This topic is for the purpose of discussing #9158: Dado's Windows AirXonix "100%" in 29:43.29

Link to video AIRXONIX.ISO - this is the Kellogg's Frosties release, equivalent to this dump. md5 checksums after verification movie: Hard drive image: 4f52a8ca4a9f19bfc9f9c36a694042a8 nvr: 52a74ff0b68996140e7bb5f09ce9e6a8

I do love how for most of the run the score counter is hopelessly far behind what your actual score is, even after beating a mode. :P You might recognize this game as essentially a fancy 3-D JezzBall clone. (The original release of JezzBall unfortunately doesn't run under DOS so can't be TASed through the usual method of libTAS + PCem - did anyone ever try it through Hourglass "back in the day", perchance?)

Is there an RTA 100% example video for comparison?

Is there an RTA 100% example video for comparison?

I’m not sure what all difficulties were done in this TAS: But for what it’s worth, the combined time for the human world records from speedrun.com for difficulties Easy, Classic, and Modern is 25:46.747. I’d find it hard to believe that a human could complete both Hard and Extreme difficulties in under 4 minutes. Edit: this run does indeed do all 5 difficulties; it’s likely much faster than what a human could do. I did notice one thing of concern regarding optimization: there are multiple points through the run where movement speed modifiers are obtained. While some of these sped up the player, others slowed the player down. Simply by watching the encode, I cannot see a reason why picking up these slow-down modifiers would be desirable. I would assume maintaining a higher movement speed would be the more optimal approach. If there’s no intentional reason for getting the slow modifiers (that somehow leads to a faster finish overall), I’d struggle to agree that it’s not sloppy play/rushed TASing.

You might recognize this game as essentially a fancy 3-D JezzBall clone. (The original release of JezzBall unfortunately doesn't run under DOS so can't be TASed through the usual method of libTAS + PCem - did anyone ever try it through Hourglass "back in the day", perchance?)

? This very submission is showcasing Windows NT with PCem

I'm going to point out that the author states multiple times on Discord in the lead up to this submission that their work is suboptimal. Not only that, but the author also stated a few times in the lead up to this submission that they don't think that they should submit the movie, due to their own belief that it is suboptimal, and that was showcased by actually having the uploads of their submission first started off as a userfile. If that was implied... I'm not really surprised due to how proactive they were about on this game, getting it to work and other comments they made months before this submission. The author is at the very least self-aware enough about their work being suboptimal, and throughout the watching of this movie, that thought of the author's own knowledge going "this ain't good" (paraphrased) is kinda what weirdly made me vote no on if I enjoyed it. Yeah, I know it's asking about my entertainment, but it's like that nagging thought that's in the back of your mind slowly diminishing something, which dragged the entertainment for me. Honestly I think the author should've started with a different Qix type title to understand on how to be optimal (even after being stated on how to be optimal) instead of jumping the shark with a libTAS x PCem submission instead picking something such as the PlayStation title Qix Neo, which has the requirements in being optimal, and there being a great TAS to refer to.

I did notice one thing of concern regarding optimization: there are multiple points through the run where movement speed modifiers are obtained. While some of these sped up the player, others slowed the player down. Simply by watching the encode, I cannot see a reason why picking up these slow-down modifiers would be desirable. I would assume maintaining a higher movement speed would be the more optimal approach.

The 'slow' powerup slows down only enemies, unless I misunderstand. --- This was one of my childhood games, and this is incredibly superhuman play and a delightful treat, thank you for making it! I can see the upper bound for optimization is essentially infinite due to RNG manipulation and routing possibilities, so while this could be improved you could also never prove anything optimal, so I think as a first gen TAS it's good enough and anyone who wants to improve it is welcome to. The AirXonix developers made some other TASable games, but I don't know if you have the nostalgia for any of the other ones, e.g. https://www.axysoft.com/moneymania/

The 'slow' powerup slows down only enemies, unless I misunderstand.

Perhaps, it’s just an optical illusion (for me). If that’s the case, then i can’t see any other blatantly egregious issues; and thus can’t otherwise argue against this run as a baseline/1st gen submission.