Posts for Spoony_Bard

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Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
Hm, what about the SNES or GBC remakes? Granted those would be less familiar to most of us, but it might work better. But let's have the more experienced coding gurus take a look at the game. After all, Final Fantasy managed to get done, and that game also wasn't very TAS-friendly, once upon a time. And even if everything can't be manipulated, doesn't mean a TAS can't be done. It'll just be long, but still we can shoot for as fast as possible.
Post subject: Mario Adventure (SMB3 hack)
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A hack of Super Mario Bros. 3, which can be found here. All the discussion at the 'Super Demo World: The Legend Continues' got me thinking of other hacks which might be good enough to do a TAS for. This one immediately came to mind. It's one of those hacks which changes nearly everything, leaving virtually nothing of the original game behind. Well, perhaps it's not THAT altered, but it is nearly a completely different game using Mario 3's engine. And even the game's engine was modified quite a bit. I could explain it all, but the page does that. There are new power-ups, new items, new enemies, even random weather-effects for the levels. Basically: You have access to the first 7 worlds right away. In one level in each of the worlds is a hidden key. In order to unlock world 8, you have to find they key in each world, and beat the Koopa kid as well. There's no warping past worlds, you have to do all 7. But you needn't finish all the levels in each world. When you beat a Koopa Kid, you get a hint as to where the key is located for that specific world. Luckily you can reenter any world and any level. But for a TAS that wouldn't be necessary. World 8 is divided up into a level based on each world, at the end of which you have to fight Bowser, and he gets harder and harder each time. Myself, I played the hack when it first came out, found all the keys, and got to World 8, but I could never get past 8-7. This is certainly a hack worth thinking about, though it's up to the admin as to whether or not it would be an officially accepted one, like TLC.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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Oh? What makes it not possible to make a publishable movie? I'd guess that party-selection would become trickey, and there'd probably be more level-building than DW4. But where there's a will there's a way.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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...wow. Just, wow. It's this kind of subtle improvement which makes tool-assisted speedruns so fascinating. Just how much time, do you think, this could save if applied to the full-level run? Something like this would stack quite a bit, I imagine...
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This all sounds excellent. But now I'm troubled, do I want to download and watch the tests of your final version, or should I wait until you're finished and watch it all at once? :) I much prefer single-sittings, but I'd like to give feedback too... Still, everything you're doing sounds awesome. This'll be a great run once it's done. (any chance of DW3 some time after this? :D)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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Sorry, I tend to jump to that conclusion. :)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 8/17/2004
Posts: 377
If I had to guess, it's likely he just applied the patch directly to the untouched ROM, without expanding the ROM with Lunar Magic which is supposed to be done first. Readme files are there to be read.
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I know it's just a drop in the ocean by now, but another yes vote from me. It looks great, truly masterful understanding and manipulation of the game's engine.
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I just finished watching it. It looks good, but as TheAxeMan pointed out it could be better. I'm certainly looking forward to the final version, this first version really impressed me as you were working on it. I DO have one question, though, maybe you addressed it already. Would it be possible to move Brey's position up in the wagon? Up to the slot just under the four party members? There's certainly a lot of frames spent scrolling down to him, and it might be negated by the frames spent moving him up. Of course, if you're killing him off earlier in the final version it may not matter. Other than that... what was up with Alena's strange movements in the Final Cave?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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Looks really well done, yes vote from me. In fact, the play style seems superior to the pure speed Famtasia movie that's already up. Have you thought about trying that one, I'm sure you could beat the time easily. And it would replace a Famtaisa move with an FCEU, which is always a plus.
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I'm impressed with how fast you're moving on this project. I started following it when you first started, and it's been looking good so far, especially with how potentially complicated this game could be. I'm lokoing forward to the end of the trial one, and the final version, which should be great.
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Yes vote from me, very well done and I was impressed by the constant abusing of freebies. I do have one question, though, which I briefly mentioned on the forums. We know that Bowser and Geno's ultimate weapons are behind the two Battle doors in Bowser's Castle. They, obviously, take some time to do. But I'm wondering, given how fast you typically go through battles, would one of those battle doors be faster than the first Quiz door? That one in particular took quite a while to get through, due to all the dialogue, and mandatory waiting in the counting game. It may not be, as I can't remember which enemies you wind up fighting in the Battle Doors. Do you have a rough idea of how long the Battle Doors take, compared to the first Quiz door? Plus, using one of the better weapons may, or may not, save time in the final battles, it's hard to say. It'd only be a small improvement at best, if any at all. But aside from that one question, I'm quite satisfied with this run.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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There's one question I've always had about the run. Why pass up the treasures you recieve for beating the 'Door puzzle' in Bowser's Castle? IE, all the potential good weapons and stuff. The previous run just ran by all the treasure chests without grabbing them. I know that some of the door puzzles take longer than others, and I can't remember which is the Drill Claw. But, if that puzzle happens to be done, then couldn't you just pick it up, so Bowser has a higher ATK for the final battles? Or are all the powerful weapons which really matter behind doors with puzzles that are skipped because they take too long?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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So, the Fantastic Four are in Final Fantasy? Huh, FF, FF...
