Posts for IsraeliRD


Post subject: Exploiting bugs in game's cheat codes handling routines
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Joined: 10/23/2010
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I was talking to Nach about Hocus Pocus and it led into discussion about the game's cheat codes. Typing any of these results in the following: BANANA - 3 laser shots FEELGOOD - 100% health QUARK - rapid fire BLAKE - Gold + Silver keys After some discussion, Nach stumbled upon a bug: As long as the first key (B, F, Q) is in the right spot, any of the remaining letters can come at any place, and it would award you their respective bonus. For example, bnnaaa gives you 3 laser shots, bekal gives you both keys etc. However, there are additional bugs: Writing bnanana gives you 100% health, but no laser shots Writing bananana (or a misspelling that ends with the 4th 'na' [e.g. bnnaaana]) gives you both Laser and Health bonuses. However, this may be half intentional. The question for TASvideos is now this: Can you exploit a bug in the game's cheat handling routines and have it accepted in a TAS? Remember: an unbugged cheat code is NEVER used.
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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I updated the submission with the run's playlist ( http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=31BC5E655A109F67 , includes episode 1 as well ) and added .torrent files instead of the magnet ones. I don't know how I managed to overlook the playlist all this time, but this was now fixed (as well as for the next submissions). I'll be providing downloadable .torrent files for the next submission instead of magnets. Apparently bt doesn't like them. If there are problems with the torrents, let me know ASAP.
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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Goldfish: I am aware that it looks aimlessly, although if you read the submission notes you'll notice that shooting is part of manipulation enemies, probably the greatest amount as well. I did try to minimize it where possible, but note that in some cases it needs constant shooting; trying to stop it in the middle or a shot too early will cause the enemy not to be manipulated as I wanted it to. As such, you get a stream of 10 shots just to get something to manipulate. Tseralith: Nothing is saved except the high score, which is separate for each episode. For all the game cares, you could have played the last episode first. Nach: They stole my cat!
Post subject: Episode 2 completed
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At last, another Episode is done :) Notes: -> 2-7: I accidentally found that looking up/down saves time after jumps as the camera needs not re-adjust after landing (assuming keys are no longer pressed). Manipulation went well and also added some fun with the flowers and their collision detection with Hocus. More info @ submission notes. 448 rerecords. -> 2-8: A crappy level to manipulate and I had to think carefully about my movements and where I take damage, as well as minimise it. The bats at the silver key room probably can go better (1 hit instead of 2), but I was unsuccessful in manipulating them so. Always one darn bat in my way so I gave up. 760 rerecords. -> 2-9: Unreal. The Tree Demons co-operated without even trying to manipulate them. Who has ever heard of that? They were pretty hard to manipulate better than what I got (apparently they don't like to be manipulated), but I still managed to improve by ~6 frames. 179 rerecords. Final rerecord count: 3159. Link to video
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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MisterEpic, how the TAS is going? :)
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
Joined: 10/23/2010
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Just curious as to the last level of Swamps of Forgetfullness where you jumped before the fall to the finish. Was that a mistake (as it seems slower than just falling) or on purpose to get all the tings? Other than that there may be a few small mistakes but nothing really jumping at me. Great job so far, several of the tricks used are new to me and getting only 1 point of damage while hitting the same enemy 5 times straight was pretty cool. Can't wait to see this TAS completed.
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Illari
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
Joined: 10/23/2010
Posts: 49
Location: Australia
I nominate Ilari.
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
Joined: 10/23/2010
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I wanted this done before New Year's but I was taken out to a vacation so I couldn't. Instead, here's an update! Notes: -> 2-5: At first I thought the laser shots at the start to the right would be required due to the large amount of enemies in the level, but ends up you actually don't need it. The wonders of TASing. Saves 4 seconds right off the bat (err, no pun intended), and no need to worry on manipulating the bats to the right either. The level did end up pretty annoying, there are a lot of tight spots and on at least 3 occasions I'm a frame away from getting hit. I only take health at the very end of the level so I can get through the ending without losing any time. Loads of manipulations, some more tricky than others to get them right, hence the abnormal rerecord count. 505 rerecords. -> 2-6: A short level, the laser shots came in handy plus good jumping around enemies as well so I didn't lose more health than needed. The start went much better than anticipated by not getting hit on the very first enemy spawn I encounter, followed by good bat manipulation on the first crystal. Using the Jump powerup saves time, mainly because I skip a single enemy spawn so I don't have to slow down. Bats were manipulated the most. 195 rerecords. Total rerecord count: 1501. Link to video
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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Great play and improvements from WIP were easy to spot (at least for me). Easy Yes vote.
