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Post subject: Super Monkey Ball 1/2
Joined: 4/2/2005
Posts: 27
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Im suprised this hasn't been posted yet, unless I searched wrong. Sorry if it has. On these pages are the best of the best of super monkey ball 1/2 videos for ALL levels. I recommend you take a look, as some of these records are just amazing. SMB1 - http://server1.vortiginous.com/smb/smb1/ SMB2 - http://server1.vortiginous.com/smb/smb2/ The person with the most of the records is this guy called packattack. He must have alien-like reactions, and you'll know what im talking about when you see this guy in action. Just take a look at these two videos, especially the first. http://server1.vortiginous.com/smb/smb1/A11-packattack-35980.zip http://server1.vortiginous.com/smb/smb1/E09-packattack-26422.zip As for anyone who hasn't played this game, staying on the smallest path is INSANELY difficult. Some of these records look tool-assisted they are so good. edit: Also, here is a really good highlight reel that shows off some funny and amazing runs of the game done by someone called SmilingJack13. http://server1.vortiginous.com/smb/compilations/smilingjack13-highlightreel.zip
Spacecow
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Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 247
Location: New Hampshire
Yeah, packattack is some sort of crazed deity. I got most of those videos a while ago (it looks like new ones were added since, I'll have to get those now...) and every now and then I'll just queue them all up in Media Player Classic and watch for hours. Incredible stuff; my favorite speedruns to watch, hands down. You really gain a new appreciation for those videos trying to recreate them yourself. For example, the "double spiral" stage in SMB2, where the runner just runs through it willy-nilly, bouncing from one spiral to the next and slamming straight through the goal. I tried to recreate that out of boredom one day... it took me about half an hour just to find a good way to get enough speed to keep going once you land in one spiral, another hour of experimenting trying to find a way to bounce to the next, and then another 45 minutes or so of trying over and over, making it 1/2 or 3/4ths of the way most of the time, only to fruitlessly bounce off the top of the goal at the end. I never got it to work, and I thought that would be easy since it didn't involve falling from high distances or bouncing yourself off of corners or running along narrow ledges. I can't imagine how much work goes into each 10 second video.
Joined: 12/3/2006
Posts: 131
Location: Seattle
*DEAD* Those clips are AMAZING. The people that produced them have exponentially more patience than I do. This is an excellent preview to what a TAS of SMB1 and SMB2 will look like in the future...
Joined: 11/17/2005
Posts: 278
Location: Massachusetts, USA
NO WAI. Can you save your replays in this game? Those videos are of replays, maybe they were built? And if that's not the case, maybe he built a programmable controller? Perhaps it's possible to modify a Gamecube to run at 25% speed? Naw, I don't really think so. But he's so good that he could've passed them off as tool assisted. A real TAS would probably jerk the board around so violently such as to cause the ball to bounce even on flat ground. Or something.
Joined: 5/24/2004
Posts: 262
SmilingJack's video is a compilation of the best records - not a single game run. Yes, you can save replays in the Monkey Ball games. You can also practice any stage - and these records were created by playing a stage hundreds, or more likely thousands of times each to obtain the best score.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Holy CRAP those were awesome. Thanks for the links!
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Joined: 3/22/2008
Posts: 84
SonicPacker and I (primarily him, though) are starting a TAS of SMB1. Obviously a run of Expert would be welcome, but what about the lower difficulties? Would people be interested in a run of Advanced? Maybe even Beginner?
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Joined: 8/4/2005
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Are you going for fastest completion or highest score? I believe the latter has far more opportunities for entertainment, if only because you won't just finish every track in 2–4 seconds by simply going to the goal in the shortest path possible.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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Joined: 8/4/2005
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Well, make sure to post a WIP then so we could see. It might very well be that going for fastest time will reduce the amount of meaningful content so much it won't be worth it.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 3/24/2010
Posts: 26
I love super monkey ball! Can't wait to see this run guys whichever you decide to do. This really takes me back, i've even got a few vids up on that site in the first post http://server1.vortiginous.com/smb/compilations/ Oh and I forget exactly how it works but if you beat expert does is carry on straight to master? If so I'd love to see a run of expert and master combined.
Joined: 3/22/2008
Posts: 84
moozooh wrote:
Well, make sure to post a WIP then so we could see. It might very well be that going for fastest time will reduce the amount of meaningful content so much it won't be worth it.
