Posts for ledauphinbenoit

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Posted: 5/28/2006 8:13 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
Posts: 148
Location: Dayton, OH
Is it me or does just about every other page of this thread have the same Q & A about how to correctly load and play the movie? If you really care enough to watch the movie before it's done, take the time to read the thread first. That way the posts here can be mainly for discussion of the run.
Posted: 5/25/2006 6:43 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Location: Dayton, OH
Watching Popeye die and fall in the water is more entertaining than watching the movie beat the game.
Posted: 5/24/2006 7:19 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
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Location: Dayton, OH
Update! Tinstar first 10 levels Tinstar(U) Rom Uses snex9xw-improvement9 Plays at hardest difficulty Plays with standard controller at highest cursor speed Takes no damage Causes no damages Wastes as few bullets as possible Makes as much money as possible The goal of this movie is entertainment. Since Tin Star is a somewhat long game, adding entertainment is chosen over the theoretical "fastest" route where it is not overly costly to do so. Bonuses: On many levels there are bonuses that you can shoot for extra cash. These can slow you down a frame or two, but keep things much more lively than simply waiting around for the next enemy. It also shows off the various subtleties of the levels. At the end of most levels is a chick with big boobs that needs saved by shooting stars around her (go figure). The only way to reach her is by NOT shooting health canteens during the level. Since they are useless in a TAS anyway, this isn't a setback. Notes on specific levels: 1-2: I only shoot bonuses which do not incur damage charges at the end of level. 1-3: Hitting the boss counts as a bullet wasted, so there are 6 necessary bullets wasted. 2-1: Hitting the machine gun enemy for the last hit (3rd) counts as a bullet wasted. Somehow, an enemy in the level counted for two hits, so I ended up with only 1 bullet wasted. I could not recreate the two hit enemy elsewhere. 4-2: Shooting the dynamite in this stage counts as bullets wasted (unlike all the levels so far). Shooting the Joe Twiddley (the bouncing enemies) count for two hits, so I only ended up with 10 bullets wasted instead of 12. I only shoot the dynamite which would damage Tin Star.
Posted: 5/24/2006 2:44 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
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Location: Dayton, OH
Actually the plugins do matter. The plugins you need come with Mupen. This is why when you load the movie to be played it displays a screen showing what you settings you need versus what settings you have. You must make the two match or else it probably won't play correctly.
Posted: 5/5/2006 8:38 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Location: Dayton, OH
I'm proceeding to do a TAS of this game. I've encountered an interesting situation in my initial planning. Tinstar was the first SNES game to allow the standard controller, mouse, or super scope to be used. In terms of cursor speed, the standard controller moves the slowest (even with the speed on highest). The mouse moves really fast, but unfortunately there is no way (or at least no easy/feasible way) to track its motion between frames. This makes it really difficult to see where you are aiming. The super scope is also incredibly fast since you can aim and shoot exactly where you want. However, there seems to be a snes9x bug with the super scope that has yet to be resolved. There is no pause button emulation. I read more about it here. Using the SS might be a possibility, but I'd have to be able to test it. I'm proceeding currently to use the standard controller, which although it is the slowest of the 3, still moves pretty darn quick using frame advance. In fact, at my current rate, it might be WAY too tedious to try to play using the SS or mouse for input.
Posted: 5/5/2006 5:14 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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The first link you posted is working for me.
Posted: 5/3/2006 9:31 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
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Location: Dayton, OH
I watched this movie recently and had forgotten how difficult it is to navigate the first-person parts until I booted up the rom myself. An excellent effort. I think it could be improved though. The character messages that pop up in certain areas can be deactivated by pressing 'L' or 'R', this might save some additional frames (as well as annoyance). So much backtracking though, what a pain.
Posted: 4/23/2006 5:10 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Location: Dayton, OH
I dunno. I think it has potential to be really boring. If all the bosses after the first few are just magic spammed, it could be a snorefest, especially if you have to level the magic to make it effective. It would be great if you could do something similar to SoE atlas glitch to score big weapon hits.
