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New version of Pinball Quest, improved by 26 seconds over the previous (cancelled) version. Hopefully the last one, at least for now.
Ahem.

Emulator Options

  • FCEU 0.98.15.
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses programming errors in the game (for entertainment only)
  • Aims for fastest time...
  • ...but trades a few frames now and then for entertainment.

Comparison to v2

NameOldNewDiff
Level 259675607-360
Level 370096579-70
Level 497858973-382
Level 51346912320-337
Level 61595114619-183
Final1645214958-362
Total -1494
Version 2 bested Version 1 by 2982 frames. Version 3 beats V2 by just over half that, or 26 seconds. I don't believe it either.

Level-specific details

Level 1: I don't enter the door as fast as possible because I need to manipulate small amount of luck to steal the Devil.FL, which boosts attack by 4x. This was the fastest one I found.
Level 2's boss liked casting spells, so I canceled them by running into her. Too bad they don't do damage...
Level 3's boss doesn't become active until all but 2 of the first knights are destroyed. The yellow ones take 3 hits, and the red take 4, so the yellow ones are done away with.
Level 4: I don't enter the hole as quickly as possible because I need to delay it so that I don't hit the turtle in the path to the roulette. The weird crack noises are my flippers (to manipulate luck to get into the right hole/get a good boat)
Level 5's throne won't move until a while after the boss is nearly done making silly explosion sounds, so I use that time to line up a good combo shot on it.
And lastly, the final boss is a wimp.

Misc.

The first part of Level 1, up to the second skeleton hit, is played by Aqfaq. He quit working on the movie, so after trying to best him and only managing to tie (with practically the same keypresses), I gave up and just continued off his.
Many parts of this movie were played in 50% speed. These are generally when I have (or need) no control of the ball, such as when it's in the elevator of Lv3. Almost all "intensive" parts (i.e., when I needed to make a shot) were done in frame advance.
I really, really hope I didn't miss anything this time.
Truncated: Made a table out of the preformatted text (because all the "-" were acting up). Hope you don't mind.
adelikat: Good optimizations of a hard-to-optimize game. Accepting for publication.
Xkeeper: adding some level-specific details to help ease any confusion about why I did things.

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Posted: 12/12/2006 8:01 PM
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14879
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1385: Xkeeper's NES Pinball Quest in 04:09.30
Posted: 12/12/2006 9:43 PM
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Randil
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
A short, yet pretty fun, and pretty varying run. I enjoyed watching this, so I'm voting yes. :)
My own page on this site.
Posted: 12/12/2006 9:58 PM
Post subject: YES
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Aqfaq
Editor, Expert player (2460)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Sega TASer of 2008 Lucky TAS of 2008
It looks much better now. I liked it a lot. You did great job with the skeletons and other bosses too. You also managed to provide surprising entertainment even though the game is very simple. I believe it can be improved by some number of seconds, but it's worth publishing already.
Posted: 12/12/2006 11:08 PM
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zefiris
Joined: 4/11/2006
Posts: 487
Location: North of Russia :[
Some improvement can be done for sure by more precise positioning of the ball at the end of some levels (like first one - ball was really far from the doors), I dunno if I should vote yes... Well, I liked the movie, so I will vote yes... I think..
Posted: 12/12/2006 11:23 PM
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Dromiceius
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
That was cool, and about the right length so that the novelty doesn't wear off. It was definitely worthwhile, even though getting the movie took longer than watching it. Yes vote is pending, assuming Xkeeper can explain the point zefiris raised.
Posted: 12/13/2006 1:45 AM
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adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3596)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4738
Location: Tennessee
TASer of 2010 NES TASer of 2010 DS TASer of 2010 Arcade TAS of 2010 NES TASer of 2008 NES TAS of 2008 Funny TAS of 2008 TASer of 2007 NES TASer of 2007 Funny TAS of 2007
This is a nice improvement. I was entertained throughout and it looks polished. This game seems looks like it is very difficult to optimize. Especially boss fights. Anyway, yes vote.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Posted: 12/13/2006 1:49 AM
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VANDAL
Experienced player (612)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 612
A relatively intriguing game title this one is. The run was not bad at all, I really enjoyed it. Yes is what I vote.
Posted: 12/13/2006 3:30 AM
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Xkeeper
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
zefiris wrote:
Some improvement can be done for sure by more precise positioning of the ball at the end of some levels (like first one - ball was really far from the doors), I dunno if I should vote yes... Well, I liked the movie, so I will vote yes... I think..
I figured this would come up. I managed to get the ball into the gate much earlier, but it acts a little weird. The auto-movement kicks in earlier depending on how far away you are. Of course, this raised another problem -- luck manipulation to get the Devil Fl. (Atk x4) is based off of when you enter the door. Simply put, this was the fastest one I found that gave me that item. Anything earlier resulted in nothing, which would result in a much longer boss fight later on. Edit: The "Meh" vote was me, because it's easier to just meh vote myself instead of having to constantly pick "View results". (heh)
Perma-banned
Posted: 12/13/2006 5:22 AM
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Ailure
Joined: 12/13/2006
Posts: 3
Probably one of thoose runs that is more fun to watch than playing the game itself. (there's something Action 52'ish over the game when I try to play it... I got bored as soon I tried to play in the RPG mode and the other board feels uinspired..) Much faster than your older run too, which I still have somewhere. So I would have voted yes, if I could. :)
Posted: 12/19/2006 6:17 PM
Post subject: Movie published
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 14879
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [746] NES Pinball Quest by Xkeeper in 04:09.30