Ninja Gaiden 2 is the sequel to that ninja game where you have to run fast and kill everything to win. In this case, you also need to run fast and kill everything to win.
This movie was started by Scumtron a while ago, saving 70 frames compared to the currently published movie. The work has continued by eien86, using a bot to analyze all stages of the game to find 4 additional saved frames (plus one false frame).
Software + Hardware
Rom Information
Name: Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (USA)
SHA1: 951A19474A1D9C2984F3D966FBC41C0F0360105E
MD5: 2EC92E60E033B4D8AA5CAA6B1F7838B5
Emulator
EmuHawk 2.8.0 (Core: NesHawk)
Resynchronized from the initially submitted [EmuHawk 2.7.0 + QuickNES] movie by eien86, using Scumtron's DPCM glitch detection tool, available here.
Another Ninja Gaiden improvement nice! Again thanks for putting in the effort to make it work in NESHawk, those DPCM effects do matter for accuracy. Hopefully you don't have to encounter a case where the conversion isn't possible, that would be a shame, but I guess we can cross that bridge if we ever come to it. Anyway I'll work on a verification eventually if no one else gets to it first.
Great work!
Hopefully you don't have to encounter a case where the conversion isn't possible, that would be a shame, but I guess we can cross that bridge if we ever come to it.
At least with this series it's likely even in the trickiest cases that going back and changing some earlier input can affect bit deletion on a problem frame. And if speed were the only concern, then it's hard to imagine a truly unfixable situation.
To avoid confusion, @GoddessMaria: the movie file above is a proposal for an alternative ending that ends the proper game faster and might one day become a viable strat. However, it does not produce a faster movie than the one submitted, so please do not replace it.
[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
On 2021/10/29, we submitted the TAS in 33157 frame of NG2. In the days that followed, Scumtron explained new points of improvement. Then our submission was delayed for judge. During that period of time, I had some communication with Scumtron and finally determined the presentation of the TAS. It integrates part of our videos.A month later, Scumtron submitted an unlisted WIP in 33089 frame. The link is: https://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/75845227782432718
Later, I asked Scumtron if he could submit the latest TAS. But he said he was still pounding away at this TAS. In order to respect his opinion, we did not update this unpublished WIP to our submission. In February this year, Samsara said that: It's been three months. This has waited long enough. If the improvement ever gets finished, it'll have to be a new submission. Accepting this as an improvement to the published run in the meantime.
This year, I spent a lot of time on other games and completed some new TAS. When I saw that the TAS of NG2 was submitted again, I was surprised. I thought that Scumtron had found a new partner and was promoted. But when I saw the frame number of the video, it was so close to the previously unpublished WIP. If we had originally submitted 33089 frames TAS, then eien86 might have been improved by only a few frames. So my first question is whether it is reasonable to keep only the names of Scumtron and eien86 here. What's more, Scumtron delete his own name now. Therefore, only eien86 is left in the current submission.
This seems to be the case under the current rules. The right to speak is always in the hands of those who finally discover ascension.
Of course, I still respect Scumtron's opinion here. Because in my mind, he will always be the person who has made the greatest contribution to NG2 TAS.
This is something that can happen when a non-public WIP is delayed for a long time on a competitive game such as this. Therefore, I can totally empathize with Aiqiyou and J.Y.'s position. I also empathize with Scumtron, which is one of the most talented and perfectionistic TASers on this site. I hope someone will empathize with me as well: I just want to bring this work to light for everyone to enjoy.
I defer to the judge(s) the decision of defining who the authors should be and which order they should be placed. Whatever the case is, I think Scumtron has to be in first place. I am fine being placed in any other position.
This is something that can happen when a non-public WIP is delayed for a long time on a competitive game such as this. Therefore, I can totally empathize with Aiqiyou and J.Y.'s position. I also empathize with Scumtron, which is one of the most talented and perfectionistic TASers on this site. I hope someone will empathize with me as well: I just want to bring this work to light for everyone to enjoy.
I defer to the judge(s) the decision of defining who the authors should be and which order they should be placed. Whatever the case is, I think Scumtron has to be in first place. I am fine being placed in any other position.
