Honestly i think "contains speed/entertainment tradeoffs" is a pretty good catchall that states that the author could have saved more time, but felt that the slower run was the more entertaining one.
As an example, I thought the versions of A Boy and his Blob that used death as a shortcut were entertaining, while the ones that stopped doing that were much less entertaining.
I agree that Teddy Survives needs to stay, and that there should be a few more tags for humor value. Some examples follow.
"Contains gratuitous violence"
"Makes a mockery of the AI"
"Completely breaks the game"
The theory of a TAS is that it should be possible to play back on real hardware.
The fact that the DMCs registers are effectively random to start off with means the cpu stolen when it is first activated is unpredictable.
This makes it a source of entropy NOT CONTROLLED BY THE PLAYER.
Since the game has a source of entropy not depend on input from the player in any way, this INVALIDATES ANY TAS of said game.
Any NES emulator that was truly accurate would emulate this behavior after all, and thus any attempted TAS of a game that does this would desynch. The fact that it doesn't means that the emulator is not accurate
The state of memory after power loss is RANDOM.
Also a game could conceivably uses uninitialized RAM to get the first seed. This would cause the same problem again. In fact, games for certain other 8 bit systems count of the fact that the state of RAM is random when the system is powered on, and will not work al all if it's not!
The funny thing is the airwalk is NOT a glitch.
Well, it is, but it isn't.
The skid to stop routine ignores the check for falling, so when you skid to a stop you land in midair. The programmer thought that was funny, and thus LEFT IT IN and gave you a few seconds to try and scramble back to land before you fell, to make the game more cartoony.
That said, skidding that far off the edge and running off the other side was not intended. But the funny behavior when you do IS intended.
Honestly this run doesn't look like a TAS.
It does look like nice playing, but nearly everything looks doable in real time with practice. This looks more like a really good speedrun.
None of this wall walking madness that is in normal SMB TASes.
You know what would be entertaining?
A Richter game that uncovers as much of the map as possible. One that beats the theoretical map max in all the faqs. :)
I do think a longer video, reworked to make the megamen sync up as much as possible would have been a lot more entertaining to watch, and would have made the "they've been remaking the same game over and over" point a lot better.
For example, have it so all the first 8 boss fights were each fought at the same time, and killed the final boss at the same time on all 4.
That said, I'm not sure it's possible to synch all 4 endings.
Again, the concept is absolutely brilliant here, but it just looks too dishonest when watched.
Wow. i tried this out for fun, and was able to replicate the run for the most part in real time.
Of ocurse I had to use a lot of save stating and retrying. I'm ot that good. but i was able to do the healer glitch in realtime after many tries, and then the other bits aren't that bad until you get into the palace.
SO i have to conclude a not tool assisted glitch run is possible. :)
Sequence breaks are usually caused by programming or level design mistakes and thus are unintentional. Humans are fallible, and such bugs are usually inevitable.
Writing code which tries to detect level design errors being abused can be difficult and bug-prone in itself.
No, it's actually very easy.
When you are at an area where you are supposed to have gotten an item first, check for the event flag that gets set when you got the item. If the event flag isn't set, then you have broken the sequence. Oh wait, you didn't bother to set an event flag? A little reprogramming later, and one more bit in the save file and you have your event flag.
Take an example from Super Metroid. It is possible to get Super Missiles before beating Spore if you sequence break. Killing Spore already sets an event flag i think (on the set of statues) so if that event flag is not set, remove all super missile pickups from the game until it gets set.
Metroid Fusion actually detects a certain sequence break, and tells you to go back and do what you were supposed to do afterwards. Every other sequence break in the game is actually supposed to be there.
It is TRIVIAL to detect a sequence break. Yet very few programmers bother to do it, and assume it can't happen, sometimes with disatrous results.
On the other hand, FDS Backgammon has a RNG that (after the title screen) only ever advances when determining dice rolls. The only way to advance it is to do the dice rolls in the first place. So if the game gives you a roll sequence of 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, ... , you can't do anything about it.
But yuo CAN make different choices for your moves, which will also manipulate the computers actions, and pick the most advantageous ones with knowledge of future rolls and actions.
Not that TASing a boardgame is interesting, unless you can manipulate the dice.
The problem with fixing the seed early is that it's still possible to manipulate the rng in an RPG by changing your path and staying in different zones different amounts of time.
