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Speedrunning Zeux

#1 User is offline   iamgreaser 

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Posted 27 January 2018 - 11:29 PM

If there's enough interest (read: someone other than myself would actually bother with at least one game) then I might start a leaderboard on speedrun.com.

This'll give you a rough idea of how long it takes:

  • Caverns of Zeux: 25 mins
  • Chronos Stasis: 15 mins
  • Forest of Ruin: 25 mins
  • Catacombs of Zeux: 25 mins


Totalling about 90 mins for a full 4-game run. Realistically you'll be above this unless you seriously grind these games.

I haven't included Zeux 1 for two reasons. One, it's not a MegaZeux game despite there being a remake of it. Two, it sucks enough that I refuse to run it. Thus, I don't have a time for it. To anyone who wishes to inflict pain upon themselves by running it: run the remake and find the settings that make it less unbearable.

If we get more runners then we can refine the start and end of the run. I've based them on music changes because those are easy to track without even having to inject stuff into your executable.

Here's my autotimer for Linux systems (uses inotify, which is AFAIK Linux-exclusive): https://gist.github....f6101c0012be310
It has the notes on when the transitions happen.

A quick breakdown follows. All games start on P. At this early stage, ending timing can be changed if necessary - they're done that way purely because it's easier to make an autotimer.




Zeux II: Caverns of Zeux
Runtime: ~25 mins
Ends on: CV_STORY after the final boss fight / Dialogue box

There's 3 phases to this:

  • 5/5 rainbow gems
  • 6/7 gaurdians
  • 4/7 amulets. Or pendants. Or amulets. Or... which was it again?


There's an overlap, so the number on the left tells you how many to get when the phase starts, and the number of the right tells you how many total.

Hints:

  • In the mouse house in the Dwarf town, don't touch the aura crystal. A mouse can still place bombs. If you do this, you can actually do the whole run without mana grinding.





Zeux III: Chronos Stasis
Runtime: ~15 mins
Ends on: CS_LIFT / Credits

There's three goals that happen in parallel:

  • Collect the keycards
  • Collect the parts for your escape vehicle
  • Kill all the robots


WARNING: Sometimes robots get double-counted. You MUST keep track of how many the game thinks are left (hit Enter as usual) to ensure that the counter doesn't underflow into negatives.

(Side note: I haven't tested it. Maybe it works if you have negative robots. But I keep thinking that I checked the code and it was a "<> 0" / "= 0" check.)


EDIT: The thing about going into negatives screwing you up is false. I actually looked at the code and the check is a "> 0" check. Phew. Anyway, it seems that, instead of robots being double-counted, robots which explode as a chain reaction don't get counted at all. If you prevent robots from doing this, you can get enough leeway to not have to bother with, say, the indestructible robots.

Hints:

  • There's not much ammo at the start. Going to Storage early helps.
  • The only two parts where the game goes reasonably nonlinear are when you pick up the Red keycard and when you pick up the Gold keycard. Gold rejoins at the vault. Red ends up effectively rejoining at Gold unless you like backtracking.





Zeux IV: Forest of Ruin
Runtime: ~25 mins
Ends on: FR_MAYBE / Credits

A bug in MegaZeux 2.90, fixed in 2.91b, makes this unwinnable. Don't use the versions with that bug. You can tell if the bug is present in the first cave - IIRC if only one side of a door opens and it simply does not close, you've got a buggy version.

Three phases:

  • Cave 1
  • Cave 2
  • Two towers


You could argue that the boss rush at the end is a 4th phase.

I haven't properly budgeted mana usage here, sorry.

Hints:

  • Use Explode on each board of the Maze of Eternity (that's PuzzleDoorTogglesT1 in my dependency graph).





Zeux V: Catacombs of Zeux
Runtime: ~25 mins
Ends on: CT_END1 / Explosion

Three phases:

  • Go up the main lift
  • Go up the short lifts
  • Go down


Most bosses can be quick-killed, although some will troll you if you try to stunlock them, e.g. Forces of Power will throw seekers/stars at you.

Hints (most of these were found by Lancer-X):

  • In the jail cells: A specific rock in cell 2 can be slammed against the door in cell 1 to smash the mirror in cell 1. A specific rock in cell 4 can be slammed against the door to reveal a white key. Now you know how to play this game.
  • If you fail the blue+green key puzzle you can still get out. Going right takes more damage but is faster. You will want the lasers to be in sync. This is faster than actually doing the puzzle for real.
  • Three Minutes Of Firepower™ can be skipped by desyncing the lasers on the left and running through while taking a bunch of damage. You will almost definitely need Invinco to get past it on the way *down* the tower, though.
  • If you collect the Ressurection spell on the way down rather than on the way up, it should grind you a bit more mana for Ressurection and Invinco. Thus, you waste less time.
  • The first time you step into the final boss room, your mana and max mana are reset to 10, and you are given the Chaos spell. This makes the Chaos spell that you probably just picked up kinda useless. Skip it on the way in, then as soon as you enter the final room, walk out and grab the spell. It'll bring your max mana up to 13.
  • After the final boss's first phase, hold up and jump before the screen transition and keep holding them. You will jump on a scroll and kill the boss faster while avoiding a lot of damage.

This post has been edited by iamgreaser: 30 January 2018 - 07:24 AM

blah blah raycasters blah blah blah

<Stephen> are you dozing
<gm|lap> totally
<Stephen> good
<Stephen> i will bury you
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#2 User is offline   little j 

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Posted 19 May 2020 - 11:21 PM

Hey, I recently stumbled on your speedrun and decided to have a go at Caverns.

https://www.youtube....h?v=zeaaPpqRj_k

The main difference here is use of a technique I remember discovering years ago, I call "bomb bridging": by planting a stream of bombs, the player can cross over harmful tiles, including lava. Taking the Golden Warrior down early skips over having to fight two bosses and a spellbook (the blue book is needed to be able to cast spells at all).

There's also a quirk with the pendant dwarf that means I have to backtrack to the fire caves multiple times: he checks if you have *exactly* three pendants. If I grab more than that, he won't give me the keys, and I've softlocked the game. I've tried to do what I can to minimize backtracking.

I believe with a lot more luck and some more precision, sub-19 should be doable.
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#3 User is offline   little j 

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Posted 19 May 2020 - 11:33 PM

I forgot to mention: I'm semi-regular over at the TASVideos community (they know me as the Ferret Warlord over there), and I have to admit, coming off of making TASes, it's a little unusual watching my speedruns not have much in the way of super precise movements! In your video, you alluded to someone developing TAS features for MZX, but I can't find anything about it; how's that coming along?
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