This reminds me of my NES Jackal 2 players TAS with zyr2288. When I mentioned in Submission #6640, I improved 355 frame with zyr2288's 2 player TAS, which wasn't submitted it on TASV. ThunderAxe31 asked me: Did you ask to zyr2288 if he wanted to be included in the author list of this submission? I think this is a very good example. When I complete the TAS and prepare to submit it using the WIP not disclosed by others, It is necessary for me to ask for the other party's opinions, including whether he's satisfied with the current TAS and the specific matters of the submitted content. I think this is respect for each other. But it seems that you haven't done so. In the WIP I listed before, the author's name is Scumtron, J.Y and me. I think it is a prejudice that just because TAS has been improved a few frames, the names of me and J. Y can be deleted from it. Suppose that the TAS is finally published, and only the name of eien86 is included. If any judge intends to do so, I have nothing to say.
This is something that can happen when a non-public WIP is delayed for a long time on a competitive game such as this. Therefore, I can totally empathize with Aiqiyou and J.Y.'s position. I also empathize with Scumtron, which is one of the most talented and perfectionistic TASers on this site. I hope someone will empathize with me as well: I just want to bring this work to light for everyone to enjoy.
I defer to the judge(s) the decision of defining who the authors should be and which order they should be placed. Whatever the case is, I think Scumtron has to be in first place. I am fine being placed in any other position.
This reminds me of my NES Jackal 2 players TAS with zyr2288. When I mentioned in Submission #6640, I improved 355 frame with zyr2288's 2 player TAS, which wasn't submitted it on TASV. ThunderAxe31 asked me: Did you ask to zyr2288 if he wanted to be included in the author list of this submission? I think this is a very good example. When I complete the TAS and prepare to submit it using the WIP not disclosed by others, It is necessary for me to ask for the other party's opinions, including whether he's satisfied with the current TAS and the specific matters of the submitted content. I think this is respect for each other. But it seems that you haven't done so. In the WIP I listed before, the author's name is Scumtron, J.Y and me. I think it is a prejudice that just because TAS has been improved a few frames, the names of me and J. Y can be deleted from it. Suppose that the TAS is finally published, and only the name of eien86 is included. If any judge intends to do so, I have nothing to say.
This is the first time I've seen this WIP.
Back then, Scumtron sent me a different .bk file over discord. I had no idea you were involved in making it, otherwise I would have included you. I apologize for this omission, but you gotta understand I had no idea.
Back then, Scumtron sent me a different .bk file over discord. I had no idea you were involved in making it, otherwise I would have included you. I apologize for this omission, but you gotta understand I had no idea.
My original intention wasn't blame. I just want to prove that the names of Scumtron, J. Y and me should added in this submission. Besides, before submitting, you should have fully solicited the opinions of Scumtron, because you didn't do this before makes Scumtron quit. Therefore, I hope you can revise the submitted text again, add the document of Scumtron and wait for the judge's decision.
I fully support adding you and J.Y. into the authors list. However, I prefer that the judge does it since I don't have the full picture of the case. As said before, I'm just learning now you were involved in making the movie Scum sent me at the beginning of my work.
Regarding Scum quitting, I've got nothing to say -- I'm only responsible for my own actions. He needs to be added back into the authors list, if anything, for archival correctness purposes.
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
Given that Scumtron removed his own name from this submission, I think it's fair to say that he wishes to have no involvement with it. While it would be nice to have fully accurate co-author attribution, in cases like these where an author removes their own name, we respect their decision and it is final unless they return to say otherwise.
That being said, I also fully support adding aiqiyou and J.Y as co-authors to this submission.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family.
Now infrequently posting on BlueskywarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Fine. It is a good choice to let the judge decide. All I want to say is basically finished. Please also understand me. I must do this to attract attention. Because the 33089 frame WIP is not open to the public, I must come forward to clarify it. What's more, I saw that Samsara also joined this topic. She may know more about the whole case. She was the judge of the previous TAS and I shared her the hidden WIP before the previous TAS published.
