User Files from mohoc

This is my first full-game movie on Dolphin, I hope that it syncs and that you will enjoy it!

This is "Star Battle Arena", the solo mode of Mario Party 8 which leads to the game credits. You face an opponent in the six game boards, and then defeat Bowser in a final boss fight. This RNG gauntlet has been quite a popular speedrunning category with 58 entrants on speedrun.com and a WR time in 50:15 by StillSoftSpoken. In contrast a TAS of this game mode is expected to take around 24 minutes.

This movie file took inspiration from the strategies used by both Mizumaririn in their WIP up to the end of King Boo's board and the full TAS run of 豪華客船乗組員 on Nicovideo (part 1 up to the end of King Boo's board, part 2 for the rest). Mizumaririn had the fastest strategies and times known at the time on the first three boards, while the Nicovideo TAS was the state of the art for the rest of the run. I also tested some creative strategies from Truepixel__'s playlist but none were actually faster (and it is a shame given my love for several of these strategies).

Routing wise this TAS reused the known fastest strategies on DK, Shy Guy and Bowser's boards. I brought minor improvements to the strategies in Goomba and Koopa's boards: respectively landing on a red space in turn 1 instead of a blue space (6 frames faster) and better coin route/hotel investment (roughly a couple seconds saved). A detailed description of the board routes is given in this Google doc and a detailed time breakdown of the movie is available in this Google spreadsheet.

I lost 21 frames compared to my planned route. In Goomba's board my opponent got 10 coins from their coin block instead of 5 (15 frames slower), and in turn 2 of Shy Guy's board I landed on a blue space instead of a red one (6 frames slower). Both inaccuracies were kept because I was not able to manipulate RNG well enough in order to get a faster time locally with the planned strategies.

My RNG manipulation was also not ideal, especially in the first two boards. This makes sense because this was my first experience with it and my progress is already noticeable by comparing the first half of this movie to its second half.

I intend to improve this in the future, notably with help from better RNG manipulation. I have ideas to automate and make my RNG manipulation process more efficient with Lua scripting.

EDIT: added encode link + minor rewording

This is an overhaul of the 2015 "Cheat Bot 100% run" by Matt Shepcar. Most of the level input sequences are reused, with minor time improvements (less than a second overall) and some 'quality of life' changes (e.g. less shakey camera movement).

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Individual Level Movie Files

Emulator used: Bizhawk 2.9.1 with mGBA core

Twenty of the thirty level input sequences were obtained (and kindly made available) by Matt himself. The other ten were significantly redone with help from KuruBot by E-Sh4rk.

The ten majorly redone levels are all of Grasslands, Jungle 1 and 2, Cake Land 2, Cave 3, Cloud Land 3, Ice Land 1 and Ghost Castle 2.

Compared to Matt's video all level times are matched, and even sligthly improved in seven of them: Ocean 2 (-0.25s), Ocean 3 (-0.18s), Cake Land 2 (-0.05s), Cake Land 3 (-0.15s), Cloud Land 1 (-0.03s), Ice Land 3 (-0.07s) and Ghost Castle 2 (-0.15s).

This is the first step of a bigger 100% TAS project. The next steps involve adding all the other levels done with no damage, then perfecting the presentation of the run with even less shakey camera movement and better downtime entertainment.

EDIT: Due to loading time discrepancies between Bizhawk 2.9.1 and 2.3.1, I did not notice that several levels were still one or two frames longer than in Matt's video. Here is a detailed breakdown:

- seven levels are worse by one frame: Cave 2 & 3, Cloud Land 2 & 3, Ice Land 1 & 2 and Machine Land 3,

- two levels are worse by two frames: Machine Land 2 and Ghost Castle 3,

- the twenty-one other levels are matched or improved.

An 8.15s improvement to this submission, exclusively from better menuing in the first minute of the run.

Kuru Kuru Kururin done in 6:06.33 (21980 frames) as stated in the Best Ending Normal rules on speedrun.com (complete all thirty main levels, save the birds).

The TAS starts at Power On with the GB intro.

This was put here for legacy.

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Encode with OOB viewer

OOB viewer available here

Kuru Kuru Kururin done in 5:05.75 (18345 frames) as stated in the Any% Normal rules on speedrun.com (complete all thirty main levels, don't save birds).

The TAS starts at Power On with the GB intro.

Time with speedrun.com timing: 4:57.93 (17876 frames)

Youtube video: https://youtu.be/tdnZhIvwhi0

OOB viewer to see what happens off camera view: https://github.com/E-Sh4rk/KururinTAS

Github of the project: https://github.com/mohoc/KuruTAS

Ghost Castle 1 done in 614 frames (from selecting the level on the world map to the first frame when Kururin looks happy).

It is definitely improvable since it used the "slow" early wall clip available here (that waits for an additional 180° to adjust position): http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/52237142160912306

This has been done with help from Kururin OOB view v1.4 (beta) available here: https://github.com/E-Sh4rk/KururinTAS

Savestate: world map on Ghost Castle 1.

Machine Land 1 done in 296 frames (from selecting the level on the world map to the first frame when Kururin looks happy).

This is a 14 frame improvement done on what was available here on 31/12/18: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ptzmw5f573btdvh/levels_done_with_oob_goal_zones.zip?dl=0

This has been done with help from Kururin OOB view v1.4 (beta) available here: https://github.com/E-Sh4rk/KururinTAS

Savestate: world map on Machine Land 1.

Cloud Land 2 done in 303 frames (from selecting the level on the world map to the first frame when Kururin looks happy).

This has been done with help from Kururin OOB view v1.4 (beta) available here: https://github.com/E-Sh4rk/KururinTAS

Savestate: world map on Cloud Land 2.

Cave 3 done in 260 frames (from selecting the level on the world map to the first frame when Kururin looks happy).

The second wall clip used a similar method as in this Ghost Castle 1 wall clip: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/52237142160912306

The few weird inputs before the second wall clipping were done for adjusting position.

This has been done with help from Kururin OOB view v1.4 (beta) available here: https://github.com/E-Sh4rk/KururinTAS

Savestate: world map on Cave 3.

Heavily inspired by the "cheat bot" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXB5DTYUei4&t=3m24s

(The end is different because I was unable to reproduce it exactly, but the final time is the same).

Savestate: world map on Cave 1