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I've been lurking Dolphin's forums the last few days. NeoBrain now says he "would like to release 3.0 this week." So, we'll probably see that by the end of July, then we can get more TAS commits.
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First Wii submission, huh? This is relevant to my interests. Congratulations, digg.
I don't play Mega Man, but I look forward to an encode, to see what it does for the medium.
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Mister Epic wrote:
About the game, I lol'd at some sound effects, the background during a boss battle and the fact they put Dirk in a bubble instead of making him swim.
There is something else about the bubble that makes it even funnier. While you're in the bubble, touching another bubble hurts you. I need to add that to to the submission notes. XD
@Tompa. I'd be interested to know these minor improvements. I spent some time optimizing this route. I don't doubt you, I just want to know what I overlooked. I won't run to submit a new file, but maybe down the road if I can get cumulatively another 30 frames or something.
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I've never asked why new submissions have a waiting period before they can be judged, but I'm guessing this is a textbook example: so that there is time for emotions to die down before factoring into the decision.
In either case, I think someone will get to work soon on a "new" version that ties this but with the more popular camera angles. That one will be accepted.
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local x, xprev = 0
function distance()
xprev = x
x = memory.readword(0x7E0522)
gui.text(200, 150, "Distance: " .. x - xprev)
end
emu.registerafter(distance)
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Lua Scripting. What is the deal? Everything in the gui is a frame behind.
I try to see how far I travel per frame.
Say on frame 0, X = 100.
On frame 1, X = 112. I can see that, but my GUI says "Distance: 0." Wrong!
On frame 2, X = 136. gui says "Distance: 12." ... Good, but i wanted that last frame.
What's up with this? I've tried registerbefore an registerafter.
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Many, many Super Smash Bros Melee runs. So therefore I echo Mr. Epic's sentiment Mister Epic wrote:
A stable and fully-working Dolphin rerecording emulator, for both TASing and encoding.
Getting a publication is secondary, I just want much coolness from much people. also a better PC for me. XD
Keeping with Gamecube, I'd rather see Twilight Princess than Wind Waker.
Grunz's Majora's Mask run.
And--at the risk of revealing a likely run for myself--Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords.
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Michael Larson TASed a TV show in 1984.
Back on May 19, 1984, history was made at CBS by a man who showed how successful you can be if you just pay attention.
Having watched Press Your Luck since it premiered, Michael Larson, then an unemployed ice cream truck driver from Ohio, came to the conclusion that the swift, seemingly random flashing lights that bounced around the Press Your Luck board were hardly random at all. By taping the show religiously and pausing the tapes, Larson discovered that there were just six light patterns on the board. With this bit of knowledge, he practiced at home while watching the show and realized that he could stop the board wherever and whenever he wanted, if he just had patience.
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I'm now working on this with laranja. We're playing on Expert, which limits you to one shield (can take one hit). We could go faster on a lower difficulty.
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Thank you all for your feedback and honest votes. I have no grudge against any downvoters. I agree with the reasons given. I have no misconception about the entertainment value of the movie. For my first run, I followed the guidelines and stuck to my goal at all times (so please don't chalk it up as a failure to educate. The articles were excellent and very helpful). As dunnius mentioned, the controls don't lend themselves to tricks, and definitely not without losing time. Pilotwings showboating does not add much to entertainment. Despite the lack of entertainment, I chose this game because it was on the list of suggestions, and it's a Nintendo game that a lot of people hold in high regard.
dunnius wrote:
It does feel like there may be some improvements, but I won't know until I figure out the game physics, which I will do eventually. I am not sure about the choice of Hangglider over Skydiving on Lesson 7. Having to wait for two thermals seems lengthy, but then again, skydiving takes a long time too. Also, it may be possible that the Light Plane is faster than the Rocketbelt in Lessons 2 and 6. I might be proven wrong after some testing is done.
After some testing is done, you will find that there is no Skydiving option in Lesson 7. =P
Don't bother with Light Plane on Lesson 2. It's in the ball park of 40 seconds (compared to 22 seconds).
The biggest room for improvement is in the rocketbelt levels. I had numbers (coordinates, speeds, times) to help me, but I did not get scientific with it; just eyeballed. The rocketbelt propelling you vertically as well as forward limits your abilities. You're also dependent on the moving platform position in some stages. All-in-all, I'd be surprised if a perfect run saved a second per level.
