I also didn't realize that the generic game sound effects came from this. I guess you learn something new everyday!
Many of the generic video game sounds are either from this or the 2600 port of Pac Man. Unless they're filming in an actual arcade, in which case the sounds are usually from the relevant games present in the arcade, or were recorded from the machines in arcades back in their prime.
As for the run itself, pretty straightforward. I've played this port more than any of the other versions, so it's quite nostalgic for me, but there's only so much entertainment to be gained from two screens. Clearly vault worthy, but that's almost a given with Atari 2600 TASes that do get published.
I noticed that, during the battle report screens, there is a black box in the upper left corner of the window where (I assume) the battle report title goes during the tally. I also read on the Dolphin site that a similar problem had been fixed for many games on a recent revision. Can anyone who has the game verify that the run syncs on newer versions and that the issue is fixed before the inevitable publication encodes? Or is that part of the publishing process anyway for Dolphin movies?
take chess games: what's the shortest path to checkmate?
The shortest possible ending in Chess is The Fool's Mate, which would be quite the challenge to convince a chess program to do, but far from impossible. Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that's what the previously rejected Chess TAS did, but a more sophisticated program like the Chessmaster series would be far more difficult.
I think it would be interesting to see this proposed "Technical Achievement" tier. Wouldn't want to be the one to code the website changes for it, though. I suspect there would need to be a blending of the detailed comments from the Submissions combined with the viewing options of the Published movies. I'm sure whoever gets the task (if it happens at all) will come up with something that works well.
Edit: Could have sworn I put "gets" instead of "get" the first time. Oops.
I have considered starting a run myself as well, but I'm a newbie at TASing, and need a bit of help with the route planning and luck manipulation stuff.
I know the game quite well, and have even compiled a spreadsheet to calculate the minimum level for each of the bosses based on the info in this thread. I think the next step would be to map out where each of the enemies spawn at and calculate the best leveling strategy from there, which will take quite some time.
BTW, I've noticed that a couple of the experience charts out there have conflicting amounts of experience for the later levels. I think confirming which chart is correct will be needed as well.
Edit: After looking a the charts again, the values aren't different, they're just labeling the levels differently, some showing how much experience is needed to reach that level, the others showing how much is needed to go to the next level. At any rate, my calculator should still be correct for finding the minimum levels.
Would it be possible to take the right side of the final building, manipulating the debris away, in order to grab the helicopter sooner? Or is that after ending input anyway? (watched Spikestuff's encode, which doesn't show when input ends.)
And to address the "X-Men III" comment I tended to find a lot of conflicting things in regards to the title since most reviews and official media I found didn't say III - even though the packaging with the claws kind of eludes to III. I think that's because it covers events from both the second and third movies (in this version it's mostly the second movie) so they might not have wanted to pin it to only one of the movies.
I can see where the confusion comes from. I just think it's telling that the credits list the game as "X-Men 3", which I suppose adds even more confusion as to what it should be called.
Shouldn't the game name be "X-Men III: The Official Game"?
Overall, a nice solid run. Not the most entertaining in the world, but it had its moments. Overall "Meh" for me, though.
Definitely a good run. Yes for me as well.
I think it's interesting that the developers made it so hitting Risky from behind basically smacks her *ahem* behind with your hair.
One has to look no further than AIZ1, and compare it to this public WIP by WST to see how nearly 4 seconds are lost.
In game time shows a 4 second difference between this run and that WIP at the end of the zone, so yeah, not really optimal.
Still, one has to wonder, if this run does get accepted, would it obsolete the Knuckles run of Sonic & Knuckles (without Sonic 3)? On the one hand, they are technically different games even though S&K is a subset of S3&K. On the other hand, because it is a subset of S3&K, this could be considered a more complete run. I guess that's something for whoever ends up judging this to decide.
While I can't say for sure whether or not it is optimal, it was quite entertaining seeing some of the new ways levels were handled. I was a bit confused by a couple of the deaths used, though. Unless they reset some RNG thing that would affect things later, they didn't seem to put you into any better immediate position.
Highlights of the run for me (spoiler tagged for those who want to be surprised):
Tails showing up to help Knuckles skip a level.
Knuckles waiting impatiently for the golem in Sandopolis 1. I can just imagine him saying "Hurry up and get over here so I can pound you!"
All in all, a strong Yes vote from me.
PS: Still waiting for someone to do 100% runs on Sonic 1 and 2. Would do it myself if I had the time, skills, and patience to do it.
I remember playing the Apple II version of this when I was younger. Might still have the disk somewhere. There are some notable differences between the two versions (such as the playfield being reversed left to right, the game taking place at night, and different graphic detail levels), but the goals are the same.
