Posts for Dragos-san

Post subject: Where should I download ROMs?
Dragos-san
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Joined: 11/4/2019
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
I'm new here and this is my first TAS. Running latest version of Dolphin on a MacBook so that's all good. I read the emulator resources page but all it says is 'this site does not distribute ROMs'. So I just searched ROMs up and came back with clickbait sites like [redacted] and [redacted]. They give me .7z files that can't be opened with Dolphin. According to Dolphin, I need a .elf ; .dol ; .gcm ; .iso ; .tgc ; .wbfs ; .ciso ; .gcz ; .wad ; .dff ; .m3u But I can't find those anywhere. Checked Game Resources and TASing FAQ but found nothing. Can anybody help, please?
MOD EDIT: Asking for ROMs is against the site rules: http://tasvideos.org/SiteRules.html -Masterjun
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
Have you tried spamming different combos of keys before the text? Have you tried opening the menu/soft resetting before/during the text? Because maybe you could play the first line of text to update the game to a new state, and then soft-reset to skip the later lines of text.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
You're talking about the Commodore 64, aka CMB 64. Virtual tape is a storage system that, er, virtualises the system of tapes. So what I think you're trying to say is that you've got a movie file downloaded and you're trying to play it. The C64 is a keyboard with a processor that runs on BASIC. Assuming you've already gotten the virtual tape downloaded, you just press the play button or whatever. Primitive computers like the C64 should have mouses installed - like the Commodore 1351 - but this is not necessary. I'm young, so I don't really understand computer life before the graphic interface. But can't you just insert the BASIC code that runs the virtual tape? Apparently you can just put PRINT or LIST to play the tape. However, I don't think BASIC does the whole download/replay thing - it only runs programs in its language. (Summed up from Wikipedia) Maybe ask an expert? Sorry...
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Posts: 21
Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
Hi, Wulf2k & Yuidesu! Y'all were pretty good at keyboard fighting! Definitely will watch again... if I could. Maybe you could put in your upload times? The time zone I think you're in is UTC-6. You say you don't do this pretty often, so I guess I was just lucky enough to see you two live. It was pretty fun watching you two! Hope to see y'all find out new important things.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
This looks like fun. Maybe you could try out techniques from TAS, assuming you don't already have your optimal routes. You could also apply as professional speed runners if you got the World Records with those specific rules. Good luck! Subscribed.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
If it costs less than 10$ and is so old that it's featured on the PS3, there are probably a wide range of glitches for you to find. Looking at the pictures of the game, you could definitely exploit hitboxes and you could take damage to save time.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Typing Battle
Dragos-san
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How about, instead of using controllers, we use keyboards? IE everybody has a TAS emulator open, connected by LAN or online to their opponent. Then they type in their coding inputs live and do real-time battle. Thought of this because my controller is pretty inaccurate.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Roblox is a meme
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
Roblox is pretty good, because you've got universal controls and community-made servers. It's probably laggy though, being an online game, plus there are always going to be glitchy hitboxes in amateur levels. Politically speaking, you would get a lot of flak from closed-minded watchers who think Roblox is just a dead meme.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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It would be a lot of fun to see a 'genocide' tag like that because it changes up the storyline and the timing in certain games. Also, if we have a pacifist tag, it's only fair we have a genocide tag. For example, in Undertale, it means that you have to take a lot more time to kill all the enemies in each room - but you get to TAS normally unseen enemies like Undyne's final form. And we also get to see SANS (i love him) get TASed!
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Joined: 11/4/2019
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
Can't you just command-f or similar while deconstructing the game for the RNG lines? IE we know that there are certain words attached to the RNG values, so we search up those words. I have no experience in programming, so I apologise if I'm wrong. ... I wish that game devs released their RNG code as a long list of numbers for our convenience. But that doesn't happen, even when pi is the most random number we know.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Search log
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
How about making a log of all the codes instead? Then you've got one document instead of multiple registers. Or the registers disappear after a while, like a pop-up, between which you can add notes and stuff. Furthermore, maybe there's a frame search button implemented into the doc/register where you can go back to the previous frame (save state hotkey) That sounds like fun.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Good idea!
Dragos-san
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It's a lot more specific than just speeding up the program (which apparently tends to drop frames). It also stops you from scrolling through endless frames to find the one you want. Maybe there could be an option to ignore frames i.e. suppose you're going through it from the start and you don't want to check which frames have inputs in them - so the emulator automatically skips the cutscenes for easy editing
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Joined: 11/4/2019
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
So I have no experience programming, but... What if you could use that program to form a sort of mobility file? Ie input.get() results will automatically record on a separate document. Then it looks a lot better visually to newbies like me and human speedrunners. Like this: [Frame 1] A-press + B-press [Frame 2] A-release + B-hold [Frame 3] A-press + B-release + C-press
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Live wallpapers?
