Posts for Sp00ky

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Posted: 6/19/2009 1:58 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
It's in the works. I'm trying to make this encode look better than the one for the previous run without going over the sites limit, since this game is one of those ones that pushes the envelope encoding wise.
Posted: 6/17/2009 10:21 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
I considered it but after mapping out the stages the game is way too long to not use it. There are 9 stages total and it looks like the time to beat it without slide is in the 30 minute range. Also the fastest way to beat enemies involves using the male demon character who is slow and uninteresting. (he doesn't have the slide or doublejump the sisters have and has the slowest walk but his attack can defeat all enemies in 1 or 2 hits) Using the sisters to defeat enemies instead doesn't look interesting at all, their walk speed is slow (she only has a run in the snes version, and a run of that version involving her attacking through everything was rejected) and everything involves strider-style techniques of small jump slashing. (Except Strider can attack while sliding...) Mario can get away with this because his speed while taking on enemies is about as fast as his flight speed, while here slide/fly is so much faster than normal movement as to make it ugly. This game also has 'Nintendo Hard' factors (enemies are only difficult because of shitty controls/laggy jumps which are a non-issue for a TASer) so I'm just gonna chalk it up to being bad and move on most likely.
Posted: 6/17/2009 11:24 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
Thanks for the input guys. I'm hoping later stages will prevent me from using slide as often as the first 2, but I am still sort of mapping things out. I need to get the memory addresses for velocity and boss hp worked out as well.
Posted: 6/17/2009 10:10 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
Heres a small wip of stage 1: http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/Valis4.zip Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG5-nkrzubM Notes so far: Lena (Or Rena, I can't tell what her name is, thanks Japan!) has a slide and you know how we love those. In addition, her slide allows her to go off platforms, and the game does not check if she is airborne until the slide is over. This of course means that by consecutively sliding on precise frames, she can fly. Not only this, but she is invincible during the slide animation, meaning she can basically fly through piles of enemies at once with hilarious results. Her sister (whose name I keep forgetting) has a double jump, and her weapon is slightly more powerful than Lena's. This makes her useful for taking out high hp enemies, especially in areas where Lena cannot slide. Lena can't slide up or down certain slopes, but can slide up or down other slopes. It's really arbitrary, 2 slopes can look identical yet she'll be able to slide up the first but not the second. Any time I switch or stop sliding is because I encountered a slope that Lena cannot slide up or down. In section 1-4 you have to go all the way to the right side of the screen and jump up. It is possible to get enough height and fly to reach the upper tier of the stage sooner, but unless you jump in from the particular section I did, you are blocked off from entering. Thee are 2 powerup types. 1 Levels your character, and 1 improves your subweapon. Leveling your character just improves their weapon range as far as I can tell, and does not make your weapon do more damage. Subweapons have 3 levels. All 3 of Lena's subweapons seem useless so far, they do less damage than her sword, or deal damage slower than her just attacking multiple times. However her sister's level 2 subweapon appears to be a faster way to kill the first boss. Most likely in my next wip she will be the one to do the boss fight. It was unnecessary for me to get maxed subweapon in this stage, as level 2 was the only one necessary. However level 3 subweapon might prove useful at some point later in the run on bosses that can be hard to reach or out of range. There are a lot of improvements that already can be made, but I just wanted to see how people feel about the game so far rather than continuing with it if no one finds it entertaining.
Posted: 6/17/2009 12:07 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
paul_t wrote:
Try mounting that image to a virtual drive or dumping it to a regular bin / cue. The windows port of Mednafen-rr can't load every kind of image the linux port can.
I couldn't get it to work with a virtual drive, but I was able to use the virtual drive + an old version of cdrwin to make it into a new bin + cue which worked fine. Thanks guys, sorry for the trouble.
