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If I wanted to watch an hour and a half of bad translations, I'd flip on the crazy channel that plays Korean movies in half Engrish. And what does "sheer sadness" mean?
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Although they may be seen as superficial, I think ranks do actually play a part in the forum dynamic. When I see a person with a high ranking on a specific board (and this one is included), I tend to value their opinion more than I would with someone who hasn't been around as long or had as much experience. This site, however, has a unique opportunity to recognize those people who have made it consistently better. Runners are who make this site what it is, they are the ones who contribute the movies we all watch and love, and I believe that the best of them should be recognized through elite rankings, however they are determined. Yes this may foster "competition", but this site already fosters that mentality through the obsoleting of old and slow runs. Recognizing those who contribute the most to making this site great seems like a no-brainer to me.
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Something I've wondered about for some time is finalfighter having a rank of Master Ninja. Why only him, and how is that any different than Ninja? I have no problem with a very few select people having a Ninja ranking (although a better definition may be needed), and I agree with a expert/veteran/pimp (ha ha) player ranking, but Master Ninja? Sorry, I just don't get that one.
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mike89 wrote:
mmbossman wrote:
I'm actually doing them concurrently, and was thinking about keeping it a secret, but I guess the news is out now.
Aww man... Looks like I can give up hope of my V2 being published now.
(PS. the main problem with my TAS is the final boss - don't make the same mistake I did! Only shots on the brain hurt!)
(PPS. I never actually used any of the RAM watching tools so there's probably time in the run that I can't discern.)
No worries quite yet, school is still taking it's toll on me and I'm taking my time with both of these runs, so maybe, if all the quirks get worked out in the mean time, it'll get published. I wanted to give it as long as possible just out of respect, since you did do a good first run, and I know what it feels like to work really hard on a run to have it beat. As for the final boss, I was curious about that, and had suspected the same thing, but hadn't proved it since I haven't bothered to find the RAM addresses for the bosses yet. However I am done with the first two scenes, and am about 2 seconds up due to an improved route and some of the techniques I found out from Nitsuja. Anyway, I hope your movie does manage to get published, since it's been in limbo for longer than I've been a member here.
EDIT: One interesting tidbit that I found on the first level through RAM watching is that you have a constant speed of 192 throughout the whole thing, with (seemingly) random switches to a speed of 224, which happen more often on the outer two thirds of the screen, ie not right down the center where the photons are. Only problem is when I tried to maximize the time spent with my speed at 224, I actually ended up with a final frame slower than yours. Very weird.
EDIT 2: I'm halfway through level 6 and I'm already up to 40 seconds saved over my previous run (two better boss fights and a route change in level 6 account for about 25 of it, increased speed is about 15), so I'm shooting for 11:30 now for a total end time.
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upthorn wrote:
This WIP finishes level 1 6 frames behind Nitsuja's test.
At first I thought this said 16 frames and I got all freaked, but 6 is closer to the 4 that I had it measured as. I use the first frame where the screen turns black as my end of level state, and when I finished nitsuja's run out to do that, I got 4. A couple of those probably came from dropped frames in the boss fight (which this game likes to do every once in a while), and a slightly different boss fight. But now since I'm through level 4, with over 30 seconds saved over my submission, I don't feel like going back. Maybe for revision 3 ;)
N. Harmonik wrote:
After you're through with this, do you plan on doing Vectorman 2?
I'm actually doing them concurrently, and was thinking about keeping it a secret, but I guess the news is out now. I figured I'd give mike89's run time to finally get published since he's been on the queue for so long, but if I submit it before it hits the front page, then I'm sure he'll have plenty of time to try to beat it. However I'm trying to make these as frame perfect as possible, with the possible exception of those 4 or 6 frames in level 1 :-\
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Never played this game before (and have no inclination to now that I've seen this movie). It did nothing to capture my attention and I quickly got tired of seeing you just fly, then fly some more, then fly a little bit more, then for a change of pace, do some more flying. Sorry, no vote from me.
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I too think the green dinosaur could be taken down a bit faster, even after seeing your explanation. However I didn't notice the lag, and it was decently short, so I didn't drift off... probably a bad choice of game, but it looks well done and the boss fights are fun to watch. I vote yes, but with meh tinged edges because of the game.
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laughing_gas wrote:
i've never heard of a mac version of Mupen.
Mupen exists for Mac, but it's a long way from usable. The best emulator for N64 is sixtyforce, although it only works with roughly 40% of the N64 ROM library (see my post in the Mupen discussion theard for a bit more info, link two posts above).
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Chamale wrote:
I downloaded Mupen from Dehacked's place and decompressed it, and it doesn't even come with a program. It's just a whole bunch of weird programs, no actual emulator. I'm on a Mac, BTW. How do I get it to run?
I have just started running games in the past 6 months because this is the first time in my life I have owned a Windows box, so I feel your pain about not having a great N64 emulator on the Mac (although it's arguable that there isn't on for windows either). The best one I've found to play is called sixtyforce, but it's only compatible with about 40% of games (from what I've played around with). However if you're planning on using your mac to actually run games you're SOL. UNLESS... you have a newer mac with an intel chip (mine is about 4 months pre chip switch). In that case you can either use Bootcamp or Parallels to run windows, thus allowing you to run the rerecording version of Mupen. If you have any questions about other decent emulators (albeit without rerecording features), feel free to PM me.
