The invite is expired. Is it possible to make a new one?

If you start from a fresh power on and don't die or up+a, the boss patterns should be the same every time. Which pattern you get is console (and maybe cart?) dependent. Also, you can tell what pattern you'll get from the behavior of certain enemies. For example, in the first room to the right after taking the elevator to Norfair, if the first purple enemy that jumps up from the lava jumps to the ceiling, you'll get the "bad" Ridley pattern where Ridley's shots hit you when you're up against Ridley's playform.

Chx did a damageless run a couple of years ago. It's on the category extensions page. Direct link:

There is much activity with this game these days. I find it very interesting to follow the development, so I thought I'll share the forum links.

Current forum thread for updates and improvements: https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/23751

Original thread: https://tasvideos.org/Forum/Topics/23711

I'm curious on the specific details on timing. According to the TAS (https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/637998149755947525), it takes 8 frames from pressing start until you see the green title start to fade. So I assume exact timing should start 8 frames before the green color changes.

For ending: The rules say "when the screen fades out and a cutscene appears". Exactly which frame does this mean? Is it when the screen turns completely black (24 frames after the blob dissappears) or when the Blob in the ending cutscene appears (32 frames after the blob dissappears)? In my opinion timing should end on the frame where the blob dissappears because you have lost control at that point.

Note that I'm pretty new at frame counting so I might have gotten some details wrong.

You'll find NMG (no major glitches) categories of various sorts in the category extensions link in the sidebar. NMG bans wrapping and block clips so that's probably the closest you get to a glitchless category.

Thanks for the replies. I did some experimenting, and it seems that I have found something consistent. In my first experiment run (without careful button presses), I won on the first try with 3x Plums. Then, using save states and repeatedly increasing the action number by one, I found that I won at 11, 12, 18, 22, 23, and 27 additional actions. The 11 and 22 action wins give 3x Lemons that doesn't give you enough coins for all taxi rides (well, you could use the yellow taxi for the final trip back to Peoria from Auburn.)

NESC's WR-run gets 3x Bells, which I also managed to achieve in another experiment run where I was very careful with all button presses. 2 extra actions from this yields the 3x Plums win, just like you said, Toad. From this 3x Plum win, 11, 12, 18, 22, 23, and 27 actions ensures a win. Hence, relative to WR-run, 2, 14, 20, 25, and 29 extra actions ensures a win. Note that this was a quick and dirty experiment. It was done on the US-rom on FCEUX emulator. I tried both reset and power on, and the outcome were the same.

Is there any way to consistently manipulate the slot machine to win every time? I saw one run where the runner clicked USE 8 times before using a coin in the slot machine. This manipulation is also mentioned in a TAS description. I have tried this to some success, but it doesn't always work. When it works I always get 3 cherries, so I don't think it's coincidence. Could this be entirely dependent on the number of button presses from the beginning of the room, or even worse, the beginning of the game?