Posted: 6/16/2009 11:48 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
I'm having a problem loading pce-cdrom games with this that does not occur when using the non re-recording version of mednafen. Here is whats contained in my stdout: Starting Mednafen 0.8.A Loading settings from "C:\Emulators\TG16\mednafen.cfg"... Compiled against SDL 1.2.13, running with SDL 1.2.13 Initializing joysticks... Joystick 0 - PS/SS/DC Joypad to USB BOX - Unique ID: 0000000035d5ea5a Loading C:\Emulators\TG16\Valis\Valis IV - The Fantasm Soldier (J).cue... ++ WARN: could not retrieve file info for `C:\Emulators\TG16\Valis\Valis IV - The Fantasm Soldier (J).bin': No such file or directory ++ WARN: init failed Error opening CD. Here is the output when using the non-rr version: Starting Mednafen 0.8.A Loading settings from "C:\Emulators\TG16\mednafen.cfg"... Compiled against SDL 1.2.13, running with SDL 1.2.13 Initializing joysticks... Joystick 0 - PS/SS/DC Joypad to USB BOX - Unique ID: d9e4e68d35d5ea5a Loading C:\Emulators\TG16\Valis\Valis IV - The Fantasm Soldier (J).cue... Raw rip data correction using L-EC: Enabled Track 1, LSN: 0 audio Track 2, LSN: 3590 data Track 3, LSN: 4525 audio Track 4, LSN: 6302 audio Track 5, LSN: 18333 audio Track 6, LSN: 19385 audio Track 7, LSN: 20437 audio Track 8, LSN: 23732 audio Track 9, LSN: 37177 audio Track 10, LSN: 38076 audio Track 11, LSN: 39289 audio Track 12, LSN: 40718 audio Track 13, LSN: 53236 audio Track 14, LSN: 54560 audio Track 15, LSN: 55891 audio Track 16, LSN: 57187 audio Track 17, LSN: 59040 audio Track 18, LSN: 60287 audio Track 19, LSN: 61179 audio Track 20, LSN: 71440 audio Track 21, LSN: 72820 audio Track 22, LSN: 84133 audio Track 23, LSN: 85290 audio Track 24, LSN: 86363 audio Track 25, LSN: 87499 audio Track 26, LSN: 101750 audio Track 27, LSN: 103457 audio Track 28, LSN: 105032 audio Track 29, LSN: 106600 audio Track 30, LSN: 121292 audio Track 31, LSN: 122602 audio Track 32, LSN: 123891 audio Track 33, LSN: 125340 audio Track 34, LSN: 127117 audio Track 35, LSN: 140234 audio Track 36, LSN: 142257 data Track 37, LSN: 142909 audio Track 38, LSN: 147244 data Track 39, LSN: 147900 audio Track 40, LSN: 149418 data Track 41, LSN: 150098 audio Track 42, LSN: 154211 data Track 43, LSN: 154871 audio Track 44, LSN: 157353 data Track 45, LSN: 157981 audio Track 46, LSN: 170111 data Track 47, LSN: 170763 audio Track 48, LSN: 171797 data Track 49, LSN: 172457 audio Track 50, LSN: 174912 data Track 51, LSN: 175586 audio Track 52, LSN: 177100 data Track 53, LSN: 177762 audio Track 54, LSN: 182077 data Track 55, LSN: 182761 audio Track 56, LSN: 183530 data Track 57, LSN: 184194 audio Track 58, LSN: 185033 data Track 59, LSN: 185689 audio Track 60, LSN: 186890 data Track 61, LSN: 187536 audio Track 62, LSN: 190638 data Track 63, LSN: 191306 audio Track 64, LSN: 195745 data Track 65, LSN: 196429 audio Track 66, LSN: 197038 data Track 67, LSN: 197758 audio Track 68, LSN: 200666 data Track 69, LSN: 201322 audio Track 70, LSN: 202460 data Track 71, LSN: 203144 audio Track 72, LSN: 203767 data Track 73, LSN: 204447 audio Track 74, LSN: 206254 data Track 75, LSN: 206926 audio Track 76, LSN: 208483 data Track 77, LSN: 209165 audio Track 78, LSN: 211596 data Track 79, LSN: 212254 audio Track 80, LSN: 213740 data Track 81, LSN: 214396 audio Track 82, LSN: 217366 data Track 83, LSN: 218008 audio Track 84, LSN: 220727 data Track 85, LSN: 221399 audio Track 86, LSN: 221966 data Track 87, LSN: 222610 audio Track 88, LSN: 225921 data Track 89, LSN: 226573 audio Track 90, LSN: 228178 data Track 91, LSN: 228854 audio Track 92, LSN: 229700 data Track 93, LSN: 230456 audio Track 94, LSN: 251238 data CD MD5(first 256KiB): 0xafdac1bfa73a48107b5dfe411394d819 Arcade Card Emulation: Enabled Loading cheats from C:\Emulators\TG16\cheats\pce.cht... Error opening file: No such file or directory Initializing sound... Using "DirectSound" audio driver with device "default": Bits: 16 Rate: 48000 Channels: 2 Byte order: CPU Native Buffer size: 2496 sample frames(52.000000 ms) Initializing video... Video Mode: I apologize if this was the wrong place to post this issue. Any advice? adelikat: EDIT: Removed spoiler tags, they make no sense here and are unpleasant to look at.
