Posts for Greenalink


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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
I tried TASing this when DSiware support was added and yes finding the absolute best RNG seed is a nightmare I was hesitant to advance 1 minute of real time just to get a faster IGT on a single level by say 2 seconds. Stage 2 in 8:16 https://twitter.com/Greenalink/status/1500608316799602690?t=dLvXcfjbu3cALpndtpSudg&s=19 Stage 3 in 14:56 https://twitter.com/Greenalink/status/1500945197009620993?t=xF9AIXmJQcqN8T7LeLXd2w&s=19 I got up to stage 7 or 8 just before the later stages required x2 massive combos due to massive pixel count.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
I haven't watched any speedy NSMB 2 runs since 2016 due to IRL stuff so I was happy to see 3DS games TASable back in 2020 even if Citra is rough around the edges to use. I was going to ask if under 500 coins is doable to skip the 500 coins collected milestone message but that might not be possible? One downside if it is possible is that it can lead to restrictions/less entertaining play on auto-scrolling segments such as the underwater stage in Mushroom-2 where Gold Fire Flower kills would be kept to a minimum. A run with SRAM can only save 3-6 seconds* over a fresh file in traditional gameplay (so excluding first time booting up messages where you hit OK on a few questions) but producing a genuine file that isn't save edited will take a long time. * Clearing stages that lead to a save message including Towers, Castles and Warp cannons requires the overall coin counter to be updated before the message pops-up. With 9,999,999, the coin update part is skipped. Other stages doesn't have this rule as Mario is able to regain control as the overall coin counter is updating. I voted yes on this. For people who haven't watched the run before. Final boss Bowser is measured in number of slashes. Floor 1 - 2 the minimum number of slashes is 4 Floor 2 - 3 the minimum number of slashes is 5 Floor 3 - 4 the minimum number of slashes is 3 Assets such as pipes to enter. platforms to land or big switch to activate only appear/operate when they are close to the in-game's camera shot. It's not like Super Mario 3D Land where you can perform some crazy off-screen strats to skip actual auto-scrolling.
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Nearly a week ago. I've produced a "WIP quality" run of the 3DS exclusive Fist of Death mode. It relied on savestates and 25% speed (figuring out ideas on fast enemy kill routes than fully optimising it). The game has its own in-game replay save so it doesn't use the traditional citra movie file as I had a rough experience in the past back in 2020 where it could randomly get corrupted (although recent builds does not have this problem anymore). Link to video
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
I'll try to be a brief as possible. From what I remember, both PSX and Sega Saturn has to show BIOs screen sequence. DSiWare games as far as I know cannot be booted up automatically like DS cart games and even 3DS games, they have to be selected from the menu. This leads to a few unique issues I've experienced so far. The NAND file is region specific, so a USA NAND will not run EU/JP DSiWare roms, the NAND files may have other apps installed into it and lastly the NAND file probably has save data of DSiWare titles but I need to double check that. The second problem is booting it up. You could intentionally re-arrange your apps so that when you open up the correct DSiWare rom, the present should be as close to the game cart slot or most recently used app. Yeah it's not as straight forward than Saturn/PSX boot up bios. Heck the DSi with pre-installed games can still be booted up without even selecting Open Rom option so you technically can start a TAS run with the NAND file highlighting on the game you want to run to lower the TAS timer. This is more of an issue for judging the movie file as the only reliable way is to share the NAND which I'm sure is against the rules for copyright reasons. Right now with MelonDS's DSititle manager I've removed all of the pre-installed apps, moved an empty slot to the far left with the most recently used app (either settings or DS cart boot icon) next to it. So when you use open rom method, the DSi present icon is to the left which becomes a straight forward TAP or single arrow press to highlight and unwrap the new DSiware rom and finally boot up the game. TL:DR we need to make a guide for producing TASVideos submitable DSiware runs. What are your thoughts on this?
