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Dacicus wrote:
Here's my attempt at a description for Super Metroid:
Super Metroid was again delivered to TASVideos so the scientists could study its frame-saving qualities... The scientists' findings were astounding! They discovered that the powers of moonfall and ACE might be harnessed for 0% item collection! Frames saved: Many. Animals saved: 0.
Very yes! I'll adapt it to note commentary but otherwise this is very creative. Thanks for doing this.
Animals are audible in the background but we appear to leave them down there. They are kind of haunting. We'll just save the frames instead.
Anyone up to do Princess Pitch, Item Abuse 3, or Celeste?
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I've been running low on sleep this week trying to solidify GDQ submissions and I need help with the pitch text. For Celeste, I need someone to describe how the run is different than the realtime runs and note that commentary will be provided. For Super Metroid, I need someone to make a pitch for why it's a unique way to end the game and hype it up. For Item Abuse 3, I need someone to write a description of how it's a game designed ot be a challenge not for a human runner but for someone using TAS tools.
boct1584 wrote:
New post because new content: I redownloaded Hyper Princess Pitch 1.3 from this (unofficial) mirror and was able to sync it on my Windows 10 x64 laptop using Hourglass r81, after Windows installed the DirectPlay component.
I'm willing to give it a shot bu I'll have to use that run's submission video as the pitch video as I won't have time to gt a Windows environment set up with those requriements. Just like Item Abuse 3, I think the best choice is for someone to write up a submission pitch that describes how this was never intended to be completable. ...did we submit this game once already> I forgot. Anyway, this can make it in.
I have F-Zero X now. F-Zero GX shows up later today. I'll be streaming tests with them to see how they behave and if we can get anywhere with them and I'll report back. Of the two, I have more confidence in GX.
Last night on stream I showed that the Super Analogue NT currently polls the controller even on frames where there are lag frames in the game. In other words, on a real Super Nintendo there would be no latch present during lag frames because the console would be too busy to ask the controller for input. On the Super NT it's almost always polling the controller even when the game wouldn't; it does this so it can detect the in-game menu and reset hotbutton sequences, which themselves are also a problem because they are likely to interfere with some of the more esoteric ACE payloads we've built.
Having said that, the Super Metroid sync-stable game end glitch run did play back on the Super NT, likely because of how generous it is with extra frames and buffered input to align Samus to a known location before continuing forward. It reminds me of what we had to do for Pokemon Red a bit too much. :)
So, if you can, please help with submission descriptions. It's been a very hard week for me in real life from a stress perspective and I could really use the help. Thanks.
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TL;DR: Celeste, Item Abuse 3 (SMW Kaizo-like), and Super Metroid 0% / (game end glitch) are a lock for SGDQ 2018, looking at F-Zero X or F-Zero GX, need a suggestion for one more game.
Celeste has a highlight video thanks to help from numbers (the awesome guy who uses random numbers on every service, _7296879 on Discord). I'm totally submitting this, it's too awesome not to.
Link to video
My most recent stream included some really awesome surprises that led me to unilaterally declare we're submitting them. I'm not a dictator here but seriously, Item Abuse 3 by Panga playing back on console was absolutely amazing. I hope to have a highlight video ASAP. Equally impressive is what total did with [3628] SNES Super Metroid "game end glitch" by Sniq in 07:05.83 - thanks to efforts by total, it now syncs the majority of the time with further improvements expected. I've also acquired an Analogue Super NT thanks to itsaguyger and may be able to get that working as well if we can get some support for some needed changes from Kevtris including changes to button combinations that are allowed.
That leaves two spots, and I expected to be able to test F-Zero X and F-Zero GX yesterday but my Amazon shipment was mysteriously sent to the wrong sorting facility and subsequently returned to Amazon. I don't think I'd want to submit both of them (and I'm not yet sure if I can get either of them working) so that will leave at least one more spot. Given the rest of what we have on deck I'm looking for suggestions for what else you may want to see. Did I ignore a suggestion you made earlier in this thread or not give it due consideration? Remind me to take another look. Did you just now see this thread and you have an idea? Get it in fast, we have to submit within the next couple of days.
