Kept you waiting, huh?
It's finally here. After more than three years of on-and-off-and-back-again-and-family-emergency work, one of the most highly anticipated PlayStation tool-assisted speedruns is finally finished. I've had a long, hard, frustrating and fun journey making this, and I'm just so glad it's finally over and ready for the workbench!
!
What was that noise?
Oh, it's just some submission comments...
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This memory card should be inserted into Slot A in order for the movie to sync. It was the memory card used to create this movie. However, I am told that it's not necessary to use this particular one, and that any card with a cleared game of Metal Gear Solid already on it should work as well.
  • Length: 1h31m49s (330,540 frames)
  • Rerecord count: 37,499
  • Number of restarts due to missing an obvious trick: at least three or four, I don't know for sure.
  • Why the rerecord counter is so low: Lots of loading and cutscene skipping. If you take out all of that, you probably chop off a good 20 minutes of the run, making the rerecord count seem more reasonable.
Suggested screenshot: (frame 199,736)
Alternatively, there's this screenshot, which I love but doesn't actually show up in the run:
[dead link removed]
  • Emulator used: PSXjin v2.0.2 sv0
  • Acquires the BIG BOSS rank
  • Aims for fastest in-game time (1:32:58)
  • Plays on hardest difficulty ("Extreme")
  • Uses predefined saves (in order to unlock "Extreme" difficulty)
  • Takes no damage until 99% of the way through the run, absolutely infuriating the author
  • Glitch abuse
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses multiple controllers
  • Contains minor speed/entertainment tradeoffs
  • Repeats the predicate of every explanation in the form of a question ("A question?")

Top-secret and confidential

The following is a copy of the notes of cognitive psychologist Dr. Richard Doyle, PsyD., taken after his first psychiatric evaluation of David ?, military codename "Solid Snake."
This initial interview was held at the request of the subject's commanding officer, Colonel Roy Campbell, following a recent covert ops mission the subject had undergone in Alaska. According to the files I was given prior to this meeting, the subject had managed to prevent a nuclear holocaust at the hands of the subject's brother (???, code name "Liquid Snake"), but had done so with behaviour "unbecoming of a FOXHOUND operative", per Colonel Campbell. Campbell is a close friend of the subject and does not wish to place him in front of a military tribunal. He arranged these appointments in the hope that I will be able to gain a better understanding of his psychological profile and perhaps give him the help he needs.
The subject is a young man in his early forties, although his hair was beginning to gray ever so slightly. His behaviour seemed distant, and he proved prone to distraction and occasional outbursts. When I asked him how he felt about the upcoming interview and the events of the past few weeks, he murmured something about "box withdrawal". He greeted me cordially at first, but left the room after a minute or two and returned with a cardboard box tucked under his arm. He claims that he "hadn't seen (the box) in so long" and wanted some company to help him during our talk. According to my file, the subject had refrained from procuring a cardboard box during his mission in Alaska, and this appears to have caused some separation anxiety that may have interfered with his concentration.
When he could not give me details about his upbringing, childhood or parents, I proceeded to discuss the Alaska operation with him. I asked him to recount the mission in as much detail as he could remember, in order to perhaps gain a clearer picture of what had happened than the official files had done.
It seems that, upon arriving at the island's hangar via swimmer delivery vehicle, the subject was forced to wait several minutes for an elevator to arrive. Instead of keeping out of sight until the lift arrived, the subject proceeded to toy with the two guards stationed at the hangar, potentially compromising the mission before it had even properly begun. When I asked him why he did this, he claimed that he "couldn't stand just watching the credits for two whole minutes, could I?" When asked whether this justified, among other things, punching a soldier in the back and hiding behind a wall before the guard could turn around, the subject appeared to emphasize that he had not killed the guards and couldn't see what was wrong with his behaviour. Perhaps this outlook comes from the emphasis his brother placed on the subject's enjoyment of murder during their final confrontation. He also appeared to delight in being able to produce question marks over the heads of both guards at the same time. This suggests a sadistic streak, although it is too early to decide just yet.
Upon arriving at the helipad, the subject appeared to have regained his focus and concentrated on infiltrating the Shadow Moses complex. While he made a brief detour to collect chaff grenades in a risky spot, when he could have otherwise collected the grenades in a safer manner elsewhere, the subject appeared to be in complete control and expertly infiltrated the lower air ducts. It was lucky, perhaps, that the guard stationed outside the duct was sleeping, as the subject ran right past him without waking him up until it was too late.
The subject refused to discuss anything related to air ducts, so I skipped ahead to the main tank hangar. I noticed another disturbing trend in the subject's behaviour: he appeared to enjoy using the pain of his enemy to distract other guards. In this case, he threw a guard over his shoulder, causing the second guard in the room to investigate and buying the subject enough time to summon an elevator. When I asked him why he didn't just use one of his brand-new chaff grenades to create an explosive distraction, which would have been faster, he replied that he "needed" that chaff for something else. Potential hoarder? Must investigate.
The subject then ran through some corridors, and through another air duct (the subject appeared to be close to tears when I recalled this for him), then followed this up by accidentally killing the DARPA Chief (Donald Anderson, codename "Sigint"). The subject continued his impatience streak by running around the jail cell while waiting for the next plot point.
Upon meeting up with Meryl Silverburgh, the subject showed a highly proficient but slightly disturbing skill at manipulating people. While the subject certainly chose to partake in multiple murders during the ensuing gunfight, he also tricked Ms. Silverburgh into attacking enemies against her will, and even managed to persuade a guard to shoot one of his friends that the subject was holding as a meat shield. The subject claims he "didn't want to keep his hands dirty", which is blatantly false, but also said he wanted to keep his "kill count" low. Apparently, the subject was aiming for a specific FOXHOUND rank, "BIG BOSS", upon completing his mission, in the hopes that he would receive a promotion; according to my files, one of the requirements was killing less than 25 people. That the subject would treat his kills as a statistic, rather than a summation of each life taken, still haunts my memories to this day.
Following his physical and psychological massacring of the ambushers, the subject was tasked with locating Semtex explosives and detonating three walls in order to rescue the ArmsTech president, Kenneth Baker. The subject did so with surprising restraint and managed to perform his task admirably, although he refrained from picking up the grenades found in the storage area next to the C4 until after his encounter with Revolver Ocelot (Adamska (?), alternate code name "Shalashaska").}}
???
The rest is illegible. Perhaps more of Dr. Doyle's will be recovered soon...

