Ninja Gaiden II practice hack v0.8
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Status Bar Legend
01
FRAME-0002 - 0003 n-n p-n
TIMER-nnn[ ]004|| ||||||||6
&-nnn/nnn[ 0005|| ||||||||7
1 - if set, displays marker indicator (see below) --hex only. anybody care?
2 - frame count for current level or attempt
3 - frame count for previous level or attempt
4 - Ryu's x position on the screen. The bars represent quarter pixels.
5 - Ryu's x position in the level
6 - shows an arrow if debug invulnerability is enabled
7 - shows an arrow if boss refill is enabled
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Title Screen
Press Start to start the game normally
Hold Select and press Start to go to the Musicruise sound test
(the messed up colors if you do this while the title screen
is still loading are the same in the unmodified game.)
Hold B and press Start to play every cutscene in order
Hold A and press Start to switch to hexadecimal position displays
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Pause Options
Hold B and press...
Right next lvl (some odd things may still happen with next/prev)
Left prev lvl If you get glitched graphics on 2-1 or 3-3 just reload with B+down
Down redo lvl & fill health (todo: also reset TIMER?)
Up set marker, clear marker if equal (see below)
Select clear marker
Hold A and press...
Right get scroll (100 cap)
Left get clone & fill ninpo
Down boss refill toggle
Up change weapon & fill ninpo
Select debug invuln toggle
Hold A and B then press Select:
force a GAME OVER reload to clear any graphical issues or other weirdness
(like after loading a state from an unmodified ROM)
To use the the marker feature, get to a point in a scrolling level past the part
you want to test, pause, set the marker (B+up) then reload the level with B+down.
Now once you return to that point (actually, the nearest multiple of 16 pixels)
the game will automatically pause and allow you to see the frame count.
You can also save state after reloading the level to test and compare strategies
for whatever short segment you like.
Boss refill: this causes boss health to refill when it reaches zero and resets the
frame counter. It was added primarily for continuous practice of slashing Jaquio3's
belly while dodging shrimp.
A note on the frame counter: since it updates every frame, it can be trusted to
show an accurate time for completing a screen when you touch the exit with
the following exceptions: 3-1, 4-1, 5-1 (the spikes-and-flames parts) and 5-2.
Those areas use palette changes to "animate" the backgrounds—which take priority
over status updates—so the time shown on exit may be 1 frame (and rarely 2 frames)
shy of the actual time. Regardless, the secondary frame count display should
always be accurate once it is updated.
7-4 and 7-5 also use palette changes this way, but it doesn't matter since
the frame counter stops when the boss is killed.
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Trivia
"Perfect score" means the frame count if you could go from the start
of a level to its exit without stopping or slowing down.
Obviously, it's more complicated than that in 2-2 and 4-2.
And the idea becomes particularly absurd in the single screen rooms.
perfect score possible:
1-1c 279 (with clip from 1-1b)
2-1 1982
6-1c 1142 (L+R only, I guess)
6-2 979
7-1e 430 (with Left+A on 1st frame of input followed by Left+B on next frame)
perfect score approachable:
3-1 1993 (TAS gets 1997)
3-2a 441 (TAS gets 442)
4-1c 1133 (TAS gets 1134)
5-1a 435 (TAS gets 440)
5-1c 416 (TAS gets 418)
5-2c 1132 (TAS gets 1136)
7-1a 766 (TAS gets 772)
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full list of TAS frame counts & dubiously derived "perfect scores":
LVL, TAS, HAX,
1-1a, 1674, 1650, 1669 if extra clone is skipped
1-1b, 121, 88,
1-1c, 279, 279,
Dando, 136, ----,
2-1, 1982, 1982,
2-2a, 871, 827,
2-2b, 986, 940,
2-2c, 278, 253,
B.Spider, 91, ----,
3-1, 1997, 1993,
3-2a, 442, 441,
3-2b, 464, 409,
3-2c, 466, 428,
3-2d, 476, 409,
3-2e, 317, 194, Even with the huge shortcut, this room is still furthest from this unattainable ideal.
Funky D., 117, ----,
4-1a, 996, 969,
4-1b, 194, 88, Ridiculous.
4-1c, 1134, 1133,
4-2a, 772, 753, Nonsense.
4-2b, 455, 360, ''
4-2c, 1143, 1107, ''
N.Sotuva, 96, ----,
5-1a, 440, 435,
5-1b, 752, 721,
5-1c, 419, 416, (418 with agreeable frame_counter)
5-2a, 1158, 1150,
5-2b, 122, 89,
5-2c, 1136, 1132,
Ashtar, 77, ----,
6-1a, 620, 601,
6-1b, 88, 67,
6-1c, 1142, 1142,
6-2, 979, 979,
Kelbeross, 284, ----,
7-1a, 772, 766,
7-1b, 112, 67,
7-1c, 601, 578,
7-1d, 69, 66,
7-1e, 430, 430,
7-2a, 830, 772,
7-2b, 74, 66,
7-2c, 782, 749,
7-2d, 151, 67,
7-2e, 490, 460,
Jaq1, 122, ----, 116 with 1 AotFW, 110 with 2
Jaq2, 104, ----, 89 with all attacks to the left, which requires an extra AotFW
Jaq3, 290, ----,
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Todo:
DONE implement marker function
DONE implement marker display
DONE save Ryu's state on room change & reload them on B+D (so it's more like loading a state from room entry)
DONE (just get rid of this entirely) boss pause cut-off & reload after boss dead fix
DONE add xpos/xsub display
DONE add DECIMAL xpos/xsub display
DONE add title screen hex enable option and Tecmo Theater
any bugs?