Posted: 1/14/2011 1:17 AM
Post subject: Chuckie Egg
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TASBen
Joined: 1/14/2011
Posts: 2
Hi For some reason I fancied playing Chuckie Egg again (reliving a childhood favourite).. Wondered whether anyone had tried TASing it, and couldn't find any, so thought I'd give it a go. I used to play it on the spectrum, but as it was also on the MSX, and that is now available for TASing, I decided to use that one. Ended up so far with this for the first 3 levels: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgk1wc_msx-chuckie-egg-tas-level-1-3_videogames Found a few minor things that save time, mainly due to collisions: - Jumping off a ladder into a platform at the right frame with releasing the jump key, will put the character on that platform - too early and you'll rebound off the platform. - Jumping next to a platform into the platform and releasing the jump key on the next frame, again puts you on the platform, handy got getting the centre egg in level 1. - Eggs seem to take priority over chickens for collisions, so at ~1:05 (on level 2) if the egg hadn't been there, the character would have died (how bumping into chickens = death I have no idea!). And for a slight bit of entertainment purposes: - Jumping stops the sprite from changing, so we can jump up ladders with the character still facing the direction he was going in before reach the ladder - this may save some frames, I haven't benchmarked this yet. Same thing applies to the elevator in level 3.... the character is actually jumping along the elevator, and kinda moonwalks (hard to see with the size and speed). I redefine the keys at the beginning so I can easily see that up/down/left/right/space is being pressed in the gui, maybe a final TAS will mean this is unnecessary. One thing I'm not sure about for it to be TAS material, is that the game doesn't really have a proper ending... from what I've read (never got to playing on the spectrum) - level 48 is considered the last unique level, and it is then 8 levels looping, but with reduced time on each pass. So could class the end as being touching the last egg on level 48. Is anyone interested in this going any further? (Edit the reason I get the grain in the centre on level 1, is because the chicken is in the way to scale the ladder if I miss it off, so grabbed that to fill the time of waiting.
Posted: 1/14/2011 3:32 PM
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scrimpeh
Editor, Skilled player (1440)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2112
TAS of 2017 First edition TAS of 2017 PSX TAS of 2017
A fairly interesting game. Route planning and minor optimizations will be most of what goes into the game, I presume. It depends on how long the game is not to wear thin.
Posted: 1/15/2011 1:21 AM
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TASBen
Joined: 1/14/2011
Posts: 2
Have done levels 4-9 now. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgkp2u_msx-chuckie-egg-tas-levels-4-9_videogames Collisions (and lack of) are used again to help improve time. You're not supposed to be able grab an egg that is on a platform above in this version of the game, But on both levels 5 and 6 we can.
Route planning and minor optimizations will be most of what goes into the game, I presume
Yup, Level 8 is a good example of a level that needs a fair bit of planning, since you're mainly forced to fall/jump down to platforms below to collect eggs, you need to ensure the birds don't get in the way on your route back up. However I think level 6 has probably been the hardest to plan so far, had a few times, where a route was going well, and then find I get trapped in by one of the birds, and death comes with a 280 frame penalty! So probably will not be using Death as a shortcut :)
Posted: 6/11/2011 11:09 AM
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Quibus
Editor, Emulator Coder, Active player (264)
Joined: 10/17/2010
Posts: 124
So, how is this going now?? It's quite a famous game from that time (1984)... So it's interesting :)