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upthorn wrote:
As it turns out, that was the only spot that required editing, but it was off by four frames, not just one.
Nice. By the way, four frames seems to be the standard. The loading times were sometimes 4 frames longer or shorter, when exiting a level at different times. Also, with BIOS 2.00 some loading times were off by 4 frames.
upthorn wrote:
My personal feeling, though, is that in a game like this, I would prefer to watch the cutscenes if possible.
I agree that the cutscenes are quite interesting in this game, but on the other hand they slow down the progress. It is easy to make two versions and let the judges decide whether to include them or not.
Ok, I'm finished with this game for the time being. Does somebody want to improve the movie? Otherwise, I'll submit it to the Workbench in a few days.
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There seems to be some bad game versions available. I tried another version and it solved the sound problem in the ending. I can't reproduce the desync, though.
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First real version is now finished: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/931808480/heartofthealien-v1.gmv(Use BIOS 1.10)
All feedback is appreciated.
I believe the sound is not emulated correctly during the final cutscene and I have no idea how to fix it. It seems like a wrong sound effect is played around frame 27500. It's nothing critical, just strange.*
Note: Soon after planting the bomb, I make useless screen transitions to progress the bomb timer faster. It saves 9 frames, although it looks more like a mistake by the player.
EDIT:
* Problem solved by using a different version of the game with correct sounds.
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There is no problem here. Tested with FCEUX 2.0.3 and FCEU 0.98.28. The background is visible and the movie works perfectly. I haven't changed any settings for these emulators, so it should work right away.
Nice tRicks, Rick! Looks better than I expected for this game.
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Here is my first Lua script ever:
input.registerhotkey (1, function ()
gens.emulateframe ()
end)
The "Lua Custom Hotkey 1" needs to be set to the same key as frame advance.
The purpose of the script is to advance 2 frames each time the frame advance button is pressed. It helps in Gods, because the game progresses in 30 FPS.
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Good job, guys! Now I need to TAS some more, because it is easier than ever.
Interestingly, full screen mode (with normal rendering) runs slowly, around 44 frames per second according to the FPS display. Maybe it's just my old machine being unable to run the new hi-tech emulator at full speed. However, it's a bit strange, because if I set any other rendering mode on, the slowness disappears.
EDIT:
Sorry, I said it wrong. Full screen mode runs fine, maximized window runs slow for some reason.
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I redid the first level and saved 34 frames.
Too bad this doesn't save any time.
Failed here too:
1 2 3Geronim......uh!
---
EDIT:
First complete version done in about 5:20. Needs some polishing.
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Yup, seems like the "Practice" is a fault in the game, not in the run. If the password usage is well documented in the movie description and maybe even explained in the AVI subtitles, then I think this movie is very acceptable. It uses the fastest method to access hardest difficulty. It looks strange, but playing the game through twice would look worse.
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nitsuja wrote:
It looks potentially useful.
The problem is that it takes so long to set-up the trick. However, just going through the wall and skipping the whole scene with the human friend is a pretty big timesaver already.
I have tried using the bomb to trigger cutscene in various places, but nothing interesting happened so far. Maybe getting the whip is a special case, because after it the player has changed to a whip guy:
death + cutscene + get whip = bug
death + cutscene = no bug
---
EDIT:
Found another trick: Using the whip changes the position of the "action spot" of the player. This can be used to pick up the bomb parts from far away and it also skips the pick-up animation. (It looks awesome.) The trick also works in the final room, allowing pulling the switch without standing next to it. Now looking for more opportunities for telekinesis whipping...
By the way, autoskipping the red frames would make TASing this game very easy. Possible with LUA, I presume?
---
EDIT:
Oh crap... the whip trick only made the bomb parts invisible, but they are still on the floor. I thought the guy picked them up. What a strange graphical fault.
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nitsuja wrote:
I remember seeing another bug like that much later where I got too close to a guard and somehow fell and pulled up through the floor at the same time, and was able to glitch-run around for a while until the game decided to bring up the death screen.
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Thanks for the feedback, guys.
Indeed, the first WIP was done with 2.00 BIOS. Sorry for not mentioning it.
Despite the faster start in 1.10 BIOS, it seems that some loading times are slightly longer with it. At this point, I can't tell which BIOS is faster overall, but editing the final product to sync with either one is easy.
Also, found a little shortcut through a wall.
EDIT:
HOLY SH... GLITCH!
EDIT:
It is possible to get out of boundaries in these three screens:
This file shows how it is done: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1101510953/bugofthealien2.gmvUSE BIOS 1.10
Possibly useless, unless someone can find out what is outside the visible screen area.
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It seems that Puggsy can't be completed, unless there is a "disable SRAM" feature in Gens. The original Puggsy cart has no SRAM, but after a few levels, the game tries to write to the SRAM. If it succeeds, the game does not allow the player to continue further.
I don't know if there are any other benefits of disabling SRAM than making Puggsy TASable, so it may not be worth it, unless it's easy to implement.
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GOOD moments:
- Cloning a tank spontaneously!
