(Link to video)
This run is 00:19.76 seconds faster than the previous run, thanks to route changes and slight optimizations.

Objectives

  • Genre: Action
  • Uses resets
  • Emulator: Bizhawk 2.3.1 mGBA-core 0.6.0
    Previous versions of Bizhawk use older mGBA and therefore will not sync.
Ever since I finished my previous run, I knew about a possible improvement which is to take the star from the 3 fly-guys in Bowser's Castle and skip another, longer star. Recently I gained interest in this game again and started investigating. I determined that the fly-guys star took ~9 seconds to get, and the snakes star in the pyramid takes ~13-14 seconds, therefore I expected a time save of 4 seconds. So I started the project.
This game is usually sync friendly. Same inputs will yield same outcomes. But after migrating to mGBA core 0.6.0, some of the old strats wouldn't work anymore. I couldn't find the exact root cause for this, but the ball would sometimes ricochet to a different angle despite using the same inputs. Perhaps the game uses some kind of RNG, or other factors to determine the angle. I noticed that the ball sometimes had a different facing direction than before, for some reason (as in, it had the same position, velocity etc. but it looked different). This seemed to increase the risk of desyncs. As a result, I had to redo a few rooms, such as the penguins and the windmill exterior. Lakitu didn't sync because he appeared 1 frame off. The problems weren't very prevalent though, since many other rooms (especially later ones like Fun Fair and Bowser) synced without problems.
Throughout the run I found more route changes leading to more time saves:
Old route
  • Ice (get Yoshi egg - used in Desert)
  • Desert (get Lightning - used in Fun Fair)
  • Fun Fair (get Lightning - used in Grass)
  • Grass
  • Bowser's Castle
New route
  • Ice (get Yoshi egg - used in Desert)
  • Grass
  • Desert (get Lightning - used in Fun Fair)
  • Fun Fair (get Lightning - used in Bowser's Castle 3 fly-guys room)
  • Bowser's Castle
Not using Fun Fair's Lightning on the goombas in Grass Land costs ~2.5 seconds, but allows to instantly kill the 3-fly-guys and get the star without having to shoot at anything, saving ~7 seconds back.
I noticed that the right room in the pyramid had a faster pattern than the left room, so I took the right path, saving ~5.25 seconds.
In the Desert, I changed up the order of the first rooms because the strat to go straight up to the pyramid did not sync anymore. I also determined it was faster to kill the 2 Pokeys when they were closer together, which saved ~2.6 seconds.
Other than that, I found a few optimizations such as in the underwater sections and at the windmill exterior. I slacked off at later sections determined later sections (Fun Fair, Bowser) where fine so I synced in the old strats. Initially I wanted to do the Toad minigame before Boo instead of after because I needed the extra star to enter, but with the additional route changes that was not necessary anymore, not to mention it would have been ~0.5 sec slower.
From what I saw, there was some additional lag from coins that spawned after Tutankoopa and Boo (also random lag in other rooms). Nothing much I could do about it. This amounted to about 5-6 frames lost.

Closure

I'm not sure I will work on 35 stars right away, but it's definitely something I would do eventually. Maybe. I made this map and I just need to figure out a good route before I begin. I expect much Yoshi egg and "get stars while leaving the room"-glitch shenanigans. Also buying items at shops and planning coins ahead of time will be kind of a hell.

