Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
I've found that TASing is no different from any other type of large project as far as work ethic is concerned. Each person has their own approach for tackling a large project, depending on their style, how long they can keep focus at a time and their amount and distribution of free time. This applies to both putting work into something in a day, as well as keeping up motivation for the whole project over a longer period of time.
Eventually, you will figure out what approach works out best for you. It's just as much a part of gaining experience as learning the tools and getting familiar with TASing itself.
What this means is that we can't really tell you what good work ethic looks like. It's different for each person, and what may work for me may not work for youself. You'll just have to see for yourself what the best way to get results is.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
First of all, most games in the NES era were written in assembly language, while newer games are usually written in C, C++ or another high level language.
They are all compiled (or assembled) down to the CPU's own machine code, which is what you see when you try to open a ROM. This is not done to obscure the code, as you think, but because machine language is the only type of language the CPU natively understands.
Disassembling a game is possible, but it's a lot of tedious, manual work. You can automate the process to some extent, but a disassembler cannot tell code and data apart, so you have to go through the entire source file to do that manually.
Above all else, while you can translate the machine code back into ASM or even a higher level language, you're left with a blank, bare bones skeleton of the code without any of the extra information (comments, variable names) that the original developers had to work with. So, to answer your question, no you're not able to reconstruct the original source files from the ROM.
However, it has been done before, and TASers have done it before (Disassembling at least parts of the code becomes very important for anything ACE-related). You can find disassemblies of Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Mega Man (by our own Bisqwit, linked in the thread) if you search online.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
Please edit the submission rather than resubmitting it every time you change something.
Using the warp seems akin to using a password to me, you should complete the full game instead.
The run doesn't look optimal. IIRC, you can hold Down while jumping, which should cut some jumps shorter, which should save some time. Also, why do you pick up several mushrooms during the Bowser fight? You do not need them at all.
Link to video
Here is an old all-exits run from ISM. You can use it as a base for improvements.
Forum thread
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
ZX497 wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdXfzDHKu0A
Made it work, boys (and girls).
Also, unlike in the video, you'd actually wanna just keep going right, through the wall, instead of popping up through the top. Dunno why I didn't do that but whatever.
Words cannot express how much I love you right now.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
ZX497 wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJHS8bEsmXU
Well, I guess I finally found something that saves any amount of time, lol.
The same trick can be done unmorphed, but you can only get one jump off before you get clipped out of the door/wall. I actually made a video of that too but didn't put it in this one, since, well, honestly I just wanted to call the video Wall Ball.
These are some incredible finds. I never would have believed Metroid Fusion stiill had this much potential to offer.
Such a shame the SA-X skip doesn't seem to be useful. What happens if you try to proceed without picking up the Varia suit?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
SmartFrame wrote:
since this is the last one of the mmgb series that didn´t receive an update - moth and i decided to do this:
sofar we´re around 100 frames ahead in the middle of sparkstage ( 15 f in shadow; 80~f in spark )
stay tuned for a wip~ o/
added:
Link to video
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
GoombaHeart wrote:
scrimpeh wrote:
Unfortunately, there exists no easy way to block people on tasvideos. However, fret not! There are alternatives.
Just for you, I have put together this simple infographic to explain:
http://i.imgur.com/669POPj.png
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
Unfortunately, there exists no easy way to block people on tasvideos. However, fret not! There are alternatives.
Just for you, I have put together this simple infographic to explain:
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
Very interesting, I wasn't aware there was a NES Lupin game.
Anyhow, the run itself was interesting enough. The second stage kinda dragged on, but the rest was nice. I was also pretty glad multiple characters were chosen, even if only for short periods.
Voting yes for entertainment.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
Kurabupengin wrote:
On my server there was just me and FerretWarlord. I was a bit shocked seeing all of those splits all at once... Has there been any warning about these recently? Since net splits have been happening frequently as of late...
There was, actually. You should've gotten a broadcast message.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
People are citing hypothetical examples for situations that might occur in a TAS with a given difficulty choice, which isn't so great if you want to set a general rule for all submissions to this site. In fact, I don't think there is a "one-size-fits-all" solution to this question, other than just deciding for each game individually which difficulty setting makes for the most entertaining TAS. Even if a general rule for all games is established, inevitably, some game is gonna come along that works completely differently from all others in terms of difficulty choice, throwing a curveball into the mix. Games are just too different from eachother to make one rule for all of them.
Instead, I feel that the author should be doing his research on the game and pick the most appropriate difficulty setting for his goals. The author should be able to inform the audience of his difficulty choice and give reasons as to why he picked it when multiple difficulty settings are available. The audience can then respond whether or not they agree with the author's decisions, and the judges decide whether or not the author's choices were correct. In any case, I feel the author's difficulty choice, if well thought out, should be respected.
Yeah.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
Omuk wrote:
FractalFusion wrote:
Hourglass doesn't support every PC game. Furthermore, I can't determine any way of knowing whether any given game will work with it, other than trying all the various options.
Furthermore, even if it did work and you were able to use it to make a TAS, there is no guarantee that anybody else will be able to play it back correctly.
In short, Hourglass is terrible. Don't use it.
So what should I use then? All I need is a TAS program that supports keyboard inputs. I saw a Portal TAS on youtube so I think it's possible, right?
Portal TASes use the Source Engine's internal demo tools to playback and record input.
For the time being, your best bet is Hourglass. Either you're lucky and it works, or you're not and it doesn't.
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
We interrupt your smart people talks with a really basic, 8th grade, geometry question, but I was wondering and don't know the answer.
As far as rectangles go, I know that the most efficient use of space is a perfect square, since you get the most area for the same perimeter, i.e. 5*5 makes 25, but 6*4 only makes 24.
However, how does it look when you are looking at non-rectangular shapes. What about other polygons, circles or other, irregular shapes?
Is there any two-dimensional shape that can beat a square in terms of area efficiency?
Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Skilled player
(1407)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2087
I liked the run. Watching it entertained me and, while some spots looked iffy to me, it doesn't look awful in terms of optimization. I'm not sure if it really has enough to set apart from the NES publication however. If anything, the NES any%, for being only 7 seconds longer in terms of total time, shows off substantially more of the game. Abstaining from voting because of this.
Nethertheless, good work on the run, I hope to see you improve, and hope you submit more movies in the future.