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Currently not TASable as it's not on Linux but if there is a way to TAS it, that would be amazing. Vital information for future use: The PC version is preferred for this entry because: The game supports 120FPS which is really important as Copen's lock-on shots in this game has no rate of fire limit. The default rapid fire (holding) is slower than average mashing or in this case 60 presses per second (120fps), this can obliterate any enemy in the game except for Mother 2's main structure as it has no lock-on tag. The earlier versions either V1.1.1 or V1.1.2 are preferred because they have the ability to skip end of level boss battles by pressing start at the right frame before the Fight Start sequence appears. Some levels could benefit from dying asap by falling into a pit and pray for anthem revival which has permanent bullit dash flying, this might not be necessary due to tighter optimisations with TAS tools. Getting over 1000 Kudos starts up Overdrive and unlocks a limited form of unlimited bullit dash flying as it has a timer bar once the first air dash has been used. Because every(?) end of level boss battle is skippable the route is minor. Dacite > Vespa > Hail > Ace > Brigade > Autochrome Vespa, Hail and Autochrome have mid-bosses but cannot confirm if those are skippable. https://twitter.com/RTTN001/status/1488106774594928643?t=GNPF3HoPt5jqWOBae3hvYw&s=19 There is 1 mid-boss in the final stages that is skippable but it looks like it requires a frame perfect start button to disable the camera lock during the fight and doing so despawns the far right door.
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Post subject: Cyber Shadow
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
A brand new 8-Bit game that is published but not developed by Yacht Club games. It does have a Linux release and early impressions of the game so far is that it's a platform adventure that is mostly linear unless there is a glitch that breaks the game which isn't going to be likely. The main selling point that will make a run "SPEEDY TAS of the Year" worthy is part way through the game where Shadow learns both the dash and dash slash techniques. The latter can be spammed to be faster than normal dashing but if the player has at least 1 SP the dash can be extended and in some cases, killing an enemy with a SP Dash Slash can lead to another (SP) Dash slash. Gameplay sample: https://twitter.com/i/status/1354892549391962112 Shurikens are ideal tools to kill grounded bosses in the early part of the run for having good DPS. Rising Fire is great against Mekadragon who is pretty RNG based where it spawns although in my first playthrough when I hear Mekadragon's BGM playing, I go to the far left and got the first spawn very consistently. Parry is going to be a huge factor for the TAS as it can negate projectiles and reflected back for bonus damage. The secondary items have some uses. Extended blade will be handy for early hits against bosses but other items like swag blade (yes that's the actual name) has actual long reach with a yo-yo like effect. SP Dispenser will give +1 SP to the player after a few seconds, very handy when sprint is unlocked for more SP boosted Dash slashing.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
The spawn trick in stage 9 still works, every character can pull it off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIk7IODZKT4 Cherry got better V5 but Blaze4 has bread and butter burst combos by using: Charge > Foward Special > Charge. I would love to see a high score TAS with 2 players, 4 players would be hectic in an unwatchable way due to the fact there is a huge damage output penalty when more players join in the game. 3 might be ok if the trio are Axel4, Blaze4 and Adam4. My biggest concern for the "start with absolute fresh file" rule is that Adam4 and the 12 retro characters are not playable and Hardest would be the toughest difficulty available. A pre-made save file is essential to do runs on the highest difficulty.
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Post subject: Streets of Rage 4
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
As of this tweet: The game is available on Linux which I think means this game is TASable probably. https://twitter.com/lizardcube/status/1326952593457897472 The game has 3 major versions. Pre-patched, Day 1 patch and the current September 2020 balance patch. Pre-patched is the version with the least exposure unless you were playing it on Xbox One or Windows Store when it first came out because those versions didn't get the day one patch at the same time as the other releases. It's notable for having SoR2 hit sound effects when playing as any kind of Retro character and the combo score mechanic is flawed for its super short duration (making it hard to get long Out of this World combos). Day 1 patch: This is the earliest version for PC Steam (windows users). This version is mostly identical to the pre-patched build but with a minor adjustment to Stage 4 just before the cops segment and Stage 3's 2D segment by removing 1 knife. This is the ideal build for pure speedruns as SoR3 Skate, SoR4 Blaze, SoR3 Shiva. The score combo mechanic got refined by giving the player a lot more time to waste between hits before it banks the score (making it easier to get long Out of this World combos). There is a bug/cap that prevents the combo score bonus going any higher after dishing out around 3000 points of damage. September 2020 patch (current as of November 12th). This is the balance patch which gave a lot of buffs to SoR4 Axel, extra combo extensions to SoR4 Adam & SoR2 Max. SoR3 Skate and SoR3 Shiva got nerfed hard by reducing their OP Blitz attack from 64 down to 44 (Shiva)/40 (Skate). SoR4 Blaze has lost some infinites but some still work. Stage 12 is notably harder by buffing Ms.Y's mobility and giving her 100 more HP. Despite being a slower version to beat the game fast, the score combo mechanic removed the cap meaning you can go as high as you want. 7500 points of damage is worth a whopping 88388 points I have no idea if the Linux build can play the earlier versions otherwise, stick to the September 2020 patch.
