Posts for WarHippy

Posted: 10/25/2019 1:03 AM
(Edited: 7/16/2020 1:32 PM)

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

What could possibly be more fun than making progress on your TAS??? Why, starting over, of course! I picked up on a much better strategy for the 1v1 fights. In the fight against Nam it had always bugged me that the fight went extremely smoothly and fast even though he had never jumped. I tried the same strategy in the Tao Pai Pai fight, and I ended up saving 48 frames in an unoptimized trial run(!). The damage output of the ki blasts are so much more efficient than using regular attacks. There was slight change in the last tutorial level that saved 3 frames. It wasn't implemented in the previous WIP due to RNG manipulation. Fight against Giran - 34 Frames saved Fight against Nam - 50 Frames saved. I was able to break his defense gauge quicker, and it turns out to be a lot more efficient to do the lvl. 2 ki first followed by the lvl. 1 blast as a finisher Fight again Juckie-Chun - 63 87 Frames saved. Since I was starting so close to the beginning again I figured I'd go ahead and get this to sync in BizHawk 2.3.2 (mGBA 0.7.2) As a result, I've lost about ~~30 frames~~100 frames of time due to lag. I can expect that over the whole run I'll be losing about ~~100 frames~~ 200 frames total. Here's the new file that syncs up to the beginning of Muscle Tower. mGBA 0.8 was just released this past week. If it gets implemented into a newer bizhawk I will make sure that it syncs again. EDIT - I'm syncing up the whole original improvement up to the Tao Pai Pai fight. It's far too useful of a tool for comparison to just drop. It turns out I'm losing quite a bit more time to lag than I thought.

Posted: 10/18/2019 8:14 PM
(Edited: 11/15/2019 10:13 PM)

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Alright. I have now looked through all 1,237 rejected submissions on this site. There were a few dozen submissions that aimed for maximum score, but almost all of them were rejected for sub-optimal play in addition to an (at the time) un-vaultable goal choice. The very few that made it past that first hurdle were rejected for being a homebrew/hack (which doesn't qualify for Vault) or had some other trade off that didn't let it achieve max score. Through all this there exists ONE submission which I believe should be re-judged based on the new Maximum Score rules, and that run is Submission #5554: DrD2k9's C64 Decathlon in 11:26.31 Specifically, optimization seems good and it fulfills the first bullet point of the new rules, that "There is no other way to define full completion for the game, because there is no way to collect or complete "all X" for any given criterion, aside from fastest completion."

Posted: 10/15/2019 1:16 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Svimmer wrote:

...then I'll recalibrate my own expectations. Still, I don't see how you can justify it based on the description given of what the tier should be about...

The ability to TAS a lot of these older systems has only recently come about. As such, the Tier descriptions might be a little outmoded. This is a fine quality game for C64. Even the Stars tier requires a variety of systems to be represented. It seems logical that the same should happen with Moons.

Posted: 10/13/2019 10:28 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

This is looking pretty fantastic! I'm excited to see the whole run. A couple questions, though. how did you do the super fast dash after first talking with Kara in the palace? And is the pause buffering used to skip the level up animation?

Posted: 10/13/2019 1:25 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Link to video Here's a link to more info about the game. Apparently there is a Best Ending at $1,000,000+. Not sure if that would disqualify it for max score. At 5:53 in the encode it looks like he shoots a health canister which means he can't get the secret bonus at the end of the level.

Posted: 10/13/2019 7:06 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Virtual Pinball doesn't actually complete the game as required per the rules, and Flappy Bird is a rom hack which pretty much has no place in Vault. (Also they're April Fools submissions...)

Posted: 10/13/2019 1:51 AM
(Edited: 10/18/2019 7:44 PM)

Post subject: Maximum Score: Unrejecting Gruefood

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

With the recent update to the rules on Vault eligible submissions I was wondering if there were rejected games in the past that aimed for Maximum Score when the game wasn't able to track 100% completion. ~~I haven't gone through every rejected submission on the site~~ (Done), but I imagine this will only apply to ~~very few games.~~ one game. See Below Tin Star is the only one I know of at this point. I was recently looking into TASing it which is why starting this topic occurred to me. Now unfortunately, based off the submission notes, it seems like this submission has some optimization problems. It might very well be worth rejecting again :( Any other movies come to mind for anyone?

