TASVideos

Posted: 2/21/2016 8:18 AM

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moozooh

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I'm pretty sure I'm stating the obvious here, but just so that the discussion isn't carried away too far, the guideline in question reads: "...It is preferred to play on the difficulty that would make the most interesting and entertaining run. Usually, this is the hardest difficulty". And also, "any difficulty choice will be accepted as long as you adequately explain why you chose it" (emphasis mine). Besides, it's a guideline, not a rule.

ALAKTORN wrote:

more HP means that it’ll take longer to beat enemies, and they’ll have more chances of hitting you and therefore kill you

Oh absolutely, this would have been very impressive if one couldn't... savestate or anything like that, yeah. But if you don't mind posting a few TAS examples where extra boss fight time results in a non-repetitive, unpredictable fight scenario (where the TASer has—rather than chooses—to employ a varied strategy stemming from the inability to end the fight sooner due to more boss HP), it would definitely enrich the discussion and your argument in particular.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 1/1/2016 10:50 PM

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moozooh

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ALAKTORN wrote:

Kino’s Journey

Now this is weird. I was just going to something to the extent of "didn't I actually gush all over Kino's Journey in the previous anime thread", and then I thought something was wrong and went to the forum search to realize there was no previous anime thread for, like, a decade. Whoa, umm, I'm not even sure which part is more strange. But yeah, Kino's Journey. One of my favorite series of all time, and one I keep rewatching about once every two years on average. Incredibly clever and subtle throughout, with a ton of emotion and zero fanservice. Absolute must-watch.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 1/1/2016 9:16 PM

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moozooh

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At some point mid-season 1 you get some background on the world and the protagonist, and it's expanded some more in season 2 but never properly focused on. The reason is that the show itself is not about the protagonist (there are many episodes where he only appears on screen for a couple minutes or so); rather, the protagonist serves as a narrative backbone that strings the episodes together, provides some insight on what's happening to the viewer, and advances the plot of each story when needed. The real drama that happens is about the people who become afflicted with or fall victims to the "extra" forces of nature that the mushi represent, and how they deal with it (or fail to do so). In this sense, it's like a collection of fairy tales that all of us have read at some point in our childhood, told through the eyes of a single storyteller, and it bears the same magical feeling without pandering to or insulting the audience's intelligence.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 1/1/2016 8:53 PM

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moozooh

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I've recently watched all of Mushishi; confirming its absolute brilliance. 9/10 easily. Out of the more recent ones, One-Punch Man is definitely the most enjoyable one. With that level of animation quality we're probably going to have to wait a couple years for a season 2 though. And Gintama is still as good as ever, at least when it does comedy (its attempts at drama are way too shoddy and ridden with cliche to the point of being 100% predictable). The rest can be safely ignored.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 12/14/2015 5:45 AM

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moozooh

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Recuva is the best free one that I have used; among paid ones there's EasyRecovery Pro. Then again I also know of a recovery lab in my home city that does the job for dirt cheap (relatively speaking), so I kinda don't have to go through the hassle if worst comes to worst. These tools are mostly helpful with accidental deletions, much less so with filesystem corruption or, god forbid, mechanical failure. Needless to say, if you're still using the failed drive, do not write any new data on it under any circumstances, and try preventing any automatic writing done by resident applications and system services (disconnect it physically until ready to do the recovery actions, if needed). And make sure to backup everything that takes a significant amount of your time to do via Dropbox, Google Drive, or whatever other free means there are.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/21/2015 9:49 PM

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moozooh

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NitroGenesis wrote:

maniuplkate

Good ole adelikat.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/20/2015 3:12 PM

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moozooh

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Additionally, I would expect that the other 3%, or at least a major part thereof, belongs to low-resolution mobile devices (and possibly netbooks with 1024x600 resolution). Mobile devices, especially low-resolution/low-density, require particular layout optimizations that in our case basically mean a complete ground-up overhaul. Browsing both the site and forum even on a 8" tablet I use is pretty painful.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/19/2015 1:52 PM

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moozooh

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Thanks a lot! That is all very helpful information. I believe this is something that is important for us to decide on because PC/Windows TASing is still immature in terms of both the tools and acceptance standards (as reflected in the recent-ish Doom TAS debate), so we need to be prepared for cases where the difference is as significant as here. When thinking about opportunities we shouldn't ignore the reasons for their existence. Maybe they're acceptable reasons; maybe they aren't. It's a pretty foul can of worms that we will have to reopen every time a PC game with complex physics is TASed unless we establish some agreeable standards or at least guidelines beforehand. In real-life this is reflected by things like doping scandals in sports, where the lack of non-controversial standards and control methods has led to annual disqualifications, accusations, and shady wins (remember the sudden rise of asthmatic Olympic winners in 2000s, who used medication that could potentially increase performance of their healthier competitors?).

