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Growing up on the NES, I played plenty of Q-bert. Frustratingly challenging, to say the least! I was entertained by the flawless playthrough (something I never came close to achieving as a kid) and the frame-dependent solutions. 'Yes' vote.
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Dragondarch wrote:
So I looked into why it took more hits to kill the Red Dragon in the JP version.
Apparently they changed the attack power of the Short Sword and Normal Sword in the US version. In the US version the power of swords is 6, 9, 16, 24. In the JP version it's 4, 8, 16, 24. Didn't notice any differences in enemy HP.
Thinking about it, that actually makes more sense that they changed the swords' ATK power over increasing the enemy's HP. It was definitely a noticeable difference between the two versions.
Thanks for uncovering that!
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I can only assume kramathorn was mistaken in his post (unless he knew of a bug or exploit).
Is it possible to get to Tunlan early with just Gobi?
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Whelkman wrote:
Is anyone able to describe the method to obtain DragonSD in Breath of Fire hinted at here:
kramathorn wrote:
I'm roughly 60% through the video right now and I realized something that I should have realized much earlier. Why haven't you gotten the Dragon Sword yet? You can get that I believe before you get Bo. If not sometime after. Definitely before you gain your 4th player.
EDIT:
I couldn't remember where the sword was exactly at the time I said this, but now I know you definitely need Bo to get it. Maybe Ill create a video to show you how to get it early on. I believe you can get the Slab early as well.
The way I remember it, you need to have Rod5 in order to fish the Dragon Sword out of the well outside of Romero.
Breath of Fire Walkthrough: RPG Classicshttp://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/bof1/walkthrough/walkthrough6.shtml
Otherwise, I have no idea how else you could get it -- unless there was some way to luck manipulate with a Rod4, or lower.
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Gotta say that this game looks sweet (reminds me of the Lunar games). The combat system looks more sophisticated from the classics of old. I wonder how they would look in a TAS?
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kusoman wrote:
ive seen submissions of Rockman 2 Minimum
and Rockman Exhaust are those bad?
They were likely rejected due to not being as entertaining as the current published hacks. As I understand it, the more Rockman hacks tasvideos publishes, the higher the standards become.
kusoman wrote:
question but off trackwhat if the TASes are in segments how do I get them into one movie file
or can it be a .wmv or somethin
You could try using 'TAS Movie Editor' to hopefully splice those segments together: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tas-editor/
As for your last question, have you tried asking in the Dolphin forum?
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For some reason, I could not get the rewind feature to work during movie recording for Genesis (it did work during normal emulation, however). I even tried assigning different hotkeys, to no avail.
This occurred on both versions 1.7.3 and 1.7.4. The rewind feature works fine on version 1.7.1 (haven't tried 1.7.2).
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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(apologies. double-post).
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mklip2001 wrote:
Hey ars4326, I hope it's ok, but I changed the description of the publication from what you suggested. The wording you had originally presumes some degree of familiarity with the game already. Instead, I tried to put in something that would illustrate what makes the game so hard. I can go back to this, though, and try to put back in some of the humor from your suggested description.
It's all good, mklip2000! Being an older title, I did presume some familiarity but I liked your illustration with the 'Nintendo Hard' idea I had. Sometimes I assume familiarity too often, so this helped me become more aware of what to include in the future.
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To be honest, this looks more like a 'proof of concept' run, that should've been posted in the forums for feedback, rather than an optimized TAS ready for submission. Hacks are also held to a higher standard, further stressing the importance of obtaining feedback from the community before going any further.
The low re-record count (87) is also an indicator of a hastily done project.
Going to give this a no vote, Ambiance 69. Please understand that creating a publish-worthy TAS takes a sizable commitment; moreso than what was demonstrated here..
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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kusoman wrote:
あなたがロックマンのROMハックどのような種類のを受け入れるのですか？
(sorry if this is a rough translation!)
ハックのROMはそれらがより高い基準に開催されているロックマン４-∞とロックマンNCとか高品質検討されているでもロックマン3紀元前ははなくかなり
Here, rom hacks are held to higher standards.
For example, 'Rockman Minus Infinity' and 'Rockman no Constancy' are considered high enough quality.
But, 'Rockman 3: Burst Chaser' was not considered to be good enough.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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kusoman wrote:
i saw the other submissions. no big deal?
kusoman, hang in there and stay motivated. As for SMB, it is a very difficult TAS for beginners.
My Japanese is very limited, but I would like to introduce myself and welcome you here, nonetheless.
くそまんさん。はじめまして。アダム４３２６です。SMBのTASはとてもむずかしいですね。tasvideosへようこそ!
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jlun2 wrote:
I disagree with being a separate category, since the run this is trying to obsolete is not only a vault run, but also given the ratings, a pretty uninteresting run as well.
