(Link to video)
This TAS is a run of the 9 Hole course in Wii Sports, with the goal of completing the course as fast as possible. Time begins when "9 Hole Game" is selected and ends when the ball completely enters the cup on Hole 9 and does not come back out.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Dolphin 5.0-9186
  • Complete the 9 Hole course as fast as possible
  • Uses Water Hazards to save time
  • Does not aim for lowest score

Comments

Prior to beginning the run, I choose to enter the Expert course 2 times. Once is so that the "AB Check" is cleared before the run begins, and the second time is to generate a new set of RNG for the winds on the course. All wind speed and direction is determined and locked as soon as "9 Hole Game" is clicked. In most holes, I opt to hit the flag and drop into the hole rather than go for a direct chip-in. This is because the direct chip-in camera slows down the transition into the next hole and wastes a slight amount of time. Throughout the entire run, I only use the Driver as it launches the ball farther and faster than any other club. On certain holes I use "redline", which refers to the wobbling red line that appears on the power meter if the shot is too hard. Redline shots are the same power as full power meter shots but curve to the left or right. On two holes I purposefully land in a Water Hazard instead of onto the fairway because it begins the next stroke more quickly.

Stage by stage comments

Hole 1

Wind: 28mph North
Before the first swing, a tutorial is skipped the instant it is about to appear leaving only a "ding" sound. The first swing lands the ball into the bunker but rolls it onto the fairway before coming to a rest. This allows the next swing to reach the necessary power to hit the flag and achieve an Eagle.

Hole 2

Wind: 12mph Southwest
One swing achieves a Hole in One.

Hole 3

Wind: 4mph South
The first swing lands the ball on the OOB grass, slowing the ball down so that it comes to a rest on the very edge of the fairway on the shortcut island. Then the second swing hits the flag and we get a Double Eagle.

Hole 4

Wind: 0
One swing achieves a Hole in One.

Hole 5

Wind: 10mph Southeast
The first swing hits hard and redlines to the right, allowing for less turning before starting the swing. The ball lands just outside the rough, and on the fairway. The second shot hits the flag and we get another Double Eagle.

Hole 6

Wind: 2mph East
The first shot redlines right, and the ball lands directly into the closest edge of the river, getting a Water Hazard. We are placed in the rough on the edge of the river, and with a well aimed shot we redline into the flag and achieve a Birdie.

Hole 7

Wind: 14mph Northeast
The first swing hits at maximum power and the ball lands directly into the bunker. We chip from the bunker with a Driver to achieve an Eagle.

Hole 8

Wind: 26mph West
We turn against the wind and hit a shot at nearly full power to bounce off the fairway and achieve a direct chip-in hole in one.

Hole 9

Wind: 24mph Northwest
The first shot hits the cliffside on the lefthand island, bouncing over the fairway and landing down into the ocean for a Water Hazard. We are placed on the fairway on the lefthand island and from there make a direct chip into the cup, completing the run.

Other comments

Improvements

Most notable timesave is available on Hole 7, by getting a Hole in One instead of an Eagle. This requires both good wind and pin RNG. Another timesave is found on Hole 8, where a flagshot would have saved time over a direct chip-in if the wind made it available. On several holes I appear to take a moment before hitting the ball, this is because I have not found a faster way to use the emulated motion controls to swing instantly. Additional timesave is available with more favorable winds on holes like 9.

Thanks

Thanks to Alaskaxp2 for discovering flag hits. Thanks to DannyH09, the current World Record holder for being a TAS before this was released. Thanks to all members of the Wii Sports Speedrunning community for developing the speedrun and helping me get through this TAS.