This was done a lot in final fantasy one. The game would decide that the next random encounter was in X steps, and there's nothing you could do about it. unless you ended up in a no encounter zone ro changes areas to change the content of the encounter.
Even if there were many separate streams, it would STILL be possible to sync them by changing the locations of the random encounters, and thus their contents.
You tell me an "unmanipulatable" RNG system in an RPG and i'll tell you how to manipulate it.
Preventing luck manipulation in an rpg can only be done be deliberately detecting it. The objective here is to look for BS levels of luck manipulation. For example, all random encounters getting manipulated away in dragon warrior for the first fourth of the game would be caught by this hypothetical check. It would start throwing in unskippable encounters every step for a while until the games sense of lucky breaks has been satisfied.
Or lets say your criticla rate is supposed to be 5% But your effective critical rate so far (after 100 swings) has been 100%. Obviously manipulation has been going on, and the game needs to push back to stop the TAS attempt. SO it will make you start missing and failing your saves when it matters later.
If someone gets such unbelievable luck without manipulation, they would expect it to run out sooner or later.
for my point about the random number generator, a normal player wouldn't even notice. Only someone who's managed to manipulate away a fair number of encounters, or get themselves an unbelievable string of luck would have this happen to them.
Say you are expected to have about 15 random encounters between the first town and the first dungeon, if you don't manipulate things. You get there with zero. Cool huh? NOw 15 unskippable inescapable random encounters get added to inside the dungeon in addition to the encounters normally produced. Lets say you had only 13? only two get added. and you don't even notice.
ALso a normal player won't be suprized that their good luck doesn't last forever, and expect runs of good and bad luck, and would never even suspect that the game is deliberately inserting runs of bad luck after the runs of good luck.
Sequence breaks can easily be checked for, it's just that game designers rarely bother for it, and just assume that no one can pull it off. It's called failing to write "can't happen" code. Of course sequence breaking is fun, but shouldn't be required to enjoy the game. But there's no reason they can't just make the game say "very clever, now go back and get what you were supposed to". (oddly enough, metroid fusion actually did something like that!)
If someone pulls this off right, then speedrunning will not be interfered with, and TASing will get an improvement of maybe one minute over a normal speedrun, as that game pushes back and actively hinders your TAS attempt when it's doing things inhumanely fast.
And depending on the game design it can be easy to sneak in delay frames at transitions. The end result of this will be to simply declare "you cannot beat the game before X frames." and if you some how get ahead, frames are evenly added to all remaining transitions to push you back above the minimum frame limit.
Here is how i'd make a game hard to TAS.
Use a RNG that actually detects when someone is trying to manipulate it, and counters any long string of lucky events with a corresponding bit of bad luck later that cannot be manipulated away.
Examples:
1) ok, the player has gotten too many first strikes within the past 50 battles, now the enemy will ALWAYS go first until it has evened out.
2) the players criticals have exceeded the number of misses by 20, the player will now miss 20 times in a row.
3) the player has escaped 20 battles sucesfully without a failure. Prepare to die 20 times from unescapable deathtrap battles. (the game will track the losses between games, so once you have died 10 times from this, it will start letting you escape again)
Have actions near the beginning of the game affect luck near the very end. If you get an unfavorable result, you will have to start ALL OVER. And of course you will be unable to cut and paste your old recording because the luck is different due to your earlier actions.
Prevent all sequence breaking. Or worse, make it so that any sequence breaks slow you down overall.
Stealthily insert delays to slow you down if you are going too fast. Have people wondering why the transitions are suddenly getting so slow halfway into the TAS.
one of the most hilarious ai exploits (this works on arcade) is that after a few rounds the cpu instantly turns aroudn and shoots whenever you use scorpions teleport. but here's the funny thing. if the teleport fails, the enemy STILL turns around and fires the opposite direction! Repile recovers too fast to abuse this, but most other characters can be harpooned immediately after.
Of course nothing compares to the hilarity of early rcade revsions. The computer after th ethird match or so would throw you whenever you tried to throw it. even if it was dazed in fatality wait mode, or frozen. (the computer throwing you while it is frozen looked particularly hillarious)
The cpu actually reads your controller inputs and reacts to them.
I vote no.
To complete the game you have to get all four characters through all the levels. That's just not entertaining. Super Mario BRos 2 (usa version) is truly the better game.
