Marble Blast Levels 11 —
I played way too much Marble Blast over Thanksgiving break… I guess it was due to excitement from finally getting MBP on my Mac.
I focused a lot on the Advanced/Expert levels, some of these runs are of levels I haven't been able to do before (or at least not in any reasonable time).
And no, I haven't changed my marble skin again, I'm using this one on my Mac because Mac versions of Marble Blast require an alpha level (transparency) on the marble skin. As a bit of trivia, this was the original skin I used when I first got MBP (back in ≈October 2008), but I stopped using it in favor of Rainbow marble when I found out that I couldn't .rec with custom skins (now I simply switch skin files).
Training Towers (5.84): I couldn't Speed Boost over the gap for the life of me until I realized that in my old 5.93 of this level I didn't jump right before getting the Jump Boost. Whatever that did, it allowed me to Speed Boost over the gap. The result you see here… (plus a start pad trick)
Possible improvement: 0.02
Mini Mountain (5.48): It seemed like this was the fastest way for me to do the level until after I recorded this and I tried it the TM way (no wall-hit, I get the TM first, then the first gem) and got 5.49. Hmmm…
Possible improvement: ?
Ramps (18.13): Used the wall-hit tweak for a lower time. Used collision boundaries for the 6th gem.
Possible improvement: 0.2 (I still think I can do the first 3 gems faster)
Technoropes (11.13): The use of a wall-hit and a trim rebound on the level for this time.
Possible improvement: 0.2
Winding Steps (17.22): Took me over 3 hours (don't know the exact time), thanks to continual screwups. The main tweak in this run is the edge-hit, which saves 0.75-1 second. Also after the first wall-hit, I land on a different step, which is fast but easier for me (than the far step). Note that on this run, the landing was screwed, I can do 0.5 second faster on a better landing. I use my delayed extreme fast start + a delay in the delay, that increases my chances of getting up to the landing step by a lot. After a number of misses after the TM catch, I used a different path to the finish that is much faster, so the time for sure doesn't run out on me.
Possible improvement: 0.5 (best catch 16.76)
Bumpy Highway (14.98): I was quite surprised at the lack of run-up distance I used to cross the big gap. Usually I take at least 0.5 more square for the run-up or I don't make it over (due to small misalignment in my marble trajectory).
Possible improvement: 0.1
Platform Race (1:30.96): On the two platform race levels I wasn't about to try any funny business. The traps and path were hard enough already.
Possible improvement: 3
Lightning Ice (7.19): Used a start pad trick to get to the TM in this low time. (I can get 3.36.) The weird wall hit thing on the ice was tricky at first but I got the hang of it. Ended up not that hard.
Possible improvement: 0.1
NëonTech (10.11): My path with added tweaks and refinements. Can go sub-10 but that would be very hard for me.
Possible improvement: 0.25 (end helicopter could be better)
Platform Race 2 (1:10.44): Isn't it cool how the marble goes in that gap in the tower after the traplaunch?
Possible improvement: 3 (this was my first finish hence the caution after getting the helicopter. I tried again for 1:07 but messed up one too many times (especially on the Jump Boost…didn't quite make it all the way up several times) for me to keep trying)
Ice Cold Pass (2.92): Sub-3. Realized that rolling a bit on the trim instead of jumping on it saves time.
Possible improvement: 0.05?
Michael's Adventure: MBP (1.76): New path after the Jump Boost, it's so much easier than the regular path to the 9 second TM.
Possible improvement: 0.06 (best catch 1.70)
Strategy Climb (23.87): The level I wasn't able to do before.
Possible improvement: 0.25
Michael's Final Adventure (4.68): Really optimized form of my path (for example, note that I spend some time after catching the Jump Boost just to slow down, which means I can get the Jump Boost quicker while still staying on the level (although I botched it a bit on this one…slowed down too soon)). The last tweak was a jump on the light blue circle after activating the Jump Boost, gets me to the TM quicker and with better spin, so I can stay on the level afterwards.
Possible improvement: 0.06
Dizzying Heights (22.41): Pissed me off a lot because the double nuke hit usually wouldn't get me all the way up.
Possible improvement: 0.5
Bouncing Fun (58.02): My earliest times on this level (2 years ago) were on the order of 11-20 minutes. I've come a long way since then. On this run, I caught all the TMs that I was planning to catch.
Possible improvement: A few seconds from general speed improvements, and more from any other TMs I somehow manage to catch
Uphill Racing (24.70): Further optimized my path to save 6 seconds over my previous video. I had 26.66, but today I re-did the run and saved 2 more seconds. I really like the position of the landing after the wall-hit after the TM that stopped the clock at 9.37.
Possible improvement: 1.0 (there are some wall-hits that could be done visibly better)
Trapdoor Mania (14.26): I wasn't too good at this level but I tried it when I got MBP for Mac and somehow got all the way to the finish with 1 (I think) OOB. So I decided to record it and got 25.xx, then 15.xx, then 14.26.
Possible improvement: 0.25
I used QuickTime Player to record the videos. Worked surprisingly well.
Songs:
Katy Perry - Firework
Symphony X - Set the World on Fire
Freedomwings - Black Holes (Tunnel of Time)
iMacmatician's videos
