I'm Back!

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

I should apologize. It's been a while. Hopefully, someone is still reading this.

I left for California on a long, exhausting business trip, and I didn't have much time to practice Mega Man. I basically worked every day from morning until night. Only one night of the whole thing did I even use the emulator on my laptop to play, but I was too exhausted to take it seriously.

The allergies, jet lag, and temperature difference pretty much guaranteed I would be sick when I got back. Upon returning on Saturday, I didn't even bother to try my roundabout. After painfully getting back into my workout routine, I played a bit in the evenings last week, but I didn't have the mental energy to focus properly, so I really only got about 4.5 hours of practice in this week (as opposed to the usual 9.5).

After putting all of that behind me, I felt great today. I played my roundabout all the way through. The results were bittersweet:

I got a score of 45/46. I played through the MM1-5 robot masters without death, and then died on the last one of MM6. Very disappointing, but very encouraging as well. It shows that even with time off, I can retain this information and perform well. It also is a new high score. It doesn't get any higher without me beating it and moving on to the next set of goals.

Next week, I will practice MM1 on Tuesday, MM2 on Wednesday, and MM6 on Thursday. I'll be primarily focused on the castle levels for my next set of goals.

Also, I still have plans to get some video up here soon.

Training Update 10/11/08

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

Only one death...

I suffered only one death in the course of my roundabout today. I died in Napalm Man's stage on some spikes near all of the shrapnel rockets. I don't usually die here, but I've had several close calls.

I got a score of 3 on MM5 and I received perfect scores on all the rest for a total of 41/46, or 89.1%.

Hopefully by next week I'll be prepped to complete it perfectly.

Also, I have decided what my next roundabout goal will be after I complete this one. Basically, I am going to add half of the remaining areas of the games to it:

MM1: Initial 6 robot masters + the first 2 Wily stages - This includes the yellow devil and the clone. - 8 points

MM2: Initial 8 robot masters + the first 3 Wily stages - This includes the dragon, wall block boss, and giant Guts Man. - 11 points

MM3: Initial 8 robot masters + the four revisited extended stages - This includes the 8 MM2 bosses in it. - 12 points

MM4: Initial 8 robot masters + Cossack's castle - This includes the giant butterfly jackhammer thing, the switch room, the wall climber duo, and Dr. Cossack. - 12 points

MM5: Initial 8 robot masters + Protoman's castle - This includes the tracker, shielder, and battler bosses as well as Dark Man. - 12 points

MM6: Initial 8 robot masters + Mr. X's castle - This includes the wall walkers, the advanced wall walker, the metool tank, and Mr. X. - 12 points

So, the new goal will have a total possible score of 67. That's a lot of Mega Man.

I'll be traveling this week, so posts may not occur regularly. I will be packing an emulator and controller. Also, a DVD recorder might squeeze into my budget this month. I'll find out after my trip.

Some thoughts about the original Mega Man...

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

The only trait I like about the original Mega Man is it's difficulty. Yes, you have to start somewhere, but the levels are long, repetitive, and generally a pain to deal with. The music is bad, the game is buggy, and the graphics are choppy.

While I have a tremendous respect for the difficulty, I can't tell you my frustration trying to beat this without dying. I'm consistently beating the first six levels as well as the first Wily level. The clone gives me trouble once in a while, but the big killer is the gauntlet of bosses at the end. Once again, I managed to get all the way to phase 2 of Wily today only to die right at the end.

They say that practice makes perfect. That's fine and dandy, but they don't tell you that practice also makes you CRAZZZY!!!!!

...so I guess I'll keep practicing. I'll save my craziness for the morning.

Training Update - 10/4/08

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

Falling up...

That's the best explanation for what happened in Mega Man 1 today. I was enjoying my recently obtained technique of using the magnet beam to cross my favorite area of Ice Man's stage. I climbed higher and higher until I was basically completely above the screen. When I jumped high enough above the screen, I died. No explanation, no energy spewing out in the traditional pattern, just the sound of a death and a re-spawn. Needless to say, this was just the weirdest event in a completely off week.

