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Will the password generators page make a comeback, or was it decided that it's outside of TASVideos's scope and needs to be hosted elsewhere? I did find a page of similar generators on cah4e3's site, and there is also now a GitHub page of source code for generators based on Bisqwit's YouTube series. It would be neat to learn how to put together more such generator forms as more games are cracked...
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Congratulations on your discoveries and runs made so far! That's some thorough research and big time saves! I guess the source code helps. It was interesting to learn some things like how any key that does anything other than lift a door or start a moving platform actually has a secret on top of it to make the other effect happen.
I wish I had more to contribute; I was reminded of Codemasters' NES games last year, so I started documenting version differences and other unused stuff for The Cutting Room Floor, but for Super Robin Hood all I found was that Super Adventure Quests makes the usual changes of erasing the Camerica logo and replacing color 0D with 0E. This message has got me intrigued with some research I was doing, though:
Alyosha wrote:
Also I noticed this from the submission of Robin Hood:
Dwedit wrote:
According to Bootgod's NesCartDB, the ROM with the CRC32 of B89888C9 is the correct dump, and it doesn't work correctly in FCEUX. The alternate dump rearranges the banks to work around emulation errors.
FCEUX seems to be emulating mapper 232 just plain wrong. Writing 10 to 9000 should select outer bank 02, but it selects outer bank 01 instead.
edit: checked the code, it intentionally has a hack to work around bad dumps, that should be taken out.
But I'm not really sure what the implications are. Quattro Adventure seems to be a rather rare case.
I had just read that the 1993 releases of Codemasters' 4-in-1s in Europe or on Aladdin Deck Enhancer had their main bank-switching bits swapped compared to the original golden cartridges. This all adds up if that's how the games are indexed: 00 and 11 would remain the same, but 01 and 10 would be swapped, so that's how you'd get the second and third options loading each others' games. (Does this mean that the game ROMs were slightly modified for Aladdin and the American versions of Quattro Adventure and Quattro Sports each have two valid dumps? But as Dwedit said, Bootgod gave them the same CRC32s...) Something I noticed by stepping through with a debugger is that Boomerang Kid is the only game whose bank switch happens at the end of the Codemasters bootup logo instead of the beginning. (Apparently the menu uses the same bank as Treasure Island Dizzy, so Boomerang Kid seems to be borrowing Treasure Island Dizzy's startup logo to save space or something.) This might be why bad emulation has selecting 2-Super Robin Hood give you Boomerang Kid with no bootup logo while selecting 3-Boomerang Kid gives you Super Robin Hood with two bootup logos.
So, while the original Quattro series works right on emulators with higher compatibility like Nestopia and Mesen, they still have the swapped 2nd and 3rd games problem on the European ROMs of Super Adventure Quests, the Plug-Thru version of Super Sports Challenge (both versions of which call themselves "Quattro Sports" in-game, only with a different background color and version number on the menu--and V3 works right now?), and the Pegasus 4-in-1. Actually, the Pegasus 4-in-1 totally freezes/crashes from bad opcodes if I select the 2nd or 3rd game in Mesen. FCEUX 2.2.2 mishandles it differently: It boots directly into Go Dizzy Go after only flashing the menu for an instant, but if I do a soft reset, it loads the game menu and lets me enter all four games correctly. (This might be why I've seen the same ROM image mislabeled as a standalone version of Go Dizzy Go.) But then that same version of FCEUX also swaps games 2 and 3 in Quattro Adventure, Quattro Sports, and Quattro Arcade, which I don't recall it doing on the American versions before... but maybe I had the hacked ROMs that Dwedit called out back then.
So after reading up on NES 2.0 mappers, I realized that the submapper for Aladdin/European 4-in-1s might be what was needed to fix that whole problem in the ROM header, since I had also learned of a fix to the third version of Micro Machines where its header had been given the wrong mirroring mode. But when I edited that submapper into each ROM with everything left as normal and loaded it up, instead of a menu, I got some garbage lines in a completely different palette, apparently unplayable. So either that's not the fix, or I'm doing something wrong in editing the headers. Maybe there's an NES development forum you can point me to where this stuff has already been discussed.
Editing to add: Yup, I tried setting a breakpoint on writes to 8000-BFFF, only this time I took the opportunity to change the Accumulator from hex 10 to 8 or vice versa, and that made all those multicarts load the correct games in Mesen, including the Pegasus one. Now I wonder if any emulators contained swap hacks activated by the more recognized of these ROMs...
