Posts for Darkman425

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Posted: 7/4/2022 9:19 PM
(Edited: 7/4/2022 11:57 PM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
Posts: 247
Location: Texas
SNES TASer of 2023 Sega TASer of 2022 GBA TASer of 2022
Made a work in progress TAS up to reaching the Shrine of the Sea Monk. Link to video User movie #637925661270209087 Block jumping is done by getting on a block in mid-air by summoning it at the right time. That timing for the most part seems to be summoning the block 3 frames after releasing A. EDIT: Turns out that bit of movement that I thought was unoptimized ended up being faster without a ladder boost by 12 frames, thanks to the block spell cooldown getting in the way.
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Posted: 7/4/2022 3:16 AM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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SNES TASer of 2023 Sega TASer of 2022 GBA TASer of 2022
Did a brief bit of TASing up to getting the map and I found a few bits of tech.
  • Jumping adjusts Zoe's horizontal position in whatever direction she's jumping in very slightly. If given a straight path across a room, every jump will clear the room sooner by one frame.
  • Soft resetting via the Reset button on the NES rather than going to the pause menu and quitting back to the title screen saves 22 frames, but for SRAM to be updated the soft reset has to be done 6 frames after pressing Start to enter the pause menu.
  • Resetting after getting the magic staff saves about 37 frames compared to climbing back down.
  • Grabbing onto ladders and releasing from them when moving horizontally gives a small boost to horizontal distance traveled.
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Posted: 7/3/2022 9:16 PM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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SNES TASer of 2023 Sega TASer of 2022 GBA TASer of 2022
I can see TASBot and other similar showcases be on their own Event kind of pages. Though for resources on producing those, assuming the creators make them openly available and there are no potential copyright issues, should be linked and not necessarily hosted on TASVideos. While maybe not necessary, it would help any future folks who want to try their hand at these kind of TASes by having some sort of resource to examine on their own.
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Posted: 7/3/2022 11:59 AM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
Posts: 247
Location: Texas
SNES TASer of 2023 Sega TASer of 2022 GBA TASer of 2022
Alwa's Awakening, an indie game released in 2017, just recently released a complete NES version that adds more content to the original game. What I find interesting is that despite not seeming to have some of the glitches found in the original release had and having more content to play through to reach the ending, the current NES record as of this post is around 4 minutes faster than the original release. I guess the reduced amount of load times, faster screen transitions, and reduced screen size is what makes for the time disparity. The main bread and butter tricks of block jumping and bubble hopping are still around so a TAS of this game might be interesting enough to explore. itch.io page for buying Alwa's Awakening NES. The current world record of the PC version in 38:03. The run of the NES version that I found in 33:51.
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Posted: 7/2/2022 2:54 PM
(Edited: 7/10/2022 11:37 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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I once in a casual playthrough beat the default high score of 3 million on the main mode and still got the same ending as reaching 1 million, so as far as I can tell there's no better ending condition that I know of. I also couldn't find any info out there stating that there's any other ending in the game, though that might also be the fact that there's very little info out there for details on game mechanics.
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Posted: 7/2/2022 2:22 PM
(Edited: 7/10/2022 11:37 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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There are two ending cutscenes that can happen once the timer at the bottom reaches the end in the main game mode. There's a bad ending cutscene that plays if the player has earned less than 1 million points, and a good ending cutscene that plays if the player has earned at least 1 million points. The bad ending can be trivially achieved by simply entering the main game mode and doing nothing. The ending for this movie is at the last input needed to reach the minimum score threshold for the good ending.
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Posted: 6/29/2022 9:39 PM
(Edited: 7/8/2022 5:49 PM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Weird how the NES only got the middle game of The Last Ninja trilogy. Neat new tricks and a pretty amusing final boss strat. Yes vote!
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Posted: 6/28/2022 12:21 PM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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According to the TCRF page for Predator, the page claims that the Japanese version of the game is harder. I know for sure that the level order is different but I don't know if anyone has verified in what ways the Japanese release is more difficult. Would playing on the harder Japanese version be more interesting?
