The Solstice TASing has a very long history. The first TAS of Solstice was probably among the first 10 videos ever published in this site. Thus Solstice has a special place in the heart of many of the oldest followers of this site (such as myself). It's certainly one of my favorite TASes.
Isn't the NMI 60 times per second in an NTSC NES and 50 in a PAL NES? This is, AFAIK, because the internal clock is calibrated with the AC power supply which in NTSC countries is 60 Hz and in PAL countries is 50 Hz. (I wonder if there are any NTSC countries with a 50 Hz power distribution or viceversa. If there are, I wonder how NTSC/PAL works there...)
As for the lag, one has to remember that the CPU in the NES is pretty slow (especially compared to current PCs and game consoles which are supercomputers in comparison) and it just isn't fast enough sometimes to do all the calculations in time for the next screen refresh. That's actually the reason why there are so many glitches in NES games and much fewer in SNES games: In the latter there's much more CPU power to check for glitchy conditions while in the NES they have to do some shortcuts sometimes and just hope that the player doesn't find the glitches.
However, the painting itself is still a derivative work of Mona Lisa. Even if the program the robot runs on is not.
I agree. In this case the AVI video file is a derivative work of the game.
Of course only a lawyer specialized on copyrights and such could tell for sure what would and would not be considered a derivative work...
A derivative work contains some ideas (even if modified) from another work.
A robot which paints the Mona Lisa is not a derivative work of Mona Lisa. It's a robot which paints.
While I don't have a problem with the backwalking, I think it is more than ok to voice an opinion over how dull the backwalking can be. Getting upset with people for making a legit observation on something is really stupid.
IMO the backwalking was cool. It didn't bother me at all.
IMO if people want to watch the surroundings they should play the game.
Seriously, get off your high horses and stop being pissed I criticized your "almight" OoT TAS.
I think that the problem is not your critique, but the way in which you write it. You use expressions and words (iow. you use such a "tone of voice") which irritate people. If you presented the exact same critique with a more positive tone of voice it's much more probable that people would not get so irritated. Using the wrong tone of voice can convert even the most constructive criticism into a flamewar.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but I have the impression that deep inside you like the feedback you get from your posts, deep inside you like stirring the mud to see what happens. On the outside you masquerade it with a "I express myself however I want, I don't care what people think of it", but on the inside you, at least partially, enjoy the feedback you get from your way of writing. I also believe that once you get into such a fight, your pride doesn't allow you to stop, much less apologize.
I know this kind of personality very well because I once was like that. I still am, at least a bit (even though I have tried to better myself a lot in the last years).
1) OoT is boring as hell to watch
You shouldn't generalize like that. OoT may be boring to watch to *you*. That doesn't mean it's boring to watch to everyone. I myself have enjoyed both the (unassisted) speedrun and this TAS.
Sure, his .m64 file was used to create the movie file. However, that is too a derivative work of the ROM.
If an .m64 file is just a collection of timed keypresses, it can hardly be considered a derivative work of anything because it doesn't contain anything from the ROM. If anything, it's a product of the mupen64 emulator (and thus in theory might be subject to the emulator's license), but essentially has nothing to do with the mario64 rom.
IMO there are pros and cons in posting these videos to youtube:
Pros:
- Easier access. People don't need to download and install obscure codecs and players to see the videos, a web browser (with flash plugin) will do.
- Larger potential audience. More people may get interested in the TAS world.
Cons:
- Since the videos are out of context, many people will get confused (believing they are unassisted runs) and then outraged when they find out they have been "cheated". People don't read explanations nor warnings (this is a very well known fact). Since this is something we have been trying to eradicate for years, this will partially undermine the efforts.
- Crappy video quality. Lots of time and effort and computing power is sacrificed in order to get the maximum quality/filesize ratio when videos are published here at tasvideos. When people publish videos at youtube, they will just convert them to wmv with automatic compression settings, with no fine-tuning nor experience&knowledge on how to get a good quality/size ratio, and thus the videos will look like crap.
- Potential copyright issues. Let's admit it: These videos infringe copyright (the soundtrack surely does, maybe the graphics too). Publishing copyrighted material at youtube is against their usage policy (even though for some odd reason they don't seem to enforce this, given the high amount of copyrighted material you can find at youtube if you just search).
