Greetings! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is one of my favorite Gamecube games ever, and I've had an interest in TAS runs for a while so I decided to give it a shot myself. I know that making my first TAS on a Gamecube game is probably kind of absurd, but the game has simple input so it's worth giving a shot in my mind, and I'd like to do something that it seems no one else is doing. I'm playing the Gamecube version instead of the Wii version, because the Wii version is quite different and I'm not familiar with it at all.
Here is a little WIP video for anyone interested. It's the first level of the game, Dawn Savanna, with the goal of "get the highest Beat count possible as fast as possible". Note that I have not figured out the optimal input for the banana collecting minigame at the end. The highest I've gotten from it is 57, but the highest I've gotten as a human player is 70, as I recall. The best input does not seem like a straight-forward thing, so I'll have to keep messing with it. I'm also suspicious that it could be because the game thinks I'm using a GCN controller. Recording doesn't seem to be working for me with the Bongo option checked (which also slows down the game start-up by several frames since it shows a prompt about how the Bongos are a superior play option).
Link to video
I have a few ideas on how to improve this level, but for now I'm just glad to have a good start. Hope someone enjoys this!
It would be handy, as it does change the inputs quite a bit, I've noticed. I actually just managed to sort of get it working maybe (I have to pause it before a single frame goes by, then switch the controller to Bongos), but I'm not sure if it's actually recording at all. Either way, skipping the Health and Safety warning matched up to the frames from the controller run here, so I'm at the very least already taking notes on the frames for bongo input. I guess I'll find out later if I try and render it, but in the meantime at least I can get started on converting this to a bongos run, which I think would be more true to the game. It would be definitely more convenient to have the option though.
Curious question though - if I found out that the "controller mode" is actually superior TAS-wise to "bongos mode", would it be better to go with "controller mode" despite it being the inferior actual gameplay option? Because it could turn out that way since inputs are different. I've actually saved 31 frames in the whole intro segment with "bongos mode" (and not with the prompt as I thought - instead of showing anything, it's just blank for the same number of frames that it takes to skip), but the jumping mechanics are radically different and I haven't gotten far enough to see how much it changes the first actual level. I personally would rather go with bongos no matter what, but if it would prevent a run from being published, then I'd like to know early so I don't make a whole lot of a run and then have to redo it for a completely preventable reason.
Also, I'm considering changing the scope of my project to "fastest game completion" since it could be quite a dull watch for people unfamiliar with the game otherwise. It would still make plenty use of the combo system since it requires a certain amount of crests to unlock the final level, so it wouldn't be a lame rush-through or anything. Would take more planning, but potentially less time. Anyone who has thoughts or suggestions, feel free to let me know!
but I'm not sure if it's actually recording at all.
It should be. The bongos are treated like a regular controller. It couldn't be recorded before because the check for active controllers when starting recording wasn't looking for bongos. This appears to fix it entirely.
Curious question though - if I found out that the "controller mode" is actually superior TAS-wise to "bongos mode", would it be better to go with "controller mode" despite it being the inferior actual gameplay option? Because it could turn out that way since inputs are different. I've actually saved 31 frames in the whole intro segment with "bongos mode", but the jumping mechanics are radically different and I haven't gotten far enough to see how much it changes the first actual level. I personally would rather go with bongos no matter what, but if it would prevent a run from being published, then I'd like to know early so I don't make a whole lot of a run and then have to redo it for a completely preventable reason.
if you're aiming to finish as fast as possible, then use whatever is faster. Using bongos if they are slower could certainly make it harder to get it published, but it's not going to automatically get your run denied.
Builds of the above commit can be found at http://dl.dolphin-emu.org/builds/ . Do let me know how it works.
It doesn't seem to be working, but I may be installing it wrong. What do I do with the .dmg file, if anything?
EDIT: Never mind, I'm an idiot and it does work. Thanks!
Joined: 3/8/2012
Posts: 398
Location: Windfall Island
Idk how entertaining this "get the highest Beat count possible as fast as possible" category is. I would almost prefer fastest time, personally. The WIP just seems really repetitive and I can't imagine it dragging on much longer.
IronSlayer wrote:
Your counterargument would be like me saying that the Earth is round and then you telling me that I need to show it's flat so I can "prove us all wrong".
It doesn't seem to be working, but I may be installing it wrong. What do I do with the .dmg file, if anything?
EDIT: Never mind, I'm an idiot and it does work. Thanks!
Idk how entertaining this "get the highest Beat count possible as fast as possible" category is. I would almost prefer fastest time, personally. The WIP just seems really repetitive and I can't imagine it dragging on much longer.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. And if you think this level was dragging on, it'd only get worse over time. It'd only really entertain people like me who really love this game and want to see how high the score can really get (so I'd probably still like to do those, but also a fastest thing. hell, if I don't get completely sick of this, I'd probably end up doing both either way). I'm going to redo this video with bongo input to see what kinds of differences there are, and then probably look into figuring out the best way to go about a full game completion.
And I'm not sure if it syncs/records properly yet. I'll update on that when I find out!
Edit: Now that I've actually went past the Health/Safety screen, it turns out that the game does not think I'm using bongos when recording. Guess I should have gone in a little further, huh? Yeah, it's registering as a regular controller when recording, despite having the Bongos option selected.
Here's my WIP video for the first kingdom in the game, now that I've switched the goal of the run to 100% completion.
Link to video
Hopefully this is a bit more entertaining than the previous video!
Joined: 3/8/2012
Posts: 398
Location: Windfall Island
That was intense! Great job so far
IronSlayer wrote:
Your counterargument would be like me saying that the Earth is round and then you telling me that I need to show it's flat so I can "prove us all wrong".
Here's a WIP for the second kingdom! Enjoy, and check the video description if you'd like to see the best (but worse for TAS) jump possible for the end of the first level!
Link to video
Here's a WIP for Watermelon Kingdom!
Link to video
As mentioned in the description, I can drop 27 bananas from this run to speed it up and I know exactly where. I just figured this WIP was close enough to go ahead and take a break from and post it.
Also, I saved 25 frames from the previous kingdom with a few small adjustments! Am I doing this TAS thing right? =)
