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Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 84
Location: Middle of Nowhere
Another long time luker, first time poster here as well. I can only hope & pray that this is a April's Fools joke as well. Else, this will probably be one of the saddest things I've ever read. Oh whoop-de-do, emulators aren't perfect. Neither are the Roms. Nothing can be truly 'perfect'. Imagine if you will, 2 copies of Zelda OOT, and 2 different N64s. Now plug in 2 of the same controllers as well. Question is, if the input is preformed at the same time, will the game be the 'same'? More importantly, if the games yield different results, which of them is the 'correct' one? Both games may play the same, but according to all this talk, they will most likely have different results, even though the hardware right down to the controllers is the same. It sounds like, because there is no WAY in hades to get 'perfect' randomness between the two games, that everybody should just GIVE UP... I mean seriously, WTF??? I remember before tools like memory watch / frame rewind, even the sound emulation was bad, heck I remember when N64 TASing was just a pipe dream... and now you're all gonna give up due to something really STUPID??? I can't tell you how hard it is for me to keep a sane talk up right now. TASes are 'supposed' to be fun. When people dismantle the site due to some stupid problem, I can tell it's much more than a mere hobby to them. I mean come on, should a stupid emulator problem mean that the rest of us cannot enjoy awesome, fun videos filled to the brink with game-breaking bugs? This is just my 2 cents, and sorry if I don't make a lot of sense. I feel that closing the site due to something stupid, is well, stupid in itself. If it is indeed an April Fools joke, and I am way out of line and took it totally wrong, I'm sorry for it, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's pissed at what's going on here.
arflech
He/Him
Joined: 5/3/2008
Posts: 1120
Velitha wrote:
Oh whoop-de-do, emulators aren't perfect. Neither are the Roms. Nothing can be truly 'perfect'.
The difference is that it is possible to make an exact copy of the game data by just dumping the ROM; there is a slight complication for those cartridges with extra processors and the like, but in the sense of exactly copying the data, ROMs can indeed be perfect.
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Joined: 5/17/2006
Posts: 34
I really hope TASvideos does not shut down. Even if it is in fact true that TAS inputs would not work on a console, still TAS are amazing and truly entertaining. All the creators of the amazing videos on this site deserve to have a place to show off their work. TAS do not undermine the rest of the speedrunning community, they enhance it. Many console speedrunners look to TAS both for strategies and for an amazing time to try to come close to.
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
I just know I'm going to miss seeing new TASes once this website is gone. I've seen a lot of my favorite games TASed here. Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Secret of Evermore...Now that it's coming to an end I'm feeling depressed... I am just glad I managed to save a bunch of them to either a Hard Drive or several burnable CDs. I do hope that the community can be salvaged. Or perhaps a new community will rise up some day. This Site is one of my most visited websites. I visit usually at least three or four times a day. This is just too big to overcome right now. You guys and your TASes will be missed by me.
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 19
Location: USA
Patashu wrote:
Cmuben wrote:
You guys should check up on your algorithmic information theory. A true random number is uncomputable, so no algorithm can create one (there do exist approximations, but they all deffer depending on your formal language).
If so, surely the universe cannot 'compute' a random number either?
Since this is a thread based off an april fools joke, i'll go ahead and be off topic. Random numbers correspond to bits of information which are incompressible, so your random number would have an infinite decimal representation. In the finite universe that you experience, you will never be able to have a way to represent that number in closed form, unlike other numbers like pi, 1/3, sqrt(2), etc. You can however, mathematically prove existence in a continuum. So if you believe the universe is (uncountably) infinite, then it may be making random numbers somewhere, but they are not being made by an algorithm (ie, causality doesn't exist; no causality means no physics to explain or predict it; therefore there is no algorithm underlying the process). The pathological part of it is that if I throw a dart at a continuous number line, then the probability that I hit an uncomputable number is 100%. Physics that lead to 'randomness' or 'chaos' are due to lack of precision in discrete approximations to continuous models. Randomness from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and wave function collapse are another matter.
