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Serpent is not exactly Snake. It's more like Tron, with some Snake elements. There seems to be a Snake game for Atari 2600, but Wikipedia doesn't seem to mention any versions of the game on widely TASed consoles.
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From this thread. Who wants to take up the challenge of a historically accurate Civilization game?
More on-topic, I've beaten Civilization: Revolution in 800 years (8 turns) on the DS. It would probably be faster, but it's hard to say for certain. The brute-force luck manipulation in this run would be much harder to achieve on any scale for a DS game.
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I recall using excessive saving for a speedrun of this game. I played as Zulu on the lowest difficulty, and won in less than 1000 years. The Zulu would be the best choice for a TAS, as their warriors move twice as fast as normal ones. Victory in a properly executed TAS should be a matter of maximizing production in the starting city, and then crossing the map as soon as possible.
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There might be a slight difference favouring one over the other. For example, if Luigi's end of level sound clip is shorter, or if you can get into the start of the game sooner with Luigi, it would be best to keep using him. If there's no difference, I agree that it's a clever idea.
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I don't think a Pokémon run will ever use a main battler infected with Pokérus.
I think Happylee will keep improving Super Mario Bros. until he gets sub-1 second, and then he'll start working on a time machine.
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No hacks needed - in the original, unmodified version of Pokemon Blue, it's possible to catch all 151 pokemon through the use of the Missingno. glitch and the Mew glitch. See the original thread on catching all 151 for more details.
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The best way to enter a door is to move towards it for at least 1 step before entering it. The same applies for staircases and teleporters. For example, the staircase at 0:42 in your third video was entered well. The teleporter at 3:25 was not - it would have been better if, after fighting the rival, you walked as far down as possible and then moved right to the teleporter.
Considering this excellent TAS, would you want to beat Primo's Blue TAS? As well as the glitches his run used, there's also a trick to skip the first gym entirely. Keeping the main battler's health low would also improve the time, and using the Japanese version of the game would speed up the run a lot. However, you should probably use the English version, as most people here prefer understanding the text.
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It's intriguing, but probably won't increase our time for that star. The Bully can be knocked off of that ledge so quickly that causing a suicide would take longer than simply killing him - unless someone can manipulate the bully into jumping off the edge before Mario reaches him. However, I have a hunch that this isn't feasible, because someone would have discovered it already. Of course, I would love to be proved wrong.
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My point was that the slower of 2 racers would be faster than the fastest possible 1-person time. See, if either player can go 10% faster while behind the other player, and they can both use mushrooms to exchange first place, their average speed will be 5% faster.
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It looks like the main sources of improvement come from consistent application of 3 small timesavers - Keeping the main battler at low health to suppress cries, more efficient luck-manipulation than Tilus' run, and the use of the Japanese version of the game, which has faster-scrolling text. But keeping the main battler's health down also allows faint-warping out of the S.S. Anne, which is faster than walking out. Also, I'm surprised trading for a Farfetch'd turned out to be faster than catching a second pokemon as Cut slave.
With that in mind, though, I did detect some minor improvements that could be made - most notably, doors were often entered slowly. Even optimizing every single doorway would probably only speed up this run by 5 seconds or less.
Some questions:
Is part 3 available somewhere?
Who made this run? We should contact him and ask if he knows about the glitches used for Primo's 1:18 run, and whether he knows of any other useful time-saving tricks.
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If player 1 could go top speed most of the way, but occasionally go even faster due to drifting behind player 2, the slower player would still go faster than a lone unassisted racer. Or am I missing something here?
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It's not the release version. At 3:30 in the No Mercy video, you can see a metal automatic door. This door replaced a normal door that can be destroyed with a pipe bomb - a good example of a way a run in the release version could be faster.
I don't know if it's compatible with the release version, but a TAS of Crash Course would be very impressive. It's shorter than the other ones, so a time around 7 minutes would be possible.
Your No Mercy video mentions that this is possible on a 360. How do you access the console on an XBox 360?
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Technically, counting cards at blackjack is not illegal, but it's also not illegal for a casino to throw your card-counting ass off their property and tell you to never come back. They can't have you arrested for counting cards, but they could have you arrested for trespassing after they kick you out.
Here's my interpretation of the Monty Hall problem, if the host picks a door at random:
There's a 2/3 chance you picked a goat on your first try. When the host picks a random door, there is a 1/2 chance that he picks a goat (making switching a good strategy) and a 1/2 chance that he picks the car (so you have no chance of winning).
There is a 1/3 chance that your first choice was a car. In this case, staying where you are is certainly the best choice.
So, there is a 1/3 chance that you will be in a situation where you should switch, a 1/3 chance that you will be in a situation where you should stay, and a 1/3 chance that you have no chance of winning. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether or not you switch.
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Voting Meh. I would have voted yes for the face-walking and disco ball fatalities, but as noted, the TAS is not as fast as it could be. I agree with what Nicos said about the last bicycle kick.
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So, I take it this game would use Lorentz' equation to calculate important values of energy, length, momentum, etc? Perhaps there could be a mechanic where Mario applies a certain amount of force to himself when he walks, and higher speeds require more energy to reach. c could be set to a value similar to Mario's top speed, assuming we remove friction from the game.
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Regarding your TMNT idea, my TAS body counts are somewhat similar in that they count kills per minute. But I do like some of your other challenge ideas as well.
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Pokémon Red/Blue:
Unlocked Door: Beat Giovanni's gym before any others.
Lucky Throw: Catch a Legendary with a Poké Ball.
Type Matching: Defeat the Elite Four with no Pokémon above level 50.
Gamebreaker: Score a quadruple-effective critical hit.
Sucker: Buy a Magikarp for $500.
Curbstomp: Defeat a trainer in the Bug Forest with a level 100.
Loyal: Defeat the Elite Four using only your starter.
Not Mew: Using the surf bug, sneak into the harbour where the S.S. Anne cast off. Surf over to the truck and use STRENGTH on it with a level 100 Mewtwo, then SURF on it with a level 100 Rhydon, then use CUT with a level 100 Bulbasaur, and then don't get a Mew.
Cautious: Save just before fighting every Gym Leader and Legendary in the game.
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Voting No, mostly because of the saving, lack of flagpole trick, and sub-par emulation.
Some minor notes:
Shell Mario is slower on land, but faster in water. How much does this make up for his lack of speed on land?
5-Ghost House could be done faster by about 20 in-game "seconds", by using Mini Mario and wall-jumping up to the door.