This would be one of those that if you played and liked the game, then a TAS would be mind-blowing. Otherwise it's gonna be a little iffy. I wouldn't mind, this was one freaking hard game, especially the little goober with the scissors running around! Go for the best ending!
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
See what nitsuja said. Apparently it assumes 60 fps to give a time in seconds. If the framerate is always constant, saving it is unneccesary, but most systems have variable framerate.
Sooo...that actaully brings up a question that nitsuja asked: do all the games for an arcade board type all run at the same speed? I would venture yes, but be willing to admit that I'm wrong. Okay, armed with the knowledge, what can be done to make FBA into an acceptable format for around here?
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Arcade games would be interesting to see TASed, but wouldn't some of the newer games need very powerful machines to run?
Nah, not really. Unless you're trying to do something like Virtua Fighter 5 or Tekken 5 or something like that. But then you might as well just be using a cosole at that point...
minglw
MAME already supports recording, what are the obstacles to put re-record capabilities in MAME ?
It would be awesome if we can use MAME to do TAS for arcade games.
True. But as I understand it, MAME changes pretty often, and having a stable, unchanging emulator is what is needed to be able to publish the TAS of the game. FBA hasn't changed in the last long while, mostly because the games it emulates are running on certain borads, kinda like a console.
AngerFist said
Damn, I didnt know it also emulates Neo-Geo games. There are so many great Neo-Geo games to TAS! There are two games I remember the most, a street fighter type of game (name of the game is World Heroes?) only 1000+ better and another kind of street fighter game only this one aint a vs game instead its a mission type of game.
Yeah! That's why I've been trying to get this going. Many of the NEO-GEO games are just really good platformers. Perhaps you could do a TAS...perhaps...just a thought...
Truncated said
The program gives you the length in frames. The framerate is used to determine length in human-readable minutes-seconds. You still need both.
Actually it gives both frames and time. Megaman took 3:10 and was 11592 frames in length. So 11592 frames/190 seconds = 60 frames/second. Or do we really need the program to give it to us? And while I'm at it, what is your Avatar? I can't seem to quite figure it out...
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Okay! Now I know. Yeah, the .fr format will give you the length of the movie, the number of records, the author's name/comments. The only two things are like Shakespeare said, the framerate and the record from reset.
Now if the framerate is used to determine length, and the program tells you the length, wouldn't the only thing that's holding this thing back be record from reset/power up?
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
*Gives nitsuja a Pichu* Cool. One step further to world domina...ummm...TASing cool arcades.
nitsuja wrote
I filled in that page, although now that it is documented, you will probably find that it fails to meet several of those conditions.
To be honest, I'm still in the dark as to what THOSE conditions are. I've guessed, but I would just like to know for certain which is missing. And if there's anything I can do to help move this in the right direction.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
All information contained within the movie file must be parseable and interpretable without access to the game or the emulator (complete documentation of the movie file format is required).
I somehow missed this my first few times over that page. It means someone needs to tear the input file up and see how it works? Mostly for verification puposes like no cheat/savestate using, and things like that. I guess that would be a pain, though. So is there no documentation for the FBA .fr format? Seems strange....
On this site, movies are usually made in the form of speed records, that will be challenged by other players. It is therefore mandatory to provide a common ground for all movies of a particular system. That common ground is usually decided to be power-on or reset.
But it's like I've been saying the whole time...I'm no programmer (tried once, so I do know what goes into it) this doesn't seem too hard to implement, if a record from power-on is needed. In my FBA tinkering I haven't seen a record from power on feature, but then again, I haven't really looked for it too hard, because I just paused, hit re-set and then advanced a little and then hit the record button.
Soooooooo, this seems to be the vibe that I'm getting here:
Until someone somewhere somehow in someway implements the 2 or 3 small features that seem to be holding FBA (or other arcade emulators) back, I just gotta chill or continue making noise until I'm heard. Or try to do it myself (hmmm.....sadly not an option. Like I said earlier, I got out of programming ages ago).
Shakespeare said
Duh... Let's take Fceu as an example...
I am making Tas, i want to save another state 100 frame forward from currently saved one. between the record input running, I pressed Shift+F5 (Make Movie Readonly) Made a new save state. Pressed Shift+F5 again, it will now un check readonly.. Cuntinue Tasing. Got it? I want to do same with FBA
Ah! I get it! (/stupid) Sorry for the misunderstanding. Hmmm, I see why you would like to use that, but I'm unaware of how to do it in FBA. Mostly because if I wanted to do something like that I was just REALLY careful. Of course this more than once cause me to make a mistake and lose like an hour of work.....
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
I agree. The issue really isn't file size. It's those who would actually do them, and those who would like to see them that would actually decide if FBA TASes would start to get out. I guess I'm just jumping the gun a little bit? But still, if possible I would like to know if there is anything that I can do to do get this running. If it's just a few small things like record from power up, I hope that there is some awesome/cool person who could implement that.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
with respect to the jumps, frequently jump with AB simultaneously, this I do it because the jump is upper and quick (for that reason a firing of spray escapes sometimes)…
I understand that. It's just that it seems like after spraying like a garbage can, you still stand and spray for a little bit. I know this is mostly due to the game being dumb, but can't you get the timing so that when the thing turns red, you either immedietly stop spraying or you turn around and take off running right away?
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
100MB!?! What arcade roms are you using?
Looking at a few of mine, I see the biggest being kof2000. Most of the bigger games seem to be fighters anyways, and it seems most fighter just end up being a combo demo of the same one over and over (if for pure speed). Most of the runnable games are under 30 megs. And by runnable I mean being able to be completed fast AND look cool.
Still not sure what you mean, Shakespeare. Are you talking about modifing the file it self to be read-only?
Also still not understanding the no FBA thing. Looking for understanding...
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Ash covered most of what I was going to comment on. Don't forget that you can take a hit and sprint through at times. May or may not be applicable in the first level. But the boss fight had 2 missed shots, and it seems like you spray a couple of things....strangely. Like you made your way to a plant and then got it from a certain side, or kept on just standing and spraying for a second after.
Overall looks nice, just tweak those little things.
and would getting Maggie actaully speed up the boss fight? I know some of the later ones will actaully slow you like Marge or cause weird lag like Homer, or do diddly like Lisa.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Good point. That would screw with the timing of the actual run. Would it be possible to implement such a feature? (dramatic) Or am I doomed forever to have such quality go to waste? (/dramatic)
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Okay, after looking through that, what's the problem with FBA? It emulates perfectly, has enough re-recording tools to get the job done, so what else is missing?
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Hello?....if anyone out there in TAS land is listening....I would like to make a *small* request for this emu. Auto-Hold, input display and frame display. I recently have been toying with the new Gens and *love* the TAS tools that I just mentioned.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Yeah, I know. Just wanted to see if there was an expert or something like that kicking around. Thanks though! (gives cookie)
I guess I can proceed without it...because initial testing seems to prove that there's only like 4 or 5 possible outcomes to a particular encounter, all found in under 20 cycles. I could be wrong, though, but I don't think so. Because I am never wrong! :) It would be nice to be able to know for certain, though.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.