Opry99er

Here's a 10:17 run from a YouTuber who wasn't going for a speed run... the player has some skill. You can see the issue with the random saucers in this video. In addition, you can see how much time is wasted doing refuels. If you watch carefully, the player switches up his strategy on the Dramites at the end of the Dramite wave in Level 1 and he uses the same strat on levels 2 and 3. The strat he switches into is the one I use exclusively on Dramites. It is the most effective strat for Dramites on the first 3 levels.

Love that Alpiner video @pixelpedant!!! ❤️

Agreed wholeheartedly. Some of @Asmusr's games would be great too... particularly the ones that have defined endings. @retroclouds's Pitfall port too.

Additionally, I would like to just go ahead and get the big requirement out of the way as well. I would like for all submissions to either be live-streamed or have video evidence. Speed running has come a long way in the past 15 years, and so has technology and internet speed. There's literally no reason why we can't require video proof of a run.

I'd like to hear some thoughts on PAL vs NTSC here too... Typically PAL times are slower in speed running, and rather than split the category into two records, I was thinking of utilizing a method that has been adopted by the Mario Kart 64 community... They have a formula that calculates times. On Mario Kart, the game displays at 30 FPS on NTSC and 25 FPS on PAL. If a run is submitted on a PAL machine, they calculate a 17% speed difference, so the NTSC equivalent would be 17% faster than the PAL score. Essentially, when a score is submitted, the user would have to notate whether the run was completed on PAL or NTSC, and each submitted score would have two values: The standard value and the equivalent calculated value. NTSC scores would essentially be slowed by 17% to give the PAL equivalent, and PAL scores would be sped up by 17% to give the NTSC equivalent. It's a pretty good system, but might not be perfect for us. Maybe @Tursi could lend an opinion on this. What are your thoughts, folks?

Cool man!! Yeah, I'd like to get a speed run going for Alpiner too. Fastest time summiting all mountains including Everest. Single pass... as soon as Everest is summited, the timer stops. That's what I was going to do first, but I'm not good enough at that game yet to consistently summit Everest. The only issue with that game is the RNG. It appears to be extremely random on obstacles and enemies, which makes for inconsistent running mechanics.

I guess it's important to define some quick parameters for the run. You should start your timer when you "press fire to begin." You should stop your timer when the screen changes to blue and the first killer satellite appears on screen. In addition, I would like to focus on a glitch-free speed run for now. There are three glitches which can be used to change the game play dynamics. The first is the "Level Warp Glitch". This involves intentionally scuttling your ship before "Pressing Fire To Begin." This can cause a level warp once you defeat the first wave of swoopers. It's unclear if this was intentional... or if it can be manipulated to a consistent trick... but it seems right now to be random. Sometimes it warps you to the end of the first level, sometimes it warps you to another level. Another glitch is the "Clip Glitch." This involves backing your starship up so far that the flame tail of your engine appears on the right side of the screen. In this state, you are essentially invincible to the armored bosses. This is a really difficult one to achieve, but I will be avoiding it as I work to optimize the run. The third glitch is the "Beam Trail Glitch." This involves spraying laser beams all over the screen by pressing fire on the joystick and the corresponding 'fire' button on the keyboard. This will leave laser trails onscreen which help against Bynites. When they turn invisible, the beam artifacts illuminate the invisible enemies. If everyone is okay with these ground rules, then we can proceed forward with these as the guidelines for our first official speed running category on the TI.

For posterity (and for new players coming into the fold) I want to explain why some deaths are okay and why others are not. This has to do with the way the game handles the enemies. On normal enemies (Swoopers, LTFs, and Saucers) they always start at the beginning of the wave and run the wave to completion. That means that if you die during a wave of normal enemies, you have to start the whole wave over again, losing a ton of time. On the flip side of that, if you die on a boss (Urbite, Dramites, Bynite) you start back where you left off. So if you destroy 3 Urbites and then die on the 4th, you re-spawn at the 4th Urbite. This is why I don't even attempt the random saucer wave... if you get 15 seconds into the wave and then die due to random pattern, you have to start back over at the beginning of the wave. Intentional Scuttling should never be done during a small fighter wave. Scuttle only between waves or when the game calls for a refuel. Much more coming.

