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For Rampart (both the Joystick and Trackball version), the service button simply acts like a coin button. Both the coin buttons also act like a coin button. Service mode can still be activated via the Arcade settings in bizhawk, but there will be no way to exit it when the game is powered on. No idea if this applies to other games or just Rampart.
This was done on the bizhawk dev build posted like 20 hours ago as of posting this (devbuild_0cbc65ba if it means anything).
EDIT: I hadn't looked until now, but this problem is mentioned earlier in the thread, with a slight solution.
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I need some deets. Does the verification movie play as intended, from start to finish? Does it access in-game races, with the timer at the top of the screen, and win them? At the very end, does it pause the game and save?
If not, you might have the wrong save settings active, causing a desync at the start since the verification movie expects a USA formatted memory card to be inserted (and if it isn't, it will prompt you to, which is different than the TAS expects and will cause a desync).
If so, when you tried to play the submission movie, did it load the save data or did it try to start a new game?
If it tried to start a new game, that means dolphin likely put the save data from the verification movie into dolphin's user folder > GC > USA > Movie. If there's save data in that folder, copy it into USA > Card A which should force it to load that data when starting the submission movie file.
If the game DID load the save data (spider-man appeared in the park outside the parlor), then... well, dang, I don't know. It might be like the goblin TAS, where the audio was set to stereo instead of mono and it caused it to desync.
Graphics backend might influence sync? Graphics card/processor might influence sync (like the mario sunshine movie)?
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Remember the days when, instead of just making one game and shipping it, companies made 30 different versions of a game disguised as ports? Not saying I miss those days, but I'm glad they happened. Without them, we wouldn't have moments like these.
Yes vote.
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How the hell did you crank this out in like a month?
Awesome TAS, yes vote. I like how frequently you trivialized levels by getting out of bounds within the first few seconds.
surf the web
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2:39 in the provided encode.
If you're not going for speed (which you clearly aren't, I thought you were building speed to get past the DDD wall only to jump into it anyway), then why did you say you were in the submission notes?
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Impressive TAS. I had tried to make one some time ago, but I had no idea about the fastest route nor any tricks, so I'm glad someone with more experience got to it first. Yes vote.
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No public documentation. If you're in the game's secret store on 1.0 PC, you can literally see that there's a locked item, and this doesn't appear on any other version of the game.
Additionally, in the game's filesystem is a list of all the playable skins, where "PLRROSSG" is Alex Ross Green Goblin (the skin used in the TAS). It's the only one in the list not capable of being unlocked by either beating the game or using an in-game cheat code. There's a value for each skin that says if you have it enabled or not; the AR code simply sets the Ross Goblin skin to always be enabled.
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The difficulty in making rom hacks has drastically increased since the NES/SNES era, whereas the difficulty in making external codes hasn't increased by as much. Plus, gc/wii rom hacks are still going to be limited to first party games with tons of players, while just about anyone can easily learn how to make external codes for other games on those systems.
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I don't know if it would help, but you could try using the lua core for 5.0. I actually got about halfway through making the TAS in regular 5.0, then used lua the rest of the way, and then dumped the finished product with regular 5.0.
And there's a fairly easy way to have dolphin in its fully reset state (again, not sure if it would help). Just go into your documents and move the dolphin emulator folder elsewhere, then try the movie - dolphin will just make another folder in the same spot; you can replace it with the folder you moved to get your data back. And if you're in a portable version, just make a copy of the entire dolphin folder but delete the "user" folder within.
I also can't get this movie to sync, and I made it. I tried both of the methods I listed above.
I can't confirm whether or not AR codes affect sync across systems, but I do know this game as a whole definitely has a syncing problem.
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1. I'm not sure if you're asking me this or asking the judges. To me, this is probably just a vault-y April Fools' movie, and if it went for the same "go-right-while-spinning-left" that traditional bowling aims for, I don't think it would be very good.
2. Probably. This website has a number of published bowling movies already, right?
3. The web swinging is extremely consistent and I'm almost 100% sure you could copy/paste the inputs with the Lua/TAStudio build if you were just going for speed. My only worry is that the thugs bouncing in place before you kick them could affect their hitboxes, but I don't know if web-tied enemies actually have a moving hitbox like that.
This mode can be unlocked without a cheat, but it requires earning 10K Hero Points by simply playing the game (like, 4 levels done perfectly, I think?).
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For the most part, I don't really have anything to add. This was actually the main thing I was begged for in the Spider-Man community as soon as I started TASing and I definitely would not have done it otherwise, but all in all, I'm glad I did it. Also wow, this TAS became a year old on the 6th of this month.
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As a response to feos's post, I wanted to suggest this as well - allowing movies with AR codes, especially if they fundamentally change the way the game is played.
For instance, there's an AR code for Spider-Man 2 (GC) that allows you to swing fast - so fast that you regularly go double or triple the intended web swinging speed, surpassing 350+mph (560+kmh) that requires a drastic difference in the way the game is played.
That sort of raises a question on what determines if an AR code "fundamentally changes the way the game is played". There's an AR code for Spider-Man (GC) (the first movie game) that allows you to play as an otherwise unused model of Green Goblin. It does not change the way the game is played at all, but I have considered using it for another Green Goblin TAS simply because it doesn't make a gameplay difference.
