This is my second attempt of a Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 TAS. Unlike my previous time attack submission #1701: emu's N64 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 in 06:26.77, this is more a superplay movie, making several entertainment tradeoffs.
Emulator settings:
Jabo's Direct3D8 1.6
TAS Input Plugin 0.6
Jabo's DirectSound 1.6
RSP emulation Plugin
recorded with Mupen64-rerecording v8
About the game (text from previous submission)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is the third installment of the successful skater game and the last game released for the Nintendo 64 in the U.S.
It is the first part to include reverts, which allow to chain verts (tricks done, while vertically jumping up) to other tricks, which enables big combos netting many points. However, since verts are time consuming and points can be gathered also through other tricks, this new feature is only rarely used in this TAS.
Unlike THPS 2, goals do not have a weighting. This allows to go for the fastest goals.
Short info for watcher, who are unfamiliar with the game (text partly from previous submission)
there are 8 levels: five areas with goals and 3 competitions
to get the credits screen, the skater has to win gold in all competitions and achieve 35 of 50 goals to enter these tournaments
performable tricks, seen in the run:
grinds: slide along edges
grabs: grab the board midair (grants many points)
flip tricks: spin the board (short, but nets only few points)
manuals: wheely on the floor (allows to continue a combo, while going)
reverts: spin after landing a vert (chains verts with other tricks)
wallride/wallie: riding at the wall/jumping out of a wallride (gives additional height)
competitions consist of 3 runs ("heats"), where the skater has to perform tricks to get points during a minute. After rating each heat (max. 99.9 pts.), the points for the best two runs are added and compared to other skaters. Each heat can be ended at any moment or skipped. *combo system: the total score is calculated as "points times multiplier". Each trick adds some points the the total count and increase the multiplier by one. The multiplier can't increase past 43.
level goals: each level has 10 goals:
3 goals for score attacks (High score, Pro score, Sick score)
collecting the letters S-K-A-T-E
finding the secret tape
4 level specific goals, consisting of collection procedures, tricks and others
getting the previous nine goals, all stats and the hidden deck
About the run
The run aims for all goals and stats with one skater (Tony Hawk); additionally each competition includes one heat over one minute aiming for highest score
aims for fastest time, speed vs entertainment tradeoffs consist of:
chaining more combos for higher scores (manuals slow down)
doing a little trick before the end (like a no comply or kissed the rail), to force an instant point calculation, displaying the final score of the level
selecting stats and specials to increase score
heats with highscore attack; uncancelled to display final score
displaying the maxed out stats at the end of the movie
starting a grind speeds up the skater
tricks are varied, as they lose value each time they are used
Goals of each level
Foundry (end score: 340,763)
High Score,Pro Score, Sick Score
find the secret tape
grind the control booth
activate press
collect s-k-a-t-e
cannonball over the halfpipe
valves unjammed
comment: Combos need to be interrupted to turn around. The vert before the "K" is necessary too collect the stat point
Los Angeles (end score: 838,383)
find the secret tape
High Score, Pro Score, Sick Score
grind the electric rail
kickflip over elevator lobby
elevator grind
collect s-k-a-t-e
transformers shutdown
comment: Due to the upward movement of the elevator, Tony Hawk can't jump properly to perform tricks. As gap-goals can't be continued past another gap anyway, I stop the combo there. The vert after the "K" would take very long, so I stop the combo to break.
Competition: Rio de Janeiro
first run: 12,118,608 pts.
second run: 665,424 pts.
Suburbia (end score: 693,878)
High Score, Pro Score, Sick Score
collect s-k-a-t-e
appall the appliances
disrespect the dishes
360 flip the weathervane
ice the ice cream man
find the secret tape
comment: My favourite, due to the smooth path. I found a faster way for the secret tape, without having to wait for the crane.
Airport (end score: 1,027,915)
grind the plane
High Score, Pro Score, Sick Score
find the secret tape
nosebluntslide the airport sign
snag the flags
lost luggage found
collect s-k-a-t-e
comment: Combos are only interrupted, when goal-gaps can't be continued past another gap.
Skater Island
first run: 18,231,264 pts.
second run: 229,597 pts.
comment: Not only highest score in the run, but also fastest collection in a competition.
