Apple II rerecording is here! Woohoo
I picked this game because it was a big part of my childhood and has huge nostalgia. For TASing, well, it isn't as interesting.
The most interesting aspect to TASing this game is the luck manipulation. The game does not reseed the RNG. Therefore the RNG is always the same value at the start, regardless of frame. And the only way to change it is to do a random event in order to increment the value. Unfortunately the only main way to do this is to attempt to trade, which takes about 10 seconds. Most of the time, the bad luck you are attempting to avoid isn't as bad as the 10 second loss. The situation ends up being a "make lemonade" approach to luck manipulation similar to Dragon Warrior III non-glitch.
This movie aims for fastest time, regardless of final score. As such, I pick the banker for the obvious money advantage vs the lower final score. I pick a grueling pace but filling food rations because I found if you max out your food at the beginning (bankers can afford this) and manipulate luck enough, I don't run out of food. Also good health means better chances for good outcomes (including non-health related events, the game does not attempt to distinguish the two when accessing probabilities).
I took the shortest path, and paid money to avoid the raft scene which is slow. Also I don't buy bullets or hunt, I just make sure I have plenty of food and avoid river catastrophes and robberiess.
One of my earlier attempts was to do a grueling pace and lowest food rations. The idea was to kill off my family to avoid lost time to them getting sick and other inconvenient things. Once they were dead, I'd bump the food rations since I would have plenty for myself (hey, I'm in the Save the Frames camp). This turned out worse since they took forever to die, and their poor health led to constant catastrophes.
Note: this is a 2 disk game, for Game Name I just put both for lack of something better to put.
Anyway, If you remember oregon trail, I hope you enjoy. If you don't remember the game, why are you watching this anyway? :)

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: It should be noted that this run uses what is basically the easiest difficulty mode of the run (the playable 'characters' are explicitly allegories for difficulty modes), so per the guidelines a run on the hardest difficulty (farmer) may obsolete this run even if it is slower.
That said, this run entertainment-wise is slightly above the average adelikat run. Plunge it to the deepest depths of the Vault. Accepting for publication.
fsvgm777: First Apple ][ publication, here we go!


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4727: adelikat's AppleII The Oregon Trail in 08:24.63
Post subject: Re: #4727: adelikat's AppleII Oregon Trail in 08:24.63
Noxxa
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TASVideoAgent wrote:
The idea was to kill off my family to avoid lost time to them getting sick and other inconvenient things. Once they were dead, I'd bump the food rations since I would have plenty for myself (hey, I'm in the Save the Frames camp)
Never before have I laughed so hard at a submission comment detailing a TAS strategy. The ways morals and decency are sidelined for the sake of fast strategies sometimes are hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
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beep beeeeep boop.. I had no idea what was happening for the first part but love the description and as always love the first TAS from every new emulator announced
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Banker/Carpenter/Farmer are clear and direct analogs to difficulties, simply with names appropriate to the game setting. Winning with the easiest and foregoing any kind of resource management because of it isn't impressive at all. It also sounds like the game doesn't even allow much event manipulation, so aside from the initial seed, the remaining 8 and a half minutes seems to be trivial, especially with next to no resource management needed due to the Banker choice.
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would it be better with a harder difficulty?i don't believe it would be
TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
ars4326
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Not all that entertaining, but pretty cool that another new platform is now TASable on BizHawk! So I take it that no time could have been saved by stocking up on less food? Was that luck manipulation dependent on having food supplies maxed?
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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The only time cost on less food is if I press one less digit, which would save two frames. I definitely can't do with a thousand less pounds of food. Note, I did save 3 frames by doing 1989 pounds of food instead of 2000 :)
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A couple things that occurred to me. If your goal is to kill family members as efficiently as possible, you should be drowning them, not starving them. And on that note, since the failure event for river crossings happens when you reach the halfway point, isn't it faster to fail and take the resource/family member hit instead of successfully cross the rivers? Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q5M4_2eXdA&t=#14m19s
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The problem with river failure is all (or nearly all) your food tends to go with them. So I still have a food issue after their murder, I mean accident. Someone drowning is an unlikely event, losing your food is a likely event. And manipulation sucks. However, I didn't fully consider this, I'll admit. Might be worth looking into. Also, congrats for making an even more laughably horrible plan of family sacrifice for the sake of frames.