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Inti Creates has announced the very long awaited PC version coming out June 22nd 2020. Judging from their previous games in the past few years, I doubt there's going to be Linux version available. For real time speedrunning, this one should be the fastest version even if the zipping trick in Teseo's stage is fixed. Edit: I've tested out the official Steam release and things are interesting. The PC release brought back the mic mechanic used to break True Zonda's curse. This attack is way slower than Eden's Presence. So in conclusion the early Switch version is the fastest until Inti Creates adds the faster attack alternative back into the game when playing as Gunvolt.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
On Citra's game list, you right click on the title and select Open Save Data Location for main saves or Open Extra Data Location for SD card data. To start movie recording, you should stop playing the game. Make sure Citra is on the game list screen. From there, create a movie file, open the rom you want to do a run on and create a (rough) TAS. Try to remember if your inputs had to go through extra presses due to starting up the game for the first time (initialising Save Data stuff to tutorials). If that is the case, make sure that the save data before recording is exactly the same before playing it back.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
I did get to sync an input movie file of Smash 4's Smash Run by copying both the save/extra data before recording the run. Then I reused those copied files before playing it back. Citra doesn't like frequent save states/load states often because they eventually get disabled and corrupt the movie file, effectively killing the project altogether.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
InfamousKnight wrote:
Is there a reason youre not using an actual movie file from citra? The save/load state feature still has a lot of things to be fixed, and because this project seems TAS focused, it shouldnt be long before this can be accepted.
1) The movie file can sometimes corrupt preventing me to use previous save states. 2) i don't think there is a way to edit a movie file in a different session after closing the emulator. 3) i tried to do a Smash Run with Citra movie file and the game desyncd. It did have DLC files or Extra Data files which might have caused it to happen. At least in-game replay files have been spot on so far.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Darth Marios wrote:
You can always pause the emulator by pressing F4 to save and load a state with more calm. "3DS games that currently have in-game replay support. " So, Smash Bros 3DS...
I didn't notice that as a hotkey, so I set that to spacebar for now. I just posted a Smash Brothers For 3DS https://youtu.be/CXgyvXJSNWM
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Post subject: Pseudo 3DS TASes. Smash Bros 4, 3DS Shinobi & Fantasy Zone 2
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
This is a temporary thread. The latest build on Citra finally has Save states and Movie recording input files but it's still far from TASVideos submission worthy. The emulator is far from perfect, when you click on the emulator options, it doesn't freeze the game making it hard to create fully clean runs. No keyboard shortcuts to save + load states. The emulator doesn't support a frame counter (harder to figure out what strat IS faster) and when you load up a save state, it disables all inputs for a frame. So charging up weapons then loading up a state will stop the charge. This applies to holding a direction, if you hold left and then load up the save state, the left input is ignored. So for now. I have been making very rough TASes on 3DS games that currently have in-game replay support. I made a run by using savestates and slow speed*. After creating the in-game save file that has the replay data, I sent it over to my capture card 3DS. *haven't done a TAS with more than 4 action buttons before lol. 3DS Shinobi Challenge level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va1loRQNLXo 3DS Fantasy Zone 2 - Best ending: https://youtu.be/eN_eHN3dtPg NEW 3DS Super Smash Brothers - vs x3 CPU lv 9s no damage: https://youtu.be/CXgyvXJSNWM Most SEGA AGES games on 3DS Support in-game replays. Any other games that support in-game replays please post here.
