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Neo-Geo OverTop, a racing game, played as fast as possible.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: FBA-RR v0.0.3.01 (alpha version) built on Jun 2 2009
  • Plays all the level and gets to the finish line as fast as possible (mainly in-game time)
  • Contains one speed/entertainment tradeoff: I write "TOM" in the high score table instead of "AAA"
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses a bug, though only once
  • Car selected: ASUN Dominator
  • Total in-game time: 3'16"72

Comments

This is a Speedrun of OverTop, for the Neo Geo, entirely played in frame advance mode (except for the tunnel cutscenes since there is no input there). This game consists of 7 levels, with different kinds of pavement and variable weather conditions. There are 8 cars (or rather, 7 cars and a motorbike). Each of those cars has strong and weak points. The Ferrari goes very fast on good pavements, but it sucks in the desert; the Jeep vice versa doesn't have a very high top speed, but it's the best vehicle on bad pavements. I play with the "ASUN Dominator" which is a balanced car, it doesn't have an incredibly high top speed, but it keeps a reasonable average speed throughout the whole game. 8 colors are available; the color of choice will also set the background music. I play with the yellow car because the number of key presses to get there gives me a starting grid with cars I like. Not to mention that the yellow car gives me the best background music, so it's a win-win. The controls are rather simple, there is a throttle (obviously used and never released while in-level), a brake (never used), a horn (useless and never used), and two directional arrows (left and right, guess if I used them or not, lol). Anyway there is a collision bug in this game that can give you ridiculously high speeds for some seconds if you collide with other cars in a certain way. Manipulating the starting grid served for this purpose, I soon collide with the pink car and the truck, giving me a speed of 300+ km/h (while that car can't normally go faster than 210 km/h on that kind of pavement). So let's start talking about the levels. I don't know the official names for them (I doubt they even have official names to begin with) so I'll just give descriptive names.

Stage by stage comments

Level 1: The City (24.74)

Collision bug used at the start as said above, and a few seconds later with the pink car again. This is a simple level, without shortcuts, and just two curves, probably it serves to get confidence with the controls. I crash a couple of road signs near the end just for the sake of it.

Level 2: Forest (23.20)

In this level there is a shortcut, taken by going right when it says to turn left at the beginning. The shortcut is faster than the normal path, and I exploit an useless bug while I'm at it, jumping through the trees without breaking them (see suggested screenshot below)

Level 3: Swamp's Outskirts (22.74)

This level has a couple of shortcuts. One of them is the exact same as the previous level; the other one isn't good for me because it goes through the sea. Only the jeep can successfully take that shortcut, other cars will go painfully slow. This level features interesting curves, played as frame perfect as I could.

Level 4: Snow Mountain (27.03)

A very good shortcuts allows me to cut like half of this level. This level also features slippery roads. Those curves are (almost) impossible to be played in real time at full speed.

Level 5: Desert (26.85)

This level also features a shortcut that cuts half of the level. While I'm there, I destroy a skeleton

Level 6: Another City (26.20)

This level features several shortcuts, I take only the ones that better suits my car. The rain at the end isn't a major bother, but the aid of tool-assistance helps me to take the best path between the curves.

Level 7: Yet Another City (45.96)

A nice shortcut with haystacks, and frame perfect curves, in a level somehow linear for the most part.

Other comments

<Explain here things the audience would probably like to see>A racing game with shortcuts and full speed on all the curves. <Explain also things that could be improved in your movie>For sure, not the shortcuts. In levels where two paths were possible, I was sure to take the fastest one (tested). Maybe some curves which looked frame-perfect to me are improvable. I can't think of anything major, though. I'm happy with it as it is. <You may also suggest screenshots.>http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3470/932.png

mmbossman: A very uninspired racing game without much going for it. I don't think this makes a very good TAS no matter which car is chosen. Chalk this one up to poor game choice. Rejecting.

