Returning from a two year absence, the Ferret comes back to kick some tail!
The Story So Far
The hero of the story, Hiro Miyamoto (no relation to Shigeru Miyamoto), haphazardly runs into various enemies in a vain attempt to make sense of the convoluted (and mostly filler) time travel plot he has been unwillingly caught up in. Don't worry about the text going by too fast to read: the story will make more sense if you just make it up as you go along. Trust me.
The Game
You can read up about the history of this infamous game here. The ROM for this version, which John Romero, the owner, has put on his web page for free, can be found here, as well as some additional first-hand comments.
The Movie
The movie is comprised of the game's four rather long levels; the last makes up about one third of the whole movie. Action and pacing are very good as long as it's not in a cut scene, which can become very long. I recommend fast forwarding through them as I ignore the text and are very slow and boring. Many tricks and glitches are employed, most common being damage boosting and a quirk in the engine that causes the player to move faster for a few frames when hugging a corner. Bosses go down insanely fast, so I consider them the highlight of the movie.
The Notes
  • Eight of the bosses give you a 50+ bonus to your max health and fill your meter back up. The animation for giving this bonus has a fixed amount of time to go through, but I've determined that if your health is 25 points below the current max when you get the bonus, the animation time increases. Thus at the end of levels 3 and 4 I had to forgo damage boosting as there weren't enough pills to restore my health.
  • This game is not random. Enemy AI has limited manipulation based on the spatial relationship with the character. Teleporting enemies and bosses have a set pattern that cannot be broken. Very irritating in almost all of those fights.
  • The emulator reports the movie length inaccurately. This is due to VBA 19 holding frames during loading periods out longer than usual. A more accurate time could have been reported with VBA 20, but I tried that and ended up desynching about 5 times in 30 minutes of recording. Didn't want to put up with that.
  • All that effort to beat the game in 36 minutes and it STILL gives me a rank D. :(
Enjoy!
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Recorded with VBA 19 (see above)

NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here.
Ferret_Warlord: Nice picture of a not-yet-loaded weapons menu, NesVideoAgent. I'm actually surprised you failed to get something from the space cut scenes.
Screen shots trimmed to some of the more interesting, non-scrolling ones.
NesVideoAgent: Thanks for the help, Ferret Warlord!

adelikat: Not my favorite game but you seem to have won over enough of the audience. I grant thee an acceptance.
ccfreak2k: Processing the itty bitty game into an itty bitty video.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1864: Ferret Warlord's GBC Daikatana in 36:30.60
Active player (440)
Joined: 3/21/2006
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Location: Toronto, Canada
Hell yes. I'm gonna watch this once I get back home.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
emu
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Joined: 1/2/2007
Posts: 188
Location: Germany, Munich
Looks like a cool game with nice graphics, sound and possibly story (I could not follow it, except that there is a powerful sword everybody is looking for ^^). The run lasted nearly too long for me, but luckily the text can be scrolled fast enough. Very enjoyable watch, good job.
Active player (440)
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I've been following this run for most of its production and the end result is very nice. Yes vote. Here's to many more TAS's from Ferret in the future =P
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
I'll add a meh vote. The game wasn't really interesting, and the music in some areas was kind of aggravating. By the way, I didn't really understand the end. Were your pals actually the bad guys, or were you the bad guy?
Post subject: Can ya smell what the Ferret is cookin'?
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
sub-text wrote:
Bosses go down insanely fast, so I consider them the highlight of the movie.
Indeed. WHACK-AK-AK-AK-AK-AK, dead. Just as any time-traveling samurai should operate. I've been looking forward to this since the first WIP, and lived up to expectations. Though I probably should have played the game for five minutes to see what the hell is going on before watching this movie, I give it a Yes vote for the boss fights, the deliberate drowning, the awesome music in level 1, and general polish. :)
Skilled player (1403)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1976
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Mechuyael wrote:
By the way, I didn't really understand the end. Were your pals actually the bad guys, or were you the bad guy?
Ferret Warlord wrote:
Don't worry about the text going by too fast to read: the story will make more sense if you just make it up as you go along. Trust me.
Give it a shot and tell me what happens. ;P Edit:
theenglishman wrote:
Here's to many more TAS's from Ferret in the future =P
I wouldn't count on it. This run was a big enough time sink, and I have more important things to focus on.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
Well, it would be cool if you ended up being the bad guy... Such a twist would be enough for me to change my vote to a silent yes.
Player (147)
Joined: 11/27/2004
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Location: WA State, USA
Weak yes vote, although I probably would have been more entertained if I had actually played the game.
Nach wrote:
I also used to wake up every morning, open my curtains, and see the twin towers. And then one day, wasn't able to anymore, I'll never forget that.
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Joined: 12/30/2007
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Weak yes vote.大刀 is a boring game I think,but the inspiration is cool.
Do the work.
Joined: 10/6/2007
Posts: 330
Location: B.C Canada
Solid Meh. Didn't like it, but also didn't dislike it.
Experienced player (821)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
Necrobump in the workbench!! It sure started off slow, but it picked up speed and turned into a fairly enjoyable game. Very reminiscent of Link's Awakening, except a little more fast paced. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd played it before, but I could tell it was very well done, so I'll give this a solid yes.
Living Well Is The Best Revenge My Personal Page
Post subject: Re: #1864: Ferret Warlord's GBC Daikatana in 36:30.6
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NesVideoAgent wrote:
You can read up about the history of this infamous game <a class="extlink" id="i1E166F89" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000619155817/http://www.gamespot.com/features/btg-daikatana/index.html">here</a>.
While I already knew quite a lot about the Ion Storm and Daikatana issues, I hadn't read that article before, and it was quite an interesting read indeed.
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. ---- [1117] GBC John Romero's Daikatana by Ferret Warlord in 36:40.59
Joined: 2/25/2006
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I know all about the infamous advertisement, but I still wonder if it's appropriate to use the expression in the movie description...
Joined: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
Warp wrote:
I know all about the infamous advertisement, but I still wonder if it's appropriate to use the expression in the movie description...
I was just gonna point that out. That description doesn't realy tell what kind of game it is. EDIT: also, more than 3 months in the workbench :)
"No love for the game gear"
Skilled player (1403)
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Apparently the URL changed on me. The link has been updated. Thanks for pointing it out. Also, thank you for finally getting this published, ccfreak. ;)
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Active player (440)
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Location: Toronto, Canada
Mazel tov, Ferret! I knew you could do it.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 2/25/2006
Posts: 407
Thanks for the new link, interesting story, seems like a similar situation for Duke Nukem Forever 'ey?
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Editor, Experienced player (607)
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The player name in the publication is incorrect. It should be "Ferret Warlord" (no spaces). Could someone please fix that?