DarkKobold: Judging.

DarkKobold: Uh oh, the TAS has started to be accepted. Solidly.

natt processing


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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sgrunt
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Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
Metal Gear!? It can't be! I'm not quite done watching this yet, but since I know someone's going to ask about it: Earlier in the development of this run, I verified that another save file with a completed game will also cause this run to sync; I suspect that any memory card with a completed game file will allow this run to sync. (If it's really necessary, I suppose one could put a movie together to generate such a card.)
Guga
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Joined: 1/17/2012
Posts: 838
Location: Chile
I will take care of ALL THE ENCODES. I will start in Monday. Only HD. antd will do the rest. Forget it. Dada will do it.
Editor, Experienced player (571)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
ThatGugaWhoPlay wrote:
I will take care of ALL THE ENCODES. I will start in Monday.
Monday, as in six days from now?! If anyone wants to make a temporary encode before that time, you should let them make one so more people can see the completed run. I think I'll probably watch the run on the emulator so I don't have to wait six days.
Guga
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Joined: 1/17/2012
Posts: 838
Location: Chile
Sorry CoolKirby, but I'm on the beach where I don't have my computer -.-' But theenglishman said to me that antd is doing a temp encode... I guess I will only take care of the HD encode.
Joined: 10/3/2009
Posts: 11
Watched it live on your twitch channel, it was very entertaining and well done ! Yes vote from me :)
Noxxa
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Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4091
Location: The Netherlands
Ah, finally, after years of waiting, the MGS TAS is finished. Judging from what I've seen on the stream and from the WIPs, very good stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
I'll make the HD encode then, I suppose. Will probably have it done today. I apologize if ThatGugaWhoPlay doesn't like me taking a "claimed" encode but he's not an official encoder and he can't get started until Monday anyway, so it's probably better if I do.
Editor
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Yes.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Player (62)
Joined: 10/18/2011
Posts: 47
"Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-NICE SHOT-ah-ah-ah-ah" That means Yes from me.
Guga
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Joined: 1/17/2012
Posts: 838
Location: Chile
Dada wrote:
I'll make the HD encode then, I suppose. Will probably have it done today. I apologize if ThatGugaWhoPlay doesn't like me taking a "claimed" encode but he's not an official encoder and he can't get started until Monday anyway, so it's probably better if I do.
Ok, I think it's better for everyone =D
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
I'm glad you're okay with it. The segments are nearly done upscaling. Got a meeting to go to now, but I'll be able to stick them all together and upload them in a few hours. edit: minor encoding mistake, will have to redo the last pass. It will be up in a little while.
Joined: 2/12/2012
Posts: 1
Location: Finland
Nice, was waiting to see if it was actually possible not to take damage at the jeep escape. But GarlandTheGreat was right.
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Joined: 6/2/2009
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Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Can't wait to get home to watch the whole movie, I'm just giving a peek while I'm working, but I like what I'm seeing. edit: every second was worth waiting, my vote is YES!
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
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Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Thengil wrote:
Nice, was waiting to see if it was actually possible not to take damage at the jeep escape. But GarlandTheGreat was right.
Yeah, and it's such bullshit too! You're right next to the exploding barrel you have to blow up, and Otacon won't move the jeep until you've blown up the barrel, which explodes in your face! There's also unavoidable damage during the first roadblock, and intentional/beneficial damage when Liquid is chasing you for the last time.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Active player (462)
