Midnight Resistance is basically a Contra game made for Sega Genesis.
Story: An evil enemy kidnaps the heroes' family. The hero is pleased, as this gives him a reason to wear a tight sleeveless shirt and blow up stuff with bug guns.
There is no published movie of this game but there was a submission of this game by Shakespeare awhile back.
This movie is 4089 frames faster than that submission.
I chose to do this game because I think it has a lot of TAS potential. It has a lot of level variety. It has a lot of complexity in terms of weapon selection, and boss fighting.
The rejected submission suffered from some technical quality issues so I was inspired to improve it.

Difficulty setting

Some of the improved time comes from using the Easy mode. There are 3 difficulty settings, easy, normal and hard. The previous submission used normal since difficulty only affects boss hp values. I use easy mode by the same logic. The precedence for the site is to use hard mode only when other factors are affected. This is holds true here as well. Hard mode would basically mean you get to watch the enemies blink longer before exploding.

Game Characteristics

This game has some interesting characteristics for its genre.
You turn on firing with the C button. You character will then autofire until the C button is pressed again. This is a real pain for a TAS since you should not waste shots. To shoot a single enemy requires to hold the button for 2 frames, release 2 frames, and hold for 2 frames more. Very cumbersome >:|
You can lock the characters shooting direction by holding the B button. This is very nice since you can aim in on direction but move in another. This adds a lot of rich possibilities in strategy over the course of the TAS.

Weapon choice

After each stage ther is a weapon room. You unlock these weapons with keys that you collect in the level. The last weapon in each room is manipulatable by delaying the entering of the room.
The best weapon is the nitro. You get 50 of these bad boys when you obtain it. By shooting up or up+l/r it will set a blast up in the air and rain down on the enemies. It also does 5 damage compared with 1 from the regular weapon. The bulk of my boss fighting comes from this weapon.
I also get the flame thrower (what shooting game isn't complete without one of these? :P). But it is only useful after getting the supercharge upgrade. This allows it to do 3 damage and have a pretty blue flame instead of a crappy red flame.
Until then it only does 1 damage so it isn't more powerful than the default weapon. Plus its range is more limited and causes more lag. I saved a lot of time from the previous submission by waiting to get this weapon.

Improvements

1) Easy mode - This isn't as large of an improvement as it seems since I had the advantage of weaker bosses. I can't say for sure how much I saved from this but my guess would be about 20-30 seconds.
2) Weapon choice - I wait to get the flame thrower
3) Boss fighting/weapon use - I saved a lot of time using RAM Watch to monitor hp values of the bosses. I also relied more on the nitro weapon than the previous submission did.
4) Lag reduction. I improved a lot here. The sections where you have to wait and avoid enemies I play with them but shoot them before they cause lag.
5) Various other things like getting up ladders quicker, destroying doors on the first possible frame, etc. Nothing too noteworthy.

Summary

  • GENS9Z
  • Plays on easiest mode
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Genre: Shooter
(Note: while I do not get hit, I do not intentionally avoid it. It merely is not advantageous to do so).
Enjoy!

Truncated: Good enough viewer response, even though the game generates huge amounts of vacuum. Accepted.

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1596: adelikat's Genesis Midnight Resistance in 10:48.40
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
A few boring patches here and there, but otherwise this was a great submission. Yes vote.
hi nitrodon streamline: cyn-chine
Morrison
He/Him
Joined: 8/2/2006
Posts: 195
Location: USA
Short and sweet. Lots of action kept it entertaining.
twitch.tv/Retrogaming2084
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
suprisingly entertaining. Screenshot sugestion: Last frame of input. That boss is too funny to pass up. Oh, and yes vote.
Has never colored a dinosaur.
Player (74)
Joined: 12/20/2006
Posts: 154
Game is really mediocre, its well played though. The graphics on this game look like absolute ass too.
Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
The gameplay was solid but I have to agree that the game was really mediocre. It adds up to a 'meh' for me. I don't see the publication of this movie adding anything special to the site.
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
It's a pretty solid 10 minutes. Kinda slow, but not too repetitive... I think it's actually all the weird crap toward the end that makes it worthwhile. The end boss, and such. I also like that the gun was left turned on when the movie ended. Yes vote.
upthorn
He/Him
Active player, Emulator Coder (387)
Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 1802
I would probably be voting "no" if not for the scene in the middle with the kidnapped family, and the hilariously bad English.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
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Jesus. This game sucks more ass than Arne_the_great could have possibly imagined. It has suckiness in every one of its aspects, except maybe for music which was just so-so. The TAS is okayish, though, so it's a yes vote.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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. ---- [915] Genesis Midnight Resistance by adelikat in 10:48.40
Joined: 7/7/2007
Posts: 161
Call me crazy, but I enjoyed the music in this game. I second Dromiceius; I, too, liked the still-shooting gun after input's end.
Player (74)
Joined: 12/20/2006
Posts: 154
The description is misleading, this title was originally an arcade game ported to the genesis, not designed for the genesis specifically.
Player (29)
Joined: 9/23/2006
Posts: 207
Location: Moreno Valley, California
Why does the line "Ho ho ho we have your family" make me chuckle so hard?
"The way to move out of judgment is to move into gratitude." — Neale Donald Walsch DannyLilithborne on IRC
JXQ
Experienced player (749)
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 3132
Yikes. When jump-climbing a ladder, can you grab the ladder at any time besides the peak of your jump? If so, it looks like you might be able to climb the ladders faster by grabbing and rejumping more often. I haven't tested it, though, mostly because I'm lazy.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Joined: 11/19/2005
Posts: 25
upthorn wrote:
I would probably be voting "no" if not for the scene in the middle with the kidnapped family, and the hilariously bad English.
Yeah I liked the Engrish: "Keep Coming! You and family will die" ;-)