I was playing Disney's Aladdin for Genesis and I thought about moving the HUD around. After reading about Genesis VDP, I discovered there is a Sprite Table located in VRAM.
For this game, the table is located at 0xF400. Watching it on Hex Editor, during the title screen, we can clearly see the addresses 0xF406 and 0xF40E (16-bit integers) changing, corresponding to the X position of the "sword" in the main menu. Similarly, 0xF400 and 0xF408 correspond to the Y position.
Then I tried poking that value, and freezing that value, but no luck. The sprite was still drawn the way the game intended. I also tried using Lua scripting to write a fixed value to VRAM, and again no luck.
So, is there any way to poke/write/freeze values in VRAM? Any way to edit the data used by VDP before the frame gets drawn?
This small code shows the HP of the last boss in Metroid II game for GameBoy. This code most likely won't work inside Super GameBoy, though.
Having this health bar gives useful feedback to the player. For me (my first playthrough of this game), the last fight was frustrating and near-impossible. After seeing the boss health bar, and seeing it going down, the fight became a lot more fun! It also gave me clear feedback on which attacks work, and how to defeat the boss faster.
Language: lua
while true do
HP = mainmemory.readbyte(0x03D3);
MAX = 150;
if HP > 0 and HP <= MAX then
-- Color is 0xAARRGGBB.
gui.drawRectangle(0,144-16, HP,8, 0, 0xFFFF0000);
gui.drawRectangle(0,144-16, MAX,7, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0);
end;
emu.frameadvance();
end
Just a note: Atari 2600 games work on scanline basis. Actually, the games are responsible for sending the sync signals to the Stella graphics chip.
Thus... I'm not sure if a frame-based movie file would be the best format. Maybe a movie file with more fine-grained input (like scanline-based or even clock-based).
Of course I haven't tested, but I wonder what types of glitches could be done by changing the input state mid-frame. Well, maybe none? Or maybe it depends on the game?
Question: Why did you use the Japanese version instead of the (U) version? Shouldn't you have used the U version?
This run desyncs on both (E) and (U) versions. Also, the (E) version appears to be sped up a lot (due to NTSC/PAL differences).
Another suggestion: at the submission text, point out how many shots it was required to complete each table (and how many balls went to a pocket, and which ones were just suicide shots), as well as the time for each table. I bet this type of info will be useful on future runs.
There are many people who can solve a rubix cube very easily and efficiently (and in some case two at once or even blindfolded)
Let's not forget the guy who solved 2 Rubik's Cubes while playing Guitar Hero. :)
Still, lots of luck manipulation, and possibly the same level of competition and improvements that we found at Monopoly, and about the same level of fun.
Also, I'd add Tetrisphere to the list of quirky movies (but it wasn't submitted on april's 1st).
Maybe I'm being a bit too naive right now, but...
Can't upthorn make a patch (diff -Naurb old-gens/ new-gens/) between his unmodified (maybe without re-recording support) version and his most recent version?
Then, ShinyDoofy could try to apply that patch to the most recent gens for linux version.
Obviously, things won't go as smooth as I'm saying.
Then, I think ShinyDoofy can generate such patch by himself. Maybe one of those graphical comparison tools can help:
http://www.mibrahim.net/blog/2007/06/02/xxdiff-kdiff3-kompare-and-meld-comparison/http://zoneit.free.fr/esvn/html-docs/apa.html
"Extra" (runs other than any%, low%, 100%, or perhaps pacifist?) of games tend to have goals that would be thought impossible or at least impossible by human standards to achieve. Such as SMW's small only run, Metroid's no mini-boss run, or Nightmare on Elm Street's 4 player run.
I guess a ring-less sonic can fit into 0% category.
BTW, this is a sonic TAS without sonic and without rings. Very uncommon, very unique.
The movie looks good and is entertaining. My opinion is Yes.
I think the goal 2 (Take the "normal" path through the level, except where doing so would force you to collect rings) is not allowed by the guidelines. Maybe it should just be rephrased. Maybe should be "Avoid skipping the levels from above, because that would be just plain boring." In my opinion, this qualifies as "contains speed/entertainment tradeoffs" and would be ok.
I would like to cite the Air 2 rejected submission: Not all movies here aim for fastest time. The air 2 publication is one such example. It intentionally avoids shortcuts that were deemed uninteresting to watch. And also this post: Hmm, HappyLee this is one of the times where speed doesn't beat entertainment. While your run is faster, it's much less entertaining to watch because you run over all of the levels.
This movie seems very well played. I loved what you've done in Scrap Brain, skipping the rings and passing really close to those flame-throwers. Maybe this movie can be improved. Maybe it would be possible to remove a few frames from every level. Personally I feel the boss battles could be done better (but, hey, I'm just a watcher here, maybe I'm wrong).