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
Joined: 10/23/2010
Posts: 49
Location: Australia
Great improvements, Ilari, can't wait to see you submitting the run.
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
Joined: 10/23/2010
Posts: 49
Location: Australia
Great to see this being done. The only feedback I can give is maybe manipulate level 10 more as the first enemy should have been shot earlier (looks like it). Love how you abused the fire in level 10, that was awesome.
Post subject: Levels 3 & 4 done
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Small update as these 2 levels were extremely simple. Next ones are going to be much harder to perform. Notes: -> 2-3: Health management is the main issue here. I had to lose time in the silver key room so I don't take damage twice, but profited by not needing to take potions at a later point, which in turn saved in much more time. Luck manipulation was heavy in the switches for the 4th crystal and a bit less in the gold key room (didn't want to take a third hit). These double-headed snails sure were annoying to manipulate; they're hard! Also triggered them to spawn later than normal on the lava jumps but that's minor... 229 rerecords. -> 2-4: Simple level, there's a lot more to it than seen in the TAS (check out how many treasures I missed!) such as silver key room + door and a warp potion at the start. 86 rerecords. Total rerecord count: 801. Link to video
Post subject: Episode 2 is a go!
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FreezerBurns, correct! Okay guys, after loads of trouble in life (including 2 dead comps), I finally managed to get around to Episode 2! Technically I started it 3 weeks ago when trouble started... I decided to upload my progress every 2 levels but I may do levels 2-7 to 2-9 together, undecided atm. I'm not sure if I'll finish before new year's (doesn't seem to be) but I'll start going faster and putting in more time when I can. Notes: -> Starting the game: I managed to improve the intro screens and menu movement to be 8 frames faster than Episode 1 TAS. -> 2-1: An interesting level with good enemy manipulations and triggering, but a nightmare to manipulate all the disappearing blocks at the end. Taking the right side first is faster by at least 10 seconds than going left first. 386 rerecords. -> 2-2: A very simple level, but had to manipulate a few things properly and is really tight on health. Going left at the end is faster than going right. 100 rerecords. Total rerecord count: 486. Link to video
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I've played Chip's Challenge but only the Windows version of it. http://www.telusplanet.net/public/nfield/ChipChallenge/chip.htm - This one gets you a ton of information, from beating levels in the fastest methods to an excellent website with animated solutions (really AVI files packed to really low size), extremely recommended to use it if you plan on TASing the game. It is about the Windows version, but there aren't many differences to that of the Lynx (Spirals, level 88, has both windows and lynx solutions since Windows's version is "corrupt"), so I believe you can use it.
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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Episode 1 TAS completed! I'll be submitting soon. Notes: - 1-9: I skipped 3 of the bosses and manipulated enemies up until 4th crystal, and can anyone guess what happened with the penultimate boss's health bar? Link to video
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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It took me a while to decide, but I'm going with a no. I really do like the movie due to the variation of tricks and glitches utilised but the amount of wall-jumps was ridiculous and repetitive and I nearly stopped watching in 8-1 because of it. Despite that it got better in later stages, it was still too repetitive for me.
