Posts for VANDAL


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Pretty lame Castlevania SotN review. I mean, it's laughable it's so bad. Equally lame Super Castlevania IV review.
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Nice to see you back! As for the WIP, the way you ended that fight was just insane. Keep up the great work, I'll be watchin'.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (612)
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Such an evil form of swimming... Yes vote.
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This run turned out to be all of what I would want out of it. It had 'many aspects', some being subtle and others being in your face. It had some genuine entertainment trade-offs, which some were in the waiting periods (the best time to do 'em). And the matter of progressing through the game was top notch (all those bodies, the quirky/quick fighting was really neat to see). The only thing I didn't like was the ending. Glitches in runs are fine but when they remove key parts of a game, I feel that that just ruins everything. In this case, it didn't ruin the run but maybe you guys could consider throwing in an alternate ending run, just for shits and giggles. Regardless, this movie is better than the published one so here's another yes vote. Great work the both of yous.
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The only method I can think of is using MeGUI which solely uses avisynth script. It comes with an assortment of audio/video encoding-based programs which of those you should be able to add your mencoder parameters to (since it uses mencoder). I believe when you're setting up your codecs, at the bottom it tells of the command line that'll be used and that's where you'd make your modifications. Give it a shot.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (612)
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Another FFVI Montage/Music Video and with the same theme music only it sounds 8-bit.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (612)
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I believe it's a bug in FCEU 0.98.16 which I assume you're using. Try FCEU 0.98.15 which can be found here.
Post subject: FFVI (and others) montage/music video
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My brother came across this: Some sort of FFVI montage or music video I thought it was interesting. You might want to brace yourself as it may be a bit loud.
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100% great Sonic Spinball run. It's funny seeing the bonuses being failed on purpose, for some reason. At some points I was like "ughh, why does this game have to lag? I mean, nothing is even going on, where's the blast processing?" but that's really not a complaint from me, it's just something I thought about throwing in to fill in some space in this post. Oh yeah, I'm just realizing this now that this game is a bit of a creepy Sonic game (albeit, not quite the traditional Sonic game), what with Robotnik taking on such weird forms. So yeah, another wasteful post by me as well as a deserved yes vote for the author. Great job man.
Post subject: Tutorial - Workaround of YouTube's 30 fps limit
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(This doesn't quite fit the codec criteria but still, it's meant for use on YouTube). Okay, here's a bit of a workaround that'll give off the illusion of 60 fps. Here at TASVideos, we all know what wobbling in a TAS is, right? Well, I thought this would be a pretty good example since when you cut the frame rate in half, you lose the wobbling effect (for the most part). So, here's how it'll work. We'll take every 2 frames and combine them into 1 frame but still keep the wobbling effect. Here's an example: We've got our two frames, This one: And this one: And so, we want to combine them. What tool better to do so than AVISynth. Well, if we're going to use AVISynth, then you're going to need to know some of AVISynth's script (it's not difficult to learn). You can find information for it here. We'll also need an encoder that can handle AVISynth like VirtualDub or MediaCoder hell, even MeGUI. I used VirtualDub in this example as it's quick and painless. To get the effects of AVISynth, you want to open up a blank .txt file, type up your script and save it with the extension of .avs. When you have the .avs file, you want to act as though that is the video file at hand and open that up in your encoder. Okay, on with the tutorial. With this script:
AVISource("1.avi")
AssumeFieldBased.Weave
We can combine the 2 frames into 1 which makes it look like this: Notice Trevor is all scanlined up as well as the image's height being twice the size. That's from weaving the 2 frames together. This works great for making DVDs because when the images are processed on a TV, they're deinterlaced and look to be 60 fps. But I digress. We're not quite done yet. In order for this to be complete, we need to deinterlace the image so that it's without the scanline look. So, we'll add to the previous script:
AVISource("1.avi")
AssumeFieldBased.Weave.VerticalReduceBy2
This allows us to get this result: Trevor is now facing forward and backward in the same frame. But how does it look in video, you might ask? Well, for starters here's the unaltered video file (encoded with X264) I went ahead and used (sorry, if I upload it to YouTube, it'll lose half the frames.) Now, here's what usually happens when you upload a 60 fps video to YouTube. Not very pretty without the rest of the frames. And now, here's the interlaced/deinterlaced video (there's really no need to see the video where it's only interlaced as the concept has already been shown off, at the top of this page. Also, if I uploaded it to YouTube, it'd get resized and wouldn't show off the concept). That's it. This is just a concept that tries to bypass YouTube's encoder that decimates frames. What codec you use to encode it is entirely up to you. I'm sure there are probably better deinterlacers out there but this one is built-in AVISynth, it was fast and much less confusing than if I were to use an external one. I urge those who post their TASes on YouTube, to use this method because the end result is much nicer looking. If you do in fact consider using this method and for some reason need help, I'm usually around in IRC on Freenode under the nick of Samhain-Grim.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (612)
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Well, what you could try is interlace the video so that every 2 frames would become 1 frame (basically they're stricken with scanlines at this point. Doing this also increases the resolution's height) and then deinterlace the video so that there's the illusion of 60 frames per second (then you can resize it back to normal). AVISynth can do this for you with its 'Weave' function. I'll try and come up with an example of what the hell I'm talking about.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (612)
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Wow, I had no idea that SoR could be so versatile. I mean, I've played through the game in 1-Player mode but I found it to be less fun than the sequels because of the lack of gameplay. With what you've shown, I await the finished product which, maybe you shouldn't release anymore WIPs since it looks like you've got a great grasp as to what should and shouldn't be done. I hope this project serves you well. Good luck, man.