Posted: 4/21/2006 5:50 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
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Location: Dayton, OH
It doesn't seem to matter if the keys are different or not. Having inputs 1 and 2 be the same keys or different works fine. Having 3 inputs that all have the same keys or all have different keys doesn't work. This is all with the multitap enabled. That's interesting that it allowed you to do it with two keyboards. Maybe this is a weird snex9x issue? EDIT: I figured things out after playing NBA Jam with four players on the same input (synchronized basketball anyone?). The multitap option must be checked and then you must press 7 (hotkey for switch controllers). Onscreen it then says Multiplayer 5 on #0. Then it works when you press start on a controller beyond 2. This works if all the keys are identical as well as different.
Posted: 4/21/2006 2:48 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
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Location: Dayton, OH
Bump. I've been playing around with this game a bit and I can't seem to get Snex9x to let me control all three characters at once. I enable 3 inputs with the same buttons, and it even shows the button presses for all three, but the game doesn't give me control of all 3, only 2 at most. What am I doing wrong?
Posted: 4/19/2006 12:09 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Joined: 8/29/2005
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Location: Dayton, OH
Testing update: You can encounter metal babbles on the outerworld map just south of Greenlad (on the island with the shrine). So, after getting the ship, you can do some big time leveling. Using death as a shortcut will help significantly in the first part of the game. The modified route I propose is: Aliahan (don't get a party yet) Najima Tower for thief's key Reeve for magic ball Cave of Enticement Romaly Kanave for poison needle Noaniels (stop in for return point)? Assaram (stop in for return point) Isis for meteorite armband Pyramid for magic key Die Return to Isis Pyramid for golden claw Die Create party in Aliahan Return to Romaly and buy equipment ... Once you have a party dying isn't a good idea since reviving costs time and money and you need those party members. In testing, walking to Kanave is almost perfectly in sync with it becoming night, which is great because you need night to get the poison needle.
Posted: 4/15/2006 8:02 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Location: Dayton, OH
Looks really nice for a test run. I'll be excited to see the best ending when the full run is made. It doesn't appear that the township tenants will be all that useful. This surprises me in a way because I thought that items the cook could make would make a significant advantage, but I guess not seeing as you got to end without them. At whale cape, after getting the whale bell, you can summon the whale by walking straight down to the beach and pressing A instead of exiting to the world map and pressing A. You might know that and have tested which was faster, but it was something I noticed. Great job!
Posted: 4/8/2006 5:13 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Location: Dayton, OH
All of the following is simply investigation and may prove to be incorrect in one way or another. Outerworld Battles ------------------------ In the outerworld, the game accepts input at 16 frame intervals. It also takes 16 frames to move from one square to another (a battle would start on frame 17). Battles are set at specific frames, which change dependent upon time OR movement depending on the circumstances (see below). I think the battle frames are in small sets, but since you can only do things in intervals of 16 frames it's tough to say exactly. If a battle is set for your next step, you can wait it out. Waiting the interval time (16 frames) x number of times will eventually lead to a non-battle next step. (I typically have encountered between 16 - 64 frame waits). So, in this way battles are dependent soley on time. If you don't wait, all directions traveled = battle. If you wait, all = clear. Pressing buttons during the 15 frame movement does not have any effects. (I think this is how it worked in other DWs?) If there is no battle at your next step, waiting will not create one. In this way, battles are dependent on movement only! You must hypothetically "move" one step closer to having a battle. What causes the battle is hard to nail down without direct hacking. It could be either the frame you press move, or the frame at which you stop moving. I believe it's the latter. I think that's how other DW games work. How long you can continuously walk is dependent on when the rng battle frames are chosen. Sometimes it's really long (we hope so for a TAS!), sometimes it's not. What direction you travel in does not seem to matter. Once you know what frame a battle starts on, you can avoid it by waiting on the square before it. This is probably fastest, unless it is a higher number of waiting frames than to open the menu, or cast heal. When successful, the battle will have been moved to another random frame location in the future. Battle enemies are decided by each rng and change with each reset of the rng. I believe that to get a different set of enemies, the only choice is to wait and keep trying (or cross enemy zones). I want to test this more. brief summary good news: battles on the overworld can be calculated and avoided! bad news: getting a battle you want is pretty random. To get a metal slime, the numbers would be: m = battles that are not a metal slime rand() = random number of frames to the start of a battle int_rand() = random multiple of frame interval to avoid a battle (always an integer) [m * rand() + 16 * int_rand()] + rand() So you'd hope to encounter an enemy fast (low rand), have it be the right one (low m), and not suck to wait and avoid if it's wrong (low int_rand).
