Because of the nature of the game, warps would do nothing for this hack, since as far as I know, you cannot access World 8 without both having all of the keys and defeating all of the Koopa Kids. Warps would make no sense.
And the graphics could be improved, but I wouldn't say they "sux." That's pretty harsh.
Will vote later, though I've been following the WIP rather closely. There's little doubt that I'll be voting yes.
I'll remember not to comment on a published movie unless I'm going to do nothing but give blatant, horribly obvious praise to it. I'm pretty sure I said I enjoyed watching it, and that you did a good job with it. I never said it was unimpressive, but that I was surprised the improvement was "only" a minute. I thought it was more. It felt like more.
Thanks for jumping on me for it.
... hacks of any kind have a stigma of "if I'm not expecting it, it's bad" ...
This is exactly what you're doing. You expect enemies to be vulnerable in a certain way, but they're not, so you're flagging that as proof that it's a bad hack. That's not proof that it's a bad hack. It's you stating that you'd have done something differently.
As for that yellow shyguy, I don't know what you're talking about. I could only find one shyguy of any kind in the first level of world 1, and I stomped all over it.
So Nintendo should stop making Mario games, too? Either way, allow me to rephrase my statement: The idea was to make a new game -- specifically, a new Mario game that introduces new elements and enemy types.
As for getting an "artist" to do the graphics, yes, he could have. But he chose not to. He wanted it to be his project, and didn't want to either depend on somebody else or tie someone else down over the time it took to complete it. In a day when so many people depend on others to do the work for them, I find that admirable. As I said, the result was not A+ work, but it's servicable and does the job it was meant to do.
I have not found any good hack that only changes levels without making them impossibly hard. Believe me, I've looked.
The engine is not different for "no reason." The idea behind Mario Adventure was to make a new game using Super Mario Bros. 3's engine as a base and expanding on it. It tried to go beyond just being a "simple hack." That's why so much has changed.
And again with calling some part of it amateur. DarkDaiz is no more a professional graphics artist than he is a professional coder. He did the best that he could with the experience that he has. The result is not A+ work, but it's servicable and does the job it was meant to do. Even some of the not-so-good looking graphics are still better than what you see in some late-NES-era professional games.
Why can't you step on top of enemies that have no spikes? Why is it harder to move through the air when snow is flying? I'll answer with my own question: Why does touching a flower let Mario throw flames from his hands? It's a design decision that was made by the programmer.
If Mario Adventure had been made by Nintendo, would these questions ever be asked? I somehow doubt it, because hacks of any kind have a stigma of "if I'm not expecting it, it's bad," while commercial titles are (generally) given the luxury of experimentation.
There's certainly some work that has gone into making this hack, but I don't like it. ... All around it, it shines the message "this is amateur work".
I'm going to argue this into the ground. Of course this is amateur work -- to my knowledge, DarkDaiz is not a professional programmer, nor was he paid to do this.
One thing I'm very afraid of is that the only opinion that is going to matter in publishing movies of hacked games is your own. I understand that you run this site, but this is going to make it very difficult to impossible for even good hacked games to have movies published because of your notion that "anyone can make a hack." That's true, everybody can -- but not everybody can make one that hacks the game to this extent without being overly bizarre, impossible, just plain stupid, or any combination of the three.
From the little bit I played myself and watching Kyrsimys' movie, I've observed the following:
1) Many new, generally well-done graphic tiles.
2) A complete re-organization of how the game is laid out, using World 9 as a hub for the rest of the game.
3) A new status bar, which tracks progress beyond score/coins/lives.
4) A weather system that can change the way a level plays, but does not affect all levels. This adds some variety.
5) New powerups.
6) An "item box" similar to that from Super Mario World, but not the same. It's an instant switch, bringing the possibility of new and interesting strategies not at all possible in any commercial game in the series.
7) Hammer Bros. scenes are more interesting than SMB3's boring and repetitive one-screen encounters.
8) Airship stages are not necessarily airships -- the first is more of a tank, and one (Lakitu Glacier, I believe) is more of a submarine. Parts of these stages beyond the boss rooms now take place within these vehicles.
9) What should be of particular interest here: Many opportunities to exploit SMB3's through-the-wall glitch, including one that can only be performed in this hack due to the landscape (vertically through the wall in the Hot Foot Caverns area).
As I recall, DarkDaiz spent quite a long time on this hack making sure things worked the way he wanted them to. Was it perfectly executed? No, but if the other movies for commercial games has proved anything, even the "professionals" don't always get things "right."
I don't understand how this can been seen as "just another amateur hack."
Chip selection is fairly random, as I recall, so it would theoretically be possible to start every battle you engage in with a Program Advance. I have admittedly done a save/load a few times in the second game to start against a boss with whichever PA would grant the biggest advantage.
