Camera didn't bother me that much, though I'll agree that I don't like the constant mario close-ups and on the fire bowser level, mario's moves got entirely hidden for a certain period of time, which is silly. I was still thoroughly entertained and see this as worthy of publication, though I would reccomend the authors to fix the camera angles if the process only requires hexing the inputs and changing the c-button inputs.
Right now I'm getting the impression people are trying to disregard the importance of entertainment value in a run, and that the optimization of the run is the only criterion for publication.
From the site;
Vaguely speaking, not every game in existence is good. Similarly, not all games have potential for entertaining TASes from a viewer standpoint. Select those games which give you a chance to make a TAS that entertains viewers. Just because a game is popular, difficult, or is entertaining to play or run or TAS, does not necessarily mean that it is entertaining to watch.
If a game is a good game to TAS, it should be possible to adhere to the guidelines:
The game should give an impression of complexity; it should not be overly easy or straightforward.
There should be enough variety to entertain. It should not have, say, 10% of it entertaining and 90% boring.
It should not be too long.
A TAS of the game can be distinguished enough from a non-assisted run.
It should not be unimpressive (for example, a chess TAS is often unimpressive).
It should be able to have clear goals such as completion.
It should not be a bad game in the first place, such that it distracts the viewers.
As an example of a bad game choice, see Front Line (this example is not an intention to mock anyone, as the author not only acknowledges how bad it is, but enjoys such fact).
If you look at the ratings for a published movie, the score is always the average of a quality and entertainment score.
So, when you see people voting no because they found the movie boring, that seems like a respectable decision based on the site rules + objectives, and something I can largely agree with.
That being said, I'd hardly call this game a bad choice for TASing. Despite the sheer volume of cutscenes and somewhat slow nature of the game, there is still so much to appreciate in terms of tricks + optimizations, and I'll once again repeat I voted yes based on being impressed with what I watched in 15-30 minute intervals.
Apparently people voting no have never heard of skipping cutscenes; you do know that VLC and probably most other media players can play at 4x+ speed, right? If it wasn't for constantly being able to change between 1, 2 and 4x speed or tried to watch the run in one shot instead of gradually over a few days, I would've found it tedious to watch too. Don't get me wrong, I do this for most videos anyway. For instance, in a Super Metroid video, I'll watch the .smv so I can turbo through all the door transitions and whatnot, not so much because I'm an impatient moron, but it just makes it easier to appreciate the entertaining core of the run.
Regardless, I do think this game is heavily overrated for TASing, as people give no consideration to how repetitious side hopping can get, or how slow paced this game is compared to other runs on the site that didn't receive 65 consecutive yes votes (or even 65 votes altogether). What I guess I'm saying is I feel too many people are auto-voting yes more because of how much they love the game rather than how entertaining the run is. No matter how well bloobiela optimized the run (and he really did a spectacular job), that doesn't really change the fact that RPG/adventure type runs are just intrinsically more boring to watch.
*prepares to receive some major hate*
Edit: Forgot to mention I voted yes for this run a long time ago based purely on the the impressive optimization level. There were some tricks that really stood out, such as in the gerudo desert dungeon when link fell from a ledge then played an ocarina song to warp. That was one of the most creative "takes damage to save time" tricks I've seen in a while, and there were many other unexpected tricks throughout the run, particularly in the adult segments.
Memory addresses 7E046B-7E04A1 consist of a set of 55 RNs. The current RN is indexed by the value at 7E04A2. When 7E04A2 rolls over to 0, a new set of 55 RNs is generated.
Again, I'm still not sure what to do with the memory addresses in SNES9x. The closest I can guess is using game genie code where you get the options to enter cheat code, cheat description, cheat address (hex) and new value (dec or hex). The more likely option seems to be using search for new cheats and inputting the address in there, but I really don't have a clue what I'm doing.
I'm considering TASing this game, and from recent discussion with lion and nitrodon, it seems I'll have the means available to manipulate the RNG similar to how it was done in the recently published Sacred Stones run.
Below is a response to a post of nitrodon's I haven't answered yet.
FE5's RNG is very similar to FE4's, except that that are more (and faster) ways to manipulate it during the player phase. If you have animations on, you can even manipulate the RNG during the enemy phase. I could probably make a spreadsheet, but you would need to input 55 numbers (046B-04A1) instead of 3. This might be easier if I learn Lua scripting.
...So how exactly am I supposed to find out the RNs? Am I supposed to input 046B-04A1 as a cheat code in SNES9x or something? Also, would manipulating RNs on enemy phase with animations on be worth it, or were you just pointing that out because it's a cool fact?
