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Link to video
I found a completely different path through the first two dungeons that saves about a dozen frames over this submission. ...I then discovered a new 100-frame improvement that doesn't apply to this run but does apply to the original submission, so an improvement would actually just be to the original path. So I uploaded this video to show off the other route I came up with, just for posterity.
despoa wrote:
As I was checking your test run under the User files, I noticed that it has 3069 rerecords while the run submitted has 770 rerecords. Can you explain this discrepancy and what the true rerecord count ought to be?
It's probably just a side effect of how I make runs. I know TAStudio has Branching functionality but I never bothered to learn it, I just save different project files for testing different strats and ideas. So a lot of my rerecords disappear that way, most likely. Also, I didn't really have to test a lot of ideas in this route, the game is a little deterministic so old strategies from my previous test run could be largely copied over here, making the rerecord count lower naturally.
TascoDLX wrote:
Oh, I'm not even aware of the Johann secret. But, you could definitely do it faster than intended with just 2 oils, since you can hit the 2 bottom webs with bow and amulet in 1 pass. Plus skipping extra boots & key, surely you'd come out ahead, if all you were concerned about was total time.
But honestly, while I think it's interesting that the rope trick exists, I don't think that much of it. Obviously I'd do it every time in an RTA because the game is hard enough as it is. But for a TAS, I don't know that it's worth cutting out 2 minutes of quality late-game action, unless there was something else to gain from it. Just my opinion though. Not a big deal to me either way.
Total time is my primary concern while TASing, yeah. I wouldn't feel happy with this run being published if I had knowledge of a path I missed that saves two minutes.
Watching your realtime run made me realize there were a couple other rooms I could have done faster, and facts I didn't know. Like how you can carry multiple hammers, why did I think you couldn't? This could maybe save some time in Selfishness too, I'm getting ideas.
So yeah I'm definitely remaking this run from the start, it'll probably take a week, given how busy real life is in this month particularly.
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TascoDLX wrote:
Fantastic! Some nice improvements over the realtime run (the extra oil usage is very clever) and obviously quite a bit faster overall due to not having to waste as much time on health/magic management -- the typical TAS expectations. Also, I appreciate seeing the back half of Pride completed, instead of just roping over to the Abyss. I'll want to do a proper route review, but there's a lot of intriguing stuff here to consider for realtime.
I'm a bit curious about an all dungeon items run (or whatever you'd call it) if you've even considered it. There are a few routes for items I've never bothered looking at, due to not being significantly useful for any%, but it would be a cool way to see more of the game.
.......i feel stupid for not ever checking if there were realtime runs to research. "Roping over to the Abyss" is probably faster than what I did, though it would probably take some research for exact amounts. Like, is it faster to:
A) Do my route as is,
B) Do my route but Ankh out of Pride after collecting the third oil, Rope over to the Abyss,
C) skip all the oils and Ankh out of Pride, Rope over to the Abyss, and collect the three hidden oils at Johann's,
D) skip all the oils and Ankh out of Pride, Rope over to the Abyss, and do that Abyss puzzle as originally intended?
Open to any route review comments! I doubt a 100% items run makes much sense but you're right, there're a lot of game rooms totally unseen
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lmao the reason I quit on Chip's Challenge was that an original-game TAS couldn't beat speedrun times for at least one stage, because that community instead uses a remake game that isn't as 100% accurate as it should be. I could probably have finished it anyway but I was kinda irritated when I learned that.
I hadn't even thought of that comparison though, good callout, this game does actually feel like CC to watch
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TasStudio is what I use. You can highlight a bunch of rows of input and then copy and paste them over and over.
In my most recent TAS, I also copied a really long string of A, B, A, B inputs into a Notepad window, so anytime I needed a couple hundred mash inputs I could just quickly copy from that window and then back into my movie.
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TaoTao wrote:
This game have been one of candidates for a good TAS material in my mind. Thank you.
I watched another TAS on nicovideo long ago, but your run seems to be faster. Yes vote.
Dang, uploaded in 2007, wow. Not a bad run, their 3-1 and 6-5 definitely could have been better but for so long ago that's really close to the time I got.
Reminds me of a 100% TAS of Wrecking Crew done in Famtasia from probably around the same time, another game that somehow still doesn't have a single submission on this site. Not the most exciting watch but it's always felt weird to me that it was missing from here.
