The Last Starfigher FAQ

Q: What are you doing?
A: Trying to score 258 on CCLP1 level 28, The Last Starfighter, in the Lynx ruleset.

Q: Why?
A: Because it's faster than the consistent 257 route.

Q: What's the difference between 257 and 258?  Wasn't there stuff about 255/256 here?
A: Alright...so 255 used to be bold, 256 used to be the best possible time.  Let's run down the potential times.
255: Simple optimized runthrough, no tricks, playing as intended.
256: Save 2 moves by cloning 1 less blob, at the cost of that blob having to clone additional blobs.  This is where the luck comes in.
257: Save 16 moves at the cost of 6 over the 255 route by cloning extra blocks-due to a quirk of Lynx, you can avoid a sliding block if you remove what it's trapped against on the same tick it was put there.  This saves 6 moves twice (from the first 2 blocks not needing to be pushed) and 4 moves once (from needing to spend 2 moves pushing the 3rd block back to allow return access), and costs 6 moves cloning the extra blocks.  net gain, 10 moves/2 seconds.
258: Same as 257 but with blobs.
260+: Never going to happen, but as high as 261 can be scored by having the same blob ooze all the way out to release the walkers AND clone extra blocks for you.  The luck required for this is on the order of 1 shot out of billions, and no random seed for anything above 258 likely exists.

Q: Why did you restart?
A: If I hear a second explosion sound without hearing button presses first, the run is lost.  If I lose more than 1 move, even if I get lucky enough it would only be a 257, so it's not worth continuing.  The exception is if I haven't practiced the end bit in a while, in which case I'll finish for the sake of practice.  Additionally, no ticks can be lost until I'm past the blocks.

Q: What are the odds of this happening?
A: I'd say about 1/300 from the attempts I've made so far, though an actual calculation is very difficult to perform on this.

Q: Why no mic?  Why music?  (if applicable)
A: Because it's late and the music makes it less monotonous.