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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I've been watching this one since it started, how I'm voting is a no-brainer. :) Excellent job, Saturn.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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Sorry, I wasn't saying that as if it was a BAD thing. But I guess in the past some people have chosen not to do that on their movies, for whatever reasons they had. Sometimes a no-death run looks good (ie: Metroid). But in the case of an RPG, especially one as long as this one, then using death as a shortcut is probably the best course of action.
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I assume you mean that you get into a battle and die, thus sending you back to the castle. Well it's up to you which method to take, but keep in mind that doing that will add a 'Uses death as a shortcut' flag. It's your choice whether or not you actually WANT that flag on your run.
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I'm also interested in a status update of this run. Is it still being worked on, on hiatus, or dropped entirely? I hope not the last option, this is one I'm really looking forward to.
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No, when you reach the end of the game, you're given an option to save and quit, thus taking you back to the title screen. At least that's the way it is in plain ol All-stars, I've never played All-stars+World myself.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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The GBC/GBA games are even more altered. Though I suppose any one of them could be tackled, but you couldn't do the SMB2j levels on SMBDX since you'd need a predefined save ram for it. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the GB-incarnations. The voices and other little things are a nice touch, but I just don't like the smaller screen. But that's just me. The benefit to using All-Stars, though, would be to put all four games on one SMV file. It would be a lengthy undertaking, but it would be really cool.
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At first I was going to stay out of this discussion altogether, and not even vote. But after seeing the side-by-side movie, I had to vote yes. But only in the hopes that Sleepz will still be credited in the Info section of the run, because he was still the one who originally used the most of the glitches. From what I've read, I'm guessing the biggest issue at hand here is that this run almost seems underhanded. A lot of this could have been avoided if Phil just messaged Sleepz while he was working on the run and just said something like "Hey, I found a few ways to shave some frames off your run, and I'm going to give it a shot. Cool?" Common courtesy, respect, and sportsmanship is really all that was needed. Even when I submitted my original Rad Gravity run, and Blublu was working on his own vastly superior one, he still messaged me first, even though his was FAR better compared to mine. Waaay more than half a second. In the end, Phil didn't revolutionize the run, just shaved a few imperfect frames from Sleepz's route. It deserves to be published, but Sleepz should still get his share of the credit for the original discoveries which made the run that fast to begin with.
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Boco wrote:
World was changed slightly, giving Luigi distinct sprites from Mario and a few other minor tweaks.
Oh, really? I didn't know that. Ok then, SMW in SMW-Allstars is ALMOST exactly the same, the changes don't seem to warrent including that in a full SMB Time Attack. ;)
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Count me in among the 15. The version doesn't matter too much, I imagine there's more bugs to exploit in the NES version, but All-Stars has the bonus of being able to do all the levels at once. Granted, you COULD play through the NES version, get to and complete World 9, then die once as you only have one life there, then restart the game and do Worlds A-D. It would look a bit sloppier, but it could be done on the NES version, and if that version has more entertaining bugs to exploit, I'd use it. The 16-bit graphics and sound of All-Stars don't matter much to me. If there's going to be any All-Star run, I think someone should go through ALL of the Mario games in one movie, since you can restart after finishing one. Perhaps one movie that uses warps in all the games, and one that doesn't, I'm curious as to how long it would take. I'd certainly be interested in em both, anyway, but maybe I'm alone there. EDIT: And to be specific, I'm thinking of the regular All-Stars, not All-Stars + World, since SMW already has its own section, and it wasn't at all changed by being added to All-Stars, whereas the other games are improved graphically.
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Oh, I didn't even notice those new editions to the rules, that's nifty. Well in that case, a full-run of SMB2j should certainly be attempted, using that patch. By the way, Bisquit, can we recommend other potential hacks for consideration to be allowed? I can certainly think of one or two which would be worth a look.
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I played through this awhile ago myself, so at least everything seems familiar. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your execution, or your weapons selected. I did wonder about a couple of things, though. Could you have thrown bombs during the first battle with Buster Rod G faster? I noticed there was a bit of a delay after he became vulnerable again, or is it necessary to wait that long for some reason? Also, during the battle against the first Wily Tower boss, the fire snake thingy, could you have shot it as it was jumping over the platform, or is it invincible there? It seemed like it was wide open, but you didn't take the shot, so I assume it couldn't be hurt. Aside from that, I'll refrain for voting for the moment, due to the nature of it being a start-from-savestate movie, but I'd vote yes otherwise.
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