Final edit?!: I figured it out. It's not enough to choose submapper 1; all UNROM-style boards like Codemasters' require 8 KB of CHR-RAM to function, which the NES 2.0 header format is required to specify, so just remember to set CHR RAM to 8 KB and then you should be good to go.
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So it's like how U-four-ia: The Saga was 60 FPS on Virtual Console in America, even though that leaves the DPCM in the wrong key? It would be better to get a translation of Hebereke! But the big companies will use a simple, one-size-fits-all, across-the-board approach.
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Oh my gosh, Alyosha, I'm so sorry I didn't check this forum last month! Good job on getting another two CodeMasters games done!
Ferret Warlord wrote:
Anty-Lemon wrote:
I don't think I've seen any other game quite like it
I have. It appears to take after the the style of platformer that was popular in Europe back in the mid to late 80's. Games like Jet Set Willy, Monty on the Run, and Manic Miner.
Ooh, I didn't think of those. I did think of other little old single-screen platformers, like the mini-games in the Back to the Future 2 & 3 games, or Donkey Kong levels where you had to worry about fall damage, or... What else was there? Nuts & Milk? But not with ladders. :P I never took a look at Manic Miner until now, but that looks very much in the same style as Boomerang Kid. Gotta love those conveyor belts that don't change your speed, only forcing you to change your direction when you let go of it.
Alyosha wrote:
And oh yeah, in case you didn't see it in Bag of Magic Food's post in the forum thread, here are 2 versions of the ridiculous back story Camerica included with boomerang kid, pretty weird stuff.
Not only that, but Boomerang Kid is the one game in Quattro Adventure that had many significant changes in the PAL version, Super Adventure Quests, besides updating the copyright information. I finally found someone who owned a copy of that version, and there none of the warps work, but Hopping Mad Halt's normal exit now opens, so that might be the ROM to use for high score runs if that level offers more points than the alternative, I don't know. Also you're not told the names of the levels you're choosing next, just a left arrow and right arrow alone, and the music doesn't stop when you die, and the letter you choose on the high score entry doesn't blink... I start to wonder if they accidentally grabbed an earlier revision before updating some more.
SmashManiac wrote:
If this is accepted, the only Quattro Adventure left to TAS will be Linus Spacehead.
Oh yeah, there is that. Someone will have to improve on Trazan's run of the original, and I'll have to improve on my run of the sequel. Although I understand the "no distance to objects" glitch more fully now, I procrastinated a lot out of the fear of re-planning everything, having to understand the car mini-game physics and random factors better, and making the transition to Bizhawk. Maybe someone can give me encouragement for how to get started...
SmashManiac wrote:
I hope someone will also pick up Quattro Arcade for TASing, as there are some pretty good games in this collection as well. :)
I'd like to see TASes of the whole CJ Elephant series, definitely! The NES version of the first game may be the most interesting for having a speed-up item in place of the invincibility item, and I know the Game Gear game has been dumped, but I don't know if the Commodore computers are TAS-supported for the first two games. Well, the MS-DOS versions are considered the hardest, at least, for having fewer lives and dodgy physics with a few unavoidable deaths or overly speedy enemies, so, there you go. :)
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Hey, you know how I used a save+reset to set up the right chip trader output or whatever? Tterraj42 just let me know that that technique is now being used in real-time runs to set up certain encounters and/or folder draws TAS-style, by starting in a certain corner that's known to give a certain outcome after running from it after reloading the game.
"TeamBN", as they call themselves, have their own wiki and Twitch channels!
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Derakon wrote:
In many games it may be possible to recognize an end state if the bot encounters a memory state that exactly matches one it has seen before. That should never happen in normal gameplay, since score, lives, timers, etc. would all change. All this should require is for the credits sequence to reach a point at which they either stop or loop. Ideally any in-game timers (e.g. used for RNGs) would also be disabled in the credits, but ultimately the timers would loop anyway, so as long as you're willing to wait it shouldn't matter.
What if it's an ending that eventually takes the game back to the beginning? How would you tell that apart from a standard Game Over?
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Don't the Yoshi eggs simply replace two of the mushrooms in each level? If that's true, then perhaps "Collects all mushrooms" would be a better goal for showing off everything.
