The maximum score is easily defined and absolute - it must not be possible to gain a higher score, even theoretically. It must be definable without being dependent on precise time, speed, or similar requirements.
It should be clear that in the case of this game, there is a definable maximum score, because the player is limited by round timers and health in terms of how many points they can milk out of each match. Round timers, health, and number of matches are all finite, ergo maximum score is also finite. Whether the max score is easily definable is a different question, but also not a relevant one IMO. We don't require speed-oriented TASes to have an easily-defined fastest possible time. Just because we don't know for certain that this TAS achieves the maximum possible score doesn't mean we shouldn't accept it as a score-oriented TAS, which could possibly be obsoleted in the future by another TAS with a higher score.
What we don't want is to accept a score-oriented TAS in a game where score is unbounded. And the rules do require that, but then they go further than necessary with this "easily defined" stuff.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Illegally? What law are these guys breaking? Just exploiting a loophole...
Casinos are a private business, and can refuse to do business with customers for any reason. Just like any potential customer can refuse to do business with anyone.
Yep, which is why when they find someone who's figured out how to win, they just kick that person out. It's not illegal to win at the casino, just to return there after you've been banned from the premises.
That said, I wouldn't personally want to make a habit out of pissing off people that, as thatguy said, make a living off of exploiting human vulnerabilities. Their only legal recourse may be to blacklist you, but nothing says you can't get conveniently mugged on the way back to your hotel, say.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
There is a glitch where if the Hero does level up after the 10th round while the "Cleaned them out" and "Won #### EXP." messages are popped up exactly as it is, the Hero immediately gains another level!
This is a known glitch. The problem is that it'll take longer to gain another level after you get the double-levelup. So you're a bit more powerful in the short term, but in the long term it makes no difference.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I'd say just use imgur, personally. They may of course eventually decide to break hotlinking images, but until they do, imgur's a free, no-account-needed image host.
(And I know my avatar has been broken for awhile, I've been lazy about fixing that. It's not imgur's fault).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Man, I remember playing this game! Or one of the variants of it, anyway. I had no clue what I was doing (being at most 8 years old at the time). I think I just wandered around punching thugs for the most part. I found Robin tied up at one point but couldn't figure out what to do with him, maybe because I never figured out how to use items from the inventory.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Interesting game, and a nice run. Shame there aren't more frames in that rolling animation.
Here's a question for y'all: how come it seems like the Genesis got all the weird science-fantasy games? I'm not saying the genre doesn't exist on the SNES, but it seems more common on the Genesis.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Altitude can definitely have a major impact on your athletic performance, especially if you're not used to it. However, I have trouble believing it would replicate the experience you had. I've done swim meets at altitude (without having done any altitude training beforehand), and while my times were poor, they weren't "this is completely unlike any swimming I've done before" poor. I just got winded a lot more easily.
Another thing that can really affect your performance, that people tend to overlook, is temperature. Hot pools are a lot harder to exercise in than cold ones; the body isn't able to shed heat effectively, and limits your exertion to compensate. Again, I don't think that really can explain your "symptoms" on its own though.
As far as fluid mechanics are concerned, you would need to get unusually low-density water in order to have trouble floating in it. I suppose it's possible that the pool is aerated (like an aquarium), which would dissolve microbubbles of gas in it. I don't know why the club would do this, but it could be a byproduct of filtration.
I don't know how dissolving chemicals (like calcium or chlorine) into the water would affect its density, but my intuition is that they would tend to make it more dense, not less. In any case, water density would not explain your trouble with flip turns or swimming in general.
I suppose a hot, low-density, high-altitude pool might be able to combine factors to produce what you experienced. But why would you want to swim in a pool like that?
EDIT: note that aeration would probably be noticeable as unusually cloudy water. Solutes (dissolved chemicals) would be less likely to cause that symptom.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Against the stage 3 boss, you only fire once on the first jump, then you fire twice on all jumps after that. Wouldn't it be faster to fire twice on the first jump and only once on the last jump instead?
Anyway, very nice improvement! I'm impressed that there was so much time to save on this game.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
It would take a substantial amount of time to clear even a single battlefield. Of course the Exit spell will make other mandatory fights go a lot faster...how much confidence do you have that doing the battlefield is a net win time-wise?