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Post subject: Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 (Nintendo Switch)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
For Gunvolt 1 posts: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=60&sid=7b7ecef45d1941a82939d47a866a7494 Information post for future use. Gunvolt 2 as of October 2019 is only out for both 3DS and Nintendo Switch. The 3DS version early 1.0 release had a freeze bug against Tenjian's 2nd encounter but only useful for RTAs. The early Nintendo Switch via Striker Pack release and presumably all 3DS releases had a zipping bug in Teseo's stage: https://youtu.be/8sYm9p2bh84?t=883 It got fixed in the later updates for Switch. Switch version has the advantage of 60fps support over 3DS's 30fps. Right Stick input is mostly minimal directional input to select SP Skills followed with a Right Stick Click to activate it. Copen can execute a reload cancel to abuse infinite bullit refill through 3 methods. Twinbunker's high jump (requires defeating Desna) Going down through a semi-platform Code of Shovelery (requires clearing Shovel Knight battle before starting up a new game/opening a file). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cq3sVHHYcw Copen when done TAS'd will look very speedy to watch.
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Post subject: Azure Striker Gunvolt (PC version)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
It looks like there's only a Windows Steam version, no Linux release yet. This post for information purposes for the future. There are 2 major builds for the Steam version. This is a lot like Half-Life 2's old vs new engine. The original Gunvolt PC build (old engine). - 30 Frames per second - Often mocked as 3DS emulator with actual 2 screens and touch screen that can be functioned with the mouse. You can press F5 to cycle through the layouts and there is a pure single screen setting too. - During the first month of release there were multiple patches which fixed some stage skipping bugs in speedrun mode. - The first build partway through which fixed 'Copen skip' led to a new bug which can skip the later 3 boss stages before the final set of stages. I still have a backup .exe file of this. - By the end of September there's hardly any stage skip bugs and are less likely to crash the game. This is Inti's first ever PC release so it wasn't 100% crash proof, even in Jan 2016 for AGDQ 2016 during my practice. The 2018 Gunvolt PC build (new engine released in May 2018). - 60 Frames per second - Only has the single screen layout, this is based on the Nintendo Switch build released in August 2017 - The level designs were not adjusted based on the Nintendo Switch version - The first update which came out a day after 60fps build had a broken Kudos Keeper mode which allows Gunvolt's damage multipler to rack up very fast and taking damage does not reset the Kudos/Damage multipler. I still have a backup .exe of this build. For no stage skips run, stick with the newer 60fps builds as all of the main tricks since its original PC release still works today. The biggest challenge for movie files is to sync as the load times do vary from machine to machine.
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Post subject: Re: Do you know it ?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Zeyn0 wrote:
Do you know it ? You think you can't pass ? Free your mind ! ;)
Do you still have screenshots for this? I am going to focus on TASing the G.G. Shinobi 2 soon.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/52958864056707197 You can update the submission movie file with this one. The only changes are the addition of more subtitles.
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Challenge mode can only be activated when the player has beaten Bowser in World 8. If Bowser's Castle in W8 early is faster than doing it last like I did in my run, it depends on the levels that can take advantage of the glitch.
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
I did a deathless 1cc a few years ago and this is wonderful stuff. Creative solutions with death abuse thanks to the other player who is much closer to its target. To those curious, falling is almost Arcade Donkey Kong fatal unless the character is currently invincible after taking minor damage or coming back to life. _________ Questions about using the Saturn port over arcade: I'm guessing FBA arcade TAS emulator does not support the original arcade release for this game yet? The Saturn release is considered to be arcade perfect thanks to the extra button for grenades instead of pushing both fire+jump and a machine gun that actually auto-fires and renders on real hardware at 240p instead of 480i (looking at you Taito collection games for PS2/PC) The only letdown that is Saturn exclusive is the extra loading screens. The run is entertaining especially for a 2 player run. Yes vote.