Edit: Oh, and in case if someone posts about the previous run being a "100%" run of sorts, all I want to know is would the (J) version be faster?
Your post reminded me of something peculiar that I noticed while doing the run. The first dragon mini-boss in the beginning took a lot more hits to kill than it did in the USA version (32 hits vs 24 hits). I wasn't paying attention to any to any other enemies, but this leads me to believe that the USA version was slightly nerfed in difficulty.
With that in mind, wouldn't the (J) version be preferred, due to it technically having the higher difficulty?
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jlun2 wrote:
Are those region exclusive glitches?
It can only be done on the Japanese version. In the USA release, you can defeat Cold Killer again and even have another bell appear, but it doesn't register in the inventory.
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Thanks again for the encode, solarplex.
Patashu wrote:
(and burning MORE than five steadily glitches out your inventory and the game, itself!).
Is it powerful enough for ACE in Deadly Towers? ;)
You should put in the TAS description a picture or video demonstrating it getting glitched out more and more. I recall it looks really funny.
Added some gifs in the description to demonstrate the madness! After burning off a ton of bells (over 15), the game starts inserting those glitched solid blocks on screen every time you exit from the menu. There may be potential for ACE for those savvy enough to figure out what's going on...
mklip2001 wrote:
Out of curiosity, why are there some random missed knife shots? Are they luck manipulation, and/or do they affect your position when turning corners?
They were luck manipulation, ESPECIALLY towards the end to manipulate those red bats while ascending Rubas' Tower (they were starting to drive me batty!).
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Haven't forgotten about this one! Since working on Mashou, I've switched to using Bizhawk. Especially on a game like this where you need to optimize overworld movements, Bizhawk's rewind feature is invaluable in making those precise, real-time adjustments.
I've imported my movie, but unfortunately it desyncs near the beginning (my party runs into a random encounter that didn't appear using Gens). Not a major loss since I remember the route well and can quickly make up time using the rewind feature.
I'm anticipating up to a 30 second improvement from my cancelled WIP a while back. I'll keep everyone posted on my new progress!
edit: If only there was a way to enter the Oltec Cavern from the very beginning... I can -- just barely -- make it there by abusing the Healing Rod. However, without at least one Ring of Fire Resistance, the game won't allow you to advance further once inside.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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Dragondarch wrote:
That damage boost through the guards I something Feasel and I had thought of when we were playing around with the game back in 2012. It's unfortunately not useful RTA since there's no guarantee on that Scorpion being where we need it to be, we'd end up skipping a Max Heart, and I think we timed it out to being only like 5 seconds faster than going around, though everything was tested in real-time so it's probably more for TAS.
Good(?) to see this game getting some love :P
My bad! I had an old gif up and replaced it with the newer method. Along with the Hyper Boots, a few well-timed diagonal shots will get you past those guards. I was able to pull it off in real-time after only three attempts.
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mklip2001 wrote:
Can you explain the route for the second bit? I thought you were going to go back to the exact same tower, so you'd once again raise money and then buy a scroll. It seems you go into some other cave, find a different tower, but then fight Cold Killer anyway.
The enemy dodging is very well done, and I like the look of what I'm seeing, but I don't know the game well enough to know what that route is doing. (I figured the death in the flame is part of the main glitch.)
Good question. When you death-warp, the game resets your Ludder back down to 0, instead of the 50 you start the game with. This meant that I would have to grind about 23-25 Towers in order to obtain enough for an Orange Scroll, this time around. Much faster to sequence break through the courtyard. It's too bad, since I would've otherwise bought 2 scrolls and warped past the second Tower descent, instead.
As for the glitch, once you defeat Cold Killer again your inventory becomes bugged. However, for some reason you have to death warp a second time to get it to activate. From there, you have unlimited bells in your inventory.
...and the game REALLY starts to hate it when you go off burning more than 7 Bells :D
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WIP #3!
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/806849963/Mashou%20%28Japan%29%20TAS%20WIP%201.1.2014-07-22%2000.57.22.bkm
About 81 seconds ahead of hisatoki's run on YouTube. The sequence break past the guards in the outer courtyard was the biggest time-saver, this time around. Better movement optimizations, and a faster Cold Killer re-run, contributed as well.
Well, we're looking at the final stretch! One last trek through the courtyard (with another time-saving sequence break) and a showdown with Rubas is all that remains. A sub-8 run definitely looks like a possibility; far exceeding my initial expectations.
mklip2001 & CookKirby (and everyone watching the WIPs) -- thanks for the encouragement!
