Posts for LLCoolDave

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This seems to be competing for the "Worst looking TAS of 2011" Award. Even though I know the game reasonably well I can barely tell what's going on. You hardly see where Mario is going, and the camera seems to be busy showing objects from below during BLJs so you can't even see Mario at all. The constant clicking of camera changes, especially during the Bowser fights, is also just annoying. It doesn't help that the 3 frames saved are in spots that are visually inapreciable, the viewer just doesn't notice them at all. Can't help but vote no on this. The 3 frames saved in no way make up for the fact that this is almost painful to watch in comparison to the old run.
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Nice job, pretty entertaining throughout, though the game is pretty weird in certain aspects. The constant grin of the main character, for one, is disturbing considering the stuff that happens throughout the game. The Throne Room named in Chapter 14 is looking immensly hostile and uncomfortable as well. I also assume there is some sort of coherent backstory to it that is not displayed. In any case, voting yes, looks fairly well optimized and the game is interesting enough even when not broken in any way.
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Derakon wrote:
ShinyDoofy wrote:
Well, excuse me that I start counting from 0 and he doesn't.
And back in college, I spent a good five minutes convincing my roommate, a math major, that 8+5 was not 11. :) Computer scientists can't count, math majors can't add.
To be fair, Mathematicians rarely encounter numbers as big as 8.
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Nice improvement. (Though running at twice the speed certainly does help) Back when I had been toying around with the various movements my tests just came out to show that they were all pretty much equal, though I had tested them on longer stretches of levels. That was when looking at Memory Addresses was pretty much a fairly new thing to do, though. In any case, looks like this underapreciated game finally got the TAS it deserves. I guess this is also a good reason to justify myself never trying a TAS again :P Edit: After watching this, I guess my TAS should never even have been accepted. At least Truncated's decision eventuelly led to something worth watching.
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Yay for skipping half of an autoscroller. I really love the end point of the movie, getting hit afterwards and just barely touching the Bonus Coin.
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The music and Character Animation are right on par with the programming. For a game like this, that means they are painful. Glad this game is so short. Easy Yes vote, although I don't want to have to watch it again. Randomly dropping through floors or walking through walls is an awesome ability for a super hero.
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Don't forget about Sticky Controller Syndrome A pair of unrelated buttons is always pressed simultanously (so you can, for example, only attack to the left or something)
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Satoryu: You are wrong, even for SDA. A low% or 100% can and will obsolete any slower any% run. It is not and never has been any different for real console speedruns or TASes. This run is an any% run that happens to beat the game with the lowest possible amount of items collected. It completely obsoletes the low% category (unless it is put into a specific category due to the utter brokenness of the glitches involved in it). I can't remember of the top of my head if there was a low%/100% run that obsoleted a previous any% run at SDA before, but I think there was.
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Very impressive, very unexpected. Easy yes vote.
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Ah, yeah, the stone boss. They acted weird when I was recording the TAS as well. Had to record the fight 3 or 4 times until I got one that wouldn't desync for me. I'll try and see if I can improve the run this week as I don't have anything to do (but, on the other hand, do not feel like doing anything either), but I can't promise if I can keep through with it. So, for the boat levels, can you think of any way to make them more interesting?
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Ramzi wrote:
I have played one game of "Ultimate Tic Tac Toe" in my life. And I'll never play it again. My opponent was fierce. The game lasted for 45 minutes. My head was killing me at the end. Even though I was once very into chess, I was not prepared for this game. Essentially, it's a huge Tic Tac Toe board (9 squares.) And in each square is a smaller Tic Tac Toe board. Where your opponent moves on a smaller board is where you need to play your next move. So, if he (in the top left square of the big board) marked the center square, your next turn has to be played in the center square. The object of the game is to have either a Tic Tac Toe on the big board, or more wins of the smaller boards. If you direct your opponent to a square on the big board that's already been completed, he has to option of going anywhere he wants. If you play it, you'll see how complicated it can get.
I soooo want to play that.
