I'd be inclined to go with keyboard+mouse for the Computer icon, since they're really about the only constants in terms of what computers look like. But I recognize that would be harder to find than a generic computer case.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Looking good so far!
I seem to recall that the release version and the beta version behave differently when it comes to restoring your health and magic after getting a new power, though I can't remember which one is more generous.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
It seems like Hourglass ought to intercept filehandle creation. The way I'd probably handle it, at first glance, would be:
* Allow the user to specify a whitelist of files that a given movie file can modify (e.g. for movies that start from savefiles). These files are copied to a sandbox region when the movie starts playback. Any request for one of these files gets redirected to the sandboxed version.
* All read-only filehandle requests are granted (e.g. for reading resource files).
* Filehandles with write access are only granted for new or whitelisted files. Newly-created files go in the sandbox.
* The sandbox is wiped every time a movie starts.
That said, all I know about Hourglass is what I've read here on the forums, so this might not be practicable.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Yeah, there are big differences between the different versions of Skyblazer out there. I always thought it was a bit weird; never realized one was a beta.
Good luck!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
To go into more detail on what DarkKobold said, we have people here who put a lot of effort into getting the best-quality encodes that they can, while still keeping the size of the resulting file very low. And frankly, they've done an amazing job. They use a standard set of programs for these encodes, so they can share their techniques and compare each others' results.
Many of those techniques involve taking advantage of the pixelization and small color selection in the movies we create here. A general-purpose encoder like Sony Vegas is presumably optimized for videos of the real world, which require completely different techniques to achieve good results. I would be surprised if it were capable of matching our encodes when it comes to video games.
All that said, if you have the permission of the person who created the run, I don't see why you couldn't use Vegas to make your own encodes. Those can definitely still be useful, especially if you want to encode someone's WIP (work-in-progress) TAS. WIP encodes don't have to meet the same standards as the publishable encodes, and you simply post them in the forums so others can see them.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I seem to recall seeing someone say that you could jump on spikes in this game and be fine so long as you jumped as soon as you landed. I haven't watched your WIP though; maybe you already know this.
Anyway I'm pretty sure there's discussion of this game somewhere in the forums already.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
After watching your WIPs of the first level, I decided that I'd have to play this game myself, so I bought it and it's in my stack of waiting-to-be-played games. Which, unfortunately, means I can't really comment on your run since that'd require spoiling myself.
Congrats on finishing, though!
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Looking good! I like how this game is basically Arkanoid taken to the illogical extreme. Multiball? Feh. We split the ball every time it hits the paddle! Laser beam? Yeah, more like the Yamato cannon. And that big-ball upgrade is absurd.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Low% Run - For this sort of run, it would be somewhat like Other M's Hard mode. That is, all upgrades are allowed to be collected, but with both Missiles, Super Missiles and Power Bombs, you can only collect 1 of each. And as for the E-Tanks? Well, you shouldn't collect any of them. The same would possibly go for the Reserve Tanks. It would provide an interesting challenge for players, yet not be as restrictive as the low% "speed booster" & "ice beam" runs with regards to what beams can be used. In fact, it would cause players to use the beams more often than a normal speedrun. But this is only just an idea.
You have to have at bare minimum 3 E-tanks and the Gravity suit to survive one hit from Mother Brain's rainbow beam. The game is otherwise uncompletable unless you use X-Ray scope glitching to skip Mother Brain.
Otherwise, all your run does, really, is let the player also get the beams and speedbooster, as well as some upgrades that the existing any% run doesn't bother with (c.f. space jump, screw attack, spring ball, X-ray scope). And why would we want a low% run that isn't actually low%? If you're going to do a challenge mode, it should be as challenging as possible.
The reason why Metroid Fusion / Other-M low% runs work the way they do is that the developers did their best to ensure that every non-ammo-expansion upgrade is required at least once (and that if you get an upgrade that isn't required to continue, like the Spazer beam, then at least the act of getting is is unavoidable). That's far from the case for Super Metroid, while Super Metroid simultaneously has some "ammo" requirements that necessitate picking up expansions -- in addition to the rainbow beam problem, normally you need 15 ballistic ammo (missiles/super missiles) to destroy the Zebetites, though you can also glitch past them with the ice beam.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
ElectroSpecter: I don't have the quantum mechanics knowledge required to thoroughly answer your question, but in college, we had a running joke that anyone who could quantum tunnel into the vending machine storeroom would get a free soda. The recommended technique was to strip naked, put on some rollerskates, and then skate as fast as possible right at the wall.
