TL;DR: I am organizing development efforts for TASVideos running games at
AGDQ 2016 on
2016-01-09 at 3:55 PM EST and I'll be using this thread to manage resources and post project updates. If you can help, consider volunteering to fill one of the unfilled roles listed below and
I'll gift you a game from this list! I'll be updating this post as things develop and I will be in
#tasvideos as well as #tasbot on Freenode IRC; payload discussions will happen privately so have no fear of being overly spoiled in either channel or in this thread.
I am serving as the project manager for TASVideos participation at
AGDQ 2016. AGDQ is a fundraiser for the
Prevent Cancer Foundation, and in the
last three events I've organized
we have helpded raise just shy of $100k for charity. My goal is to help raise $50k in the time we've been alotted and to that end I previously started a
planning and potential participation thread for AGDQ 2016, created a
pitch video, and submitted our best ideas for consideration.
Three ideas were accepted by the
AGDQ 2016 games selection committee - a Brain Age console verification playaround, a speed TAS competition, and a Total Control TAS. This thread will organize the volunteer work on these projects through January 3rd when the marathon starts (internally, I'd like to have all "framework" development complete by 2015-12-06 and all "payload" development complete by 2015-12-31). Here are the pitch descriptions that were accepted with some extra notes for each entry:
- Speed TAS race (15 minutes) - "The Streeeeemerz speed TAS competition at SGDQ 2015 was a huge success that bears repeating. During a set time any viewer can submit a TAS of a just-announced game, ending with a race of the fastest viewer-submitted TAS pitted against already prepared human runners. We can use a freely redistributeable game or even a game as part of a Humble Bundle tie-in. See: http://tiny.cc/TaS" This competition will be similar to the SGDQ 2015 Streemerz competition that was won by Mothrayas but with a custom game crafted just for this event by some really talented developers.
- Brain Age (25 minutes) - "In Brain Age we solve a series of simple math problems, but the answers we give aren't quite what you'd expect. Watch as we deftly draw FrankerZ as the correct answer to 1+6 and generally treat the answers area as an art canvas. This features full DS console verification via stylus control and screen capture. If this is scheduled near the end we can incorporate memes and notable events as answers." In other words, micro500 will be presenting a playaround on a real DS modified with a screen capture device and a custom stylus control board with help from xy2_ and a whole slew of artists (that I need to credit / get a list of).
- Total control (20 minutes) - "Finding an arbitrary code exploit and gaining total control of a console game is non-trivial and has proven to be quite entertaining in the form of Pong and Snake at AGDQ 2014 then SMB on SMW and Pokemon Plays Twitch at AGDQ 2015. In this run, p4plus2, Masterjun and others will flex their mastery once again with something that's sure to surprise the audience." This time around we may be able to pack in two runs in 20 minutes but no matter what happens it should be quite interesting.
Here are the roles I have committed to serving in for AGDQ 2016:
- Project manager - serving as the "glue" keeping preparation work on track
- Developer coordinator - coordinating the game to be used for the speed TAS competition
- PR - serving as the press/media contact for TASVideos involvement at AGDQ 2016
- Engineer - helping build whatever is needed, be it hardware or software
- Console verification tester - ensuring runs sync for speed TAS competition / total control
- Keeper of TASBot - transporting equipment (and TASBot!) to AGDQ and caring for it on-site
- AGDQ 2016 lead presenter for the overall TAS block
Here are the things that others are taking on:
- micro500 - organizing and creating hardware and software framework for Brain Age
- xy2_ - Testing Brain Age, working with artists
- true - replay device support for NES/SNES runs
- Lord Tom - NES Total Control exploitation and payload
- p4plus2 - SNES Total Control payload, couch commentary
- Masterjun - SNES Total Control exploitation
- Ilari - SNES emulator support
- keylie - Speed TAS competition researcher, tester, website-side TASJudy autojudging script
- link_777 - Speed TAS competition TASJudy BizHawk-side autojudging script
- dama1138 - @MrTASBot updater - generating hype through Twitter posts and interaction with @GDQMonitor's 4k followers: new user dama1138 (aka pdrcr) is provisionally helping by creating content that micro500 and I will post, pending vetting the content and researching an update-only account access method
Here are the things that need resources assigned, to be updated as people volunteer:
- Raffle prize manager (AGDQ 2015 description): Resource needed!
- Donation incentives creative genius (AGDQ 2015 description): Resource needed!
- Speed TAS competition testers: A currently anonymous TASVideos user, additional Resource needed!
- Researcher of Twitch memes who can advise on Brain Age artwork: Resource needed!
Lastly, there is no way I can say thank you enough to all of the people who have contributed their time and effort to these projects. I have been extremely humbled by the support I've received to have my wife and I attend AGDQ 2016 and present for TASVideos again. This effort is not about me; this is about raising money for cancer research, which is something
I care deeply about after losing a number of family members to cancer over the years. I'm more than willing to pay for all of our costs to get to the event and present, although we are coming up a bit short this year and
could use your help; I'll update my signature as we get closer to funding our trip. All donors and all volunteers who assist with a role listed above are welcome to
pick any game from this list and I'll gift it to them. Thanks!
Update log:
2015-11-22: Updated estimated time to 3:55 PM EST (Let's see how many times it changes!) and updated filled roles
2015-12-03: Updated filled roles to add link_777, update keylie, correct dama1138's entry
With some help from a co-worker I now have all of the lead wires for my own DS bot, which I'll work with micro500 to complete after we arrive at AGDQ 2016. (Note: There are some sneak peeks of things I'm doing on the side in the AGDQ 2016 photo album the image above is taken from). There were a lot of tricky bits of soldering to really small things but I'm very happy with how it turned out - my co-worker has crazy good soldering skills compared to me.
A second speed TAS tester went through the game and provided some enlightening information (thanks - you know who you are, thanks for always being such an awesome quiet supporter). We're making a few more tweaks to the game and I would like to get one more volunteer for a 4-hour honor-system test sometime soon; you'd be prohibited from participating in the competition but this might be ideal if you're unavailable during the January 9th window. If you'd like to lend a hand, please let me know!
I've spent many, many hours testing payloads and troubleshooting console verification failures and while not everything has gone smoothly I'm glad to say that thanks to Ilari we now have a known working method for payload creation for the total control run p4plus2 and Masterjun are cooking up. The method works by using the old bot at slow rates but it would be good if we could get something faster working with the chosen game. We also still need a way to dump from BizHawk as true hasn't had a known good movie to compare with but we can probably do everything else (albeit quite slowly) without any other changes. I'm still hopeful true can make some breakthroughs though.
On the side, I'm busily working on trying to organize the grand prize for AGDQ 2016 as just a volunteer. This has been a bit tricky as an opportunity I was hoping would pan out fell through today but I'm still driving toward something awesome. I've also been working on the side trying to get a TASBot T-Shirt designed and created in time for AGDQ 2016 but it looks like we're running a bit late for that to happen so we'll try to get it done by SGDQ 2016. I've also been providing a few more details for the PoC||GTFO article I've been mentioning; stay tuned, as there may be an exclusive publication at TASVideos before the rest of the world gets a copy.
With any luck my next post will be in a thread dedicated to the rules for the AGDQ 2016 speed TAS competition, along with some preview information to help people be prepared. That may not happen until after Christmas day (especially depending on the schedule of whoever volunteers to help out with doing one more run for us) but my goal is to have it done well before the marathon starts. That's it for now - if I don't post again before Friday, Merry Christmas!
