Quartet is a straightforawrd platformer/shooter for the SMS. Here I improve Sonikkustar's original run by 104 frames (not counting BIOS load time) due to small optimizations throughout the run.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.13.0
  • BIOS Version 1.3
  • Beats the game as fast as possible
  • Collects all the stars

Comments

With BizHawk 2.0 only a day old, here is an update to one of the last published runs remaining made in BizHawk 1.0! The current movie even uses the obsolete .tas extension, so I figured this was a good time to bring it up to currency. The run itself is a minor improvement with better RNG manipulation and slightly better gameplay especially in the ice world.
Frames were saved in most levels except level 1 and 6. Level 1 was already quite optimized, and level 6 desynced pretty badly with shot timings that for some reason were not even close to the original run, costing about 20 frames (the last boss fight is still a couple frames faster though.)

Other comments

A useful memory address is $0394, main RAM, which is boss HP.

Masterjun: Judging.
Masterjun: Nice small improvements. Note that this movie seems longer due to the BIOS. It is, in fact, faster than the previous movie. Accepting to Vault as an improvement to the previous run.
Fog: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5567: Sonikkustar, Alyosha's SMS Quartet in 04:24.81
Post subject: Re: #5567: Sonikkustar, Alyosha's SMS Quartet in 04:24.81
Challenger
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This game is enough for entertaintent for me, despite I never played this game. Nice update. And yes vote! Also, a encode: Link to video
TASVideoAgent wrote:
here is an update to the final published run remaining made in BizHawk 1.0!
Actually, the current Zanac run was done on Bizhawk 1.0! (And that run is the first BizHawk movie ever).
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Alyosha
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D: how did I not notice zanac , oh well so much for that , thanks for the encode though !
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Cool run, this is a rare games who put up "SEGA MASTER SYSTEM" before game starts. Musics are good and when I watch this TAS, i feel like in a "shoot them up"! It's a good illusion. yes vote
GAW sms... Totally destroyed
Alyosha
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zoboner wrote:
Cool run, this is a rare games who put up "SEGA MASTER SYSTEM" before game starts. Musics are good and when I watch this TAS, i feel like in a "shoot them up"! It's a good illusion. yes vote
That's actually the system bios screen, not the game.in the past we've neglected using the SMS bios, but now the goal is to be a bit more proper and include it in runs.
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Good improvement! I don't remember the previous run well enough to notice major changes, but the action looks polished. The final boss is easily the most impressive part of the run. Thanks also, Challenger, for the encode!
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.
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Alyosha wrote:
That's actually the system bios screen, not the game.in the past we've neglected using the SMS bios, but now the goal is to be a bit more proper and include it in runs.
Ho, ok, I'm happy than you explain this. If I understand well, I can change the BIOS especially if i use a specific game (JPN...)? It's more accurate to use the original BIOS or just for more proper? Thank you for information.
GAW sms... Totally destroyed
Alyosha
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zoboner wrote:
Ho, ok, I'm happy than you explain this. If I understand well, I can change the BIOS especially if i use a specific game (JPN...)? It's more accurate to use the original BIOS or just for more proper? Thank you for information.
Yes, you can (and probably should) use the BIOS of the region the game is from. There are also different BIOS variants you can use (I just picked a common one.) Is it more accurate? Yes in the sense that RNG and maybe cycle timings will be closer to console then without it. But, it won't suddenly make runs sync on console that didn't before, SMS / GG is not terribly well documented in terms of timing accuracy, and BizHawk's core is not that low level, despite having a very strong z80 core.
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Alyosha wrote:
Yes, you can (and probably should) use the BIOS of the region the game is from. There are also different BIOS variants you can use (I just picked a common one.) Is it more accurate? Yes in the sense that RNG and maybe cycle timings will be closer to console then without it. But, it won't suddenly make runs sync on console that didn't before, SMS / GG is not terribly well documented in terms of timing accuracy, and BizHawk's core is not that low level, despite having a very strong z80 core.
Ok, it's cool! I work actually, on an inputs generator, on master system 2 (european) than i mod in 60 hertz, for verifying my run of golden axe warrior, I created the module with an genesis PAD, who have a DB9 port, and I linked this with an Arduino uno, but you said: "But, it won't suddenly make runs sync on console that didn't before, SMS / GG is not terribly well documented in terms of timing accuracy, and BizHawk's core is not that low level", you think it's not possible to run this input file with no desync, due to that? Thank for all informations.
GAW sms... Totally destroyed
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [3454] SMS Quartet "1 player" by Sonikkustar, Alyosha in 04:24.81
Alyosha
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zoboner wrote:
Ok, it's cool! I work actually, on an inputs generator, on master system 2 (european) than i mod in 60 hertz, for verifying my run of golden axe warrior, I created the module with an genesis PAD, who have a DB9 port, and I linked this with an Arduino uno, but you said: "But, it won't suddenly make runs sync on console that didn't before, SMS / GG is not terribly well documented in terms of timing accuracy, and BizHawk's core is not that low level", you think it's not possible to run this input file with no desync, due to that? Thank for all informations.
Well it's worth a try , who knows it might even work! Just be sure to document whatever results you get as information is sparse and any info is valuable