It's time again for the Dream Team Contest and I am your host for the seventh iteration of this competition.
Don't ask me where the nightmare comes in, I don't know. Also I'm really bad at making logos, sorry.
For those unfamiliar, this contest features competing to create a TAS that completes a specified game in the shortest time possible. The winning team will be engraved in
Dream Team Contest history.
Game info
The game will be revealed when signups end but here are some details
- The game platform is NES.
- The game genre is platformer.
- The estimated TAS length is about 10-15 minutes.
- The game is not as complex as Zook Man ZX and has acceptable music.
Rules
- You sign up as a 3-4 person team or you can request to be put in a team. You cannot be placed in more than one team, and you cannot be placed multiple times in one team. Masterjun that means you. Each person in a team must post confirmation in the thread that they are participating. You may optionally also provide a team name and a logo; after the contest starts, teams can't be changed.
- On 30 Sept 23:59 UTC sign ups will expire, game name will be revealed and the contest will start.
- The teams must provide their movie file to dreamteamcontestseven@gmail.com before 2 Dec 23:59 UTC; improvements of the run can be still submitted within the deadline; the deadline can be extended if all teams agree.
- In the case an Arbitrary Code Execution/Memory Corruption/SRAM Glitch/Game End Glitch/Wrong Warp Glitch is discovered, competition will be held for movies both exploiting such a glitch as well as not using it.
- The team that provides the movie file that completes the game from power-on to credits (input end) wins.
- The allowed emulators are any acceptable versions of FCEUX and Bizhawk (NESHawk core).
- Currently I plan to have all submitted movies be converted to the most accurate emulator (NESHawk). If there is avoidable lag during gameplay on the more accurate emulator but not the less accurate, this will not be fixed during the conversion so beware. I am willing to consider changing this rule however to a flat comparison of times without conversions if enough people express a desire otherwise.
- The winning team will submit its movie to TASVideos, preferably with any improvements discovered by other teams, and anyone who will contribute will be added to the authors list.
- All submissions must also abide by TASVideos rules.
Here are the current sign-ups. Note that individual player sign-ups have time until contest start (30 Sept 23:59 UTC) to decide or change their team; if they don't, they will randomly shuffled into 4-people teams. If the player amount is not divisible by 4, they will be shuffled into 3 or 2 person teams. If there is only one individual signup, existing teams with 3 players will be asked if they'd be willing to accept the individual onto their team.
Remember that team members, name and logo can be changed within the signup period.
Team sign-ups
- Team 1: Mothrayas, EZGames69, Tremane, BrunoVisnadi - "The Rockmen" - logo
- Team 2: Masterjun, MESHUGGAH, ThunderAxe31, keylie - "Death Match" - logo
- Team 3: ViGadeomes, Warepire, link_7777, micro500 - "The FanTAStic Four" - logo
- Team 4: pirate_sephiroth, Exonym, FatRatKnight, Bloopiero
- Team 5: thelegendarymudkip, Truncated, negative seven, DrD2k9 - "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" - logo
- Team 6: MUGG, Tompa, brunovalads, TASeditor - "Pichu" - logo
- Team 7: The8bitbeast, Mittenz, tjblakely, lapogne36 - "🦆" - also their logo
Individual player sign-ups
Note please indicate if you are planning to sign up as an individual to be assigned at the start of the contest or are simply expressing interest in joining a planned team.
Looking for more players
Sign-ups are closed. Teams which haven't still provided a name and a logo can still do so, but then it won't be changed or removed.
The game
Donald Land is a McDonalds themed video game made by Data East for the Famicom. In a way I sort of lied and the "Nightmare" does come into play if you find clowns and or fast food frightening. It was not released outside of Japan. In this game, Ronald McDonald throws apples and navigates platforms to rescue his friends.
There is currently
1 TAS wip on YouTube and
some decent RTA competition for the game.
UPDATE: I was made aware of a
really old TAS for the game. It's not particularly optimized but it still might be worth looking into.
Checksums for the NES ROM file
CRC-32: 4b539429
MD5: 49dc90e971c9efa58c4db4ffb3bcbdca
SHA-1: c5bba353871e438c387fd13891580a2a139694ad
Tips
- Divide the tasks.
Everyone has own strengths and weaknesses. Make your team members work on different jobs in order to improve efficiency. This is crucial.
- Keep in contact.
Use a private and secure chat group of your choice to talk with your teammates about your progress, discoveries, ideas, and share your files.
- Play it a lot first.
Game mechanics are easier to understand by playing the game casually, with some code cheating if necessary. Start TASing when you feel that you know enough.
- Take note of everything.
Any trick and glitch may come useful in a way or another, even if it does initially not seem. Also remember that your discoveries may come useful after the contest.
- Try anything.
Even after you've finished TASing the game, use the remaining time to try and improve the run. A sudden discovery can turn the tide of the contest.
- Don't procrastinate
You may make mistakes. However, you have the ability to fix these mistakes but only if you give yourself the time to be able to.
- Don't give up.
This game and contest may not be as long as Zook Man ZX but there is still always the chance for motivation to plummet. Try to keep at it even if you hit a roadblock.
Also
You may ask me for any kind of assistance, especially if you're having troubles with emulators. You may contact me via IRC, Discord, forum
PM, or even Twitter if you really want (don't actually use Twitter please, Twitter dms are annoying). However, I will not give help on TASing the game.
I still would like to wish you all the best of luck, the best of fun, and declare the contest started!
The result
The contest is over. Here are the rankings:
#5:
Team 3: "
The FanTAStic Four" in 9:32.939 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#4:
Team 1: "
The Rockmen" in 9:26.550 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#3:
Team 5: "
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ in 9:24.836 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#2:
Team 7: "
🦆" in 9:12:473 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#1:
Team 4 in 8:36.416 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
Thank you to everyone that participated and a special congratulations to Team 4 for winning!
Horse race encode by Mothrayas
Count me in! I'll see what I can do concerning a team. (Looks like MESHUGGAH and ThunderAxe31 agreed to a team) 
