Myst. The epic puzzle game whose puzzles will take you hours to solve. Unless, of course, you know the answer and all you need to do is flip switches.
Emulator used: DeSmuME 0.9.5
Aims for fastest time
Colors a smiley
Comments
Although you'll encounter many brainmelting puzzles when normally playing trough Myst, all the game really requires you to do is flip the eight switches around the island, get the blank page and bring it to Atrus.
One of the hardest things about this is the fireplace code which must be obtained in order to get access to Atrus. However, this being a TAS, the code is known and is entered in the most entertaining fashion I could think of.
Special thanks for the SDA run for giving me the idea for this.
Suggested screenshot: frame 1417
Baxter: The amount of work one has to put into a TAS is not a reason in itself to accept of reject a TAS. Having to deal with a lot of routeplanning, lag reduction, luck manipulation and other things however does usually set the TAS apart from the speedrun. This TAS only differs from the speedrun in reaction time, which is even less of a difference than for instance minesweeper, where also the thinking time is avoided, and luck manipulation required. This is not the fault of the TASer, but the game. Rejecting due to bad game choice.
adelikat
Unrejecting this submission for consideration into the Vault tier
FractalFusion: Accepting for publication into Vault tier.
Sorry about the submission text, it's my first one, preview didn't work and I'm getting the referrer stuff when I try to edit it (vanilla Firefox, though). Ah well.
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
I couldn't really tell what was going on most of the time, and the game was certainly completed quickly. The thing is, I didn't really find this all that interesting to watch; this may be due to my unfamiliarity with the game, but it doesn't look that challenging to pull off what you have done here.
This will get a Meh vote from me, and I'm going to encode it as well.
EDIT: By the way, looking in the thread for this game, I see the run was posted on YouTube by the author.
It also bothers me that this game doesn't really have a proper ending sequence; it feels like it just sort of stops and leaves you hanging.
EDIT2: http://www.archive.org/download/DsMystDsIn0107.16ByScepheo/mystds-tas-scepheo.mp4
This has a very small bit rate, so I suggest you stream that version ( http://www.zexsoft.com/aktan/?DsMystDsIn0107.16ByScepheo/mystds-tas-scepheo ) rather than depending on archive.org's 512kb variant.
Joined: 4/11/2006
Posts: 487
Location: North of Russia :[
Voted yes.
I liked the way code was entered in fireplace. Gameplay part looked like if it was not bunch of prerendered scenes, but actual 3d, just on low fps. Not sure if shortest way possible was taken to set all switches as needed, but I am not checking that.
Is there more to it than clicking at the right spot on the first frame possible? It reminds me of what Bisqwit wrote on one of my first Lolo submissions:
Bisqwit wrote:
the game seems very obvious and I can't see how one could fail to create the fastest possible movie
.
For Lolo, it was/turned out to be very hard to create the fastest possible movie, but (maybe due to my lack of knowledge of this game) it seems to me that in this game what Bisqwit wrote might actually hold... am I wrong?
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Oh wow, I wasn't expecting a TAS of this infamous game. It's definitely faster than the SDA run, but then again, it really doesn't seem like a difficult game to TAS at all. I'm reminded of the runthrough of Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements, given how fast you blaze through all the screens, except that the Dungeon Magic run has tons more luck manipulation.
I'm voting a weak Yes.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
I'm voting Meh for game choice.
I have no idea what I just watched but I didn't find it terribly interesting... What the hell kind of ending was that? Feel free to explore the library? What about something like, "Congratulations Alis Landale, you're actually a princess!" I'd much rather be a princess than a librarian.
I don't really have an opinion about the TAS, but I am a bit sad that so many people don't seem to know much about Myst. It's making me feel old, and that really shouldn't be happening to me for several decades yet!
Not voting.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Joined: 7/29/2004
Posts: 136
Location: Temple City, CA
Hah, that's a great way to watch Myst beaten. Yes vote from me. Wouldn't mind seeing someone actually go through the game getting all the other pages that give you the hints though. Would be much more interesting.
"How can you prove you exist? Maybe we don't exist..."
-Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy IX)
Is there more to it than clicking at the right spot on the first frame possible?
Not really, because the actual goals of the game lie almost completely outside the famed puzzles present in it. That being said, it's not entirely impossible for this submission to be improved somehow. And it's a famous game done in a minute. I guess I don't have a solid reason not to vote yes.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
I have no idea what just happened in this TAS, but it was somehow fascinating. This game reminds me of the good old game Atlantis, which I played back in the early 90:s. Weak yes from me.
The one audible laugh I got from it was more than a vast majority TASes. Yes Vote.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
The one audible laugh I got from it was more than a vast majority TASes. Yes Vote.
This. Thanks for taking my suggestion about doing something with the fireplace, you exceeded my expectations :)
On the subject of how hard it is to make, that really shouldn't matter folks. This is not some pissing contest to see who can do 400k rerecords. This is a pissing contest to see who can make an entertaining movie.
Voted yes twice.
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
This reminds me of Randil's NES storybook submissions. I enjoy Deja Vu runs because I am familiar with the game, but I don't enjoy Uninvited and Shadowgate because I am not familiar with them. Storybook/Point-and-Click adventures are difficult to enjoy to the casual viewer, in my opinion, because 1) whatever gameplay exists is usually very choppy, linear and slow 2) they are usually quite drawn out for what they are worth (the examples I listed above are around the 8-9 minute mark, even some platformers/action games have been meh/no voted at this length) 3) many of them are quite obscure to begin with, meaning that the audience that they would appeal to is very small and probably doesn't warrant off-setting site standards for the publication.
On the other hand this submission seems quite unique. 1) The graphics are pretty nice and the transitions between different parts of the game are quite fast and fluid. 2) it is incredibly short, without any time to become properly bored in the true sense of the word, which is desired in a game of this type. 3) Myst is a very popular game and so a wide viewing public could appreciate this submission.
So, yes, I do think that this should be published.
I don't think level of difficulty to TAS should be a deciding factor in whether or not it should be published. That goes for games that are trivial to TAS as well as those that are incredibly difficult. Of course, where a considerable amount of effort has been put into making a run it should slightly tip the scales in the author's favor, but the weight attributed to it should be given with caution.
P.S. sgrunt's DS encode logo is cool.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
Mukki wrote:
I don't think level of difficulty to TAS should be a deciding factor in whether or not it should be published. That goes for games that are trivial to TAS as well as those that are incredibly difficult. Of course, where a considerable amount of effort has been put into making a run it should slightly tip the scales in the author's favor, but the weight attributed to it should be given with caution.
I want to add on a bit to this: Difficulty with TASing should not be a factor in judging/voting/etc, but difficulty compared to an unassisted run should be. Several games have slow enough movement and little/no luck manipulation, which would make an optimized TAS and an unassisted run nearly identical. That isn't superhuman, and doesn't belong on the site. Runs like this, however, are likely to be left up to the entertainment value. Anyway, carry on.
Joined: 2/20/2010
Posts: 209
Location: I'm in space
I agree with Aqfaq, that it should be published for sake of variety. It's only a minute long and I think enough happens in that minute to keep most people reasonably entertained. Yes vote.
I also vote yes on "sgrunt's DS encode logo is cool".
Oh, play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the space cops.
The one audible laugh I got from it was more than a vast majority TASes. Yes Vote.
On the subject of how hard it is to make, that really shouldn't matter folks. This is not some pissing contest to see who can do 400k rerecords. This is a pissing contest to see who can make an entertaining movie.
Voted yes twice.
Well said. It was entertaining enough for me me to merit a yes vote anyway.
