This is Windows game from 1995 by Ugly Dog Software.
The objective is to move across a field and clear all white tiles without dying (by enemies or by falling off), then getting to the goal tile to finish the level.
The shareware version has 10 levels. The registered version supposedly has 20 more levels. Unfortunately, information about the game on the internet is very sparse right now. In fact, there seems to be nothing but this Archive.org link (where you can download the game) which I recently found - hence why I'm now posting about it. The game company is not mentioned on the internet anywhere, either, btw.
This game, like I have the impression with other PC games from that era, seem to run only in 32-bit Windows, so I was forced to use Virtualbox to play it again.
Now I was planning on making a theoretical TAS by using input macros. Which made me think, why have I not heard about input macros in context with TASing before? Is it too unreliable?
I think if it works at least somewhat reliably, I would like to use them one level at a time and record videos that I can put together. One level would only take 3~10 seconds.
If someone can recommend me some input macro tool I can use under Windows XP or give me other advice, I would appreciate it.
I don't know much about macro scripting tools, but I've heard some runners use AHK.
http://www.autohotkey.com/
It apparently has its own language and allows to script input macros but I really know nothing about it.
I hope I kind of helped you
Friendly
PackSciences
Thanks pack. Someone else also recommended it to me so now I'm using it.
In fact I have already done a WIP.
And here the autohotkey script: Link.
Basicly I press "9" on the title screen and it goes. All sleep times have been tweaked to make the run sync. It seems the game is laggier when it "resets" - it runs smooth when it is closed and restarted fresh after every attempt at running the script. And about that, the script has currently only a very slim chance at syncing (maybe about 3%) so I'm thinking about splitting the run in two.
Link to video
solarplex: Thanks for this info. I think that would come in handy, but I have no experience how to use cheat engine and all that. That would require some serious work, I would believe, for such a little experiment I was doing. But I will keep it in mind for the future, definitely appreciated.
---
Btw, I remember from when I was a kid there was one more level at the end (with cannons) but seems like it isn't present in this version from archive.org. Or maybe they removed/added the cannons in the last level in this version (so there is a v1.0 shareware and v1.1 shareware - but this is just speculation, as I have absolutely no way of confirming this since there is no information on the internet).
Of course I would have loved to see the 20 registered levels, but it seems I will never get to see them in my life.
There is a trick in the game where you can press two directions to go diagonally (even when it should not be possible). The input has to be done at exactly the same time, but with the AHK script it doesn't work.
would make the game assume that you pressed right, and then down, thus you die. I have not been able to find a solution so I might forgo the trick.
Edit:
Nevermind, it seems to work with SendInput. I'm going to have to splice the levels though because I can't be bothered waiting 2 hours for the run to (not) sync.
Ok so there is an out of bounds glitch in this game. Basicly, the game does not kill you if you "fall" into the depth when there is no adjacent tile. This is achieved by pressing two directions to go diagonally (as I said before).
I'm about done with my experiment so I did not consider using this, but may be a timesaver.
(Oh also, if you go off screen a certain distance (12 steps or so), your ball is gone forever)
Here is my keyboard macro run
Link to video
I had to splice it because the desyncs were too frequent.
Levels 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 + 8 + 9 + 10.
I tried to run this in Hourglass and it seems to work but I have not tested beyond that.
It turned out I never released the AHK scripts for my video and I ended up deleting the .vdi they were stored on. I was able to retrieve some of the progress at least, in case anyone has need for them.
Level 1-6Level 7-8 and some of 9
Also, I made a game resource page here.
