I'm currently using a (USA) ROM, but I'm about to trash it and grab a [!], first of all. I think it's probably just a renamed one, but better safe than sorry.
I've decided to do Gun Nac, because there isn't currently one on the site, and it's a really solid NES game. Of course, it is a Rail Shooter, so there's little to be done about speeding it up, other than killing bosses. Because of that, I don't think "Aims for Speed" will be a worthy goal.
Instead, I want to aim for:
-- Highest Possible Score; leaving nothing alive
-- No Misses (Obviously)
-- Fastest time within those constraints
This video is not--I repeat: NOT--to be truly indicative of the final product. It's a test run, to gauge feedback and learn the game better. I found a quicker strategy for defeating the mid-level boss and am going to continue focusing my efforts in that this afternoon. This test run is sloppy and I do not deny that. The actual TAS will not be.
I also intend to have the ship "dance" to the music throughout, which limits all of my movements to the constraints of the percussion--7 short moves and one long move. I did this at one point in the video, just messing around, but I realized that it offered a lot more entertainment than I expected, so it's got to stay and be included more. Otherwise, those passages where there are no enemies on the screen will be unbearable.
I'm also considering not using any of the power-ups. I think that the opening, watching the shots be made with the single-fire standard weapon, will be more impressive than watching me just position myself correctly to kill everything with one shot. The power-ups also lead to a lot of what look like misses, because they get too powerful and too broad to take out single enemies, which made it look distinctly "un-TAS-like" to me.
For standard enemies, foregoing the power ups will make no difference, but they do make a huge difference with the bosses. The first mid-boss is about 5 seconds slower without the power-ups, but the end-stage boss takes a lot longer without them.
I started out thinking "Pacifist Run," but holy hell, was that boring to make and watch. There needs to be way more shit coming at the player to make that entertaining to view. Later stages have more shit coming at the player, but level one is boring as hell, and I doubt too many people would stick around to watch.
Anyway. Posting here for feedback, suggestions, ideas. Not so much "critique" in this case, because it really is just a test run, and I imagine it's sloppy enough to rile a few people--I apologize in advance. I just wanted to get feedback on the ideas and give a sample of their implementation before I spent a lot of time doing the TAS for a game that I do enjoy, but which lacks a lot of the depth that I've come to enjoy messing around with in TAS experiments.
I've done a great deal of experimenting with various games (Castlevania 2, Mega Man 3, Ultima: Exodus, even Casino Kid--the luck is too predetermined for that, and I didn't find any instances where I could get 100% wins) to improve and get a better feel of what's possible, what can be exploited, etc. It's interesting that, like every other new member to this site, my very first attempt was a SMB one (though, thankfully, not a non-noteworthy hack), though I've been stalking the site and forums long enough to know that HappyLee pretty much has SMB on lockdown (which isn't to say other people can't do it, obviously, but that he is the most knowledgeable when it comes to TASing the game, so there's no chance a noob is going to dethrone his movie).
I'm sorry for the Wall of Text. I do have that tendency.
Link to video[/video]
I guess I should actually prioritize things. The goals:
1. Leave nothing alive. Destroy everything. No misses. Probably only the default weapon.
2. Dance throughout, unless doing so would make it impossible to destroy something.
3. Forego the use of Bombs whenever possible. At times, they may be required; I can't say for certain yet.
Edit: I've changed the video; please disregard the original. I made the noob mistake of not setting the difficulty to its highest setting. It's now abundantly clear that the power-ups are necessary to kill all the enemies that appear.
Abandoning this. The game is not well-suited for TASing, because the only power-up worth a damn is #3, which consists pretty much of "holding the B button while it kills everything." Although "next frame" playing allows the use of powered up weapons a second time before the cooldown, every enemy has invincibility frames--sometimes up to half a second--and the only benefit is rapidly killing one enemy behind another. Unfortunately, most powered-up weapons also continue going after they kill an enemy. So... there's no reason to TAS this. It would be too similar to the live score runs.