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Posted: 6/26/2022 4:32 AM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
Posts: 247
Location: Texas
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Look what I got to sync. Nice work on arcade Contra, by the way. This seems to indicate that contra.cpp is a sync stable driver in MAMEHawk, though of course it seems to only be used by Contra and its different sets.
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Posted: 6/21/2022 5:47 PM
(Edited: 7/20/2022 1:00 PM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Very strong Evel Knieval GBC vibes from this with the really silly movement. Giving this a yes vote!
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Posted: 6/20/2022 3:56 PM
(Edited: 7/3/2022 2:08 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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This seems surprisingly close to the original arcade version, with obvious downgrades. It even seems like it has the shop where you spend credits for things, which is a bad thing to port over. For the TAS itself, the AI not reasonably handling two players with regards to targeting is pretty amusing and the fights themselves don't overstay their welcome. You got my yes vote for this one!
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Posted: 6/19/2022 11:44 PM
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Darkman425
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Editor, Experienced Forum User, Judge, Published Author, Skilled player (1112)
Joined: 9/19/2021
Posts: 247
Location: Texas
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I may as well post this here. Link to video User movie #637912781916759106 So far I feel this is fairly okay. I haven't quite figured out fast acceleration for Luigi so that's some frames that could be saved. The Air Man fight is also a mess since I couldn't figure out how to get the fast fight with double hits and the early hits on him. I feel like I should be able to get those time saves but I'm not quite at there. At least I can say that optimizing room transitions to get better room positions has been satisfying to get. Luigi's jumping skills actually being helpful to skip otherwise slow sections is also cool.
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Posted: 6/17/2022 6:33 PM
(Edited: 6/17/2022 6:36 PM)
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Darkman425
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Editor, Experienced Forum User, Judge, Published Author, Skilled player (1112)
Joined: 9/19/2021
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Of one such game where cheats are required for the ending, the US release of the PS2 game Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 is impossible to clear without the maximum money cheat due to not correctly converting the money requirements for the last race of the game. There is one racer, Whirlwind Fanfare, that can't be challenged without a maximum money cheat. Since all other racers must be defeated to challenge the final boss, this means that the ending is locked out without cheating on the US version of the game. For a game that can't be 100% completed without cheats, there's Space Station Silicon Valley. One of the collectibles, the trophy for the level Fat Bear Mountain, doesn't have collision detection, thus 100% is impossible in normal gameplay. Either an in-cheat has to be entered to have all collectibles obtained or a GameShark code has to be entered to adjust the trophy's hitbox to work correctly.
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Posted: 6/12/2022 1:28 PM
(Edited: 6/22/2022 4:11 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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That can potentially work but the problem is with how limited the number of player shots allowed on screen is, such as only 3 pairs of Wave Shots, 2 pairs of Laser shots, etc. In spite of that, some frames might be savable with the Stage 4 tank boss by firing the Laser or something else quick since there's a hard limit to how far the ship can be to the right before the boss refuses to show up.
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Posted: 6/9/2022 7:45 PM
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Darkman425
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Well, I didn't expect that this would take a week but I made a thing. It's just stage 1, probably the longest stage in the game. User movie #637903984554233069 YouTube encode I'm gonna leave it at that for now. Not sure if I want to get back to it in the future, even if I did enjoy doing it. I can say that I did beat the boss faster than the other stage 1 video from Nico. If someone wants to build off of it, go ahead and ask for permission and of course do credit me if you use my inputs. Speaking of, how hasn't there been a collaborative shmup TAS at all?
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Posted: 6/9/2022 5:54 PM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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I actually don't remember if this was in any GDQ showcases yet but one of my personal favorites in how memorizing it still is on rewatches is: [3943] NES Arkanoid "warpless" by Chef Stef in 11:11.18 Botted extensively and yet it still produces some really beautiful ball bouncing movements.
