[Quote from my last submission ^^] Hey! Before beginning, please forget me for my English, 'cause I'm French! This game was my favorite video game, since I was 8yo! Then, when I saw MattyXB's run, I told to myself "I've to do it!" So this run has to be better than hims ^^ It's only the beginning of the game I'll show you, because I'm making it only for some days. I created the movie some months ago, but it was just for testing the emulator, and try to understand the frames and others things. That's why the name of the creator of the movie file is Sarriel (it's the nickname I use on online games like Diablo 3 ^^). And after i saw that i did the best first fight I can, I continued to play with this movie. I want to say that I don't want to beat the run he did with warps and others, but the perfect run he did (1:33:09.43), without bug, doing all bosses. I think it will be the only run I'll make, then I want to do a perfect one, not a cheated! So, after some hours of playing, I realized that the beginning is exactly the same as MattyXB's, until some screens after Bogard's house. After this, the run became different than hims, 'cause I prefer to kill more monsters than Matty :) [/Quote from y last submission ^^]
Then… I don’t know what to do, so I’ll make a list of some whiles of the run :
The harder Boss fight : I think it was the first fight against Julius, with his clones. This fight was very hard because they are very fast, and they cast their Nuke-spells very often, then it’s very hard to move, hit them without being hit! It took me a long while to complete this fight.
NOTE : Oh God! I don't know how I could forget that, but the harder Boss fight wasn't agaisnt Julius 1st, but against Dark Lord! His hitbox is very strange, and fighting him was very annoying ><
The easier Boss fight : Julius 3rd! He has only one attack, easy to avoid, he doesn’t move, and we know where he will appear. Very annoying fight. :/
My favorite Boss fight : Davias. Very fun battle, ‘cause I like to fight with the chain, I love the music, avoiding fireballs was very fun, like all this battle =)
The most annoying monster(s) : Damn! They were Eye and Whirlwind-men! Each screen with these monsters was very hard, and needed to be manipulate, because they were always on the path I’d to take, and I lost a lot of frames because of them!
My favorite monsters : The Turtles of Floatrocks. They were fun to kill =)
The most annoying room : The room where I need to freeze two soldiers (in the Bone Cave). It was very long to get the good config’. The first time I did it, I was very happy, but later, I realized that I did a big mistake earlier in the cave, then I’d to retry almost all the dungeon, and, this room. I really wanted to break my keyboard… ^^
The harder dungeon : The Ice Cave! This horrible Ice Cave! >< Very hard because almost all rooms have an only path to go to the next room, and very often, monsters are on this path, and don’t want to move! Poke to the Snowman in the room with the bridge… I really hated him!
The easier dungeon : Strangely, it was Mana Temple. I almost never manipulated a room. Only the Dragons were hard to fight.
Sometimes, we can see somethings who look like errors. Of course, there were no errors! An exemple… During the fight against the Mantis Ant, there is a while where I don’t move or attack. Of course it was possible, but it was the only way I found to manipulate him. If it was going to the bottom of the screen, I would loose time, then, I preferred to loose about 20 frames, to keep it at the top of the screen and kill it faster.
In all the run, I lost frames to manipulate the rooms, simply because I don’t know if it’s possible to do by another way! If you know, I would be happy to ear it ^^
You’ll see that some battles are the same than Matty’s. It’s because he uses the faster way to kill these bosses! Megapede is an example. There is only one place to be to hit him, and one way to hit him as often as possible, then, our battles are the same! Same thing for the Metal Crab or Julius 3rd.