ThunderAxe31: Judging.
ThunderAxe31: Accepting as improvement over the published movie.
feos: Pub after Lion King
ThunderAxe31: File replaced for a header.txt that points to a good dump. Only game name and ROM checksum have been modified. Movie syncs perfectly with the good dump as well, so the current judgment stands.
feos: Replaced with a movie that doesn't skip to the title screen, as discussed here.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6425: MUGG's GBA Mario Pinball Land in 07:00.41
EZGames69
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Expert player, Publisher, Reviewer (3942)
Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2702
Location: Michigan
Pinball tases have always been interesting to me. But they always make for an entertaining run. Yes vote.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3854
Location: Germany
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
Shouldn't this movie end on the score display, showing the player name and actual score, instead of skipping to the title screen again? Sounds more appropriate to me.
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.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3854
Location: Germany
feos wrote:
Shouldn't this movie end on the score display, showing the player name and actual score, instead of skipping to the title screen again? Sounds more appropriate to me.
This game has multiple possible ending points: - The "The End" screen - the highscore list - the title screen I always perceived that it should be up to the runner to make a choice for a good ending point to their run. Same thing applies for goal choices, e.g. I could have let Mario die a few times to cut down on time spent in the post-game bonus game, but that would be lame and confusing. That being said, the title screen actually does fade into the highscore list every few seconds, if I recall correctly. There is music playing that the viewer otherwise can't listen to. It rounds up the run nicely and the previous runs did the same, so that's why I think it should be that way. Bubble Ghost also got granted the title screen as a legitimate ending point. I think 8~10 more seconds in the encode doesn't hurt, but if you see it differently, let me know and I will work on a version that has a faster ending point.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
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MUGG wrote:
I always perceived that it should be up to the runner to make a choice for a good ending point to their run.
This is correct, as seen here: http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#MovieMustBeComplete http://tasvideos.org/JudgeGuidelines.html#InputLength Also there's information on when the encode should end: http://tasvideos.org/EncoderGuidelines.html#DurationOfTheVideo
MUGG wrote:
That being said, the title screen actually does fade into the highscore list every few seconds, if I recall correctly. There is music playing that the viewer otherwise can't listen to. It rounds up the run nicely and the previous runs did the same, so that's why I think it should be that way. Bubble Ghost also got granted the title screen as a legitimate ending point. I think 8~10 more seconds in the encode doesn't hurt, but if you see it differently, let me know and I will work on a version that has a faster ending point.
I can't remember any publications where returning to the title screen was considered a part of the ending, and therefore, a part of the encode. The music is indeed playing, but it's the regular title theme that is also available when you just launch the game, which means it's only a part of the game start, not its ending. Title screen isn't a part of the game ending, so including it into encodes may be confusing, for example one may think the encode wasn't properly trimmed. Theoretically, there can be infinite amount of content that is only seen after you get back to the title screen, and we include neither of it into encodes, because where do you draw the line? This game has music and score display, but it also has gameplay demos which we don't include. Other games may have cool cutscenes or other features that only appear after returning to the title screen. They aren't a part of the ending though. The only extra content that we may include is things that may appear after some delay (like hidden messages, see the link to Encoder Guidelines) after the main ending. Yet those show up before returning to the title screen. And including them into encodes is still optional.
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.
fsvgm777
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Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1180
Location: Luxembourg
As someone who published both Super Mario Ball and Bubble Ghost, the main reason why I show the title screen in my encodes of Bubble Ghost, but not Super Mario Ball, is because Bubble Ghost actually shows the credits if you let it idle a bit (i.e. not hitting Start). In Super Mario Ball, the sequence goes like this (starting from game boot): opening -> title screen -> high score ranking -> attract mode -> title screen -> high score ranking -> attract mode -> title screen -> high score ranking -> opening (and so on). After the movie ends, the sequence skips the initial opening directly to the title screen, then the sequence should be similar. Incidentally, I cut my encodes for Super Mario Ball at the fade-to-white of the high score ranking (the one that shows two screens after The End, which leads to a rather ugly cut). IMHO, the final input should be at the last menu before the high score ranking, i.e. this one. Therefore, I agree with feos in that the encodes for this game should end on the high score ranking, as I don't really see a reason to show the title screen at the very end.
Steam Community page - Cohost profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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I don't know any other TAS either, that uses input to go to the title screen post-ending (aside from Bubble Ghost, that is). It would be my prefered ending point, but I'm also fine with it ending on the highscore list. I'm going to be somewhat busy, so feel free to make the edit yourself. Or wait few more days so I do it.
EZGames69
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Joined: 5/29/2017
Posts: 2702
Location: Michigan
A more recent example I can think of was GTA2 that does this iirc.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11251
Location: RU
This what? It launches the credits because they don't start automatically, and ends there.
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.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3977] GBA Mario Pinball Land by MUGG in 07:00.41