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Posted: 6/8/2022 4:22 PM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Posting these here mostly as an extra future reference for me mostly, but to also share this with anyone else who has a passing interest. I found these videos of an incomplete R-Type III TAS that avoids picking up any Force power ups. Stage 1 Stage 2 This was the only legit unassisted 2-All clear of the game, done on hardware. Useful for knowing what's placed where as well as some boss strats. 2-All clear
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Posted: 6/6/2022 10:11 AM
(Edited: 6/6/2022 11:37 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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For anybody who's watching this thread at all, I made an incomplete but fairly helpful resources page on here. Wiki: GameResources/SNES/RTypeIII From what I've gathered the shadow force's blue laser seems to have the highest long term DPS. The risk is that the number of sprites from the weapon has a good chance of lagging the game. That's, at force level 3, 4 beams and 2 shadow units. Even with that, if I do commit to doing a full TAS I'd pick the shadow force just for the playaround potential with the shadow units of the force alone since they loosely follow the ship and can give weird angles shots. I might also tackle both loops of the game rather than just using level select since both are distinct enough and I might be able to differentiate them enough with different ideas.
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Posted: 6/2/2022 5:26 PM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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I recently messed around for a brief bit and found a bug with R-Type Leo and TAStudio. Link to video I don't quite know how to describe it. Seems like states are busted when trying to go back to anything except the power on state. While inputs can be adjusted the only way that I could see them is going back to the start of the movie file, which isn't ideal. R-Type Leo is on Irem M-92 arcade hardware so this bug might also exist on games running on the m92.cpp driver. I certainly didn't run into this with Sega System 16 hardware games in TAStudio.
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Posted: 6/2/2022 5:17 AM
(Edited: 6/19/2022 6:41 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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I came across this unassisted 1 credit clear video with Stella by someone known for legit 1CC videos. There were two notable fights that seemed to have a possibly faster strat with at least the default AI level. Going by the in-game fight timer, first fight in the run against Maron had an 8 second 1st round and an 11 second 2nd round. This ends up with a faster 1st round and a total fight time equal to the TAS for the first fight. The other notable fight is the fifth fight of the run against Fooly where the 1st round is over in 9 seconds. I bring this up since this is a later fight that also beats the TAS for 1st round times using a real time loop strat. This possibly implies that at a TAS level the loop can work across all fights except against Satan Volte. Now it's possible that the loop used might not work on higher difficulties, or even certain opponents. However, this is proof that some characters might have faster strats even without having meter at the start. If you do try for a speed goal again it's definitely worth looking out for strats on non-assisted runs to see what can work.
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Posted: 5/31/2022 12:58 AM
(Edited: 6/18/2022 7:07 PM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Junior II thinking he's in swim class somehow saving time is such a silly strat. Yes vote!
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Posted: 5/29/2022 7:22 PM
(Edited: 6/15/2022 2:37 PM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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I think there's a Lua script to show the floor plan in the dark rooms, mostly as a visual aid to see the floor without a fire source.
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Posted: 5/29/2022 3:50 PM
(Edited: 6/19/2022 6:41 AM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Doing a bit of research the options available in the Saturn version seems to allow adjustments to Game level (default 3, can be raised up to 8), Damage (default 2, ca be adjusted from 1 to 4), and Round (default best of 3, can be adjusted to 1 or 5 rounds). Wouldn't you at least play on Game level 8, set damage to maximum, or at least set the number of rounds to 1?
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Posted: 5/17/2022 5:11 PM
(Edited: 6/6/2022 3:52 PM)
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Can't believe that Atari made a game around 👀. More seriously, nice RNG and enemy manipulation in this run.
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Posted: 5/17/2022 12:14 AM
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Darkman425
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Joined: 9/19/2021
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Weirdly enough, the one published Mega Man run I'd recommend looking into is the very old 2003 run by Morimoto. That is one that doesn't take any damage throughout the game but definitely has areas to improve such as picking up unnecessary point orbs and sub-optimal jumps up ladders. I believe that, even without glitches and minimal weapon usage, you can push the time down on your run by quite a lot. It's also worth taking a gander at the Mega Man resources page on TASVideos for some additional game info. [5] NES Mega Man by Morimoto in 21:52.10 Wiki: GameResources/NES/Rockman
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