Post by Soulrivers

Posted: 5/28/2007 1:09 PM

Post subject: Toy Story 2

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Hello all. Third post. W00t. :-) This is another one of the "unknown gems" in N64 gaming. Although getting little to no attention, this is a solid, colourful platformer. There is a bit of info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story_2:_Buzz_Lightyear_to_the_Rescue but not much. One of the main reasons I think it should be considered for a TAS is that the game is based around circuits. You will often go into a room and have to make your way around the edge of the room by jumping on things. It's kind of hard to explain (If I were evil I would suggest you download a ROM to try it out...) but I think the level style is one that could be exploited for massive shortcuts. On the other hand, this game, like Glover, is somewhat a "like it or hate it" kind of game. I personally think it is awesome fun, but many others I have spoken to think it's rubbish. Anyway, enough ranting, and onto discussion. Thoughts? Thanks guys. If I seem stupid or you think my manner needs work, please let me know. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 5/28/2007 2:15 PM

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SwordlessLink

Active player (490)

Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682

I remember playing this game in my younger days (I still have it) and I liked it as well. I would love to see it pushed to its limits. Are you contemplating making a TAS of it?

Posted: 5/28/2007 2:50 PM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Swordless Link! You are, if I am not mistaken, the SM64DS glitching legend! Good work with that. Please go to http://glitchgamerx.proboards80.com because we need more members. :-) Thanks a lot for your fast and friendly reply. :-). Good to know you like the game. I own the cartridge also. I am not too sure, really. I have never made a TAS before. I think I would be quite hopless at it, and I don't think I'd have the patience. However, if someone decides to run it, I would love to have a major role in the production/route planning. However, it could be fun to do a run myself to learn how they are done. I don't know. Do you think you're interested? Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 5/28/2007 3:44 PM

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SwordlessLink

Active player (490)

Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682

Swordless Link! You are, if I am not mistaken, the SM64DS glitching legend! The very same. =P *looks at your URL* Are you GlitchGamerX from GameFAQs? You're competing in Robert Z's video quiz as well, right? Do you think you're interested? Perhaps, although I won't be able to do anything for quite a while, because I am currently working on a Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages TAS. I personally think you should try it yourself though. I would keenly watch your progress and it would be a nice game to get you started with TASes. I haven't played this game in quite a number of years though, but I still have a good idea of what you do in it.

Posted: 5/29/2007 4:50 AM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Hah, cool. I have watched your glitching with intense interest. You have an incredible reputation. Keep it up. :-) No, I'm not Glitch Gamer X. I'm just an admin on a glitching forum he set up. So no I'm not competing. Perhaps I should be. Excellent. Good luck with the Oracle of Ages TAS. Alright, I'll do it. Don't try and stop me. TAS of Toy Story 2 coming up. Do you mind if I ask you for help every now and then? I won't be able to do all that much work on this TAS, and it'll be quite slow progress. Oh well. Thanks heaps for the encouragement. It's appreciated. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 5/29/2007 5:06 AM

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SwordlessLink

Active player (490)

Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682

Do you mind if I ask you for help every now and then? Not at all, ask away.

Posted: 6/1/2007 5:29 PM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

This TAS thing certainly takes patience. :) I have been working erratically on this for the past few days. I have a map (drawn by a friend) and route plan for the first level done, and have nearly optimised the menus and cutscenes before the game begins. The emulator tools were much easier to learn than I expected, which was good. I might scan in the map and route soon so you can give me some feedback if you want to. I could also post a WIP so you can check for desynchs or whether I've done it correctly. I am now looking to buy an N64 Adaptoid (http://www.adaptoid.com) because I found, after messing around a bit on the first level, that the required accuracy is not really available with the 8 directions supplied by the arrow keys. Unfourtunately, Adaptoids are extremely rare and often go for over USD$100 on eBay. For this reason, I may have to settle for the inferior Boom PS2/PSX/N64 to USB converter (no official website), which would be fine because I could use my PSX controllers for other games. I am generally liking the experience, but keep in mind that the progress is unlikely to get any faster because I simply have so much on, and I may even have to delay the project if things get too hectic. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 6/1/2007 5:59 PM

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SwordlessLink

Active player (490)

Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682

I'll gladly check it at any stage, and yes, just use the TAS input plugin, it allows maximum precision and isn't difficult to get used to.