Yeah a TAS in this game wil involve precision, efficiency, and luck manipulation in the bonus level to get more super shots. (i think you can get more super shots in the bonus levels!)
The game will look VERY EASY whiel being TASed.
Do it.
Two runs. one getting everything that's SUPPOSED to be required (the candles, exit revealers, books of light, etc), and one only getting everything tht actually IS required.
This game is hard enough to beat at ALL that a tas of it is very meaningful,
What every select button item does.
Boots of Force. Opens chests, and does 4 bars of damage to enemies that you boot with them. Most useful one for tasing. Does NOT open doors, despite what the manual says.
Boots of Lava Walk. Lets you ride the lava spout. Nothing for pressing select. May save time if used properly, but very unlikely.
Horn (of valhalla): Reveals secret doors/gems by pressing select. Useless for TASing, since you already know where they are. :)
Wand of Wonder: Freezes enemies with screen traversing attack. I hate this.
Staff of Power. 3 bar energy attack that traverses whole screen. Good if you lost the boots of force.
Cloak of darkness. Makes you invisible TO THE WIZARD MALKIL. Affects no other enemy in the game, they will still find you no trouble. CRAP
THis TAS should keep you busy. Here is my lore on the game.
The mazes are not random, however, nearly everything else is randomly positioned.
TO wit, all monsters, your start, the exit space, and the exit opening key.
Objective is to clear floor 60.
Now for the catches.
Almost every floor has a treasure that appears at the starting position. these treasures have VERY IMPORTANT POWERUPS. Each treasure must be triggered by a secret trick. Example. the treasure on floor 1 allows you to break one wall before pickign up the treasure chest and one wall after on each floor, obtained by slaying 3 green slimes. The second treasure doubles your speed, and is obtained by slaying 2 black slimes. Otherpowerups do things liek let you see the walls on certain floors, let you see wher ethe kes are, let you see wher ethe exits are, let you kill certain enemys, let you kill the final boss, etc, let you become immune to certain enemies to let you get other important powerups, etc..
There is an accurate FAQ on gamefaqs about the game and how to get all items in it.
SO a good TAS must
a) manipulate luck to place the start, exit, and key well, collect all required powerups (and many ARE required to beat the game, and if you miss even one of the the game CANNOT be won)
b) move and kill efficiently.
This will be an insanely difficult challenge. Anyone up to it?
I agree this movie is less entertaining. it does have one giant WTF moment, tho. THe previous runs were definite works of art. This one is still amazing because it's one poeple coudl actaulyl do without fraem advance, though. and that's wha tmake s a truly great TAS. one that makes you go 'i wish Ihad thought of that bit"
I think we can pronounce this game solved. :)
Using the same input for both would be very boring to watch, mainly due to the fact that the glitches do not work the same. so everything will have to be played "honestly". And it's very likely you will desync as soon as you pick up a random powerup, so you stop moving so both recording stop, and thern you get hit by an enemy on the other recording.
But hey if you can actually puill it off, it would be interesting, but the only thing that would be interesting would be the fact that it was finished.
Yes that's exactly why it's done.
ALL tetris games that have two player versus in them do the same thing, preventing any luck manipulation for a fairer game.
How to make a TAS friendly game.
1) leave glitches unfixed thata llow vast portions of the game to be skipped.
2) make an easily manipulatable RNG.
3) Assume people have what they need if they've figured out a way to get from oint a to point b without it, and give it to them. (Prince of Persia and FLashback do this, for example)
4) Allow for a very high rapid fire rate.
5) let people jump in midair on the first frame.
6) Allow cutscene skipping.
7) place very useful items in places that are difficult to reach without TASing techniques.
If a glitch breaks the game severely, then the test of "is the glitched run more or less entertaining" should apply.
Megaman is severely broken by all the glitching, but the glitched game is a heck of a LOT more entertaining then a normal attempt at TASing the game without glitches would be.
But when there is potential for an entertaining run without glitches, like with Zelda 2, there should be a glitch track and a "game breaking glitches not used" track.
In such a case, both movies are entertaining.
Another example of "glitch more entertaining" is A Boy and his Blob, even though it's glitches are game breaking.
All non game breaking glitches should be used regardless.
What qualifies as game breaking? If the TAS is 20 minutes faster or more becasuse the glitch is used, it's probably game breaking. :)