Dragos-san
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
You'd have to compress the movie file into a mobile app. Maybe get someone else's live wallpaper implementation and insert your own movie. That's pretty much the only solution unless you want to spend hours programming a live wallpaper.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Offline TAS
Dragos-san
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BizHawk would have to connect online, find the accounts, and save files. So the community would need two things: A WiFi or something (to connect to the cloud) A main data storage unit (to store the cloud data) Not only are those two pretty expensive, you have to pay someone to install them. Unless there's a major demand and everybody contributes to the cost, it's unlikely an admin like adelikat just has a hundred thousand in the back of the sofa.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Yes, you can.
Dragos-san
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Either emulate a Wii game on the computer (which is what you don't want) Or you can build a TASBot that will use the Wii controllers. Anyways it's really hard because you have to have the right wavelength and everything - furthermore, that info is probably only available to high-level Nintendo engineers. PS Here's link that might be useful - they connected Wii controllers to a computer; so could you reverse that process? https://hackaday.com/2013/12/30/using-the-wii-u-controller-with-everything/
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Extreme Kayak
Dragos-san
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Extreme Kayak (http://tasvideos.org/2030M.html) is a game where you, you know, kayak the heck out of a mountain range. This is what Swordless Link (the TASer) had to say after getting a 1:26 in-game record: "This run takes advantage of the fact that the TAS input plugin does not have a limitation on the range of the analogue stick, meaning that I can extend it well beyond the intended maximum. This is what allows the kayak to move at hyperspeed. On console, due to the N64 controller's limitations, only a fraction of this speed can be achieved (to put this into perspective, the best time recorded on console is 3:36, using this character)." So, would you, as an experienced TAS expert, say that these kinds of facts fall into the 'glitch' category or the 'abuse' category? I'd say it falls into the 'glitch' category because early game programs only measured the input of the analogue stick and it doesn't seem like there's any programmed limit. Anyways, it depends what you mean by 'game'. Do you only mean the software, or do you include the hardware? It definitely does not include the hardware as using TAS emulators are a given AND using remade games (like using the Switch Online version of Super Mario Bros instead of the original) are acceptable. If it doesn't include the hardware, then it's acceptable. If you say it only includes the 'official' hardware, like only using Nintendo controllers for Mario, then it's unacceptable. It depends on what you define a TAS - do you define it as the optimal controller input, or do you define it as the optimal overall input?
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Universal Answer
Dragos-san
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Flash games are simply lines of code in the 'Flash' language. Make a decoder (so the TAS tool can understand the game) and you're pretty much all good. Theoretically, at least. You'd need a translator, and even one of the biggest companies in the world can't do it right - just ask Google Translate. It would also be quite slow, because not only do you need a translator for the incoming programs (the game) you also need a translator for the outcoming programs (the input) So maybe if you could reprogram/translate the whole game and then call it a 'remix' or whatever (hey, that's a good idea) then you could run any game.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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I'm not an expert on lag, but I've watched several videos on laggy games (if that even counts, haha) Anyways, there's no way around it as far as I understand. Reducing lag is usually the goal, meaning you kill as much enemies as possible. BUT there are certain situations where you WANT lag, because lag frames can change RNG. What a lot of TASers do is manipulate RNG so that the enemies end up where it's convenient. A lot of TASes don't use a program of 'exit the room as soon as you get the weapon', instead they have specific input series. Therefore, there's no way around it.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Post subject: Philosophy
Dragos-san
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This is messed up but so cool. The TAS guidelines tell us to try everything until we find the fastest method for each room. If you have enough computing power, you can tell a computer to go do that as there is a movement limit - the pixel/subpixel. Then you'll have to consider inter-level construction. Does the fastest method for Room A restrict you from getting the Strong Weapon? Do you need the Strong Weapon to make Room B faster? It's just an algorithm of seeing which combo is faster. After this process, you can claim that the result is 'optimal' as you tried every possible choice, and strung the choices together to make the fastest possible route. Outlawing glitches means you don't have to consider stuff like: Does the Strong Weapon allow you to skip Room C? and save a lot of time.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)
Dragos-san
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Joined: 11/4/2019
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Location: Apple Macbook Pro (Early 2015)
People like Malleo make use of 'out of bounds', where random objects are usually stored. However, these TASers are limited to four methods (as far as I can understand): - Resetting the room through door activation (ie going far enough left/right to trigger entrance to a different room) - Doing 'super jumps' (ie infinite height glitches) - Dying (might sound stupid but it can respawn the player to a certain area) - Making use of objects stored out-of-bounds (like a spring) Debug rooms are an in-game debug menu for the programmers and testers. If there's a way to get in, there's a way to get out. Otherwise, the testers would be stuck in there forever. Furthermore, some debug rooms are intended to be accessed by the player. Debug rooms change stuff, so can't they change your in-game location? As a final thought, you might consider soft-resets or a dirty save file.
Thank you and have a nice week! :)