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/19/2015 9:37 AM

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moozooh

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I absolutely did not expect this post, and much less the content. Stretch bugs are pretty... disturbing, to say the least! What an obnoxious way of playing the game. :D Anyway, great job on this run! I always wanted to try a TAS of this game myself, but was intimidated by the potential amount of effort and research needed. My personal unassisted total time is still somewhere around 55-ish minutes, and I haven't seriously touched this game in about a decade. A Hourglass TAS would likely not allow on-the-fly framerate switching, so I guess we should see some more semblance of normal gameplay in a potential Elma submission. That being said, to what extent everything that happens here would occur at, say, a constant 60 fps? What would you expect to be the optimal constant framerate figure if not 60? Also, a bit of a tangent, but are there any plans for a new Elma Done Quick? I don't really keep up with the community; I saw some interest talks on the forums a few months ago, but I don't remember seeing any new versions surface since the last one (which was when the WR TT dropped under 35 minutes I believe). Traditionally it's made only when a new minute barrier is crossed, but realistically this is becoming exponentially longer and more challenging to achieve, so if the new compilation is to be done, it should likely be done at an earlier breakpoint. I think the current WR TT is like 34:40-ish? Can't access Moposite for some reason... EDIT: To weigh in some more on framerate abuse and the like: while this is definitely interesting, and I understand that many of the Elma community members accept this as legit tricks, there are several ways I think this might not exactly work. We need some discussion on this. 1. Yes, the physics simulation is done by the original code, native to the game's executable, but framerate change is introduced externally via third-party tools, OS features, or hardware manipulation. This is different to even, say, Half-Life, where it is at least done by the game's internal means. So while this is possible to do, is it a legit thing to do? 2. While simulation yields different results based on framerate, does it poll for user input at frame rate, or is it limited to a certain range? If it's limited, should the framerate be, at least, limited to this range? 3. You can run the physics simulation at 1000 fps with a decent enough CPU, but there is neither a way to supply it with input at that rate (to my knowledge—I might be wrong on this), nor show the output (no display technology I'm aware of supports framerates this high). It's in a theoretical hardware territory. Furthermore, if a constant framerate is to be established, it will most likely have to be one of the three values: — 60 fps: the golden standard supported by all of PC-compatible hardware; — 100 fps: the maximum in-game precision for the shown timer and the purposes of total time calculation; — ??? fps: the optimal value at which the lowest time can be achieved. EDIT 2: The USB 2.0 port can poll at 1 kHz (not sure if more is possible or if this is changed in 3.0/3.1; probably not). But it appears as if either the OS or something else limits keyboard polling to something like 125 Hz to avoid accidental repeats in input—this needs confirmation.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/12/2015 2:10 AM

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moozooh

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It's simpler to an unrelated outsider, but imagine if this is something that your best friend, or a close relative, have to go through. Wouldn't it shock you even a little if your mother decided a male body would fit her better? For you, the notion of their entire person becomes challenged and you have to scrap and rework a very important piece of your personal reality. For them, there is the fear of showing the changes to you and your potential disapproval. A lot of things can go wrong here because for you the change is mostly destructive—you have to come to grips with a significant part of your worldview being instantly invalidated; for them, it is mostly constructive because it's ultimately worth the sacrifice of silent convenience of "don't ask, don't tell". It's not the sex we're celebrating; it's the courage.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/12/2015 1:40 AM

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moozooh

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Yeah, I think it's important to remember that any community is comprised of people, and all people have various personal feelings and thoughts that they struggle with and are afraid to let out. Can you imagine just how strong must a feeling, or a conviction, or a belief be for somebody to do something as drastic as irreversibly changing their bodies? And when something becomes this strong, it becomes a dangerous thing when subjected to the wrong feedback. You know how people become suicidal, right? Most of the time it's when a person doesn't receive positive feedback on something that is both personal and very important, to the point where they lose all hope of ever being understood or at least accepted to the extent they need. Being transgender is among the things where it's incredibly easy to fall into the situation where the feedback you receive is "the world wants old 'me', even though the current 'me' is the real one", and you know you can't casually go back on anything. The problem is that this feedback is often relayed via very subtle things, such as addressing a male-to-female trans as a "he". It's probably something most of us have done at least once, and it could be without any malicious intent (I assume this is also the case with the OP). To a person who is very sensitive to this it conveys the message of "I don't accept your change; I wish you'd never done this". Here's where communities can help—they can, all at the same time: — encourage the person in question to go through with their convictions, making it known that there's a group of people who will help them and stand for them; — potentially help other persons who have their own struggles to come out with them (even if it's something "trivial" like confessing your feelings to someone you like, or making up with a relative after a fight, or releasing a poem you have been working on for months, etc.); — educate those who aren't very sensitive or considerate with their expressions. I know for a fact that this works, because I'm not very sensitive to these things myself, and threads like this one help me become better at it. At the same time, a community can do exactly the opposite, and do more harm than help. You decide by your participation. It's a great, if somewhat dangerous, test of a community's integrity and tact.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/9/2015 1:09 AM

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moozooh

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Cool, good to know you aren't stuck.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/7/2015 9:28 PM

Post subject: Re: OoT runner Cosmo Wright goes transgender (split from OoT)

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moozooh

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AdituV wrote:

"goes transgender" is... ugh, not an accurate or nice way to say it at all.