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Well, I had a wacky idea: Dividing the plunder spends about four months, and towns that get visited by both the Silver Train and the Treasure Fleet usually have the events happen about four months apart, so wouldn't the fastest way to 100 points be to get to one of those towns right away and sack the Train, divide the plunder, sack the Fleet, divide the plunder, divide *again* just to pass the time, and "sack divide sack divide divide repeat" until you've banked enough gold to hit max retirement points?? So I've spent the night testing it out--in a ~four minutes TAS, I can conquer both the Silver Train and Treasure Fleet, and after the second Divide the Plunder, I'm already at 20 retirement points. The problem is that I can't seem to get the Silver Train or the Treasure Fleet to respawn--I was under the impression that they could be hit every year, but if not, it totally ruins my plans. I coulda had a sub-20 minute TAS.
Now it seems to me like that "Governor%" speedrun has the best strategy--Play as non-Spanish, go along the Latin American coastline converting cities to other nations and farm the new governors for promotions, and retire after hitting a high rank, looting 100ks of gold, and marrying a respectable Lady. A TAS could do this route really quickly, but it's a shame all the extra sailing is necessary. It would still be much faster--the TAS can attack safely with the ship far more quickly than the land battles. I'm curious what a final time would be.
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That actually turned out to be an interesting gimmick to watch, knowing you had to juggle enemies while only controlling one player per frame at a time. Otherwise it would just be another normal 2P run of a game.
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Definitely my youthful years' most played Rampage so I'm biased, but I definitely liked the run. The effort to maximize efficiency is clear! It only seems repetitive because the game is so dang long. But getting the run under an hour really is impressive, good job!
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god i love this game. Using an adaptor back in the day to play 4-Players with my cousins. The gray truck turns green if a human controls it! But wow I can't believe it, this game actually has an end, kinda. I always thought it just looped forever.
The way your bot abuses the collision physics to careen around the course in crazy ways is really fun to watch. Race 6 is a good example for people that don't want to watch TOO much of this 50 minute run.
Thanks for making this, I really like this.
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The first period was actually entertaining to watch and didn't take too long. I chuckled at the second period and then skipped to the advertisement part. The "Gradius" demo sure was a thing. But what a clever idea for an april fool's submission though!
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I used to play this a bunch after I bought it at a random department store in Oregon when I was a little kid. The game makes it look like you can only have two characters in a 'Cartoon' but you can swap them on the fly to rotate a cast through the story. Just only two on screen at a time is all. Not the best kid's animation suite out there but had potential for something on the NES.
I guess you've technically created a run that could described as having a win condition, so hey props on the creativity there.
(also the time of the movie according to the site bot is sus
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Really really good-looking run for a crazy hack, but it's a shame about the saber destroying the fun of the boss fights. The stages themselves look insane enough to make up for it, though.
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Hey, Taker was a great high flyer--his running flying clothesline and his dive over the top rope to the outside both were always damn gorgeous, especially for a near-7-footer!
This run is a surprisingly quick and easy watch for a wrestling tournament with 6 countout finishes. I liked!
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Your Introduction says hurting is not okay, your first category rule says only killing is not okay, and your second category rule goes back to saying hitting anything is not okay. Feels inconsistent.
I still get annoyed when I think about that one "Zipless" Sonic TAS that uses zips in the last couple levels, just because they could call them by a different term. oh god that was 12 years ago jeez let it go, twistedeye
I also feel like "pacifist" implies no damaging non-required enemies for any reason, so that's my vote. (lmao not serious here but: Suicide in the final stage, does that still qualify as pacifist if you're killing...yourself)
Watched the whole run and whatever any thoughts on the knight whipping are, the run is really well made and a solid watch. insert thumbs up emoji here
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Kinda cathartic for these NES word games, where you can cheat the engine with all these crazy big or illegibly short responses, for your final word in this run to just be "bird" and you type in "bird"
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Can a mod please replace the submission with this file? User movie #638053375915642915
Credit to Winslinator: They looked at my run and realized I'd left in some test inputs at the final sequence that caused the run to finish 4 frames later than necessary. So I was actually under a minute the whole time, though it does help to remember that accurate emulators are 59.whateverFPS not 60...
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Awakening Zelda is best Zelda. This run is fantastic too. For a movie that has no major skips or glitches, it still starts crazy and gets more and more nuts as it goes along. Awesome run.