If you could get to 700ft on the first thermal current in lesson 7 hang gliding, that would be a big deal. If you figure out the exact math behind diving and flaring and thermal currents, go for it.
Excuse me for not responding sooner. I just wanted to be an observer for this one, and not to bias the judge. I notice in the submission text now that it's a good idea to respond as stuff comes up. Noted.
Thanks to Mister Epic for encoding, and Mukki for judging. Also thanks Derakon and DarkKobold for helping me out in my newbie thread.
Before you finish publication I think you'll want to correct something in the encode. The rerecord count is listed as 72K. That's the frame count. The re-record count is 3742.
(I also recall hexing in about 60 rerecords worth of something early on)
If you enjoyed this run (also everybody who complimented the technical aspects), let me know what else you'd like to see. I finished this run over a week ago and have been feeling the itch to play a new game very slowly and count frames and read memory and stuff.
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Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is a dual-stick shooter that debuted on Xbox 360. It is awesome. It spun off Geometry Wars: Galaxies for the Wii and DS, a watered down but competent sequel (at least the Wii version was. I played that).
I'm scoping out the possibility of making this my next TAS. I'm thinking of an all-Gold medal run.
The first obstacle is that it does not emulate well. For me on the latest version of DeSmuME it lags. Will someone else try running it?
The other obstacle is ... it just might be too long or not interesting enough for a TAS.
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tall wrote:
I'm a Super Meat Boy speed runner. I want to be on the ground floor to TAS it when it comes out on Wii (still speculation at this point), and when Dolphin gets to the point of being acceptable for publications.
Oddly enough within days of submitting my first TAS (#3022: tall's SNES Pilotwings in 20:08.97), it became official that Super Meat Boy is not coming to the Wii at all. They said for a month that they had an announcement about the Wii version yesterday, and I thought certainly that the announcement would not be "It doesn't exist." Yet there it is.
Regardless, I'm going to continue TASing. I got the other part of my wish, in that Dolphin development seems to be coming right along. I'll potentially need to upgrade my computer to run games at full speed, but that is still relevant to my interests.
So I'm open to suggestions for my next game. I want to stick with 2D for this one, probably SNES. As far as personal preference, I didn't play many SNES games (that don't already have untouchable runs).
Here's some from the List of ideas:
* Arkanoid - Doh It Again
* Cybernator
* Dragon's Lair
* Equinox (the sequel to Solstice)
* Motocross Challenge
* Uniracers
o 100% Complete
* Warlock
* Ys III - Wanderers from Ys
One from the DS list caught my eye. N+ is not unlike Super Meat Boy. I played it on Xbox, and it wasn't really my bag. But I could see how it would make a good TAS. It would also serve me well to get familiar with different emulators.
I am a big fan of Puzzle Quest. A run of that for the DS would be a huge undertaking, though. I'm not sure I'm ready for an RPG or Puzzle game, let alone a hybrid of both. Maybe some day.
One last newbie question. This forum seems to be relatively inactive compared to the number of submissions, and the amount of work that goes into each. Is the IRC the place to be?
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I had not heard of this game before, but the description is profound and absurd. They don't make them like this anymore. This run makes me want to play it. The captions were an excellent addition.
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Weird. I searched for this game while I was working on my run and totally missed this thread.
Well I have useful memory address to share.
7E1ABD: Timer. Very useful for comparing times.
7E0054, 7E0056, 7E0058: X-, Y-, Z-positions
7E0049, 7E004B, 7E004D: X-, Y-, Z-speeds. I don't know units
7E00FE: Frame counter (used as RNG).
7E0078: What's being pressed
7E002F: Throttle. Used for Light Plane and Helicopter missions.
P.S. I don't know if you're still lurking XIF, but I play smash, too. I was at TO6 and Pound V. I don't think we played, but I was the ... tall one.
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OK. That seems only to work if I replicate at least one frame of input in the emulator; otherwise it disregards the change.
Now I am totally done with my first TAS. That level where I slacked off had more room for improvement than I thought. Now it's much more optimized. I'll submit it this weekend.