adelikat
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Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3599)
Joined: 11/3/2004
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nineko wrote:
I wonder why there must always be someone who tries to throw shit on the TASes I make. When I said in irc that there is a bias against me I wasn't joking. When other people make TASes there isn't a whole storm of detectives trying to find errors at any cost (even inventing them like in this case). I'm tired of this.
This kind of garbage talk will not be tolerated. I'm sick of your whining of some bias against you. Your movie failed to beat a unassisted speedrun. Somebody was kind enough to link you to the information you should have took the time to research yourself. You are welcome. This isn't some conspiracy against you. It is you intentionally making a half-assed attempt and being upset when someone notices. Consider this your warning. No more fowling up the forums with this nonsense. And unlike Bisqwit, I only give 1 warning.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Banned User
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This is not an half-assed attempt. It beats the game as fast as possible. With a different kind of car. There is no point in the guidelines that says that I can't play with a suboptimal character (or vehicle in this case).
Gone.
adelikat
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Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3599)
Joined: 11/3/2004
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nineko wrote:
This is not an half-assed attempt. It beats the game as fast as possible. With a different kind of car. There is no point in the guidelines that says that I can't play with a suboptimal character (or vehicle in this case).
That fine except: 1) You know it was improvable and told me before you submitted 2) There is an unassisted attempt with the very same vehicle that beats yours by 6 seconds 3) You didn't know it was a suboptimal vehicle when you made it 4) There is no reason to use a suboptimal vehicle for this game, it in no way adds entertainment value, in fact, it lowers it.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Skilled player (1432)
Joined: 7/15/2007
Posts: 1468
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adelikat wrote:
2) There is an unassisted attempt with the very same vehicle that beats yours by 6 seconds
This point seems to be wrong, the run was beat by 6 seconds compared to the optimal vehicle. I agree with the rest and don't think this should be published, as there is no reason for driving with a suboptimal vehicle (also I wasn't very entertained).
Agare Bagare Kopparslagare
adelikat
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Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3599)
Joined: 11/3/2004
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Perhaps I misread on that part then.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Banned User
Joined: 8/2/2008
Posts: 420
Location: italy
I can't reply to 3 and 4, but: 1) The previous version of this TAS (the one I told you about on irc) was improvable, yes. However I redid it because the first incarnation of this run was made with FBA 0.0.1 and it didn't sync with FBA 0.0.3; I tried to hex edit the old run into the new one, but I couldn't, since the fbm format is compressed, so I had to redo the whole TAS from scratch. It got 1 second and 20 centiseconds faster in the process, with better luck manipulation at the beginning (which was my main complaint in my previous run) and better played levels (which wasn't expected, to be honest). So this is not unoptimised for this car. 2) The unassisted 3'10" is achieved with the truck. The fastest unassisted run on that website with this car is 3'26", 10 seconds slower than mine. 3) No, I didn't know. I just took an all-around car ignoring that the truck was better at this purpose, and it can exploit the collision bug at the beginning better (I saw the unassisted movie on that site, the truck can get above 400 km/h while I could get only 300 km/h) 4) Yes, there is no reason. I admit that.
Gone.
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
might as well have been what adelikat wrote:
LOOK AT ME I AM A POMPOUS ASSHOLE WHO IS WILLING TO THREATEN PEOPLE WITH BANS BECAUSE THEY SUSPECT AN ADMINISTRATOR OF THIS FORUM HAS A PERSONAL BIAS AGAINST PUBLISHING CERTAIN RUNS.
However, I am against publishing the movie on the grounds that it uses a suboptimal vehicle. Using the SMB2 "princess only" movie as precedent is fallicous, as (IIRC) it was faster than any of its contemporary runs.
good thing that smb2j luigi movie never got published! oh wait
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I might be stepping out of my authority right now, but I think that some of you people should read this page (specifically the "Post Content" and "Complaints" sections) before turning this thread into a flame war. Yes, I mean you (and myself too).
XKeeper wrote:
RT-55J wrote:
However, I am against publishing the movie on the grounds that it uses a suboptimal vehicle. Using the SMB2 "princess only" movie as precedent is fallicous, as (IIRC) it was faster than any of its contemporary runs.
good thing that smb2j luigi movie never got published! oh wait
Three points: 1) That game only has two characters 2) The differences between them are significant to produce different looking movies 3) Unlike SMB2u you can't switch between them midgame. 4) More people should use list tags.
Nach wrote:
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.
Experienced player (954)
Joined: 12/3/2008