Posted: 6/1/2007 7:03 PM

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laughing_gas

Former player

Joined: 10/1/2006
Posts: 1102
Location: boot_camp

using a controller to tas n64 games is notoriously inaccurate. Learn to use the tas input plugin.

Borg Collective wrote:

Negotiation is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. You will be assimilated.

Posted: 6/2/2007 9:53 PM

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Comicalflop

Editor, Experienced player (730)

Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA

almost right. while I highly advocate using the plugin, having a controller is also incredibly handy to have as well. you cannot play in real time comfortably with the plugin at all, and sometimes it is very practical to play the game in real time or in slow mo (not recording) to experiment with different routes, game mechanics, and exploring new rooms. you can't explore in frame advance very well... I use the input plugin, a USB dual analog controller, and the keyboard (for hotkeys) all at the same time for maximum efficiency.

☣ Homepage ☣ Retired

Posted: 6/4/2007 1:13 PM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Thanks heaps for all your help guys. I will definitely get onto the TAS input plugin. Cheers comicalflop. I have heeded your advice and am now looking into all three input methods. I have finally managed to upload my WIP. Please note that it stops as soon as the level actually begins. I want to make sure that I've got the menus as optimized as possible. Download here: [URL]http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/29/436165/Toy%20Story%202%20%28USA%29.m64[/URL] I haven't got hold of the map that a mate drew of the first level. I'll scan that in when I get a chance also. Thanks for your patience guys. I'll take the chance now to point out that if anyone wants to continue where I left off, or to advance the project in any way, please do so. I am still just learning, and I'm happy to not take any credit if someone goes further with this. That being said, I will still of course continue with this, as I'm really enjoying it. However, still keep in mind that it is just going to get slower as I have many real-life commitments. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 6/4/2007 2:53 PM

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Mukki

Skilled player (1090)

Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom

If you used frame advance then it should be perfectly optimal. I watched it and it looked fine. You should try uploading your WIPs here: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php Although the site you used was acceptable if you want to stick with it. I'm looking forward to seeing more on this.

http://tasvideos.org/Mukki.html

Posted: 6/5/2007 7:01 AM

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Mitjitsu

He/Him

Banned User, Experienced player (532)

Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997

You seemed to be mashing buttons on every other frame during the opening menus and hell is there loads, its worse than ISS. I had a little mess around the game and got bored after about half and hour and there is a tremedous amount of lag although I don't know if its correct emulation or not, but the game is constantly running at 15fps.

Posted: 6/6/2007 9:01 AM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Mukki: Thanks a lot for the encouragement. Also thanks for the link to the upload site. Looks useful. I may well use it in future. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again. :) AKA: Thanks for your opinion. On hindsight, I should probably have memorised the frame number that I wanted the A button pressed on. However, I didn't think of this and just pressed the A button every second frame and redid it every time it wasn't pressed on the correct frame. I did this to skip through stuff as quickly as possible. Do you think it needs a restart or is it fine? Indeed the game does lag substantially in Mupen. However, you can get it to nearly correct speed by speeding the emulation up with the + button. Thanks heaps guys. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 8/16/2007 6:31 AM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Ahem. Well, this went kinda dead. I'm really sorry guys. I feel as though I've let you all down. The thing is, my friend (who has the only computer I can use) has decided not to let me use it for making a TAS because it's too antisocial when I'm at his house. Plus, I've already learnt everything that I set out to learn. How to record and rerecord movies with Mupen, stopping and then restarting recording, using slowdown, using frame advance and using the TAS input plugin. Anyone is very welcome to continue with the movie that I (hardly) started, and that stops as soon as level 1 begins. I don't want any credit on the submission if you continue what I've started. Or, of course, start your own. I'd still love to see this game TASed. If no one wants to take it up, I will still continue with it later. Much later. And very slowly. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 8/16/2007 7:12 AM