First of all, I thought I was losing my mind, or perhaps simply becoming fatigued from the weeks of Mega Man training. My previous post eludes to such a tale. Mega Man 4 was sub-par, but I ended up beating it without dying after a few tries. Mega Man 5 was horrible, and I didn't actually beat it without using a CONTINUE. Then Thursday, it all started to make sense. I had become sick. Whether it's cause or effect is still unknown, but my body starts to fall apart shortly before I become sick. I didn't even have the attention to practice Thursday. MM2 training was completely skipped.

I felt much better today, and I thought it was my duty to get back on the horse and continue the roundabout. It felt good to play, and while I'm not 100%, it was a reasonable effort given this week's circumstances.

Here's how I did:

MM1: 4 points - No surprise here. Aside from the most bizarre death in the history of the game, I did well. While I died at the spot I always used to die, I did it in a very spectacular way, so I'm not too upset. I'll be upset if I let it happen again. This is focused training for Tuesday.

MM2: 8 points - Apparently, the early levels of the game did not suffer from failing to practice on Thursday.

MM3: 1 point - Yes, 1 point. I knew it would happen eventually, I just didn't know when. I have focused so much attention to these other games that I haven't spent much time at all on my absolute favorite. I died in Gemini Man's stage in the tricky jump section over the water. To be fair, I think even the best players die at this spot once in a while. This is my focused training for Wednesday.

MM4: 8 points - While I was shaky in spots, there were no deaths. I'm also happy with how much better I'm getting at fighting Ring Man, who has been a problem in the past.

MM5: 8 points - Maybe all of that horrible play on Wednesday actually meant something after all.

MM6: 0 points - I died early on in Wind Man's stage in a hole near one of the fans. I was knocked off a ledge by one of those rocket things on the ground. This isn't the first time it has happened, and it probably won't be the last, but it makes for a disappointing start to a game I did great on the rest of the way through. This is Thursday's focused training.

So, I had a total score of 29/46, or or 63%. That's a little down from last time, but it shows a lot of promise. This is especially good considering my scores in MM6 and MM3 were far below expectations. I died a total of 3 times in 6 games, which is the same as last week. When I am 100% healthy, I'm going to really start pressing to hit this roundabout goal.

The Learning Experience

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

Today, I beat Mega Man 4 without dying after four tries. Each try I made it further until I finally did it.

Believe it or not, I was disappointed in this result. The last time I did MM4 on focused training, I beat it without dying on my first try. I felt like I had regressed a bit on the game.

So I asked myself "what changed?" What happened to cause the regression? Am I not trying? Am I not focused?

Then I kind of put it into perspective. It took me four times to do it perfectly. That's almost as bad as complaining that your last album only went gold.

In reality, I'm not doing bad, I'm just being hard on myself. I will have good days and bad days, and I just need to practice with a steady hand through all of it.

That brings me to my final point. I need to make sure that I learn from my experiences good and bad, and build on any momentum I get. It is this learning experience that will make me victorious.

...

On a side note, I died fighting Ring Man and I got so mad I threw the controller to the ground, consequently smashing my toe. My toenail turned purple for a while but finally subsided. Those controllers are the most sturdy things ever. They should make houses or planes out of them.

Training Update - 9/28/08

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

I haven't really been excited this week about blogging about practice. Mostly, it was because I didn't feel like I had anything that important to write about, and I'm not the type who likes to post just for posting's sake. However, now that I've let my thoughts about the week set in, I really do have a couple of things to think about. Here's how the week went:

MM2 was bad. In three hours of playing, I did not beat it without dying. The best I did was make it to phase 2 of Dr. Wily. I simply failed to use an E-Tank at the appropriate time and died. After that I became frustrated and died at stupid spots, and I simply felt like I was forcing practice the rest of the day. I was playing after work, but more importantly, I was playing with very little sleep from the night before.