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Mashou WIP #2 - 1659 frame improvement from last stopping point.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/616103844/Mashou%20%28Japan%29%20TAS%20WIP%201.1.2014-07-22%2000.57.22.bkm
Massive improvement was due to new route change in the beginning. After defeating the first mini-boss, I went into the next screen and immediately entered Dungeon #4 (hidden in the upper left-hand quarter). From here (and similar to Luke's run), I grinded ludder from the Orange Tower enemies until I had enough to buy an Orange Scroll from the shop over on the next screen. Quick and easy; only needed to grind five Towers to obtain enough money.
Significant improvements were also made in getting the Hyper Boots (22 frames), and in Cold Killer's room (67 frames).
Whew! Now hopefully I won't have to redo the beginning anymore! The second trek through to the Main Hall is going to be a treat because I recently found a nice little sequence break that will cut down even more time.
Here a hint...
mklip2001
The last part of the ascent seems unusual though, like you swing a little out of your way to get to the bottoms of ladders. Can't you just enter some of these ladders sideways?
Not when you're coming from the left, unfortunately. Swinging in from an angle is the fastest way as you get struck in place trying to enter from the side.
mklip2001
The other question this raises is whether it's worth having a run of Deadly Towers that beats all the towers as intended. For the moment, it's more important to work on a run that glitches to the end by beating Cold Killer twice. I'm not sure this game is interesting enough to also warrant an optimized run on the US version which beats all the towers.
I think that the only way to make an 'all Towers' run enjoyable would be to also make a 100% run (i.e. obtain all the best equipment). Even so, I could picture it getting repetitive. Boss strategies would largely be the same (get in close, rapid-fire).
edit: Replaced gif to reflect faster method to sequence break past guards.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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I'm surprised at how far they were able to push the NES's limitations!
The WIP is looking pretty sharp, so far. One question, though. Is Diddy able to do his cartwheel trick in this one (where he can jump mid-air after cartwheeling off a ledge)?
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I ended up changing ROMs to Mashou and started back from beginning, making various improvements toward my previous WIP:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1075725983/Mashou%20%28Japan%29%20TAS%20WIP%201.1.bkm
121 frame improvement from my last stopping point. Overall, now about 18 seconds ahead!
edit: Bad news and better news. Bad news is that you MUST death warp in order for Cold Killer's bell to appear again (otherwise, he still appears, but no bell).
Better news is that I've figured out a route change that will cut the journey from the beginning of the game to the Main Hall (at least) IN HALF. This includes every subsequent journey, due to death warps.
(meh news is that I'll have to almost start over again. :p)
edit 2: MASSIVE time savings due to new route change in the beginning. Back to Main Hall 25 seconds faster than my prior best time. I'll post a new WIP once I've completed Cold Killer Tower 1 again.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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Cold Killer (1) stopped dead in his tracks. Around 16 seconds saved from the current record TAS, so far!
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1815012082/Deadly%20Towers%20%28USA%29.bkm
I definitely won't be death-warping to the beginning. Scaling back down the Tower, instead, should save at least 30 seconds. From there, I'm headed to Dungeon 8 for Cold Killer, part deax.
mklip2001 wrote:
How does that route work? I thought you had to kill all the tower bosses, but somehow you can still get to the final boss beating Cold Killer twice.
P.S. Another one of Luke's runs, Super Turrican for the NES, had a (probably) big improvement suggested in its discussion forum before it was published anyway. If you're looking for old NES runs, that's something to consider, and it's less of a crappy game than this one :-)
...I'm not sure, as of yet. I could've sworn I've seen that trick before somewhere online in the past. My best guess is some type of frame-dependent input that 'resets' the bell burning animation (it'd be great to have the movie file).
Does anyone know for sure?
I've never played Super Turrican before. I'll have to check out the run!
edit: After digging around in the YouTube comments, it appears that the author is playing the Japanese version of the game, Mashou. Apparently, he's able to glitch all seven bells into his inventory after defeating Cold Killer twice. Hmm... I may have to switch over to the Japanese ROM. Hopefully, I can splice most of my progress using taseditor (be even better if I can import the whole movie).
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
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I decided to delve into NES games and give Deadly Towers a run for its money. I'm up to the Main Hallway with all the Towers, and appear to be about 3 1/2 seconds faster than the TAS linked from YouTube.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/882610455/Deadly%20Towers%20%28USA%29.bkm
Similar to the published run from Luke, I used a lot of damage boosts to get through the beginning. I also manipulated some hearts from the second mini boss to work toward restoring my HP and getting those boots in Cold Killer's Tower. All in all, I think I can can improve the YouTube TAS down to the sub-9:00 range.
P.S. LOVE using Bizhawk! Where has that rewind feature been my whole life? :D
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Haven't had as much free time, but I'm still putting work into this!
I'm back at the Azcan Temple about 1300 frames ahead of my prior submission. The trap RNG on the 3rd and 4th floors are, for some reason, more difficult to manipulate this time around, but I think I've got a better strategy figured out.
All in all, I'm aiming for a 30 second improvement once all is said and done.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
