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I won!
Thanks for voting, everybody! There was some stiff competition in this category--really, it could've gone to any of us. Especially the guy who simulated his entire game in C++.
I've already saved 22 frames off my published movie, and Shinryuu is working some arcane framerule magic in any%. Plus we've got Buster-only brewing. Look forward to more Mega Man 2 this year.
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kaan55 wrote:
So I noticed that my Sonic tas is currently tied with Celeste for 1st. I'd like it to stay that way if possible. Without getting into too much detail I think that Celeste tas is very entertaining and very well done. Plus it's a great contender for this particular award. I'd be very happy to share this award with those authors.
I know it didn't happen, but this comment made me smile. Great TASes all around in this thread!
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Regarding the split screen effect: I noticed an identical effect when messing around with bad scroll values in the Mega Man 2 editor. The pause menu would fix it and everything.
I tried to make a fixed graphics script for Rockman 1, but FCEUX's API is too limited. I wanted to take the minimap script (which uses hardcoded images) and scale it up to a fullmap (I've done that sort of thing before), but you can't really draw between the BG and object layer. If you disable the BG layer, those pixels show up as black. You could theoretically draw your image pixel by pixel, only overwriting black pixels, but then it would screw with sprite outlines and transparency.
There's a Super Metroid graphics fix script that actually simulates the game's drawing routine in Lua. It's pretty wild. FCEUX does not provide direct access to PPU RAM, so you'd have to write graphics through the port ($2007) if you wanted to go that route. That honestly might be the best way to do it, but it sounds really annoying to make!
Actually, now that I think about it, I bet you could disable all graphics, do the minimap/fullmap thing, then just simulate the sprite drawing routine.
Also, I can't stop by without reposting my coffeepasta! Did you guys have fun tracing those obscure race conditions from the 80's?
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electricslide wrote:
I don't really see the point of 'trying for best time' in a game like this. It's about a superplay, not sucking as hard as you can as fast as you can.
This run is the equivalent of a tetris run where you mash the blocks down as fast as you can to lose quickly.
I got similar feedback when messing around with Pictionary a while back. Even my IRL friends, who aren't that into TASing (are anyone's IRL friends into TASing? Lol), said, "Aw man, I thought I was gonna get to watch you destroying all those minigames."
Maybe there's something to be said about going for high score in this game. Is there any event that would last forever with TAS powers?
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link_7777 wrote:
Ford wrote:
I'm going to go with No on this one, based on the facts that this goes to stage 256 instead of stopping once it finishes one loop of the hardest difficulty, and that the author mentioned discovering a method of climbing ladders faster, but did not implement it for this run. As this is a 2-hour video, I understand the rationale for the latter, but stopping upon finishing one loop in the hardest difficulty would've dropped it down to about 15 or 20 minutes.
I complained about the fast ladder climbing because of how much time I had put into the run before I discovered them, but I did start over and the run I submitted includes the fast ladder climbing
If you want to see the slow ladder climbing, I made a quickie TAS of the first stage a couple months ago. Seems to be about 5 seconds slower than your first stage, link_777. Even though I used 3 peppers...
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HappyLee wrote:
Just finished watching this (sorry for the late comment). A beautiful TAS! I love all your entertainment choices. warmCabin, you're a talented TASer with good taste, and have put lots of efforts into your work. Thank you!
What a nice comment! That means a lot coming from a talented TASer with good taste such as yourself :)
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fsvgm777 wrote:
Besides, I personally don't find the input display distracting at all, in fact, I have it enabled all the time.
Yeah, that's a personal preference thing. I'm picky about it, for whatever reason.
Are you interested in a no-epilepsy encode? I made a hack for it. Also, are you planning to give it the "has commentary" tag or is mine a bit too freeform/livestreamy for that?
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fsvgm777 wrote:
If five people think I should make such an encode, then I will make one.
You should do it! As the author, surely I count as at least 3 votes, right? ;p
Did you see how I did it in my encode? I brought up the input display when it was showtime, and hid it during the actual gameplay. That way I could show off my light shows without having a distracting (IMO) overlay over the run.
As an aside, I had a commenter say he didn't notice it until halfway through the run. I think it's because the YouTube UI obscures it as you fast forward. Kinda makes it more Easter eggy!
c-square wrote:
That was amazing! Thanks for making it.