However, it was not a total waste. Assuming I'm not talking into an empty hallway (which itself is a strong indicator that there's no interest in the game), I did learn to use TASEditor to more easily segment the movies--previously, I was just Playing the Movie From Beginning and pausing on the last frame to resume, and that was kinda tedious. It also didn't allow me to go back and clean up sections. So that's nice. I wish I could get BizHawk to work, because the idea of having ONE emulator to play all the systems I play is tempting, even without the extra tools. Might consider looking into that Ultima: Exodus run again, considering there's still no word on the cancelled submission.
Seems I stumbled across TASing too late. There's not really much left to do...
Too bad you're abandoning this. In case you have any WIP movie (or anything else really) you want to share, why not upload it to Wiki: userfiles/document it here, so if someone comes along to pick this up, there's something to go on from (or at least examine).
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism.
Seems I stumbled across TASing too late. There's not really much left to do...
There are still games out there that could make good first TASes, especially Atari 2600 and 7800 games (once you get BizHawk working), as they're short and simple. I'm sure there are still NES titles that would look good TASed too, but it might be easier to find a good game if you branch out to other consoles; we have more NES publications than we do for any other platform.
Well, I'll do this, then. I'll do three more runs of the first half of level 1:
1. Normal/Intermediate, with the basic weapon--no upgrades, aiming for highest score. Difficulty 3 may be possible with the default weapon, but Hard/Expert is not. Many enemies require 8-9 shots to kill on Expert, and their 4-8 frames of invincibility (standard on nearly every enemy, though there's a lot of variation--the freakin' carrots appear to have the longest) make it impossible to get that many shots in on everything before they begin scrolling off screen.
2. Hard/Expert, with #3. Cheap and ugly, but exceedingly effective. I'm sure that there's something that affects the movement of #3's projectiles, but I haven't looked into it because I have no interest in using #3: it amounts to "Hold B and move to win."
3. Hard/Expert, with my weapon of choice--#4. Actually, that's the one in the initial post, so I probably won't do that one again.
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I haven't yet done anything that should make its way into the final TAS. It's all been testing and exploring at this point: testing effectiveness, timing, how enemies spawn, etc.
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That's true that there's still stuff to do; it's just hard. That's fine. I like hard. I honestly do. And don't take this as whining, but I need a goal to actually work toward when working to improve, and taking on SMB or LOZ are very, very distant goals. It's clear that I need a massive array of knowledge and experience before I can take on any of those, and these other projects are how I'll acquire that. Also, I'm going to continue practicing and learning because I enjoy it, but it's very hard to find a medium-term goal to aim for. That's all that I meant.
Edit: The first part meant--after watching, if any of them seem worth continuing, I will gladly continue them. I just didn't see much value in it, since I could develop my skills/knowledge with other games that I was either already more experienced in or that I enjoyed more, and since it seems that there would be very little difference between the TAS and this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drz7YjYLkQU
In regard to BizHawk, I almost posted in its forum about it earlier, because I'm getting dll errors whenever I try to open a ROM, but decided against it for the time being.
I'm really sorry for the walls of text...
I agree that Gun.Nac isn't very TAS-friendly (nice game for its time though). If you feel the game doesn't provide you enough freedom of expression to differentiate your TAS from a well-done unassisted run, but you like the genre, you can always look for another, perhaps a more modern/faster-paced game that haven't been done yet—and believe me, there are lots left.
Like, for instance, one of the most badass and TAS-friendly shmups on the NES is Recca. We haven't had any submissions for it yet, but there's definitely an audience interested in it, as well as a thread with WIPs and other info.
If you don't mind other platforms, some of the Parodius games (all having very decent SNES and PS1 ports) can become crazy hectic, allow great movement speed, and combined with the bell juggle mechanic so loved by Konami that allows for some breathtaking choreography.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
There's also SNES Super Aleste (Space Megaforce) which looks like this game's spiritual successor. No bell juggling, but you can shoot most powerups to turn them into bombs if you don't want to upgrade your weapon anymore.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
