ALF (SMS) any% speedrun in 5:09
18Played on console - Sega Genesis, Model 1 (TMSS) via Mega Everdrive X5 flash cart (no SMS BIOS). Subject to the salami of the leaderboards at https://www.speedrun.com/alf.
ALF is BACK!... yay? Doing the chuboh jump in the 2nd cave trip eliminates the need for the ladder. Consequently, the pearl is also no longer needed for cash. This cuts a good chunk of salami off the run... and screws with the death route incidentally... but still pretty sweet.
This run gets kinda crappy luck. I would say sub-5 is possible, but that would require grinding speedruns of ALF, so....
* you can check out my previous run and notes here: https://youtu.be/sWWwevoMk6c
HOW SWIMSUIT RNG WORKS
Each time the title screen loads, a new swimsuit location (1 of 3 possibilities) is chosen. The RNG counter used for this purpose is seeded based on an 'uninitialized' RAM value. In actuality, this RAM value may be initialized (one way or another) by the BIOS code that runs prior to the game loading. This action may be done by the SMS BIOS or, in the case of some flash carts that don't load an SMS BIOS, it is done by the BIOS of the flash cart itself. On the other hand, in situations where no BIOS is used (such as with the Power Base Converter), the RAM value may actually be uninitialized.
Fun Fact: The RNG counter used to pick the swimsuit location also determines which direction the bats careen when you whack them. However, this will not affect the swimsuit location in the current game since that location is locked in before the game starts.
MANIPULATING SWIMSUIT RNG
If you were able to follow the explanation above, you may already realize that this RNG is quite easy to manipulate. In most (if not all) cases, the initial state of the counter is determined based solely on the BIOS. This means you can confidently predict the 1st chosen location of the swimsuit, which in some cases may already be the best possible location. (This is true of the the US/EU Hang-On SMS BIOS, for one, though I haven't tested many others.)
In cases where the 1st chosen location is not the best possible one, you can cycle the counter by letting the title screen reload (by canceling the demo) or by whacking bats. In fact, something I did not realize before this run:
You can cycle the counter by simply doing a soft reset on the console!
As long as the BIOS doesn't reload, all you have to do is soft reset a fixed number of times to easily force the swimsuit into the best location. Remember, this number is based on the BIOS, but should be easy to determine by experimentation if the behavior of the BIOS is unknown.
plz don't tweet me @TascoDLX watch chuboh on twitch instead tell him AlfOwns that is all
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