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I watched this late at night, i almost went asleep in front youtube... Its very boring, and i dont want to talk about the "quality" of your TAS, its probably good, alltought you picked up the wrong car (witch is a big error), i think you cant be much critized on optimizations But, man, what the hell is that game? Its probably one of the worst Neo-Geo game ever.... Its not needed, everybody know them, but you had SO many choices... why on hell would you picked up that shitty one... so heres a rought list of what you could have choose: -1player Magician Lord, Art Of Fighting, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, KOF, Last Resort, Super Spy, Super Sidekick, Viewpoint -2players Nam75, Burning Fight, Cyber-Lip, Metal Slug, Ninja Combat Ect...ect...ect... No it was needed to be OverTop...Meh
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arukAdo wrote:
But, man, what the hell is that game? Its probably one of the worst Neo-Geo game ever....
Wrong. The music alone has already brought me 5 times the enjoyment than the entire Metal Slug series combined, so it must be doing something right.
Nach wrote:
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: 11/2/2007
Posts: 103
the music is not involved in playing the game.
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Cheezwizz wrote:
the music is not involved in playing the game.
But it adds to the entertainment value. This, combined to the frame perfection of the speedrun itself, is what gives me hope.
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RT-55J wrote:
The music alone has already brought me 5 times the enjoyment than the entire Metal Slug series combined
Oki... sure... this is even the best Neo-Geo game if you want... Now i hope somebody will take a shitty game like metal slug, magician lord or nam75, coz this super good game is realy boring to watch *Reopen youtube just to hear that "so" good music that beat all other shity games* Edit: oups, i watched this without sound apparently... BIG mistake If i could change vote i would put yes!
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Just watched it on Youtube. This is great. Maybe I do not know much about speedruns, but I thought it was well done and entertaining. The comments on Youtube confirms this. People like this. Vote yes. Sorry for English, I use Google Translator from German.
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I almost forgot I uploaded this on Youtube, thanks for reminding me. Too bad the comments over there don't count, though.
Gone.
Post subject: Re: #2269: nineko's Arcade OverTop in 05:14.9
Joined: 1/26/2009
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Location: Canada - Québec
NesVideoAgent wrote:
Game objectives * Emulator used: FBA-RR v0.0.3.01 (alpha version) built on Jun 2 2009 * Plays all the level and gets to the finish line as fast as possible (mainly in-game time) * Contains one speed/entertainment tradeoff: I write "TOM" in the high score table instead of "AAA" * Manipulates luck * Uses a bug, though only once * Car selected: ASUN Dominator * Total in-game time: 3'16"72
as long as there no onjective about the time.. I wont see your run as a "speedrun", but simply as a "superplay" ok so I view the unassassited run in mame and this one in fba-rr and here is what I think. The unnassisted is a pain in the ass to view... even with a good computer configuration and best setting the emulator seem to allow only 12fps and I got the sound scrapped out. Been unable to see the unassisted run with decent quality make it totaly boring!! (test by yourself, IMO there no way to enjoy this) So, actually until someone link here a real unnassisted run that was recorded at least with decent fps(don't need to beat it for the time, while the time isn't the purpose)... this run should probably get a favorable vote from me, simply because the music quality entertain me. In fact, I almost consider as a good jukebox game. But seriously, I think you could easily improve your run.... also, I know that the other vehicule are much harder to control than this one.
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The objective about the time is to finish as fast as possible with that kind of car. As for watching an unassisted run for comparison, I once made one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlGits9BJl8 (unassisted; in-game time: 3:30.44) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTNXKjbs-90 (my first TAS attempt at this game, never submitted; in-game time: 3:17.92) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFY8EFiPltA (this one; in-game time: 3'16"72) The best unassisted run on that website (for this car) is 3:26, approximately 4 seconds faster than my old unassisted attempt. The best unassisted run on that website (in general) is 3:10, played with the truck. Possibly a sub 3 minutes run is possible by TASing with the truck. But I'm not insterested into that. Also I doubt I can improve this even further, when I redid the whole TAS by scratch I managed to save 1.20 seconds on a run that I already found almost optimal, so I'm really inclined to believe this isn't improvable. Not by much, at least.
Gone.
nesrocks
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I liked the run very much. Knowing the game I didn't expect anything to come out from the long straight roads because I know those are just cutscenes passing to the next level. What I liked the most was to see a run taking the fastest possible route (with that car), and destroying some road blocks and hay stacks on the way (which was funny). Yeah vote edit: why do people watch tases without sound? It's like watching a movie without sound... wait, it's exactly that.
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boring
TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... sweet!