The Combatribes for the SNES is a port of the arcade beat-em-up. This improves the current run by over 2 minutes.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.11.6
  • Beats the game as fast as possible.
  • Plays on Hardest Difficulty: Super (by enterring a passcode using buttons on player 2's controller)

Comments

I FINALLY got around to finishing this. I was surprised at how many improvements were available. Ram watch was critical here in keeping track of enemy health. Overall though optimization was just testing different approaches and keeping the winner. Unfortunately most of the little tricks are obscured by the constant bashing of enemies heads into the ground, but that is the fastest way so so be it.

Mechanics

I will list some common mechanics that are used in optimization:
- Bashing enemies heads into the ground is by far the best method to deal damage, combined with a charge attack that knocks them over. You have to be careful though, if you just run into an enemy it only does one damage.
- For levels 1-4, after you beat the boss, any remaining enemies are reduced to 1 HP, so you don't need to focus on them during the fight. This doesn't carry over into the re-fights though.
- Some enemies will spawn aggro'd to a certain player, even if the other player is much closer. So sometimes they will run right by you which is handy if you just started face planting an enemy.
- Hitting an enemy or boss with both players on the same frame will do the damage of both players.
- Enemy HP is from WRAM addresses 001798 to 0017A8
- You can manipulate enemy AI by performing actions on different frames. Naturally this means there are a huge number of potential strategies, but it also means you can usually get what you want in terms of enemy behaviour.
- Once you start running, the best way to stop is with a charge attack, even if it's just into the air, this is used pretty often.

Other comments

I'm really happy with how this came out. Dooty's WIP was invaluable in learning the game, so I leave him as co-author. Of course with a game like this there are bound to be improvements still to be had, but the amount of effort will only climb expontentially to achieve them, so I think the current result is a pretty good step up by itself.

Alyosha: Judging!
Samsara: I'm super happy this run exists for multiple reasons, but unfortunately it's still Combatribes and the voting seems to reflect that. It was a much more entertaining experience this time around, but... well, like I said, it's still Combatribes. Accepting as an improvement to the published movie, though, and congratulations on obsoleting all of 2004!


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15628
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5178: Alyosha, Dooty's SNES The Combatribes in 10:26.42
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2656)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6449
Location: The land down under.
Spikestuff: Encoding a Temp and Claiming this for Publication. TO NOTE: This is using hardest difficulty it's accessed by holding down buttons on controller 2. Link to video (Ayy. 30fps games.)
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Samsara
She/They
Senior Judge, Site Admin, Expert player (2241)
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
I... liked watching this? I don't know if it was the actual movie itself being far smoother and more entertaining or if I'm just glad the bullshit power abuse that got the current publication up on the site is finally going to be over, but nevertheless I actually thought it was a fun watch. Since there's bound to be confusion, yes it's me judging this. Using Alyosha's name is a reference to the previous submission. I only wish I could have accepted and published it instantly to complete the joke.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Experienced player (691)
Joined: 11/23/2013
Posts: 2239
Location: Guatemala
ALYOSHA YOU BEAUTIFUL MAN, I WOULD HUG YA IF I COULD, YOURE TRULY A HERO FOR DOING THIS (and dooty).
Here, my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/dekutony
Site Admin, Skilled player (1255)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg
Alyosha: Judging!
LOL
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Jules
Any
Skilled player (1173)
Joined: 7/13/2015
Posts: 102
Location: California
Wow, the last movie from 2004 finally taken down. o7
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3827)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2834
Location: US
Thanks for the temp encode Spikestuff. Also thanks for mentioning the hardest diffiuclty thing, I forgot to mention that, I'll add it to the comments.
JorWat25
He/Him
Player (18)
Joined: 1/15/2015
Posts: 79
Location: United Kingdom
RobynS wrote:
Wow, the last movie from 2004 finally taken down. o7
On to 2005, then!
Noxxa
They/Them
Moderator, Expert player (4128)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
JorWat25 wrote:
RobynS wrote:
Wow, the last movie from 2004 finally taken down. o7
On to 2005, then!
11 movies (currently) to go!
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
I mostly agree with Samsara here. Good improvement; the fighting feels a lot more fluid. The game still isn't that interesting to me, though I'm giving it a Meh. Part of this is also because you have fewer antics between the players at downtimes, and you never got to show off the move where you bash two enemies' heads together. On another note, I think I saw Bullova keel over or fall down on a couple occasions, but there was no damage shown on the lifebar. How does that work? Screenshot suggestion: the pose at the end of Stage 2.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3827)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2834
Location: US
The life bars only show the bottom ~200 health. The players start with closer to 300, so even though all hits do damage as normal, they don't show up on the life bars until they get below that point.
Joined: 3/3/2010
Posts: 87
I particularly like what you did with the downtime while waiting for screen transitions, particularly the fist-bump and the dance in the elevator. Kept me watching, even through the repetitive fights, just to see what you guys would make them do next.
Cooljay
He/Him
Active player (397)
Joined: 5/1/2012
Posts: 468
Location: Canada
I vote yes for quick spot cleaning with the Enemies' head. Quite an entertaining improvement over the former.
Joined: 3/11/2008
Posts: 583
Location: USA
eternaljwh wrote:
NESVideos Rules Joke wrote:
Only judges are allowed to submit runs of The Combatribes .
The movie was passable. The playaround bits were all amusing. Aside from that, the PCs wiped the floor with the mooks, repeatedly. Very repeatedly. Is character choice purely cosmetic?
(whoops, commented on the wrong The Combatribes movie...) edit: caveat, watched provided encode
Alyosha
He/Him
Editor, Emulator Coder, Expert player (3827)
Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2834
Location: US
The characters are not just cosmetically different. Bullova is the strongest but slowest Berserker is middle of the road Blitz is weakest and fastest These differences are actually pretty important and have to be taken into account throughout the run. To be honest, I'm not sure if there is a more optimal combination then Bullova and Berserker. Picking the highest damage combination SEEMS right, but it's not proven.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15628
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3189] SNES The Combatribes "2 players" by Alyosha & Dooty in 10:26.42