Unable to find a thread about this game, even though I'm sure we had the topic once, I was bored and looked into this game a bit today as I'm home, and being sick.
I'd love to see a run of this game, mashing though all levels, however I'm not going to do this one because frankly me and the emulator is not getting on very well with each other. But I hope that someone else is willing to pick this one up.
Some thoughts and perhaps some goals:
* Would it be possible to scrape together 11000 gold in Rookie Mt.? If so the level 2 alpine board would be available before level 2 (Big Snowman).
* Tricks in every possible corner would put a nice touch to this since it normally can be hard to execute in real-time. Even if it's just a board grab worth like 30 gold it can look nicely executed.
* Place in first for every lap would be the most optimal right?
* Showing shortcuts in those level that house them.
* According to the FAQ at gamefaqs.com there is a glitch involving making a board slide on a railing. Maybe we should investigate that further, and perhaps perform it in the TAS? Is this trick also possible to execute elsewhere?
* As far as I know, Tommy should be the character of choice since he is the fastest, although I'm not sure that speed is everything. Better handling might even be faster?
Cudoz to any one who makes an attempt at this.
Cheers!
Edit: Did a search on youtube and found this Time attack of Rookie Mt. in 28'23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beNKcXMpcBQ
Might be worth to take a look for rout planning and general ideas about dynamics of this game.
Edit2: I forgot about the ejection tricks. When standing at the beginning of each level you can eject your self faster if the timing is right. Press and hold the A button and release it in just the right moment. Normally I just look at the baloon with the pet firing of the start signal. After the "GO!" is seen it is near time to release the A-button. Not to hard to pull off while playing in real time.
Another trick is to eject from the chairlifts. As you arrive on the top you can press and hold the A-button and release it about when the distance to the last pole of the chairlift is half distance left. Not to hard to pull off neither. Actually found it harder to perform while using re-records. But then again I did not put so much time on it. Often the issue is that you release the A-button to late.
Also a thought on getting the most money and possible allow to buy alpine 2 board already before the second stage is to get one of those rat items that snatches all the gold from every other player. Use it in the last heat when the gold level of everybody should be top. If this is how it works that is?
Just dropping by to mention that some (if not all) of the characters have hidden special tricks. Found the hidden tricks for Slash, Nancy and Jam back in the day by accident because I had lost my manual. They're not on gamefaqs and I don't know how many people know about this. I only remember the one for Slash and I can only guarantee it to work on the PAL version. It's (A), left, center, up, center, right, (A). I hope my memory serves me right on that Jam and Nancy have their hidden ones too - I'm not so entirely sure anymore. Their combinations were longer than Slash's afaicr.
If Tommy and Linda had hidden ones too, it would certainly maybe help the TAS. I tried hard to find them back then, but I had no luck and eventually gave up.
@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JELgB-LsNT8PowerRauchi wrote:
Your Video is very cool, but it is uncomplete. Du you want to add tricks that are missing? If so, i will tell you how to do them and you can add them! There are 3 more Tricks that i know (For Nancy,Linda&Slash) For example: Shinobin's 500 is the same für Nancy to get 500, try it ;)
PowerRauchi wrote:
Try those:
LINDA: up,down,left,right,up,down ->350
SLASH: left,up,right -> 350
I don't know more but somehow i ''feel'' that there are more that you can do xD
This game absolutely rocked in multiplayer. I'm not sure how a TAS would turn out, but how do people feel about using a code to unlock the best boards and the best player (Shinobin)?
This game absolutely rocked in multiplayer. I'm not sure how a TAS would turn out, but how do people feel about using a code to unlock the best boards and the best player (Shinobin)?
No. I don't like that idea at all. It would make the TAS far too dull.
<i>A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.</i>
I didn't know that those special tricks are hidden.
I used them commonly when I played it in my youth.
Good to have a list of them though.
I'm not sure about the code thing. I think I would like a legit TAS without code better. But I'm up for options. The code would make things over powered I think.
I'm not sure how much more "dull" a Shinobin run would be compared with a Tommy run. there would probably, actually, be less repetition since you wouldn't have to unlock things.
OK. So I made a small test where I try to scrape together enough money to buy the second alpine board.
This is a rough sketch more or less just to show that it's possible to make it with good margin.
Note that this movie does not start from reset because I was a bit to lazy for that.
So far I have not really delved into a lot of things concerning this game.
Stuff that would be good to know is what the other players have for weapons and items.
Would also be good to see what is actually in the baloons that gives you wepaons and items.
You can download the movie from http://133an.sytes.net/highness/tas/snowboard_kids-point_test_finished-by_highness.m64
Cheers
I did not really start from a snapshot.
It's more like "record from now" I think?
Doesn't it work for you?
Works fine for me without having any snapshots.
Hmm... Shows what I know. :D
Found a file which has the ending .st. Could that be it maybe?
Why doesn't the emulator bake the snapshot into the movie file? Would have been nice.
Uploading the snapshot right now, but it will take forever. My connection is VERY crappy since I moved.
I'll post as soon as the upload is finished.
Edit: Wow! The upload went very smooth I must say. OK. So the state can be downloaded from here Just unpack it and rename the file. I was a bit to eager before I uploaded it I guess. Hope it works for you guys.