Edit: To answer to KwyjiboPrime : I don't remember all the places I won or loose frames, but i can tell you some of them.
When I fight the Hydra, I could kill it when it was a the bottom of the screen. Matty had to wait it came back in the middle of the screen, and during it was moving, Matty couldn't hit the Hydra, then, he lost a lot of frames on this fight. This is the same thing on some bosses like Julius 3rd. If you play the movie, you can see that i hit him 2-3 frames before he disappears. Then he lose some HP, and the fight is faster.
Other bosses were manipulated very well (and very hardly). The mantis never comes to the bottom of the screen. It costs me some frames to do that, but killing it is faster. Then, i preferred to do it. And I think it's better to do a perfectly-manipulated fight. Same thing for the Kraken. It never attacks me, 'cause i manipulate it. One again, I "pay" some frames, to make the fight shorter. And after the fight, I begin to walk on the spikes. But I get my lvl 1 frame before dying, then I get all y HP and I can cross the spikes. Matty waited before walking on the spikes, then I got 8 frames :p
My main method to win frames was by killing the monsters. I always tried to kill monsters by doing something else. By exemple, when I break a wall, I try to kill a monster by the attack of the Star (or the mattock), or during the wall is exploding. I do that a lot of time in Floatrocks, because I've to use the Star very often, then I try to kill a turtle when breaking the rocks.
The other method is to kill more than one monster by hit. With the Star or the chain, it's very easy. I prefer to lose some frames to manipulate the room and having two monsters to kill by the same hit. That's why I get my lvlups faster. And being more powerful allows me to get back the time I loose when i was lvling-up.
For the one who want to try a run... Here is some tips ;) When you want to select an item (or a weapon) : Move the finger on it. Wait 5 frames, push A, wait 9 frames, push A. If it's a weapon, keep B pushed just after the 2nd A.
When you lvl up : When all is displayed : wait 1 frames and Push A. This will display "Select your growth type", but 1 frame before the message is fully displayed, the word "growth" is cut in half. This is the moment to push A. After the finger appears on "Power", wait 5 frames and push A. After the fingers appears on YES, wait 6 frames and push A. After all the new info is displayed, wait 6 frames, push A.
I tell it because it's very annoying to search this method. For the other tips, I prefer that challengers search by themselves =) It's the lovely side of making a TAS ;)
Using the RAM Watch is very useful, I used it to know the ennemies and bosses HP. Then I manipulated the boss fights to make the Boss' HP as lower as possible, to save frames.
If someone needs advices, or help, you can PM me on the forum.
To finish, I’ll only say that I hope that someone will beat my record, to retry =) But not too fast please ^^
NOTE : The emulator is VBA-rr-svn421 NOTE 2 : I don't know why, but Matty's submission is not totally finished. The movie ends while the speech of the Mother. Then, I finished to record mine exactly at the same moment (2 frames after the last points appears). NOTE 3 : Oh God! I don't know why I forgot that, but the harder

Nach: Judging.

Nach: I am replacing the movie file with another one from the author which properly completes the game.

Nach: I am replacing the movie file again, see the thread for more information.

Nach: It took a while to get the proper movie file, but finally, we have it. Nice improvement. Accepting as improvement to existing run.

natt: processing
LAST NOTE : After watching the entiere movie I've only one thing to say... I'll make another TAS of this game in some months/years : There are still too many errors !! ;)
See you next time :D
I hope you'll enjoy to watch this movie : Have fun ;)
EDIT 2023 : Known as Verdant, now ;)