My point was: Yes, they do explain what TASes are, but they are completely disconnected from the actual videos, they usually lack concrete examples and are quite long.
I actually expressed my idea in a bit confusing way in my first post. I didn't actually mean that we need a short introduction to what TASes are. What I wanted to say was that it would probably be very interesting for newcomers (and even many not-so-newcomers) if there was an article explaining what TASes are, what techniques are used and so on, in a concise and clear way and with links to outstanding videos which use the mentioned techniques. Perhaps a bit like the wikipedia article, but more concentrated on giving concrete examples and explaining what is happening in the most outstanding videos.
Currently we have tons of FAQs and tons of videos, completely disjointed and separated. There isn't much connection between them. The visitors have to make the connections themselves if they really want (most probably won't). If someone eg. reads about a cool-sounding technique in a FAQ, he might want to see an outstanding video where this technique is prominently used. Currently this is usually just impossible without a lot of research and searching.
Given the amount of replies to this suggestion, it seems that people here are not very interested. I'm honestly surprised. Personally I think this would be a great idea.
Ok, so we have a "movies recommended for first time viewers" page, and we have several why/how/faq pages, all basically disjoint from each other. I believe that it's not easy for a first-time viewer to make the connection between the techniques described in the faq pages and the videos themselves. They would have to make quite some research before they can understand what is happening where. This is not helped much by the fact that the length of all the faq pages combined is quite large.
So my idea was: How about making an introductory article which explains briefly (but in detail) the idea of a TAS and the techniques used, while giving concrete examples and links to the most prominent videos (perhaps with a short introduction to the video). For example, a paragraph in this introductory article could explain briefly how a robot has been programmed to search for (short) optimal paths to a bonus and then give a link to the megaman video which uses this technique (perhaps mentioning the exact position at which it happens). Some paragraphs could perhaps show, as an example, one or two of the animated gifs in the several tricks pages. And so on.
If this article is written well, it could be a much more first-time-user-friendly way if introducing someone to the TAS videos. Currently I suspect that the completely disjoint "first-time videos" and faq pages are not the easiest way of getting a good idea about what this is all about.
I believe there's an inherent contradiction of rights in this idea.
Technically speaking all the TAS videos published here break copyright: Prominently the soundtracks break copyright, and probably the graphics too.
I'm pretty certain that the copyright owners don't really care (if they did, they would have shouted already). They might consider it "fair use".
However, us claiming copyright on copyrighted material crosses a borderline. I would not even dare to try crossing that line. Some copyright owner might step in, and that's not something we want to experience.
I highly doubt that. At least not a *generic* tasbot.
It may be possible to build a program which is highly optimized specifically for Mario 1 and uses algorithms and heuristics created for achieving the goals in that game. However, it's just not possible to create a *generic* bot which could complete a game (any game) in any feasible way. Heck, it would be really, really difficult to even make it search for the optimal play for 10 seconds of playing time. In fact, even if optimality is not the goal but just trying to search the goal by any path, it would still be very unlikely.
That's because the number of possible combinations of button presses increase exponentially in consecutive frames. To get an idea, let's just assume that it's enough for the program to test the 4 directional buttons to reach the desired goal:
In 1 frame the amount of combinations to test is 4.
In 2 frames the amount of combinations is 16.
In 3 frames it's 64.
In 10 frames it's already 1048576.
In 100 frames it's 1606938044258990275541962092341162602522202993782792835301376.
In 1000 frames it's 11481306952742545242328332011776819840223177020886952004776427368257\
66261392370313856659486316506269918445964638987462773447118960863055\
33142593135616665318539129989145312280000688779148240044871428926990\
06348624478161546364638836394731702604046635397090499655816239880894\
46296056233116495361642219703326813441689089844585056023794848079140\
58900934776500429002716706625830522008132236281291761267883317206598\
99539641812702177985840404215985318325154088943390209192055495778358\
96720391600819572166305827553804255837260155283487864194320545089152\
75783882625175435528800822842770817965453762184851149029376
It's also quite sad that IE is still the de-facto standard even though it has not been developed anylonger in, like, 5 years. Most websites are forced to play under the rules imposed by IE and can't use the latest innovations in web technology if IE doesn't support them. This is a huge drag in web progress.