Posted: 4/6/2006 10:35 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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adelikat wrote:
2) you don't need to avoid all encounters, just ones that you can run from on the first try. that will save you mp and perhaps you don't need to level all the way to 3. It would be best to save the leveling for the slimes fight.
I'm not sure about this. I agree with the logic, but since pilgrims start with less than 9 mp, they can only cast heal twice. You'd need medical herbs to make up the difference. Even running from battles you are able to, I think you would need at least 6-7 "heals" to avoid fighting in the 3 early dungeons (najima, enticement, pyramid). I'm sure there is a good balance that can be found (maybe level 2 from a battle that is preemptive and then herbs).
adelikat wrote:
there is no reason to go to the tower.
Assuming that all later leveling will be done with metal babbles. You can hit them at the island near Greenlad right? Not sure if I have ever hit one there. More to test!
adelikat wrote:
are you planning to make the TAS of this game?
Maybe. I certainly am not claiming it though. There is so much more to plan/discover. I definitely want to help out in the movie getting made either way.
Posted: 4/6/2006 5:30 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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I was wrong in what I said earlier. I DID fight a few battles before getting to Kandar II. These where just outside of Aliahan to raise my two pilgrims levels to 3. Then I had enough MP to cast heal enough times to avoid all encounters in caves. Still needed to buy a few medical herbs however, for the non-magic floor of the pyramid (random manip only works if heal is actually cast). Oh and I had to stay at the inn a few times. This is all test work at the moment. To kill Kandar II, more than 1 metal slime will need to be killed. Outside Dharma (to my knowledge), metal slimes don't appear in groups, and they only appear with another monster (I think). In my tests, I went to the top of the Tower of Garuna and used manipulation until I got a pack of metals. I was unable to keep all my chars alive due to blaze spells (I think just the Hero died), but I did manage to kill 2-3 in a pack which raised levels quite a bit. If it could be done decently well, keeping all the characters alive, I think this would be faster than multiple encounters of single metals outside Dharma (since they would be a pain to manipulate anyway). I hadn't thought of getting the golden claw to sell for cash, but don't forget a few tough things... 1) you can't cast spells in the basement of the pyramid. To manipulate random encounters you would need lots of medical herbs, or to use the wizard's ring/seeds. This takes more preparation and time to do. 2) If you equip the claw on a fighter after getting it, the encounter rate goes way up. It seems that having the claw in your possession raises it some, and then equipping it raises it even more. This was my experience while messing around.
Posted: 3/28/2006 12:47 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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Mart, I'm glad you're also looking into this game. I discovered much of the same as what you posted. The wizard's ring does affect the randomness, and you could get one in Isis at night, but I don't think it would be more useful than a simple "heal" spell. I have gotten to Kandar 2 without fighting a complete battle. I have tested using a party with a pair of pilgrims and a fighter. I think a party with several pilgrims will be immensely useful since they have battle-randomness affecting spells like surround, sap, etc. However, leveling is still a big problem. Since battles can only be psuedo-manipulated it is really difficult to do quick leveling without getting killed. I haven't tried anything with ring of life, armor of radiance, etc. But it seems that stat effecting items/spells change the randomness. You can use seeds the same as medical herbs. Meteorite armband is an exception to this.
