Posts for Merl_

Merl_
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Joined: 6/11/2022
Posts: 38
[6564] C64 Astro-Panic! by nymx in 00:38.23 was my favorite of the Compute's Gazette TASes that nymx made this year. I'll second the nomination for [6733] PCECD Castlevania: Rondo of Blood "100%, good ending, level unlock code" by zggzdydp in 36:35.63
Merl_
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Yes vote from me, I love PICO 8 and the upwarp glitch is very silly. When I watched the video I had a couple ideas for possible improvements. At 1:35, is it faster to get the key immediately and then backtrack to the room on the left and die to the lava there? And at 2:04, could you do an upwarp on the left to get to the medal faster?
Merl_
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Joined: 6/11/2022
Posts: 38
I'll DM it to you on discord
Merl_
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Joined: 6/11/2022
Posts: 38
I made this TAS over a year ago, so I don't know what version of pico 8 I was using back then. Probably 0.2.5g? That's what it says in the encode and it's the only other version of pico 8 I have. Is there anything specifically from the config.txt file you need? It's a bit long so I don't want to paste the whole thing into one post. I know some of my past TASes have desynced due to foreground_sleep_ms, which is 2 in my config.txt file.
Merl_
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I think [4585] PICO8 CELESTE Classic by FlyingPenguin223, RichConnerGMN, cominixo, ikuyo, Meep, Snoo23, gonengazit, Lord Snek, Akliant, Beeb, Warspyking & RoundUpGaming in 01:42.767 should be starred. It's extremely technically impressive. Several new tools were created specifically for this TAS and the level of optimization is far beyond most of the TASes submitted to this site, thanks to the combined effort of a dozen authors and the brute forcer "Searcheline". It also is the highest rated PICO 8 TAS, and won the exotic platforms TAS of 2022.
Merl_
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could someone change the platform to pico 8 for me? i've always been bad at remembering to put the platform in the annotations, there was no way I would remember to do that after being inactive for like 2 years
Merl_
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[5935] PICO8 Stranded Isle "glitchless" by rythin in 03:11.10 The routing and RNG manipulation in this TAS is super impressive, and the gameplay looks chaotic just like any good TAS should. It's the best PICO-8 TAS to be published this year IMO.
Merl_
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It's way easier to bonk on walls than it looks like. The corner cut at 3:15 is pixel perfect, so is every other corner cut in the run.
Merl_
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// - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
// Configuration for pico-8
// 
// config.txt is read on startup and saved on exit.
// To generate the default config.txt, delete this file.
// 
// - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


// :: Video Settings

window_size 0 0 // window width, height
screen_size 0 0 // screen width, height (stretched to window) 
show_fps 0 // Draw frames per second in the corner


// :: Window Settings

windowed 1 // 1 to start up in windowed mode
window_position -1 -1 // x and y position of window (-1, -1 to let the window manager decide)
frameless 0 // 1 to use a window with no frame
fullscreen_method 1 // 0 maximized window (linux)  1 borderless desktop-sized window  2 hardware fullscreen (warning: erratic behaviour under some drivers)
blit_method 0  // 0 auto  1 software (slower but sometimes more reliable)  2 hardware (can do filtered scaling) 



// :: System Settings

foreground_sleep_ms 2 // number of milliseconds to sleep each frame. Try 10 to conserve battery power

background_sleep_ms 10 // number of milliseconds to sleep each frame when running in the background

sessions 330 // number of times program has been run

// (scancode) hold this key down and left-click to simulate right-click
rmb_key 0 // 0 for none  226 for LALT

// Desktop for saving screenshots etc. Defaults to $HOME/Desktop
desktop_path 

// 1 to allow controller input even when application is in background
read_controllers_in_background 0



// :: Audio Settings (use "volume" for PICO-8)

sound_volume 0 // 0..256
music_volume 256 // 0..256


// :: usually 1024. Try 2048 if you get choppy sound

mix_buffer_size 1024


// :: map scancodes. Format: 44=47,80=89,..  (scancode a, scancode b -- when press a, generates b)
// run the program with -scancodes to determine which scancodes to use
map_scancodes 


// :: pico-8 

version 0.2.5g

// audio volume: 0..256 
volume 72


// Location of pico-8's root folder
root_path C:/Users/merl/AppData/Roaming/pico-8/carts/


// Location of cartridge save data
cdata_path C:/Users/merl/AppData/Roaming/pico-8/cdata/


// Specify which player index joystick control begins at (0..7)
joystick_index 0


// Custom keyboard scancodes for buttons. player0 0..6, player1 0..5
button_keys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 

// Play notes as they are plotted in frequency mode
live_notes 0

// iff 1: when using keyboard cursor, snap to closest pixel / map cel
cursor_snap 0

// 0 default  1 dark blue background in code editor  2 black background in code editor   3 gray background in code editor   
gui_theme 0

// scale of screenshots and gifs // 2 means 256x256
screenshot_scale 3
gif_scale 3

// maximum gif length in seconds (0..120; 0 means no gif recording)
gif_len 16

// when 1, reset the recording when pressing ctrl-9 (useful for creating a non-overlapping sequence)
gif_reset_mode 0