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Post subject: Batman Returns Game Gear
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Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Differences to the published Master System run. * Batman uses a black palette and not a purple one. * Batarangs can be adjusted by sacrificing range for extra power and vice versa. * You can use a special full-screen attack. The strength of this move is equivalent to 2 regular hits from Powerful mode. * You don't need to use the grapple just before landing on the ground to cancel out the mini-land stun. * You cannot cheese bosses 1, 3 and 5 by standing on the far right side. * Powerups are only extra HP (2, 4 drops) and extra Specials. * Regular enemies can no longer die in a single hit. Unless you use Powerful and even then some may take 2-3 hits. * Batman now has an HP bar and not an arcade-style touch something and suddenly he dies. * Because of this, dying will respawn Batman back to the start of a section and not where he just lost a life. Dying against a boss will restart the entire fight. * Framerate was dropped from smooth 60 down to a cinematic 30. * Oswald truck/bus doesn't have any collision and there is no accidental wrong warp to the final section of Stage 5. The good news is that the no wrong warp route of this can be done in under 7 minutes. *Number of sections before a boss battle has been increased: Stages 1-4 (2 Sections in Master System, but 3 for Game Gear) Stage 5 (4 Sections in Master System, but 5 for Game Gear) * The grapple can attach to side walls and with creative execution, you can jump out from it, grapple attach it to the same wall to function like a pseudo wall jump. Route: Stage 1 - Route 1 Stage 2 - Route 1 Stage 3 - Route 1 Stage 4 - Route 1 Stage 5 For TAS timing, a full screen special should be used on the final hit on Penguin phase 3. One thing you have to be cautious about is boss battle's HP. For example, the first boss may die after taking 7 hits, sometimes after 8 hits. Some memory research is required on why some fights are longer than others. Ram Watch thanks to PedalPowerLuigi 0389 Boss's HP 1D8F Batman's invincibility frames Long Range Batarang: 1 Normal Batarang: 2 Powerful Batarang: 3 Grapple Rope: 1 Batmobile/Batsubmarine: 6 Video example of Stage 4's boss (Catwoman round 2). https://twitter.com/Greenalink/status/946536128894656514
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
Secondly, the version. Usually, if a USA/Japan version of a game exists, one of either of those two versions are preferred over the European, since the European versions of games usually have some major flaws. There are some rare exceptions I suppose where the European version of a game may be faster by chance, so it's a case-by-case basis. In this case, the European version of Donkey Kong Country 3 for the GBA is far slower than the USA version. In the USA version, at the time any flagpole is touched, you can skip the flagpole animation by pressing Start+Select (if it's a first-time-in-a-level situation, this only works when you touch the flagpole). In the European version, this is not the case; that trick simply cannot be done. It is also absent of the teamthrow door glitch, and, according to Avanor_, the newly discovered time-stop glitch is impossible in the European version as well. So the obvious optimality is in the "USA, Australia" version.
One interesting tidbit is that the US version despite being released a few days after Europe, it is using an earlier build which is one of the reasons why some of the tricks you've mentioned worked for that version only. Any YT videos for both Team throw door glitch and time-stop glitch?
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
Location: United Kingdom
I was playing this game at European Speedrunners Assembly 2016 and found a walljump bug, tested it a bit further with TAS tools and found that you can get life expansion at canyon without Pink's ceiling crawl/Blue's tornado. You do need Yellow's water walk or Blue's tornado to enter the deep cave. tl:dr for 100% you only need to visit canyon once thanks to this trick. https://twitter.com/Greenalink/status/830384951761784832
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Post subject: Advance Wars Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict
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Possible ACE theory Old video of mine from Jan 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbaRBUzKa6M It's possible for the menu cursor to go out of bounds by selecting Friend code slot 9 and do the following: Left and quickly Left+Up to highlight 00. With the recent trends of game ending bugs I wonder if there is a way to enter the game's ram and trigger the end credits?
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Player (60)
Joined: 9/2/2008
Posts: 289
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Possible Labyrinth 3 improvement for the GG version https://twitter.com/Greenalink/status/778685360272318468 GG: Invisible Spring bug in Sky Base Act 2, it can be spawned anywhere if I had a better understanding on memory values, useful for Good Ending GG runs. https://twitter.com/Greenalink/status/778196682806820864
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