What did I learn? I haven't put a lot of thought into how sleep affects my game, but it has become apparent that a regular bed time might be useful. While I'm not going to be working out the exact hours of sleep I need for optimal performance, I will now have to consider the days I play Mega Man "Priority Sleep Nights".

MM6 was better than MM2. The first thing I noticed with a good night's sleep was my clearly enhanced ability to focus and play. After a few tries, I beat it without dying.

MM5 still needs some ground covered. It always seemed to avoid focused training in the past, so I still haven't quite figured out all of the bosses' weaknesses in the castles, let alone worked out the no death run. In my best run I beat it with 3 deaths, and all of them were fairly stupid moves. This game is still easier than many of the others, so I hope I get up to par with it soon.

The roundabout went a little differently than normal. I was playing with a larger than normal audience, as I was invited to come play in front of people. I played using their Nintendo and my carts. It was a loud gathering of people, so there were plenty of distractions. I'm very happy with what I did given the environment.

Here's the scores:

MM1: 6 points - I stayed pretty consistent with this one.

MM2: 2 points - I was hit in mid-jump in Air Man's stage. Bummer. This will be focused training on Thursday.

MM3: 8 points - This one is still solid.

MM4: 5 points - Again, I died when hit in mid-jump, this time in Bright Man's stage. This will be focused training on Tuesday.

MM5: 2 points - I died when hit by a crystal in Crystal Man's stage... in mid jump! This will be focused training on Wednesday.

MM6: 8 points - I really felt like the focused training this week gave me a lot more confidence with this game. Most improved!

So, I had a total score of 31 out of 46, or 67.3%. Another week, another record. I died only three times in six games, cutting my usual total in half. All of my scores were positive numbers for the first time since I started this.

While I always take notes of my deaths when I play, I didn't make the connection that they were all mid-jump deaths until I wrote this. Perhaps this is something of a skill I can work on, or perhaps it's a coincidence. I'll sleep on it. In the meantime, I'm becoming comfortable with my weekly routine, and I think that's going to work to my advantage.

Training Update 9/20/08

For an introduction / explanation, go to: http://megamanmarathonrun.blogspot.com/2008/08/mega-man-marathon-run-introduction.html

Well, endurance is the magic word this week. I had a GREAT start today in the roundabout, but finished weak. I think I should have taken a break. It seems that about 2 hours in I start to lose focus.

Here's the breakdown:

MM1: 6 points - No deaths! Using the magnet beam in Ice Man saved the day. This gave me such a good start today that I thought I might blast through the roundabout without dying.

...wrong!

MM2: 4 points - I died the same place I died last time: Bubble Man's stage. Those stupid crabs falling from the air just don't seem to be falling in my favor. I'm going to have to come up with a trick or two for them, otherwise I will live in fear. I should also point out that I listed 3 points for MM2 last time. That was an error, and it was in fact 4 points like it is today. That means I had a score of 17 total, which is still bad, but at least it was tied for the worst with my first attempt. This one gets focused training on Tuesday.

MM3: 8 points - All is good here. However, I would like to get a little focused training in on the later levels eventually. It never seems to make the cut.

MM4: 8 points - This game gets a gold star for being my most improved. No deaths.

MM5: -2 points - Yes. -2 points. Horrible. This is where I should have taken a break. I first beat Gravity Man, then I died getting the "A" in Gyro Man's stage. Then, I died TWICE at the crystals that fall above the holes in Crystal Man's stage. After that, I thought I was in the clear. Unfortunately, I died touching the spikes in Star Man's stage. I died four times! Guess which game gets focused training Thursday?

MM6: 0 points - I died once, but early on in Wind Man's stage. It was a freak accident with two spikes near the giant pandas early in the level. After that, I didn't die, but it left me unable to score any more points. This is Wednesday's focused training.

Overall I got 24 points and a -2 score for a total of 22/46, which is 47.8% and my highest score yet. I had three games with a perfect score, but two games with atrocious scores. I died six times in six games, which is where I'm usually at. I should also point out that every death was an instant death situation, and none of my deaths occurred fighting bosses.