Diamond Mine - for Commodore 64

Diamond mine is a game about mining diamonds. Someone please call Captain Obvious.
While the gameplay has some similarities to Pac-Man games in that you roam around in maze of walls trying to collect dots (diamonds) while avoiding enemies that chase you; this game has some complexities that add to the challenge.
The game consists of 20 unique levels (mine shafts) each with 8 diamonds. The main goal is to dig through each mine shaft with your digger to collect all the diamonds on the screen and then exit the mine shaft. Each mine shaft cannot be exited until all the diamonds in that particular maze have been collected or lost to the enemies. Once you clear a mine shaft of diamonds, it becomes walled off and you move on to the next shaft. Once the 20 levels are cleared, the game loops back to Mine Shaft #1.

Notes on Gameplay:

  • The diamonds trail behind you like train cars after they are collected.
  • The enemies can both kill you as well as steal your diamonds once you've picked some up.
  • You can shoot the enemies to either kill or stun them (depends on enemy type).
  • Diamonds cannot simply be collected and removed from the mine shaft...
    • Collected diamonds must be processed at the processing center (which looks like an upside down L) before they can be removed from the mine shaft.
    • Once they are processed the diamonds can be left in the processing center while you go get more diamonds, or they can be removed from the processing center to take out of the mine. The choice is yours depending on whether you exit the processing center going down (leaving diamonds) or going right(taking processed diamonds).
      • The only benefit to leaving the diamonds is to keep the enemies from stealing them while you dig for more diamonds. This is rare and only used sparingly.
  • Many mine shafts contain transporters that (almost) instantly transport you to another area of the maze.
    • These transporters are sometimes active from the start
    • Other times they must be activated by bringing a key to the diamond processing center.
    • Transporters are often necessary to reach areas otherwise un-reachable due to walls. These transporters typically also need to be activated before use.
  • There are 3 game options.
    • One-Player
    • Two-Player Co-op (Your shots don't kill the other player)
    • Two-Player Competitive (Your shots can kill the other player)

TAS Notes

  • Goal - Collect all the diamonds in the 20 Mine Shafts as fast as possible.
  • This run uses Two-Player Co-op settings
  • Moving through dirt is slower than moving through already cleared areas.
  • Moving both diggers through the same path of dirt will clear it faster than one digger alone.
    • This is only used a few times, most notably in Mine Shaft #19
    • Going after different diamonds is usually faster than co-oping a tunnel.
  • When a transporter needs activated, usually one digger bee-lines for the key and the other is ready to enter the transporter as soon as it's active.
    • There are very few instances where both diggers use the transporter to reach a walled-off area.
  • As only one digger can be in the processing center at any given moment, one digger often ends up with more diamonds than the other to stagger the times needed for the processing center.
  • As the levels repeat indefinitely, the TAS ends after the 20th Mine Shaft--once no more unique shafts are available.

Improvement Possibilities

  • Someone may come up with better routing than I deduced.
  • If someone were able to manipulate the movement of the enemies to clear dirt on needed paths, movement speeds might be increased. Manipulation would likely alter routing as well, so the movement speed gain would have to be weighed against routing.
  • An "Any %" run may possibly be faster. While all diamonds still need collected, they wouldn't all need taken out of the mine shaft.
    • By losing diamonds to enemies, they would then not need processed resulting in fewer trips/uses of the processor while still clearing out a mine shaft.
      • The movement changes to accomplish this may or may not improve overall time unless death were used to lose the diamonds. Death transports your digger to the beginning of the maze. Death could only be used a couple times per player for this strategy.
    • Losing more than 4 diamonds in each 5-level group results in not being awarded with a passcode that would otherwise be given.
      • The passcodes allow you to skip groups of levels from the beginning of the game. (Obviously useless in a TAS).

Other Thoughts

I named the branch as "100%" in consideration of diamond collection. I suppose someone could argue that this isn't a "100%" run because it doesn't completely clear all the dirt or kill all killable enemies. While both of these increase score, they are not necessary requisites of exiting a mine shaft. If general consensus suggests that it's not a 100% run for these reasons, I suggest that the branch be changed to "2-Player Co-op - All Diamonds"
A 1-Player TAS would be a longer video and slightly more difficult from a gameplay perspective, but an easier TAS to complete as 2-player inputs can sometimes interfere with each other and create odd sync issues when re-playing in TAStudio. These sync issues haven't seemed to be a problem with .bk2 files
A 2-Player Competitive 100% TAS would look identical as there are no instances where bullets pass through either digger in this run (nor would there be a reason to kill the other digger in a 100% run). A competitive 'Any %' run may be feasibly faster by using each other's bullets to kill diggers and lose diamonds to speed up any given mine shaft.
If published, the above screenshot from the first level where the walls spell "Stay Out" would be my suggestion.