Agreed. I'd settled on the previous name because the board enforced a very strict topic name character limit that I'd run into when trying to rephrase it better. This topic made me wonder how many girls here are actually former guys... or how many guys here are about to become girls. That's sneaky!

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 11/2/2015 1:49 AM

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moozooh

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Samsara wrote:

Yeah, I can't watch that, unfortunately. Just having a time to beat is enough for me, though.

The Flash player on that site is all kinds of horrible, so here's a mirror to the actual video.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/31/2015 8:19 PM

Post subject: Nahoc nameflash

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moozooh

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Overall it's a significant improvement already, but it needs more tweaks. 1. Main menu bar. That vertical text alignment is perfect, and I like that there's no underlines; makes it look a lot slicker. However, using the same thin font as the general text seems counterintuitive; I believe it should definitely be a bit bolder. The items themselves should probably be scaled up a bit: I don't think anyone is browsing with less than 1024 pixel wide screens these days (even phones do that much now), yet the current menu bar seems to be designed around ~900 px. That's definitely some room to grow. 2. The newcomer box. This is probably the most overlooked thing on the entire front page. It's a nondescript grey box containing two poorly-spaced (what's up with that interline, really?) lines of text that I don't expect anyone to notice before they click on something else. 3. Random screenshots. I'm not convinced that aligning those to the right is the way to go. Considering the insane difference in screen width between different platforms and the fact that the next piece of content on the left is also aligned to the left, you're left with a lot of empty space near the center of the page. I suggest either aligning the images with the left margin of the news box (so that the empty space is at the right side of the screen) or upscaling/downscaling them to be the same size as the news box (on front page only, obviously). Is that possible to do? 4. The lists. I think the "(Was XX:XX.XX)" should be aligned together rather than follow the previous text after a simple whitespace. Is that possible to do? Also, how would this look if there was a very long game name or list of authors? Also, "more..." should be more pronounced imo. Also, why is one of them "..." and the rest "…"? Use "..." imo, I believe single-character ellipsis was made for another purpose. 5. The login/logout/search bar. I'm not sure those two vertical lines that separate the username from logout and search links are supposed to be there when neither are present. That being said, why is there no login field? How do I login here?

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/29/2015 4:03 PM

Post subject: Re: Movies recommended for newcomers... or are they? :o

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moozooh

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Samsara wrote:

I think those are my favorite runs on the site, actually, when something is obtained and then the entire scope of the run changes drastically from there on out as it's broken in half by this single, seemingly normal item or ability.

If you look at their rating pages you'll see how many of them are my favorite runs as well, this one not an exception. It's not until I start watching them with somebody else and realize that by the time we get to the interesting bits the interest is waning, the person starts going about their own business, looking at the phone, etc.. In fact, doing something together with an actual newcomer is very often an eye-opening experience (well, at least if your ability to be empathetic and feel the mood is developed to any extent).

Samsara wrote:

The recent max coins run might be a better choice here, but I still think this run holds up if only because of the ridiculous and long-researched 4-3 strategy that made the run impossible for the longest time. Four times longer, sure, but that one strategy is enough to make up for 4 brand new tricks.

Maybe it should be presented in some other way then? At some point we had a TASVideos showreel, which is actually a really fucking good video that is hard to find for some reason. The 4-3 strategy seems like a good pick for something like that. It doesn't make up for 25 minutes of incredible tedium. It's times like this when I wish the concept demo category was still around: TAS 4-3 only, show the cool stuff, skip the boring stuff, everyone's happy.

Samsara wrote:

They've all gotten too zippy, and RTA's started to take after them, so showing what you can do without any insane zipping is a huge boon.

Ten thousand times yes. It's also why broken isn't always better. Things tend to be broken in ways that are too similar to one another, which homogenizes them, and this is the result.

grassini wrote:

i think we should have one of each demonstration,one ACE,one superplay,one any% glitched as hell,one any% just pure optimization that looks clearly inhuman,one of each genre..

This won't work very well because you can't choose which videos will be watched, so you run the risk of skewing presentation way too far to one particular side. They all need to be at least somewhat balanced in what they're intended to portray: precision, glitches, planning, style.

Invariel wrote:

I'm sure that, as a community, we could single out a few more games that are newbie-worthy in not too much time at all.

The problem is it tends to steer into pure speculation. Look at the movies mentioned by Chef Stef: it absolutely makes sense and is actually tested on newcomers. This is something that should be the single most important criterion when choosing movies for a representative list published on the site: test your ideas for newcomers on goddamn newcomers. I've had absolutely great feedback for these two runs I have shown to several of my friends (neither of whom are aficionados), for instance. The first one because of incredibly well-thought of stylistic decisions and gameplay variety, the latter because the game is so ridiculous in the first place.

