Face-Off (Compute's Gazette)
If you've plaed Air Hockey, you already know how to play "Face-Off'. Based on the ice hockey, Air Hockey pits two players against each other, each trying to shoot a puck into his opponent's goal while defending their own goal. A center line splits, the playfield. Neither player is allowed to cross this line. The object of the game is simple: The first player to score five goals wins.
Why TAS This Game?
The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute's Gazette. This makes my 78th TAS from this series.
This game was a big favorite of mine. Playing against the CPU was quite a challenge. This game provided many hours of enjoyment and was a great memory.
Game Difficulty and Ending
This game has two different selections for difficulty:
- Speed selection: This game offers 3 different speed selections. My choice is obvious...I select the fastest of 3.
- Skill: The game offers 9 levels of AI skill to play against. I choose 9, which is a super strong AI algorithm.
The ending is clear, after 9 pucks have been scored...the game is over.
The magazine makes some comments that are not quite accurate. It is misleading when the article states that scoring 5 pucks wins the game. In reality, yes...but you still have to play the game until all 9 pucks have been sunk. For me, the code should have been adjusted to end the game. Another thing that I find funny is that it makes the claim of being near impossible to win on the fastest and hardest skill level. Oh well! TASing, once again, has totally destroyed a game!
Effort In TASing (Not BOTed)
I resisted TASing this game, because I thought that I couldn't beat it on the hardest selections. Well, just recently, I decided to test that theory. After two days (4 to 5 hours totalled), I finally got it.
With all my effort here, I eventually noticed what it took to get an optimized movie. After fully going through this game twice, I finally saw all the details necessary to get this done right. The version you are seeing is my 3rd time all the way through. The last time through, I cut 71 frames over my 2nd effort. While my second attempt cut 324 frames over my first attempt, totaling 395 frames cut from re-working the entire game.
Human Comparison
Couldn't find one. Disappointing...because I really wanted people to see the difference.
DrD2k9: Pretty easy judgement on this one. I agree with the choice of Maximum Score as a branch. Even with having to (at least) initiate the final 4 rounds, it would likely be faster to finish this game by allowing the CPU to score on 4 of the rounds, which would still qualify for any % as the player would still win 5-4. One curiosity would be determining which of the rounds would be fastest to lose.
Accepting with a goal of Maximum Score