Submission Text Full Submission Page
Objectives:
- 1 Player
- Complete all unique content (plays until no new content appears)
- Ends input as soon as possible
Note: This file fails conversion to BK2 format due to an emulator crash (not many people are playing around with Atari 2600 :), so this is marked as being for BizHawk 1.5.3 which is what I created it in. It should sync all the way up to when the .BKM format was retired in 1.7.0.
This is a far better port than I initially gave it credit for. It's a bit odd working with this because the player sprite is drawn on one frame and then all of the enemies are drawn on the other. On a CRT I imagine the flickering wouldn't be as bad but it's a bit disconcerting trying to TAS this when you can't see yourself literally half the time (this also causes problems when attempting to upload encodes to YouTube). Having said that, I am extremely impressed what the game developers accomplished on such a limited platform.
Take note that the egg trajectory code is extremely simple in this port, leading to some really awkward but entertaining moments when eggs go bouncing off the ceiling.
Potential improvements: I did what I could to manipulate spawn positions but it's always possible that additional fiddling could get them in better locations. There are a few speed and entertainment trade-offs but I tried to keep it to a minimum to focus on speed in case this is destined for the vault.

feos: As seen in this video, this version also gets harder after the wave where this TAS ends. The hardest it can get is when all enemies in a wave are shadow lords (blue), which is around wave 40. Vault rules tell us to play until such point. Moreover, for a run going to Vault, "1 player" branch slower than "2 players" isn't acceptable.
Rejecting.
Though, I'd wish to clarify the point this game is expected to be played up to. The Joust wave listing tells after wave 42 it's no longer any harder. So even though the only thing an optimal TAS could consist of is insta-kills, Vault rules are Vault rules. Thankfully, we don't need to beat all 100 waves (this game actually starts looping only after wave 60).

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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4430: dwangoAC's A2600 Joust "1 Player" in 00:56.84
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Tempory Encode: Until I can figure out youtube's problem.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9x9orifaul114ac/Joust%20%281982%29%20%28Atari%29_0000.mp4
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ars4326
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So were you working on TASing all the different ports of Joust this whole time? Is this kind of like showcasing the entire "package" of Joust TASes?
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ars4326 wrote:
So were you working on TASing all the different ports of Joust this whole time? Is this kind of like showcasing the entire "package" of Joust TASes?
Effectively, yes; I have a WIP for Atari 7800 but I am unlikely to complete it because I want to focus my energy on AGDQ 2015 preparations. I had been working on various ports for over a year and when I saw feos submit his I decided to just subumit what I had to leave them to their fate.
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solarplex wrote:
Tempory Encode: Until I can figure out youtube's problem.. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9x9orifaul114ac/Joust%20%281982%29%20%28Atari%29_0000.mp4
Thanks for the effort - I ran into the same problem you did and I have been unable to figure out a way to get YouTube to process the encode correctly. All that's visible is every other frame containing the bird, which is not at all helpful.
I was laid off in May 2023 and could use support via Patreon or onetime donations as I work on TASBot Re: and TASBot HD. I'm dwangoAC, part of the senior staff of TASVideos as the Senior Ambassador and BDFL of the TASBot community; I post TAS content on YouTube.com/dwangoAC based on livestreams from Twitch.tv/dwangoAC.
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I know the really advanced encoders have special techniques for dealing with this kind of problem, but a simple solution that'd work just fine in this situation would be to generate a 30FPS encode by summing every two frames in the 60FPS encode.
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Unlike the other Joust TASs I rejected, I don't think this game gets any more difficult as it progresses, so it may actually be complete at this point. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. This game is simpler compared to the other ports, and the encode that I saw looked pretty clean in terms of how it was played. Although, at around ~50 seconds into the encode, I think the play could have been a bit tighter. When making encodes, please cut them at the end of the wave where control stops, thank you.
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It seems the fastest way to fly up is not 2 frames B 1 frame empty (as in this movie), but rather 5 frames B 1 frame empty. Testing other things...
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The game does get progressively harder in the following cycles. It eventually has more and more of the blue enemies that were a pain in the ass, and I think more pterodactyls (I believe that is the official enemy name) if I recall correctly. It has been a very long time since I played this. But I guess it wouldn't matter for a TAS since it would kill them in an instant regardless. I don't know what to vote on this. I'm not sure that going more cycles would be any more entertaining.
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dunnius wrote:
The game does get progressively harder in the following cycles. It eventually has more and more of the blue enemies that were a pain in the ass, and I think more pterodactyls (I believe that is the official enemy name) if I recall correctly. It has been a very long time since I played this. But I guess it wouldn't matter for a TAS since it would kill them in an instant regardless. I don't know what to vote on this. I'm not sure that going more cycles would be any more entertaining.
If you are totally sure the game does get harder than this, I'll have to reject it as well. Looking similar (if the enemies were insta-killed) doesn't remove the Vault rule about completing the game up to where it's not harder anymore.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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Yes, Joust does get harder as you play. I haven't played the A2600 version as much as the arcade and atari 5200 versions, but it should get harder. I'm unsure if there is a point where the number of spawns and the terrain layout begins to repeat (with the obvious exception of when you rollover the level number and begin at wave 1 again), but if there is it certainly is beyond wave 6. Edit: I haven't seen this run so I don't know what wave it ends at. IIRC the NES version of this ended after wave 6 so that is why I cited that number above.
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