AKheon wrote:

some Mortal Kombat-playaround

Oh yeah, absolutely! I was even thinking about them but didn't remember which one I used to show that was the funniest of them all. It couldn't have been the current half-hour UMK3 run, because it's very long. Brain Age could probably be a decent pick, too.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

and now for an equally long rebuttal. Sorry readers.

Interesting rebuttal: you seem to agree with the points in my post even more than you disagree with them! I wish all the rebuttals to my long-winded posts were like that (instead of just most of them) but I also wish it was an actual rebuttal with proper logic and actual counterarguments instead of "no" and "eh".

arandomgameTASer wrote:

It took them over 3 years [...] Also took 3 years to make.

Why would anyone care, newcomers in particular? It doesn't make it more tool-assisted, or more entertaining for that matter.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

If you can watch a 150 minute movie in theaters, you can watch this.

Because every 150-minute movie looks like a Yoshi's Island 100%. Got it.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

But that's the reason WHY it's recommended. It doesn't resemble normal Sonic 3 gameplay at all, which is the whole point.

Neither did Nitsuja's original runs really. But they still had gameplay instead of endless zipping in between cutscenes and boss fights. Has anyone asked any newcomers which kind of gameplay they prefer? Has anyone ever asked newcomers anything at all?

arandomgameTASer wrote:

Picking an obsoleted movie to represent the site is stupid, since it's in the past.

All of these are in the past. The SMB3 run is from 2010, that's five years ago. The previous AoS run wasn't "in the past" until a week ago, and the only thing changed was our—the core audience's—understanding of goal choices to be carried into the future. Which has little to no bearing on newcomers, who neither changed their perception of goal choices nor made any decisions on that front.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

the goal is literally "reverse boss order". So you fight the bosses. In reverse order.

Lol thanks, now I get it! What I still don't get is why it is important or significant enough to be chosen as a goal, because nobody has explained that at any point.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

warpless any% is boring, plus I don't think we should newcomer obsoleted movies. It doesn't represent the site anymore, as much as you'd like to believe it does. The 'longest' fight is less then 30 seconds. Unless you have ADHD, I don't see how that's a problem.

It's linked in the description of the published movie, which seems to indicate that we still want it to represent our site in some way. The warpless any% has a 8.2 entertainment rating (was 8.3 before I lowered my vote from 10 to 9.5), not sure how that means it's boring. Balore and Final Guard lasting 25-30 seconds each is not a problem per se, but I'm getting tired of explaining it, so maybe next time?

arandomgameTASer wrote:

If its ratings stay relatively high, why not have it?

It's not rated by newcomers.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

It's an interesting movie that is somewhat slow paced, but gets faster paced. You're basically complaining what you complimented the old Aria of Sorrow movie having, a progression of skills.

Oh, I'm not complaining about it having a progression of skills. I'm complaining the progression of skills starts happening only by the time many other movies would be over already. Until that it does very little to distinguish itself from a good unassisted run. Nobody would even be able to tell at a glance.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

It shows what TASes can do. Remember, a walkathon was believed to be impossible before a TAS of it was made.

So it needs all of 25 minutes to drive that point home? There are barely 15 seconds there that matter at all, and you have to go through the tedium of seeing Mario walk through the trivial levels (which are the vast majority of them) to see the couple places where it matters. Again, has any newcomer actually commented on that movie or seen it in full? Has it pulled anyone to the site via its entertainment value rather than being a factual statement: "yes, it's possible and we did it"?

arandomgameTASer wrote:

Actually no the newer movie is more interesting for the simple reason BECAUSE it's more broken, but also shows all of the game basically.

Interesting to whom, yourself? I know I'm different. I'm sure there are many more people who are different. I have just rewatched the comparison video, and I stand by my opinion. Bombman is a loss, Wily1 is a huge loss (the previous glitch was so much more entertaining it's not even funny), and the corrupted graphics are stupid and confusing for anybody who doesn't know or remember how they should look originally.

arandomgameTASer wrote:

Obviously it wasn't optimized very well if it got obsoleted. With the same zip tricks.

