Surpise surprise! At least in videogames, of course it is.
The perception of speed can differ greatly depending on the minimum and maximum speed of the player character (and the difference between them — the dynamic range), the speed of the background, the continuity of the character's motion, level scrolling/room transitions, character's acceleration and inertia (and some other physics of the game engine), and even difference between him and characters from the other games which you could possibly measure against.
Some examples:
• discrete movement looks slower than the continuous, a complete stop always looks slower than a slowdown without stopping — if PC normally moves through the screen at a high rate (say, 20 tiles/sec) but makes some [very short] stops that make him build up his velocity again from scratch, it would look slower compared to the continuous run at 16—18 tiles/sec (even if it turns out to be longer in frame count);
• acceleration that lets PC build up his speed gradually from the min to the max rate may often be percieved faster than moving constantly at top speed (I also call it an autoscroller effect; most of the NES games suffer from such a low dynamic range);
• screen lag often looks slower than just a slower movement rate, even if the frame count is the same;
• the relative nature of speed may appear PC moving not at his maximum speed to look slower than a character from another game that actually moves slower.
And so on. Also, when we are in a hurry or just waiting for something, we often percieve certain things to take too long. On the other hand, some pleasant moments in one's life may appear too short. Not to mention "painfully slow" computers that once were "blazingly fast" and all the other kinds of situations. We measure speed in relation to time, but as long as the time itself is not really a time but rather our perception of it (and there is no "objective time" in the human world, either), the same will be applied to speed as well.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Utterly high quality, dude! Favorite parts so far:
• how you make SA-X fire a super missile at an open hatch (this is downright hilarious; I also remember seeing it in your test run);
• third atmospheric stabilizer.
Also, a question: do you think you'll save more time not taking that one e-tank than you could probably save in boss fights taking damage instead of avoiding it? (I just think it could possibly save you more than two seconds you spend on grabbing the tank.)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
This movie can be improved a lot by playing with the Wizard, as he starts with all the cards.
That would require recording from SRAM. Besides, I don't think it'd bring something new to this movie, as the main point of it stays the same: to show Dracula being humiliatingly killed right at the start of the game.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Another question: what's the point of these videos if not to just show the somewhat quick 105% walkthrough? If it's neither a speedrun nor a TAS, what do we need it for here? I'm a bit confused.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
"It took Baxter a while to develop his Turtle Power, but he came with an astonishing result: Donatello can now teleport all over the screen at his will, walk through almost every solid object and much much more." :D
Dude, this is awesome. I never imagined this game to be so interesting in a TAS.
By the way, this may be a funny thing, but I know about the screen wrap glitch cause I've incidentally done it while playing about a year ago. I completely forgot it until I read your submission text, though.
I'd say this run doesn't deserve an overall rating lower than 8.3.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
On the other hand, this is what I achieved after some additional testing. This is surely the fastest way through this room now.
With nearly a thousand of rerecords, proceeding to the next one. :D
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
I've tried to play the game a bit first, and I think your WIP looks optimal. The only thing I'm uncertain about is the Pirate Ship level — is it possible to make it faster by not going to the upper floors (in the case if the transitions and/or jums slow you down)?
Also, somehow this game reminds me of Prince of Persia (maybe due to animation of the player character).
/me renames the ROM to "Soon Crystal (J)" for consistency reasons.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
If someone just tries to reword this sentence to something like "your first run will most probably contain noticeable errors", could we proceed with the meaningful discussion?
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
I'm just the kind of guy that even if i do a near perfect speedrun, I still keep practicing until I improve it, making it pretty much 100% unbeatable.
That's the only right way, IMO. There's not much sense in making an utterly improvable run, if you know it can be beaten by a person of the same skill. If you make your run almost unimprovable (within the usual leeway, of course), it's more impressive to watch (not being an incremental update/usual mistake correction) and it inspires the other contenders to search for revolutionary shortcuts rather than just try to repeat your run with a bit more precision. I honestly respect such runners very much, the results of their work always bear a mark of their skill (and are always pleasant to watch).
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
More likely, it's all about previous experience with the game/games of that type.
You're right. Although there are numerous exceptions when a totally unfamiliar game suddenly looks very appealing from the first sight, this is rarely the case with NES platformers, which mostly share disgustingly simple (and therefore, very similar) engines that give you "hey, I think I've already seen this… many times" feeling. Can't be helped, really. :|
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Scumtron, you beat the records. I don't even want to ask how you managed to achieve this result, better let it rest somewhere in the domain of magic. :)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
After severe amount of testing and some unsatisfying results (that did look quite promising at first), I can confirm that the present route through the third room is the best time-wise. Damn, I seriously hoped to improve it somehow… :\
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Those criteria you described are already used by Bisqwit when he is determining whether a hack is good enough to be accepted or not. As you said, good hacks are extremely rare, so it's not like there are many hacks left out because they have to be manually accepted by Bisqwit. I guess my question is this: what's wrong with the system we have at present?
Basically, that's what is wrong: there's no system. Relying on single person's opinion is not a system in the least. To the new people who come here (and to many of the "old" ones), it's not obvious, why there is a movie of say, NES Air on a site which doesn't generally allow hacks nor where it has got a special permission. Can you explain it? I can't. So, to TAS SMR we need to:
1) bother Bisqwit to get acquainted with it, which is already hard to do;
2) somehow get him to like it good enough to approve it in addition to Legacy, which is even more hard to do, concerning his private disposition towards SM and SMR, and every little aspect that could affect his decision.
I certainly don't think this is the best option we have.
Kyrsimys wrote:
If you want to introduce a hack to the community, make a thread. If you want to TAS a hack, ask Bisqwit either in the thread, in a PM, by e-mail or via IRC. Good hacks almost always stick out of the crowd and I don't think it's hard for Bisqwit to see what hacks should be accepted and what shouldn't.
See Saturn's post for details. It's not like none of us were doing anything, but it's just too difficult to simply start TASing without certainty that your hard work wouldn't get rejected only because of some obscure and totally unstated rule.
That's why I just want these rules stated to have that certainty, that distinctness. You may discuss, object or comply to the rules. But you can't do the same to the personal opinion.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
