Topic by josh_l.

Posted: 2/6/2005 8:47 PM
(Edited: 11/28/2005 2:12 AM)

Post subject: El Viento! THE RETURN

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

11/27/05: I'm currently working on an improved run of my El Viento movie Quick WIP Link: http://omake.studio-zoe.com/superhappy-elvientoWIP2.zip Covers Stages 1, 2, and all of 3 except for the boss. (This time for real) Time thus far is 3:53. Original time up to this point was 4:06. Kudos to Jyzero! I don't know what you did, but Gens didn't desynch once since I started work on this again! --- Original message for the now published version 1: --- Well, I'm finally making my first attempt at a serious, submission-quality run: El Viento for the Genesis. It's turning out good so far, but I've hit a wall of endless desynching. I've reached an area where it's desynched five times in a row, and I'm going to have to stop until I either find a way to fix things on my end, or wait for a newer version of Gens. First 2 1/3rd stages, and my CFG file: http://omake.studio-zoe.com/ElViento-superhappy.zip Do give it a look. It's incomplete but what's there is pretty entertaining. El Viento's a good game to do a run with because you get a dash ability that isn't really meant to be used throughout the game, and unlike the dash in games like Megaman, it can be done continuously! If anyone has a suggestion for a change in my configuration, let me know. If it turns out I have no choice but to wait for a new emulator, I'll do that too. ^^;

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 2/7/2005 3:33 AM

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Ouzo

Former player

Joined: 8/15/2004
Posts: 422
Location: Minnesota

Strange game...reminds me of Earnest Evans (made by same company, go figure). Well, if you find a way to fix the desynching, I'd happily watch it.

Posted: 2/7/2005 4:47 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

It a spinoff of Earnest Evans, actually =) Annette is his adopted daughter, or something like that, and he shows up in a cutscene. Earnest was kind of a cruddy game, but El Viento wasn't bad. It does have some wonky level design, but it's still pretty playable. Anyway.... Nothing I do works. =( I got the sound settings set to what everyone recommends, and I'm not seeing any indication of other factors which could cause problems. Yet everytime I struggle to get it to record properly, it only desynchs a second later. It's really frustrating 'cause this is the first run I've done which is turning out good, but on the other hand, I shouldn't be spending time on this kind of thing this month anyway. I'll just patiently await another version of Gens.

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 2/10/2005 5:45 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

Oh, for Christ's sake. I managed to make it to the middle of the fourth stage, and it was quite difficult to figure out a good strategy for that part of the level, but now when I try to replay the file, it keeps desynching at the third boss, when IT DIDN'T BEFORE. Talk about infuriating. Officially giving up until Genesis emulators are improved... For those who want to see the game up to the end of the third stage: http://omake.studio-zoe.com/ElViento-dammit.zip

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 2/10/2005 7:42 PM

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nitsuja

Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1300)

Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687

It's almost like the 16-bit re-recording emulators are sharing desync bugs with each other...

Posted: 2/10/2005 8:44 PM

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Ouzo

Former player

Joined: 8/15/2004
Posts: 422
Location: Minnesota

Hmm..Gens has always worked fine with me. Gens 9c has a tendency to having frames stick which becomes annoying so I am using Gens 9a again. But I've never had a desynch...

Posted: 2/11/2005 10:38 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

Yeah, I have no idea why it's being so tempermental. Either the emulator hates this game or it hates me. May be worth testing it out, so if anyone wants to try adding to the recording from where I left off, feel free. =| It stops right before a really annoying boss, though.. hahaha...

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 2/13/2005 6:54 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

josh l. wrote:

Officially giving up until Genesis emulators are improved...

...or not. I have work to do, yet I still can't stop going back to this. Aiiigh... I completed Level 4, and the rest of the run will be a little easier, since stages 5-7 are pretty short (the last level kinda sucks though ^^;) It'll be submitted eventually. I still don't know what's causing the desynching. I can't get it to stop. So I'll just be doing a bunch of redoing to get this video completed.