The point is that Zelda is made up almost exclusively of hundreds of "single instances."
Maybe I'm a little disconnected from reality, but do we even know what the algorithm the game uses to determine item drops is? Is it even something so complicated, as it was in Megaman 1, that a "bot" is absolutely necessary to manipulate the drops?
I don't know about anybody else, but part of the reason I enjoy these movies, emulator-assisted or otherwise, is because I know there's still a human element involved through most of the game. Do a run made entirely, or even mostly, by a "bot," and you strip that away.
Not the worst NES game ever created, but definitely not a good game. Not even knowing the was a submission for it, I found a ROM, because I remembered my neighbors renting it and playiing through the entire thing years and years ago... amazing what childhood memories can do to skew how good or bad a game is.
I got a chuckle out of the final boss being Injun Joe on some kind of sea monster. And in a cave, no less.
The game is pretty poor... and is 1-hit-to-die the entire way through, I think. Pretty good run of it, though. Voting yes, though this thread has been dead since almost forever (before Highness bumped it).
This is talking about having a computer make all or most of an entire run, rather than using a computer to find the best sequence to manipulate luck in a single instance.
No sir, I don't like it.
Yeah, it's the last level. If you do press B last the message says, you get sent back to the title screen -- and your only option is to start the game over again. You don't get to select a world as though you just completed 8-4. If you think about it, you've made it that far, and step into that pipe, just to go through this hell again. Put yourself in Mario's shoes, there.
Whoever created this is a sadomasochistic nutjob. I'm voting "yes" because whoever made this hack had to have thought it through -- there's no way this "one solution" hack could have just been thrown together -- and for what it is, it was played expertly.
I hope ROM hacks (and movies of them) are going to be taken on a case-by-case basis. Throwing the "must be well-known" qualifier out there undoubtedly disqualifies some well done, quality hacks that few have ever heard of (it's the internet, such a thing must exist somewhere). Instead of "few have heard of it, throw it out," I urge a review of any "unknown" hacks before simply tossing a movie of such a thing.
Bubbleman does move quite fast in Exile. You'd definitely need his weakness (Leaf Shield) to take him out effectively. I stuck a proposed order in my post above.
As far as Item 2 creating lag -- I'm well aware that it does this, but in your partial run, using Item 1 platforms creates quite a bit of lag in that section as well.
That's exactly what I was thinking, Shinryuu.
And for the record, the only other effective weapon against Heatman is the Bubble Lead, and Bubbleman's stage has a few places where not only Item 1 would be useful, but also Item 2 (the outside area with the shrimp and mettaurs).
Looking at boss weaknesses and acquiring Items 1 and 2, it looks like the order should be something like -- Air, Heat, Crash, Wood, Bubble, and then the last three in any order (Metalman is weak to Bubble, Quickman is best taken with the Mega Buster, Flashman is weak to Crash and Quick- probably easier to hit with Crash, but maybe take weapon selection time into account).
Would it be too out of the question to start with Air Man, and do Heat Man second? The Heat Man battle with just the Mega Buster is painfully long -- even if you can manipulate Heat Man to cross the screen on the first try, it would still (probably) be the longest battle in the game, since he takes 28 hits to fall to that weapon. The Air Shooter would take him out in three. There's always the chance that taking the time to beat Air Man first will result in a faster overall run, since you would then have Item 1 and Item 2 after the first two stages.
I think you can shoot through the shield with the Mega Busterin the NES version, as well, if you get right on top of him. It's been forever since I've tried. In Megaman 3, Doc Man's "state" changes when using the Leaf Shield and you can't shoot him at all while it's up, unlike Megaman 2, where the leaves are apparently separate entities. That's the only explanation I can come up with for being able to shoot through the shield at all in MM2.
From my limited experience with Rockman Exile, I know you can 1-hit kill Crash Man with the Atomic Fire -- on the normal difficulty, at least. As a side note, I wonder why that's the only weapon that wasn't changed.
And I guess nobody has Shinryuu's original run of this, then?
I have to agree with the "because they can" part -- although some are fairly good. Rockman Exile is definitely one on the "bizarre" side, but I also think it's fairly well done. It's definitely the most in-depth Megaman hack I've seen, and also the only actually complete one.
I'll agree with the separate category, and to a continuation of the current "allow" list.
Shinryuu: Where, exactly, can I get the movie you've done previously? I would very much like to see it.
You went back and tried to improve the luck manipulation in Bomb Man's stage before I could ask about it. Awesome.
For the record, the reason I don't really comment is because I don't have anything to add. Being a huge fan of the Megaman series, I'm always anticipating the completion of new movies.