On it's surface Roablasters appears to be a racing game; but it's not really, as you aren't racing against other cars for position or specifically for the "best" time. It's actually more like a challenge of survival within a general racing structure.
The game consists of a series of stages (up to 50) where the goal is to reach the end of the stage, called a Rally Point, without runing out of gas. That's it. That's the only means of failure in this game....running out of gas and coming to a stop. When you run out of fuel, you can use a continue to restart on the same stage; you are given 3 attempts with which to complete all the races.
So where does the challenge come in? Well, you're limited on fuel and many of the stages do not start you with enough fuel to complete them, so fuel must be acquired during the stage to ensure finishing the Rally Point. Crashing results in slowdowns and more fuel used, so it is obviously best avoided.
Game Basics
The game consists of 50 total stages
You are given the option to skip some of them at various points throughout play. This allows for finishing the game without completing all 50 stages.
This submission only completes 16 of the 50 stages.
Fuel Management
Your car has two fuel tanks: Main and Reserve.
The Main tank can be refilled by running into orbs on the track. There are two types: Green just exist on the track, Orange are released from some desttroyed enemies.
The Reserve tank will only be used when the Main tank runs out of fuel. It is replenished based on your scoring at the Rally Points. (We'll come back to this later.)
Control
Up accelerates (up to 212 mph)
It is not necessary to hold up to maintain speed, the game will keep your speed steady unless you change it or hit something (including the sides of the course).
Down decelerates
Left & Right Steer
A shoots bullets
B uses your special Item
Obstacles
Blue cars - Get in your way on the track
Can't be destroyed via gunshot, only through use of the Cruise Missle or Electro Shield.
Orange Cars - Get in your way on the track
Can be destroyed via gunfire or Cruise Missle.
Sometimes these drop orange fuel orbs.
Motorcycles - Get in your way on the track
Can be destroyed via gunfire, Cruise Missle, or Electro Shield.
Rat Jeeps - These jump onto the track from behind and to the sides of your car
Generally jumping out in front of you, but there are instances where this isn't always what happens
Can be destroyed via gunfire, Cruise Missle, or Electro Shield.
Mines - Small white objects in the road that will destroy you if you strike them.
These can neutralized by Electro Shield or destroyed with the Cruise Missle.
Gun Turrets - These are off to the sides of the track and shoot bullets at you.
Can be destroyed gunfire or Cruise Missle
The Electro Shield would probably protect you from an impact with one of thsee, but why are you driving so far off the road?
Most of these fire bullets across the road which can be dodged, however...
Some of these fire seeking bullets (that look the same as normal ones) which are effectively impossible --almost-- to avoid by driving alone regardless of speed.
Generally, you can only prevent these from crashing you using Electro Shield or Cruise Missle.
(However, I was able to manage avoiding by driving alone once, more on this later).
In my opinion, this is a jerk move on the developers' part, to make it generally impossible to get through certain races without crashing. It's just a "gotcha" moment instead of a true test of a players skill.
Toxic Spills
These look/act like oil slicks from most racing type games and will send your car into a spin.
Thankfully, they don't slow you down.
Rocks
Generally these sit on the sides of the road so you shouldnt' be running into them, but there are a couple instances where the rocks are in the roadway.
Special Items - Dropped by air support
UZ Cannon - Allows rapid fire with no impact on score multiplier (more on this later)
Electro Shield - Temporary Invulnerability.
Nitro Inject - Provides a temporary speed boost up to 298 mph
There is a glitch in the game where collecting a new special item while the nitro boost is active will allow the active speed (upon pickup of the new item) to be maintained indefinitely through the end of the stage instead of simply being a temporary boost.
Cruise Missle - destroys everything on screen (including any fuel orbs).
Mine Indicator
This is the little flasing light to the left of the fuel gauges. When flashing, mines (or fuel orbs in some stages) are coming up.
Score Multiplier
Whenever an obstacle/enemy is shot with gunfire, the score multiplier increases.