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 2/14/2005 1:22 AM

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Truncated

Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (969)

Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden

How about sound playback rate? Some games work better with 44100.

Posted: 4/15/2005 12:32 AM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

Hey guys. I'm starting on my second play through now. =) Stage 1. About 4-5 seconds faster than the previous version: http://omake.studio-zoe.com/ElVientoPARTTWO-SuperHappy.zip Will probably complete a stage a day or something like that. So far there is one intentional missed shot near the beginning of the movie where I fire shot to affect Annette's movement, so that she can duck under the first biker. She gets knocked back if I don't fire the shot. Not sure why, but that's how it is. The most noticeable improvements are with the midboss (the four cars) and the tank boss. I actually have to redo the last 3rd of the tank boss, though. It desynched toward the end. The boss still died, which is neat. Nevertheless, the desynching probably caused him to die a half-second slower than he should have, and I want THIS movie to be perfectly perfect. Dunno how many people are interested in this game, but I'm doing it. So there. =)

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 4/15/2005 2:06 AM

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mikwuyma

Joined: 12/20/2004
Posts: 226

Just wanted to say I'm interested in the game and I voted yes on your last run. I think the reason why it didn't get published had less to do with quality (I think it got all yes votes) and more to do with the obscurity of the game. I like what you have so far. The way you took down the cars this time was flawless, I can't wait to see more. Personally, I think this game is a great choice because of the high speed dashing. I know this isn't related but is there any chance you would try Alisa Dragoon after this game?

Posted: 4/15/2005 8:21 AM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

mikwuyma wrote:

Just wanted to say I'm interested in the game and I voted yes on your last run. I think the reason why it didn't get published had less to do with quality (I think it got all yes votes) and more to do with the obscurity of the game.

Bisqwit and co. seem to have little time on their hands these days. They've only been publishing Mario games and updates of existing runs lately. But they're nice enough to make all the unpublished movies viewable, so I can't complain. ^_^;

I know this isn't related but is there any chance you would try Alisa Dragoon after this game?

Heh... I remember that game. I dunno if I'd be able to do it, but it'd be interesting to see. --- I updated the WIP. I had free time to blow, and I went on to complete stage 2 and most of stage 3. The third boss is a major hurdle. Its nature makes it REALLY hard to beat it without wasting shots, but I'm going to attempt to do just that. In a while. I have a feeling just this one boss fight will take several hours. ^^; Unfortunately, while I did shave an additional 6-7 seconds off the run, there's nothing really noticeably more impressive in stages 2 and 3. Stage 2 was really a pain. I came across the dreaded problem of things not working in the second attempt the way they did in the first. I had to wait a bit longer at the odd "twisty plant bridge" thing than I did before, but maybe it's because I got there earlier. At the very least I made sure not to go through any section slower than before, but I ultimately couldn't shave off too much time. =| Stage 3 is a bit better, and I did find a better pattern to kill the dragon snake mid-bosses faster. These bosses give me the water spell, which unfortunately is the only way to get past the fire pillers behind them. The water spell is almost completely useless otherwise... in a time-attack anyway. ^^; EDIT: disregard all that. It seems my movie got damaged somehow. Jesus fucking shit Christ, I fucking hate Gens sometimes. =/ That's five fucking hours of work for nothing. Not planning to redo it anytime soon now.

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 4/15/2005 10:29 AM

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Truncated

Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (969)

Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden

MAKE BACKUPS damnit. Constantly and always. It is SO easy to mess up your movie by loading the wrong savestate.

Posted: 4/15/2005 5:08 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

That's not the problem. The problem is the movies of Stages 2 and 3 worked when I began them from save states, but not when I play the entire movie. The problem is Gens is a peice of shit, and I have to make it clear I haven't had a problem like this with FCEU, Snes9x, or even VBA which just had re-recording added a week ago. I'm not going to continue this until someone fixes it or makes a new Genesis emulator.

