I'm still alive :O I spent a lot of 2017 to now slacking from TASing, so let's try and change that a little from now on. Here is a new Arcade Bionic Commando run that improves my published tas by 2331 frames. The improvement is mostly due to heavy use of a powerup the previous runs overlooked, the turbo-charge grappler, or something:)
  • Completes the game as fast as possible
  • Uses death
  • Manipulates luck

Info

So I already tased this game twice (well, really it's just one time, with the current movie being a mere 1 second update at the very end) and I figured that was that until the user PJ pointed out the current movie had big improvements. He also hypothesized that a movie that implemented them would be able to clock in at under 5 minutes. I made a tas that implemented his strategies, but the final time was 5:03, which although was a 30-second improvement, it wasn't below the 5-minute mark, so I deemed it to be unsubmittable, even though I wasn't even sure if it was improvable or not. So I shelved the v3 for the time being. This month, I remembered PJ's post and decided to try again. With some better luck manipulation and tactics, I was able to chop off around 8 seconds, and hit the sub-5 target. Celebration!!
Anyway, onto the new improvements. As I mentioned, there's a powerup that increases the speed of the bionic arm by quite a bit. It was overlooked in Mukki's tas as well as mine. Let's just say it saves quite a bit of time throughout the run. The other big improvement is using deaths to skip the boring elevator sequence. In Mukki's original submission comments he said he ignored death because it would cheapen the run, and I was inclined to agree. However, it feels a bit more creative to use them all in one place as a skip, and the elevator sequence was adding nothing to the run, so I figured, why not use it :)
There are also several minor route changes and optimizations. This game is quite clunky and stiff, so it's important to manipulate enemies out of your way. Luck manipulation in this game is pretty finicky, though. It can often take 10-20 frames to manipulate an enemy, and sometimes there's nothing you can do. So at times you have to grin and bear it, but luckily this doesn't happen all that often.

Other comments

Again much thanks to Mukki for kicking this game's tasvideos lifespan off and PJ for pointing out some crucial improvements to the current movie. I think this newest version is by far the most entertaining to watch and feels the most TASy, so this game is finally getting what it deserves;) Enjoy!!

Masterjun: Judging.
Masterjun: Well this was entertaining! Accepting to Moons as an improvement to the previous run.
fsvgm777: Processing.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5972: Jules's Arcade Bionic Commando in 04:54.85
Memory
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Well done on the sub 5! Can't wait for the youtube encode on this one.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Challenger
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Hey! RobynS again! Arcade Bionic Commando beaten below 5 minutes? Very impressive! Since I don't have FBA emulator, I'll wait for an encode, not only to watch but for two things: to vote, and rating after publication. What's your next project, someday?
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
PJ
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Awesome! I'm so glad you went back and improved this! I can't wait to see the encode. ^_^
PLANET
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Congrats! Also waiting for the encode : P
Jules
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Memory
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Very very well done, looks extremely clean! Yes vote!
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Post subject: Congrats again!
Challenger
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I agree with Memory! Also the increased speed caught me several times. Yes vote!
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
PJ
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Looks great! Really outstanding work on this one. I'm so happy that you improved this. ^_^
Patashu
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Excellent work!
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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so before having the albatros, master D had a gundam army ? clean and good run, even pj's approval, easy yes
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3712] Arcade Bionic Commando by Jules in 04:54.85