Posts for Billy_Johnson


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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
The only videos I know are either normal gameplay or some crazy solutions for the challenge levels but no speedruns for the story levels.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Here's part 3 which completes the run of the story levels. https://mega.nz/#!VrwHUSrI!FFk09_K0Z25nT1qi_YQUmMY0sMA6Rvcmw_HXJprWy2I While I can't think of any obvious improvements either, it seems I haven't beat even one single record from the game leaderboard at the game's webpage. I got really close in a couple levels but in others there's a large gap even when I thought I had a near perfect run (particularly in the final levels).
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Thanks. I've actually already completed the TAS but getting an AVI has been difficult. Here's part 2 (still no sound, though), will post part 3 soon. https://mega.nz/#!gmpCQKLa!K0ySDGrpKxb5VIw-FPGRFyO_hLYlX6_zrGORas2cB8k I guess my TASing improved over time, so these levels look better than the early ones, IMO. Let me know what you think.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
At episode 23 right now but damn! not only the game has the sync issues I mentioned earlier (the same Hourglass movie will play fine for a while but always ends desyncing at some point or another). Hourglass also refuses to record audio when generating an AVI, it seems, which kinda sucks since music is a nice part of the game. Not only the audio is an issue when generating an AVI; the game has this weird behavior where, while recording/playing a movie, at the end of all levels that you complete by flying off the screen (episodes X, XX and, I suppose the same will happen in XXIX), Hourglass will "hang" for about ~40 seconds before the game resumes its normal rate but when creating an AVI, at that point Hourglass hangs ~40 seconds at each frame!. Damn! It's like the game doesn't want to be TASed!. I just spent nearly 3 hours waiting for encoding of the last few frames of episode X. I'm posting here the resulting AVI displaying the first 10 episodes of the game. Keep in mind that the first levels are sloppy as I still wasn't familiar or comfortable with Hourglass' savestates and frame-stepping. Also there's little chance to do interesting things in the first levels, it's only in later levels, after time travel and time stopping are introduced, that a better understanding of Hourglass allows to do some interesting things in a TAS that are not possible otherwise (who'd think that you can complete episode XVIII using only 3 time travels?). I'm starting to think that it might be impossible to get a proper, acceptable for inclusion, WFT file for this game. Anyway, I'm posting the first 10 episodes WIP to hear your opinion. I suggest you play this video at 2x or 4x. https://mega.nz/#!9zI1EC6R!d904tYj9BMFrU3a9SL6S8q-7Y-aDV5E7DCrfzxmJCR4
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
I didn't even remember creating that topic xD. It's been a long time. I plan on TASing the story mode levels with zero paradoxes. I have so far completed the first 17 levels but the game has some serious sync issues with Hourglass :(. I have spent more time dealing with sync issues than TASing the game :(. As of now I've come up with a workaround to make the sync issues less time consuming, that should make the TASing a bit faster.
Post subject: Temporal (2008) - WIP
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Temporal is a puzzle platforming indie game from 2008. I mentioned this game in the Windows wishlist a long time ago but recently I came across with the executable on my PC and decided to give it a try at TASing it myself. Game trailer: Link to video Please note that my TASing experience is close to nothing. Also, the game tends to desync a lot in Hourglass, so making a TAS has been sloppy.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Interesting, I never expected to see a MUGEN TAS.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Awesome TAS. The only thing that could possibly make it better in my opinion is if it included the sub-boss fight in stage 4. Actually, I guess there's a sub-boss in every stage but the one in stage 4 would likely be the most impressive in Reallyjoel's Mom difficulty.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Ah, Challenge 3, the solution is not hard to find, the hard part is to time it right. Unfortunately just watching a replay doesn't show how it was solved, that's where Hourglass can be useful.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
juef wrote:
I would also love a TAS from this game! There's one challenge I haven't been able to complete; seeing it torn apart would bring me a lot of joy.
What challenge is it?. The game seems to have some sync issues with Hourglass but I'm sure it can still help in getting better records/replays. Also, I've found that Silence of the chicks, an even older game from the same author, works fine with Hourglass and it might also be interesting to TAS. Quoting this article: "Don't let the simple graphics or easy controls fool you: SOTC is one of the most clever puzzlers I have come across in some time".
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Odongdong wrote:
I think it's impossible to TAS because it contains online ranking board. TASVideos do not accept online games.
As Patashu mentioned, the official game page and its online ranking boards no longer exist so I guess now it's a fair candidate.
Odongdong wrote:
Well, if failure of connecting to server doesn't affect gameplay critically, sure you can.
In fact, the game can totally be played offline. The online boards were only an option for those willing to use them.
Patashu wrote:
Actually, www.potato-factory.com/temporal/ no longer exists so it no longer has online ranking boards. Does that mean it's OK to speedrun now?
Yes, please. I'd really like to see the result of a TAS, in particular trying to beat the records reported in the wikia page.
Post subject: Temporal - Make your time
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Are there any speedruns for this 2008 freeware PC game? I'm sure it might offer some interesting and fun to watch runs. The official page/forum is dead so I'm posting the wikia link instead where you can find a download mirror. Game trailer: Link to video A not typical solution for one of the game challenge levels: Link to video
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
After several months I returned to my Hyper Princess Pitch attempt at beating the Really Joel's Mom difficulty setting with the help of Hourglass. I was able to beat Mecha Santa's first form but, unfortunately, the attacks in his final form are impossible to avoid. It would take 2 or more extra lives to have a chance to beat him and while it might be possible to reach Mecha Santa without losing a single life I don't feel like attempting it right now. An image at Mecha Santa's final form: http://bayimg.com/capoEaadm
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Joined: 11/14/2011
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Not an infinite amount, just a bunch of them. It would be impossible to survive even a couple of rooms without the help of Hourglass. I can upload the Hourglass WTF file if you're interested.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
After originally thinking that even reaching the first boss in Hyper Princess Pitch's Really Joel's Mom difficulty was impossible, I managed to actually get to Mecha Santa using Hourglass. Unfortunately, for some strange reason, now the movie stops at some point before reaching Mecha Santa and I don't have the will to replay it again from there right now. Also, from what I've seen, beating Mecha Santa could take hours.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
Hyper Princess Pitch works fine with Hourglass. No surprise as it uses the same engine as Iji. Anyway, I been thinking about doing a TAS of Hyper Princess Pitch in the ReallyJoel's Mom difficulty. I was able to reach room 5 in Stage 1 but I guess it's impossible to reach the boss room. Too bad; it would've been nice.
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Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
What's the problem with beating Psycho Mantis? I remember it was a rather easy boss.
Experienced Forum User
Joined: 11/14/2011
Posts: 18
I'm a new user to the forum and I have to say Hourglass is an impressive tool. That said, I've been trying to use Hourglass to record a movie of the game Temporal and while Hourglass basically works, I can't get it to record the game's audio. Silence of the Chicks, another game from the same author, also has some issues when used with Hourglass; the game runs in fullscreen and I can't switch back to the Hourglass window even if the game is paused. Other Allegro based games are also hard to get to work with Hourglass, in particular if the games run in windowed mode. I know getting all games to work is not an easy task for the Hourglass developers but I hope these games can eventually work.