Posted: 6/16/2009 7:22 PM
Post subject: Valis 4
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
anyone got any info on this game? Looks MUCH better than the already cool snes one and I think itd make a cool tas.
Posted: 6/15/2009 6:36 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
This was awesome, thanks so much. Yes Vote.
Posted: 6/5/2009 10:57 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
I'm starting to wonder if only grabbing 3 power-ups is better than 4 in this game, the screen freeze effect is obnoxiously slow. I never was good at optimizing games with lag effects but I wish you a lot of luck, this looks cool so far and I think it will look nice when completed.
Posted: 6/5/2009 10:25 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
it is 25 frames faster to land on those platforms at the end of stage 2 than to just fall, because Keith cannot continue his forward momentum while airborne if he stops himself for any reason.
Posted: 6/5/2009 11:31 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
Pretty much what FuzZerd said. it IS possible to make every enemy drop a coin, but when it takes upwards of 40 frames to do so, it is better to just kill that enemy immediately to spawn another, or use that time to reposition yourself. Complicating matters is the fact that coins disappear VERY quickly, forcing you to gather dropped coins near immediately or risk losing them.
Posted: 6/5/2009 7:22 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
Definitely agree this game will not win any popularity contests, it's pretty much thought of as 'worst pack in game' for its' era. However the game looks much different TAS'd than actually played which is what convinced me to continue with it. It's a tradeoff, boring overworld sections for blazing fast entertaining underworld.
Posted: 6/5/2009 5:10 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
Unfortunately there is not a lot to compare to. I will say that the completion time is pretty unreal considering this is a game that would take most people 2-3 hours to beat in one sitting. There is a youtube run of this game that I wouldn't exactly call a 'speedrun' though it is played by someone experienced (and he used savestates rather than recording deaths) and it clocks at over 65 minutes. Someone at SDA was working on this game a while back but has yet to complete his run. Things I am confident about: The route choice is the fastest barring a big glitch being found. The method for collecting coins is the best barring a glitch being found to spawn multiple Golden Cats in a row in stage 4 or 5. The boss strategies are inhumanly powerful. The only one that I'm even remotely concerned about is boss # 4. Things I am unsure about: If the enemies chosen to damage boost from are the best choices. Some of them are no brainers, such as enemies who are the only one in the area, or in cases of when there are multiple enemies, the one who does the least damage is chosen when possible. However in other cases it may be possible that boosting off a different enemy influences the next section in a way I could not have predicted. Heart collection methods: The stage 3, 5, and 7 Life MAXes are perfect. Stage 3 gives us the rounding glitch, 5 cost us 0 frames to get because we had to wait for the platform anyway, and 7 maxes our health before a long level and is necessary. However the stage 1 heart and the 2 hearts in stage 2 could possibly be rearranged. Time to collect coins: The area chosen to collect coins I believe is the best area. I also believe this can be done faster, although I was unable to do it. This was the best attempt out of many. Things that I believe are impossible but would be nice: In Stage 2 underworld there is potential for a HUGE shortcut if you can cross a gap at the very top of the level. Not only does it seem impossible to cross this gap with damage boosting (I missed by 4 or 5 pixels) immediately following is ANOTHER huge gap without any enemies, though this one potentially is doable with a damage boost. It reminds me of the area in the TMNT nes run where getting an enemy to follow you allows you to save a bunch of time by jumping over the rooftops rather than using ropes. Sorry to get long winded :p
Posted: 6/4/2009 10:33 PM
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Sp00ky
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Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
Yes. This is one of the most entertaining games on PCE and is played/executed well.
Posted: 6/4/2009 10:22 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
When entering into the final boss area, if you can make the top section of the boss appear before the screen has completely scrolled to the floor, his AI code does not load properly. That's really the best way I can explain it. In the terms we thought of it when I was a kid playing this game, it was just known as the 'jump into the boss room at the right angle and he can't move!' Glitch. It was really well known and posted in game magazines and such at the time.