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Oh, man. I had been staying away from both TAS work and live discussions of this show for quite a while, but the reactions to the latest episode from the likes of KennyMan666 and Warp have made it glorious to me in a way that smooths over any disappointment. But first,
Apple Bloom disputes your claim that such board games are impossible for her to play.
Warp wrote:
I am also completely puzzled what exactly they were after with this episode.
Someone shared a comic that sums up a lot of the puzzlement:
Naw, I think the point was, "It's my destiny to accelerate my own destiny."
I liked that Spike was full of suggestions, but I think one of them should have been, "Just cast the same spell four more times, since it's apparent that the marks are getting passed around in a ring." Come on, it doesn't take a mathematician to think of these things. :p
But even if the episode's script did feel like a rough draft, or a fanfic, or a rough draft of a fanfic which was then turned into a ratings stunt with the aid of a songwriter, I like that it's inspired me to make more dumb joke videos again.
Link to video
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I seem to recall doing a trick like that, but without the mouse: Loaded a game, took a step, and hit Save again so quickly that only Playerface got to move. It probably helps to set the game speed lower, I think. So I'd consider this a valid trick, however you do it, but you might also want to open a "Doesn't press P" category too.
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goofydylan8, I would recommend simply playing through the game once and testing each secret key yourself to see how it works. I tried to place each result character on the center of where the effect takes place, but it isn't really practical to try to scribble out exactly what each and every one does.
I was pretty sure I could only find the one warp, but you never know, you could surprise me!
Now the thing about the ladder pieces is that you only get the very top piece once you have all six other pieces, and it's that seventh piece that allows you to climb over the brick to reach Marion. However, if you do discover some sort of trick jump that gets you on top without all the pieces, that should be enough to trigger the ending--but darn, I didn't think to try cheating Robin's position in this version to make sure.
feos wrote:
Note "on 2:05 there's something screwed up...I go down to level below and I come out on level ABOVE."
I'd wager this is just a mistake in editing out part of the video, as the score also jumped up by 660 points out of nowhere in between screens.
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I think my favorite part is seeing what all you do while waiting for a bomb to go off. I still love some well-placed speed boosts, though. 100% TAS is funny because you pull off the impossible missile tank skip, but then go right back down and grab the missile tank anyway.
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Hey everyone, I just discovered this comment on... THE INTERNET:
That is bullshit.
Me and a friend beat clinger winger. The thing is, player 1 starts with a disadvantage, since his winger is closer to the giant thing chasing you. It pretty much means you have to perfect the level to pass it in 2 players.
Its not really a glitch.
Can anyone who's good at this game check if there's any truth to this? I would hate to think we just assumed that level was impossible.
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So the picture matches the toy you bought! :P
If the sculpted Cheerilee is a recolor of Applejack, then so is the picture of Cheerilee, right down to the freckles that the toys don't have.
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I know I always liked to make the joystick-guarding one fall off the right edge of the screen, so I wouldn't have to deal with him at all.
But that would be interesting to see just how much of a pacifist run you could accomplish of the whole trilogy. Do like the Vorticon Elder says and keep from slaughtering anyone!
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Rena wrote:
Do you get anything for all melons/coins? It's been so long, I can't remember what all there is in this game.
I'll bet I've said this before, but from what I remember, the number of levels in which you collect 30 melons determines what message you see when the Yoshis get their Super Happy Tree back.
There was a rumor that collecting all coins in one level unlocks a Purple Yoshi, but I'm pretty sure we debunked that one.
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Bobo the King wrote:
I think it's unsettling for the same reason people don't like clowns-- with nothing but happiness, there's no underlying drama and it sits at the bottom of the uncanny valley.
But real clowns are sad. It's other people who laugh at them.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Apple Bloom disputes your claim that such board games are impossible for her to play.
Naw, I think the point was, "It's my destiny to accelerate my own destiny."
I liked that Spike was full of suggestions, but I think one of them should have been, "Just cast the same spell four more times, since it's apparent that the marks are getting passed around in a ring." Come on, it doesn't take a mathematician to think of these things. :p
But even if the episode's script did feel like a rough draft, or a fanfic, or a rough draft of a fanfic which was then turned into a ratings stunt with the aid of a songwriter, I like that it's inspired me to make more dumb joke videos again.
Link to video