Even when MS publishes the new updated IE and even if it implements most of the newest web standards, it will still be years and years before major websites will dare to start using those standards. It's a bit like netscape4: It took way too many years before people finally stopped thinking about compatibility with that completely antiquated browser.
As far as I can see, his submissions are against the terms of use of youtube:
"In connection with User Submissions, you further agree that you will not: [...] (ii) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage YouTube or any third party"
Has anyone attempted to contact the youtube administrators?
It's funny how there are still tons of sites out there which report something like 95% of IE users. I suppose that if those figures are correct, it tells that only nerds visit this site. :P
There are two cool things about the TAS, especially after having played the game myself:
1) Enemy manipulation and avoiding looks very cool at some places. Knowing how hard it is to avoid them it looks great (regardless of it being tool-assisted).
2) Using teleport alpha in place is a cool tool-assisted trick too. I now understand how teleporting from the helipad directly could be possible (it's naturally impossible when playing the game normally). Also (ab)using the teleport to move faster through the swamps and the underworld is a great idea.
This is the first time I actually play a game because I want to play it before watching the TAS. I played it through in something like 5 days. I have yet not watched the TAS, but I'm going to do it now.
Btw, I named the characters Joe, Alyx, Ray and Sato. It will probably be hard to follow the TAS since I'm accustomed to those names... :P
One tiny humorous detail which I liked in the game was that the typical weapons for the girl were frying pans... Talk about cliché... :P
Btw, I was thinking if an alternative run where the goal is not to beat the game but to capture all the pokémon which can be captured in the game (including using bugs to capture pokémon which do not appear in the game in normal play) would be interesting.
The run could end when the last (possible) pokémon has been captured. Or if it's possible to somehow show all captured ones (or their amount) in the pokedex (I don't remember how it worked) then after that.
It might be interesting as a showcase demonstrating what are all the pokémon that can be captured in the game (including abusing bugs).
You mean that in nightmare mode you have to, for example, in e1m2 make a HUGE detour to the outside of the complex instead of going as straightforward as possible to the exit? I have hard time believing that.
The exact same question could be asked of e1m1, actually.
I could sign a petition to end the unconstitutional special treatmen of jehova's witnesses. IMO that special treatment breaks the section 6 of the Finnish constitution:
"No one shall, without an acceptable reason, be treated differently from other persons on the ground of sex, age,
origin, language, religion, conviction, opinion, health, disability or other reason that concerns his or her person."
I do not consider "being a jehova's witness" to be an acceptable reason for special treatment and I consider this special treatment unconstitutional.
I have a better idea for a captcha. Instead of using an image (which is what every spammer expects) just use text. Simply give the captcha as a text like:
Please write the string xyzzy7 in the textfield below to complete your registration.
Now, how many spambots will crack that? You could add an additional security measurement by blocking (at least for some time) the ip if it makes several (like eg. 10) consecutive failed attempts.
Many of the best (non-assisted) speedruns out there are incredible shows of skill (for example QdQwav, the HL2 speedrun etc). These runs aim for absolute perfection, and the runners play levels again and again and again to squeeze that last tenth of a second.
However, there are some speedruns at SDA which I simply can't understand. For example, take the Doom Episode 1 speedrun at SDA (made by Drew 'stx-Vile' DeVore). Or take for example the Final Doom TNT run (by the same runner). Those are not speedruns at all! I don't get it.
I have seen Episode 1 of Doom beaten probably in half the time compared to the run available at SDA. The latter does tons of unnecessary detours for no obvious reason, kills tons of enemies for no apparent reason and all in all seems to be just a playthrough instead of a speedrun.
The Final Doom TNT run is even worse. For a while I was thinking "is this a 100% run?" (ie. all kills and secrets) because for a moment it looked that way (the page at SDA doesn't mention it being such a thing, though). However, after a while it was clear that it was not a 100% run because he wasn't killing *all* monsters. However, he takes a lot of time killing monsters seemingly for no good reason. It looks just like a playthrough (made by someone who knows the game well) and not a speedrun.
I don't get it. What's the idea? What's the point?