A shot that hits no target will decrease the multiplier.
After reaching the Rally Point, score is tallied and fuel is awarded to your Reserve Fuel tank based on this.
TAS Notes:
I attempted to write a bot to play this game for me (identifying powerups, obstacles, targets, etc. and driving appropriately). However I discovered that my coding skills/knowledge weren't sufficient enough to organize the Lua enough to do everything. So I instead used the bot to do the bulk of the driving, fuel orb collecting, and targeting; but I resorted to collecting powerups and dodging unkillable stuff manually as it just made the overall process much easier for me.
General:
Based on my testing, "hugging" curves in the roadway is not faster in this game, as it is with so many racing games; so it is not necessary to try and minimize distance traveled this way. You can control the car wherever on the track without losing time.
Based on my testing, it was actually faster to complete stages by killing as many enemies as possible compared to simply dodging them all. I'm guessing there may be some sort of processing lag involved, but that's strictly a guess as there's no input lag during races.
At the end of races, the game will forcibly drag the car to the center of the track before it reaches the checkered flag. This dragging takes extra time, so stages were completed by making sure the car was properly centered to avoid any drag.
Since any high score multiplier takes longer to tally score/award fuel, most stages are also completed by shooting a bunch of shots at nothing to bring the multiplier back down to x1.
There are two stages where this is an exception: Stage 47 and 48.
Stage 49 starts with extremely low fuel in the main tank, so the reserve tank must have a sufficient quantity to finish the race (even with the fuel provided in-stage). Otherwise a continue must be used to refill the fuel tanks.
Stage 48 is only a giant minefield and does not have any enemies to kill to increase the score multiplier, thus it must be done in stage 47. Even here, the only enemies are gun turrets. I tried to minimize the score multiplier while still maintaining a high enough value to allow for completion of stage 49 without needing to use a continue.
Speed is maxed and maintained at the maximum possible throughout the run (including through use of the nitro glitch), with one exception (see specific stage notes below).
Particular Stage Notes:
Rally 11 - General race, Cruise Missle collected but are not used
Rally 12 - First rally with Rat Jeeps jumping in from behind. Here you can see their normal movement patterns that will get altered later when using nitros. UZ Cannon is the powerup in this stage, but is avoided to keep the Cruise Missles (even though I didn't use them).
Rally 13 - Electro Shield is collected here, and held for later.
Rally 14 - No powerup in this stage.
Rally 23 - The first (avoided) powerup is the UZ Cannon, The second (also not collected) is another set of Electro Shields which wouldn't help as we're full on them already. An Electro Shield is used to get past seeker gun turrets.
Rally 24 - Here we see Nitro used for the first time. All 3 uses are done in this stage with the last being glitched on through the end of the stage. UZ Cannon is only collected to activate glitch.
Rally 25 - Nitro again collected and used 2 of 3 times. The third nitro is reserved for the next stage.
Rally 26 - Nitro is used before Cruise Missle is collected to activate glitch. One Cruise Missle is used to destroy seeker turret
Rally 35 - 2nd Cruise Missle is used to destroy seeker turret. Nitro picked up and used 2 of 3
Rally 36 - Last Nitro used and glitched by picking up UZ Cannon.
This stage finishes with less than top speed.
The final two gun turrets are the kind that shoot generally undodgable seeker bullets. However, I was able to find a way. By turning hard left after the bullets were fired just enough to catch the side of the course and slow down one speed notch, I was able to avoid getting hit by these two bullets. I don't understand why, but slowing down using the D-pad instead still results in getting hit regardless of track position. So it was impossible to maintain the 298 mph without crashing at this point.
This stage shows the Rat Jeep actions when traveling at 298 mph.
Basically they don't jump in front of you but try to ram your side. If you can get them to "land" their incoming jump on the grass they will disappear. It's also possible to shoot them with some extreme turns/shots.
Rally 37 - Collects Nitro and uses 2 of 3
Rally 38 - Glitched Nitro and collection of Cruise Missles.
