:21.6015:30 Taxicab in 3:06.2618:46 Doubhex in 3:16.7822:11 Diaghex in 3:28.9525:46 Knight in 3:36.8429:29 Swath in 13:36.84Notes: Orth takes quite a bit of luck to finish. Pawn has a free bottom row, but still involves some 50-50 guesses. Doubled and other variants with higher-valued squares involve some arithmetic but usually have fewer guesses. Far Orth surprisingly allows a theoretical Expert completion rate of over 70%. Swath is very hard to finish! (and I'm sorry for the video error in the bottom right)
14x14x14 in 13:13 qqwref 2020-07-05 | Very good solve with a nice lucky L2C. This was the best from an average of 5 I did today: (15:07.222) 13:51.322 13:53.847 (13:13.924) 13:50.755 = 13:51.975 avg5. Final time 13:13.924, 2428 moves at 3.06 moves/sec.
37x37x37 in 1:36:38 qqwref 2020-07-05 | First big solve done where I did r2 u' r2 u with the mouse only, i.e. with no shift key. I think it's faster. This is my best odd cube solve in terms of seconds/piece. Final time 1:36:38.295, 14771 moves at 2.55 moves/sec.
Rollerboy 2 - All Coins (Segmented) qqwref 2020-06-23 | This is a video of me collecting all the coins in Rollerboy 2. It's segmented, that is, I recorded the video in multiple chunks, which have been edited together. My goal here is to just demonstrate the game and show where everything is.I used to play this game from time to time in middle school, probably almost 20 years ago. It was available online as a Java applet. For a while, the only way to play it was on a game site with a paywall, and later that site died too. I found out recently that reddit user herb3k, on the subreddit r/rollerboy2, has actually put together a downloadable version of the game, complete with source code! So, after a long time, I have been able to play it again.You can play it too if you check out that subreddit. The version is RollerBoy2 version 1.1.2a Build 5229 (c)1998-2000 Maciek Drejak, and there may have been further updates after that (with two more levels at the end), but this is what there is. There is also a bug with the swinging platforms, which can be fixed by making a copy of the graphics file "swinghiss1.gif" and naming it "swinghiss-ufo1.gif".
40x40x40 in 1:49:49 qqwref 2020-06-10 | My best solve yet, at just 0.722 seconds per piece. This takes back a record held by Ben since March, when he got a 2:30 to beat my time from 2013. Final time 1:49:49.197, 16328 moves at 2.48 moves/sec.
9x9x9 in 7:04 qqwref 2020-06-10 | A few annoying mistakes, but it's a PB for now. Final time 7:04.513, 1233 moves at 2.9 moves/sec.
11x11x11 in 10:03 qqwref 2020-06-06 | This is a replay of a solve I did on ben's cubesim on March 5th. Final time 10:03.078, 1654 moves 2.743 moves/sec.
10x10x10 in 7:57 qqwref 2020-06-06 | First sub-8. Lots of mistakes but fast clicking... Final time 7:57.469, 1491 moves, 3.12 moves/sec.