Thanks, c-square! I've come a long way since Pictionary, eh?
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Linked lists! Finally putting that computer science degree to good use! Was there a chance that you'd end up with an unlucky series of pointers that overflows the menu and crashes or something?
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The run's done, everyone! Just need to check that the new alien fight is as fast as it can be before I replace the old input file.
The run is now 65 frames faster.
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McBobX wrote:
If the mechanics and timing are different (like in RCW and original versions for example), they seperate both versions.
As far as I know, here in TASVideos, it is all about time and style. What I want to say is that if a game has multiple versions, and all versions show the same content or slightly different, then there is no point in having 2 runs showing the same content (even if there is a slight difference).
You make some good points. However, we seem to be in agreement that my run shouldn't obsolete the PlayStation one. It seems odd that RCW can't be obsoleted by this, but can still preclude it from being published. Should we even be considering this game in relation to RCW?
The whole self-imposed restrictions thing makes this a harder question to answer.
I'm glad you enjoyed watching it, anyway!
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Spikestuff wrote:
I'll echo what I wrote to warmCabin in private before anyone corrects him because hopefully I've informed him on this case.
The runner is going off of what feos said.
This mode is actually a proper mode...
I did see that message. I stand corrected on that. But even if it's technically a game mode, it still kinda feels like a single minigame. Does Match-Up actually not appear in the standard minigame rotation?
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This is going to get rejected. Why not make an all minigames TAS? I'd watch that. Maybe you could even sell an "all minigames on the speedrun leaderboards" category.
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McBobX wrote:
Mothrayas wrote:
That movie is not zipless. Only certain types of zips are removed, others are left in.
Also, the RCW port has obvious other differences/advantages, like instant weapon switch.
That is why I said Zipless-like, as it contains few zips here and there, but still close to a zipless run. The big difference between these two runs though is only the route
Instant weapon switch actually doesn't give huge advantage in RCW 1, 2 and 3 comparing to RCW 4, 5 and 6, as you can only switch to weapons and not Rush/Items/Magnet Beam.
As someone who knows this game very well, I'm inclined to say those are HUGE differences! A bunch of strategies work out differently or are not viable between the different versions. But to a casual viewer, well...they're clearly very similar. I talked about this a bit in my submission text.
There's a spectrum here. On one end, we've got SpongeBob on PS2 vs SpongeBob on GameCube--clearly the same game on different consoles. On the other end, we've got Super Mario Bros. 3 on NES vs Super Mario Advance 4 on GBA. Clearly two different games, even if they're "the same game."
Where Rockman 2 and Rockman Complete Works lie on this spectrum is up to the community. I will say that, on the RTA leaderboards, the original games, Wily Wars, Complete Works, Anniversary Collection, and Legacy Collection are all listed as different games with different records.
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So, thanks to paosidufygth's run, I realized the Item 1 alien fight is slow in zipless. With a sloppy pure-Bubble attempt, I was already able to save 12 frames, which means I was saving an Item 1 the whole run to lose time in the final boss .-.
I've found the optimal place from my mental checklist of good Item 1 spots and am working to resync things. As of right now, I can confirm these improvements will definitely save more than 28 frames!
I've asked Maru to delay it pending these improvements.
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I agree, RCW is an enhanced remake. I touched on it in my submission text. That run would be about a 27:05 if timed comparably to my 27:17.
As an aside, I think my route would be faster in that game. If I ever take up PlayStation TASing I might just try it!
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Shinryuu wrote:
What you wrote is really informative and nicely put together.
Patashu wrote:
The submission text alone is a joy to read. What an excellent comprehensive overview of the TASing process!
Thank you! I can't believe I wrote 9,000 words about Mega Man 2 and didn't even teach people how to zip.
Shinryuu wrote:
I'm glad you were able to make this run and I was able to help you as well. Top notch work!
I'm glad you could help too! That Air cloud section had me stumped for a month or two.
Shinryuu wrote:
I forgot to mention that categories aren't that evil. This is quite interesting and it shows how to play the game more normally.
I suppose I should mention that I don't think zips are evil. They're super exciting to watch. My motivation to make this run was not to make a "proper" or "real" TAS of mm2, but to explore a cool parallel category that I found interesting as well.
