This run is 1050 frames (21 seconds in PAL speed) faster than the published movie. A lot of the time saved come from better routes on 3-2 and 4-2, but there are many minor optimizations on all levels.
Aglar's comments
I began TASing this mostly to relax with a really simple game compared to the last games I've been involved in. I think we did a really good job with it although not spending extremely much time on it. The game's simple but of course not trivial which is indicated by the amount of time we managed to save, and I personally enjoyed those micro optimizations which the biggest part of the process was about. Overall, while not being the most interesting game in itself, it was very enjoyable to TAS.
Randil's comments
I've been pretty interested in this game lately. On one hand, it's a simple game and seemingly not that hard too TAS, but on the other hand, this game has many elements that makes it fun and challenging to TAS: lag reduction, enemy manipulation, tricky maneuvers and health management. I had fun working with Aglar, he was very motivated which motivated me too, resulting in a quite fast TASing pace. We often did separate versions of the levels and then compared them (though I will admit that Aglar contributed more than me). This way, we could often squeeze those last frames out of a level! I hope you enjoy watching this.
General comments:
There is only an E version of this game.
Attacking on ground will stop your movement, which can be used if you need to change direction quickly.
There are only two jump heights in this game, low jump and high jump.
The enemies' behaviour can be manipulated by losing a pixel or so before the enemy appear in the game's memeory.
Lag can be reduced in the basic way - minimize movement and the number of sprites on screen. In particular, you want to watch our for thrown stuff, as they can follow you a long way, stacking up and causing lots of lag.
You don't regain health between levels, and since it takes some time to get health refills(those white wings), health management needs to be carefully planned.
After performing an attack in mid-air, you slow down. This means that you want to perform the attack just before you land, and then perform a jump as soon as possible to regain top speed.
50 stars give you an extra life, similar to 100 coins in Super Mario Bros.
Thanks to:
nitrogenesis for his published run.
TimmyAkmed, for his first run of this game, which sprung our interest.
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.
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4083
Location: The Netherlands
Poor nitrogenesis, his run gets obsoleted so quickly.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
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.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2224
Location: Georgia, USA
Nice job, especially with 3-2 and the final boss fight.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
>Stars don't do anything except give you some points.
Are you sure? You seem to get an extra life just as you get 50 stars.
What is the wobbling in some places about? It it a faster way to accelerate or something else? It first happens 23 seconds in.
What are the keys that appear sometimes, and the room that you end up in if you touch them? Some explanation on that would be nice.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Truncated wrote:
>Stars don't do anything except give you some points.
Are you sure? You seem to get an extra life just as you get 50 stars.
What is the wobbling in some places about? It it a faster way to accelerate or something else? It first happens 23 seconds in.
What are the keys that appear sometimes, and the room that you end up in if you touch them? Some explanation on that would be nice.
You're right, 50 stars give one extra life, my mistake. I'll edit the author's comments.
The wobbling serves no speed purpose, it's just an antic that was thrown in. (at least I think so, Aglar recorded this level, perhaps he can correct me on this. I don't think it affects RNG).
Keys sometime appear after you break a specific block. When you pick up this key, you will be teleported to a bonus room. Once you've taken the key in this room, you will be teleported back to the level, sometimes at the same place you took the first key, and sometimes a bit further on in the level.
Joined: 11/9/2007
Posts: 375
Location: Varberg, Sweden
Randil wrote:
The wobbling serves no speed purpose, it's just an antic that was thrown in. (at least I think so, Aglar recorded this level, perhaps he can correct me on this. I don't think it affects RNG).
Yup, it was only for fun. Subpixels don't exist in this game. Instead they have a speed counter that increases by 1 every frame you push forward until it reaches 29 and it then goes back to 20. Values from 1 to 4 (if you hold down b) makes you move 1 pixel forward every other frame, 5 to 15 move you forward 1 pixel / frame and 16 to 29 move you forward 2 pixels / frame. Pushing backwards decreases this counter by 2 and giving no input decreases it by 1, hence why you won't lose time while wobbling if it's done right.
This movie has been published.
The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie.
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[1701] NES Astérix by Aglar & Randil in 05:43.05
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.
The MKV file doesn't play here, I've tried the latest Winamp, VLC, DIV X and Windows Media Player programs to no avail :/
Div X, Winamp and WMP all don't report an error when attempting to play the file, it just doesn't player longer then a split second. VLC however Hangs.
I've told uTorrent to re-check the downloaded file and it says it's 100% downloaded D:
Other MKV files play fine.
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
franpa wrote:
The MKV file doesn't play here, I've tried the latest Winamp, VLC, DIV X and Windows Media Player programs to no avail :/
Div X, Winamp and WMP all don't report an error when attempting to play the file, it just doesn't player longer then a split second. VLC however Hangs.
I've told uTorrent to re-check the downloaded file and it says it's 100% downloaded D:
Other MKV files play fine.
Well, the MKV plays fine here, and presumably MisterEpic had no problems playing it upon publication.
Is there anyone else having problems?
What version of Windows are you running?
In case his signature is up to date:
franpa wrote:
windows xp home sp2
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3
xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D
Help improving TASVideos!
[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