Canada (end score: 154734)
blow up the tree
High Score, Pro Score, Sick Score
find the secret tape
nosegrind over the tree
totem poles
collect s-k-a-t-e
ollie over the pool
comment: My second faourite. Nice route with ups and downs. Only the totem poles tend to be a little off the path.
Tokyo
first run: 16,789,872 pts.
second run: 120,060 pts.
comment: Big disappointment. Despite better stats and specials, I can't beat Skater Island, due to lack of fast accessible half pipes.
Comparison issue
Ports of different consoles (like the SDA run on the Game Cube) differ a lot and have mostly different goals. Thus, runs on different systems are not comparable.
Missing basis for objective judgement
By focusing more on entertainment than speed, I decreased the possibility for an objective justification for publication and obliterated the benchmark for obsoletion. I'm aware of that and don't mind, if it can't be published. I just wanted to give this game a last shot and hope you can enjoy it.
Credits
everybody in the THPS thread for reviewing WIPs and building the aims of the run
adelikat: This movie shows a good superplay of of the game; showing off incredible stunts with the use of tools. It has received good response so I am accepting it for publication as a "playaround" type movie (it will be judged by its mastery of the game rather than the final completion time when compared to possible future movies).
DeHackEd: Video to be encoded. Getting it looking good while not being obscenely large is really hard though. Also, suggestions for screen shots are welcome.
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
First of all, thank you for encoding the run and uploading it to youtube. I was first skeptical about this because Im not a skating game fan. But you certainly showed a lot of neat things to convince me to vote yes. The run is entertaining, no doubt about it.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Cool stuff here. Yes vote.
Like AngerFist I'm not a skater, but this was alright. The levels where you were just going up and down a half-pipe to gain points were kind of dry but the rest made up for it.
I don't like the whole stats/specials maxed out bit, especially since that is mainly done to justify the most repetitive part of the movie (the high score competition runs), but I can understand why they were done and seeing the 18mil score makes it a little better. The rest of the run makes up for all that though - The constant stream of tricks while completing all the goals makes for a great run. So I gave a yes vote for that.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
As I wrote in the N64 forum, a great yes from me. The longer levels made the wait times much less annoying, and the competitions were alright (although I do agree that the up and down in the halfpipe got a little bit old). I kinda wish I had seen some actual grinds more often, not just a lot of "kissed the rail", but that's just me, since I love to string out massive grinds in all the THPS games. Anyway, well done, very enjoyable, and a big yes.
Yes vote.
Much better than your old run for me also.
My only real complaint would be the sudden end to the last secret level. Seemed to me to be a little anti-climatic. From someone who has not played the game, it looked like a level that should be played through the whole way. Though no idea if that would be to the bottom of the hill or till the timer ran out.
Voting yes.
Some notes:
Does this game have an end? I didn't see any credits in the Youtube video.
I liked the fact that the load times were removed in the Youtube video, and I think the publication should have them removed also.
I also liked the little touch in the first level, where the letters of SKATE spelt a word each time (A, AT, ATE, KATE, SKATE). This is the only way to do it, besides A, AT, S AT, S ATE, SKATE, which isn't as appealing.
However, I would rather see a speedrun of THPS 1, for several reasons:
Better music
All tapes must be collected to reach credits
Would be shorter
It's the original game
Competitions could be shorter
You don't collect stat points, you win them with tapes
Joined: 5/23/2006
Posts: 361
Location: Washington, United States
I've never played any skating games before, but this was entertaining to me anyway. It was interesting that the combo text kept getting pushed back because there were way too many to list (also, the combo text kept getting in the way, hehe). I'm giving this a yes vote.
Are there any unassisted high-score lists out there? It might be helpful to have them here for comparison.
I loved this game for some reason, I was never good at it nor do I like the genre in general. Guess it was just a good game. Heh. I vote yes, I loved seeing those insanely high scores. XD
This run is exactly what the game needed. Yes all the way.
As for the unassisted high scores, I believe that they all run out the clock minutes after it's over, and are very boring to watch.
Tony Hawk only wishes he was capable of this stuff.