Posted: 6/4/2009 7:53 AM
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Sp00ky
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Joined: 8/18/2008
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Zip updated, all stages done. http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/keithcouragewip3Sp00ky.zip I'll take a peek at your replay tomorrow. Take a look and tell me what you think.
Posted: 6/4/2009 2:36 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
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Posts: 80
I think that's the wrong file, it looks like a copy of my old 1st wip and ends at the end of stage 1.
Posted: 6/3/2009 11:12 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
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Can you make a replay? You can use the cheat code to just skip ahead to stage 3 if necessary. the code is hold select + run + 1 +2 at power on then press up 8 times when 'start' appears.' stage select is the first option, change it to 3 for stage 3. edit: Also if its something that happens after the first cat appears it makes no difference, as soon as the first cat appears all you have to do is make sure you get to the second one fast enough to kill it for a coin. edit2: I'm going to do a full complete test run by today or tomorrow, and that will make it easier to analyze/go back to make changes later. It will also give me sufficient motivation to tackle cat manipulation once more if more than 30 seconds overall can be saved from Test -> Real. There isn't much luck manipulation necessary in the last 3 stages, We should only need 2 more life max ups, and possibly only 1.
Posted: 6/3/2009 9:15 PM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
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I updated the zip file at http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/keithcouragewip3Sp00ky.zip Stage 4: Keith Area: No need to collect any money makes this a breeze. Pipes add additional damage boosting. Underworld: Unfortunately this area is more about steady platforming than anything else as there aren't many enemies. I do use a bullet from a gunhead to fall through a very tiny gap saving some time. No idea how to kill this boss any faster than what I did, other than damage attrition which just doesn't work. You sometimes can get an extra hit in per wave but this boss takes 1 heart each time he damages you making the trade not worthwhile. Having 4 hearts at the beginning of the next area is EXTREMELY useful as you will soon see. Regarding coins I went back and tried to play around and see if I could get some better times, but the attempt in the current run was the best I could do. In some cases it took me upwards of 2600 frames to do it even though it seemed faster. Even with manipulation some of the cats just will not drop coins unless you wait 40 + frames to kill them, in those cases often you're better off repositioning yourself or just killing it off as soon as it appears. I kind of have to reiterate just how truly fast the coin gathering is in the current wip, coins ar a huge pain in this game.
Posted: 6/3/2009 8:51 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
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I ended up using stage 3 for it. I was able to get to 3000 coins in 2144 frames which I think is more than acceptable considering we now never need money again and can damage boost in the overworld all we want. 600 of those went to the thunder sword and of course 2400 are for the Jewel Sword. Now just need to redo my underworld section for stage 3 and we'll be caught up. With money out of the way I don't forsee any issues unless that ninja bomber before the boss refuses to give me a life max up again which will throw a big wrench in the works. Edit: http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/keithcouragewip3Sp00ky.zip Here we go. Beginning of Stage 3 Keith's area is much cleaner. 3000 coins collected for both swords we will need, all other overworld enemies will be used for skipping. I gained 10 frames in stage 3 underworld and then got some better boss manipulation gaining even more. I'm working on mapping out stage 4.
Posted: 6/3/2009 6:22 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
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There's a pretty big issue looming which is how to raise 2400 coins in the next 2 stages before the weapons master. I don't think skipping the sword upgrade is an option, unless it's going to take us a ton of time to raise the coins. That leaves: Stage 3 rooftop: This seems like the fastest source of 'coin farming'. It would give me an excuse to redo that first section you mentioned. If this ends up being the best choice I'll be redoing the run from the end of stage 1 to damage boost off a missed enemy in stage 2 overworld. Manipulating Gold Cats:Made a mistake here, red coins are only worth 200. This isn't going to work. Stage 3 rooftop is the only choice. The good news is I tried redoing stage 2 while adding extra damage boosts in Keith's area and it made the Underworld area slower. That combined with the coins I gathered (saves frames because I have to kill less cats on the rooftop) means I can just restart at the beginning of stage 3, fix that first lava pit I messed up on, and collect funds. Hopefully I can get another good stage 3 underworld.
