Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4000
Do any TASes of this game exist? The mechanics are simple - it's a shmup with two colours of enemies, bullets and your ship can flip from white (absorb white projectiles, fires white bullets that deal double damage to black enemies) and black (the opposite) as you please. Also when absorbing bullets, you fill up a gauge that can be depleted to fire powerful homing shots of your current colour at nearby enemies. The main categories that would be most interesting as a TAS are: 2p, Hard, maximum score 2p, Hard, dot eater (a special rank for killing no enemies. The main draw to this category is timing out the 3rd stage of the chapter 5 boss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_m0FKZ5nc#t=4m05s ) What makes maximum score interesting in this game is the scoring system - you increment a 'chain' by killing three enemies of the same colour. Consecutive 'chain's give you doubling points - 100, 200, 400, 800... until 25,600, where it stays (9th and beyond chains). If you kill a wrong coloured enemy by mistake, you have to start again from chain 0. Many of the levels have a section which will spawn more enemies the more you can kill them, so the potential for increasing your chain higher is always there. Plus, you gain points whenever you absorb enemy fighter, so mopping up enemy fire and letting enemies stick around instead of blowing them up immediately is incentivized. I think that for TAS, having the second player around to absorb bullets the first player is out of position to absorb, and to get some extra chains that would require player 1 to move fast, will make up for the disadvantage of having to increment two chains to chain 9 not just one and allow for a combined higher score than a 1p TAS would. What makes hard, dot eater interesting is that it has never been done deathless to my knowledge. Doing a 2p TAS of this on top of it could let you play around with two strategies at once - one ship doing ridiculously dangerous dodges, the other ship showing lazy, safe strats and how to move as little as possible. (That is, unless you want to make it a maximum score dot eater - then both ships have to wipe up every bullet in existence!) There are a lot of excellent real time play videos of this game - just go on youtube, search for ikaruga and you'll see 1p high scores, one guy who can do 2 players by himself, dot eater playthroughs, etc. The standard of play for RTA in this game is extremely high. I will keep track of leaderboards in this post: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=366417#366417
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Joined: 10/30/2011
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Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Damn I would LOVE to watch a TAS of this game, it's so much fun to watch RTAs of it!
AzumaK
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This could be extremely interesting in the hands of a skilled TASer... Back when I had it on Dreamcast, I was able to clear Hard mode with no continues at my best. A Dot Eater run would be awesome as well...
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Would a Dot Eater run show anything that a real-time running wouldn't? Since the game would (presumably) not be expedited without firing shots, what's the goal? Highest score?
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Presumably Dot Eater shows more of the boss patterns, though given this is a scrolling shmup (and thus has fairly strict limits on the player's ability to output damage) I would expect most boss HP values are set to run through their entire patterns before they die anyway. The actual levels will be more difficult though, since every enemy is allowed to perform their full attack instead of dying before they get the chance.
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Patashu
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Posts: 4000
TheReflexWonder wrote:
Would a Dot Eater run show anything that a real-time running wouldn't? Since the game would (presumably) not be expedited without firing shots, what's the goal? Highest score?
The main attraction of Dot Eater, Hard is that you time out the stage 5 phase 3 boss. The stage 5 phase 3 boss fires faster the longer you fight it without dying or killing it. And faster... And faster... And faster!!! Watch the linked video in the OP if you want to get a taste for how hard it gets ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_m0FKZ5nc#t=4m05s ). I've never seen anyone time it out without dying once. And yeah, the goal would be highest score 1p, highest score 2p or playaround 2p. You gain points for absorbing bullets.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Patashu
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Posts: 4000
Leaderboards (to the best of my knowledge). If you know of a score (hopefully with video!) better than any of these please link it! 1p, Hard Chapter 1: unrecorded 4137000 http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/scoreboard/index.php?mode=0&diff=2&section=1 , recorded 4109620 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPhNgG6VE98&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B&index=6 Chapter 2: unrecorded 6106670 http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/scoreboard/index.php?mode=0&diff=2&section=2 , 6039690 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFXb8B1sEDg&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B&index=7 Chapter 3: unrecorded 7432100 http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/scoreboard/index.php?mode=0&diff=2&section=3 , 6786550 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej52XrsHkR4&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B Chapter 4: unrecorded 7526320 http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/scoreboard/index.php?mode=0&diff=2&section=4 , 7398290 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgU4VzyqHEQ&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B Chapter 5: unrecorded 6369800 http://www.ikaruga.co.uk/scoreboard/index.php?mode=0&diff=2&section=5 , 6206440 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Om3g8MSt0&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B 1p, Hard, Dot Eater Chapter 1: 296300 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6ZqRXqxibs&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B Chapter 2: 385800 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWtQ42YiaF8&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B Chapter 3: 653100 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKL_kS5Smys&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B Chapter 4: 386700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6IBoGpYT_E&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B Chapter 5: 2025400 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_m0FKZ5nc&list=PL005E9F46D36B4D6B 2p, Hard Chapter 1: 4849470 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwOhM6imMjM&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3&index=6 Chapter 2: 6617590 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRWpnz1Ru98&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 Chapter 3: 7301840 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH3mlwnEIR4&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 Chapter 4: 7861370 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZY-DxeXgM&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 Chapter 5: 7018320 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KIaaopA1IQ&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 2p, Hard, Dot Eater Chapter 1: 327300 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxKBu5O5s1k&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 Chapter 2: 534500 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfNYVaXMv0A&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 Chapter 3: 537500 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvZck2WSmTA&list=PLCEE4C847342EBEF3 Chapter 4: Has not been completed Chapter 5: Has not been completed Also, an idea for an April Fools TAS - minimum score, bad ending ^^
The dead last player clearly had one goal in mind - to be the very last player on the list - with only 10 points. It appears others have tried to get the lowest score on the board, but many failed with 20 points. So far, only two people know the secret to getting a game over with only 10 points (something I can't figure out myself).