Posted: 3/4/2006 6:56 AM
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ledauphinbenoit
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After fooling a bit with this game, I'm not so sure it would be a very entertaining movie unless you could avoid/manipulate battles. You can't avoid battles in caves, meaning you must fight multiple/many times. The battles are very pre-set before they start. Turn-order, damage amounts, criticals, etc. Although character choices do effect one another (ex: if two chars both attack the same enemy there may be a difference for char 2's damage, or char 2 might get a critical) So these battles will have to be fought pretty much the same as during a non-TAS. If you stop and think about this, it really dead ends. If whether you hit or miss attacks is determined before the battle, you almost have to be at the required levels to fight and kill bosses. Otherwise, they would smash a low level party to bits. However, since you don't have to fight a boss until Orochi, you could get to a leveling area (around Dharma) pretty quickly. But you would have to level A LOT to fight bosses like Baramos. I'm doubtful an all fighter party could win. If you can't guarantee crits, you would have to heal. Otherwise Explodet would cream them. (remember this is after fighting through the castle battles e.g. Stone Hulks w/o being able to heal) In the end, a TAS would not look like the other DWs. It would be much more like something on speeddemosarchive. That is, unless there is a way to manipulate the randomness to do what you want it to.
Posted: 3/3/2006 8:45 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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It seems to me that if Malroth could be manipulated without the use of Surround, then getting Erdrick's armor and killing off the princess would be faster. Since you can kill all but the last boss with 2 criticals, the princess is just casting healmore and then surround.
Posted: 2/24/2006 8:03 PM
(Edited: 2/24/2006 8:06 PM)
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ledauphinbenoit
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adelikat wrote:
Yes to get the town to grow fully, all you have to collect the red, greed, blue, and purple orbs.
Actually, I think it is dependent on killing the Orochi (purple orb) and killing the king of Samanao for the staff of change. So, picking up the yellow orb would be done before getting the sailor's thighbone near greenland. Of course, it would be totally awesome if you could manipulate things so that you knew where the phantom ship was, and could board it from the shoreline somewhere. You'd need to know the details of the rom regarding the ship and its movement. But that doesn't alleviate the need to kill the Boss Troll to get the yellow orb. That's too bad, because if you could get the yellow orb another way, you could "skip" Samanao, the cave with the mirror of ra, and greenland all together.
Posted: 2/10/2006 7:15 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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The +10 is for killing the boss fast. It decreases as time does (+5, +1).
Posted: 1/30/2006 10:48 PM
Post subject: Tin Star
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ledauphinbenoit
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I think a TAS of this game would be pretty entertaining. I did a short sample of the first two levels: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/764/Tinstar.smv The rom is Tinstar(U). The game is interesting because there are three types of levels: Semi-fixed time levels: There is an upper limit on how fast you can finish (hypothetically). Shooting enemies effects how fast or how slow time progresses (level 1 is of this type). These levels are side scrolling. Fixed time levels: These levels have a set time limit. Killing enemies does not effect time, but if you leave them alive long enough you'll die. These levels bounce back and forth from left to right (level 2 is of this type). Non-fixed "showdown" levels: These levels are not fixed time. The faster you can shoot your opponent, the faster the level is completed. The variety of levels provides opportunity for both speed and entertainment. I'm not sure if I will make an "official" movie. At the moment I'm just fooling with a test run. If someone with more experience doesn't pick up the game, I might eventually try a quality TAS. Getting 1,000,000 gets the best ending, which was quite a feat on a original SNES. Racking up points in the bonus stages is way easier in a TAS.
Posted: 11/10/2005 11:13 PM
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ledauphinbenoit
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For those that may not have noticed, a Dragon Quest 2 run was submitted. http://tasvideos.org/854S.html Run was done on virtuaNES and is worth a look.
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