Hey Nitrodon, I am looking to TAS FE5 but I need some help for forming a table of RN values. Cheetah posted this at gfaqs:
"Actually, it's fairly easy to find in VBA's memory viewer the previous three RNs, which the game uses to calculate the next one. Then somebody somewhere figured outt he formula used for gtting the next RN from the previous three. Then Nitrodon, who helped a lot with the run, made a spreadsheet that lets me put the three numbers at the beginning of the chapter into blank spots, and it'll list out the next 500."
I'm wondering if you can do the same but for SNES9x v1.43...? Any help would be immensely appreciated.
Obvious yes vote from me. I've been waiting to see a Fire Emblem TAS for a while and you've proven it's better than anything I could've ever imagined. I adore watching the insanely fast cursor movement, especially before crits, the zipping through bases, making trades we can barely see for a split second and just utterly breaking the game in the least intentioned manner (Vanessa dodging multiple arrow shots, for instance).
Excellent. But do you mind posting the .vbm for individual chapters instead? I get annoyed having to fast forward through 90% of the vid to get to the new chapter(s). Anyway, keep up the good work, that was fast considering 16 was finished only a couple days ago.
it was a run to get experienced with the emulator. i wasnt aiming for perfection and i had fun doing it. i didnt look for shortcuts but found one and i tried to finish the run hitless. since slash star dash uses some "takes damage to save time " jumps, i changed the route sometimes, but its mostly like his vid.
No offense, but if you're making a run to get familiar with the software, don't waste people's time and submit it. IMO, you should only attempt a run for the site if you're fully familiar with the tools you're trying to exploit. Sorry if that came off mean :/
I do have a bad habit of having good progress for a few chapters, then stopping for months on end.
You weren't kidding 0_o
If motivation's an issue, note that the lategame has that easy egg killing chapter, and the last 2 (maybe 3) chapters are seize/boss kill, which requires a lot less planning than rout maps.
OK guys, as you see moozooh just needs some time to realize that having a big mouth without anything behind it is not a good thing. If you don't believe what I said about him in the past, don't worry, time will show that clearly sooner or later anyway. I tried what I could to motivate him to start working on his run so that he could gain his own experience that is required to become a good SM-TASer (and then eventually contribute something new as long as it's not too late), but ok, he either doesn't want to, or more likely just can't get past this early learning-stage. Too bad.
Do you have nothing better to do than attempt to demotivate moozooh? For whatever reasons, if he's not showing signs of producing a SM TAS, that's his problem, and there's no need to put all this unconstructive pressure on him. And if someone else with a promising SM background were to announce they were working on a TAS of the game, would you put them through this malicious bullying as well?
I'm sick of seeing your colossal pride and ego clouding your judgment and making you act like an ***hole with respect to other runners of this game. You just take eliticism to a whole new level, and as much as I respect your work, your attitude is despicable.
Are you going to use the x-ray trick to get the gravity suit faster, or are all x-ray tricks off limit? It would be sad to see that trick not implemented since it is one of the few x-ray tricks that isn't downright boring, but I guess consistency in rules is important too.
Finally got around to watching the WIP. Great work, I didn't expect to see so many moves being applied to achieve optimum performance.
Anyway, this is directed at bkDJ. In case you don't know, part 6 and the first few minutes of part 7 are identical. Sorry if someone else already pointed that out.
I'm trying to figure out an easy way to get a tool to mash the A button on my wii remote faster than what is normally humanly possible. I'm not sure what device could accomplish this (at least one I could buy). I talked to someone who reccomended looking into electronic pulse generators, but I'm not too sure about that. Any suggestions?
Well then why isn't there a "glitched" run of the game? And what exactly is the absolute fastest method to beat the game, in-game time estimation included...?
That's already known for quite a long time and I think not worth it to use in a speedrun.
Why not? Forgive me if I'm completely wrong, but that application of the murder beam looks huge. I mean, wouldn't you just need to acquire all the beams and maybe the speed booster + gravity suit (for the plasma), return to crateria, do murder beam and beat the game...? That would at least skip quite a few bosses and areas you normally have to visit in an any% run.
Electrifying, dazzling, spectacular, wonderful, phenomenal, awe inspiring, the epitome of all that's good in the world.
But seriously, that was amazing. One of the best TASes I've seen so far.
That was amazing beyond words! Quick q, what's the point of using that combat booster? I'm also guessing that the pause screen saves loading time or something.
This is probably worthless, but I had the grapple beam clip me through a wall while playing a super metroid hack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OhbqWN_vnw
The problem is that the hack obviously has tweaked some of the game's physics, so this might not be possible in Super Metroid. Still, I'm curious as to why this works and hope it has some obscure application somewhere :)
Edit: It's also possible to get the wall clipping on your very first grapple attempt on the enemy. Not sure how to manipulate this, just got lucky I guess.