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Spoony_Bard wrote:
Whoa-ho-ho-ho, spectacular. I've already been keeping up on this run since its conception, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it other than that. LOVED the fight with Bowser, by the way. I do have one question though, hope ya won't hate me for it ;) Now that you've mastered the Super Mario World engine, have you considered doing a time attack for Super Demo World: The Legend Continues? I know you have mentioned it in the overall topic for your run on the SNES board. Granted I don't think they would publish a run for a hacked game here, and chances are you're sick to death of doing this by now, so it's cool if you don't. It's just that this style of playing applied to Demo World's game would be uber.
Super Demo World is somewhat allergic to speed, though. I had many important objects disapear for me because there was too much going on on the screen.
Post subject: Ninja Five-0
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Well, as long as the VBA with rerecording is not in a state that it could be used for full runs I decided to just do the first two levels in time attack. Feel free to do other levels or improve what I have done. http://thps3.net/Ninja_Five-0_LLCD.zip The zip includes a) The bios file I used. I don't know if the game has any deficits without using a bios file, but the movies will desync when not using the one I used, so I just included it. b) A .sav with all Levels Unlocked for Time Attack, if you want to do something yourself. c) Bank Level 1 in 18"36. For it to play back correctly, wait for the bios to finish, then start the playback. d) Bank Level 2 in 26"66. This time around you have to start the playback while the bios intro is running. Recorded using Alpha 5. Now I'll play the game some in full speed on a real GBA :P
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Nice glitch, great run. Didn't see anything that cost time. Good job *claps*
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I'm not sure if it's true, but there seem to be some unnecesairy things. Like in some levels you seem to kill enemies that are unnecessairy an cost some time. In one of the first levels (the city type) you drop down somewhere and bounce back up. It looks like you could have just jumped over. In the prisonlike level I think you could have grabbed a chain once without waiting for the next block. Just a few things I noticed when watching it.
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CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
True, about 15% of those pauses are hesitation mistakes, and another 10% are savestate-related.
So 25% of those waits could easily be avoided. Savestates shouldn't cost you any time, and if they do, you're doing something wrong. However, this is not so bad as this is your first try. The 15% hesitation waits are worse. If you hesitate, you're uncertain. If you're uncertain, that means you're worried that you might do something wrong. And if that's the case, you're showing that you do not know all too much about the game. I'm not trying to say that you don't know much about the game. I'm just trying to say that there should not be hesitation pauses in a movie. If you're not sure if the move you're doing is correct that means you havn't planned ahead enough. Hell, if it turns out that what you did was wrong, you can just rewind to before your mistake. Less than 1000 rerecords for over 300000 frames is usually NOT enough to make a superhuman movie.
CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
I also can't move quickly through a pile of diamonds- those can crush you too, just like rocks.
Just because it seems like you can't doesn't mean you can't. If we'd let us get stopped by seemingly impossible tasks most movies on this page would not even be half as good as they are right now. I'm sure that for some of the larger diamond piles you can find routes that are faster than just waiting. In general, I have to say that after watching the first 7 worlds, I was disappointed with your planning. You often seem to get diamonds that look longer to grab than others on your way. For instance, I fastforwarded to 9-1 just to see what it's like, and at the end you grab some diamonds in the top left corner, then go DOWN to the new pyramid and grab ONE diamond there, followed by going UP to the exit. I don't know too much about the game, but wouldn't just getting more diamonds down there be faster? There's many similar things in many other levels, including extra steps (like in one level you go down, then right a bit, then up one field to avoid a stone, continue right and go down to the exit. You could have just move right one field earlier and save two steps...) A good run? Sure. "Superhuman" as you claim it to be? No. I'm sure you can and will do better, so I'll vote no. I hope you'll put a bit more effort in your next run because 2 days for a 1:43:05 long run with just 651 rerecords doesn't seem like much effort to me. Good Luck on your next try.