Rally 47 - Turrets shot to boost multiplier to 3x. UZ Cannon Avoided to hold onto Cruise Missles, all three of which are needed in this stage to destroy seeker turrets. Score Multiplier is kept for Reserve Fuel.
Rally 48 - Just doging Mines here. Electro Shield collected but not used. Score Multiplier kept at 3x to provided fuel for next Rally.
Rally 49 - Nitro collected and used 2 of 3. Missed shots to bring Score Multiplier back down to 1x to save time in score tally as the next race is automatically given full fuel.
Rally 50 - Nitro glitched by picking up UZ Cannon. Cruise Missle Collected and used to destroy rows of blue cars that can't be bypassed without slowing down in the grass. The last avoided powerup is more nitros; but seeing we're locked into max speed already, they are unnecessary. If they were collected, we lose the glitched speed and would be limited to the 3 temporary boosts instead of having the 298 mph throughout the rest of the stage.
Ending choice:
So I technically have two versions of this run. One which gets to the end of the game fastest and one that ends input earliest. The difference in the end of input between them is 59 frames, but the difference in reaching the end is more. The shorter input option takes longer to get to the end of the game as it slows down by hitting grass and coasts to the end instead of driving max speed to the end. I've chosen to submit the longer input version for two reasons: 1) I believe it's generally more liked by viewers for racing games to power through the end instead of ending input early (except for uber purist TASers/viewers who always prefer shortest input regardless of what's seen) 2) to me 59 frames out of a 22-ish minute run can be considered a speed entertainment trade-off in this case.
For publisher: Here's a version of the submission with the post completion input for High Score initials.
If for whatever reason, the site would prefer the shorter input version, it's here. And the version with High Score Initial input.
Encode showing that end:
Turbotastic!
(bricked for making a too-obvious reference)
I would love to see what a "max score" run could pull off with the same tools!
I may do an "all races" version.
Max Score would be a challenge, because it would require destroying not only all the normally killable road obstacles, but also finding ways to optimize killing the side turrets, and then also figuring out blue cars with cruise missles. Lots of work for that goal.
Ohhhhhhh, yeah! I've been waiting for this TAS for a long time. I even have an improvement WIP over my old slow-motion TAS, but it's very short it doesn't reach a single spot of possible time saves.
Gun Turrets - These are off to the sides of the track and shoot bullets at you.
- The Electro Shield would probably protect you from an impact with one of thsee, but why are you driving so far off the road?
Actually, there is no normal way to do dodge or catch a bullet from a gun turret, because their trajectory is hard-wired to the screen.
Based on my testing, it was actually faster to complete stages by killing as many enemies as possible compared to simply dodging them all. I'm guessing there may be some sort of processing lag involved, but that's strictly a guess as there's no input lag during races.
I see you don't strive to killing enemies while you have opportunities. You could use Electro Shield to kill Rat Jeeps as soon as they appear or to hit Blue cars with it. Several Cruise Missle shots were left unused. But still, I doubt it would save much time overall.
I found the way the game logic is organised quite safe for having multiple objects on the screen. It works like that:
- While driving normal, the game works at 20 fps: 1 frame to scroll the screen and adjust object offsets, 1 frame to change your car orientation depending on left/right button being pressed and 1 frame for some other things we don't see (reserve).
- While using turbo, the game works at 30 fps: reserve and car orientation processings are done on the same frame.
I didn't see the input, but judging by your movement on sharp turns, you seem to be aware of it. However, you didn't abuse car orientation for entertainment purposes, even though these times are left behind.
- You could turn left and steer the car to the right for 1 rally - that would make a good WTH moment.
- You could turn all the way to either side and drive like that. Also, this produces a rapid sound of tires screeching, which could be used for some music making during TAS, maybe with a combination with UZ Cannon.
Great work on avoiding Rat Jeeps while at top speed! I didn't know how to do to that back then.
Yes vote from me!