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 4/15/2005 6:21 PM

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OmnipotentEntity

He/Him

Player (36)

Joined: 9/11/2004
Posts: 2623

Oh, a desync, do you have your controller on 6 button mode?

Build a man a fire, warm him for a day, Set a man on fire, warm him for the rest of his life.

Posted: 4/16/2005 7:57 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

Arrgh. Trust me, after the first run through the game, I became fully aware of the problems with this emulator. So this time I only recorded 10-20 seconds of play at a time, stopped and started quite often, replayed the movies often, and backed up the movie file often. I did everything right this time, but I didn't count on the emulator finding a new way to fuck me, is all. I simply have no idea why this happened. Gens needs to be fixed, peroid. I'm not seeing any indication that this emulator is being worked on, though, so this run will probably never be finished. Alas. Yeesh.. been over a day and I'm still pissed about this.

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 11/28/2005 2:26 AM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

Hey guys. Gens is being nice to me now, so I'm ready to see if I can make a REALLY perfect time attack of this game again. =) WIP: http://omake.studio-zoe.com/superhappy-elvientoWIP2.zip Stage 1: There's an intentional missed shot near the beginning, which somehow affects the cyclist's movement, so I can duck under him. I am very impressed with my handling of the three mob cars this time around! Boss was optimized much better too. Stage 2: I managed to make this stage look better than the recording I lost, so maybe it was all for the best. While there are no seriously noticeable improvements over the previous run, it IS a few seconds faster, mostly due to a few less wasted jumps. Stage 3: I already had the strategy for most of this stage down pretty well the first time, but I did find a few better ways to do things and to shave a couple seconds off. Changing the order I go after the dragons did indeed optimize the fight significantly. I'm going to try to beat the Level 3 boss without ANY wasted shots. This may well be impossible, but I'm going to try! In the first run it took me 28 seconds to beat it, so if anything, I'll try to beat that time. Time so far is 3:53, where in the published run it's 4:06 at this point. Not bad, eh? There's a very slim chance of getting the total time of the run below 10 minutes. That would be pretty awesome. =3

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 11/28/2005 8:52 PM

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josh_l.

Player (101)

Joined: 3/25/2004
Posts: 189
Location: Austin

I made it to the end of level 4. The luck I was having with desynching has ended, I'm afraid, but I've been able to handle it this time. Stage 4 was the game's big hurdle, and it's more or less smooth sailing up until the exruciating final stage. 5608 rerecords so far.. about 20 seconds faster than my published run so far. The last half of the game was already pretty optimal in the published run, I'm not really expecting to beat the complete run by even 30 seconds, let alone get it below 10 minutes... but we'll see! I'll submit the completed run within the next few days. Probably won't bump this topic anymore until then, as I know this isn't really a widely known game and there isn't much for anybody to discuss. =)

http://girlyyy.com/ The El Viento TAS is the only decent thing I submitted here.

Posted: 10/10/2023 3:48 PM

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Meerkov

Active player (399)

Joined: 10/4/2015
Posts: 98

With modern technology we can do better. More precision in TAS STudio is attainable. The first screen is about ~17 seconds long. I was able to cut ~2 seconds off with more optimal movement (I didn't fully finish the level, just wanted to check if it was possible). Assuming the rest of the game is similarly suboptimal, a new run should come in around... 8 Minutes 19 seconds. Estimated available savings: 1 minute 20 seconds. New ideas: 1) Lag Management: Blowing up motorcycles etc causes a lot of lag. You can duck under the 1st motorcycle instead. In various areas the lag caused by explosions is noticeable. Jumping over enemies might be faster. 2) More carefully utilize jump/run in alternating fashion. The current movie is a little sloppy, and the speed boost is roughly 2x. 3) RNG manipulation on bosses - The box shuffling boss and slime boss seem like good candidates.