Since there don't seem to be many speed running categories for the TI-99/4A, I thought I would challenge myself... I decided to try to speed run Parsec. Now many of you are asking (and rightfully so) "How can you speed run a game that has no defined ending?!" Well, I had to make an arbitrary cutoff point for this speed run. I chose the Killer Satellites. I started off innocently enough... running a pretty good first level with minor flaws in my gameplay... I went through and refueled and didn't lose a life on the first level at all. Second level, same thing... except I did lose two lives on the saucers. More on this in a moment. Beating the Dramites on the first two levels is pretty easy, before laser overheat becomes an issue. Level 3 was decent, one death on a laser overheat, but no huge time loss, honestly, since it was on a Dramite. I reached the killer satellites at 12:07. Not bad, but not optimized at all. So next I decided to try to refine my methods a bit. I found that I could get a 2-cycle kill on the Urbites and Bynites on the first level, and the same for the Urbites on level 2. The strategy for the Dramites didn't change at all. When I say "two cycle kill," that refers to the number of times you have to pass the same Horizontal plane as the enemy. Each time you cross the horizontal plane of the enemy, you have to do damage. By cutting down the number of times you have to horizontally engage the enemy, you save frames and, subsequently, time. Another optimization I employed on my second attempt was to avoid refueling altogether. As you all know, refueling takes a ton of time, and any time not engaging the enemy is time wasted off the run. So, any time I got the refuel warning, I would intentionally scuttle my ship. This knocked a big chunk off my time. I cleaned up my run a little more, not missing a single first pass of any enemy on level 1. I think it's important to define "first pass" here, because this could be the difference between a fast run and a slow one. Hitting every normal enemy on the first pass is a great strategy on level 1, mostly because they all enter the field of play in a predictable pattern.... (well, ALMOST... I'll come back to this in a moment.) In level 1, you can just position your ship below where they will be dropping in and spam the laser to Make sure they don't get past you. This works great on level 1 because you only have to hit each normal enemy once to kill them. It isn't absolutely crucial to get them ALL on the first pass, but making sure the field is clear before the last enemy in a particular wave enters the play field is important because if you miss the last one on the first pass, you will have to deal with the enemy picking up speed and screen-wrapping. So, my second attempt yielded a much better time, even though I lost two ships to the saucers (again) due to the random nature of their starting position, and the fact that they approach from the rear. Second attempt? 9:01. A good score, but still unoptimized. I lost two ships and I had a scenario where one of the normal enemies on level 2 was screen-scrolling out of play at the bottom of the screen. I had to wait for it to raise its horizontal axis and come in dangerously to pick up the kill just as it broke over the horizon. 3 more attempts, and each time I kept having trouble with the saucers at some point. Then, a minor breakthrough... Someone mentioned to me that the pattern on the saucers is dependent upon the number of extra ships you haven queue when the ships start their wave. If you have more than 3 extra ships, the saucers pattern will always be random. If you have 3 or fewer, it is a very predictable pattern that is repeated every time the same way. So I decided to make sure I had only 3 extra ships each time I approached the saucers. If I had more, I would scuttle until I hit the 3 ship number. This knocked almost a minute off my time because I could accurately predict where the saucers would come into screen during their wave. And so, even though I died a couple times (once on a laser overheat and once on a stuck input during the level 3 asteroid belt) I was able to get a time of 8:15:88. This is unoptimized because I still lost lives, I didnt master the first pass strategy, and I wasn't able to get all the two-cycle kills I needed to get on the bosses. I will be doing some videos of this run as I get better... but I wanted to go ahead and get this run information out there in case anyone else wanted to give this speed run a try. It's a short run, can be done in less than 10 minutes, and it's a great way to improve your skills. Im thinking a time in the low 7 minute range is definitely possible, so there's tons of room for Improvement. I am not even a GOOD Parsec player in comparison to many others, but I am doing the best I can to optimize this speed run because I feel like our community should be in the speed running business. I'll try to post a video tonight of a good run. I'm completely open on the strategies I learn, so I won't be hiding anything. If anyone has questions, I'm sure many of the better players on this forum will be able to answer anything I cannot. Again, I'm no expert at this game, I'm not even a good speed runner. But this could be a lot of fun for us if we can generate some interest.... maybe bring some new players into the fold for our little computer.

