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Minesweeper in 28 Frames

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: VBA 19.3
  • Goal: Win a game using the fewest frames of input.
  • Subgoal: Beat a board of Minesweeper, of any configuration, with the shortest input.
  • You can decide for yourself whether this is "winning" a "game". I think it is, but I might be biased.

Comments

This beats a board of Minesweeper quickly. There is a "story" mode, but that's just progressively harder (read as: longer) boards.
The default "custom" board is 2 by 2 with one mine. Initially, I thought I could just use those settings. But the movie was 31 frames, which was unacceptable. I thought about it, and I could really reduce some time if I didn't have to move around on the board as much. So, I tried again, and changed the number of bombs to 3. Fortunately, I don't even have to move as the "safe" spot is where I start. This seemed like a stroke of luck (manipulation), but further testing shows that if you choose those settings this will practically always be the case when you are starting a fresh game. Even stranger though: if you set the board to 10 by 10 with 99 bombs, the safe spot will still also be the upper left (starting) position! Any square board that is filled but one seems to do the same thing.
If anyone has this cartridge, I would be curious if this is possible "in real life"... good party trick.

Stage by stage commentsThere's only one stage

I used the "form letter" for this submission text.

Other comments

I don't feel bad piling on questionable movies since the submission queue is so small. Kudos to those involved there. I will also repeat my thanks to all of you out there for providing such a unique community.
PS I'm looking forward to someone trying to obsolete this run, perhaps even with a different game...

mmbossman: A very novel idea, and probably the first run that can be GIF'ed, but the viewer response has been poor. I commend you for thinking differently, but I'm rejecting this movie.

Here's an "encode". A too slow gif version by me is in the discussion thread.
FractalFusion: Re-rejected for not completing the game.

Player (120)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
Well, here's a 6.41 KB animated GIF... could figure out how to AVI, I also wonder how big it would be Edit: click to see my lame one, or see P.JBoy's below Animated GIF timing is crappier than animated PNG apparently, so this runs much slower, 50 fps compared to ~59.
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
P.JBoy
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Editor
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Location: stuck in Pandora's box HELLPP!!!
Well I managed to bring the GIF down to 6,506 bytes, and it's now 58 14/17 fps (was either that or 62.5 fps)
Editor, Expert player (2313)
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Location: Germany
Skilled player (1404)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1977
Location: Making an escape
Epilepsy? More like epiclepsy!
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: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
lol, most pointless TAS ever
"No love for the game gear"
Former player
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 1711
Ferret Warlord wrote:
Epilepsy? More like epiclepsy!
I'm stealing this line.
Zoey Ridin' High <Fabian_> I prett much never drunk
Skilled player (1404)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1977
Location: Making an escape
Fabian wrote:
Ferret Warlord wrote:
Epilepsy? More like epiclepsy!
I'm stealing this line.
But I thought ferrets were the thieves. :(
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.
Player (120)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
Nice, thanks P.JBoy! What did you use to make it, my program seemed to force wait times in 1/100th second intervals. I want to make probably one more with good timing and a "Movie End" message, also with a bit more after the end of the movie than you have. I couldn't make an avi with video but the one I made was 34 KB
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... blech, stale!
Editor, Player (67)
Joined: 6/22/2005
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Wow, it took the bot nearly 2.5 years to determine that this had been rejected? Talk about lag.
Current Projects: TAS: Wizards & Warriors III.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The bot only noticed the thread because someone edited the submission, presumably to add the encode.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Active player (423)
Joined: 9/7/2007
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It must be a special occasion for TASVideos Grue in order for it to break out the really tasty submissions that it had been saving. PARTY at the TASVideos Grue's cave!
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Just remember to bring food with you or you will be used instead.
N._Harmonik
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Location: Canada
henke37 wrote:
Just remember to bring food with you or you will be used instead.
And a small yet reliable source of light.
Why, oh, why do I even <i>try</i> to understand my own species?
Editor, Skilled player (1939)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3247
This submission uses a mode which should not, in my opinion, be held as a standard for game completion. It says in the Vault page:
Must be clearly definable as having completed the game.
The submission also uses nearly the lowest possible standard for technical merit.
Editor, Experienced player (608)
Joined: 11/8/2010
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The run should be played on the hardest difficulty, meaning a full-size table, not a 2x2 grid. I don't think this should be published.
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
Just because we have a new tiered system doesn't mean we should accept everything. There are still other rules as well as standards of quality and entertainment. Voting no.
Noxxa
They/Them
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Yeah, it's pointless to publish this. No vote.
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.
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
Reject. Doesn't play at highest difficulty, and is not meaningfully different from a non-tool-assisted run. Also, this is arguably a board game, and board games don't qualify for Vault tier anyway.