Speaking of submitting, I intended to do the submission for Celeste tonight but I'm so exhausted from real life issues that I think it best to do so tomorrow. We have through the 10th (really, the 11th, but let's pretend we don't have that day). I'll be doing them one at a time starting in the order I mentioned them above.
Thanks for everything, especially my Twitch supporters!
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Habreno wrote:
No, you will not. As a runner, you will be able to register once your run is accepted, you will not have to register before then. This is how it has always worked. I just got a confirmation on this in the GDQ discord from an admin.
I stand corrected. The page now reads: "Runners with a submission that is Accepted, on Backup, or a Bonus run will have their registration fee waived. However, runners must register by April 11th at 11:59PM PDT, or they will be dropped from the schedule. If the cap has been reached, selected runners will be given an additional opportunity to complete their registrations here once the games list has been released, announcing their selection."
Good to know. I won't be able to start submissions until tomorrow so we'll see what happens.
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Memory wrote:
Runners and volunteers get both guaranteed registration and free registration. Commentators (people that didn't make the submission) do not.
Not quite. Runners *do* get free registration for accepted, bonus, and backup runner status. However, registration must be completed and paid for; once the submissions process is complete the registration is refunded. Volunteering goes through a separate process that is similar but because they are volunteers they are not subject to the cap.
There is no special treatment for me or any other runner. I will have to catch the registration window (and the hotel reservation window) just like everyone else. I may have at this point been involved in more runs than pretty much anyone else I know but that doesn't mean I'm special. :)
We'll be OK one way or another. Competent people have already registered successfully to take my place should anything happen.
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Celeste TAS is verified and is definitely something I'm submitting - hardcore thanks to DevilSquirrel and KDT who made it and TGH who helped provide commentary on my stream yesterday. Need to make a highlight out of my VOD from last night.
I have an Analogue Super NT arriving tomorrow! I'm super excited. Word from the submission committee is that it may be admissible given that it resolves non-deterministic behavior between the main clock and the sound clock, or at least it may do so in theory. We won't know until we try it. If it works, Super Metroid any% maybe? :)
I have copies of F-Zero X and F-Zero GX coming. Yes, both. Cost about $47 between the two but they will be here Wednesday.
I had car trouble which kept me away from a computer on Saturday and I was unable to register during the first window of SGDQ 2018 registration which filled up *very* fast. I'll get in on the next round.
I'll be submitting games one at a time starting probably tomorrow. More to come on some of the other suggestions in this thread so far.
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So keylie, good news. Your wish has been granted.
Last night on my stream at http://twitch.tv/dwangoAC I paid for Celeste on Steam and got help from DevilSquirrel to run through the entire Celeste TAS on stream up through the 5th segment. I am super happy for your suggestion and it's exactly why I ask as I never would have known about that if you hadn't said something. This is likely going to be the star centerpiece of whatever we do for SGDQ 2018.
Keep the suggestions coming. We've already done Mega Man (twice!) so I don't think it would be wise to pitch it a third time but I appreciate the thought around it. If there's another suitable game please let me know.
I just got notification my Analogue Super NT is on its way! Serious thanks to itsagyger for helping to offset the costs (http://donate.TASBot.net if you want to help with equipment costs but this isn't a hard ask). I've already had initial discussions on its admissibility. The full submissions committee at GDQ will have to make a decision but the winds seem to be favoring allowing it on account that it is likely to help resolve clock issues and it is as faithful as possible to the original hardware.
Thanks for the discussion!
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Thanks for the suggestion. I'll reach out to DevilSquirrel and see what happens. I like the idea.
Meanwhile, I hope to submit 5 different things and see what the response is. Kennyman is making a strong case for F-Zero X. There were a few other suggestions from IRC including [3153] NES Shadow of the Ninja (Japan) "1 player" by TASeditor in 09:30.41 and even [3623] Coleco B.C.'s Quest for Tires by MESHUGGAH in 01:40.45 but that latter one would be hard to get console verification for in time and I'm not sure the setup time to entertainment value is quite right. I've ordered an Everdrive and I hope to use it to do some tests on what can be console verified.
Keep the ideas coming and thanks for the suggestions so far!
