Posts for ruadath

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The real question is who is going to take Star Ocean, because that will be a massive undertaking. JRPG shenanigans, with no established speedrun route or RNG manipulations that I know of.
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What's the rule about starting from not clear SRAM if it doesn't really change much about the run but saves a few seconds? In particular, at the end of the Prologue (in the video above), a few seconds are lost due to a screen appearing that says that I have unlocked certain bonus content (since it is the first time the prologue is cleared). Would it be allowed to start from not clear SRAM (using the same movie as verification) in order to skip that scene and save a few seconds? Just curious as to what the rules are here.
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Almost none of the glitches work on PSX as far as I know. I think it would be a nice separate category, though.
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The other requirements all appear intentional too if you look at the code: it first check the last enemy killed, then bg music loop, then health, then facing downward, and finally bombs, before enabling debug mode.
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Active player (256)
Joined: 12/13/2016
Posts: 352
Radiant wrote:
From that same post, I note that the game has an extremely obscure good ending. It would be interesting to see a run of that.
That's a different game (the Berlin Wall) Also, to those claiming that this is a "cheat code," I would argue that even if this an intentional method of accessing the debug menu by the developers, it is quite difficult to pull off such a feat in ~1.25 minutes of gameplay time, since actually getting up to 62 bombs from your starting amount of 20 (after the first screen) requires quite a bit of RNG manipulation, and even the movement required to progress through the level quickly enough to get to the pool is rather difficult to perform on console so quickly. This distinguishes the game very clearly from one in which you simply enter a menu and type in a password to unlock the final stage of the game by quite a bit.
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According to some analysis on nesdev it might be intentional, but it's still a rather bizarre way of completing the game.
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I completed a test S rank run using the same route as the nico video and got 12:28.7 (~1.5 seconds faster than nico)... there's is still some room for optimization in lag and stuff like that, but I don't see any major time saves without a new route. I might look into the assembly and see if I can figure out new glitches since this game appears to be full of them.
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It's not a cheat code, it is a glitch that allows you to access the debug menu. The following must occur for this to be the case - be at full health - have exactly 62 bombs in your inventory - last enemy killed is the grey type (toughest regular enemy) - facing downward - background track has completed once Then when you try to use an energy tank, you unlock the debug menu, which allows you to access the level select screen.
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Nice find Fortanm!
Post subject: Rollerblade Racer
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I started working on this game in order to help contribute to the TASMania project. At first I rushed through the game, trying to "beat it" as quickly as possible (any%), however, I soon realized that the resulting ending is essentially the equivalent of losing the game. I therefore decided to work on a "first place" run, which is the category that the RTA speedrunners use. This has been considerably more difficult and interesting of a TAS, and I will post WIPs when I get the chance. Just curious, however, would anyone like to see the "bad ending" (i.e. any%)? I can post it and then you guys can tell me whether or not its submission worthy.
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10 frame improvement thanks to... what else? Better lag and rng manipulation. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/37398781565269166 New encode will be up shortly. This improvement brings the total movie time to just under 2:03.40
Post subject: SMT Devil Survivor
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At power on (like 3 frames in) game, stores date time value at 0x023FFDED. Game gets initial RNG state from applying some function linear function to this value; it appears to only care about hours,minutes,seconds, but I haven't done thorough testing. RNG values stored at 0x0218104C. Only 2 bytes! Get used all the time during dialogue and also combat (obviously). Appears to determine enemy AI as well. Haven't really felt like doing more thorough testing yet, but will get around to it eventually.
function nextrng(n)
   return (109*n+1021)%65536
end
I hope this game gets TAS'd at some point. FWIW, Devil Survivor 2 appears to have very similar (if not the same) RNG. EDIT: So upon further testing, it turns out that this is the auxiliary RNG, with the primary RNG located just before at 0x02181048. This one seems to have a fixed value when loading up the game and also progresses in a fixed manner, though I haven't tried to figure it out yet. From what I can tell, this primary RNG seems to deal with stuff like battle damage and criticals/misses, while the secondary RNG determines things like turn order... or something... I'm not too sure at the moment.
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I just realized I forgot to include a link to the movie file for the updated run. Here it is http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/37328183187784180
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I haven't tried on lsnes... is it faster? Can you lag manipulate better because of subframe inputs? Anyway, I updated the movie once again with a new time of 2:03.56. I swapped out the encode in the submission text but here is the video again regardless Link to video
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Thanks for continuing to post these! That's the same time as my updated file, but I'll be sure to carefully scan through his video and see if he has any new strats. By the way, the new speedrun world record is 2:00.53! EDIT: Well, I shaved another frame off my run, brining me like .02 seconds below him... On stream I actually developed a good number of new tricks the other day, but couldn't get things to work out... I think my best course of action is probably going to be trying to reproduce the guy's run on snes9x to figure out exactly where his actual improvements are and what is just less lag. He's not starting from clear SRAM, which saves him like 5 frames at power on.
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Nice find! I wonder if that trick has use elsewhere? In the meantime, I assume you are fine with me replacing the file and adding you as an additional author (and apparently, I have no idea how name order conventions work, so if someone could provide a suggestion, I'll go with that)
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I apologize sincerely for this nearly continuous stream of updates; it appears I was much too hasty in my original submissions(s) and should have taken the time to iron out all of the optimizations before posting anything here. For some dumb reason when making the improvements from the niconico video, I just copied the differences into my movie without checking if they were optimal. A quick test revealed that they weren't and this updated file saves an additional 5 frames. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/37223229333586960 I don't really think this is worth making a new encode over prior to publication, but if someone really wants me to I can (it only takes 15-20 minutes)
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Sorry about that wasn't sure where to list in the submission text. It's fixed now.
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ThunderAxe31 wrote:
Edit: there is a new speedrun world record of 2:02.95 http://www.speedrun.com/run/nz1e1q7y
Yeah, I was watching that stream when Soppanaama told me how to do the camera trick. Remember, however, that the RTA time does not count the ~6 seconds spent getting to the title screen, so this is still roughly 4-5 seconds faster than that.
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Saw your movie thanks to this thread, and have to say, very cool run (warps) fsvgm777! I enjoyed watching it a lot! I played around with your BizHawk file and found some time save on the penultimate stage (58). I haven't optimized anything yet, but I'm going to take a look at it tonight and see what I can improve. By the way, while I can edit your movie file, for some reason the soft reset does not appear to be reproducible on a new movie in BizHawk 1.9.11 (any idea why this might occur?)
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Here is my updated move file in 2:03:93 http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/37176731078586085 Encode to follow soon. EDIT: Now replaced in submission text
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67F means 67 frames (as in a 67 frame improvement, I think). Their video does not include the new camera skip though, so the the run is suboptimal (though I have no idea how it compares to mine). I wish the niconico guys would write more details in their videos... sigh... EDIT: Ah, I think I found his improvement. Or at least one of them. 20 frames pulled back. EDIT: I have a lower time than him right now (2:04.22), but I know that I should be even faster since he doesn't have the camera skip. Searching for improvements to get to sub 2:04!
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45 frame improvement made! Credits to Soppanaama on Twitch for letting me know about a certain camera trick on the ending. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/37170096538940490 I'll make a new encode and post here again once I replace it. EDIT: new encode is now available and replaced in the submission text!
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Found this interesting page regarding step routes for this game that may be useful to anyone who wants to work on the TAS for this game https://ff4.aexoden.com/routes/
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