TASVideos discussion board

[NesVideoAgent]

This is an automatically posted message for discussing submission: #1367: mmbossman's GBA Silent Scope in 05:29.28

See details at: http://tasvideos.org/1367S.html

Submission status: published
Last edited by: adelikat

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The submission message follows:

In Silent Scope, you're a sniper trying to take out a band of terrorists who have kidnapped the President and apparently also his entire family. In this version, however, the sniper has apparently drank 15 cups of coffee, and may possibly have ADD.

For the required info: I used VisualboyAdvance 1.7.2, re-recording version 19.3 (ie the newest one found on this site), and the only settings I switched from default throughout the game were the use of autohold and autofire (at times).

I didn't use warps or passwords, and the only programming errors I abused was slightly sketchy hit box detection. I took no damage, aimed for fastest time (both in game and frame total), while getting the highest score possible through consecutive headshots.

This is my second run of this game (the first I submitted), and I think it's a much more entertaining movie than I first produced, not to mention faster. The game is completed with an in-game time of exactly 2'15", and has a movie time of 5'30" (19757 frames, around 6000 frames of this is for the credits, just to get to the initials entry page). If the movie is stopped after the last shot is taken, the movie has a time of 3'48" (13708 frames). All in all I think it is pretty well optimized, but I'm sure a few frames can be squeezed out here and there.

This game was a pretty simple to make, since each shot has a specific amount of frames in between when you can fire again (if you fire too soon you get someone yelling "calm down" at you). It was difficult to make this movie super entertaining, but I managed to mix in a different and fast amount of movement, got some headshots without zooming in (thanks xoinx for reminding me of this), and tried to keep the viewer surprised as to what I'm going to do next.

Some tidbits for each level: 1-1 Frantic movement, not much else 1-3 The first shot was taken right after the screen became any sort of viewable, and you'll see the first no look headshot here 1-4 The first and fourth shot are no look, however the 4th doesn't look like it since the game automatically shifts to zoomed in 1-Boss Hmmm a rocket launcher vs. perfect reflexes. Guess who wins

2-1 My movement looks a little slower here for some reason. 2-3 It almost looks like I only cap one baddie here, but the perfect setup from the previous level allows a no look header at the very start. 2-Boss Walked right into my shot...

3-1 A good balance of no looks and zoom in shots 3-3 The damn flares in this and the next couple levels create a very noticeable amount of lag, which I think is unavoidable. Enjoy the entertainment halfway through. 3-4 One of the longest enemy respawn times in the game is in this level. 3-Boss Here is one of the most noticeable hitbox abuses in the game. Slow down the second boss when he's killed, and you'll notice he somehow dies from me firing pretty far behind him.

4-2 Some of the biggest improvements from my previous run came from taking out the snipers quickly. I had to sacrifice about 10 frames for the first one, but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to get the second sniper in the same pass. 4-3 I like the look of this level a lot, since there's a good mix of no looks thrown in. 4-4, 4-5 These levels were a pain, because the enemies tend to fire and hit you if you don't take them out in the proper order.

4-Boss She takes a direct headshot and only loses 3 of her 10 HP. Can't let her get away with that... 4-Boss part 2 I wait a long time here to finish her off. This is intentional, because if you take her out before she says "Come and get me", she'll die but the game won't continue on to the next level. Interesting and pretty annoying glitch. Oh, and I believe I got her at exactly the earliest frame, because any before that the shot will either not register, or will connect but hit the President in the process. Since this made me lose half a health bar, I chose to wait an extra few frames.

5-1 Shoot the glass? How dull. However the game automatically reloaded me so that I'd have exactly one bullet left for the final boss, which was nice. 5-Boss- One shot to the noggin and he goes down. Hope you enjoyed the run!

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adelikat: Looks well played. You made a potentially boring game become entertaining. I like that is unique compared to the average TAS submission. Also, it has received good response from the audience. I am accepting for publication.

adelikat: Processing.

[xoinx]

Going to watch this now... think I am going to like the revision :)

EDIT: That was short and sweet, and downright hilarious. Looked like a ownage sniper on pot. Chocked up plenty of bonus towards the end, lol, the second last headshot gave +19800 pts LOL! Every shot seemed to be made as quickly as possible considering reload etc, so it is pretty optimized it seems. Taking off heads without zoom was sweet, when I suggested it I never knew it could be pulled off... Overall YES.

Truncated is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. -- xoinx

[VANDAL]

This is one of the more short runs I have watched lately and I have to say it was pretty humorous. It looked pretty good because the guy is as you said, "the sniper has apparently drank 15 cups of coffee, and may possibly have ADD", so I understand why it looks the way it does.

Regardless, I beleive its worthy of publishing in the future so, yes, I will vote.

[mmbossman]

Thank you both for your support, even if this doesn't get published I"m glad I made an entertaining run for at least two people:) I do hope that some more people vote though, or at least some more feedback, since I'm always looking for areas of my technique to improve.

[meepers]

I would give feedback but I can't watch it.

Desyncs and bad ROMs make me go :(

[Shaded Spriter]

I am having a problem getting the right ROM aswell - but I liked the first level.

Count my vote as yes untill I can get the right ROM.

[xoinx]

If it helps, I used 0585 for my rom, ie the USA version not the E or J version

Truncated is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. -- xoinx

[mmbossman]

As far as I know there are only 3 versions, the USA version (0585), the Japanese version (0767), and the European version (1919). Hopefully if you use the 0585 version it will stop desynching, but if not let me know so I can try and figure out a way to fix the problem.

[meepers]

I'm still having desync problems on the second level, but the first level looks great so I'm voting yes for now. ^^

[SXL]

there are 2 "585" versions, "0585 - Silent Scope (U).gba" and "0585 - Silent Scope (U) (M5).gba" (headerless I think). use the 2nd one to watch the run (I had a lot of trouble finding it too). you will see instantly if it works : on the good version, the run begins with a quick visit in the options, that fails on the other version.
the first level is very funny, the others a bit less. there are multiple times where it makes me wonder why the aim moves around while an enemy is waiting somewhere else to be killed. it looks a bit sloppy. maybe it's due to the fact that pauses are required between shots, I guess.

[Twelvepack]

Awsome run. Yes vote!

on a side note, I know linking to roms is against the rules, but would I be allowed to say the name of a site that I know has such a rom?

[Viewer]

Wait until the movie is rejected.

[Guybrush]

Twelvepack wrote:

[mmbossman]

Viewer wrote:

[Viewer]

mmbossman wrote:

[Zurreco]

Just chiming in to say that I was also having desynchs with the run on the second level. What I saw of the first level was passable, but I won't vote until I see it all.

[theenglishman]

Friggin' hilarious! Definite yes vote.

[Shaded Spriter]

It is a fun watch - like how you didn't waste the reload time...

Also like how the Score was Beaten in the HS table by nearly 2000% (If i recall correctly.) should of posted this yesterday but I was too busy revising.

[xoinx]

Haha, now that you brought that up, it would be interesting to have the screenshot of the game at the highscore board... LOL! But, well, let's wait till this gets accepted, it's well played so it probably shouldn't be a problem as soon as desyncs get out of the way

Truncated is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. -- xoinx

[mmbossman]

Here's a suggested screenshot, showing off an almost completed hi score, and a headshot on the "final" boss worth 198,000 points. The hi score I got beat the default score by over 947 times, for clarification.