Posted: 3/9/2008 1:45 AM
Post subject: Bram Stoker's Dracula
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Shiru
Joined: 3/9/2008
Posts: 17
Location: Russia, Moscow
Hello. This is my first TAS. I started to make this some months ago, but dropped it after few levels. Few days ago, after talk with AnS, who said that this game is somewhat suitable to TASing and such movie can be good to have, I decided to finish this movie, and finally made it. I'm sure this movie can be improved (few frames here and there, maybe better boss fights), but I'm really tired from this game and I don't want to work on it anymore. Why I choose this game. Actually, I wondered why this game is not TASed already. This game was one of first which I ever saw on NES, and was somewhat popular between my friends. It was known for good animation, unusual style of music (for NES) and also for great difficulty. This game even can be completed only in Hard mode, so not much of my friends was able to do that. Seems that game is well-programmed. I found only one real bug - in some places and with certain conditions it's possible to go into the wall, but in this case hero just will be killed. Other almost-bug is that in certain conditions objects collision detection does not work, so it's possible to walk thru enemy, but this happens very rarely. Some tricks which were used in movie: - After falling from jump there is delay in horizontal motion, so jumps must be used only if necessary - Hero turns from side to side with turning animation if standing on floor, which makes it slow. This animation is not presented in jumps, so it's possible to turn fast by using jumps with minimal height - Hero shoots slowly while standing on floor, because shooting animation. This animation is not presented in jumps, so it's possible to shoot like machine gun by using jumps with minimal height - Of course, taking coins must be avoided because it's counting slowly after level completion - Jumping to platforms above character (when character fly vertically through platform and lands on it's top) is faster with attack animation I used backups many times, so re-records count actually is much higher than shown in movie. No memory watching or code analyze were used. Boring part of movie is those rooms where you must 'survive' for some time. I tried to acts differently in each case, but tired after few re-records and leave it as is. Movie file: Microstorage, Savefile, Rapidshare, FileFront
Posted: 3/9/2008 4:36 AM
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Xipo
Banned User
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 231
Location: Lonely City
Welcome,Shiru. I think you can submit it in "Workbench " Log in here and submit here
work hard
Posted: 3/9/2008 10:31 PM
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Shiru
Joined: 3/9/2008
Posts: 17
Location: Russia, Moscow
OK, done.
Posted: 12/10/2011 4:00 PM
Post subject: Bram Stoker's Dracula
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Randil
Skilled player (1828)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
(First of all, I am aware that there's a similar topic here, though it focuses on Shiru's TAS, so I decided to make a new topic. These two topics should perhaps be merged.) I've been TASing this game lately, and I so far I've improved Shiru's run by 6.93 seconds. If I'm lucky, I can break the 14 minute mark. There are mainly 3 reasons why I've shaved off time from Shiru's TAS: 1. Better health management, in particular picking up more hearts along the way so I can take more damage, even if the hearts are slightly off track. This is much faster than dying to regain 3 hearts, which was suggested in Shiru's submission discussion. 2. Attacking in air when falling down will instantly set your Y speed to 4, which is the highest value. This is useful when you want to fall down as fast as possible. Shiru's was kind of aware of this trick, but didn't use it to its full potential. 3. Using the 3-rock weapon on bosses. This weapon deals 3 damage per shot, compared to 1 with the other weapons. I use this to kill the second boss really fast. For this reason, if it's possible, it's worth getting this weapon even if it's slightly off track. I've stopped the movie on the second ghost fight. I have 2 more health than Shiru at this point, and these 2 extra health will save a lot of time later on. Please let me know what you think of the first ghost fight, or if you have any ideas or suggestions on health management. Here's the input file. EDIT (2011-12-11): 826 frames, 13.77 seconds, in total gained at the end of the level, thanks to taking damage at some spikes and killing the boss with the 3 rock weapon. New input file. I think sub-14 is definitely possible. EDIT 2 (2011-12-11): Well, I've been working hard on this all day, and I'm now more than half way through the game, being 25.27 seconds ahead of Shiru, thus breaking the 14 minute mark. Input file. EDIT 3: Wow, a lot of edits in one day! I hope no one minds. I'm about 80% through the game now. I'm now 45.65 seconds ahead of Shiru, and there will be more time saved later on, since I have 3 health compared to Shiru's 1. I'm very happy with the health management in the run, it'll turn out very nice in the end. I'll probably finish the run sometime next week. Input file.
My own page on this site.
Posted: 12/11/2011 10:48 PM
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FionordeQuester
Joined: 3/20/2010
Posts: 126
Wow...nice! I mean, I'm no TASer, but even I know that 45 seconds is a pretty huge improvement!