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Superfast typing... AT LONG LAST COMPUTER TASING IS FINALLY POSSIBLE!! YEARS AGO I SAID IT WAS POSSIBLE AND NOBODY BELIEVED ME, WELL LOOK AGAIN BIATCHES!!! *panting*... Sorry. Too much Sam's Cola. Anyway. Friends, this is a GIFT FROM GOD. If we can TAS the Apple ][ which WAS a computer, then we can TAS PowerPC Mac, or even, Windows 95/98! If THIS was possible, then why not that?!
A wise man once said "Damn, that's one hell of a steak."
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Because mice are nibbling at the code. On the one hand, OMG OREGON TRAIL OMG NEW CONSOLE OMG OMG. On the other hand, it's Oregon Trail (and I honestly grew up with otii as opposed to the original so even more meh points there). It can only be so entertaining. I predict the usual threesome of Absolute Fastest - Fastest No Deaths - Best Score.
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YushiroGowa wrote:
AT LONG LAST COMPUTER TASING IS FINALLY POSSIBLE!!
Technically, we've had it for over 5 years with DOS and JPC-rr, but this is still an exciting expansion for the library of TASable games. We can start up an Apple II wishlist thread now! This run is really cool in concept, even if the end result isn't very entertaining. I will be watching it again sometime though, because I loved the Windows remake of this game as a child.
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adelikat's points: (if you don't know which one it is it's adelimuffin) Anyways, voting something. Uh, Meh vote.
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So, if I'm reading this correctly, the game's random seed is generated at startup and doesn't change at all? Is this the case on the actual Apple II hardware as well, or is it an emulation issue? Voting YES because it's Oregon Trail and a new platform TAS, but a more difficult run might be interesting as well, like highest score as someone previously mentioned.
Rayas wrote:
Dunno if I'm really clear. I need to drink more.
<br>
adelikat wrote:
The idea was to kill off my family to avoid lost time to them getting sick and other inconvenient things.
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Tanooki Teabag wrote:
So, if I'm reading this correctly, the game's random seed is generated at startup and doesn't change at all? Is this the case on the actual Apple II hardware as well, or is it an emulation issue?
Probably the case on the Apple II as well; this was before Random Number Generation became an art form. It would be nice to find out if this is the case; how does one induce a memory dump from the middle of the game on that old thing?
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I smiled when I saw this run was submitted. I love Oregon Trail V^^^^V Unfortunately it's not that interesting to watch, but I still thank you for making it.
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CoolKirby wrote:
Technically, we've had it for over 5 years with DOS and JPC-rr, but this is still an exciting expansion for the library of TASable games. We can start up an Apple II wishlist thread now!
According to adelikat every game on the AppleII is bad for TASing. Ultimate Challenge: get an AppleII run to Moons.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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Wow, this game finally has a TAS! It's much more boring than I thought it would be. I still vote yes. Not only did I play the game in elementary school, I also emigrated from the midwest to the Williamette Valley after finishing college and stopped by many of these landmarks along the way. Where did you find wild fruit near Boise? There's nothing but sagebrush out there. :)
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TheAxeMan wrote:
I also emigrated from the midwest to the Williamette Valley after finishing college and stopped by many of these landmarks along the way.
Link to video
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All I have to say is...WAY TO GO MINNESOTA EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING CORPORATION! MAKING MINNESOTA PROUD! *ahem* Sorry about that outburst.
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Good ol' Oregon Trail ;) Was the game our class got to play after we finished our classwork in school along with DOS SimCity in the Computer Lab. Not quite entertaining but well executed. Meh Vote.
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Meh vote here. Thought I'd get to see resource management and playing on the hardest difficulty. As for seed being set from the start, that makes it harder to TAS but it makes for an entertaining challenge - getting a better seed. :) Lots of space for improvement there. Adelimuffin didn't even beat Stephen Meek! For shame, adlikat.
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Wasn't entertaining to watch but the idea of having this done was funny as a concept and it made a great time. So definite meh for vault.
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adelikat wrote:
The problem with river failure is all (or nearly all) your food tends to go with them. So I still have a food issue after their murder, I mean accident. Someone drowning is an unlikely event, losing your food is a likely event. And manipulation sucks. However, I didn't fully consider this, I'll admit. Might be worth looking into. Also, congrats for making an even more laughably horrible plan of family sacrifice for the sake of frames.
In the second game, every time you go hunting there's a chance to 'accidentally' shoot a family member. You can even reach the very end of the game and then kill yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxjOquFVuuw&feature=youtu.be&t=35m51s
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NitroGenesis wrote:
According to adelikat every game on the AppleII is bad for TASing. Ultimate Challenge: get an AppleII run to Moons.
Prince of Persia.
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