It was improved mainly by using different zips/OOB tricks and routes they enable. Optimization-wise it was so good that experts at this game couldn't find improvements at the time it was published, let alone newcomers.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/29/2015 3:58 AM

Post subject: Movies recommended for newcomers... or are they? :o

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moozooh

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I can't find any separate discussion topic for the "Recommended for newcomers" (hereafter "RFN") flag, so posting here. It appears as if we are once again losing the functional purpose of all these different signs of differentiation and confusing them for regalia/badges of appreciation. Which they are not. 1. Inheritance. I expressly disagree that any improvement should automatically inherit an RFN flag just because its predecessor had it. Even movies aiming for the exact same goal set may look nothing alike. Worse so when they have different goals to begin with (I will discuss the examples further below). 2. Obsoletion and the list of RFN movies. This is mainly a continuation of the above, but an obsolete movie deemed RFN should retain its flag unless it actually suits the new movie better than the old. If a new Ferrari comes out, it doesn't make your minivan worse at driving kids to school or hauling loads. Such movies, despite being obsolete, should still be present in the Newcomer Corner. Or they should be improved in ways that don't sacrifice their newcomer-friendly values. 3. Goal choice. RFN and Star-tier have a very strong overlap that tricks people into thinking of recommended movies as a secret better-than-Star 4th tier. I believe this isn't exactly a sensible, let alone desirable situation. They have to be high-quality, well-received, and show the advantages and benefits of employing tool-assistance, yes. But at the same time they have to cater to the circumstances, mindset, and behavior of newcomers rather than your core audience. Imagine a person who got here by following a link found on the first TAS they've watched, or just randomly on the internet. At this point they proceed in one of the two ways: 1) they search for one of their favorite games directly or watch whatever captures their immediate attention on the front page, in which case they will likely keep missing the Newcomer Corner list entirely until they're no longer newcomers (or until they leave the site for good); 2) they actually locate the Newcomers Corner first (which I don't believe happens all that often, and that is a problem for another discussion). So let's assume the second scenario. There's a list of movies, and every one of them is a sort of an "elevator pitch" for TASVideos. You can't arrange them in a playlist, so every item on the list has to serve its purpose as well as any other, as there might be no second chance. You want to impress them—but not overwhelm them. You want to surprise them—but not confuse them. You want to keep their interest throughout—rather than at any specific spots. You want the action to be varied without any particular strategy/trick/glitch overstaying its welcome. Finally, you want something that serves all of these purposes without regard to the level of knowledge the audience possesses about the game. And your ultimate goal with all this is to make the viewer want to see more. This entails the following for the RFN flag candidates: 0) they should be run past actual newcomers to see if the idea works at all; 1) game itself should be aesthetically pleasing or capitalizing on nostalgia value enough so that seeing or hearing it isn't a detriment to the experience; 2) they should be reasonably short to avoid boredom or fatigue (5–15 minutes is ideal, 15–30 okayish, anything over 30 minutes is seriously pushing it—you don't want any of the items on the list skipped due to not having enough free time to watch something they don't yet know if they'll enjoy); 3) they should clearly identify as tool-assisted without having to make a second guess, and as such portray many TAS-only scenarios showcasing the required precision; 4) they should contain various different strategies/tricks/glitches to avoid feeling like it's the same thing going on repeatedly; 5) they should contain fun/clever/impressive stylistic decisions wherever possible. With these six criteria we move on to the current list. I have intentionally numbered them starting at 0 because #0 is the only criterion that I cannot discuss compliance with. 4. The current list. [2320] SNES Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island "100%" by Baxter, Carl_Sagan & NxCy in 1:59:35.12 This is a great example of failing criterion #2 spectacularly. Even I had to finish it in two sittings because the action was so dense and there were so many things I had to pay attention to, despite being one of the most vocal supporters of the run during its creation. This run is as great as it is physically tiring to watch. I never had a chance to notice it from WIPs because the WIPs ended before I could be overwhelmed. That being said, it should probably stay on the list exactly because the good things in it are non-area-specific and work even in small portions. The first 10-15 minutes fully convey the message, so whatever you think of them will likely extend to the rest of the run. [2741] Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles by Aglar & marzojr in 26:53.06 There's a very good reason why my entertainment rating for this branch started at 10 with nitsuja's first attempt and gradually arrived at 9 by now: because every single trick is being gradually replaced by zipping and Tails-facilitated OOB travel. They are nowhere near as interesting to look at as good old TAS-precise platforming. In my opinion, this flag should either be moved to an earlier iteration of this branch or to some other run of S3&K or S2 entirely (although by this time all Sonic games are just one huge zip). [1851] N64 The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask by MrGrunz in 1:29:32.02 I haven't watched this run so I won't comment on it. My unwillingness to watch it is probably not an indication of anything. But ratings and comments seem to suggest that the overwhelming positive response comes from the fans of the game, with the rest either not watching it at all or being subdued in their reaction. [1649] NES