// 0 for off. 1 for auto. 2 to allow control of a cart's framerate due to host machine's cpu capacity
host_framerate_control 1

// filter splore cartridges
// 0 off   1 on (exclude cartridge tagged as 'mature' by community)
splore_filter 0

// tab display width (1 ~ 4 spaces)
tab_width 1

// 0 off 1 on: draw tab characters as small vertical lines
draw_tabs 0

// 0 off 1 on: record the current cartridge and editor view every 3 seconds (see [appdata]/activity.log.txt)
record_activity_log 1

// 0 off 1 on: allow F6..F9 (alternative: ctrl 6..9)
allow_function_keys 1

// 0 off 1 on: automatically check for a newer version of a BBS cart each time it is run.
check_for_cart_updates 1

// hide mouse cursor for n seconds when typing.
auto_hide_mouse_cursor 5

// 0 off 1 on: backup with a new timestamped filename on every run
// normally not needed -- was used for debugging crash-on-run
aggressive_backups 0

// back up cartridge in editor every n minutes when not idle (0 for no periodic backups)
periodic_backups 20

// global screen transformations:
//  129 flip horizontally
//  130 flip vertically
//  133 rotate CW 90 degrees
//  134 rotate CW 180 degrees
//  135 rotate CW 270 degrees
transform_screen 0

// 0 off  > 1: colour to draw pixel grid in the gfx editor at zoom:8 and zoom:4 (16 for black)
gfx_grid_lines 0
Merl_
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Joined: 6/11/2022
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libTAS 1.4.5 PICO-8 0.2.5g 2c70a6a0416ca07ed507df2577681217 king.png I don't know how to do the last one
Merl_
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i forgot to put the platform as pico 8 again. im sorry lol. ive done this so many times but i keep forgetting
Merl_
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feos wrote:
Merl_ wrote:
Here's an extended input file that fast forwards through the credits so that you can see the final time https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638415389797493313 Otherwise it takes several minutes
The time difference is just 1.5 minutes, and the viewers can skip ahead in the video. We use extended input for post-completion manipulations that show final content that won't automatically appear, so simply speeding up the credits (but only partially) doesn't look worth a secondary movie file.
I just uploaded it so that people who wanted to play back the movie themselves could have it, and it's also the version of the tas that I encoded and posted a video of. I knew it wasn't technically necessary to have. Anyways, I'm glad you got it to sync. What exactly was causing the desync? It might be helpful (for me) to know what was wrong in case something like this happens again in the future
Merl_
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I made a mistake, frame 5 is when it should appear, sometimes it takes 4 frames for me though. I'm not sure why. If it's still desyncing and you have the right version then I'm not sure what's going on.
Merl_
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The main difference between this version and the release version is that you don't have dedicated drive and brake buttons, instead the left and right arrow keys that you use to rotate the bike also cause you to drive and brake, making it impossible to do things like drive forwards on flat ground. The TAS makes this game look easy, but if you played this version yourself you'd quickly realize how awful this is to play and how much more difficult it is as well. Additionally, Cyclo 8 0.5 has slightly different physics, you are able to affect the bike's speed in midair, and the only level in the game is slightly different from level 2 in a few ways which force you to take a different route to the goal. I had no idea whether all of this was different enough to be publishable, but I at least thought it was worth a try submitting it.
Merl_
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I'm not sure what you're asking me to do or how I'm supposed to do it, but you can check the version of the game you have very easily by entering the debug cheat code on the main menu by typing [tab] debug. It should say v1.2.0 in the top right corner. I'm pretty sure you downloaded the right version though, since you can't download previous versions on the itch.io page and older versions of the game from before 1.0.4 are much slower and would desync almost immediately. When I was making the TAS, I noticed that sometimes the game would take 2 frames to start up instead of 3 frames, and that the TAS would always desync if it took 2 frames to start. Try making sure that the main menu screen appears on the third frame of the movie, and then see if it syncs.
Merl_
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Here's an extended input file that fast forwards through the credits so that you can see the final time https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638415389797493313 Otherwise it takes several minutes
Merl_
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I forgot to put "Platform: PICO8" in the annotations again.
Merl_
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Here's the extended input. I get through the ending cutscene and open the credits. https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638411215631184250
Merl_
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Randomno keithPlayzStuff Vexxter
Merl_
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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (692)
Joined: 6/11/2022
Posts: 38
"i must apologize for not being capable of finding the timesaves until AFTER the upload" hiii found another .4 improvement. I'm going to go back and redo some of the levels later.
Merl_
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There's been an improvement https://youtu.be/xuA87vwDFE8 Level 3 has like 6 different ending strategies which are viable. I hate this game sometimes
Merl_
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I want to finish a couple wips before I go back and "finish" this tas. You can set the submission to delayed if you want
Merl_
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In order to stop the demon, you have to find three hidden seals throughout the game. Here's what an RTA run looks like that gets the good ending: https://youtu.be/VcAcADwXzOs I don't fail to kill the boss here, I kill it and then the game just goes "nuh uh" and gives me the bad ending.
Merl_
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One weird thing about this game is that it has inconsistent load times, and that's probably what's causing it to desync in each room. I just tested it again and it syncs perfectly fine for me.