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I love this idea, I had this game as a kid and it caught my eye for a possible game to do, but Vectorman grabbed me and won't let go. I can't wait to see a good and entertaining WIP!
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Fabian wrote:
My usual technique is, whenever I advance a couple frames to the next "important" point, I increase the save slot # by 1 and save. If I need to go back, just decrease the save slot #. I go through the 10 states many times during one level, and don't have any sort of structure on which states are what, like you.
Ditto to this, and I also use the 0 state like CtrlAltDestroy. I've been using Gens a lot recently, so I just stick with their 1-9 + 0 scheme. I may load a wrong state every once in a while, but it sure has helped me with my touch typing for numbers, and I can generally remember how far along the keyboard my current state is.
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Thanks for those upthorn, and that news about the boss HP makes sense. But since I'm new to RAM viewing, I'm a little lost in how to use the pixel addresses. Are they useful for hit detection and such? Any other techniques that you find useful?
EDIT: Here's how fast this game is meant to be played
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4597/Vectorman%20%28W%29%20%5B%21%5D.gmv
Note: At frame 6200 it looks like I miss a double boost, but I tried all manner of boosting and downwards shooting and I couldn't make that platform, it's just a tiny bit too far away.
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laughing_gas wrote:
I liked the new route for lil penguin lost. However you left out one of my favorite parts from FODA's tas, where he pans the camera out while racing the penguin and getting all the coins.
Also, would it not be faster to jump and do a stomp before the two snowballs join so you can get the star instantly?
I believe you have to activate the text with the snowball by pressing A (ie while mario is on the ground). Same problem that has been discussed ad nauseum for the past two pages with bowser.
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Thanks for that, the actual address didn't work, but knowing that up is negative and down is positive helped me find one that worked (I had figured it would be the other way around). For some reason Vectorman has alternating memory addresses, the HP for the bosses will change depending on which movie I'm playing, but other things will stay the same, although it may just be Gens being weird. And I'll probably get around to a wiki page for the game sometime soon, thanks for the idea.
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Wow, the facility was incredible. I remember playing this for hours to try and get under 2:05, and finally getting good at it got me a 1:55 I think. To see it beat by over a minute is just ridiculous.
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Could someone help me find the memory address for vertical velocity? I've tried my best and don't come up with any useful data. (WIP is close to 17 seconds ahead of my submission, due to nitsuja's tactics and a much, MUCH improved 1st level boss fight).
Can anyone help me out?
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nitsuja wrote:
I guess I should post what I found to give something to compare with. Vectorman (W) [!].gmv
Also, I know the Day 2 boss can be killed before the perspective starts shifting.
Thanks for the WIP, and I took the lazy way out on day 2 and put it onto auto fire, this time I'll actually find out exactly how many frames in between each shot there are. I have a feeling that although this will be a little more time intensive, it should be a lot less trial and error now that I have velocity measurements and my own benchmark to work with. I hope my next try will be satisfactory.
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upthorn wrote:
N. Harmonik wrote:
nitsuja wrote:
And the SEGA screen should have been more entertaining, but you didn't do anything at all there.
If Vectorman moved at all at that point, wouldn't the title screen be delayed?
Not as long as the player keeps pressing start to test for the first possible "skip" frame
Nitsuja is right, I could have gotten off a jump/ double jump in that time (although a simple jump adding to entertainment is questionable). However, with no votes from two of the most respected members, and so many questions about the speed of this run, does it even have a shot or should I just cancel it and start over?
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moozooh wrote:
Here's a question: have you used memory watch for monitoring Vectorman's speed? His means of acceleration are very interesting and will yield totally different results in different situations.
Like, for example,
Vectorman's top running speed is 1024 units, and it increments in steps of 32 units per frame.
Jumps increment in 80 units per frame until 480, reach 512 on the next frame and continue incrementing further by 8 units per frame.
Jumping from a speed higher than 952 will reset it to 952 upon the moment of jump.
Landing after a jump while holding the same direction lowers your speed to 896, but a successful bunnyhop can avoid that (so it doesn't fall below 952).
By remaining airborne as long as possible, Vectorman can reach a speed of 1656 units even if he falls on a platform of the same height (it continues rising if he doesn't).
Etc.
All in all, this is a very fine run (and Vectorman is one of my favorite games for Genesis), but I'm having an impression that it can be improved by a few more seconds.
Hmmm... very interesting. At the start of the run I tried to figure out which RAM addresses contained his velocity, but I could never fully understand it. I always seemed to get 4 or 5 addresses that seemed like they would work, but then they would start to shift into negative numbers even when I was still moving in the same direction. That would make sense for acceleration addresses, but velocity is what I was concerned with at the moment. Since I'm new at RAM searching I got a little frustrated and decided to just move on without totally tearing the game apart. I'm sure that it can be further optimized by using some of these techniques, but this is one of the finest Genesis games that have yet to receive a run, so I wanted to get a respectable one submitted.
EDIT: I also started considering making a damage taking run sometime in the future, to avoid some of the small delays caused by enemies in very narrow halls, so if I do I will certainly spend more time analyzing his speed and physics, but right now I have to take a break from TASing because of school, work, fiancee, and life in general so I hope this is an adequate first crack at this beautiful game.