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Much obliged, gocha. Some of the stuff listed is what I've been waiting for.
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Pretty good run, but I thought some things could have been more diverse. I mean, you did quite a bit of the same thing when dodging which is okay since it's crazy enough but it does get boring after a while. The game did actually help you out a bit in diversity by things becoming more hectic or the screen scrolled faster so you may want to consider thanking the game. Nah, I'm just kidding. I give this a meh vote. Keep at it though, man, it was a nice surprise.
Post subject: Akumajou Dracula (Super Famicom) Hard Mode
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Since there has been a bit of SCVIV talk as of late, I thought about doing a play through of this game but on hard mode. This should not be considered a speedrun in any way, shape, or form because it's not all too fast nor too pretty to look at, heh. I did this to show off not only what hard mode has in store but to also show off the differences of the Japanese version. There really isn't many differences but to name the ones I can see/hear are: -- There's blood dripping from the main title screen -- The Whip sounds different than in the US version -- The Font is darker -- The Level 6 statues aren't censored -- The slime/poison in Level 8 looks to be blood (it's red) So yeah, the Japanese version is actually pretty cool and is barely different than the US version, really just censorship. This play through is also in hopes that hard mode may be considered for a future run as well as a version change (which most likely won't happen...) Anyway, Here's the Play Through, enjoy (that is, if you can.)
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When you find out that the game sucks more balls as it progresses (Bart VS The World.)
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (612)
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Great run, man. You really nailed everything down! But, I'm not sure I agree that this is the superior SNES Castlevania though. While it has a hell of a lot more context, I always felt the gameplay to be a step down from CV4's (everything except stair-jumping at will and I guess Item Crashing, never cared for it.) I mean, it's pretty damn stiff if you think about it (maybe to be more realistic?) but it does actually mold you into a better player at the other Castlevanias, for some odd reason (I'm not kidding.) Besides being stiff, the game is a bit simplified (I guess to fit the gameplay) but it's also complex here and there so, hmm. I guess I'm done criticizing the game, back to the run... There was a lot cool things that went on in this run like the execution; room by room was done pretty top-notch. I also liked the showmanship during the waiting periods. Nice and organized run as well so Yes vote.
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I liked the other movie quite a bit and this one was even better so, you know, yes vote. You're a funny and creative guy, Cardboard. Keep doing what you're doing, it's great stuff.
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Well, for starters, I'll go ahead and answer the question at the top. I did actually enjoy this movie because without Tool-Assistance, it's very improbable that this game would be completed, heh. Besides that, it's not too bad a run, you know, there are a lot worse hacks out there. On the other hand, I can't see this getting published. I see what it offers but is it deemed enough? My gut says no, sorry mushroom. But, hey, it was pretty well done. One last thing, I'll ask you, did you enjoy working on this run?
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zggzdydp wrote:
Nice job. I only have a question, are you sure it's faster to swing those bulls instead of killing them?
Yes, swinging is the fastest manner of movement for him if you do it correctly (it usually goes like this; as soon as you start swinging, hold down for 62 frames then let go. That way, you not only are going faster than usual, you also get the highest lift in speed when you are no longer swinging but unfortunately that speed wears off as soon as you hit the ground.)
I can definitely see it being finished in 2008.
zggzdydp wrote:
January 2008, you can do it. :) I really love the run, but it has been kept for a long time. So I'd like to see the submission early.
Well, January is a bit of a stretch, haha :D . But as of late, working on Bloodlines has been overly fun so progress is coming real easy now. As soon as Truncated comes back, the run shall continue onward so in the mean time, relax, the wait should be worth it :) .
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Well, it's finally here. Hope you enjoy it as, like the subject says, it'll be the last before the run is submitted. Level 3 I can't give you a real estimate of when the run will be complete, that's out of our hands but I can definitely see it being finished in 2008. All questions and comments/criticism are very much so welcome.
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Truly the best. I'm not a big fan of the Megaman/Rockman/whatever you prefer series, but I can say that I really enjoyed this run. Yes vote.
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What a crazy game! I found myself laughing every time Robocop died. It's as if he's like "What the fuck did you do to me?!" or something like that. Either way, sounds hilarious. Good choice of game as well. The visuals were pretty good, the music/sound effects were actually not bad for Sega, and the gameplay didn't look all too annoying. It was a good run so I'll give you your deserved yes vote.
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Came out quite well. The game wasn't too tedious; as it progressed things became different enough like the enemies, the means of getting somewhere, etc. I also liked the showmanship at certain parts, though subtle/unintentional , they were there (the last instance that I can think of was in the end fight and that big knight looking-dude was creeping up on you and you charged your sword and just before he was going to hit you, you pwned his ass.) The acrobatics were as good as they get and it was cool to be able to see all of what the Prince was made of. Overall, man, this is a definite yes from me.
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Damn good run this time, on par with your SMB3 playaround run. Yes vote.