Mega Man 2 by aglasscage, finalfighter, pirohiko & Shinryuu in 23:48.51 Nice pick. Glitches are sufficiently varied, length is good, there's nice music and many TAS-only tricks. I was never nostalgic about this game (I only played it very briefly before watching a TAS for the first time), but I was sufficiently entertained. [2078] SNES Super Metroid "reverse boss order" by Saturn in 46:42.38 Okay pick. The length is rather imposing, and the goal may be hard to comprehend without prior knowledge of the game, but every minute of the action is entertaining enough in its own right and screams TAS-level precision. I'd say it's one of the more newcomer-friendly runs of Metroid series made on arguably the best game in the series, on par with the in-game run. [2016] N64 Super Mario 64 "0 stars" by snark, Kyman, sonicpacker, MICKEY_Vis11189 & ToT in 05:02.25 Excellent pick. The action is fast, varied, there are many TAS-only tricks, and it ends before overstaying its welcome. I'm not a fan of this game at all, but this run is brilliant and worth every minute of my time. [2995] GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow "all souls" by Fz-Last, alkdc, Pike in 18:45.26 Compared to its predecessor, I find it barely acceptable at best. It's very hard to follow without intimate knowledge of the game, boss fights take either too long or too short, much of the soul usage variety is gone, one of the best fights is skipped, and general character progression dynamics is all over the place. It's most certainly a TAS for the fans in the first place. It also contains at least two known unimplemented improvements as well as a couple more potential improvements. I believe the RFN flag should either remain at the previous movie or be transferred to the warpless any% which has almost none of the problems while containing virtually all the same benefits as this and the warpless all-souls. [1590] NES Super Mario Bros. 3 "warps" by Lord Tom, Mitjitsu & Tompa in 10:25.60 Good pick. Crazy popular game, there is nice variety and a ton of TAS-only tricks in the run, and it's short enough. [1917] Windows Cave Story "best ending" by nitsuja in 50:10.30 Okay pick. Again, the length is about to fail criterion #2, and the run only picks up pace upon reaching the machine gun 17 minutes in. Nothing really spectacular is going on before that. But the game is really well-designed and has incredibly good music, which helps alleviate the initial boredom, and it has author's commentary as well, so I believe it should stay so far. [1248] SNES Family Feud "playaround" by Heisanevilgenius in 06:46.71 Decent pick. There's nothing TAS-exclusive aside from input speed, but it's a nice playaround that, in my opinion, is very good at making the audience want to see more. [1546] NES Gimmick! "100%" by Aglar & Hotarubi in 07:44.45 Excellent pick. The game has a lot of room for tool-assisted precision to shine, and the run uses all of it spectacularly, the run is short, action-packed, the game has excellent music and cute graphics. [2676] NES Super Mario Bros. "warpless, walkathon" by Mars608 & HappyLee in 25:19.23 Has any newcomer ever watched all of it? Not only the flag; the existence of this movie and the fact that a shorter branch was sacrificed for it confuses me. The warped version was a neat novelty run and was good because in the six minutes of its runtime it could show pretty much every known way to overcome the in-game obstacles without pressing B. What exactly is being accomplished by having a movie four times its length escapes me. It doesn't contain four times the tricks. It doesn't even contain four times the amount of situations previously considered impassable without B. It can't allure even all the people who love Mario, judging from the sheer number of rating votes on it and the fact that it has the poorest entertainment rating of all SMB movies at 7.2. 7.2 is barely above average and probably below median as far as site-wide rating statistics goes. 5. Movies absent from the current list. Some movies, including a few obsolete ones, that I believe are quite fit for being recommended for newcomers. [2715] Windows VVVVVV "20 trinkets, no death mode" by Masterjun in 17:33.77: although not always easily distinguishable from the current unassisted runs (they are actually very very good), it has everything a good newcomer movie should have: aesthetics, optimization, style, excellent music and visuals, and decent length. [2994] GC Super Monkey Ball "Expert through Master" by byrz, CyclopsDragon in 12:55.18: I don't see why not. It's a good, reasonably short game, the challenge is immediately understandable, and solutions are extremely tight and surprising. Later on the flag could be given to a high score run when it's available. [1438] SNES International Superstar Soccer Deluxe "playaround" by Marcokarty in 15:24.38: Amazing playaround. Zero game knowledge and only a very rudimentary understanding of soccer rules is necessary to enjoy it. My mother, a soccer fan, enjoyed it a lot—and I assure you, she never really played anything other than Minesweeper. If this isn't telling, I don't know what is. [711] NES Gradius by adelikat in 10:52.35: Remember how this was among the first picks to show verified at AGDQ? For a good reason. It's short, extremely entertaining, shows unconventional TAS-only behavior and whatnot. It's also a popular game of an easy-to-understand genre. [1103] NES Mega Man by Deign in 15:29.27: on par with the MM2 run, probably even better in terms of length and the tricks used. Not as broken as the newer one, and is better because of it. [1595] Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles by nitsuja, upthorn & marzojr in 32:05.52: the last "perfect" S3&K run which somewhat maintained the balance between zips and everything else and kept all the best stylistics from the earlier movies in my opinion. Optimization-wise it has held up very well, at least for people not intimately familiar with S3&K TASing. [1779] Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by FuzZerd, Sonikkustar, upthorn, Aglar in 18:42.37 or [2037] Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog 2 by Aglar in 17:51.60: both are fun, reasonably short, and definitely easier to follow than S3&K run while retaining its pace and most of the WTF factor. I find #1779 to be the better of the two for the reasons already discussed. Thoughts? Opinions? Pizza rolls?