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Almost there, one more level to go and it's all about the boss fights. I already thought I finished 1-8 five hours ago when I noticed I could do something in 1-7 faster, so I had to do the ending of 1-7 and then the entire 1-8 again. Good thing too since I found two improvements in 1-8. Notes: - 1-7: Pretty simple level, it's just getting enemy manipulations properly and not triggering them (such as the green flying lizards, which were a lot harder than it seems). Fun fact: I got to the end of 1-7 but nothing happened... ends up I had 4/5 crystals as I completely forgot about the first one <_< . Second fun fact: Level faded out when the music ended. The third "loop" of the song is now the score screen. - 1-8: Another simple level with quite a number of enemy and disappearing blocks manipulation. Link to video
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Two-thirds of the episode done! I HATE 1-5 so I'm glad I finished it, and prefer not to see it ever again :P . I thought 1-6 would not be of trouble but boy was I wrong. Nasty hard! 1-7 and 1-8 should NOT give me trouble (could very well be wrong here) but 1-9 should be pretty fun to do. Notes: - [B]DIE EVIL PENGUINS!!![/b] - 1-5: I stopped to kill some enemies because otherwise I get damaged too much (the rest were manipulated). The reasoning behind actually doing so is that taking the warping potion is SLOWER than getting crystal and going back by myself on foot. - 1-5: Those disappearing blocks were manipulated the best I could, and I even manipulated them NOT to disappear so I get through 3 switches even faster (also a block didn't disappear until I was on the floor above it :D) - 1-6: massive enemy manipulation as well as getting those disappearing blocks to fully co-operate. The whole health-enemy management is really showing here and the worst scenario was a trade off of 4 frames in favor of 64% health with the lightning demons at the start. Ended level with 2% health. Link to video
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Apologies for no progress, I actually had done 1-3 last week but wanted to post it with 1-4, which took a while because I had exams. Since my year is now over, I got plenty of time to TAS :) 1-4 was done today, pretty simple compared to 1-3. Notes: - Quite a lot of points to manipulate on 1-3, especially the disappearing blocks (so those jumps/shootings are actually for a reason), the one with a switch towards the 5th/6th crystals was impossible to manipulate any better :( - 1-3 has lots of damage abuse towards the end, I've actually redone it for better health management. - 1-4 start might seem weird, but it's half a second faster than getting the bottom crystal first. Also, I looked up to manipulate the bear on the start because normally it's in your face and you take damage. - More manipulations (those flying lizards were annoying, the bears towards the end were simple enough) and massive trigger skipping on the way to 7th crystal; took quite a lot of rerecords there. Link to video
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Ferret Warlord wrote:
Anyway, it looks like you can improve level 1 a tiny bit around 38s by waiting until the top step before jumping so Hocus doesn't have to wait to reach the top of his arc in order to reach the next set of stairs.
I was thinking that too while doing level 1, but ends up that no matter when you jump, be it before or after where I jumped, you still get to the top of the 2nd set of stairs at the same time. As such, no time was lost whatsoever, despite it looking so.
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Thanks scrimpeh :) It might take a while until I get 1-3 up. I wanted the next WIP to be both 1-2 and 1-3, but I guess this might not happen. Oh well. Notes: - There's both bad and good luck here, some of it was manipulatable and some I just couldn't (luck = enemies being in my way or not appearing until certain points). - I'm really happy with the last few seconds of the level, that took way longer than it looks as I can only afford getting hit once and not have the invincibility run out. Link to video
Post subject: Hocus Pocus
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Hocus Pocus, made by Apogee, is a great platformer which I used to play a lot. It's a bit repetitive, however, but has some variety and good music. The game is also available in a shareware version (http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html), which includes all of episode 1 (2-4 are registered version only). I'm TASing the Registered version (v1.1) using JPC-RR (11.2), so chances are I'll also do episodes 2-4. Playing on fast speed settings, hardest difficulty. First WIP: Link to video Some notes: - I've rerecorded the whole thing a number of times and tested various possibilities and different jumpings patterns but I either got same results or slower. - Corner clipping to first crystal is slower. - Based on your jumping patterns (maybe other things?) it seems the key doors were also manipulated to open up without slowing you down (for example, a brick is stuck in your face for a second). At some point it was not possible to manipulate any further and I had to re-record everything to get better door opening patterns. - Corner clipping & stair/floor clipping info: http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/DOS/HocusPocus.html
Experienced Forum User, Player, Published Author (192)
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This was a fun watch. The Xmas edition is much harder than the original Skyroads. Yes vote.