Joined: 4/2/2009
Posts: 376
Location: Porto Alegre - Brazil
Some games I find the idea of a TAS interesting:
Buzz Bombers: going 20 stages activates all cutscenes if I'm not mistaken
Dreadnaught Factor: I think it should go level 7 (the highest) and defeating each different ship one time
Atlantis: some really interesting glitches on day 11
Masters of the Universe - The Power of He-Man: some god challenging skills for later stages needed, I believe
Tron Deadly Discs: showing off the orange guys after 1M the fastest possible
Happy Trails: I don't even know if there is a real end to this, 16 levels make it go to small boards but it keeps getting harder and harder, maybe it should show when it starts repeating money bag colors?.. but I really don't think it's infinite
Shark! Shark!: how fast can one fish grow?
Diner: some people call it Burgertime 2
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 632
Location: Seattle, WA
Okay these are some good ideas and I had a spare evening so I thought I'd whip a couple tests together to see what they looked like.
Link to videoThe Dreadnaught Factor
Shooting down all the cannons is fun to watch but it's slow and unnecessary, just weaving back and forth and bombing the key targets is all a TAS would need to do. Still looks cool. Curious if the second dreadnaught would be faster if I just wove back and forth faster instead of what I did in this video--do one side, die, do the other side.
What would make this game a pain in the butt to optimize is the super laggy movement. Each directional press takes up to several frames to have an effect on your momentum, so it's not easy to be where you want to be when you want to be there without inertia sliding you away from the next target in line. Also, the manual kinda makes it seem like difficulty 7 has exactly 100 ships to destroy, so would the Infinite Loop clause not apply making this TAS like an hour long?
Link to videoHappy Trails
Trivial puzzle game for a TAS, optimizing the route would be the main work to do. When I rewatched this at full speed, though, I kinda liked how it looked. I wonder how a Locomotion TAS would compare?
Shark! Shark! would probably have to have more of a goal, because growing to max level would just take a few seconds I'm sure. Diner would be fun to try, I don't think I've played it in 20 years and I've still got the music stuck in my head
