Judging can be a dangerous thing. As a judge, Its important to not just claim a movie looks sloppy, or has a low re-record count, even if it may seem obvious. So, judges often have to test TASing the game. However, this leads to a problem - What if the game makes for a fun TAS to do? You have a new project on your plate.
Mendel Palace is a result of that process.
  • Uses 2 players
  • Flips Tiles
  • Manipulates enemies
  • No deaths
Mendel Palace is an Action-Puzzle game. When playing in real-time, it becomes more action than puzzle, and when TASing, it becomes more puzzle than action. The plot of the game revolves around 'Bon-Bon' trying to save his girlfriend 'Candy' from a dreamworld where her own dolls have taken her captive. There are 8 sub-worlds, each consisting of a different type of doll, and then 20 end levels in Mendel Palace. The key is to flip tiles that push the enemies (dolls) into walls or blocks, or reveal special tiles. From Wikipedia:
  • Normal floor tiles that can be walked over or flipped.
  • Star tiles can be collected by stepping over them. Collecting 100 stars earns the player an [extra life]. Collecting every star tile in a room will grant the player a bonus.
  • Bonus roulette tiles.
  • Shockwave tiles. This tile depicts a wave in one or more cardinal directions. When this tile is activated by stepping on it, it will flip over all tiles in that direction.
  • Sun tiles. Activating this tile by walking over it will cause every other tile in the room to be flipped, usually defeating all enemies and clearing the stage.
  • Moon tiles. Touching this tile will start a "bonus stage" where all floor tiles are replaced with collectible stars.
  • Spinner tiles. This tile will shoot the player off in a particular direction, breaking blocks and destroying enemies that he touches.
  • Impassible block tiles cannot be walked over by the player. These can be flipped to hide them and allow the player to pass.
  • Bolted metal tile. Once this tile is revealed, it can no longer be flipped.
  • Glowing portal tile. Once revealed, it will spawn a new enemy doll unless it is quickly flipped again.
The worlds can be done in any order - I followed TwistedEye, and went clockwise, as opposed to counterclockwise. No abilities are gained, so there is really no difference. Also, this movie is 511 frames faster than TwistedEye's WIP.

Moko-Moko

This is by far the easiest of the worlds. Every round has a sun tile, and thus one player makes a beeline for that tile, while the other handles the furthest doll. The dolls have the ability to split - however, this being a TAS, that never happens.

Dragon

Dragon dolls hop, which causes a problem for Sun tiles, as they can only be pushed when they have landed. Thus, grabbing a sun tile requires manipulation and timing, so all Dragons are hit on the ground.

Vinci

This doll draws on the ground, creating a ghost doll in the process. It is the only doll with a secondary death method - if all tiles are unavailable, All Vinci's die automatically. However, it is much, much faster to simply push them against walls.

Toby

Brown Toby Dolls can be tricked into not jumping by turning towards them and starting the tile shift immediately. However, the Red Toby dolls jump almost immediately, hence needing to use the projectile ability to kill them faster.

Mira

This doll can be a real pain. She only moves when your character moves, and shifts tiles with your character. However, this world goes relatively fast - when I re-encounter Mira in Mendel Palace, it is much more painful.

Wasser

Wasser Dolls swim across the screen, and are invulnerable on the edges. most of the time, they simply require waiting. However, I think my solution to round 5 was pretty clever - using the swim feature to flip the spawn tiles.

Tako

This doll is supposed to be a male. Uh. yeah. Anyway, a very simple world, as it just requires coordination and timing.

Sumo

This doll bounces when shifted, and can send a shockwave of tiles. I really enjoyed that I could use this to manipulate one Sumo doll to kill another. This starts with the purple Sumo Dolls

Mendel Palace (Ground)

The first 8 rounds are repeats of the first 8 doll types. Round 9 is a boss fight, and Round 10 is a cut-scene. Sadly, while these levels were supposed to be far more difficult, they turned out simplistic, with the exception of round 8. Round 8 was killer to optimize, as only 3 tiles can be flipped! Also, I believe the bosses are supposed to be evil 'Bon-Bon' and evil 'Candy'

Mendel Palace (Sky)

A new ninja-monk-style doll (no name was given in the manual), which can punch tiles flipped. Unlike the other mendel palace, these enemies pose a much harder challenge. Additionally, almost every level contains numerous hidden spawn tiles. Round 8 was especially hard to manipulate, as the monk dolls wanted to flip tiles,and every tile is a stack of 6 spawn tiles. Thus, I only flip 1 tile space per character. Also, the green 'Bon-Bon' makes out with the final Boss. WTF?!??

