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I see now why JXQ kept so quiet about his progress before this submission. I was right, something terribly serious happened in this run:
A ingame time of 0:37!!!
I honestly NEVER in hell thought a sub 0:38 time for 100% is possible to reach, even with all the newest tricks. I was blown away to see how many little tricks JXQ improved, especially:
- the last shinespark after grapple beam to JUST reach the platform in time (I was shocked to see that even with 29 energy points it's still possible to get ammo refills because I thought the minimal limit for them was 30)
- the long horizontal room full of enemies in WS with the absolutely unexpected skip of the first shinespark
- Pink Brinstar PB without using a shinespark
- Maridia shortcharge right before cracking the tube to save alot of time before shinesparking to the mainstreet Missile
- Lower Norfair springballing through the bomb blocks room after Gold Torizo
- Lower Norfair Elite Pirate room
- Lower Norfair hidden energy tank room
- Going to X-Ray scope without using the Space Jump in the spike room
- Entire Blue/Old Brinstar cleanup
The only slight mistakes you did were mostly in the boss fights:
- Torizo can be improved by at least 10 frames
- Phantoon can be improved by around 50 frames
- Ridley's final grab was very good this time, but I still think one could squeeze out a few more frames by optimizing his position before the grab even more
And the only obvious mistake I could see in the general run was in green Brinstar right when leaving the Etecoon room. Instead of making a additional jump on the platform just before the door, you could keep all the momentum by just jumping though it with a mid-air morph. That way you also save some frames in the next room by having the possibility to lay a PB immediately after the transition.
Other than this slight errors, this is just a insanely good optimized TAS and because the exact timer is 37,90 I'm very sure that's the absolute limit for 100% no matter if aiming for realtime or not.
Awesome work JXQ, my biggest respects to you and a obvious YES vote with a Star on this masterwork!!
Oh and extremely nice Input animation, man! I especially liked the Tetris style at the beginning. :-)
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Allright, here is also a small version of me in 1991 performing a headstand:
Sorry about the sandwich... I was just having breakfast when my buddy asked me to do this headstand for a pic. I was too lazy to go back into the kitchen, so I had no choice.
Not bad for a 7 year old kid eh? ;-)
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Great RPG games that still lack a TAS but are definitely worth one are Terranigma, Seiken Densetsu 3 and Secret of Mana, and maybe Secret of Evermore any%.
In Racing games, F-Zero GP mode would definitely kick some ass as well (which Super Mario Kart already showed, being pretty similar to F-Zero).
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FODA wrote:
well, i don't know what to say, besides my now long hair, look what i can do.
Wow, nice one! I tried that myself and failed... It just requires one to be pretty limber.
And who is kenny?
For some reason he looks a bit like a small version of moozooh. :-P
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hero of the day wrote:
Kitsune, there is no video for the 3:39 run (which is not a 100% run anyway). Kyrsimys was talking in hypothetical terms, for a future run. If you want to see a 100% completion run, check out the one on the speed demo archives.
Which is still not a true 100% run. :-)
It just completes all quests, but for 100% you should get all possible items as well (like in Metroid games). If you can handle ZSNES you should check my 100% one (downloadable on my site in the ZSNES section), which gets absolutely everything that is possible to get.
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Thanks for clearing the thing with MC3 up, Huffers. I just forgot about the mushroom luck manipulation there.
Althought MC4 is one of the best and largest courses in SMK, going with the DP1 technique (which I didn't thought being possible there before) will save so much time there, that the entertaining race-through wouldn't be worth it anyway, since it would be just too long compared to the lap-skip tech. So a good choice in this case to skip them. :-)
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Huffers wrote:
Mario Circuit 3 is done!
time: 63.06
(the non-TAS record = 76.69)
I am now 50% of the way through the game.
Here is WIP 9+10.
BC2 was surprising, but also a bit disappointing. Since it's the fastest way I guess, we just have to go with such breaks.
But MC3 was very very nice! Only thing I wonder, why did you hit some walls more times in some laps, and in other ones managed to avoid them in that place? I think this explains why your lap times at the end show a almost 1 sec difference between the laps during the 2nd till the last one. Wasn't there a way to improve the slower ones?
Other than that, good luck for Star Cup! Can't wait to see BC3 and MC4! :-)
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I would especially recommend the mind blowing megamix called Crystal Flash:
http://virt.vgmix.com/music/arrange/virt_-_super_metroid_-_crystal_flash.mp3
It's a 22 min long one in a very high instrumental quality in the Metal style, extremely good composed and mixed. I have heared many Metroid mixes, but this one is by far the best IMO. Don't miss it!
