I've started up a TAS of Ghostbusters 2. Doing this, I realize how bad the game is now. I didn't seem to notice that 20ish years ago when I was first playing it. It's not all that entertaining of a game by itself, and while it's not an autoscroller there's very little you can actually do to speed up the game at all. I figure the best way to make a video playable is to do a run where everything possibly is killed or collected.
The definitions are a little stretched, but this TAS work-in-progress:
* Aims for 100% completion [Attack everything that can be attacked]
* Aims for fastest time [By never slowing down]
* Trades speed for entertainment.
* 100% accuracy on shots fired. [No shots miss or are wasted for RNG purposes]
* Will color a painting with slime [if completed.]
These are sort of cheap goals, since that's the only thing you could actually do to make this an interesting video. I try to hit everything that flies on screen that reacts when shot. I succeed in level 1. Levels 2 and 4 (car stages) I do, if you only count the ghosts. Level 3 is close to succeeding, but at the very end there are 3 ghosts and 4 logos that fly out almost all at once, and you can't shoot fast enough to hit them all. I wasn't able to find a position where a trap would catch everything.
This video covered the first 4 stages, which is approximately 50% of the game. We miss out on the Statue of Liberty stages, which are probably going to be harder to TAS than the rest, as they appear to rely on the RNG for items floating around rather than having them be pre-set.
Speaking of pre-set, items don't appear to be completely stationary. Ghosts and logos can be slightly manipulated to appear based on timing/speed when you scroll. This mostly seems useful to make a couple things appear a little bit lower than they normally do, but this might be usable towards the goals.
While I know the game fairly well, are there any suggestions to make this more interesting?
Link to video
I really don't think much can make this game entertaining.
Edit: However, this actually isn't boring. It's rather amusing to see you go through this taking no damage.
If you can complete this TAS without taking ANY damage at all, it'll probably be one of the more entertaining TASes on the site.
* Will color a painting with slime [if completed.]
A dinossaur painting, pretty please?
and also I agree with Kitsune. Looks good
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Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
Years ago I gave this game a shot. Here's the youtube, and the input file will be provided as soon as Microstorage stops crashing.
My number one suggestion: Tricks shots. Nailing everything will be far more entertaining if you vary the way to take them down. Also, use the ghost trap to increase your score.
The reason why I didn't finish this was because of the statue of liberty. Progress in those levels depends on taking down waves of ghosts, and tablet bombs move you onto the next wave quickly. I didn't feel like constantly manipulating luck to get more tablets.
Good luck!
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.
Push select, drop a trap right where you are. All things in a vertical line from that trap will be pulled into it. Another cannot be placed until the one currently out is either scrolled off screen or kicked off by running into it. Useful against things that can't be damaged by slime.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