Posted: 10/12/2019 1:08 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Link to video Muscle Tower - 1st Mini-boss, slightly altered starting pattern. It's the same as in the published run, but slightly delayed so that I can reflect all 3 missiles at him. - 2nd Mini-boss, the first phase was the same. The second phase was very similar. I had to spend a few frames getting one extra hit on one of the copies. The last two copies actually moved towards me instead of away from me like in the published run. This let me end the fight much closer to the right side of the screen. - Boss, Lost a couple frames manipulating rng for the best starting pattern. Improved the attack pattern against the bricks. Changed up the L+R rush usage to let me finish fight with a ki blast. Ending the fight with the rush special loses a couple frames from lag. - 73 Frames Saved on this level Underwater Caverns (pt. 1) - Discovered a new mechanic of the game. When an environmental hazard such as a ground spear kills an enemy, then the game will wait until the enemy's corpse completely disappears before triggering the next event. In the third fight of the level (the one where I kill 3 bats in the first hit) there are off-screen ground pikes on the right side of the screen. These pikes were used in the published run to kill the enemy, but this time I wait until they hit the enemy first and then I deliver the killing blow 1 frame later. This trick is used twice in this fight saving 89 frames. Another 6 frames are saved through better movement in the falling section shortly afterwards. 1 frame saved right before the transition to the second half of the level because I don't need to delay for rng manipulation. 96 Frames saved Underwater Caverns (pt. 2, above ground) - Delayed getting the purple turtle shell as long as possible which let me carry the invincibility frames all the way to the mini-boss. The results speak for itself :) 218 Frames saved Underwater Caverns (pt. 3) - The red robots that drop down from the ceiling don't need to be destroyed in order to advance. This is the only instance in the game where an enemy spawns after the start of the fight that doesn't need to be destroyed in order to advance. 70 Frames saved General Blue (Boss) - Finished the fight with a lvl. 3 kamehameha instead of an L+R rush attack. 18 Frames Saved. For this level I saved 402 frames. I am 555 Frames ahead in total.

Posted: 9/22/2019 9:10 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

I still don't actually know how to use branches, so no :P My computer had symptoms of a dying hard drive (files taking forever to open, certain programs not opening or responding). I'm not overly surprised that the save file wasn't able to be updated.

Posted: 9/22/2019 11:13 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

The process worked like a charm, thanks. Unfortunately, it looks like my progress wasn't even saved at all before it got corrupted. Guess I still have one and half fights to re-do.

Posted: 9/21/2019 9:09 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Yah, it's a saved movie file (.tasproj). Could you elaborate on that process?

Posted: 9/21/2019 12:39 PM

Post subject: Recovering Corrupted Save File

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

My computer had a bit of a hiccup, and the most recent save file I was working on threw this error after restarting:

Is there a way to modify the Movie System header so that I can try to open it? -EDIT- The picture doesn't seem to be showing correctly. Here's the link to the error message. https://imgur.com/gallery/e77oN46

Posted: 9/20/2019 11:04 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Technically not crazy. I may keep doing the same thing over and over again, but I get a slightly different result every time ;)

Posted: 9/17/2019 11:52 AM
(Edited: 7/16/2020 1:31 PM)

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

And we're back! In the submission text I mentioned that I would have liked to spend a whole 'nother year on this TAS. And well, I am. I started off by working on one of the known improvements in the Underwater Caverns. By delaying picking up the purple turtle shell as late as possible I can make it all the way to the mini-boss. This lets me do some serious damage very quickly. Some minor improvements were made in the following stages and I had saved several seconds at this point. Before I got to the end of the auto-scroller level I decided to go back to the beginning and try out some things that I missed the first time around. Sure enough, I was able to shake a few frames loose which led to new RNG values which led to more savings. A little over two and half months into this re-work and I'm halfway through Muscle Tower. I'm 129 frames ahead with two half-stages to go before I can re-connect with where I started off. I'm positive the second half of the game will yield even more improvements, especially the 1v1 fights, since I was in a bit of a rush at the time to submit before the end of the year. There is no rush for me this time because this game already got its award. I don't plan to have this run done until sometime next year.

Posted: 9/7/2019 1:04 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

DrD2k9 wrote:

I still believe that if the poll question were changed to a question of degree instead of a yes/no question, we would get better results.

I like this idea, and I want to take it one step further. I would like to see the Poll question changed to the 'Rate this Movie' option found on the submission home page. Ratings are so often used in difficult submission judgments and in discussions over movie tiers and in award season... even though there are entirely too few on most movies to be representative. This system would also allow people (like Lobsterzelda) to give a more honest opinion of entertainment when they can give the submission its due credit for technical quality.

Posted: 6/24/2019 12:09 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

- Open the BizHawk-2.3.2 Folder and double click the EmuHawk icon. A black screen should pop up. - Go to File > Open Rom > Select any game rom that you have downloaded. Due to legal reasons you will need to go out and find the game roms on your own. We aren't allowed to provide links or directions on where to go. - Once the Rom is loaded it should start playing automatically. If not, then go up to the Emulation tab and select Pause Emulation to unpause it. - You can now play the game, yay!, using the keyboard (or controller if you can get it set up). - Once you're ready to TAS you can go to Tools > TAStudio. The game will go back to the very first frame after power-on and become paused. TAStudio definitely has a learning curve, and I fully expect you to have questions about it, but it will become pretty intuitive in time. Welcome to TASvideos, and we look forward to helping you out. Hopefully this is enough to get you started.