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Bag of Magic Food wrote:
Saturn wrote:
It would be a good option to not replace his run with this new one but add it in another category, simply because it indeed cuts out alot of the game story and shows a amazingly cool Lavos strategy with Magus, which alone is worth a look.
STOP IT
I'm sick of people who are too scared to obsolete anything. It's not as if the obsoleted movie doesn't have its own page you can always refer back to. And how is the category any different?
Those who can read are in advantage sometimes:
Saturn in the previous post also wrote:
On the other hand, the goals of both movies are pretty identical to aim for lowest possible time, so it's a problem to properly decide again.
I didn't say the new one must not obsolete the current one. It was just a thought.
And welcome to TASvideos inichi! Glad you joined, that way we might get much better support while planning the new route with you. :-)
Regarding the ROM language problem:
upthorn has a excellent point. It's much more useful for us to compare how much time another TAS with this new route can save to the current one. Comparing anything to the console run that isn't even available in video is kind of lame, and I think picking the japanese version just because of that would lead to disappointment of most members here as well.
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Well, if VDubMod doesn't work for you it might be because of your system. It works just fine for me.
If you want to mix in fades, this might be tricky with VDub. I never did or required that though, but I think it has such a option if you have the correct filter enabled. Not sure though.
The thing about appending with only same frame rate and such is good IMO, otherwise it could ruin your movie. Simply reencode the different segment with a lossless codec to the same frame rate and resolution size, then just append it to get the best result.
Mixing sound is not possible with VDub afaik, but for that I just use a Wave Editor through which I have no limits, encode the complete sound in a mp3, and then add it to VDubMod as usual. VDubMod can also handle .ogg and create .mkv or .ogm files without problems.
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kwinse wrote:
I don't know how interesting a run that uses the space-time beam would be, since I imagine that the route would be similar to the any%, up until after Draygon (unless one gets the plasma without beating Draygon; I have no clue how quick that abuse of the X-Ray Scope is).
It is indeed possible that just fighting Draygon as usual might be even faster than getting that thing with the x-ray scope. Climbing up the walls with it takes AGES compared to a fast paced TAS.
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Bob A wrote:
you think? i thought this opportunity would be jumped upon, but now that it seems that that isn't the case, i'm seriously considering doing the run. and if i do, i'll probably do it in japanese, both because hero of the day said the text part would be significantly faster, and because the english translation sucks.
I also did consider to eventually make that run, but since you're up to it I wish you good luck!
But please, I really would recommend to use the english version. As hero said, it would be a better comparison on how much time the new route can save, and it would generally be of much more use simply because most of the people could read the dialogs and understand the game much better while watching it in english. Going with the japanese version just because of the slight time gain would be a big mistake IMO, but of course it's up to you.
And I think hero has a good point. It would be a good option to not replace his run with this new one but add it in another category, simply because it indeed cuts out alot of the game story and shows a amazingly cool Lavos strategy with Magus, which alone is worth a look. On the other hand, the goals of both movies are pretty identical to aim for lowest possible time, so it's a problem to properly decide again.
And skamastaG, we don't do a TAS to prove or show that a TAS is still faster than a console run, but just to achive the goal which is the main one on this site in most cases. "Fastest time". Pretty obvious.
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hero of the day wrote:
For those who don't believe me, or haven't watched my TAS, Please Click here and fast forward to 4:03. Watch how much damage lavos' attack does to everyone except magus, it is astronomical! This was after 20 minutes of leveling up too. I am not lying, serious leveling is the only way to defeat lavos, with or without tools.
Yeah, only survived with 44 HP. The others had no chance by far. Hero is damn right about what he says, one level lower wouldn't make it already, even with strongest character.
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Yeah, considering that Magus had the highest level of all when joining (along with best magic defense which is a must at lavos') it's frightening to imagine how badly the last battle would be if following this 3:49 guide.
But even though entertainment would suck compared to your current run, I think fastest time for this game is still a more valueable goal in this case. Also somebody (including myself) could make a seperate video with the leveling up battles cut out if requested.
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hero of the day wrote:
Yeah, all the metroid games are now getting the attention they deserve.
So today I was bored and I manage to escape the Giant Metroid in real time (but with save states) without the speed booster. Of course it ended up taking more time than it would have to simply get drained by the metroid. In a console speed run you have the risk of exiting with the metroid attached, so this trick is basically useless to everyone. movie, for those who are curious
This was known. Before discovering the shortest charge through which the shinespark variant is only possible, I planned to use the non shinespark method in the RBO as well first.
