(Link to video)
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Ice Palace

You play as a penguin who is desperately trying to save the love of his life. But watch out! The prison palace is a harsh place, and you must be careful of its traps. There are 3 areas of the palace, each with their own challenge. With each level increase, you find yourself battling even harder...as some things become more difficult to manage. With all the Ice, Fire, Roving Machines...you are certainly on a mission to prove your love! -NYMX (I had to write this, because I still can't find a manual or a page about this game!)

Version

I do not know why, but this game was very painful to find any version. I eventually settled on a disk version, which was what I had in my youth. It is also the only source I could find. One problem...this is a "cracked" version, yet nothing is visible in terms of a title screen for the person responsible for breaking the disk copy prevention. Additionally, all my searches kept bringing up completely different game that shares the same name as this one.
I was hoping to use a tape version, but Bizhawk doesn't support T64 images yet. This would have helped to create a pure TAS, which I very much prefer.

Tools Used

  • Bizhawk 2.8

Game Ending Choice

This game loops infinitely. I'm not certain that one loop would be good enough for this submission, so i decided to go the full length of difficulty, which ends at Level 8. Thereafter, it repeats at Level 8 over and over.

Effort In TASing

In the beginning, I recognized that RNG was the key to getting the results that I wanted. I started writing a BOT to force that RNG, but it turned out that it was just easier to add the inputs...so this was all a manual effort. As I went through this game, I discovered some exploits that made this game lighting fast.
  • Jumping: On the first scene of each level, I was able to brush the edge of ice blocks and perform a wall jump. This jump is very touchy, as it had to be the right pixel placement and proper position on the screen.
  • RNG: This was controlled very differently over other games. For instance...the first scene, the ice blocks being dropped were predetermined before they spawned. When I finally figured this out...I controlled that RNG, before spwaning, and replayed each block until it landed where I wanted it to.
  • Ice Block: In the last scene of each level, building ice blocks gave me some options. I found that I didn't have to have a fully create a block to perform all the actions, as I worked my way up toward the goal; however, you can only do this to blocks that don't serve as a base for another to be stacked upon. Another point, is that during my turning animation...I was able to start building ice blocks a few frames earlier.

Game Details

  • Scene 1
    • Ice Blocks
      • Standing too long will cause them to melt
    • Fruit
      • Collecting fruit will help you to create a jumping boost
  • Scene 2
    • There is no jumping available
    • Ice Blocks
      • Grabbing and Moving
      • Can be placed anywhere on the platform and dropped
      • Used to build the platform higher
    • Fire
      • Will partially melt the bottom block
      • Higher levels will melt them slower, since they spawn more frequently
      • Can be eliminated with an ice block
    • Roving Machines
      • Dropping blocks upon them will build your platform
  • Scene 3
    • Multiple Obstacles
      • Shooting Snowman
      • Falling Fire
    • Ice Block Construction
      • Player gets to build a platform to the goal area.
      • Partially built ice blocks will prevent stacking additional blocks
      • Can be used to shield you from the snowman attacks
      • Partial construction will still allow for walking

Human Casual Play

I was only able to find one good video, and I can't really call it a speed-run though...as the player didn't seem to have a grasp on efficiency in many places. Here is something for your comparison, so that you can see how much more powerful my TAS is over human effort.
feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Added publisher to game title to distinguish from Ice Palace (Creative Sparks).
feos: Accepting.
despoa: Processing...

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Posted: 4/12/2023 6:01 AM
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TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8213: nymx's C64 Ice Palace (K-tel Software) in 08:16.81
Posted: 4/16/2023 12:33 AM
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zaphod77
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 343
The game is confirmed at c64pp to have no protection. so that disk is most likely the original after all.
Posted: 4/16/2023 2:10 AM
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nymx
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zaphod77 wrote:
The game is confirmed at c64pp to have no protection. so that disk is most likely the original after all.
Interesting. Thanks.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Posted: 4/19/2023 3:06 AM
(Edited: 4/19/2023 3:27 AM)
Quote
zaphod77
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 343
here's the actual original disk. converted to .d64 format. yes, its' actually the original. direct from c64pp. Mod edit: Link to ROM removed.
Posted: 4/19/2023 3:28 AM
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InfoTeddy
Judge, Moderator, Player (200)
Joined: 7/15/2021
Posts: 112
Location: United States
zaphod77 wrote:
here's the actual original disk. converted to .d64 format. yes, its' actually the original. direct from c64pp.
Please do not post direct links to ROMs. That is piracy, which is prohibited on this site. Thank you.
Posted: 4/19/2023 2:39 PM
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zaphod77
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 343
I investigated the copyright for this game, and the company that owned it got out of the video game business, so i figured it was sufficiently abandoned to be safe. The only protection the game had was against typing LOAD followed by SAVE. I take it sending direct messages to TAS authors is the proper way to do it?
Posted: 4/19/2023 3:50 PM
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Noxxa
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zaphod77 wrote:
I investigated the copyright for this game, and the company that owned it got out of the video game business, so i figured it was sufficiently abandoned to be safe.
Abandonware is not a legal concept. Even if a video game company is out of business, their property still has copyright, and piracy of it is still illegal.
zaphod77 wrote:
I take it sending direct messages to TAS authors is the proper way to do it?
We do not allow promotion of piracy anywhere on our site or related areas (Discord server, IRC channel, etc). This includes requesting or offering to share pirated material in private messages.
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.
Posted: 5/9/2023 2:28 PM
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BlackWinnerYoshi
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Joined: 1/13/2023
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Added publisher to game title to distinguish from Ice Palace (Creative Sparks).
Although, isn't this actually from Creative Sparks? This ROM from the TOSEC DAT pack (Commodore C64 - Games - Arcade - [D64]) matches the movie hash and syncs with the movie as well. Is TOSEC and me wrong then? (and yes, I checked the latest DAT pack.) 
SHA1 (Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a7].d64) = 532adadc9358f60b6f3edd315337d53d35068ace
Posted: 5/9/2023 3:56 PM
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DrD2k9
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BlackWinnerYoshi wrote:
Added publisher to game title to distinguish from Ice Palace (Creative Sparks).
Although, isn't this actually from Creative Sparks? This ROM from the TOSEC DAT pack (Commodore C64 - Games - Arcade - [D64]) matches the movie hash and syncs with the movie as well. Is TOSEC and me wrong then? (and yes, I checked the latest DAT pack.) 
SHA1 (Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a7].d64) = 532adadc9358f60b6f3edd315337d53d35068ace
Yes, this submission is the K-Tel version. Here's the title screen where it shows K-Tel. Here's a screenshot from the Creative Sparks version:
Posted: 5/9/2023 4:08 PM
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feos
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BlackWinnerYoshi wrote:
Is TOSEC and me wrong then?
TOSEC messed up. These versions clearly show KTel on the title screen: 
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks).d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a3].d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a4].d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a6].d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a7].d64
And these clearly show Creative Sparks and the game is absolutely different: 
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a].d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a2].d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a5].d64
Ice Palace (1985)(Creative Sparks)[a8].d64
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 5/11/2023 1:06 AM
Post subject: Movie published
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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. ---- [5266] C64 Ice Palace (K-tel Software) by nymx in 08:16.81