I'm proud to announce the 6th Dream Team Contest!
This is a TASing contest that takes place between teams that compete to create a TAS that completes the given game as fast as possible. Anyone can join by sending a post to this topic. The winning team will be engraved in
Dream Team Contest history.
Game info
The game name will be revealed when the signing up time expires but some details are available now:
- The game platform is Game Boy Advance.
- The game genre is platformer.
- The estimated TAS length is about 25 minutes.
Rules
- You sign up as a 4-people team or you can request to be put in a team; you may optionally also provide a team name and a logo; after contest start, teams can't be changed.
- On 21 Jan 23:59 UTC signing up time expires, game name will be revealed and the contest will start.
- The emulator to use will be BizHawk 1.11.9.1 (or newer) using the mGBA core.
- The teams must provide their movie file to dreamteamcontest6@gmail.com before 22 Apr 23:59 UTC; improvements of the run can be still submitted within the deadline; the deadline can be anticipated if all teams agree.
- In the case an Arbitrary Code Execution/Memory Corruption/SRAM Gltich/Game End Glitch/Wrong Warp Glitch is discovered, competition will be held for both exploiting such a glitch as well as not using it.
- The team that provides the movie file that completes the game from power-on to credits in the fastest time (input end) wins.
- The winning team will submit its movie to TASVideos and anyone who will contribute will be added to the authors list.
Here are the current sign-ups. Note that individual player sign-ups have time until contest start (21 Jan 23:59 UTC) to decide or change their team; if they don't, they will randomly shuffled in 4-people teams; 3 or 2 if the players amount is not divisible for 4.
Remember that team members, name and logo can be changed within the signing-up deadline.
Team sign-ups
- Team 1: Warepire, Spikestuff, Fog, Tremane - "We Serve Fire Trucks" - logo
- Team 2: Masterjun, MediaMagnet, Micro500, Mothrayas - "MMMM" - logo
- Team 3: lapogne36, Grincevent, Arcree2, keylie - "Snail Eaters" - logo
- Team 4: pirate_sephiroth, FatRatKnight, Exonym*, Personman*
- Team 5: Invariel, Lord Tom, Samsara, fsvgm777 - "We'll Hex the Name in Later"
- Team 6:
Aglar, negative seven, thelegendarymudkip, Truncated - "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" - logo
- Team 7: Tompa,
Ready Steady Yeti, MUGG, Alyosha
- Team 8: BrunoValads, Amaraticando, BrunoVisnadi, Kaizoplayer - "Feijoada" - logo
- Team 9: Plush, Luigihaxd, theTimeTravelPenguin, Nis - "Team SM64" - logo
- Team 10: arandomgameTASer*, RobynS*, Kurabupengin*, andypanther*
- Team 11: NxCy*, WarHippy*, McBobX*,
DwainiumB* - "ThunderBears"
* team members arbitrarily chosen by ThunderAxe31.
Individual player sign-ups
There are no invididual player sign-ups left.
Sign-ups are closed. Teams which haven't still provided a name and a logo can still do so, but then it won't be changed or removed.
The game
Zook Man ZX4 is an unlicensed GBA game by Fast Fame. Most game content is taken from Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X, while some enemies come from previous Zook Hero games. Most musics are remixes of songs found in Soul Falchion, although there are new original compositions made for the game.
This game is fresh for TASing because of its past emulation issues. The currently last released version of BizHawk is literally the only TASing emulator able to run the game.
The game can be played without any known problem thanks to mGBA 0.5 core, allowing to beat the game and trigger the credits.
Checksums for the GBA ROM file
CRC-32: 8f47fa54
MD4: 04B3F9DD28B8B0FD58281530746E53FF
MD5: 9f966d8f9f2865e96a42eed33a201cde
SHA-1: F0B655C5B01870DA92C9EA84736CB005A4CC4F9C
Controls
I decided to make the controls clear for people less familiar with Mega Man games, in order to avoid frustrating scenarios. I'm not going to give any more help.
- A - Jump
- A (on walls) - Climb wall
- B - Shoot
- B (keep) - Charge shoot
- L or R - Change between available weapons
- Left, Left (keep) or Right, Right (keep) - Dash (needs to be unlocked in a certain level)
- Start - Open menu
Tips
- Divide the tasks.
Everyone has own strengths and weaknesses. Make your team members work on different jobs in order to improve efficiency. This is crucial.
- Keep in contact.
Use a private and secure chat group of your choice to talk with your teammates about your progress, discoveries, ideas, and share your files.
- Play it a lot first.
Game mechanics are easier to understand by playing the game casually, with some code cheating if necessary. Start TASing when you feel that you know enough.
- Take note of everything.
Any trick and glitch may come useful in a way or another, even if it does initially not seem. Also remember that your discoveries may come useful after the contest.
- Try anything.
Even after you've finished TASing the game, use the remaining time to try and improve the run. A sudden discovery can turn the tide of the contest.
- Don't give up.
I know this is going to be longest TASing contest until now, but remember that the journey, not the arrival, matters.
Also
You may ask me for any kind of assistance, expecially if you're having troubles with TAStudio. You may contact me via both irc and forum
PM. But of course, I'm not going to give any help about how to TAS the game.
That said, I wish you all an awesome Dream Team Contest and I declare the contest started!
The result
The contest is over. Here is the ranking:
#8:
Team 1 - "
We Serve Fire Trucks" in 27:43.4 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#7:
Team 2 - "
MMMM" in 26:36.89 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#6:
Team 11 - "
ThunderBears" in 24:52.19 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#5:
Team 5 - "
We'll Hex the Name in Later" in 24:51.56 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#4:
Team 7 in 24:27.73 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#3:
Team 6 - "
¯\_(ツ)_/¯" in 24:27.63 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#2:
Team 3 - "
Snail Eaters" in 23:23.47 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
#1:
Team 4 in 23:20.16 -
YouTube encode -
movie file
Click here for the YouTube playlist
And here is a table comparing the completion times of every level sections.
Thanks to all contestants for participating and congratulations to Team 4 for winning the contest!
Yes!
