Joined: 11/20/2004
Posts: 236
Location: United States
Eh, just a thought. Would there be any interest whatsoever in grabbing a copy of Nintendo World Championship 1990 and busting through the three games in it(Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris) via tool-assisted emulation and all that? I'd like to see someone actually be able to trip that 1,000,000-digit on the counter, for one. Or at the very least, buzz through the game as a blistering pace. That's probably just me, though. I'd do it myself, but I don't really feel like putting the time and effort into it.
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
Sounds remotely interesting. I remember playing in this, I did pretty well until they put me up on the big screen. Anyway, even if the rom was available, I don't think it would be that interesting. For one thing, the time is set, so it's a score-attack, not a timeattack. However, due to the scoring, most of the points are earned in Tetris, so the first two sections are time-driven. Here's how it would look:
-Mario runs around and gets the necessary coins
-The Rad Racer course run through perfectly
-Tetris might not be possible to do as well as the run on this site if there is no pause (hence no luck manipulation). But the speed is lower so it would probably be possible to plan it out to only get tetrises.
I already thought of that earlier and relized that FCEU or FAMTASIA doesn´t support time dipswitches (use to set the time limit) thats why you have to use nestopia and thats not a re-recording emulator :)
you need to hit start on controller 2
actually there is a "Trick" to getting a higher score.
spend alot of time in smb1, go to 3-2 or 3-1 and rack up massive amounts of points using the turtle stomp trick.
this was done at the real nwc tournament (it got me to the semi finals till they "modified" the rules
initialy you didn't have to play all 3 games, till that technique was found
(I modified it a bit and went to 5-1 directly from 1-2)
but by the offical rules you had to finish rad racer AND place at least one block in tetris.
still it would be a very interesting run to see (especially if the better time attackers competed to get the best possible score (with following the rules and using the same time limit)
It's been discussed, but no one's really done much with this. I think this is the third thread on this?
Aw hell, maybe someone should just do a run of this to make people shush about it. I dunno, just get to Tetris the fastest and make the biggest score as possible. I don't know how it'll work.
One of the biggest reasons why this haven't been done yet is that Famtasia couldn't play the rom. Now that we have some better emulators, somebody should give it a try.
you need to hit start on controller 2
actually there is a "Trick" to getting a higher score.
spend alot of time in smb1, go to 3-2 or 3-1 and rack up massive amounts of points using the turtle stomp trick.
this was done at the real nwc tournament (it got me to the semi finals till they "modified" the rules
initialy you didn't have to play all 3 games, till that technique was found
(I modified it a bit and went to 5-1 directly from 1-2)
but by the offical rules you had to finish rad racer AND place at least one block in tetris.
still it would be a very interesting run to see (especially if the better time attackers competed to get the best possible score (with following the rules and using the same time limit)
I've been dying to see an NWC speedrun (well, it's actually a score run...the actual competition time was set via the 4 jumper switches on the cart to about 6:21...I think switch 3 had to be up and all others down...or vice versa).
Anyway, the best players out there (mainly those who have owned the cart since the end of the competition) can regularly get into the 4 million range for a final score. Some folks like Thor Aackerlund and Rich Ambler, iirc got in the 5 mil range often.
Here's a few pointers: I believe there's a way to crash right at the end of Rad Racer to save a few seconds.
In Tetris, believe it or not, there is only about 4 distinct order patterns of blocks, unlike the actual released standalone version of Tetris. Using this knowledge you can completely plan ahead for the block pattern you lay out.
DO NOT use the SMB stomp trick on SMB. Almost your entire score is made in Tetris, since the Tetris score is worth 25x, Rad Racer, 10x, and SMB 1x. See the problem? Using the SMB stomp trick, the best players can usually only get in the 900k range, tops. Use death to your advantage to get the 50 coins.
Originally, people in the competition were doing quite well with the stomp trick, and I think it was Howard Phillips himself that tried this first in his own testing of the game....I believe he did mention it as some point, though he knew it was sort of a cheat, but they accepted it in the competition. There was originally no "rules" for playing the competition, though they later made a lone rule that you must actually play all three games...that was it. You basically had to make it through Rad Racer or be disqualified...though an infant could do that.
Then, people like Thor Aackerlund came along, and had his dad videotape his competition tryouts he attended. He studied these tapes hard and discovered the Tetris patterns. He also attended several cities. On top of natural gaming talent, that's why he won. Smart guy.
Feel free to contact me for anything on this...I've done lots of interviews with the finalists and staff of the event. Make sure any time attack is set to official competition time. I'm working on a book about the NWC and similar events (though mainly the NWC), so seeign a time attack on this would be really cool...it'd be nice to see the boundaries of what is possible on this game. Perhaps some SMB , Rad Racer and Tetris speedrun authors could collaborate?
-Rob
Alright, I have trouble getting into tetris with a really good chunk amount of time left, when I play it non TAS.
Does anyone have tips for this game? I want to make a TAS run for it, but I cant think how to get to Tetris with atleast 3 minutes to attempt to get a close to max score on it.
Edit:Should of been clear. This is how the game works.
You have 6:15-6:27 depending on the time switch of the cart to rack up the highest score possible.
In SMB: You have to get 50 coins to progress to Rad racer. Your score will be multplied by x1 in SMB.
Rad Racer - After a 20-second delay of screens congratulating you on completing the SMB portion, it's off to Rad Racer. Maintaining a speed of over 200 km/h is the advice given by Phillips. Completing this event as soon as possible, which sends your car into a 'power slide,' is essential because it takes well over 2 minutes to finish the race. Points scored in Rad Racer are multiplied by ten during the final tally.
Tetris - This is where all the big points are earned - your score on this game is multiplied by 25. Thus, the time you saved by completing SMB and Rad Racer can pay off quickly here. On average, though, players get the same amount of time to play Tetris as they did in Rad Racer. Those familiar with this game know that at times Tetris can be more of a game of luck than skill. Because of the 25-fold increase in points, high scorers at the Dallas NWC were taking big chances - building up dangerously high structures in the hopes that a 4x1 piece would fall soon, enabling them to fill four lines at once for huge amounts of points.
SAw it. There are 4 exact patterns in the game. If only someone could tell me how to use the hex editer so I can trace exactly what pieces are coming next...
edit:and an optimal path on SMB would be nice.
"There are 4 exact patterns in the game."
If you mean there's four distinct sequences of tetrominoes the game will give a player, then no, you're wrong.
http://zenixstudios.com/f/digimonsaversisrlygood79c.zip
Back in the Nintendo World Championships 1990, the patterns for Tetris were predetermined (aka NOT RANDOMIZED). So, I've attached the proper emulator and savestates for you to try this tourney game for yourself.
You'll have to configure the controls for yourself since I used my joystick.
You may use as many save states as you like. To load the save states of the patterns I've found, press 1, 2, or 3 on your keyboard.
The ultimate goal here is: Get 4 million + .
If you're interested more about the old event (NWC 1990), try a Google search. You'll find everything you need to learn about this shit.
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
Was messing around with this game earlier today, and he might be right. There does seem to be some sort of emulation issue with the stop time in FCE and the rom version I have. Suck if this kills the possability of making a run of this game.