Posted: 5/22/2019 10:29 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Let's not get too carried away here. As per the Movie Rules page, "When optimal gameplay results in little to no variation in input sequences, matching others' work becomes unavoidable, so co-authorship is not required. However, when you copy someone else's artistic choices, the original author should be duly credited." The only real issues I could see are with optimization. Since this is a Mario game it is expected to have a high level of optimal play. But since I'm not familiar with all the tricks available for use (especially in the FDS version), I'll second Spikestuff and let the real Mario fans chime in on that.

Posted: 5/1/2019 9:50 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Interesting idea. It's certainly one worthy of an April Fool's submission, but I don't think it has what it takes to make it to Moons. After seeing all the insane things that can be done with this game, the one-button challenge seems like too much of a restriction. I would much rather see a walk-a-thon of this game that allows Y-button when necessary (even though that does feel more arbitrary). The entertainment that the item abuse brings to this game is wholly necessary.

Posted: 3/20/2019 9:06 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

How is this the theoretical best time when there's two full piece's worth of blocks left? Based on the low re-record count it seems like this was just a first attempt to clear 40 lines with no real work put into finding the optimal solution.

Posted: 1/21/2019 1:45 PM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

I wanted to document some stuff that wasn't included in the published run or submission text. The following link contains several minor glitches, the .lua's used, and a known improvement that was pointed out to me in the youtube comments of the published run. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/52705118511615245

Posted: 1/20/2019 1:25 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

That’s like saying a politician shouldn’t campaign so as to not bias the voters. Unless you personally disliked all three of those runs I’d appreciate hearing your discussion.

Posted: 12/30/2018 10:18 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Challenger wrote:

...picking the level 4 ki capsule is still worth, right?

Well, that's a great question. It costs about 240 frames to pick up the capsule. I use all 4 ki bars once in the Piccolo fight to do 160 damage, so I would have to see if I can do more than that in less time. It might be possible to use as a quicker finisher on the boss of the red caverns. It might also have some use in the final level. The cool down from the Kamehameha is always so great that it's just been faster to combo the enemies from start to finish. But there are large pauses between waves of enemies that could make it viable. Definitely Possible Improvement material.

MUGG wrote:

Will there be a comparison video?

I don't think it's necessary since it would merely highlight the differences between using save states vs. TAStudio.

Posted: 12/28/2018 9:49 AM

Post subject: Re: Now the 2005 run is finally going to be obsoleted!

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Challenger wrote:

You... announced this project exactly on this day, December 27.

Oh neat! A true coincidence, I can assure you.

Challenger wrote:

...remaining submission text... Meanwhile, yes vote!

Hopefully I can get to it all tomorrow. There's still a bunch to add in the technical section before I get to start on the level by level descriptions. As always, I appreciate the support :)

Posted: 12/17/2018 11:06 AM

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

I went back and added the new jump trick into the run. The first instance it saved time was in the Tao fight after Korrin Tower. This caused a change in RNG and I had to re-sync half the run. But, this complete shake-up of the RNG allowed me to find new strategies in many spots which culminated in 318 frames being saved. I'm now back up to where I left off in the previous wip. 2 stages to go and 2 weeks to do it in. READY. FIGHT!

Posted: 11/23/2018 7:24 AM
(Edited: 7/16/2020 1:31 PM)

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WarHippy

Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Experienced player (994)

Joined: 1/9/2011
Posts: 227

Red Ribbon Army Base (pt 2) + Baba's Palace + City Street + 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament + First Encounter with Piccolo Input File In the RRA Base I was able to pull off the fight skip by going under the bridge. It's clear this wasn't intended by the developers since this is a pixel perfect jump. The first fight at Baba's Palace is against Spike the Devil Man in the Devil's Toilet arena. He starts with a laser attack, so I use the L+R attack to break his stance. Otherwise he only takes half damage while charging. I've seen videos of him starting with a different movement, but none of the RNG changes I could make would cause a different start. The L+R attack does less damage than any standard combo* (*more details will be provided in the future submission). -Edit- The second fight is against Grandpa Gohan whom Baba is able to bring back to life for one day. Next is a fight against Shu and Mai in a giant robot combination. All of the missiles are reflected back for massive damage making for a quick fight. The 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament ramps up the difficulty of the CPU opponents. The Chiaotzu and Krillin fights are especially difficult due to their small frames. The fight against Tien was probably the most distressing fight of the run. Not because it was overly difficult, but because I found a new trick that could save time in almost every VS fight in the game. It's a trick to do an instant jump straight up instead of to the left or right. Details of all the tricks and mechanics will appear in the future submission text, but for now all you need to know is that it can allow for better positioning when I want to fire my Kamehameha. Hopefully I can implement this trick into earlier fights without changing the RNG. Up next is a fight against one of Piccolo's minions followed by a quick fight against the boss man himself. This is another required loss, and I was not able to do it any faster than the previous submission. There are only 2 levels remaining. It looks like a 2018 submission is possible, but I need to step back and make sure that I'm not rushing through anything. The next time I post about this run will almost certainly be the submission itself where all of the wonderfully intricate details will be explained.