Posts for Derakon

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Posted: 8/2/2009 4:13 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I think your encoder barfed all over the file, Alden. Is it supposed to look like this? (playback in VLC)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/1/2009 10:36 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Flipping bits on the hard drive involves changing the magnetic field strength in a small area. But magnetic field strength isn't digital; it's analog. So you define ranges and say "that's 0" (even though it's never actually completely nonmagnetic) and "that's 1" (even though the actual strength is always different). When you write a 1 where a 0 used to be, you change the field strength, but the new value depends in part on the old value; thus, with some skill and heuristics, you can still read it even though the old value is "gone". For more information, see the Wikipedia link.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 8/1/2009 10:29 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Thanks for the encode, Alden! Man, what the hell is up with that kiwi's head when he opens the cage? Is that his nose? Eyes? I don't mind the wobbling there since it doesn't move the camera and it does make an interesting little optical illusion/persistence-of-vision trick. As for the rest of the run, looks like a good improvement on an existing published movie. Incidentally, one of the links on the current publication is for a download for Kirby's Adventure...
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/30/2009 9:05 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Ahh, Koei's [Dynasty|Samurai] Warriors series. I always played with the Japanese voice actors, because then at least I couldn't tell as easily that the voice acting was absolutely terrible. That was a particularly bad example, though.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/29/2009 11:29 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
In the past the people who submit such movies have generally listed the person who made the bulk of the movie as a co-creator (e.g. in the current S3K run). I think the community's doing a good job of self-regulating here and there's no need to make formal rules.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/29/2009 9:25 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
It seems likely you'd have to recode the gapfiller for every game you wanted to encode, since each game would have sprite information in different locations in memory. Anyone know how the gap is written? I wouldn't be surprised if the DS provides the ability to treat the entire system as one big screen, in which case you might be able to capture the pixels in the gap area and cause them to actually be drawn. Er, if that made any sense.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/29/2009 9:18 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Thanks for the answers, White Gastra. My attitude towards the run is basically the same as Dromeceius. It seemed like there were opportunities to play around that weren't taken, but when you were actually progressing the game, things went quickly, and the run was enjoyable to watch.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/29/2009 4:38 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Thanks for the encode, ShinyDoofy! It would have been nice to see more playing around during the jetbike segments. As it is, the brothers are just right on top of each other when you're doing the dodging segments, and one of them's just idling when the other's picking up the bonuses. Similarly, during the rappelling segments, you often have the brothers perfectly overlapping each other. These are good opportunities to play around, though I know that makes the TAS harder to do since you have more input to deal with. There's a segment where you have to hand-over-hand along some pipes while flames fly at you from various directions. After that there's a rappelling segment, but two of the flames are lingering onscreen. Is that supposed to happen? You don't appear to be hurt by them. Seems like it could be a source of lag. In the segment where there's lots of objects falling down, the lag's pretty bad. Would staying near the top of the screen improve that? It seems, to my untrained eye, that when you moved up, the lag went away, though that might have been due to fewer falling objects being onscreen. In the chase segment where you're shooting things that the rat ship drops, it seems like there's a fair amount of dead time; another possible opportunity to play around, maybe? When you kill the rat ship, is there a reason you only have one ship shooting at its nose at a time? When climbing ladders on the missile, you stop for flames when you're going down the ladder. What happens if you take damage here? Could you drop down the ladder faster if you did? On the whole, the run was fairly entertaining. The miniboss fights got a bit dull what with just jump-kicking the guy back and forth, but there's not much you can do about that.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/29/2009 1:55 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
The any% SMB run isn't very interesting, really. It's on the site because it's freakin' Super Mario Bros, but as a run it's pretty dull. This game isn't freakin' Super Mario Bros.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/29/2009 12:09 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Do note that the SDA timing rules are different from the TASVideos timing rules. In particular, IIRC they start from when you actually start the game (skipping any intro scenes, etc.) while TASVideos starts from power-on. Still, the difference in speed between the TASVideos and SDA SMB runs is marginal. SMB is not a very complicated game.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/28/2009 3:29 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
No-derivatives could cause problems since frequently new movies are made that pull input sequences from old movies. Honestly I don't think this is worth worrying over. Right now we have a nice unofficial community understanding. I'm worried that trying to make that understanding into something official will create bad feelings all round and undermine the community.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/27/2009 5:33 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Because what the Star Fox representatives really needed was another light, fast character. ;)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/27/2009 5:31 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
What's special about the EU version compared to the NA version?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/27/2009 2:56 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
That'll be the reward for manipulating luck well. :) More seriously, some cheats to make Opa-Opa invincible should reveal what happens pretty quickly.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/26/2009 4:15 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Oh, wait, I was thinking of the broken-down spaceship level with the boss that's a random flying guy and two gun turrets. I'd forgotten about the heat caverns level.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/26/2009 4:14 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Er, yes, she is, with different weapons loadouts depending on the storyline. Pretty much every friendly character in the Star Fox 'verse (with the possible exception of Tricky...) flies a ship of some kind in this game.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/26/2009 4:11 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
There's no hard-and-fast rule as to when to end input. The most liberal is "end the input when not adding any more input is sufficient to end the game". This can sometimes be long before the game actually ends (c.f. Gradius, where the TASer grabs a shield specifically so he can just sit there like a lump through the last few enemies and then watch the boss self-destruct).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/25/2009 9:09 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Galaga's such a simple game that I'd be surprised if he were unable to get them to sync up again on a different ROM. Might require some hex editing, though.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/23/2009 10:37 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I've had that problem for ages. I'd love to know what causes it. :\
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/23/2009 9:13 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Not only do you have to register a trademark; you also have to defend it, or else you lose it. "Xerox" is a genericized trademark because, while it still is the name of the company, it also is the verb of "to make a copy of a paper document." They failed to defend it, so they lost the specific trademark rights.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/23/2009 4:19 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
mmbossman wrote:
For those of us keeping score at home, but too lazy to do the comparisons ourselves, how much faster is this than the published movie?
The published run is 6:51.03; this one is 6:47.38. Even if the currently-published run ends its input earlier than this run does, that's still an improvement of at least 3.65s, or about 109 frames.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/23/2009 3:10 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Now, it is true that if you flip a real coin 100 times and 90 times it's heads, you can begin to draw some conclusions about that coin (or about the person flipping the coin) and suspect that it's not perfectly balanced. :) But a truly random event, by definition, does not depend on previous random events. Otherwise it wouldn't be random. If part of your problem statement is "this coin has a 50% chance of landing heads every time you flip it", then the answer to any given "what happens when I flip it after doing X" is "you'll have a 50% chance of getting heads."
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/22/2009 4:26 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Hah! That was quick. :) I have a love/hate relationship with stage 5. It's an awesome concept, but the level's a total maze and some of the enemies are pretty cheap. And the boss really has too much health. Oh, well. Looking good so far!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/22/2009 1:27 AM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Because doing so would take months of effort, and it's not at all clear that after all that the optimized run would be accepted.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 7/21/2009 11:58 PM
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Derakon
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
D'oh! Sorry about that. And sorry, Upthorn!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
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