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My first actual tas was Jurassic Park, which was published. I was lucky nobody noticed the SDA version, which had an improvement. I could probably shave a couple seconds off it now.
My very first attempt was with Smart Ball, which Nitusja ended up publishing. He did better than I would have.
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I'd also love to vote yes on this because of the hackery involved in making the tools, but the final product doesn't hold my interest for reasons already discussed. Apart from the fact that this movie is a demonstration of a cool hack, there's nothing special about it for me, who hasn't played the game before. I vote no.
In spite of that, thanks for getting this community started with DOS rerecording, Bisqwit. I look forward to seeing what else we can come up with.
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Please don't cross-post.
0xe36e as a signed short (2-byte value) seems to work for me. Positive means down, negative means up.
Edit: If you've got wiki editing privileges, try starting a Vectorman tricks page. If you don't, you can ask Bisqwit.
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Acmlm wrote:
I also made a silly ASM hack for SMB1 that makes the game really fast and weird (IPS patch here, use on PRG1), and a run of that:
NES Superfast Mario Bros in 01:51
I feel like I'm supposed to be moving at 4x speed after watching that movie.
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@Kles:
The glitched-out version by Twisted Eye has already been published.
@Chef Stef:
This is unambiguously a glitch of a rather severe nature. I probably didn't emphasize that enough in my first post. Watch Twisted Eye's movie for 30 seconds and tell me if you disagree.
@Catastrophe:
I'd say the glitch is a little bit above Zelda 2 on the glitchiness scale.
@Warp:
I generally agree about clutter but I think a special case is justified for this game. Using the glitch makes the game very hard to follow unless you know it already. The low-glitch version is easier to understand and closer to what a viewer would expect. For some that will increase entertainment.
@all:
I'll feel better about submitting a finished movie now that I have some idea of what people will think. Thanks for sharing.
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jaysmad wrote:
Does that mean that i can or not?
I have already did read it, even though i don't understand much of it... :(
Sorry for the incomp...
Upthorn is saying that there is a byte in each frame that's dedicated to recording console events such as a power cycle (turning the thing off and on), or a hard reset. In short, yes, GM2 will support reset recording.
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The impatient among you may skip to the last paragraph.
I wanted to wait until this question became more practical than theoretical. It looks like I may finish my low-glitch Pulseman tas soon, so now seems like a good time to bring it up.
Twisted Eye submitted a movie of Pulseman (later published) that relied heavily on an interesting movement glitch that allowed him to complete most levels quickly. He did a great job optimizing the use of the glitch and the reception was good, but there were some complaints that the continued glitching was repetitive and decreased the entertainment value of the movie. I'm nearing completion of a tas of the game that avoids that specific movement glitch, although it exploits a couple other ones. For obvious reasons, the movie will be about 9 minutes slower than Twisted Eye's.
The game is great on many different levels (no pun intended) and I don't think it will be too hard for a slower run to get accepted. Still, I want to make sure this point has been aired before I get a bunch of unnecessary 'no' votes.
The question that I'd like resolved is this: Is it acceptable to avoid a specific glitch (but to use others) in a tas to increase the entertainment value of a movie?
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Hmmm. A pantsless marine with ESP rescuing seven Hitler clones from South American drug lords. How could you go wrong? I saw enough variety and skill to merit a yes vote. It's a little repetitive but not enough to get in the way.
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KRocketneo, you're making yourself look very foolish and ignorant. You're posting information that is obvious to anyone with even a casual acquaintance with this game. If you have something to add, a good first step is to check the Super Mario World Tricks wiki page. There you can see if your idea is already known and find out what detail the game has been studied in.
Any new tips would certainly be welcome, but this game has already been studied very thoroughly. It isn't likely that someone without a great deal of experience will find a previously unknown trick.
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mmbossman wrote:
My only excuse for not using the RAM viewer is that I didn't want to. I went through two versions of this run, and saved 14% over the old run.
I'd prefer to know that all the best tools available were used to find the best possible techniques and strategies. A relative improvement over a known-suboptimal movie makes a movie maker feel good (myself included), but better doesn't imply optimal.
mmbossman wrote:
For me, trying to search out abstract and numerous parameters that may or may not help me isn't fun, and if I don't have fun making the movie, then I won't do them.