You got it, my friend. ? Thanks!!

Honestly guys, look... I've got 6 big plastic totes of TI stuff to sell, and going through it a piece at a time is going to take me forever. If anyone is within driving distance of southern Wisconsin and wants a killer deal on a sh** ton of TI stuff, hit me up. I'd rather have someone come and get it all than piece it out over the next however many weeks. I have 2 P-boxes, a few cards, a bunch of cartridges, books, manuals, a couple consoles in need of repair, tape software, hundreds of titles on diskette.... just stuff I've been carrying around with me for 15 years. Anyone wants to come to my place and load it all up, I'll cut you the sickest deal I can. I'm not selling everything... I have several software packages and pieces of hardware I'll never part with, but I've collected so much TI stuff over the years that it's time to just move it on along. Most of the stuff I'll just give away for free to anyone who wants to come get it, but there are some valuable items that I'm selling for cheap if I don't have to ship. If you're local or don't mind a drive, give me a shout. ?

Semi-off-topic. here's a full setup for any Arduino fan. A drawer rack full of LEDs, resistors, etc... I also have two different Arduinos included here, along with several sensors, peripherals, and add-ons. more info available if you need it... more stuff to be listed for sale today.

There was no disk version ever released, and I'm not sure if it would even work on disk due to program size. Others here may be able to verify that. I released it on cassette in two different versions-- and I may have posted the listing in these pages somewhere. Arcadeshopper has the last of the packaging stock, and he may be able to put a package together for you. Included is a map and instructions. the tape had two versions... one with speech and one without. The version with speech required a Terminal Emulator II cartridge to process the Text to Speech functions. The version without can be played on a stock, empty TI, program loaded from cassette. sorry I cant give you more at this time. I don't have access to the program files at the moment! ?

Can't remember if I ever posted this here before.

I forgot to get a tracking number for that.... ?

Tracking numbers have been sent. If you ordered anything from me and haven't received a tracking number, please leave me a message. I may have forgotten to send you yours. ❤️

3 more packages going out today. This completes all the orders that have been paid for. Still awaiting payment on 3 pending sales, but if you paid, you either have your tracking number already or will have it here in an hour or so. thanks again to everyone who has participated. There are still some nice items up for sale including a Chicken Coop cartridge with manual, a 32k SuperCart, lots of sealed Asgard software, and a Computer War cart with original instruction sheet. I will also be posting more for sale later this week. Things have been a bit hectic. ?. Thanks!!

Almost everything ordered last week got finished shipping today. If you have not yet received a tracking number, it means you're the lucky one or two who get their packages shipped out on a Tuesday. Thanks again folks. Any orders taken over the weekend will be processed and shipped over the next 2-3 days. More items will be listed here as soon as I have a chance to get down and dig out some more stuff.

I got a couple more packages out today. Ran out of shipping boxes and the only boxes the post office had were flat rate. ? those who have not received shipping/tracking numbers yet, your stuff will go out Monday first thing. Thanks!!

I will also have more items going up for sale this weekend. Some more cool software and maybe a peripheral or two. I'm still digging through my stuff, so I may have crap I didn't even know I had. ? so far no surprises.

Okay folks, quick update. A few packages went out today. Hoping to get the rest out by tomorrow. I have received a few messages about some of the other items I have and I promise I'll get to you in the morning. Been a very chaotic and hectic couple of days, and I appreciate you all for your kindness and your purchases. I noticed several inquiries in my inbox about Legends II, and just wanted to inform you all that it has sold and is going to a good home. Thanks again, and have a great night!

Thanks a lot, buddy. ? I'll be back active again at some point. It's been a year and a half since my last software release, so I kind of need to get something out soon. And I'll be hitting Beryl back up at some point too. Adam's RoA has inspired me. ?

I won't call out any buyers publicly. If he wants to make it known who he is, I'll let him do so. ?

BTW folks, my message box was full. I have cleared space again, so feel free to message.