Posted: 6/3/2009 5:51 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
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Posts: 80
I actually updated stage 3 underworld in the previous zip file. I'm torn between going back and changing what you mentioned and keeping what I have so far. I don't think I could get stage 3 underworld to come out like that again, and the coins would be a pain. I think I'm going to stick it out but I'll debate it some more before continuing. Updated zip: http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/keithcouragewip3Sp00ky.zip For the hearts there are 3 or 4 things that affect it. Whether or not you are jumping/airborne matters, as does what frame you kill the enemy and your current speed. Life max ups are harder to manipulate than plain hearts as well. To turn around while falling you have to make sure that you have no forward momentum when you fall off a cliff, this will allow you to change direction once you fall off. That one platform in stage 2 underworld drove me nuts. if I had 1 more frame I'd be able to catch it but i spent about 3 hours on it and couldn't find the frame I needed. It's based on when you jump into that area and make the last platform appear.
Posted: 6/3/2009 2:42 AM
(Edited: 6/3/2009 5:49 AM)
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
Joined: 8/18/2008
Posts: 80
My latest wip: edit: updated with stage 3 underworld. http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/keithcouragewip3Sp00ky.zip Stage1: Keith Area: 2 Frames faster than your wip. I'm pretty sure these 2 frames are from how I killed the one enemy who drops a coin compared to how you killed it. Underworld: 40 frames faster before the boss. Most of this is from manipulating a gunhead to drop a heart and combining both our damage boost methods. Stage 2: Keith Area: it MAY be possible to complete this stage 5 or so frames faster at the cost of 50 coins by taking a hit from the second frog instead of killing him for a coin. I found this to not be worth it as when I do reach the sword master in stage 3 I have exactly 600. Underworld: It's 'theoretically' possible to gain 20 or so frames by finding someplace to damage boost 1 more time before I gain the life max up heart. More power to you if you can do it. I also Max my health here to make stage 3 possible without having to visit Nurse Nancy. The way I handle the platforms before falling to the boss area is actually about 25 frames faster than just choosing to fall down, even though it looks wierd. Stage 3: Keith Area: Did this multiple times. I'm sure this is optimal based on how many coins I entered the stage with. 2 frames could be saved by entering the stage with 50 more coins, which would prevent you from having to kill the short hermit thing right before the sword master's door. Damned if I know where you'd get them from, it took a lot of manipulation to get the coins I do have without wasting frames. Underworld: Completely amazed by how this came out. Every inch of health is used and then at the end, boom heart max up + Spikes glitch shortcut. The end of the boss fight is amusing, The explosion hitbox damages me. I left it in because it looks glitchy and I get the health back anyway. Let me know what you think.
Posted: 6/2/2009 4:18 AM
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Sp00ky
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I still want to try again, the way you handled the moving platforms in Keith stage should be a few frames faster, and I think if I jump over the gunheads without damaging them like you did I won't have to wait for their shots for a few frames for the larger damage boosts. small edit: It doesn't look like bolt bombs are going to be very useful. There are a couple of areas where it would be nice to take out a minor enemy with one but so far I'm more interested in some possible spike exploits to get past long stages quickly. The brave sword can be safely skipped, nothing in stage 2 needs the extra damage, and what it does on the boss is nullified by the time it takes to buy it. We need 600 gold by the stage 3 weapons master to buy the Thunder Sword. We then need 2400 by stage 5 for the Jewel Sword. Stages 3 and 5 'should' be the best ones for collecting hearts during the Alpha Zone, as we just got new weapons. The Alpha Sword Costs 4800 from stage 6 and 9600 from stage 7. Obviously we want to get it during stage 6 if we get it at all. It could prove useful for killing Magician mini bosses and ninja bombers in stage 7. I've been looking around for some maps of the underworld stages with no luck so far.
Posted: 6/2/2009 3:49 AM
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Sp00ky
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (83)
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Posts: 80
I'm going to rethink the keith stages after watching your wip. I updated my wip, heres a new link: http://www.teamspooky.com/TAS/keithcouragewip2Sp00ky.zip You had enough time to stop and kill a gunhead and still beat me by 100 frames up to the boss despite me choosing a lot more places to damage boost this time around. 30 of those were in Keith stage. The other 70 were misc things in the alpha zone area. So to clarify, if you take damage during a Keith area and then port over to an Alpha Zone, your health gets rounded up? That would remove me bothering to save health for the alpha zones (up to a point of course)
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