Joined: 11/9/2008
Posts: 108
Location: New Orleans, LA U.S.A.
happy april fools day you sadistic fucks
__--N0ISE
Player (116)
Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 700
Location: suffern, ny
I know there are certain games that change every time you play, like blades of steel. Why don't we deem these games UnTASable? I mean wouldn't this solve a lot of problems with the site that we are having?
[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool
snorlax
He/Him
Joined: 5/20/2007
Posts: 174
Location: Wisconsin
I'm perfectly fine with April Fool's jokes that change the content, but man is the site slow right now, and the logout bug seems to be more prevalent. I hope the site's speed is just due to the interest in the site closure and not some underlying changes in the hardware because that would be a terrible joke.
nfq
Player (93)
Joined: 5/10/2005
Posts: 1204
snorlax wrote:
I'm perfectly fine with April Fool's jokes that change the content, but man is the site slow right now, and the logout bug seems to be more prevalent. I hope the site's speed is just due to the interest in the site closure and not some underlying changes in the hardware because that would be a terrible joke.
the reason it's going slow is because admins like adelicat, nach and bisquit are messing around there, changing stuff. they're changing servers and they're trying to delete this site, but they haven't succeeded yet
Joined: 11/5/2009
Posts: 5
The site will be shutdown?! If yes, I've got no reason to live, TAS for me is like a drawing, if you miss with your pencil, you erase the imperfection with the rubber. I do not care if it is cheating, I just want to know the precision, dexterity and speed that the game is finished, and I sure many of us use cheat or used at least once in our lives. When I was a child he used much of it and did not think it was something bad. I began to realize that it was wrong to use this in Online Games. If the "TASVideos" stop doing "TAS" and be off, I'll create another and keep it active. If the emulator does not emulate exactly like the console, I do not care what I matters is that the game is just the game must be original. My Nickname is "Sr. Jogo" if you translate into English is "Mr. Game" in Portuguese Brazil (PT-BR). Nickname Why this? Simple, by having dedicated my whole life in video games is not a hobby or pastime, it is addiction, I love games and always will, and if anyone ever take that away from me, Or I'll kill myself, or I who did it me. I play a game for the story as a movie, not graphics, which is the majority of idiots who think like games and think they know what a. I am still impressed when I see a "TAS", even knowing how to make one. I'm new to this area, but give up a community that already feels the "TAS" as a serious matter, is not very smart. A "TAS" for me is like a "Youtube Poop" has no reason to do it, but it is entertaining and many like. I do not consider the "TAS" as cheating but as an improvement in skills that a human has about a game. I'm new to this site, I'm Brazilian, and fell in love with "TAS" and do not want the site to end this way. In part I create the site I spoke seriously, because when I put something on the head I do not stop until you finish, Brazilian does not give up (sometimes) . Sorry for the Bad English. And no, i Hate April Fool's.
Player (116)
Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 700
Location: suffern, ny
Aren't there certain things on certain games that have been done with TASing that have actually been done my really good people on the consoles? I remember Comicalflop showing a video of Nicovideos where a guy played through DKC2 on the console, but did it almost as well as a TAS. Is this reason enough to keep the site going?
[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool
Skilled player (1707)
Joined: 9/17/2009
Posts: 4952
Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
Uh..No sure if this is a joke or not, bu why does every movie in this site say:
This movie has been obsoleted! Click here to see why.
Also, I think that the Timing differences don't matter. After all, we aren't comparing TAS's with Real Time Speedruns....right?
Joined: 8/18/2009
Posts: 47
A simple silly contradiction your mission statement can destroy a whole community, that's just sad...
Experienced player (538)
Joined: 5/12/2005
Posts: 707
Former player
Joined: 6/25/2004
Posts: 607
Location: Maine
Well shit, I thought [URL=http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF048-Suicide_Train.gif]I wrote that note[/URL] originally. Stupid happy fantasy world.
