Posts for zaphod77

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Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
This input should have stayed PAL, as that's where the game was, and the NTS vesion is simply the same game without changes. Here's the real guidelines. 1) if the game needed a NTSC-FIX, use the PAL version, unless the NTSC fix version was actually commercially sold. same for PAL fix (though generally ntsc is faster anyway) 2) if the game runs on both video standards without any difference except the slower framerate (and thus longer TAS time) then use the one that's faster (which is nearly ALWAYS NTSC) UNLESS the game was never sold in a NTSC region. (this is why i say this game is PAL, and should have stayed at that) 3) if there are PAL and NTSC compatible OFFICIAL releases, NTSC is preferred due to faster action. 4) if it's unclear, use the video standard that plays the music at the right speed, or the video standard with less graphical glitches. As an example of the former, bubble bobble plays some music at wrong speed on NTSC c64s, so it's a PAL game, and a run on NTSC not only shouldn't be accepted, it plays the intro story music way too SLOW. it may not be obvious what the right speed is, but when it's an arcade conversion, or has a cover of a real tune, it's obvious which is right. If the game flickers on NTSC and not on PAL, it should be ran as PAL.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
btw how holy water/dagger glitch works is that if it strikes the enemy on it's last frame, it insta kills. either if the first hit is on that frame, or if invulnerability expires on the last frame. when the holy water is deleted, if the enemy isn't invulnerable (flashing) at the time the water is touching, it ALSO gets deleted with the holy water, spawning the death object for that enemy.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
This looks a lot easier than it actually is. to those who have't played the game this is nothing special. but to those who HAVE Played it RTA, this is quite entertaining. :) Doing it this FAST is insanely hard.
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Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
i think a 100% run on level 3 alone might be short enough to not become boring. (3 is the first level with the entire pyramid available) interestingly enough, it seems that every door has it's key, and there are no extra keys. so collecting all items in every level is in fact possible. the interesting task is collecting all FOUR torches in levels 3 through 8, where you can only hold five items. so yeah. a run of level three, with all items collected, with the exception of the gems in the final room.
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Joined: 1/13/2007
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I DO think 100% would be entertaining, as it would involve entering many room templates which are never normally seen in a run of the game. Some of them are quite interesting, as people who decide to just explore have discovered. Yes, it's a pain to route. :) 9 is the hardest level, at which all levels are dark, and the torches are removed, except for that weird CV only one. There are three basic routes that people who are trying to beat level 9 follow. The tas optimization is petty nice actually. Route 1 is the way most people beat the game on level 1. You are pretty much forced into it, though there are branches near at the end. Collection of the torch is not needed for RTA at all, as the dark area is incredibly straightforward. You CAN explore and find it though. Route 2 is the way most beat the game on level 2, with route 1 blocked. You are again forced into it. it has more side options though. At a certain point, an option that allows you to jump from route 2 back to route 1 presents itself when you grab the first torch on route 2. this modified route 2 is route 3. Most RTA player collect the torch whenever following route 2. The core of these routes never changes. most of the other variations in wall placement affect nothing on said routes.
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Joined: 1/13/2007
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no it does not. it only beats each level glitchless, taking the shortest route. I've beaten level 9 realtime on actual hardware, and while breezing through the game as fast as possible is impressive, a greater exploration would be more interesting i think. also there is an atari 8 bit version that is near identical to the c64 version. If atari 8 bit is TASable, then perhaps use this version for my proposed TAS.
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Joined: 1/13/2007
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I would like to see a glitchless 100% tas of this game. a 100% tas means the following 1) every room that is reachable on each level is entered at least once. (not all rooms are reachable) Fully exploring the pyramid shows more gameplay. 2) every gem is collected, with an exception for the final room, since it's impossible to collect all gems from the arrow in one jump) 3) every sword is collected and used. yes this includes the ones that require deaths to collect. 4) every amulet is collected 5) every key is collected and used, if possible (this may not be possible if there aren't enough doors to go around. if you can' use all keys, then try to collect all keys. if neither is possible, then collect as many as possible, and if that fills up your inventory, you may avoid gems in the final jump room, but must still collect all other items) 6) all torches collected, unless it interferes with objective 5. Then at least one must be collected. TAS ends as soon as final jump to level 9 treasure room is made. This would show unique gameplay. This is, effectively, a maximum score TAS, with the exceptions that you may exit the treasure rooms early for speed, and that a full inventory may prevent you from collecting gems in the jump off room. i think it would be entertaining. :)
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
This is interesting. the game is clearly intended to be scored by ingame timing. but with damageless, real timing is totally fair. The real question is could ingame time be lower with damage than without? There is no reason not to score damageless with real time. but i think a test of fastest ingame time from sram with damage might be interesting.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
it's sad that this game runs at 30 fps. running 60 fps would allow 30 fps hypertapping, and significantly reduce time. if i understand things right you can only tap at 15 fps to move?