And even without shinespark, it's still definitely faster than letting the Metroid grabbing you. You just have to dodge him more precisely.
Here a proof-movie
(created in a couple of minutes, so it's still not optimized to the max.)
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Well, bad news.
I just tried to test the top route, and unfortunately you have no chance to get one of the fireballs pass through this tight opening right before you can freeze it to pass the wall. There is no way you can alter their moving direction, and I fear you, hero, saying that it has to be the bottom one is very true. And waiting for that definitely won't make this route faster in any case, not even in a 100% run I guess, at least as long there is a way to get the fireball reach the top room block without more than 10 sec delay (or much less in a any% to be worth it). :-(
If you want to see the smv hero, I can upload. But there is really nothing worth to see since the attempt fails anyway.
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Wow, very nice hero! I really must say that you have a extremely good creativity to find new stuff over and over again.
Although all this tricks are pretty obvious thinking about it now, it's surprising no one has ever noticed such a cool thing. Thank you very much for that!
Hmm thinking about it, this might even be a interesting variant to use in a any% run (in both your and my route). The amount of door transitions is exactly the same, actually, the Power Bomb use as well (bottom one requires 2, but you get them back right before doing the first shinespark), but the any% (especially your route) benefits of skipping the health draining shinespark, so you could skip many health refills before, and save more time.
Somebody should do a rough test of this top-route and then compare it to the standard bottom one to find out how much faster it might be. Maybe I will do it myself today or tomorrow.
EDIT: Ahh, I get it now. The 2 more door transitions you speak of are only a matter in the 100% run. But as said, it seems to be a interesting one for any% as well.
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Yes, it's included as long as you started the smv recording while having the srm file enabled (which you did). It doesn't matter if the playbacker has his own srm files or not.
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Huffers:
Yeah, I knew about the Water bounce jump over the walls from a DP1 video from the top realtime players. I ment the shortcuts you listed in a earlier post of yours, dated at 25th February.
AngerFist:
Are you drunk again?
In order to have a valid *.srm file it has to match the *.smc (ROM) file. Simply rename it in case it doesn't. Kind of "Not stored in movie file" message usually comes when loading a wrong savestate that isn't suitable to the movie when it's currently playing back. Maybe you have confused it somehow. Otherwise make sure to use a good Snes9x for playback (which is Snes9x v1.43 imrovement9 for example) to avoid potential bugs. Thats all I can suggest.
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Huffers wrote:
Donut Plains 2 is done.
Time: 48.83
Non-TAS record: 70.66
Very nice and of high technical quality WIP! Though this course was lacking a bit of crazy shortcuts again. I hope BC2 will offer more of them, being a complex course by itself.
Keep it up!
And respect on finding so many tricks and shortcuts by yourself, Huffers. Hopefully you can find even more of them while progressing with this TAS.
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VirtualDub isn't complete in features. Use VirtualDubMod which offers even more in Video Encoding/Editing.
Warp wrote:
Yeah, you can do that with a hex editor too. It still doesn't make the hex editor a video editing software. ;)
You are wrong about it. VirtualDub is especially designed to cut, add, mix and preview all your editings in a seperate window. It also offers many useful filters, and it also supports subtitles (although not the most handiest way, but still).
I use VirtualDub for a long time now, and never had any serious complains about it. It's everything you need for video editing/encoding.
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evilchen and Tonski:
Unfortunately I didn't record a smv while testing this. Sorry.
hero of the day wrote:
He seems to be using Saturn's any% route which is Phantoon > Kraid > Draygon > Ridley, (correct me if I am wrong).
You are. It's Phantoon -> Draygon -> Kraid -> Ridley.
Do you think I'm gonna waste the Speed Booster and Space Jump powers for nothing in Kraids Lair by doing it before Draygon? Not with me. ;-)
Gonna check his run some time, but unless he doesn't take 3 more energy tanks, he will experience a very uncomfortable surprise at Motherbrain whithout Varia Suit. But maybe he indeed plans on doing something unexpected, so let's see.
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Tonski:
This is all known and slower. :-)
Regarding the Space Jump variant, I already thought about doing it in the any% run the way P.JMan suggested, but now I tried it to see how much faster this will be, and the result is outstanding: only 423 frames, more than a sec faster than JXQ's one. :-)
Sorry about the sandwich... I was just having breakfast when my buddy asked me to do this headstand for a pic. I was too lazy to go back into the kitchen, so I had no choice.
Not bad for a 7 year old kid eh? ;-)