Joined: 4/1/2010
Posts: 52
First off, I'd like to say that I am greatly disappointed at this news. I too have been watching TAS videos for quite a while, but after seeing this, I had to register and post my thoughts. Some of you may or may not know me, but I am Kimimaru4000 on YouTube. Even as an expert video game player, I have always been astonished at the level of precision displayed in TASs. Some of them have even helped me find new tricks in many games. Often when I finish playing a new game, I look on TASVideos to see how some of the games are completed. I have even tried making a TAS. It wasn't a big one; it was just a small level in a game. It took me 15 minutes to complete, and even then it wasn't perfect. Imagine making one for a longer game; it would take months, maybe years, to finish it. The creators of these videos put in unbelievable time and effort to entertain the public, and they get nothing in return. To delete this site would not only hurt those who love watching these videos, but it would also discourage others from getting near this hobby. So what if it's not possible to replicate a TAS on a console? I certainly can't do a speedrun on a console and then replicate it exactly on an emulator, can I? Just as there are imperfections in my skills, there are also imperfections in the emulators. But my imperfections don't stop me from creating speedruns, so why would emulator imperfections stop you from creating TASs? It doesn't make much sense to me. The same can even be said for video games: they have glitches, but that doesn't hinder their ability to entertain the players. You stated yourselves that TASs were made purely for entertainment. If that's the case, then why should the technicalities matter? Enjoyment is enjoyment, whichever way you look at it. To completely destroy a community as well as a source of entertainment is something I simply cannot accept. And I was looking forward to TASs of certain games too... If the site has to go down, then let it be. However, I will say this to all the authors and contributors of the TASs put onto this site: Your work will not go unacknowledged. Of all the videos I saw, plenty of moments were memorable, and I won't ever forget these videos when playing my favorite games or making speedruns, and I'm sure others won't either. That is all I have to say. Let's just hope that the future is bright for TASVideos. EDIT: Darn, you guys got me good. Happy April Fools Day!
Active player (308)
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
secret pic of their bot
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself. It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success." - Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
Drama, too long, didn't read, lol.
arflech
He/Him
Joined: 5/3/2008
Posts: 1120
Kimimaru wrote:
EDIT: Darn, you guys got me good. Happy April Fools Day!
I don't see where anybody in a position of power around here said it was an April Fool's joke: This thread has been going since 24 March and the warning was put up around 10AM EDT on 31 March.
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Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
This is one of the most retarded things I've ever read. So you're willing to throw away years of work and joy just like that because the initial timing isn't what we thought? That's ridicoulus. What about the games themselfs? The common knowledge about bugs, glitches and various tricks that this community knows must be among the biggest there is. And how much this knowledge has helped in various ways. In speedrunning, I bet in programming, in ways to think in real life. Me personally have learned a lot from TASing. I write, and TASing has contributed to one short story that I'm really satisfied with. It has also contributed to a certain way of thinking, which has helped me write a book, and also got me the job I have now. Maybe that is exaggerating the truth a bit, but the TAS-way of thinking is there now and it can be applied on things in the real world and create good ideas. This community is also the best I know on the internet. Filled with skilled people full of knowledge about games and other things. You guys has helped me more than once with various none-TAS-related things. I'll be very sad to not be able to come here and poke around anymore. I've been part of this community since 2004 something and even though it's impossible to agree with everyone, this is the best place to be. And this you want to throw away, a few of you, just because you suddenly realized that the initial timing of games can't be emulated. That is, to say the least, fucking retarded. You just neglect all the other aspects of TASing. Bah. Change the rules, keep the site alive, and maybe get rid of some certain people that doesn't see longer than the tiny difference between an emulator and a real console.
/Walker Boh
Emulator Coder
Joined: 3/9/2004
Posts: 4588
Location: In his lab studying psychology to find new ways to torture TASers and forumers
There's been an important update.
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.

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