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http://thps3.net/pushover_wip.zip This contains the .smv with the levels 1-40 being improved. About 1/3 of the levels had to be redone, half of that was from Burning Death's discoveries, the rest was improving the end door, as walking from the left or holding against a stopper that's on the right side of the door triggers an extra motion causing about 10 frames delay. (This, however, tends to vary. In fact, there seem to be many random frame counts near the end of most levels. Therefore, I can't guarantee that all levels have been exited as fast as possible, although I'm fairly certain that I did my best. This game has a strange engine when it comes down to frames) This video desyncs after level 51. Don't worry, that WILL be fixed once the 4x levels have been improved (Stupid door weirdness + possible better routes), but as strange as it might sound, this level sometimes worked and sometimes stopped working again in the progress of hexediting in some of the older levels. Except for #17 this is the only one that has ever desynced for me. All in all I was able to improve the old version by 1136 in those first 40 levels, which is a whole lot for such a game. I knew that I wouldn't get the later levels perfect, but I didn't think I almost made 19 seconds of mistakes in the mostly straight forward first 40 levels. Hehe, thank you, Burning Death.
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It might be fast, but I had to vote no anyway. It's pretty much just Link randomly moving accross the screen, a totally glitched world, and then the game ends. It wasn't entertaining at all, and hadn't I known it to be less than 10 minutes, I would have quit. This is a good example of fast, but unentertaining.
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If you remember a strat that's faster, please post it. I'd prefer this getting done as a coproduction instead of us fighting against each other. After all, we should all be working on one single video for such a long video. Edit: Apparently entering a door from the right is 10 frames faster than doing so from the left. Therefore I'll be improving some of the levels according to this fact now. Me and Burning Death are going through possible improvements in the levels as well. 14 has been improved by quite a bit and we're working on level 30 now. Expect these changes to be done by wednesday, when I'll start working on the final 40 levels.
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http://thps3.net/pushover.zip Update: -Pushover (U).smc -Video contains levels 01 through 60 -To use the savestates, be sure to play the movie in Read Only -Pushover (U).000 - Level 11 -Pushover (U).001 - Level 21 -Pushover (U).002 - Level 31 -Pushover (U).003 - Level 41 -Pushover (U).004 - Level 51 -Pushover (U).005 - Level 61 (Pretty much useless right now) Well, I think the most boring levels should be over now, at least I hope they are =/ Level 31: This game is really good when it comes to being a few frames from a faster solution. Again, I cannot move the thumbler in position after the chain reaction has started. I also tried taking the thumbler to the start platform so it would roll right into the exploder and start the bottom half faster, but the whole domino movements necessairy made it slower in the end. Level 32: This solution is incredibly faster and easier than the one I usually did. Level 33: I think this might be possible to do faster, but I couldn't think of a better solution. Level 34: This solution might be unexpected. I think taking the thumbler down to the trigger is faster than putting it at the place it's supposed to be (one up two right). Level 35: Dropping that normal into the splitter saves 11 frames. Level 36: As with most levels, the goal is to start the chain as fast as possible. I lose a few frames by dropping the normal instead of pushing it, but it's still slightly faster than walking two extra fields to connect the three normals to the rest of the chain. Random discovery: It's faster to have the thumbler land on the platform and fall a second time instead of moving the exploder over so the thumbler only falls once. Level 38: I think this solution will surprise everybody who has played the game. You usually have to take the delay to the left of the splitter so the trigger will fall later on. However, that means moving many dominoes. Instead, I decided to move the splitter right once. Pushing the exploder and dropping the delay is slightly faster than pushing it. All in all this solution saves about 2 seconds over the intended one. Level 39: I only wish I saw a better solution, but I don't think there is any. You can't simply drop the normal into the splitter because there's no way to push over the rest in one push. =/ Level 40: I've got a lot of time to spend, so I just take the stopper to the top. No real reason to do so, but I need to do something after all. Level 41: Finally a level that I can use the time. I think the finish is faster if you take the second delay to the top and move the thumbler left once, but I don't think it's possible in the short time frame I have for moving the dominoes. Something interesting not in my playfield: When a flyer sticks to the ceiling and then that spot gets removed by an explosion, it will rise up again. Just take a look at it. Level 42: Yawn... While this level is meant to show you that it's possible to jump into