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Nach wrote:
I checked both movies at the moment Julius is defeated in their respective emulators, and it seems MattyXB's movie beats him faster. Am I missing something?
I'm not seeing that at all. Looking at the first frame where the screen flashes black, and counting by input frames, not any other form of counting: 943S: Screen first flashes black on input frame 329742 3697S: Screen first flashes black on input frame 328935 What numbers are you getting?
Atomnium wrote:
Yes, my movie is faster than hims. And if I dont play until the end of the credits, that's because Matty doesn't it.
I'm not seeing that at all. In what emulator are you playing back 943S? Using vba v23.5 svn421, it quite clearly reaches the credits. It's true that your movie appears to end at the same time relative to text display, yet doesn't reach the credits. That could be caused by any one of a number of things: my first thought would be a frame rule, but it's possible that differences between different versions of VBA caused it (remember that vba23.5 knows how to play back the movies from older versions without desyncing in many cases).
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natt wrote:
Nach wrote:
I checked both movies at the moment Julius is defeated in their respective emulators, and it seems MattyXB's movie beats him faster. Am I missing something?
I'm not seeing that at all. Looking at the first frame where the screen flashes black, and counting by input frames, not any other form of counting: 943S: Screen first flashes black on input frame 329742 3697S: Screen first flashes black on input frame 328935
Okay I see the issue. I was going by real time, and older version of VBA I'm using to play back the old one runs slightly above 60 FPS, whereas current run on current version seems to be exactly 60 FPS, so the prior ends up being a couple of seconds faster. Since both runs are using the exact same version of the game, it should be judged by frame count, not by real time.
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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ahh, yes. some semantics of vba's video output system have changed over the years.
Player (77)
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I don't understood what you're saying x) What does it mean? My run is faster, isn't it? And today I've the time to finish it =) Then, let's go! EDIT : Done! How can I change the movie file please? And I'm still 15s faster at the end of the game :p
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Atomnium wrote:
I don't understood what you're saying x) What does it mean? My run is faster, isn't it? And today I've the time to finish it =) Then, let's go! EDIT : Done! How can I change the movie file please? And I'm still 15s faster at the end of the game :p
You can upload the movie file here: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/ Then post a link to it in this topic asking a moderator to update your submission.
Player (77)
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Here is the new movie file, rolling credits to the end :) Can a modérator update my submission with this movie? It's the only way to validate my TAS
Warepire
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Atomnium wrote:
Here is the new movie file, rolling credits to the end :) Can a modérator update my submission with this movie? It's the only way to validate my TAS
And an actual link to the movie file: http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/1369323682895511
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I have replaced the movie file with the new one supplied.
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.
Player (77)
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Thanks Nach. Can you tell me how many time it will take to be validated please?
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Atomnium wrote:
Thanks Nach. Can you tell me how many time it will take to be validated please?
I'm busy tonight. But I hope to review your video sometime tomorrow.
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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Yipeeee! Thanks a lot :D
Synahel
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Woah a run from Atomnium. I suppose you're THE Atomnium every french-speaker must be thinking about: someone very good with a diabolo. What? Indie game reviews on a major french website? :p Anyway, finished watching your run, here are my thoughts: It looks really nice, but I see some points where I think you can improve a little: Mantis Ant: you spend around one second doing nothing where you could have attacked it (at 1:17:35) Final Julius: twice you hit him in the hand doing no damage instead of moving towards his face to pummel it (1:31:03 and 1:31:14) During Dime Tower, (at 1:20:28) you gain a level (aka full HP/MP) but don't go through the magic field on the left side of the screen to save time. As you don't get any more damage after this point in the whole run, that could have saved an easy half-second (and made you finish the run with 7~ish HP, which is always badass :p). Anyway, very good run, I always find it hard to tackle long runs as a novice, but you handled it well. Friends from Nesblog say "hi"!
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Errr, no. I'm not known in France or another country! ^^ And i never used a diabolo :p About the Mantis : I explained that, if i don't attack Mantis, it's for manipulating it. I wanted to make it stay at the top of the screen, to save more time. Julius 3rd : I hit the hand to destroy the spell he casts, to not take damages ;) In the Dime tower, It would be as long as I'm doing in the video. And I don't wanted to take damages if it was possible to avoid it. ;) Then, thanks for liking my video :) That's always nice to hear :)
Synahel
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Oh my bad, I mixed you up with another atomnium.
Demon_Lord
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I know I'll be nitpicking there, but the run is titles "Takes no damages" and I seem to remember you passing through spikes two or three times taking massive damages. Any way this could be rephrased as "takes no damages from ennemies" or something?
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One of the earlier posts stated that he had to take damage anyways.
I like Doraemon
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So I'm looking at the new file, 1:38:12.98 vs. MattyXB's 1:33:09.43. What's going on now?
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.
Player (77)
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The matter is the Matty's movie file ends while talking with the mother! That's why my first movie was ending at the same moment! But look at the youtube video, and you'll see that mine is faster. This what i explained a lot of times in the 2 first pages ;)
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You need to stop the movie the moment no more input is required, not before, and not after. Edit: http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#MovieMustBeComplete
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.
Player (77)
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That's what i did in my first movie and everybody told me that i've to roll credits! Then i'll upload a new time the movie file, exactly like you say, and I hope it will be good :) EDIT : Here is the new file, 1:32:56s :) http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/1398315943043111
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I haven't watched this yet. I like the idea of a full run on this game, and I'm glad you made an improvement. However, I'm concerned that while it's an improvement, it's fairly small for a run of this length. For instance, look at the more recent run which glitches to the end. There is a lot more lag reduction in that short run than MattyXB had, if I recall correctly. Is that level of quality present in this movie? Also, Nach: I think the longer input file should be used for this movie. MattyXB should also have extended his input to finish the credits, but it's too late to change that now. When you make the timing standards consistent, Atomnium saved about 15 seconds of time from MattyXB's movie.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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mklip2001 wrote:
Also, Nach: I think the longer input file should be used for this movie. MattyXB should also have extended his input to finish the credits
*Nach smacks mklip2001 with the reading comprehension swatter. I already said earlier that MattyXB's input does finish the credits.
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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Wait, really?? Sorry then... serves me right for not watching the movie first. I'll have to get back to this.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Player (77)
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Nach wrote:
You need to stop the movie the moment no more input is required, not before, and not after. Edit: http://tasvideos.org/MovieRules.html#MovieMustBeComplete
@mklip, that's why Nach tells that Matty goes at the end of the crédits. His movie stops at the last input, then at 1:33:09 but if you play it, the emulator will roll credits because it needs no more input from the player ;) EDIT : YIPEEEEEEE! My TAS is accepted :D Thanks all for voting, and thanks Nach :)
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vba-rr v23.5 svn421
  File: Final Fantasy Adventure (USA).gb
CRC-32: 18c78b3a
   MD4: d5a1b54bdef60d6a23c253a44f2ead1d
   MD5: 24cd3bdf490ef2e1aa6a8af380eccd78
 SHA-1: 8b93c55ee2660c60cf86dd70058f96ace98782c8