Joined: 12/24/2010
Posts: 298
Location: CT, USA
Not sure what to say that would appropriately do justice to this run. It's not as flashy or head-scratch inducing as some of the other runs on this site. However, I enjoyed it just as much as those. It's definitely the longest TAS I've ever watched in one sitting. Great job on this run theenglishman.
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
Had to vote No. I mean the video is quicker then the ingame timer, the pacing was boring, the cut scenes were yawn inducing and too many, the lack of killing bored me, not enough Meryl naked, not the PS3HD version, the dead scenes were painful to watch, and the fact someone insisted they were going to do a HD encode, but we have to wait 6 days and they're not an official encoder. And of course if you took everything up to the last 1% of the comments seriously, then what's wrong with you :) Definite Yes vote.. although.. lack of a cardboard box scene with a puppy peeing on it was sad. :( Just love the bit after the credits though. Definitely got me to watch the Let's Play of the other MG titles. Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
BigBoct
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I'd like to get on-record that I'd also like to see an Easy/Very Easy run that gets the Meryl ending, and doesn't skip any cutscenes or dialogue. A "100% plot" run, if you will. I watched the WIPs to the end of Disc 1; where in the current YT encode does Disc 2 start?
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My favourite part:
Meryl slowly, carefully walks through the area, avoiding all the hidden mines.

Meryl: So what do think?  Pretty good, huh?  Are you impressed?
Snake: Well... a little bit...
Meryl: Only a little?
Snake: Well, yeah.  Watch.

Snake runs straight through the area, safely to the other side.
This was a great run, and a blast to watch. I only have two gripes: 1) After such a perfect run, it somehow seems wrong not to have getting the 'good' ending as an objective. Yes, it would cost a minute or so watching the torture scene, but after seeing Snake walk through the place untouched, having him simply give up at the first hint of pain just doesn't feel right. 2) The backtracking required to heat and cool the PAL key is really boring, and kills the pacing of the TAS entirely. I think a Twin Snakes run of this game would be better (and faster) as you don't need to leave the hangar to heat or cool the key. However, neither of those can keep me from voting yes on this one. Good job. :)
Sir_VG
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boct1584 wrote:
I'd like to get on-record that I'd also like to see an Easy/Very Easy run that gets the Meryl ending, and doesn't skip any cutscenes or dialogue. A "100% plot" run, if you will. I watched the WIPs to the end of Disc 1; where in the current YT encode does Disc 2 start?
0:52:58 for the disc change.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Editor, Experienced player (571)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
I agree with c-square that the PAL key part is boring, but the rest of the TAS was really entertaining and well-made. Congratulations on finishing the run after all this time! Yes vote!
Joined: 11/22/2004
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HD encode is now uploading/processing. Link to video
Joined: 5/12/2009
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Location: Brazil
I really liked this run. Yes vote, of course! My favorite part was the bosses fights, in particular Psycho Mantis. I Never knew a granade could be used there.
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
The run has started processing. It's at 480p now. Looks like it got content matched. Probably due to the song that's played during the ending. That's probably not a big deal, though.
Guga
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Joined: 1/17/2012
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Location: Chile
Dada wrote:
The run has started processing. It's at 480p now. Looks like it got content matched. Probably due to the song that's played during the ending. That's probably not a big deal, though.
It's Konami. My Metal Gear encode says the same thing =p