I've seen score attacks and time attacks of this game, and I found the time attacks to be more enjoyable. It could be that because I'm not overly familiar with the game, it's hard for me to appreciate what goes into a good score attack, but I honestly don't think it will affect entertainment value (the run during SDA's recent marathon was quite fun to watch, in my opinion). We'll make sure to post a WIP, though, since we aren't as familiar with the game as we are with most of the games we've TASed.
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IIRC the scoring system is about balancing the banana collection with the amount of time spent on the level. I.e., only the "fastest" bananas should be collected, leading to rather complex and potentially unexpected trajectories through the levels. That is usually riskier and harder to optimize in unassisted conditions (which is why it may look slower and less impressive when humans do it), but since this is a non-issue in a TAS, there is much lesser chance the routes you take will be the same as in the unassisted runs. I'm actually kinda envious. This game must be very fun to TAS. :)
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
Mapler and I have decided to do an "Advanced Time Attack" run. We picked advanced because it has the most shortcuts, and we believe that alternate routes provide a lot of entertainment. When you combine that with the fact that with speed comes entertainment, we think that we will have a pretty good TAS when Advanced is over (as in worth submitting here). If we get a positive response once people see it, we might consider doing an Expert + Master run (since the first flows right into the second).
Joined: 3/22/2008
Posts: 84
Just thought I'd post a quick update. The routes are almost finished. I just need to spend some time with a hex editor to fix a desynch, then SP and I will go over which routes are final and which ones can be improved with TAS precision. After that, the project will mostly be in SP's hands until I can get my hands on a USB controller.
Editor, Experienced player (729)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
I'm with moozooh on this one. a score run will be far more rewarding than a time attack run. trust me, finishing each stage in less than 3 seconds will create a gameplay/cutscene ratio that is unsatisfactory. in a game like SMB, the more, the better. plus, calculating the routes for score is vastly more challenging, and you can use even more shortcuts and tricks. plus, some score routes use the same as the shortcut time attack ones, so it's not like you miss out or anything. do score run, you will thank me later.
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GabCM
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Joined: 5/5/2009
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Location: QC, Canada
Too bad SMB2 isn't quite well emulable in the latest Dolphin. It lacks a lot of sounds and music, while it's graphically 99% perfect. If it worked, I'd probably try TASing this game.
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Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
I have discussed the score attack vs. time attack issue with multiple people. These people seem to agree with me that with speed comes entertainment. The point of this game is to finish the levels, NOT to collect bananas. To reject a movie because it isn't a score attack is like rejecting an SM64 120 stars TAS because it doesn't collect all of the coins. Speed running is the main goal of this site, and in my opinion, time attack makes more sense to do.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I suspect at this point the best way to decide is to post a short test video for both run types and see what people think. Sonicpacker's generally right that with speed comes entertainment, but that isn't always the case, and if this is one of the exceptions then it'd be better to find out sooner rather than later. Not that I think a speed-only run would be rejected; it just might not be as entertaining as a score-only run would have been. Or maybe it would be; I don't know. Hence the suggestion for test runs.
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Player (147)
Joined: 11/27/2004
Posts: 688
Location: WA State, USA
The real question here is whether to do warps or no warps.
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I also used to wake up every morning, open my curtains, and see the twin towers. And then one day, wasn't able to anymore, I'll never forget that.
Joined: 3/7/2011
Posts: 23
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Super Monkey Ball is definitely one of my favorite games, I have many records myself. So seeing records by me, packattack and many other great players would just be amazing. If you guys need help with shortcuts or anything you can surely ask me. I can't wait to see this :D
Experienced player (600)
Joined: 10/23/2004
Posts: 706
Waffle, are there any strategies that you can think of that were not possible (or ever achieved) in real-time but may be possible in TAS?
Current Project: - Mario Kart 64
Joined: 3/7/2011
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Yes there are many strategies I and many other players have thought of that haven't been done in realtime. I'd be glad to make a video showing all of the fastest strategies thought of for each level. And here are the fastest times for each stage http://www.elitescores.com/rank_wr.php?gid=8 [edit] here is the current record for floor 21 of advanced http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYEMJBd8MbU but he gets the banana bunch at the beginning for a better score. I'm not actually sure if you need to go back anyways to gain enough speed for the shortcut. A few more tips that I know of would be to go immediately to the right/left and then back towards the middle of where you are to gain speed at the beginning of a stage. Many of the human records aren't good examples of what's possible in a TAS as well because much faster bumps are possible for a TAS. Will post more records/strategies when I find them.
Experienced player (600)
Joined: 10/23/2004
Posts: 706
Waffle wrote:
I'd be glad to make a video showing all of the fastest strategies thought of for each level.
That would be very useful.
Current Project: - Mario Kart 64
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