I guess if the code does actually, legitimately nothing, (i.e. floor is lava for a game where you spend almost no time on the ground), then it shouldn't be allowed.
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Rampart has a major error in MAMEHawk that isn't present in MAME alone.
If you are in 2-3 player mode and complete a game, then go for a rematch, the game will fail to create a wall around a castle (often times building on water which isn't possible normally) and you won't be able to do anything other than close the game. Even if a castle is successfully surrounded by chance, the cursor movement will be too messed up for the game to be playable. Either version of this issue will always occur.
Link to video
Additionally, there's a small texturing error as shown here (the side of the castle is almost purely black, which is only supposed to be visible if a connecting wall south of it is destroyed). This also doesn't occur in regular MAME.
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Not necessarily. I assume you haven't changed any settings or anything that would impact sync?
Otherwise... you're just kinda screwed until Dolphin decides to sync again. Sometimes I'll come back to a dtm a few months after it stopped syncing, and then it syncs again.
You could try reinstalling Dolphin as well, but your mileage may vary.
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If you were to grind for long enough, yes. But like I said, the upgrades are all purchased already so the number doesn't actually matter anymore and no longer has an effect on gameplay.
This sort of circles back to the "end result" thing I mentioned. The actual journey to having the save file isn't super important, just the save file itself. Even if some unintended effects happen during the creation of the save file, as long as the game plays as intended when the cheats are disabled and the game is restarted, it's fine.
That is very, very optimistic of you. I'd consider paying you if you could edit a save file of Spider-Man 2 (or any other third party GC/Wii game for that matter) in a way that benefits the player and doesn't just result in the save failing to load/crashing. The Spider-Man community has been trying to do that for literal years. Anyone would be a legend in the SM community if they did it.
What's the harm in allowing it? If it does get abused and an effect slips into the real movie despite cheats being disabled, either A.) no one cares enough to test it or B.) someone does care enough, gives their proof, and the movie is disqualified. Or maybe it should be required to test for any verification movie that uses external cheats (but that's just more work for the judges, oops).
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When speedrunning Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Wii, PC, X360, PS3), it's standard to use a NG+ file with every single upgrade unlocked. If I want to publish a movie on this website that starts from a saved game, I'm required to make a verification movie.
Do you know how long it takes to unlock every upgrade in SM: Shattered Dimensions? Around 10 hours. That includes beating the game, completing every challenge, and grinding in-game currency to be able to unlock and purchase the upgrades.
That would mean making a 10 hour verification movie of getting the game to 100% completion for a 1 hour and 20 minute TAS (somewhere around there, anyway).
Or... we could use external cheats. At the moment, using external cheats in a verification movie is not allowed. Using gecko/AR codes to unlock everything from the get-go and have infinite currency would mean the verification movie would probably be under 5 minutes long. No cheats would be used in the movie that starts from the save file. The only way you could tell cheats were used is by the currency saying "999999999" or whatever, but the effect is the same as having any other number - all the upgrades are purchased already; the number means nothing.
I was told that using a patched version of the game that starts you with everything (instead of a cheat) would be okay - however, not every game can have the same number of resources that melee or brawl do, so having a patched version only really applies to first party/extremely popular games or old games where patches are plausible to create.
My proposal is to allow external cheats to be used in verification movies as long as the end result could also be achieved by simply playing the game, and retains no lasting, unintended effects (like if infinite health somehow stayed on even after the code was disabled and the game was restarted, or if you got a debug item that can't be acquired in normal gameplay and it wasn't discarded before the save file was created, etc - those types of things). Think of it as a shortcut.
A judge had told me this could be abused, but also said that a movie could be disqualified if sufficient proof of abuse was provided. Meaning it would be done after a movie has been submitted.
Any codes in question should be provided in the notes of the verification movie for testing (for if questions about the code's legitimacy rise). Dolphin already has the option to download gecko codes from the internet (not sure where it gets them, admittedly). For any other codes, I'd say their source should be mentioned as well (but not required).
This is a wall preventing more save-anchored movies that I think could reasonably be knocked down.
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As copied from my message on discord, requested from feos...
"in the snes puyo puyo 2 movie, whenever you see this (left), it's an all clear. basically if you get an all clear, your next puyo pop will have 5 rows of nuisance puyo added to it
margin time doesn't really apply here - after 30/60/99/etc seconds, all nuisance puyos sent between players will be increased
180 flipping puyos doesn't really apply either, since the TASer tends to favor a low board as opposed to making tall columns
nuisance puyo countering happens a few times in the movie - basically, if there's nuisance puyo waiting to fall into your board, you can create a chain to mitigate or even counter it completely. sometimes the AI is able to make a 1-chain just before the nuisance puyo falls in, cancelling about 1 or less nuisance puyo from the TASer (needless to say, not enough to prevent being defeated). 1:29 is an example of this"
Additionally, in the kirby's avalanche encode, at 2:22, you can see that the opposing AI clears puyo while they have nuisance puyo waiting to fall. The cleared puyo go to the TASer instead of cancelling any of the waiting nuisance puyo.
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notes to self for next time (or next person to make a TAS of this game):
- get a different token during the chapter 13 cat "chase" to save like 5 seconds
- keep swinging south after collecting the secret token in chapter 14 to make the load screen like 5 seconds faster