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Important: GDQ event planning is now taking place completely in the open, including any potential payload discussions. If you do not want to know what is being planned, do not read this thread. Additional planning discussion can also be found in the #tasbot IRC channel on Freenode as well as the TASBot Discord.
SGDQ submissions begin on March 2nd and run only until March 11th, 2018. The guide for submissions is located at: https://gamesdonequick.com/submission-guide
For SGDQ 2018 I'm again deliberately planning on keeping things simple. In general the summer events by necessity should be less technical and time-consuming in nature. To that end, things on this list of ideas are all ideas that require little to no work on hardware or console verification and focus more on showing what a TAS is and what's possible in with TAS tools through good commentary. If the entertainment and commentary are of high enough caliber I'm still open to use runs that aren't strictly console verified.
- All the content from the results of the poll at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hRoK7nNBNU4MdEI0e7zMcGVnkp5D9AfikLjHOpjUOfw (which I broke down in this thread)
- [2539] NES River City Ransom "2 players" by Chamale in 05:56.76 but [1013] NES River City Ransom "playaround" by adelikat & JXQ in 12:55.38 could be fun as well - suggested by boct1584
- [717] NES Monopoly "4 CPUs" by FractalFusion in 01:07.67 - also suggested by boct1584 (he had a lot of good suggestions); would require rapid commentary and yelling "Time!" very early
- 3D console ACE leading to demoscene style content; would require someone to create said content, but I think we might have a lead on an N64 total control (shh...)
(added 2016-08-19) Twitch Plays Super Scribblenauts (pitching for the third or forth time)
OK, OK, I admit this hasn't quite worked out the last two times (the first time I voluntarily allowed it to be cut form AGDQ 2016 when there wasn't enough time left on the schedule and the second time they opted to go with VVVVVV instead, but I digress). I also admit that there's a great deal of confusion over what may be possible here.
(added 2016-08-21) Tetris Grand Master or similar playaround
Several of us have discussed this, including DeHackEd, boct1584, and myself. The Tetris blocks at GDQ events have been big hits but have been absent the last few events. There may be a TAS entry point here.
Please post your own suggestions in the thread below. Thanks!
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I am happy to report that my company, Ciena Corporation, matched the $2,345.67 donation I made up to the new program maximum of $1,000. They confirmed the donation directly to the Prevent Cancer Foundation was made yesterday. This does not include an additional donation they may be making on behalf of the hours I put in during the event itself (that part hasn't settled just yet).
On a completely unrelated note: Looking back on what we did this year, it was by far the least controversial with the least amount of negative feedback. This is a good thing, and I'm happy for it. I want to keep working on presentation to make sure we can communicate the often very technical details of what's going on in a clear an concise way and there's always room to tighten things up but I'm pleased with what we've been able to accomplish. Thanks again to everyone who helped out!
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ais523 wrote:
Unfortunately, you still have to have it in inventory.
And there's no such thing as inventory storage without violating the "no corrupting memory" rule I suspect...
What avenues of investigation are still open?
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DrD2k9 wrote:
I wonder if it would be possible to build a table with a play-surface made from a thickish yet flexible material (silicone perhaps) that could then have multiple ramps/obstacles that would push up from underneath, constantly changing the playfield depending on goals met during play.
Have you seen https://www.multimorphic.com/p3-pinball-platform/ by any chance? It's not quite the same thing you describe but an adaptable pinball platform with a full display and ball tracking to allow for dynamic interactive targets below the ball is pretty close.
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DrD2k9 wrote:
dwangoAC wrote:
I hope this answers your question and is useful for others who may want to attend to determine what their costs might be. Thanks for the interest!
I'm willing to give what I can toward future events (thought it may not be much). How do you get such donations, and would a GoFundMe (or similar) page be a better option for others to donate?
I've been using the same lame Paypal setup at http://donate.acbit.net for a while now. I have to make decisions on my ability to commit to future GDQ events. SGDQ 2018 is highly uncertain. AGDQ 2019, assuming it's in the same geographical area, is a possibility. If and when I make a decision there I'll review my funding needs and methods. In the meantime, the above donation link will continue to function. Thanks for the kind support, I mean it.