Many thanks to emu for putting it up on YouTube (and removing the load times!) I've never played this game before, but seeing the ridiculously high scores, and the rapid successions of tricks that keep overloading the combo indicator merit an automatic yes vote. Nice work!
I'm gonna vote 'no' on this. The run doesn't do the game any justice at all and the judges events was nothing short of a major disapointment plus the scores obtained weren't good either, if someone showed me the video on YouTube with no disclaimer, I would fully beleve this was done unassisted. Basically you should try to link up tricks more and get the most multiplier going up a vert ramp and spinning while doing grabs isn't much of a spectacle. I did like the last level though.
Based on the bubbling diherrea that was the Youtube video, my vote would probably be around "kind of yes I guess".
Not voting until a real AVI is made, which probably won't be until the movie's accepted and published anyway.
My only real complaint would be the sudden end to the last secret level. Seemed to me to be a little anti-climatic. From someone who has not played the game, it looked like a level that should be played through the whole way. Though no idea if that would be to the bottom of the hill or till the timer ran out.
The only purpose of the last level is to place the remaining 10 stat points somewhere and offering a fun level to play, as one can skate at high speed due to going always downhill. At the bottom is nothing, but a bowl and some rails, so unfortunately no additional goal.
Does this game have an end? I didn't see any credits in the Youtube video.
Actually, there are credits. Unfortunately they come after Tokyo and thus have to be skipped to access the bonus level at the end. One can see a short glimpse at 5:56 in the second part of the youtube video. I tried to make up for the missing credits by displaying the final maxed out stats. I admit that the end is still a little dry.
Funny thing about the SKATE letters. Never noticed that. :)
TASes of both games, THPS and THPS 2 would be very interesting, mostly due to the reasons you stated. One thing to consider about the second part is, that it is by far the most played instalment of the three parts.
However, I don't know if such an oversupply of THPS runs at this rather early state of N64 tasing is that desired. (Me, I'd love to see these runs)
Are there any unassisted high-score lists out there? It might be helpful to have them here for comparison.
Unfortunately, I could find such a list for the N64 port. Especially none, that don’t exceed the time limit, as The Great Morphologous already said.
Can you upload it to Google Video? I hate these tiny YouTube animated postage stamps. Or a .deb-package of the emulator would be nice too o_O
At the moment, I am not planning to do that, as I don't have a googlevideo account yet and admittedly due to laziness. This is not a final decision though.
Basically you should try to link up tricks more and get the most multiplier going up a vert ramp and spinning while doing grabs isn't much of a spectacle.
As stated in the submission text, the multiplier for the N64 port can't exceed 43 (unlike to came cube or PC versions, where the limit is somewhere around 250). As this value is always reached in competitions, the highscores are limited by the gathered score.
THPS 3 is the only part for N64, that features reverts, allowing to build up many points. Not using this feature would simply be spare capacity. Also note, that the N64 port does not include the point massing tricks that are available on better systems (like super hand clap) and some good tricks like the "assume the position" are only available after Tokyo.
Based on the bubbling diherrea that was the Youtube video, my vote would probably be around "kind of yes I guess".
I am really sorry about the quality of the youtube video. I tried my best to achieve a more visually pleasing version, but to no avail.
Thanks to all for their time watching the movie and stating their opinions. Every feedback is very appreciated.
My only real complaint would be the sudden end to the last secret level. Seemed to me to be a little anti-climatic. From someone who has not played the game, it looked like a level that should be played through the whole way. Though no idea if that would be to the bottom of the hill or till the timer ran out.
The only purpose of the last level is to place the remaining 10 stat points somewhere and offering a fun level to play, as one can skate at high speed due to going always downhill. At the bottom is nothing, but a bowl and some rails, so unfortunately no additional goal.
Yeah I figured all that. Still I wonder if the method you used for the first heats of the competitions could be used here too. A level designed for a Score attack played till the timer ran out. A high speed downhill dash to the bottom, filled with any additional tricks that you had yet to use (Tricks are bought in this one right?) could be a better end to the run, than the sudden 'pause and quit' that is currently used. It is not like this run aims only for time.
Still regardless, on what I think of the end, the rest of the run is N64 TAS gold in my eyes.
