Here's another one for you. This one needs more work yet, but it's another one for the big optimization push that I'll have in the future. Need to keep moving for now or else I'll go crazy. :P
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Got a new video for you guys. This Kingdom still needs a good amount of work, but I need a break from it! Moving on to the next one, and will finish tweaking this later. Enjoy!
Improved Orange Kingdom! Skip to 1:25 if you want to see the obvious changes. The clapping breaks vines too! This can still be improved, but I really didn't want to play through and modify Silver Snow Peak again at the time, so I'll just get it next time I'm running through it or feel like getting it done. <_< Probably after I beat the next kingdom, I imagine.
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And some huge improvement on Watermelon Kingdom.
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Ahhh, the first big discovery of my TAS! Here's a video of the Banana Kingdom again, but with a new technique/route applied (and a few small improvements) that shaves off a whopping 764 frames!
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Hey buddies! After a nice little break, I've been hard at work improving the three Kingdoms I've done before. If you aren't subscribed to my new Youtube account, here are the three improved Kingdoms!
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Banana Kingdom took the most work to improve. I don't recall how many frames I saved in total here, but it was pretty significant. Several different routes were attempted and many new tricks were learned.
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Orange Kingdom came with a surprising amount of improvement - 166 frames. I did not expect nearly as many, but a majorly improved bonus jump at the end of Silver Snow Peak and completely dodging the pigs at the end of Sky Garden, a feat I thought impossible, really sped things up.
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I knew Watermelon Kingdom had room for improvement, and I was right. A slightly different route, a few time-savers in Monkey Fest, some new tricks in Desert Oasis, and a boss fight with a new strategy got a hefty improvement of 226 frames from the last time I ran it, which was already much faster than my previously posted video.
Hey, everyone! I started a new Youtube channel for my TAS stuff, so feel free to subscribe if you're interested! I'll be posting videos there from now on. And speaking of that, here's my first one for the channel! A faster Banana Kingdom run! Many thanks to piepusher11, a speed-runner who is giving me a big helping hand. Also, thanks to whoever may have pointed him in the direction of my videos!
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This is looking so great! Not to be impatient, but how close to complete would you estimate this run is right now? I'll wait forever for it to be released, as long as it gets finished!
Here's a WIP for Watermelon Kingdom!
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As mentioned in the description, I can drop 27 bananas from this run to speed it up and I know exactly where. I just figured this WIP was close enough to go ahead and take a break from and post it.
Also, I saved 25 frames from the previous kingdom with a few small adjustments! Am I doing this TAS thing right? =)
Here's a WIP for the second kingdom! Enjoy, and check the video description if you'd like to see the best (but worse for TAS) jump possible for the end of the first level!
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Here's my WIP video for the first kingdom in the game, now that I've switched the goal of the run to 100% completion.
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Hopefully this is a bit more entertaining than the previous video!
Idk how entertaining this "get the highest Beat count possible as fast as possible" category is. I would almost prefer fastest time, personally. The WIP just seems really repetitive and I can't imagine it dragging on much longer.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. And if you think this level was dragging on, it'd only get worse over time. It'd only really entertain people like me who really love this game and want to see how high the score can really get (so I'd probably still like to do those, but also a fastest thing. hell, if I don't get completely sick of this, I'd probably end up doing both either way). I'm going to redo this video with bongo input to see what kinds of differences there are, and then probably look into figuring out the best way to go about a full game completion.
And I'm not sure if it syncs/records properly yet. I'll update on that when I find out!
Edit: Now that I've actually went past the Health/Safety screen, it turns out that the game does not think I'm using bongos when recording. Guess I should have gone in a little further, huh? Yeah, it's registering as a regular controller when recording, despite having the Bongos option selected.
It doesn't seem to be working, but I may be installing it wrong. What do I do with the .dmg file, if anything?
EDIT: Never mind, I'm an idiot and it does work. Thanks!
It would be handy, as it does change the inputs quite a bit, I've noticed. I actually just managed to sort of get it working maybe (I have to pause it before a single frame goes by, then switch the controller to Bongos), but I'm not sure if it's actually recording at all. Either way, skipping the Health and Safety warning matched up to the frames from the controller run here, so I'm at the very least already taking notes on the frames for bongo input. I guess I'll find out later if I try and render it, but in the meantime at least I can get started on converting this to a bongos run, which I think would be more true to the game. It would be definitely more convenient to have the option though.
Curious question though - if I found out that the "controller mode" is actually superior TAS-wise to "bongos mode", would it be better to go with "controller mode" despite it being the inferior actual gameplay option? Because it could turn out that way since inputs are different. I've actually saved 31 frames in the whole intro segment with "bongos mode" (and not with the prompt as I thought - instead of showing anything, it's just blank for the same number of frames that it takes to skip), but the jumping mechanics are radically different and I haven't gotten far enough to see how much it changes the first actual level. I personally would rather go with bongos no matter what, but if it would prevent a run from being published, then I'd like to know early so I don't make a whole lot of a run and then have to redo it for a completely preventable reason.
Also, I'm considering changing the scope of my project to "fastest game completion" since it could be quite a dull watch for people unfamiliar with the game otherwise. It would still make plenty use of the combo system since it requires a certain amount of crests to unlock the final level, so it wouldn't be a lame rush-through or anything. Would take more planning, but potentially less time. Anyone who has thoughts or suggestions, feel free to let me know!
Greetings! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is one of my favorite Gamecube games ever, and I've had an interest in TAS runs for a while so I decided to give it a shot myself. I know that making my first TAS on a Gamecube game is probably kind of absurd, but the game has simple input so it's worth giving a shot in my mind, and I'd like to do something that it seems no one else is doing. I'm playing the Gamecube version instead of the Wii version, because the Wii version is quite different and I'm not familiar with it at all.
Here is a little WIP video for anyone interested. It's the first level of the game, Dawn Savanna, with the goal of "get the highest Beat count possible as fast as possible". Note that I have not figured out the optimal input for the banana collecting minigame at the end. The highest I've gotten from it is 57, but the highest I've gotten as a human player is 70, as I recall. The best input does not seem like a straight-forward thing, so I'll have to keep messing with it. I'm also suspicious that it could be because the game thinks I'm using a GCN controller. Recording doesn't seem to be working for me with the Bongo option checked (which also slows down the game start-up by several frames since it shows a prompt about how the Bongos are a superior play option).
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I have a few ideas on how to improve this level, but for now I'm just glad to have a good start. Hope someone enjoys this!