In special, I think the final battle would have been slightly better if you've hit Robotnik at the earliest or latest frames of his attacks. For me it seems that sometimes it was hit in the "middle frames". Again, I'm not a TASer, I might be wrong.
Finally, we already have two no-killsContra run, a no-run Mario run, why not a no-rings Sonic/Knuckles run?
This movie does the unexpected, is surprising, is fast, is well-played. I think it meets the conditions of a TAS.
Those planets are huge, and this game physics is (or are?) very tricky on real time. Also somewhat impressive for a NES game (including those blue attractors and orange reflectors). The ship is very difficult to control when carrying those very heavy ship parts (I played this game for a few minutes and I this is what I felt just on the first level).
So many planets, each one is huge. This is one of the games that probably made videgame magazines so useful in the past.
Whoever made those graphics in some stages (specially the later bonus stages and that glowing color-changing final stage) must have been blind... They look so ugly and hurt my eyes!
Very well played. The game is a bit long and the ship movement is slow, the 200% speed is very welcome.
I can see why people might expect a 100% run to get perfects in every special stage, but this was discussed greatly in the Sonic 3 & Knuckles thread before I even started this TAS. The conclusion was that the perfects don't appear particularly superhuman to get, and they take way too much time, also.
Completely agree. In addition, it would be more boring. But, in real-time, getting perfect is tricky in some stages.
upthorn wrote:
CrazyTerabyte wrote:
Hum... Maybe a quick run showing the fastest way to reach the top of that glowing-light-balls bonus stage could be cool. (the stage from a starpost, when the starts glow red)
This might be an interesting extra to link from the submission text when i get around to improving this run.
I'd suggest publishing this single-bonus-level extra run to the "Concept demos/Other" category.
By the way, that bonus stage could be entered twice on such run. The first time, aims for fastest completion. The second, aims for most rings (manipulating luck so that only ring balls come up). On the real console sometimes I can get a few hundred rings (200 or more, I don't remember) easily. It would be nice to see what would be the maximum amount of rings collectable from that bonus stage.
Ah, maybe Sonic+Tails would be desired for such extra-run, since tails can be helpful on such stage. Specially in the beginning, they might look like mirroring each others movement.
upthorn wrote:
CrazyTerabyte wrote:
At the first emerald from Marble Garden, just after Knuckles starts walking backwards, he rebounds at a star sphere before continuing walking backwards. Can't he just jump it, like the other spheres? Or was is faster?
In the special stages, it is impossible to jump two star sphere's in a row. It's faster to hit the star sphere in front of knuckles and continue backwards to jump the next sphere than it is to hit the next sphere, rebound, hit the earlier sphere, rebound again, and then jump.
You rebound like described at 10:20, but you just jumped without rebounding at 10:18 and at 10:21, which have the same geometry. So... why?
upthorn wrote:
I assume you're talking about Ice Cap zone. There are actually two tricks used there
Thanks. I actually only got half trick, I missed the second part of the first trick. :)
upthorn wrote:
The short answer is "no." I spent quite a while trying, but eventually I realized the cause. Jump duration is fixed, but until the stage has sped up to full speed, knuckles doesn't move every frame. On the first set, knuckles is moving slowly enough to land exactly one motion increment before passing the turn "hotspot". By the time he reaches the second set, though, this is impossible.
Just watching, I would swear both of them have the same speed, because I didn't notice any speed increase in Knuckles so early on that stage. But hey, you're the guy behind this, you certainly know that better than me.
upthorn wrote:
CrazyTerabyte wrote:
Do I ask too much questions?
No, it's nice to know you were paying attention.
Thanks for the answers. I used to play this game a lot at the real console, and later at the emulator (but usually I re-played the game with all emeralds already, just for fun).
1) When I shoot diagonally up or down it is with the spread gun. This is to set up a "single stream" spread gun. This technique is explained futher in my 2-player version.
I see a few shots onto nowhere at 08:01, 08:05, 08:11, 08:18, all of them without the spread gun (which you get at 08:23).
(I'm using the AVI file for convenience)
adelikat wrote:
Yes, I've read the comments from that movie, and also from your 2-player run. I asked because I still had doubts about it, even after reading those comments.
Thank you very much for replying so fast!
Submission text should have said that, despite being a 100% run, it does not try to complete bonus stages with perfect scores (i.e. 100% of the rings at bonus stages), but tries to collect as few rings as possible, without changing the route. Perfect scores would just add 50K points (and, thus, an extra life) and also one continue. Since this is a TAS, these "bonuses" are not needed.
I laughed when knuckles started to collect blue spheres while walking backwards! Very funny and unexpected. And yes, I did enjoy watching the bonus stages.
Hum... Maybe a quick run showing the fastest way to reach the top of that glowing-light-balls bonus stage could be cool. (the stage from a starpost, when the starts glow red)
At the first emerald from Marble Garden, just after Knuckles starts walking backwards, he rebounds at a star sphere before continuing walking backwards. Can't he just jump it, like the other spheres? Or was is faster?