What I'm trying to say is, the phrase you want to look at is "quantum tunneling".
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
You might also be interested in reading the turn by turn description of the TAS. They've sunk way too much effort into it so far for switching platforms to make any kind of sense.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Yes, it's good to establish a basis of understanding by hearing an expert's opinion. However, it's not good to consider that expert's opinion to be absolute truth without investigating the source material yourself, especially if you are wishing that expert's opinion is wrong. This means that one should read the law oneself before giving in and considering the legality of an action to be "too convoluted". Discouragement from research is not productive.
Of course, if, after research, you verify the expert's opinion to be true, then it's practical to consider it true yourself until proven otherwise.
One of the problems with modern society (at least in the USA) is that we've gotten the first half (don't blindly believe experts) and not the second half (spot-check their validity). Instead most of us just blindly believe demagogues instead. Why go to all the effort of acquiring a research doctorate and spending years collecting data when you can just learn to manipulate people instead?
(Another problem is that in many domains you can't spot-check things without being an expert yourself. Legal language is a big offender here; who out there besides the lawyers really understands everything in the contracts they sign?)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Tub's point is that LunarBot is specific to Lunar Pool, so unless you want to improve that specific game, there's no point in distributing it.
In other words, distributed computing can help bots run faster but it won't help you make bots.
Is there any interest in improving Lunar Pool? My only complaint about it was that it occasionally made "dummy" shots just to reduce the score tally time -- a smart optimization for the overall TAS but it reduced the per-shot entertainment value.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Doesn't the run that gets a goal sphere to clear Izzy's castle also use RAM corruption? What about the glitch to get a set of Yoshi wings to skip part of YI3?
No, not even closely in the same way that this run does. The goal sphere involves eating the Chuck with Yoshi, and the Chuck has a byte that tells the game to give Mario a goal sphere when eaten (even if it wasn't meant to be read). This byte was always in the ROM, and we did nothing to make the game read it. The only glitch we really did was make the Chuck eatable using an overload of the game's sprites.
Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I'm surprised that the pause on each enemy unit is so much longer in this version compared to the original. It really slows the game down.
Pretty game, though, and at least the portraits aren't as doofy as they are in SF2.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Doesn't the run that gets a goal sphere to clear Izzy's castle also use RAM corruption? What about the glitch to get a set of Yoshi wings to skip part of YI3?
Not that I have any better ideas for a category name.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
There's a difference between downloading an emulator, which is one set of software that is widely used by a fairly large number of people, and joining a compute cloud, where people can submit jobs that could be doing just about anything, with relatively little oversight. You need to sandbox the program so it can't meddle with anything.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Also keeping in mind that if your expected runtime for a singlethreaded program is only a few days, it might well be easier to leave it singlethreaded than it would be to go to the work of figuring out how to split the job up into sub-jobs to farm out to separate threads, let alone to send to remote machines.
Lunar Pool is a situation in which a server farm could have paid off, since it took months for the job to run on just Bisqwit's computer. But those kinds of situations are currently, I suspect, the exception rather than the rule.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
How do you define the "machine thinking you won"? As far as the SNES cares it just executes opcodes, there is no real hardware "win state". That said, there are software level win states, and I believe that once a software level "winning" routine has been triggered, that would qualify as winning.♦
So, if I found a "write to save memory" glitch and set the win bit, then you'd accept that the game was completed, even if I was in the middle of a level at the time?
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
When in doubt, use the frame counter. It won't lie to you. I'm not at all familiar with the game* but it's entirely possible that the in-game timer is inaccurate for all sorts of reasons. Lag is the obvious possible explanation, but it may also purposefully run the timer inaccurately during special techniques or the like.
Kinda lame that the game makes bosses take longer if you're really good at killing them. I wonder if this might be a situation in which the most entertaining option isn't the fastest? That is to say, going all-out and inflicting as much damage as possible even if that causes the boss to grow extra limbs and organs for you to lop off, instead of sitting around wasting time so he won't. Again, not familiar with the game, and this is a judgement call at the best of times. Go with whatever you think is best.
* Though, having seen it for $10 on Amazon, I went ahead and ordered it after seeing your encode; it has a good pedigree.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