Suggested Screenshot:

(Click for old skool Nintendo funny.)

Actual Suggested Screenshot:


Flygon: Added YouTube module.
Mukki: Judging...
Mukki: Perhaps overuse of the Sun Tile in some rounds detracted from the entertainment value somewhat, but those that did not make use of it made for some very interesting puzzle action (Mendel Palace Ground Round 8 was my favourite and it's a shame that there was not more like that in the run). A good deal of the audience seems to agree. Accepting for publication.
Flygon: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2904: DarkKobold's NES Mendel Palace in 19:02.97
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
This is one of those games where the TAS is technically great, but the entertainment is a bit 'meh' after a while. I send a weak Yes vote. Creating point HD encode and standard SD encode now.
Joined: 11/9/2008
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can't wait for the encode! this game is a personal favorite of mine
__--N0ISE
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Location: Minnesota
Heh, that screenshot reminds me of Buu
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Joined: 3/27/2010
Posts: 270
Sticky wrote:
Heh, that screenshot reminds me of Buu
Same for me lol, I'm a big Dragon Ball fan :), and that was the first thing that came to mind, I'll have to watch the video of this :D Edit: YES :D!
Skilled player (1633)
Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
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Uh, I should note, that is my funny screenshot. Click it for some mendel palace amusement. I should put up a real one, so there isn't confusion.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Twisted_Eye
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Ahh yes, the clone player accepts the evil clone princess as a prize, a delightful ending! Great run! A lot of really fun strategies, and I can see why my thought of "occasionally dying would reduce the repetitiveness!" could slow it down, too, with the idea of killing off the farthest-away-doll with P2 for example. A yes for you, and another etched off of the wishlist!
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Yes voted! and embark the SD encoding
[18:51] <scrimpy> Oh, nothing [18:51] <mmarks> oh [18:51] <Nach> I think scrimpy is just jealous of you mmarks
Joined: 11/4/2007
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mmarks wrote:
Yes voted! and embark the SD encoding
Uh... mmarks... my SD encoding is already uploading to Archive.org.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1234)
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Flygon wrote:
standard SD encode
In this ITT thread?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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Aha! Now were having action. The 2p epicness makes this run awesome enough for more than one Yes Vote from me. Really nice job DarkKobold.
mklip2001
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I didn't think this game would have that much potential. This proved me wrong. There was fairly good playaround with the two players in the breaks (I sort of liked seeing the bonus game come up but never get finished), and the technical quality was definitely there.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
sgrunt
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I'm completely unfamiliar with this game. Thus, it took me a while to figure out what was going on and what the point of the action is. After I figured it out, I kept expecting a jump in complexity which I never really saw take place. Perhaps there's more to the game than a TAS allows for, but it just doesn't feel like there's much to watch here other than what amount to route planning. I vote Meh.
Warepire
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I liked the technicality of the run very much but it wasn't very entertaining at all... Voted meh.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
I have to agree with sgrunt here. After watching the first world and a half or so, I jumped around a bit, hoping that later worlds would be more complex, but things never really improved enough to make the run entertaining to watch. Voting meh.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
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I can't tell what is supposed to be happening in the game.
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sgrunt wrote:
I kept expecting a jump in complexity which I never really saw take place. Perhaps there's more to the game than a TAS allows for, but it just doesn't feel like there's much to watch here other than what amount to route planning.
That is the unfortunate part - Most of the TAS aspect is invisible unless you are familiar with the game - take for example round 8 of the last level - Regular Play versus TAS The chaos that level normally causes is completely avoided. While I doubt this would change your vote, I think it is worth noting that the game gets more complex (for some levels), the TAS avoids this complexity with enemy manipulation and timing.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1673] NES Mendel Palace "2 players" by DarkKobold in 19:02.97