This topic is for the purpose of discussing #149: Morimoto's NES Gradius in 14:12.00

This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [19] NES Gradius by Morimoto in 14:12.00

I managed to play this to completion in the new FCEU without seeing any desync problems, so this is one of the few cases where a direct fmv -> fcm conversion actually gets the job done. I recommend the fcm should be made available for download at http://tasvideos.org/movies.cgi?id=19 -hanzou

heh.. anyone interested in Gradius.. ? I think this movie can be "improved" example. boss fights can be done faster.. This game is a Legend ~~

I recommend against trying to "improve" this movie. The author was not aiming for game clear speed. It's merely a demonstration of what happens when you have tons of speed upgrades.

dos he use save slots or is it just perfect reflex?

dos he use save slots or is it just perfect reflex?

All movies here use savestates and slowdown. Please read the FAQ.

Holy crap, that was incredible. Can someone explain to me what, exactly, those speed power-ups are doing? I know they're supposed to double your ship's speed, but towards the end he's passing through enemies altogether. So what are those speedups doing that makes this possible?

It is pretty simple. The ship has a given velocity, which is the number of pixels it is going to advance every frame that a directional button is pressed. With every speed upgrade, the ships velocity increases, and eventually it increases to the point where the ship can completely "jump" over an enemy unit, or some terrain. If you were to try and do this without tool-assistance, you would obviously die almost immediately.

heh.. anyone interested in Gradius.. ? I think this movie can be "improved" example. boss fights can be done faster..

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1883 You can always continue writing there in that topic.

With every speed upgrade, the ships velocity increases

You'd be suprised by the amount of upgrades needed for maximum speed. Morimoto reaches maximum speed even before the vulcano scene. All the upgrades he takes after that don't affect his speed. It's quite a good illusion actually, since the sound of the upgrade really makes you believe the ship is moving faster, even though he reached maximum speed long ago :)

he's passing through enemies altogether. So what are those speedups doing that makes this possible?

Nemo2342, your question is answered here: http://tasvideos.org/CommonTricks.html#fast_motion_collision_abuse_ In short, "motion" in a motion picture is about being somewhere in one picture and somewhere else in the other picture. When moving fast enough, there exists no picture where you are inside the enemy -- you just teleport through it. Because of reasons of limited processing power (or sometimes, programmers' laziness), the game only checks each instant that are being displayed on screen, and does not extrapolate paths and movement to find out what supposedly happens between two frames. This is called quantization of time, or iteration, if I recall correctly.