All in all a quite splendid show. Perhaps someone will do a "Maximum Casualties" version at some point? Although, I doubt such a version would be as entertaining as this one, since you pretty much just show up and shoot all the hostages in order. Maybe it's just my lingering frustration at never being able to finish the Apple II version properly talking. That and having a joystick without working buttons...
I wonder, is it possible to use this on the SMW+AllStars cart to jump between games? Maybe find a similar entry vector in each of the All Stars games to jump between them without using the menu?
Overall, great run. No, wait, make that *GREAT* run.
All around seems to be a nice run. I particularly liked the antics during the autoscrolling segments. Really kept my interest going during what can be a tedious part of any TAS.
Too bad you can't speed up the tally screens, though. That was the only downside of the run for me. With how fast you got through some of the levels, the tally screens seemed to take up an awfully large part of the run.
As a side note, I noticed they had a shout-out to MST3K in the credits. I wonder just how many games have shout-outs to them somewhere inside...
I was a bit surprised when the Chocobo theme from FF7 showed up. I guess the extra speed isn't all that they changed. (I'm not too familiar with what the normal stage music or layout is for MM3, and this was the first bit I recognized)
The run looks pretty good to me, although would stopping for a few frames to avoid the spark traps save the time taken while MM is stunned? Or would that cost too much speed to be effective? (would be curious to see a whole level comparison between these)
Quite the run. The running gag did get a little tired after a while, but overall a very fun experience that kept me viewing through the whole thing.
Only thing I can think of to improve would be to possibly acquire the few other merits that are possible in a run like this. Some of them obviously can't be completed on a first run like this, but others like Mega Mutator and Behind the Scenes should be doable. (You've already got 2 out of 3 needed developers for Behind the Scenes listed in the level notes.)
Even without those, though, it's still a great run. Easy Yes for me.
The story was fairly interesting, but the slow entry speed for the letters put a crimp in it. I found myself getting more interested in the actual questions than the story. The sections where letters were erased right after they appeared were particularly hard to follow.
But the concept is still strong, and the effort put into it was fairly clear. And I did enjoy the questions. So, my overall vote is "Meh." Maybe if you could find another version that has this type of parser, it would work better.
Edit: If this does get rejected, perhaps it could join the Gruefood Delight collection? The technical merits would certainly qualify it for that in my book.
Files needed to be in main directory (drop one of them then I'll get error):
BizHawk.Util.dll
BizHawk.Emulation.dll
LuaInterface.dll
EMU7800.dll
Newtonsoft.Json.dll
Lua51.dll
SlimDX.dll
the rest in DLL folder not needed
Moving these files helped get it running for me, as well. However, I noticed a problem trying to load a .nes file. This was solved by moving one more file into the main directory:
7z.dll
Hmm. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a slightly older version of VBA, but the new file stops before the ending dialog is complete.
Also, is it possible to create larger combos during the Metal Sonic stages? I think that would distinguish a TAS from someone with good reflexes a lot better than the same basic combo over and over, and would be more interesting to watch.
One last thing. During the Nights stage, I noticed on one of the Ideya shots that you hit the flipper just before it looks like it's going to go in, just to take another shot at it. Perhaps a little better manipulation could make this step unnecessary and speed things up a bit? Or does it affect the following shots too much?
I'm going to have to go with a "Meh" too.
The way I see it, while it is fairly well done, there are still some areas that could be improved:
Some of the shots before Eggman appears could probably be managed better. Perhaps nudging at a different time will place the ball closer to the optimal launch position.
A little more variety in shots taken during the Metal Sonic stage clear bonuses could up the entertainment a bit more. Perhaps not going for the bonus all the time since score isn't a concern on these stages?
During the final round, is it possible to get Multiball started during Casino Night and still have enough points to beat Eggman without clearing the stage? Or maybe clear out the stage at the last second? This would cut out another Clear Bonus segment during what is a timed portion anyway.
Just a couple ideas. I have no way of knowing if these are going to be any more efficient, but they wouldn't hurt the entertainment side of things.
The Caterpie glitch sounds very similar to the Wiggler glitch in regular SMW (chaining a bunch of hits on wiggler in one of the forest levels will cause all sorts of weirdness including 5ups, millions of points, and other things. Royal pain to set up, though, as bouncing on angry wigglers doesn't advance the counter, but does preserve the bounce chain...)
Luigi does not affect luck at all. (You can watch this TAS with him by simply adding L and R to frame 298.)
I tried doing this, but can't seem to get it to work. Am I supposed to add the Shoulder buttons or the main directions, and where does the numbering start?
I did notice that there is an A press in that area, I tried adding the shoulder buttons to that line, but no luck. Mario keeps appearing instead.