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DrD2k9 wrote:
dwangoAC wrote:
...I expect I will have to ask for assistance if I choose to go to AGDQ 2019, especially given the tumultuous season I'm in personally.
What's a rough estimate of what it costs you to participate in a GDQ event?
That's a good question. I've tracked costs for all events I've asked for assistance with. Here are the total expenses followed by donations that came in that year followed by the difference in CSV format (not showing any funds I willingly donated to charity as that's not something I'm trying to brag about):
Event, Expenses, Donations, Difference
AGDQ 2015, $2686, 2586, -$100
SGDQ 2015, $1086, 1286, $200
AGDQ 2016, $3119, $2320, -$799
AGDQ 2017, $2000, $770, -$1230
Total all GDQs, $8891, $6962, -$1929
I did not track costs for this year as I only received $10 in donations but excluding the donation I made my best guess is AGDQ 2018 trip expenses were about $2,500. Throwing that number into the mix and counting the events where I did not ask for assistance (AGDQ 2014 was probably about $1,800 and SGDQ 2016 was probably about $950) I've spent somewhere around $7k out-of-pocket for GDQ related events. I've done 7 events so another way to look at it is that on average I've been falling in the hole about $1k per event, but I digress. As you can see, I'm not deriving any personal profit from the events (and I've given away all Twitch income I've received to the GDQ charities anyway).
I hope this answers your question and is useful for others who may want to attend to determine what their costs might be. Thanks for the interest!
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MESHUGGAH wrote:
2. Regarding "asking for assistance": I think this is the right forum where you should be allowed to ask for decreasing your expenses that requires to represent the site at these events. Those who don't want (or can't) donate, probably won't cry out there.
Here's a bit more transparency. During AGDQ 2016 prep someone donated $100 worth of Bitcoin which I never spent, at a time when Bitcoin was worth about $400 or so. That transaction was in the vicinity of 0.25 BTC. I sold that late last year at a around $17,000 per BTC, for a bit more than $4,200 in proceeds. What was left over after paying taxes on it helped cover my AGDQ 2018 expenses as well as the donation I made. I'd like to thank whoever made that donation.
On the flipside, for AGDQ 2017 barely half of our expenses were covered and outside of subscription income from Twitch (which I donated during HRDQ) the only donation that came in this year was a $10 donation to http://donate.acbit.net that came from someone outside of TASVideos. It's pretty clear I tapped the well dry after too many years of asking for funds and the site needed a break.
Being able to sell Bitcoin late last year was a huge boon financially but I'm not expecting a lucky windfall next year and I expect I will have to ask for assistance if I choose to go to AGDQ 2019, especially given the tumultuous season I'm in personally.
This post is only focused on transparency in funding because I wanted to make sure people understood why and how I did what I did; I'll reply to the rest of it in time but I admit I have some clarifying questions I'd like to ask as I think I got lost in the parens (although I have no room to talk given how often I use them, but I digress). Thanks for the support!
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Alyosha wrote:
Sounds like everything came down to the wire again for both runs, glad it all came together in the end.
I'd agree with that for Super Monkey Ball because we were trying to make some aesthetic tweaks at the last minute. We didn't add any content, we just made minor replay file adjustments and some fixes for the credits to make them work more reliably. For Super Dram World 2 however, everything was fully done the day before. The only thing I did prior to the event was make sure all four visualization boards worked correctly. It was very, very strange to be playing a card game after eating a leisurely dinner in the hours before the run. (Truth be told, I received some painful family-related news right before that and I needed to distract myself for a bit.)
I would like to share the following from https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/donation/433707 for a donation I personally made on behalf of the site and the TASBot team of $2,345.67:
"I am TASBot. Many humans helped me this year. dwangoAC would like me to thank them for you. The donation reader would get tired reading all of the names. I have shortened the list for them. It is still long.
dwangoAC would like to thank Masterjun, micro500, GrandPOOBear, Ilari, Jaku, Tinahacks, CyclopsDragon, Byrz, PistonMiner, metaconstruct, Bobjrsenior, CraftedCart, Bites, Numbers, Funkmastermp, MediaMagnet, and Timeshifter.
I need more humans to help me at TASBot.net. TASVideos.org has more TAS content. You will enjoy it."