- 18 consecutive level-up fanfares after a single fight!
- Extreme luck manipulation to avoid random encounters! (I happened to make a savestate during the movie and it resulted in a random battle immediately upon loading, heh.)
- Very short boss fights!
BAD moments:
- Lots of walking.
- Language barrier.
OVERALL:
- The good moments were funny enough that I didn't mind the walking parts being boring.
- The technical quality of the run seems very good.
- It was more entertaining than an average RPG TAS.
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Cpadolf wrote:
Aqfaq wrote:
What is the hypothetical input format for a real world TAS? I think there exists nothing in the world that corresponds with controller input. :(
Signal pulses in the brain or something like that.
That would be the most intuitive approach, but I think the problem with signal pulses in the brain is that they are already there and they follow some laws of some physics. Where would the new input signals come from exactly? The TASer could not just change a brain signal to another without hacking the physics of the game world, or could he? I wouldn't mind having such "mildly cheated" files in the concept demos section, though.
But what would happen, if the player character took a part of his brain and implanted it to another head? Would the TASer then control two characters? Why couldn't the TASer control all brains in the world immediately, if he can control the brain signals of the player character?
What would it mean to control the brain signals anyway? Could the player human shoot lightning bolts from his head when the TASer switches some brain signal values to 255? Some brain signals are involuntary or somatic by default, but would the TASer control all of them?
I've heard that some master monks can (in real life!) control some of their body mechanisms (like body temperature) by mediation, so how about a real-life TAS duel between Fireman and Iceman? Mega Man would be in the middle and shoot some white stuff from his big cannon, naturally. Yeah, any Average Joe would be interestingly overpowered, if full control over all brain signals was available. Basically, all muscles would be controlled perfectly and independently allowing unimaginable special moves and critical hits. I bet any body could be made to fly in almost no time. Think about the 1000 meter fall again - it's a piece of cake really.
Yeah, the TASer would definitely use the brain signals for much more than just controlling the everyday body movements. That is what TAS players do, they use input to break stuff for their advantage. Brain signals affect so many things even beyond the immediate limits of the body via Magnetoism etc. At the first few moments in any run, the player character would probably transform into something or at least drop off some unneeded payload like hair, eyes, ears, genitals and more.
So, what restrictions would the TASer as a player have? Is the whole world regarded as a single game where different runs are made? Then how many runs would be accepted for publication! I bet many submissions would be rejected due to having arbitrary limitations, like not using prayers or not harming females and TASVideos members.
If there is no well-defined input or game, then it would be just some mindless hacking of the World (W) [!].rom.
Well, OK, it could be so that the brain signals (or whatever signals) are somehow non-deterministic, so that the TASer actually could alter them freely at any time without immediately breaking the world. As a side note, if I was a player character in such a TAS, I wouldn't notice the spontaneous changes in my brain activity anyway, just like Mario zombie has no clue about the input that controls his choices.
Even if the input was working somehow, there would still be many funny problems with the common TAS concepts. For example, how to define "record from reset"? Does it mean that the movie starts from a Big Bang or from the beginning of the life of the player character? When does life begin then? More importantly, at what point would the player character start accepting input: at the time of conception or just after the birth? Oh, of course... I already forgot that the emergence of brain signals would bring control to the TASer. It would start simply, with very few input possibilities in the early stage of embryo development and...
Heh, I can't even imagine the work required for planning and quantum-luck-manipulating optimal level-ups in the womb before bursting out (Alien-style!) and crawling to the nearest telephone to call a nuclear strike or something (just for a stupid playaround run).
Aren't there some Sims games for GBA? Someone TAS them, please.
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I think the readability of the player list could be improved by separating the individual players from the teams.
There would then be 4 separate lists:
1. Players
2. Teams
3. Old players
4. Old teams
There is also some inconsistency with the use of "&" and "and" in the team names. I would change all of them to "&".
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Front Page wrote:
Newest submissions
2009-02-09 #2178 NES Cheetahmen II (unknown) by was0x in 02:21.57 (decision: cancelled)
2009-02-09 #2177 NES Deja Vu (USA,r1) by Randil in 10:16.98 (publication underway)
2009-02-09 #2176 Genesis Ghouls 'N Ghosts (USA/Europe,r2) by shisu in 07:30.92 (decision: cancelled)
2009-02-07 #2174 GBA Mega Man Zero (USA/Europe) by computerbird in 21:04.13 (new)
I think removing the cancelled/rejected submissions from the list is a bad idea, because it would diminish the introductory value of the front page. It gives good information now: some movies are indeed cancelled/rejected.
Too bad this doesn't save any time.
Failed here too:
1
2
3
Geronim... 
...uh!
---
EDIT:
First complete version done in about 5:20. Needs some polishing.
This file shows how it is done: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1101510953/bugofthealien2.gmv USE BIOS 1.10
Possibly useless, unless someone can find out what is outside the visible screen area.
Also, here is a demonstration of an insane glitch: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1879257580/bugofthealien1.gmv