Memory: Judging
Memory: Replacing with trimmed input file.
Memory: The optimization of the actual gameplay seems good. However the TAS is optimized for RTA timing (start of 9 holes) rather than TAS timing (power on). The TAS does a bunch of additional menuing to affect winds. Waiting does not seem to affect the winds. It is not known whether or not this additional menuing is particularly necessary in a TAS aiming for TAS timing but figuring that out would require redoing the whole movie, since later courses can be heavily wind dependent. This menuing strategy was done as optimally as it could but a future TASer might discover it is not needed.
The movie also sacrifices score for time, something that some folks found detracting from the entertainment value. In other words, this TAS might take additional shots or land out of bounds or in the water to save time. I did personally wince slightly at those instances but I understand why it was done and the votes are overwhelmingly positive.
This is an individual mode in the game and can be said to have been played to completion.
Accepting to Moons.
fsvgm777: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6197: tendog's Wii Wii Sports "Golf, 9-Hole Game" in 03:33.40
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This TAS was really cool. The Golf game was a great choice because it makes for a surprisingly good speedrun. I think this is because Golf is a great single-player sport since it's primarily you vs. the course. As a result, it's one of the few non-racing sports you can speedrun because the only thing slowing you down is yourself. I've seen people on /r/TAS and the TASVideos discord server talk about sacrificing a perfect score to save time, but I think that's okay. The goal of this run was to complete every course as fast as possible and it does that very well. Golf, along with most sports, is typically played to get a high score (or in Golf, the lowest score), but I think there is a lot of potential with speedrunning sports games that don't run on a timer. This TAS and the Wii Sports Golf speedrunning community demonstrate that and I'm happy to see a great TAS for this game being submitted to TASVideos. I voted yes for entertainment and I think this should be published.
InputEvelution
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I really enjoyed this TAS. It was really entertaining to watch, and I think it would be a good fit for the TASVideos site. While as FitterSpace said there was some objection about it not being lowest score, I don't think it's an immediate problem, since in most cases the TAS comes close to that anyway and the amount of swings used are likely the same (apart from Course 7) anyway. A problem that I could see with this TAS getting accepted is how it would fit in with other potential TASes of other Wii Sports categories. "All Sports" and "All Sports+" are the two of the main categories run for Wii Sports, which more or less represent Any%. The difference between the two is that All Sports+ has more "content" that could be identified better as playing through everything in the game as fast as possible - for example, a "Best of 5" Tennis game is played rather than a Single Game, and a Baseball game must be won by regular means rather than ending the game early with "Mercy Rule". It also requires that all 9 holes are played in Golf rather than just one of the 3-hole options. As I think that "All Sports+" would be seen as a far less arbitrary category by the TASVideos community in terms of content than "All Sports", I think that it would have a higher chance of getting accepted onto the site. But since it includes all 9 holes of Golf already, having a separate category for 9 hole Golf would seem redundant. That is, of course, unless it was a lowest score TAS, in which case it could be accepted as it would have a different aim and thus wouldn't just be a smaller part of another category, like a World 1 TAS for Super Mario Bros. would just be considered a smaller part of a warpless TAS. I think this is definitely worth considering when judging, although given that no other Wii Sports TASes exist on the site as of now, I think that it could still be put on the site for now, and just be obsoleted should an All Sports+ TAS be made. Nevertheless, yes vote.
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I didn't expect you to use a water hazard the first time! (Before then I thought you were going for lowest score.) I like the creative strategies you used to save time, like hitting the flagstick.
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I smiled through this entire TAS. :) It was very well done. I had thought that maybe the rerecord count was too low, but getting the ball in within one or two tries (Not counting the drop ball penalty), was enough for me to say that this is highly optimized. Yes vote.
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Golf is very interesting, and this run is great! Superhuman, with creative strategies (like FractalFusion mentioned). Well executed TAS and yes vote.
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I'm in a state of two minds here. The first is "YES A SPEEDY GOLF TAS" Whilst the other is "But... but I like lowest score runs more (-22 for this game)." Low score or Fastest time it is still entertaining but I don't have the feeling to vote Yes to this. So I'll have to abstain my vote. Then again others are comfortable in voting Yes so I don't think you'll have an issue with one missing vote.
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I must say I don't find this very interesting; it looks like the same trick nine times in a row, and to a viewer it's pretty predictable that you're just going to line up perfect one-shot or two-shot courses. Imho this belongs in the vault.
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One thing that I'm thinking here is that this is using timing that's perhaps not supported by the rules (in general timing should start from console startup). Would this require an exception to be accepted?
EZGames69
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Warp wrote:
One thing that I'm thinking here is that this is using timing that's perhaps not supported by the rules (in general timing should start from console startup). Would this require an exception to be accepted?