As I noted, there were many, many more people involved (to get an idea of how many, have a look at the Super Monkey Ball full credits list). There were also people like Andymac who helped with the interview desk segments and many more folks from #tasbot on IRC and the TASBot Discord server who lent their time to the effort. I want to say thank you to everyone who helped whether I managed to remember to mention your name or not.
Regarding my donation and in light of my desire to be fully transparent, I received just $10 in donations this year to cover my travel expenses and equipment costs and as noted I did not make a page asking for assistance this year because I felt like I had started to beg too much. My donation of $2.3k represents charitable giving I was willing to make this year because past personal losses mean I support the cause of preventing cancer before it starts, with the added benefit of providing some exposure for the site and everyone who helped make the TAS content at AGDQ 2018 possible.
The total raised toward TAS content is:
https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/bid/6820https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/bid/7192https://gamesdonequick.com/tracker/bid/6801
All told, those three add up to a whopping $74,355. This does not include any donations during any of the three interview desk segments and only reflects donation incentives which were all met well beforehand (meaning it also excludes my own donation). I'm very happy with this, and for those who were initially decrying that we had nothing accepted I'd like to gently ask for a little more grace in the future as there was TAS content on 5 different days of the marathon which clearly led to fantastic exposure for the site.
I'm not ready for the (inevitably not all positive) feedback that's about to hit so I'm simply going to not read this thread for a week while I recover from some severe personal real-life blows, assuming I have the constitution to ignore it. I currently have no SGDQ 2018 plans. I'll update the first post pointing to this one and I look forward to seeing what everyone thought of the way content was handled. Thanks again to everyone who provided support this year!
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The next TAS portion of AGDQ will be at roughly 5:00 EST today at the interview desk following Wario Land 4 (subject to shift, see http://gamesdonequick.com/schedule to see how it changes today). I will be showing a preview of how runners of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island skip most of level 5-4 by using TAS tools to demonstrate the difficulty of the trick and to emphasize how much practice the runners have put in.
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The first of 5 total segments (covering DKC1) is complete, but there was no audio. If a video becomes available I'll let you know but chances are good there will be no audio there either. I'll update as time allows. The next segment will be a preview explanation of what to expect for SMW2:YI regarding the level 5-4 skip which is currently scheduled for Wednesday afternoon EST.
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First, I'd like to congratulate you for being brave enough to take on this game. The Epic Pinball Super Android table was a complete pain to run, although at the time a lot of that had to do with the fact that I couldn't even remotely run it at a reasonable framerate. I can spot some of the exact same methods I was forced to use to manipulate ball position and I don't see any obviously sloppy play here. You're right that better routing may be possible but the instability of hex editing makes rerouting cumbersome.
Overall, this is well done. Yes vote from me based on length and content. Keep these coming! :)
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Quick recap, also added to the first post: I am attending AGDQ 2018 as the primary presenter of content from TASVideos and organizer of the broader TASBot team, representing work from CyclopsDragon and a host of others on a Super Monkey Ball replay file "console verification" as well as a playaround of Super Dram World 2 by Masterjun. Unless something goes wrong on the tech side I'll also be doing 3 interview desk segments where I use TAS tools to praise runners for their aptitude in accomplishing difficult glitches; the games/glitches we're targeting are Donkey Kong Country 1/2 barrel glitch, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island level 5-4 skip, and Rockman & Forte skips. Discussion will continue to occur on #tasbot in IRC as well as on the TASBot specific Discord server. Dacius has donated a raffle prize consisting of boxed copy of Super Monkey Ball 1 and a GC memory card that will be filled with the exact content we will show at AGDQ.
I'm facing a number of personal challenges that I've now shared with most of the core team of AGDQ 2018 volunteers; if you have a genuine interest in our personal travails, please contact me privately. Real life is extremely stressful (aside from a silver lining that doesn't fix the hurt). Our situation will remain emotionally precarious for the coming months as we walk through a new chapter of life but I have the support I need for the kids and I to make it through AGDQ 2018. Please note: I will determine my next steps several weeks after AGDQ 2018 concludes but I anticipate needing to skip SGDQ 2018. I'm saying this now because there's always the post-GDQ amnesia that I need to not get caught up in.