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SwordlessLink

Active player (490)

Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682

>_< No! I wanted to see this done... *cries* <_<

Posted: 8/16/2007 9:14 AM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Oh. I hate to disappoint people. This will be done. It'll just take ages. If you want to do it in the meantime, SwordlessLink, please be my guest. The other thing is that I would be rubbish at route planning and finding glitches so there wouldn't really be many über tricks. Just very predictable but fast level-completion. Awesome work on the Super Mario 64 1-star TAS. I love it. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 1/15/2008 2:56 PM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

I was sad to see this die. I just thought I'd bump this thread in case either of the following happens: 1. You decide to take on this run yourself. That'd be great. You'd be much better at it than myself. Having finished the game 100% a couple of times, I'd be here to offer support and tips. 2. You would really like to see this go ahead, but can't do it yourself. This is fine, and I'm happy to try this myself as a first TAS. If 2 happens, I will need lots of help. My main problems are that I would suck at route-planning and that I would suck at finding glitches that would assist my progress. If anyone finds any useful glitches either through regular playing, or through hunting for them, could you please post them here? Thanks. I'm going to start working on a route for level 1. I'll put it here, so that if you have the time to aquaint yourself with the first level, you can discuss it with me, or help me with a better option. The obvious first move will be to get the mini-boss token and the sheep in the attic first off, as it'll be way out of the way if I try to come back to it later on. The only thing, though, is whether or not to gather coins in the starting room, and how many will be needed in the attic etc. I won't bother with coins until I've got a basic skeleton of the route. Thanks guys. Hopefully something will happen with this one. Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 1/25/2008 12:56 PM

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Johannes

Former player

Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425

I've been a fan of TAS videos for a long time. A few weeks ago I started experimenting with Mupen64, and I've made a few short videos now. It's great fun. I really want to start a serious project. I only know the basics about TASing though, and I don't know much about this game. I've 100% completed it a long time ago, but I haven't played it for years. If I start the run, I'm going to need a lot of help route planning. I'm playing around on the first level now. The game runs at 30 fps with Jabo's Direct3D6 1.5.2, but it slows down to 17-20 fps in some rooms. May just be my crappy comp :/ I made a WIP of the first token now, but it keeps desynching >_> I played the m64 two times, and it desynched at different places >_>

SM64.org

Posted: 2/1/2008 2:45 PM

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Franklint

Joined: 5/28/2007
Posts: 45

Awesome to see you taking this on. I reckon that's the best solution, because I really don't have much time off at the moment to do it anyway. I shall endeavour to be your main assistant. I may well start work on a route for level 2 tomorrow if you wish. Woo! Cheers, Franklint

Posted: 2/1/2008 3:47 PM

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SwordlessLink

Active player (490)

Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682

Yay @ this being ran now. zOMG, you may wanna try the Direct64 plugin. It's what I'm using with OoT. It renders everything perfectly, maintains a great FPS rate, and hardly ever desynchs (I've gotten one minor desynch in about 20 minutes of gameplay). Of course, that's not to say it'll be the same with this game, but it's worth a shot. I'd test it for you, but I don't have the ROM at the moment. Here's a link: http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.php?t=26677

Posted: 3/24/2008 3:33 PM

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julianface

Joined: 3/24/2008
Posts: 35
Location: Toronto

First post after seeing the Majora's Mask TAS and being amazed by TAS's This is one of my favorite games ever, but I cannot find it anywhere here in Toronto. Just wanted to let you know I will be watching and interested, but i won't really be able to contribute much.

Gets made fun of for still playing his NES and N64

Posted: 3/24/2008 4:15 PM

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