MML PC notes

Rockman Dash PC Version Notes:

3 things that ought to be noted about this rather interesting port.

1. F9 Glitch

All 3 versions of this game (PS1, N64, PC) have a menu accessible via the Pause screen that lets you exit to the main menu.  However, the PC devs didn't know this, and so they sloppily hacked in an extra menu, accessible via pressing F9, that also gives you the option to exit to the main menu.

What they didn't realize (or simply chose to ignore) is that bringing up and closing this menu during dialogue triggers that occur in the normal, having-control-of-Mega Man-before-and-after-the-dialogue game state (not in cinematic scenes) results in you gaining control of Mega Man... while the dialogue keeps running.

The most obvious places that this saves time in are the entirety of the intro stage (sub 1:20 boss kill split is free on PC, whereas 1:32 is godlike for N64) and the first room of Cardon Forest Sub-Gate (F9 as soon as you come in, run off the elevator, F9 again to skip second text, talk to refractor console, F9 a third time and go through the door).  Of course, it can be used in other areas as well, so go wild.  When In Doubt: F9.  Kappa b

However: DON'T use it to skip the very first dialogue with the junk shop lady (the one immediately before going to rescue her husband).  If you do this, the game will freeze upon leaving the junk shop, presumably because the game has no clue whether you accepted the quest or not.

You might think that this would be the fastest version of the game to run due to this glitch, but due to the door transition animation being longer on PC (hence more IGT elapsing per door) and load times being far shorter (meaning less time where the IGT ISN'T elapsing), as well as bearing more similarities to the PS1 (slower) version than N64 (faster), it is very unlikely that this is the case.  Furthermore, N64 gets a free minute on literally every other version if you have the Expansion RAM Pack (aka Cheater% OneHand), which is obviously unavailable to the PC version.

2. Framerate Issues Explanation

So, this version of the game has extreme framerate issues, but not the ones you'd expect.

Basically, the game is supposed to run at 60 FPS (or 59.97, whatever).  However, it usually runs over or under that mark - not enough to be discernible to the human eye, but certainly enough to wreak havoc on any splits you might be comparing against.

How pronounced is this issue, you might ask?  Well, I've recorded about 30-40 seconds of real-time difference on how long the game takes to get to 13 minutes on the IGT.  (Idk if I still have the video that demonstrates this, but if some mad nerd really feels the need to proofcall on this I can probably whip something up lel)

What this means for speedrunning Rockman Dash PC is that the IGT, due to its speed depending on the real-time framerate of the game, does accurately reflect the objective quality of your run - that is, the IGT runs slower with a framerate below 60 FPS and faster with a framerate above 60 FPS.  HOWEVER, any form of splits or other real-time comparison method is essentially useless for timing runs of the game due to this variability in real-time game speed.

This also means that nobody is ever going to seriously run this version of the game, because there's no real way to know how good your run is until you beat the game and sit through the 10 minute credits to see your IGT.  So yes, my any% PC run is pretty (read: extremely) bad, but it's highly unlikely that anybody is actually going to put in the time to bop it, and even less likely that someone will go the extra mile and grind for a truly optimized run on PC.

3. Teleportation Bug

Lastly, this port of the game has some sort of teleportation glitch that involves holding directions/buttons while Alt-Tabbing off and on the game process.  This glitch is extremely under-researched, and could maybe lead to some sort of game breaking in the future.  However, it has a fair risk of simply causing the game to not respond to any inputs upon Alt-Tabbing back onto the game, so have fun!  (And let JMC and me know if you figure out any sequence breaks with it, please please please)