a splitter with a domino to trigger it, it's pretty dull as I have used that technique a few times before. Level 43: And this level is supposed to introduce the "drop domino into splitter to save a push" trick I've used before as well... Level 44: To quote Kyle Katarn in Jedi Academy: "Solutions to problems aren't always obvious." There will be a similar level later on, but it's at least a nice chain reaction to watch. Level 45: Okay, here's how to trap a thumbler with a single stopper. I think this is the fastest way to do it (I wish the door was placed differently, could save some time, but I can't put the stopper in front of it). I doubt moving the stopper left at first or something similar would save time, although one could make the thumbler go over the fresh bridge sooner, but wasting time rearranging the level first... Level 47: Had to take an extra step left and right so I would end up pushing the normal, not the exploder. Level 50: Meh, such a long way to the goal. Level 52: Meh, can't do the flyer later =/ Level 53: I'm rather sure this was unintended, hehe. Level 54: Wish I could do something while the chain is running, but unfortunately, the dominos fall too fast =/ Level 56: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN Level 59: Wouldn't have thought this could be done so fast, hehe. Level 60: The two flyers merge into one. =D
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http://thps3.net/pushover.zip Update: -Video contains levels 01 through 30 -To use the savestates, be sure to play the movie in Read Only -Pushover (U).000 - Level 11 -Pushover (U).001 - Level 21 That said, I hope that somebody finds a way to improve at least one of the 2x levels. Most of them don't look too fast, although I couldn't do them any faster. Level 22: I tried moving all dominos to the top. Turned out to be about 80 frames slower =/ Would have been cool, though, because even veterans might have been surprised by that solution =D Level 23: I'm surprised this works out, timewise. Level 24: I tried placing the exploder later (just moving the normal away first), but that is 2 frames from being possible =/ Level 26: You CAN push over the normal and the trigger at the end for exactly 2 frames and still have the trigger fall over last. However, that costs 12 frames, so I decided against it. Level 27: Same problem again, can't place the exploder as the thumbler rolls. I also tried placing the vanisher behind the trigger as the reaction ran, but I couldn't move the normal in time. I tried dropping it into the hole, then taking out the forst normal, but that doesn't work out timewise. I also tried picking up the thumbler instead, but I couldn't place that in the gap in time either =/ Level 29: Maybe we could find another way to get the thing running, so it would be faster. Doubt it, though. Level 30: There's so many ways to do this, maybe I overlooked a way to do it faster. =/
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Well, first of, you don't seem to have used rerecords or any form of slow down at all. Then again, you were aiming for the fastest game time, but I still think that it doesn't qualify for this site. The fact that you didn't use any form of stacking was cool, although I think one could be faster with it. I only watched it in fast forward (well, what do you expect, it's almost 2 hours long) but it looked cool the way it was. Maybe somebody else (or you yourself) will be encouraged to do a more precise and better run by this. It's not bad as a first entry, although I'm rather sure it won't make it.
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Well, no site, just hosting the file. You could of course as well submit it via the submit form on the page, but I'm not too sure if it would get accepted, after all they were aiming for a time of less than 3 years. Then again, it might get people interested in beating your record. I just want to watch the movie, anyway.
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nitsuja wrote:
What about Prince of Persia and Prince of Persia 2 on SNES?
Might look into that once I'm done with Pushover. That might take a few more days or even weeks, though. Depends on how fast planning works out. However, I think PoP2 would be more interesting, as it isn't as similar to the genesis movie as PoP1 would be.
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Okay, first 20 levels done and hexed into one file. http://thps3.net/pushover.zip So a few comments: The new method for level 3 only saved 38 frames because I had to take two extra steps to get into pushing position, saving one step over the old one before the push. Therefore we can conclude that a yellow domino falls over 23 frames faster than a thumbler takes to thumble one field. Of course I reused that knowledge in level 13, where I place an additional standard domino in front of the trigger domino. For level 12, I thought about taking the flyer over to the right door to save walking so much later, but I calculated it to be 7 frames slower. As much as I loved the way you solved level 18, my new method saves about 1000 frames over your old one. There were some other small differences saving time, and all in all, after level 20, I'm 2018 frames ahead. If you spot anything that you think could be done faster, feel free to tell. It's easy to hex edit this game because there is nothing random at all. I'll see if I will work on the next 10 levels later today.