Tell me otherwise and I'll try to correct it ASAP.
Cheers.
Loved this game back in the days. I'm not entirely sure how a TAS would turn out though, could be great, could be slow and slightly boring(Definately worth a try though!). I guess doing tons of tricks everywhere and other TAS only stuff would help.
Heh, that was like watching myself play this game back in the day. I'd screw around doing tricks and getting way more money than you really needed to get while my friends tried so hard to beat each other. Then I'd just wipe them out before the finish line and claim first. ^_^
I really hope this TAS goes all the way, because this game is a hidden gem of the N64.
<i>A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.</i>
Did some memory watching:
Speed - 009EED90(anti-ds mupen, byte/short/long) - This address is pretty wierd, it's definately a speed address and the only one i could find but it's 0 whenever you're in the air and it can't go over 127(this is "normal" top speed for all characters, but it doesn't go over even with fan active!).
Items - 009EED24(unsigned long) - This is only for your own character which makes it useless, however it does how how the items are represented which might be useful if an address is found for other character's items. Here's how this one is structured:
Value | Bits | Item
131072 0010 0000 0000 0000 0000 Ghost
262144 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000 Rock
196608 0011 0000 0000 0000 0000 Pan
65536 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 Fan
393216 0110 0000 0000 0000 0000 Invisibility
(Couldn't get a rat)
This same address also contains a counter for how many red items you have left ...But no actual indication of WHICH item your holding. At first i thought i needed to use a smaller variable and that i had simply looked halfway into the red item's sequence but i couldn't find any additional bits on either higher or lower addresses. So i have no idea where this info is stored.
Anyway the address for seeing only number of items left is:
009EED27(Byte)
Hopefully someone can use these values to find the equivalent addresses for the NPC's which might actually be useful.
Thanks Wyster. That will come in handy for a full TAS of this game.
I was fiddling some more with the game yesterday. Seems fairly easy to manipulate the compeditors weapon throwing. Especially for the items such as those pans that comes down from the sky. I just took a slightly different turn to avoid them being thrown.
Not sure how the mechanics works. But at least its a step in the right direction.
Internet connection at home is very bad at the moment, so updates from me will be scarce.
Keep in touch.
Can such avoidence be manipulated indefinately?
As the time trial vid showd, holding A for a certain amount of time before releasing it gives a pretty long and fast jump which seems to be faster than normal top speed(but the damn speed address is 0 in air so i don't know how much this actually helps). However, we obviously need those 13k or whatever for the upgraded board so perhaps it would be possible to figure out the least amount of tricks necessary to get 13k and find the best spots to do them on each lap. Along with this the best spots for "fast long jumps".
I assume fans can only be gotten when you're in 2-3 place? Might be a good idea to always stay in first place since it's a TAS which is supposed to pwn the game.
In my point test video I avoid those pans throughout the entire run. So it seems to me that it can be avoided indefinately.
Is there a separate speed address for being airborn?
Not sure about the fans if they can be gotten while being in first place. Never reflected upon that.
Is being in first place always faster? To me it seems that if you are in first place, there is no problem for the others to catch up with you, no matter how fast you're going. Maybe this is a wrong assumption?
Is it always optimal to go with the alpine level 3 board throghout the game, or is it smart to go for some other board in the various levels? When playing in realtime this is in fact easier imo. Not sure about the result in a TAS though. You would need to take very sharp turns, which hampers speed with the alpine boards, while with the other boards, you can do it smoother and thus prevail speed.
Testing has to be done. :)
Speaking of testing, i did a test run on first lap on Rookie Mt:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/65454078/Wyster%20-%20Snowboard%20Kids.m64
I have no idea how optimal this is speed wise but it still looks pretty good i think(especially when turning every other frame :)) Also it seems money is no problem for getting Alpine 2. Roughly 2k per lap seems optimal if we don't want to loose speed. Need another 22k for lvl 3 upgrade so i guess any extra money we can get is good.
Cool. I will check the movie when I get home today.
Hehe.. Think we could make another 22g in the first level? I think it poses impossible, but to get as close as possible would be preferrable. Otherwise we'll sure get it after level 2.
Around 2100 per lap seems optimal(at least with Tommy). So this would end around 13500 for first level. Meaning at least 20k needs to be collected on second level.
Oh and i did 2nd lap as well:
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1957053420/Wyster%20-%20Snowboard%20Kids.m64
This might get a bit repetitive with 5 laps? Oh well, i will probably finish this level just for the fun of it.
Did have no chance to check the videos out yesterday. Internet connection at home was down for the entire day. Guess the ISP in Peru had some issues. Furthermore there is too much concrete in the house, so IF I'm lucky, I get connection at one or two spots in the house. Thinking of buying a repeater and put it in some strategic spot.
I'll try to watch the videos later if possible. Please keep me/us updated on the progress and findings meanwhile. :)
Cheers
Ok. I managed to watch it now. Wonder if we can push even more tricks into each lap, or is that impossible with Tommy being worse at doing tricks? Not sure about the dynamics in each character, do they matter a lot?
Pretty cool that you managed to pull off Tommys' special and score 400g for those jumps. Did not think that it was possible this early in the game. Glad I'm wrong. :)
