Is there a version of Tetris where the highest speed remains playable, and the RNG can be wrapped in a reasonable timeframe? Seems like that would be the purest example of continuous progress. It wouldn't be as entertaining as this loop, though.
Sega Tetris for system 16 says hi.
It generates a 1000 piece looping sequence. If you can bravo on piece 1000 (which is an I), you can loop it forever for sure. max speed is playable, and people maxing out both lines and points do it in real time.
and i do think it owuld have some entertainment value.
Unlike the other one, this NES tetris game collects no entropy during gameplay, so you cannot change the piece sequence once the game is started, except by pausing and using the konami code to get one I piece per level.
Without being able to pull those statistically unlikely shenanigans, you simply have to accept the blocks you are dealt. Pure skill, knowledge of the piece sequence for route planning, and inhuman reactions times are what is showcased here.
the game deliberately runs at 55 fps as I recall, just so no one has an unfair advantage due to matching refresh rates. that alone makes it... challenging...
The game's mechanics are simply not as TAS-friendly as the NES one. In arcade you simply have to get enough unblocked strikes without getting hit back to enable the knockout blow, while stars are easy to game by TAS techniques in the NES version.
Still would be interesting to see feats no mortal could do, though.
The proper branch name for the current "newgame+" TAS for SoTN shoudl be Replay. that's what the game tags it as on the save file.
Only if experience or items are carried througg is it a newgame+. You just gain the ability to skip cutscenes and buy some additional items later in SoTN.
respawning wouldn't count. each one would need to be collected once.
every item lying around would need to be picked up. everything would need to be dropped from the monsters that could be to fill in the drop list.
If there's other ways to get the stuff, that's also fine but the drop list needs to be filled up. that's the hard part of the full 100% TAS i think.
A foll 100% run would be the following.
1) covers every normal map room.
2) collects all relics
3) completes the monster list (ye sthis means a delay at the library demon for mudman
4) fills in the monster drop list.
5) obtains 2 of every 1 handed droppable weapon. (like the famous Crissaegrim)
6) obtain 2 of every ring that it's possible to get more than 1 of.
7) obtains 1 of every other equippable item.
8) collect all life and heart max ups
9) gets best ending.
There should probably be a special exception for the sword familiar. which needs to be leveled to 51 i think before you can equip it as a sword. this one item can probably be skipped.
I believe that would cover it. would require an insane amount of luck manipulation to get all the drops quickly.
wow... then this game is an abomination...
I guess it would be a "minimal damage run" taking no damage save what is absolutely required to beat each level.
I see why this was in the vault. the way damage is taken to save time just looks sloppy.
I think it would be more entertaining doing a no damage run, even though it would be longer.
The "glitched" branch is generally used when an any% that does not use the particular glitch that totally breaks the game also exists.
However if the non glitched branch does not exist yet, but would be entertaining if it did exist, then the "glitched" branch name should remain.
RAM state manipulation MUST be allowed. here's why.
If it's forbidden, then it's possible for an unassisted run that gets favorable RNG from the RAM state at poweron. to beat an assisted run, which is not allowed to get the same.
A TAS must be impossible to beat unassisted. Therefore, it needs this tool.
And ANY combination of uninitialized RAM is possible in real hardware, by using cartridge swap tricks.
So we can't restrict this to "what's likely to happen after the system has beed powered off for 10 minutes"
Any tool available for real time speedrunners must also be available for TAS use, and mucking with the power switch until the RNG cooperates is allowed for speedrunning.
That said, if the RNG is easily manipulated after initial seeding (most RNGs), it's usually better to not bother. But there may be a case where it is NOT.
As i understand it, "glitched" generally means "skips most of the darn game by breaking it to pieces." However, if there is some other reasonable branch name for it,it gets used instead.
A movie can have "heavy glitch abuse" and yet play about the same percentage of the game. Such movies aren't "glitched", they are simple any%s.
Even if no other branch exists yet, I believe that if there'a any reasonable chance a movie that forgoes that much game breaking and shortening could still be entertaining, the "glitched" tag should be present, even if it's the only current branch. In other words, it implies that a non glitched branch should exist too.
i think it would be entertaining because of the luck manipulation involved to avoid delays.
I also think a score attack would be entertaining, and show lots of dangerous stuff.
ANother case.
Yie Ar Kung Fu.
NO official cabinet has button 3, yet the game accepts it as a low arc jump button if it is hooked up.