None of the other Wii tases on the site start time from console start up, if that’s what you mean.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Memory
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EZGames69 wrote:
Warp wrote:
One thing that I'm thinking here is that this is using timing that's perhaps not supported by the rules (in general timing should start from console startup). Would this require an exception to be accepted?
None of the other Wii tases on the site start time from console start up, if that’s what you mean.
The point is that we start timing from start of recording input and that by entering and exiting the game twice you waste time that would be accounted for in our timing method but not one that starts upon choosing "9 Hole".
[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
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I was reasonably entertained by this, but I also do not like the idea of "sacrifice stroke score for time."
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Spikestuff
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Warp wrote:
One thing that I'm thinking here is that this is using timing that's perhaps not supported by the rules (in general timing should start from console startup). Would this require an exception to be accepted?
Nah, pretty sure it's fine: > Cygne (BizHawk's WonderSwan) > DeSmuME > VBA (Pick a TAS any TAS) And for old but still relevant: > PCSX-rr & PSXjin > Yabause --- Edit: Derp.
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Noxxa
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Spikestuff wrote:
Warp wrote:
One thing that I'm thinking here is that this is using timing that's perhaps not supported by the rules (in general timing should start from console startup). Would this require an exception to be accepted?
Nah, pretty sure it's fine: > Cygne (BizHawk's WonderSwan) > DeSmuME > VBA (Pick a TAS any TAS) And for old but still relevant: > PCSX-rr & PSXjin > Yabause
Memory wrote:
The point is that we start timing from start of recording input and that by entering and exiting the game twice you waste time that would be accounted for in our timing method but not one that starts upon choosing "9 Hole".
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
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That was fun to watch. Voted yes. I do think the timing should start from power on, as per the rules, and if a future TAS can save time by avoiding exiting and reentering the course, it should obsolete this run.
upthorn
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Because of the game, I was expecting the goal to be lowest score, rather than fastest time. I think this run is okay, but I think a lowest score run would be much more interesting.
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Why didn't you use the Wii Sports Resort version?
EZGames69
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Mitjitsu wrote:
Why didn't you use the Wii Sports Resort version?
are there any difference between both versions? I never played Wii Sports Resort that often so I have no idea if they are the same courses as in the first Wii Sports.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Memory
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Wii Sports Resort has the original courses in addition to 9 new ones, however it requires Wii Motion Plus which is currently not able to be TASed.
[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
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Memory wrote:
The point is that we start timing from start of recording input and that by entering and exiting the game twice you waste time that would be accounted for in our timing method but not one that starts upon choosing "9 Hole".
I must admit that I didn't understand that explanation. I would appreciate some elaboration.
Memory
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Warp wrote:
Memory wrote:
The point is that we start timing from start of recording input and that by entering and exiting the game twice you waste time that would be accounted for in our timing method but not one that starts upon choosing "9 Hole".
I must admit that I didn't understand that explanation. I would appreciate some elaboration.
Our timing: Starts at 0:00 in the encode and lasts until last input RTA Timing: Starts at 0:30 in the encode and ends when the ball goes into the final hole There was some additional menuing that would cost time under our timing method but not RTA timing.
[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
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Using the WSR version would also be significantly different when going for speed. WSR has unskippable replays from things such as chip-ins, so it would be faster to get close to the hole and putt it in.
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Memory wrote:
Our timing: Starts at 0:00 in the encode and lasts until last input RTA Timing: Starts at 0:30 in the encode and ends when the ball goes into the final hole There was some additional menuing that would cost time under our timing method but not RTA timing.
I'm not completely sure how this is related to my original concern, where I thought that the rules state that runs must always start from the console power-on. In fact, reading the rules, I don't see an exception to that rule.
Memory
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...As far as I can tell this run does not start from a savestate which is the point of the rule.
[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
EZGames69
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Warp wrote:
Memory wrote:
Our timing: Starts at 0:00 in the encode and lasts until last input RTA Timing: Starts at 0:30 in the encode and ends when the ball goes into the final hole There was some additional menuing that would cost time under our timing method but not RTA timing.
I'm not completely sure how this is related to my original concern, where I thought that the rules state that runs must always start from the console power-on. In fact, reading the rules, I don't see an exception to that rule.
where does it say that this run doesn't start from power on?
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing