Since I seen some new additions to the board I'll make a short tips and tricks post. Most of these you probably know already, but here it goes anyway.

• Timer slows down while in the air. So make as much jumps as possible. It's often worth it even if you're not at full speed like the first jump in Stage 1, 186 Km/h.

• Mash the throttle to extend the jumps. Use a combination of speed and rhythm and try to make the jump as long as possible. It's called "Hovering". I someone make a TAS and figure out the perfect button pressings the WR will drop drastically.

• Play with a keyboard. It's easier to keep speed and rhythm will your index finger than with your thumb. If you play on OG have the controller in your knee and mash with the index finger.

• Play PAL 50Hz, will make the mashing more consistent.

• Slow down at the end of stages. Try to finish just before the red timer flips. That will give you a time of XX"01 instead of XX"99. It's called an "Inversion". It's a mistake in the programming that we exploit. I'll try to aim at XX"10-15 to have some marginal. If it the timer flips you lose time instead. For details look at a post by @The8bitbeast .

• To get a competitive time you'll need to buy the engine on Stage 3-10. We called this a "Full Engine". This is the most annoying part of the game. I'll get it like 1/6 of the runs which means that most of the run dies. Hope for 16 points after the first two stages (you can make it on 15 as well). Please make a TAS that manipulate the NPC spawns!

In short: If you mastering Hovering, Inversions get lucky with a Full Engine you'll crush your own PB and maybe the WR as well.

But remember that the results ar insignificant and what really counts is competing. There is no victor or loser in this test of endurance 😅

/Nimn

Thanks very much for the rundown! Enduro Racer was one of my favourite Master System games and finding the posts and times here a couple of months ago has resulted in a lot of fun trying to trim down my time.

I had no idea about the "hovering" technique. I'm not very consistent with it yet and focusing on it seems to lead to collisions more than I'd like, not to mention thumb strain. It seems like it just slows down the falling speed of the bike. Is there any benefit to starting mashing right as you leave the ramp or should I wait until the peak of the jump and then start mashing?

My one small contribution at the moment is a 1 second time save on stage 1. If you look at my 5:30 run, I slow down in two places to catch an extra ramp. Taking your finger off the throttle during the entire short gap before the previous ramp slows you down just enough to hit the extra ramp without wasting excess time. With a bit of luck on the throttle mashing I can get across the line in 42 seconds about 2/3 of the time - though in that particular run I actually braked too much at the finish line and the timer ticked over.

Stage 3 seems like it might have some similar opportunities to slow down and hit extra ramps, but I've found it way harder to test whether you need to slow down too much for it to be worthwhile.