I think you're overestimating the time it takes to find values in RAM. Once you know what you're doing it shouldn't take more than 5-10 minutes to find simple values like character position, HP, invulnerability counter, etc. Still, if it's not fun for you I'm content to have a difference of opinion. A published possibly suboptimal tas won't cause too many problems in the grand scheme of things. If it's improvable and worth the effort, it'll be improved.
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kirbymuncher wrote:
Underneath the poll, there is a button that says "View Results". Click on that if you want to see the results.
On a somewhat related note: Are you allowed to vote on your own submissions?
It's allowed. I personally don't see anything wrong with it but most submitters don't do it (or wait until a decision has been rendered).
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Go ahead and submit this. The gameplay is very entertaining and contains a couple of well-placed tricks to keep it interesting. The autoscrollers are too long, but the music is excellent and keeps them from being too boring. I don't think this will have much trouble getting accepted.
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It's a clear improvement but there's no excuse to avoid watching RAM with Upthorn's improvements to Gens. You really can't tell what you'll find until you look. I strongly recommend some searching and testing. If that sounds discouraging, remember that it usually takes multiple runs through a game to adequately understand and exploit it for a high-quality tas.
I'm refraining from voting until this game is better examined.
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NesVideoAgent wrote:
Special thanks to Ideamagnate for giving some effective feedback a long time ago.
You're welcome. I wouldn't call the feedback effective except that it got you to find an optimization near the one I thought I'd found. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I'll give it a yes just because you found a way to improve a game that was already so tightly optimized. You're much more patient than I am.
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What values are you looking for? I don't know this game beyond what's been posted in this thread, but I don't see an obvious need for any particular RAM values.
The idea behind a RAM search is that all of a game's state information is stored in RAM, so you can theoretically find out anything about the game's state by looking at the right combination of RAM values. The most common uses are optimizing your speed or subpixel position and maximizing boss damage, which may not be easily derived from the information on the screen but are relatively simple to find in RAM.
To find a value, you do stuff that influences that value and look for something that's changed in the way you expected. If you're looking for boss hp, get to the boss fight and start a new search. Do some stuff that doesn't effect the boss and search for values that haven't changed. Hit the boss and look for values that decreased. Modify as needed and repeat.
Please continue. The game has some slow parts but the music is great and the game offers some points of interest.
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I somehow missed your post, Phil. Sorry.
You need to install the sdl and readline headers. In Debian the packages are libsdl1.2-dev and libreadline5-dev, iirc. If you're using the Subversion code, get the latest version. It's got some Pulseman-specific stuff if'd out, since it won't be useful unless you're doing that game.
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I've found some knee stretches and am making them part of my stretching routine, both before and after running.
I bought a pair of trail/road running shoes, but I'll have to learn more. It's becoming evident to me that running isn't as simple as 'buy good shoes and go x miles by foot'.
I'd go nuts running on a track for more than a few miles. Fortunately there are some nice running trails around here. I guess I'll get to know them very well in the near future. It's a good thing I live in a city that likes to call itself Track Town, USA.
Proper form is probably my biggest problem. There's a treadmill at work that will work nicely to help me get a silent stride. Google will also help me here.
A little soreness is great. It reminds me that I went out running. As long as it doesn't mess too much with my ability to function (or only does so when I'm first starting out), I'm happy.
This help is great. Thanks.
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Bah. I'm going to have to get some professional advice on this. It feels great to have run and I can convince myself that I like it while I'm doing it, but I'm killing my knees to the point where I don't like stairs the day after I do a long run.
I'm still going to do it if it's at all possible.
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I'd like an opinion on taking damage for entertainment. My wip is here and a working state is here. The damage happens around 75000.
Twisted Eye, I managed to beat both your Dark Pulseman fight and your bonus times. It was by 19 and 9 frames, respectively, but I beat 'em. It's a good motivator to have a previous tas to compare mine against.
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Go for it. The game is fun to watch (after the first level) and the music is great. I'd love to see a submission of it.
As for interest, don't worry about it too much. It's usually only the very popular games that get more than the occasional comment. If the game is worth watching and your playing is good, it'll probably be accepted.
Be ready to throw the first version away, especially since this is your first tas. Even if you think you know the game, it's likely that some bug or technique will be discovered that will mean redoing part of the game. Don't get frustrated if this happens.
Good luck.
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That was a nice touch when they both flying knee'd eachother across the room. Could you also have done that in that area where you spent a bunch of time waiting for some platforms to appear?