I'll be largely undistracted at AGDQ 2018 thanks to the help of grandparents other than being away from the event late Monday night and all day Tuesday. I will be on screen on 5 unique days presenting some aspect or another. I'll inevitably be holed up in a corner of the private practice room working on rehearsing. This GDQ is much, much more focused on rehearsing instead of actual technical hurdles and my goal is to present the most polished result I possibly can which will require running through the material until I know it by heart. A lot of the help I'll need while I'm on-site is research related and fine-tuning what is presented. I don't have to be the only person presenting and I may pull other people in depending on their availability.
That's it for now. Thanks for all who have provided support!
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Omnigamer wrote:
From my discussions with Ben, he plans to turn his test setup into a single PCB and send some off to other folks who could make use of it. Supposedly one is coming my way, but I don't have much use for it since my Atari is toast. Perhaps it would better serve the TASBot folks?
Hi Omnigamer - as you saw, I managed to get the Multireplay device from true to work but it's a bit rough. If you have something else I'd gladly buy it or help pay for PCB printing and populating costs. Just let me know. Thanks!
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Hi FranciTheGamer and welcome to TASVideos! Congratulations on your first completed TAS.
I see your rerecord count is reasonably high but it looks like there is some room for improvement per mklip2001 and fsvgm777's notes. Also, it is advisable to avoid snes9x unless you started work on a run a long time ago. If you take another pass at this run please consider using either BizHawk or lsnes which both provide far better emulation accuracy and may make it possible for me to use my own sd2snes and have TASBot console verify the run. Finally, the submission notes are generally there for you to describe the run itself rather than just the game. I can tell you're quite enthusiastic about the romhack at least. :)
Thanks again for your submission and best of luck!
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Hi KinsleU and welcome to TASVideos. Congratulations on your first completed TAS!
I wanted to check in with you to make sure you had looked at the following runs first:
[3144] SNES Super Mario All-Stars: Super Mario Bros. 2 by vince1919 in 07:24.30[3456] SNES Super Mario All-Stars: The Lost Levels "warpless, Mario" by HappyLee in 34:36.61[2419] SNES Super Mario All-Stars: The Lost Levels "warpless, Luigi" by KFCMARIO in 34:52.69
It may be helpful to ensure your run at least matches one of those times, depending on the category you are working on. This will require only using frame advance and perfecting your TAS so there are no mistakes, plus likely finding some new time-saving technique not yet shown in one of the above movies. As Spikestuff hinted, make sure you end the movie on the last frame of input. If you start from scratch, please consider using a more accurate emulator other than snes9x - instead, use lsnes or BizHawk depending on which one suits your needs better. I'm obviously biased and I'd love to see you do this on lsnes so I can have TASBot console verify the run but please feel free to ignore me. :)
Finally, please note that you have an uphill battle; each of the games you are attempting to TAS have already been perfected on the NES and given those are the original platform are generally considered the more faithful versions of each game. It's not to say they will never be accepted but it's going to require a bit of convincing of the judges that what you are showing is better or different enough to warrant being accepted alongside the existing NES runs.
I look forward to see what you can make and best of luck!
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OK, I read through the most recent routing plan a few times and I see... a lot of things we still have to do. Seriously, at this rate this game is going to hold the record for the most effort spent on routing of any TAS ever created for all time.
OK, so if we are on Air on the last action of turn 2001 and the hope is we can get away with a plan involving egg hatching, enexto for Fire, polymorph into an air elemental, equip the eyes, step, jump, somehow get pushed by a monster, and also heal our legs so we magically end up on Water with four actions left. I think. That plan makes a lot of assumptions about what's possible so I'm expecting we'll need to test several parts of it out first by source code diving or possibly actual contrived wizmode / Santa mode tests.
So with all that said, what's the next most sane thing to "worry" about, and by "worry" I really mean the more positive statement "Given what we know now, what do we need to resolve next to know for certain what is possible and what is impossible about this plan?" I must say it's nice to finally be having productive conversations. I'm still unsure if we're going to be able to pull off a 2003 turn run but if we can't I feel confident we'll be making that decision after exhausting every other possible option.