This one WOULD make a difference.
I believe some older arcade games are good choices to TAS.
Donkey Kong/ Crazy Kong. these games have an annoying amount of randomness that it would be entertaining to manipulate away on the quest to the kill screen on LVL 22.
Also you could try to smash score attack records. :)
Sega Tetris. (use the bootleg rom because it lets you reset faster to change the randomizer) what's the ideal piece sequence to max out the game asap? :) You can select it pretty fast....
Bloxeed. Luck manipulation and frame perfect gameplay can go a long way here. Will be a fast and furious TAS.
Tower of Druaga. Just what is truly required to beat it under TAS conditions?
Pac Man. can tas precision improve significantly on good humanly possible patterns? If so it might be fun to watch.
Battle Garegga. you can jack the difficulty to an INSANE level in this game through you own input. Do that, then still beat it. ;) would be fun to watch.
Joust. the person WITH the pterodactyl bug fixed. how fast can you max the score counter? Try to abuse the pterodactyls after the bug letting you cheat with them was fixed. :)
Double Dragon: How well can you manage LAG? :)
A 100% run in my opinion would end with the red potion in inventory, would have the magical shield, and would collect every bomb upgrade and every hidden rupee cache. (It would ignore all the door repair charge old men).
AS for pressing non existent buttons... Well the super mario world example they aren't non existent. multitaps were plugged in. :)
A standard multitap cannot reproduce the controller inputs seen in the super mario world run. Indeed, no physical control device in existence besides the bots (that we know of) can, although it would be relatively simple to design a 32 button controller that could.
If there is no way to reproduce it with any peripheral that was in existence at the time, then the legality of the movie does seem questionable. Even a human with perfect reflexes would need to construct additional hardware to do this, which makes it a hack instead of a TAS i think. it's quite entertaining and amazing from a technical standpoint, but if you really have to build your own controller just to input it...
I do think the run should stay as a concept demo, as it's just too creative and impressive technically to be lost.
AS for dirty memory, it simply mans memory that has not been initialized by the game pack. Some software has been known to use it s a seed for the RNG. But emulators tend to pre-initialized dirty memory, because they simply cannot store the state at power off and emulate the decay. But if you could swap games without cutting power in the emulator, and store that in the movie file, then i'd call that legit.
Glitches are done for entertainment value.
Fairly often the glitch is more entertaining then a playthrough that foregoes it.
Extreme glitches (that remove 75% or more of the game or so) tend to get their own "glitched" branch.
Using heavy luck manipulation to level insanely fast only gets you so far in the entertainment tree. Dragon warrior is probably the best example of doing that.
Rockman doesn't have a separate glitched branch, because a non zipping no lay run wouldn't look significantly different from a realtime speed run. Therefore, the main movie glitches heavily to save time and be more entertaining.
I do think save corruption generally needs it's own branch, or the general "glitched" branch, and should not obsolete a run that doesn't use it, but since it's such a time honored tradition on pokemon games to do this on real game boys, it gets a free pass for those games. :)
AS for pressing non existent buttons... Well the super mario world example they aren't non existent. multitaps were plugged in. :) God can instantly transform a normal controller into two populated multitaps. :) Normally it's arcade games that respond to buttons that aren't normally present. Yie Ar Kung Fu is on such example (the low arc jump button is missing from the control panel but does function). I believe if it's doable by plugging in a licensed peripheral, it's fair game. (super scope, zapper, power pad, etc)
Streaming arbitrary data through a port. not okay, in my book. Controller port, reset, and power button only. Expansion bus on ps1 is NOT okay, for example (it's the gameshark port) But if there's an actual first party peripheral for that port, then it might be okay.
As for disk swapping, if the result is easily reproduced in real time, it's not very entertaining. But if it' a one in a million chance to pull off that glitch, or works only with a very specific alternate disc that no one would ever guess on their own, then i think it's okay.
As for starting a run with dirty memory, if the time to get that state of dirty memory (done in the warped arkanoid run, for example) is counted in the time, then it's okay. Game over during the demo dirties memory, allowing a continue, hence the warp.
yeah once the duel is started it's not sensitive to timing it seems. which is why even unassisted it's possible to figure out lucky stuff that works.
Real time, i've seen very similar events happen repeatedly.
You know what would be an interesting version?
A "Bad Luck" version of that where the number is manipulated to be in the worst possible location each time. (yet still be collectable) again it should probably be the extreme quest only.