How do you get those purple elastic things bounce you so high so fast? Let me guess: you jump at the exact moment you touch them.
I miss the music from Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2. :)
At the last super emerald, looks like you land, after a jump, 2 squares away from the second 4-blue-ball+4-star-sphere+1-ring thing. Couldn't you land just 1 square away (like in the first of those things), instead of 2? This could improve the TAS just a bit.
Any reason to lost all rings at Sandopolis 1? Just to reduce the bonus or to manipulate something else?
What you did to those two ball-like things at Lava Reef 1 was insane. And nice trick at the hand. :)
Do I ask too much questions?
Vote: Did you like watching this movie? (Vote after watching!)
[ ] No
[ ] Yes
[ ] Meh
[X] Whoo!
Good! I'd vote the same! ;)
I wonder if just killing the enemies would be faster than dancing (in the earlier levels). However, even if it is faster, I think dancing is a lot funnier. (speed/entertainment trade off)
I notice that Michael walks (or spins) back a little whenever he press up to rescue a girl. Maybe the TAS can abuse this? Maybe turning around just before pressing up, so Michael walks/spins back toward the desired direction. Maybe this can save a few seconds?
Would pressing A at the stairs be faster than just falling, at the end of 5-2?
For people watching this movie, I hope you notice the dancing spider at level 4-2.
(after almost one year this movie has been published)
I ask to myself why does he shoot in the middle of the stages. Sometimes he shoots diagonally upwards onto nowhere (for instance, at the level with spiky walls). Why does he does that? To manipulate luck or something?
Also, I was watching both the new and the obsoleted videos (AVI versions) side-by-side. The obsoleted used an US version, while this uses a Japanese version. I'm curious about the changes between these versions. I noticed the pre-level screens were skipped in JPN version. It also has has animated tree leafs, snow and animated alien background. However, the US version appears to have more enemies on the first level and at the stage 4 boss.
So, I ask: were these enemy changes just manipulated in the movie or the ROMs have slightly different enemies on some levels?
Also, the JPN version looks faster (it gets further in game before the US version). Does this happen because of improved TAS-playing or because JPN version is actually a bit faster?
I'm just curious, I don't plan to make any TAS soon. :)
I never played Tetrisphere, and all I understood is a freaking ball exploding and rotating. Oh, and the core is white, with some brown things there.
I think this movie should not get a star. For people who never played it, it just looks like an exploding ball.
Of course, this movie is impreensive. If there is some "WTF Award", certainly this movie and NES Battletoads should win it. :)
I'm on Gentoo Linux, with latest stable mplayer (version 1.0.20060415), and I could not reproduce this video. The sound worked, but it showed "no video". The same with Xine (although it complained about some error).
I'm used to play all other videos from this site, and all of them work nice. This is the only one which does not work. (now I must restart X in 16 bit color to run modified gens under wine to be able to watch the video)
The video is long because the game is long. All levels are huge (well, most of them). And, if you talk about how long it is, there are:
- Super Mario World in 1:23:38
- Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island in 1:38:57
- Super Metroid in 1:13:10
- Zelda: A Link to the Past in 1:20:16
All of them starred. There are also some twenty of fourty-minute videos starred. I can also remember NES Gradius video, which is 14:12 long, but is very boring, because the action is very repetitive (note: the video is boring but interesting, show perfect reflexes and exploiting things the programmers did not expect, which is the "big motivation" for TAS movies).
Of course, videos won't have the same "impact" to people who never played the game.
Personally, I've watched the entire S3&K movie at once, and kept me interested. Of course, I used to play this game countless times on a real console and also on emulators.
Ok, this is an old video... But, anyway, have you noticed the clothes of the princess are different from last game room, the hug cutscene and the title screen?
I voted no because I couldn't stand to watch the game itself being played. It has the crappiest and jerkiest graphics of any SNES game I've ever seen.
I agree with xebra about the quality of this game. I never played it, but from movie I can see high-detailed but not very good graphics. I can also see one "outside room" where the background is just a gradient.
Overall, I feel the graphics look like an amateur game, a fan-game. Looks like someone pasted lots of graphics and photos together.
The movement of falling platforms is really bad. It has constant velocity. Where did the gravity acceleration go?
That small horizontal scrolling (which is present in PoP for NES, but absent in PoP for SNES) is also very annoying. The first game did not have this, why would the second have?
About the movie... Very good. Better than the game itself. :) Since you activated that glitch, the only thing I thought was "WTF?". :)
and of course the level is not easy at all. Starting on "arer" 12 with only basic weapon and 3 lives is suicide even for the most experienced zanac-ers.
Which in turn makes the built-in "continue" option in main menu pretty useless, huh? Anyway, when dieing, it is better to continue from there than need to play again for half-hour.