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/29/2015 2:14 AM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
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XBLA/XBLIG: Shadow Complex Splosion Man & Ms. Splosion Man (co-op!) Nin² Jump Super Meat Boy (Teh Internets mode) Bionic Commando Rearmed Terraria Castle Crashers Peggle Trials Fusion Bastion Radiant Silvergun 2P playaround Heavy Weapon Max: The Curse of Brotherhood Geometry Wars RE (I guess) Disc versions: Mushihimesama 1.5 Ultra 1P high score Mushihimesama Futari Black Label 1P high score Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta 2P DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou 1.5 1P high score Espgaluda 2 Omake mode high score DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu Arrange B max rank playaround (?) Akai Katana Shin mode 1P high score

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/28/2015 11:35 AM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
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CyclopsDragon wrote:

Just as a note, the published movie's description of the game that came from the old publication would benefit from an update. The game has 113 unique levels, so saying "There are over 100 stages" would probably make more sense. It's a bit deceptive to say that we "warp" to the Expert levels, because there's nothing stopping you from choosing Expert right from the get-go. It would probably make more sense to say that we tackle the Expert levels (or something along those lines), although this is a bit pedantic. The description also states that we play the 50 Expert levels and the 10 Master levels; the 10 Expert Extra levels should also be included in this.

Done.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/27/2015 5:54 PM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
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Nach wrote:

What is this Hitsquad you keep mentioning?

I was very tempted to post a LMGTFY link, but this would be more productive: http://forum.dune2k.com/topic/26709-how-to-determine-the-version-of-dune-ii/

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/25/2015 1:51 PM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
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Thank you!

zhangsongcui wrote:

Another suggestion: Can we zip into the Claimh Solais's room somehow?

I was actually wondering about that myself. It's a cool weapon that isn't used in any run.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/25/2015 8:01 AM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
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As long as the mod amounts to forcing the hardware to comply with its specification (i.e. making the system deterministic without changing its timing or performance) it shouldn't be considered too intrusive. Though I agree, the setup is getting... quite elaborate, to say the least. Frighteningly so.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/24/2015 11:50 PM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
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After a lengthy and heated conversation on IRC, Samsara has asked me to elaborate on the differences between this run and the glitchless that might warrant preserving the glitchless all-souls category alongside glitched one, so I'm posting it here for future reference. I think this glitched run should absolutely be represented on the site, just not at the expense of the glitchless all-souls, and here's why. 1. Soul usage variety. Since the glitchless run can't conveniently warp right next to certain enemies or get powerful items too quickly, it has to rely on using different offensive souls to get the kills sooner and/or without interrupting movement, or increase its sustained DPS. They include Rock Armor, Bone Pillar, Ghost, and Nightmare. The glitched run doesn't use any of these souls, and it doesn't show off any souls that the glitchless run hasn't. The glitchless any% doesn't have any reason for this either. 2. Character progression/powerup dynamics. The glitchless run has a smoother, steadier powerup curve. General movement speed is improved throughout the run in increments: Grave Keeper → Catoblepas → Malphas → Kicker Skeleton → Giant Bat → Hippogryph → Black Panther. All of these increase the character's mobility in a noticeable and appreciable fashion up to 2/3 into the movie, at which point it plateaus. A similar sense of progression is retained in weapons (Baselard → Combat Knife → Mystletain/Samurai Armor/Black Belt → Muramasa → Final Sword → Dracula's Tunic) and strength-increasing souls (Skeleton Knight → Minotaur → Great Armor → Triton → Lubicant). Glitched run skips everything to Muramasa + Lubicant, gets Final Sword very shortly afterwards, and its movement speed all but peaks barely 6 minutes in. In other words, it goes from nothing to everything in the span of roughly three minutes, at 1/3 into the movie. It then plateaus until Malphas (less than halfways into the movie, and the jump in mobility isn't remotely as significant as one from the Giant Bat) and plateaus again up until its end. 3. Different room strategies and the ease of following the route. In a game where route dictates gameplay choices, a glitched run for a category like this is much like Reverse-Boss-Order for Super Metroid: it forces the player to travel many areas backwards compared to the more conventional routes, and rely on different abilities while doing so. Whereas the glitchless run relies on Malphas and Kicker Skeleton in the first half of the movie, glitched run mostly uses Giant Bat and Hippogryph instead. In doing so, and mostly thanks to abundant zipping, it makes the glitched run very difficult to follow for anyone who isn't intimately familiar with AoS's map layout, and poses more questions that it answers. This alone makes it not remotely as newbie-friendly as the glitchless run. 4. Different boss (and large enemy) fights. The glitched run can roughly be divided into two parts: "before Final Sword" and "after Final Sword". What this entails, basically, is that pretty much all boss fights either take very long (Balore) or become completely trivial (Death, Great Armor, Manticore, Legion). The glitchless run, on the other hand, at no point feels slow, and shreds through the bosses with clever tactics, action canceling, and positioning despite having less powerful items up to Graham (and souls, up to Balore), which showcases the advantages of tool-assistance better than killing bosses in several hits using the best weapon available. There is only one boss fight that is equally trivialized in both runs: Big Golem, but that is unavoidable because the souls in that area are useless and far out of the way. Finally, the glitched run entirely skips Julius, which is, in my opinion, the best fight in the game by far. 5. Showcase of tool-assisted precision and potential for entertainment. Aside from the aforementioned boss battles, one thing that stands out in particular is that zipping makes a glitched run into more of a one-trick pony. There are several rooms where we don't see Soma passing through them at all, and the novelty of using zips fades when you consider that the only way to improve a zip is to use another zip at a more opportune place. This stifles both the microoptimization potential and the visual appeal, because the depth of movement tricks in this game is almost unparalleled, and is easy to see and appreciate. By shutting down a glitchless all-souls category you shut the door for potential future runs that capitalize on this game's unique and perhaps most enjoyable feature in terms of TASing. No other category that I'm aware of can take advantage of non-zip movement as well as this (at least without coming up with oddball goal choices like "glitchless 100% map", which wouldn't be quite as spectacular due to its length). Pros and cons of having the two categories coexist: + more variety for the audience, since the two categories cater to different tastes in TASes and knowledge levels (with regards to this game in particular); + more variety for future TASers; + the more newcomer-friendly category stays and carries its role as a recommended movie into the site's future about as perfectly as a TAS can; = the authors didn't intend their run to obsolete the glitchless run, and they didn't seem too happy the discussion went that way; – a vocal minority may be upset that this game gets "special treatment" (even though it already does, and is not the only one to get it) rather than the games they like; – a vocal minority may be upset that there are too many categories (even though this is arbitrary and there are other games with 6+ categories). (As usual, the silent majority won't care about either.) As I have said earlier, there is no pressing need to maintain or decrease the amount of established categories. That was something that the site had for many years, and the notion was absurd and archaic, and a lot of people weren't happy about it back then. If the only convincing argument (besides "I don't like it for personal reasons", obv.) for obsoleting a branch of a hotly contested game with a branch with different goal choices that result in a vastly different gameplay these days is "reducing movie list clutter for people who can't Ctrl+F", then maybe we should be focusing on solving that problem, especially considering that working solutions have been suggested almost a decade ago (that's longer than most of you have been a part of this site, btw). Let's not sidestep logistical issues with content cuts; that's a shoddy solution to anything. For that matter, it's well-known that the site needs a facelift, especially when it comes to browsing via mobile devices. Removing categories doesn't help there. This will be my final word on the matter.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/24/2015 6:39 PM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
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Pretty sure it depends on the degree of difference between the original game and its port(s). For instance, arcade Contra or Ghosts 'n Goblins and their NES ports are worlds apart. Last I checked the three Prince of Persia versions you'd mentioned were quite different as well. GG Dragon Crystal TAS that you've linked, however, is nearly identical to SMS Dragon Crystal, and since nobody has vouched for superiority of the GG version over SMS, it was decided that the fastest one remains in the Vault.