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TL;DR: I believe the so called "limited" opportunities at AGDQ 2018 are a result of my own shortcomings/life situations rather than a reflection on the site itself and I'm making a decision to let go of some personal obligations to keep a healthy balance.
Alyosha wrote:
Yeah, it's extremely obvious just from your uncharacteristic posts. Take a break man. D:
(Slightly personal response, feel free to skim over this as this is peripheral to AGDQ 2018 prep directly.) The honest truth is that due to personal issues that I haven't shared about widely I'm tapped out and I have no choice but to let go of some things, especially in light of my already difficult personal challenges being compounded due to being moved into a different position at work this week.
Last night after my post (or honestly, while writing it) I started looking at what I could do to give myself more grace and space. I have opted to pause all computer repairs for my mechanic/dentist/doctor, stop following Bitcoin development, pay someone to help with monthly deep cleaning around the house, drop out of one of my two weekly church small group meetings, defer MAME cabinet and pinball repairs at church, lend one of my pinball machines that needs maintenance to a friend to repair, delegate most church network/server maintenance tasks to others, only serve at NBLUG if there are no other accepted nominations for President next year, reduce my production/lights/projection team volunteering at church, and most of all delegate as much of the workload for AGDQ 2018 TAS content as I can as that looming deadline has started to swell to the point that it's threatening to fill most of my after-the-kids-go-to-bed time.
In an effort to continue to move toward a healthier life balance I've opted to expand my existing chiro/muscle therapy, yoga, and counseling sessions during this season. I must figure out how to master late night time management and device use and get more sleep, the kind of things you'd assume an adult would have sorted out by now which I've found is a struggle I'm alarmingly not in the minority in, but I digress. In essence, my kids need a not-exhausted dad that has time for *their* needs.
Please don't read anything in the last bit of run-on sentences as me martyring myself or otherwise trying to cause people to take a guilt trip; this is an ongoing process of me finding a healthy balance given my current real life situation. As I mentioned in my last post, many people have already stepped up to help out in #tasbot / http://chat.tasbot.net and while we could always use more able hands I have confidence that the team can do at least the bare minimum to make this year happen well even if I was forced to step back entirely.
Alyosha wrote:
As for the actual info, cool stuff! Nice work to team TASBot for making the most of limited opportunities.
Agreed, I think we're doing the best we can with what "limited" content we have, but I think that aspect was a bit blown out of proportion in earlier posts. I can't emphasize enough how much the "limited" aspect of AGDQ 2018 TASBot content is a result of me. This is largely because no one else really wanted to actively share in or take over leading the effort (link_7777 being an exception albeit with him unable to attend); GDQ staff / submission committee members knew a bit about my current situation and it factored into their choices, as did the staggering amount of content they had to choose from.
Masterjun's playaround of SDW2 being confirmed in was a result of me asking for it (not that I'm making more of myself than I intend, just that it happened because I shared with them that they may have gone too far in their goal of wanting to help us show "typical" TASVideos content and they ultimately agreed with me when I reached out). I'm still a bit disturbed at how entitled some people's comments seemed in this thread earlier and I want people to understand that it's ultimately my fault if you will, more a reflection of a complex situation rather than a cut-and-dried rejection of site content.
I've wanted to do the in-between runs interview desk sections as a way to praise the abilities of realtime runners using TAS tools for years so I'm going to continue to plink at that but I'll be limiting the complexity of my original vision (likely by only using one emulator, such as only picking SNES runs to highlight and sticking to lsnes or similar). I anticipate the commitment will be about 20-40 hours of work spread across the next two months. As long as I get help with the remaining SBAll1 / SDW2 tasks I should be able to accommodate that without too much strain.
Outside of TAS content prep for GDQ I have been spending some of my time doing things I find relaxing, most of which involve playing things like Super Metroid while showing my extroverted side and streaming to http://twitch.tv/dwangoAC in the evenings after the kids are in bed. MediaMagnet, timeshifter, coderjo, Jackdubs, deef, and several others have helped expand things like the paint-by-numbers / pixel grid art we've been doing and it's been a fun distraction. I've found joy in it and I'm going to keep doing that here and there to relax in between GDQ prep so I don't fall apart. That's it for now, thanks for the support all.