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4000
Check THIS out! Ikaruga is coming to Steam 2014 February 19th: http://store.steampowered.com/app/253750/
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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Patashu wrote:
The dead last player clearly had one goal in mind - to be the very last player on the list - with only 10 points. It appears others have tried to get the lowest score on the board, but many failed with 20 points. So far, only two people know the secret to getting a game over with only 10 points (something I can't figure out myself).
Wait, if they don't leak it out, how does anyone prove that they didn't cheated?
Joined: 5/24/2004
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Patashu wrote: The dead last player clearly had one goal in mind - to be the very last player on the list - with only 10 points. It appears others have tried to get the lowest score on the board, but many failed with 20 points. So far, only two people know the secret to getting a game over with only 10 points (something I can't figure out myself). Wait, if they don't leak it out, how does anyone prove that they didn't cheated?
I was involved in creating ikaruga.co.uk and cracking the Gamecube's netranking code system for Ikaruga. The full game scores required the code provided after the credits to be listed on the site. We had to generate many 10 point scores when we were working on cracking it, so the score is indeed legitimate. It's not really a secret: when you tap fire you see a single shot, but it's really two shots overlapping one another. Thus in order to score 10 points, you have to be firing a stream of double shots and be able to graze an enemy with only one half of the double shot stream. It's not too difficult.
keylie
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Here is a test of the first stage on 1p hard mode, until the 6 bonus rows before the boss. I forgot while doing it that you earn points by shooting at ennemis, so I actually loose points because of that. Link to video
Patashu
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Compared to the best RTA video I see: 1000 points ahead 28 seconds in. 1900 points ahead 48 seconds in. 7600 points ahead 60 seconds in. 31600 ahead 1:28 in. 55200 ahead when your video ends. Promising - looks like there's tons of points to gain just from absorbing bullets better (and it'll get even better whenever TAS gets a bigger chain RTA can't) :) And if you say you can get even more points ahead - awesome :D EDIT: Do you mean like, if you shoot an enemy until it's almost dead, then use homing missiles, you get more points than if you only did one or the other?
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
keylie
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Patashu wrote:
EDIT: Do you mean like, if you shoot an enemy until it's almost dead, then use homing missiles, you get more points than if you only did one or the other?
That's it.
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Here is a test of the first stage on 1p hard mode, until the 6 bonus rows before the boss.
That was amazing! Keep it up.
Joined: 8/9/2004
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Yes keep up the good work! I love the way you attacked the chain at the 1:35 that was magical.
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One thing to keep in mind when doing a TAS of this game is that nobody has been able to complete the entire game with 33 million points stacked up by the time life extended bonus scores are payed out. using normal top scores as an example 4300000 6353580 - 10653580 7951960 - 18605540 7826180 - 26431720 5902540 - 32334260 We'll need to scrounge up an additional 700k in points to get the life extend for 33 million points. if we can do that we're guaranteed an additional 500,000 point bonus for each life which would bring the total score to the theoretical maximum points for the game of 37.5 million... which WIZ mentioned years ago that 37 million points would be the theoretical maximum. So it would be pretty rad to actually pull it off.
keylie
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Spoiler of the upcoming stage 1 WIP: 144 chains! (afaik nobody achieved more than 138 chains unassisted). I spent about 10 hours on the last bonus enemies :(
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keylie wrote:
Spoiler of the upcoming stage 1 WIP: 144 chains! (afaik nobody achieved more than 138 chains unassisted). I spent about 10 hours on the last bonus enemies :(
Wow, congrats! Can't wait to see the video of your chapter 1. :)
Patashu
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keylie wrote:
Spoiler of the upcoming stage 1 WIP: 144 chains! (afaik nobody achieved more than 138 chains unassisted). I spent about 10 hours on the last bonus enemies :(
Excite!
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
keylie
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Here is stage 1: Link to video Andypro, do you know if by chance the content of the ikaruga.co.uk strategy forum is still available somewhere?
Patashu
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keylie wrote:
Here is stage 1: Link to video Andypro, do you know if by chance the content of the ikaruga.co.uk strategy forum is still available somewhere?
Any reason why you chip the enemies at 1:07 before homing shotting them but not the ones at 1:00? This is really awesome!
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
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Keylie, If you want me to do your encodings, please PM me and Ill be glad to :)
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fantastic job!
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Link to video Still no Audio, WIP by Keylie
Patashu
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Posts: 4000
Damn the opening to chapter 2 looks so cool :D
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu