Since my 1st project (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) has emulator issues, I thought I should give a try for another Indiana Jones game pulled from my SDARunsWithoutAPublishedTAS list.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: FCEUX 2.1.6 interim svn2267 and AnS' great TASEdit
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses programming errors
  • The actual rerecord count is around 40000. Earlier TASEditors didn't made track of that.

Comments

When I completed my 1st WIP, Randil pointed out obvious mistakes. His WIP motivated me to learn the NES assembly and debug the RNG. If you want more details, check out the thread or the game resource page I wrote.
Also this TAS based on Randil's WIP that I optimized really good.
Regarding the game, there's an awful "4 frame rule". The game polls input at every frame, but the actions only "processed" if it's on the 4th frame.
The biggest challenge for this game was getting the best Holy Grail layout. There's 9 layout which ends on 6 different tiles. The fastest one needs only 4 sideways and ends on a bird. For this, you need 87, 116 or 164 RNG calls. These are the results of my lua scripts.
However, RNG cycles depends on which enemy you kill, how enemies you killed, what's your route in stage 2 and your health (cycles the RNG if you lose 66% of your health). That's why I have to go back and re-enter the last door at stage 2 to get the correct 116 RNG calls. It's impossible to get "only" 87 calls, or getting 164 RNG calls without killing both 3 guys at stage 2 (which results in a slower completion time. The closest one I had always (with faster time) was 163 calls. What a pity). The only possible improvement should be somehow get up with a clever idea that I never thought of, which I don't think it exists. I tried MANY things.
Randil's comments Back in 2010 (I think), after having watched the run on this game on SDA, I decided to make a TAS of this game, just for fun. The TASing went smoothly (the first level probably took the longest to make) until I reached the final level - I couldn't get a good route no matter no matter how much I tried. I speculated that the route you get is decided when you start the game, but without the motivation to analyze the game code, I abandoned the project.
In September this year, MESHUGGAH announced that he was working on this game. I posted my movie and my RAM addresses and wished him good luck with his run. It turned out that a lot of the input and findings I made for my run was used in this run, so I was put as co-author.
I think this is a short and nice TAS, and I hope you will enjoy watching it. }}

Stage by stage comments

The title screen

This is where luck manipulation starts. Starting the game at every 4th frames (I start the game as fast as possible: 0th frame) spawns the 1st enemy near to the ladder of stage 1.

Stage 1 - Cross of Coronado

I made use of the "bouncing off from walls kick", "very fast kill at doors" and "stopping as fast as possible".

Stage 2 - Find Dad

This route is faster than Randil's and my old WIP's original route. As earlier mentioned, I have to go back and re-enter the last door to get the exact 116 RNG calls.

Stage 3 - Find Marcus

Randil made a very good effort on this place too, however I found a rather good trick to eliminate the top enemies as fast as I can. Notice that enemy spawns depends on where are you at the exact moment the game spawns an enemy.

Stage 4 - Getting the Holy Grail

The result of luck manipulation. This is the fastest map ending with the fastest tile. I added a variation of moving left for entertainment purposes. It doesn't changes completion time. The cup is always at the same place, it can't be manipulated.

Other comments

I think the game is fast enough now, much faster then the SDA run. If you have any suggestions about adding more entertainment, feel free to say and I will hex edit in.
See you until my next TAS =)

Baxter: Well-done TAS. Accepting!

TASVideoAgent
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Encoding HD. Also I'll upload a lossless dump if any SD encoder wishes. Edit: I'll stream simple encode yet, will wait for possible movie editing. If it won't be edited, I'll do HD.
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.
adelikat
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Nicely done sir! Yes vote.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
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feos wrote:
will wait for possible movie editing. If it won't be edited, I'll do HD.
Since I couldn't find any better strategies to get the faster luck manipulation (spent many days just for this), the only thing what I could (but don't plan) is to implement a bit of entertainment. There's a really few spots where I could do anything which doesn't slows me through the way. So movie editing depends on the audience/viewers vote/notes.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Warepire
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Excellent run, yes vote.
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Very nice run! And thanks for the YouTube encode, feos! Voting Yes.
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What a horrible game. And expensive too. Yes vote.
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mklip2001
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Impressive manipulation for a really clumsy-looking game. Indy's running stride looks really ridiculous. This makes level 1, in particular, look fairly imprecise, but it doesn't seem like the game allows better control. I guess this is too short to be boring, but I'm not sure it's really that entertaining either (especially when the last level is just a luck-manipulated puzzle that lasts about 1/3 of the movie length!). I'm not sure whether I'm voting Yes or Meh yet.
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.
MESHUGGAH
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mklip2001 wrote:
Impressive manipulation for a really clumsy-looking game. Indy's running stride looks really ridiculous. This makes level 1, in particular, look fairly imprecise, but it doesn't seem like the game allows better control. I guess this is too short to be boring, but I'm not sure it's really that entertaining either (especially when the last level is just a luck-manipulated puzzle that lasts about 1/3 of the movie length!). I'm not sure whether I'm voting Yes or Meh yet.
I know what you are saying. Level 1 is actually 118 frames faster than Randil's original WIP, I optimized it by performing kills as fast as possible, better positioning, better movement, slight route change and "killing more enemy on the way instead of hunting them down at the final door". Regarding control... well, this game doesn't have it. If you hold L then hold U (for example moving up the ladder) you will still go to left if you didn't switched at 4th frame. Also you have to stop your movement to go up on a ladder. Now combining these just for the "ladder" scenario: you need a good position to be able to use the ladder -> this needs a correct series of D's in a row to stop on the top of the ladder -> you have to time this perfectly, otherwise you will duck on the top of the ladder. Regarding entertainment: I forgot that I did some "far" kills as much as I could (without wasting any frame) on stage 1. Not to mention the stage 3 kick madness. edit: for those who didn't know this game: enemies need many-many kicks and punches to die. There's 3 techniques which does instakill: 1. running kick 2. whipping 3. spawnkill. That's why I used a lot of running kicks when I had to move along the way, and use whipping when I have to hold my position. The stage 3 kicking madness is actually "spawnkills" with rather crazy visuals (Indiana is nowhere to the enemy)
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Wait a second... In Latin, "JEHOVA" begins with an "I"!
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
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Ferret Warlord wrote:
In Latin, "JEHOVA" begins with an "I"!
I think that's just how the design of the letter J looks in Latin.
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Voting yes. I remember attempting to play this game somewhat recently, and the controls are awful. Nice to see Indy give an ass kicking despite the technical difficulties. My first thought when you got to the stones was 'JEHOVA' starts with an 'I'. Looks like the developers failed to pay attention when (if?) they watched the movie.
Post subject: Movie published
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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. ---- [1915] NES Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Taito) by MESHUGGAH & Randil in 02:57.56