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

Posted: 10/23/2015 10:59 PM

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moozooh

Experienced Forum User, Senior Moderator

Joined: 8/4/2005
Posts: 5770
Location: Away

Warp wrote:

You mean like the links I provided in this post?

Yes, exactly like that. And it would probably be better if you stuck to that (I think the constructive part of your post escaped ars's attention because the passive-aggressive part was included), or at least tried to steer the discussion from "did giant humans exist?" to "could giant humans exist?". That remains an interesting subject in my opinion (see the first part of my previous post). At least if you want to be scientific, because theorizing is scientific, but dismissal and aggression aren't. A good part of scientific breakthroughs began with a "what if"; no discovery ever began with a "this won't work, so I won't even bother".

Warp wrote:

And as I have already said twice, it's really sad, because the real world is already full of wonder and awe. The real world is interesting. There is a ton of things we can learn from the real world. There is no need to believe fantasy.

How's that world treating you, eh? It's so wondrous and awesome you become angry at a person on the other side of the globe for being interested in giant people hoaxes. If you're trying to make a point at least be convincing about it. In fact, every time I see quotes like that (the ones that specifically include both "the real world is interesting" and "no need to believe fantasy" angles), they almost always come from noticeably sad, bitter, or otherwise discontent individuals. Every single time. Not even once have I heard it from somebody who radiates cheerfulness and charisma. It always have to be someone who is very persistent, sometimes to the point of obsession, in attempting to make another person think the same way they do. Because that is "right", and probably expected to make someone's life better, somehow. Which is no less delusional than believing in a conspiracy theory.

Warp wrote:

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And when I see minds being wasted, it makes me angry.

Well, good thing we can engage in productive activities, such as repeatedly telling somebody we don't even know that they're wrong on a random internet forum dedicated to an incredibly time-wasting, inconsequential hobby. Right?

Warp wrote:

Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.

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