I guess if there's any backtracking that Exit lets you skip, then that's a substantial benefit as well. I honestly can't remember if there are any dungeons that the game forces you to walk back out of.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I can't even get BizHawk to launch, though, let alone try to open a ROM. Sounds like there's at least two issues preventing BizHawk from being a workable solution, then.
On IRC, Spikestuff recommended me to try lsnes; unfortunately, I run into enough issues trying to compile it to discourage me from that route. And I'm not aware of any downloadable OSX binary for lsnes.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I've been running a Hackintosh for years now. A few months ago my Mavericks drive stopped booting, so I decided to just replace it with an El Capitan install. Big mistake. Damn near every single third-party program I have has stopped working due to non-backwards-compatible changes in the OS API.
I used to use SNES9x for casual gameplay recording -- record the controller input, using savestates as I like, then encode, you all know the drill. SNES9x still runs, but it can't access any OS dialog -- including, say, Open File (to open ROMs) and Save File (to set up controller recording). I can work around the former (right click on ROM -> Open With), but not the latter. Unfortunately SNES9x for OSX hasn't been updated in 5-6 years, and it looks like building from source is a fraught process, especially if you want, say, sound.
Instead I've been directed to EmuArch and OpenEmu, neither of which appears to support recording controller input either. I tried downloading the BizHawk OSX build from the forums, but it also appears to break under Yosemite / El Capitan -- it just hangs on launch.
Anyone have any suggestions for an OSX-compatible SNES emulator that can record controller input? Or am I just out of luck? Yes, I'm aware of dual-booting, but that's a tremendous hassle; I'd rather not do it if I don't have to. I guess WINE might also work?
I'm also really, seriously not interested in people pointing and laughing at me for using a Mac. Believe me, I'm not any happier about this "upgrade" than you are. I miss OSX 10.6... :(
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Why the name modifications? How much time do you think they'll save over the course of the run?
I'm also curious about that pause near the end of the boar fight.
Otherwise, looks good to me. Good luck!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Well, look at Vykan's testrun. The bossfights mostly consist of pinning the boss in the corner and constantly interrupting them so they can't get any attacks off. The random encounters are a lot more interesting, since Cless on his own can't lock down more than one or two enemies at a time. If Hard mode makes it impossible to lock down bosses, makes randoms die more slowly (so they have more time to make the fights interesting), or anything like that, then it'd probably be worthwhile.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
It can't be ACE, because once the player has ACE access they can always beat the game instantly.
But it gives a large amount of missiles and super missiles (maybe infinite) like Space/Time glitch in a GT code run.
Anyway, though it does not provide any warping things or such that skips something. Absolutely Yes vote.
It's just a large amount. I'm not familiar with the exact details, but basically the glitch causes the Crystal Flash to continue to decrease your missiles/super missiles "below zero". Since the numbers used to represent how much ammo you have is an unsigned number, instead of going negative, these counts go to very large positive numbers.
It's not ACE; it's just an overflow glitch. ACE allows you to do anything (it's Arbitrary Code Execution after all), this is just a specific glitch.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Yeah, that always sucks. I support your decision though. Much better, in my opinion, to finish a project despite known improvements, than to start over and risk having to start over again if some other new technique is found.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Okay, to extend my thoughts on this matter: it reminds me of when we had the "takes damage to save time" tag. We got rid of it because the modern TAS is expected to do whatever results in the fastest movie, not some concept of what "perfect play" would look like. Thus we should assume that the TAS will take damage any time that doing so would confer a speed advantage. "Pauses the game" is a similarly meaningless -- if pausing is faster, then you should pause, and not otherwise.
Now, we do have a "forgoes time-saving damage" tag, which is used to indicate when the player could have taken damage to save time, but opted not to, presumably for entertainment purposes. I could conceive of a run having a "forgoes pausing" tag to indicate similarly -- that the run could have abused the pause system to be faster, but did not in order to be more fun to watch. However, I'd need to be convinced that this was a sufficiently unique concept to be worth separating from the more general "makes speed/entertainment tradeoffs" tag.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