DrD2k9 wrote:
Max Score would be a challenge, because it would require destroying not only all the normally killable road obstacles, but also finding ways to optimize killing the side turrets, and then also figuring out blue cars with cruise missles. Lots of work for that goal.
And also losing all your continues for more score
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
Actually, there is no normal way to do dodge or catch a bullet from a gun turret, because their trajectory is hard-wired to the screen.
Most of the time yes, but there are times when the bullet chases your car regardless of where you are on the track. So, in these situations, changing steering doesn't avoid the bullet.
I'm sure there are multiple ways to try and inject entertainment into the run including and besides the examples you noted. I wasn't really focused on it from that standpoint. I was primarily tryng to beat the game as quickly as possible. Of the things you mentioned, I would be a bit curious if using the unused Shield or Cruise Missles would in fact speed up the run somehow, but I can't imagine it would be more than a handful of frames.
I think there's quite a bit that could be done with this game from a TASing standpoint, from various goals mentioned to better entertainment. Unfortunately, I need to take a break from this game for now.
One last question from me. Does your speed lose at the very end of Rally 49 result in time lose?
Answering my own question.
Yes, it does! If you freeze the address 0086 (1 byte) at any value higher than 1, you would finish the rally at the speed of 212, which results in an 18-frames save.
But how to achieve this save? That's a question.
There are 3 patterns of score counting up:
- good destruction result: 100 points per a count;
- so-so result: 100 points per 2 counts;
- bad result: 100 points per 3 counts.
One score change on count-up screen takes 5 frames
On score screens of Rally 47 and 48, it took 150 frames to count up the score. Since there are no enemies on Rally 48, it can be the reason why you're given 1000 score while having the multiplier of x3. Judging by longplays, the multiplier must be much higher to have "good result" count-up pattern on Rally 48.
Since 18-frames is quite a small amount of time, the only way of improvement I see is to shoot turrets on Rally 47 and drop the multiplier at the end to have more score (3000) counted up without losing time
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the premier.
https://xkcd.com/3246/
In investigating Dimon's thoughts, I've figured out some much better car control aspects of this game. I'm going to redo this run. I don't anticipate a huge difference in time, but the run will look cleaner.
I feel a bit stupid for not recognizing this possibility earlier.
One last question from me. Does your speed lose at the very end of Rally 49 result in time lose?
Answering my own question.
Yes, it does! If you freeze the address 0086 (1 byte) at any value higher than 1, you would finish the rally at the speed of 212, which results in an 18-frames save.
But how to achieve this save? That's a question.
There are 3 patterns of score counting up:
- good destruction result: 100 points per a count;
- so-so result: 100 points per 2 counts;
- bad result: 100 points per 3 counts.
One score change on count-up screen takes 5 frames
On score screens of Rally 47 and 48, it took 150 frames to count up the score. Since there are no enemies on Rally 48, it can be the reason why you're given 1000 score while having the multiplier of x3. Judging by longplays, the multiplier must be much higher to have "good result" count-up pattern on Rally 48.
Since 18-frames is quite a small amount of time, the only way of improvement I see is to shoot turrets on Rally 47 and drop the multiplier at the end to have more score (3000) counted up without losing time
I tested this theory by killing as many turrets as possible in Rally 47 (it's not possible to kill all when some are on both sides as the car won't turn fast enough). While killing more turrets on Rally 47 does allow for attaining a higher bonus score at the end than this submission , it does not yield more reserve fuel unluess the multiplier is greater. Specifically; killing nearly all the turrets and having a multiplier of 3 only yielded 3000 points at the end tally, and the reserve fuel tank is only filled to 72 at the adress noted above. It's also 72 in this submission, so killing more turrets while keeping the multiplier lower or the same does not, in fact, yield more fuel for 48/49.
To get more reserve fuel in 47/48/49 thus requires incresing the multiplier by one in Rally 47, costing an additional 50 frames before Rally 48 starts. So unfortunately the slowdown at the end of Rally 49 is currenlty the fastest known way of getting to Rally 50.