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
the last playable loop was zero delay. it then wrapped around to 255 delay, which no one wants to see. lol
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
In my opinion, preference for TASing a golf game should be lowest score, then entertainment, then time. one that just goes the fairway is much less impressive than one that does insane shots that no one in their right mind would try, but still gets the double eagle. also glitches are entertaining. so say if you landed in the water on a par four, and then played it from inside the water and got a chip in eagle, that would be much entertaining than hitting the fairway.
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Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
Awesome run. now for your next trick, one that does allow deaths, but allows collecting each coin once, with each 15 coin block counted as either 16 or 12, depending on if you can get close enough for all 16. for this route you would have to die a number of times to collect coins from alternate paths without recollecting coins you already got. ideally, all secret rooms, and all not secret room coins would be collected, but that may or may not be possible. is it? route required i think. 1-1 go to passage coinless collect all in passage and die from timeout to go back to start, then collect all non passage coins. 2-1 a death from timeout is not required if you do coinheaven first, because the skipped passage should be after the checkpoint 3-1 because the checkpoint is before coin heaven, you do not need to die by time out. you can die as soon as you collect the three that you have to skip if you take coin heaven, than take coin heaven the second time. 4-1 the branch is after the checkpoint, so again you can just die once by pit 4-2 a death by timeout in the warp zone is required. the passage skips zero coin. 5-2 coin heaven skips no coins, but the water passage skips coin heaven, so you must die in the water passage. this may be possible without timeout from the monsters there. 6-2 this is annoying. coin heaven and water passage are before checkpoint, and water passages skips coin heaven, and both come out after the checkpoint. i believe two deaths to be required on this level. one in water passage by timeout, and then one after taking coin heaven to revert to checkpoint to collect passage 3. Passage one should pose no issues, as you should be able to collect the coins past it, then backtrack to the pipe. i believe 8 deaths are required, three of which must be from time out. can anyone imprive this?
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
While the colecovision does use an extra level, it also changes some of the other levels undesirably. in particular the teleporters have been replaced with elevators. runs across different versions are not in any way comparable. the atari 8 bit version is the game as originally written. the c64 version is probably fastest, as it doesn't have the between levels alarm. but the level layouts are not identical to atari 8 bit.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
Is it really this simple to stay away from the cats??? every time i've played the game RTA cats would get in my way, and this run seems to somehow manipulate them out of the way reliably. and yet no luck manipulation tag?
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
there ARE most definitely PAL/NTSC settings. the game is intended to play back on NTSC, being made by a USA game company for USA c64s.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
as someone who spent ages trying to get that perfect run so i could get that patch, this is hilarious. :)
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
this game is very laggy. perhaps lag management will be able to improve things?
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
i agree this one looks more impressive, but only the atari 8 bit and c64 version have the intended game play experience. for example just try this strat on the lava jump with the bird on the toughest difficulty. you will NOT make it! it requires a lot of speed adjustment to get the bird to fly at the right time. it's more interesting to TAS then it appears to be.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
btw note that if you instead warp past a x-3 level you ARE allowed to collect the invisible one up in the level you warp to. but since this is all items, warping is not allowed.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
now do NES metroid 0% :) (kidding i know that's impossible... or is it?)
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
Some pipe passages HAVE ITEMS in them. in fact i can think of two layouts right off the bat. 1) the one with the coins trapped under a 1 high wall. that pipe has a mushroom. 2) the double stairs also has a shroom. Are all those collected? can they be collected without skipping other items? after checkign maps, it looks like the answer is yes. since multi coin blocks do not count as items. 4-1 was the only really tricky one, and you did collect both items. max items and max coins may not both be doable, because of coin areas that cause skipping of items.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
Another world circuit is not significantly harde rot TAS. Now eres' wha tI think i san interesting challenge. Beat all fighters by KO, without getting a TKO. is this possible? I know all tkos is impossible because of king hippo, and all decisions is impossible because many fights cannot be won by decision. But is it possible to beat every opponent without a tko, and without a decision?
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
It does look impressive zipping along at high speed. but suggest atari 8 bit or c64 version instead. those versions play better. a LOT better.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
I take it 0 keys is not even theoretically possible by any sort of glitch, because there is no other way to load the upper floor without going through that door?
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 337
nice
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