feos: Cleaned up the branch, Judging...
feos: This is a nice run. In a few questionable places, once you try to improve and fully understand the mechanics, you get how tricky they are. In some places delays are just unavoidable, in others, everyone is welcome to find a better strat, we're a competition site after all.
This run is also extremely boring due to the nature of the game, and it can only go to Vault, but the good thing is that it aims to beat the game as soon as possible while fully collecting the main item in this game - diamonds. Using 2 players is faster, so it doesn't need to be in the branch.
Accepting to Vault as a full completion branch.
Fog: Processing.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #5592: DrD2k9's C64 Diamond Mine "all diamonds" in 17:51.69
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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.
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That sounds like a fair definition of 100% to me. Killing every enemy is not usually a part of that in other games, either. Yes vote.
Player (12)
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Not the most exciting of games, but this was surprisingly entertaining to watch for a while. Low Yes vote for me. However, I'm not so sure it's optimal. For example, I noticed on shaft 12 that the yellow miner goes back and forth immediately before entering the processing center for seemingly no reason. There might be some possible luck manipulation and lag management too. I don't have the time to verify these however.
DrD2k9
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feos, please delay the decision on this...I have to check my PAL/NTSC settings. I may be able to save more time.
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I PM'd Alyosha about the intended settings so hold on.
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.
Alyosha
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C64 core in BizHawk defaults to PAL video mode. Also, I believe many of the readily available ROMs are also PAL. @DrD2k9: I would strongly recommend that you research the ROM you are using before trying to change the emulation settings. C64 appears to be quite a bit messier in terms of ROM cataloging then other systems. Also, check other sources to see if the game sounds correct and seems to be playing at the correct speed, as these are often obvious signs of using the wrong region. Using PAL isn't necessarily wrong, and NTSC is not necessarily faster.
DrD2k9
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Alyosha wrote:
C64 core in BizHawk defaults to PAL video mode. Also, I believe many of the readily available ROMs are also PAL. @DrD2k9: I would strongly recommend that you research the ROM you are using before trying to change the emulation settings. C64 appears to be quite a bit messier in terms of ROM cataloging then other systems. Also, check other sources to see if the game sounds correct and seems to be playing at the correct speed, as these are often obvious signs of using the wrong region. Using PAL isn't necessarily wrong, and NTSC is not necessarily faster.
Thank you for the info. As it stands, I've become rather discouraged regarding the C64 and TASing. As much nostalgia as this system holds for me, and as much as I feel it deserves its place on the site for history's sake (even if that means just in the vault), I am struggling to find enjoyment in doing the C64 TASes compared to other systems.
DrD2k9
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Feos, given the reply from Alyosha, go ahead and judge this one as you see fit.
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You don't really have to repeat everything twice.
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.
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SmashManiac wrote:
However, I'm not so sure it's optimal. For example, I noticed on shaft 12 that the yellow miner goes back and forth immediately before entering the processing center for seemingly no reason. There might be some possible luck manipulation and lag management too. I don't have the time to verify these however.
DrD2k9, address that while I'm watching it closely. And my opinion on the branch is just "all diamonds". Until a 1-player run is published, we don't need to specify the 2P mode, as the goal was just to get shorter time. And I agree with this being a full completion branch, and can see how a friendly fire version with losing diamonds to enemies may end up being faster, becoming the any% branch.
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.
DrD2k9
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feos wrote:
SmashManiac wrote:
...on shaft 12 that the yellow miner goes back and forth immediately before entering the processing center for seemingly no reason. ...
The wiggle from the yellow miner happens for two reasons: 1) Only one player can be in the processing center at any time. As one player is leaving, the other cannot enter until the first has left completely (with all its diamonds) and the door shuts. Then the second can enter to process his diamonds. The timing of the blue cart leaving forces the delayed arrival of the yellow cart. The wiggle could have been done at any point. I just arbitrarily chose that spot. 2) Direction changes can only happen at the center of grid points on the map. So a full block wiggle is necessary to reverse direction twice to delay the arrival of the yellow cart at the processing point. Simplifying the branch to "All Diamonds" makes sense to me. And I'd expect a 1P "all diamond" run to be at least 45 minutes long if not an hour or more. As far as RNG, the only thing I can see to try and manipulate is the enemy movements. However, they are typically easily dealt with without messing around with manipulating RNG.
Post subject: When human skills are just not enough...
DrD2k9
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Unfortunately the one human skill a TAS can't compensate for is planning and observation. So now i'm frustrated with myself for missing something that seems like it should have been obvious. The longer I think about it...the delay in Shaft 12 may in fact not be the most optimal method. The yellow cart could delay the turn into the transporter instead of doing a double direction change. This may allow for arrival of the yellow cart at the processing center just as the door closes after the blue cart leaves. It would shave a few frames off the overall time. I hate finding stuff like this so long after a submission. It frustrates me that it takes someone else pointing out the possible optimization instead of me realizing it on my own in the first place. That said...I will be revisiting this game using NTSC settings. Even though changing the yellow cart's movement is a seemingly small fix, doing so would force re-doing the timing of everything thereafter. I personally don't see a reason to spend time fixing this small flaw in the PAL run when an NTSC run will likely be faster anyway. I'll spend my time there. If you need to reject the submission for this flaw, go ahead. If you're ok accepting it knowing it will likely be obsoleted by and NTSC run in the future, I'm ok with that too.
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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.
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. ---- [3501] C64 Diamond Mine "all diamonds" by DrD2k9 in 17:51.69
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Someone please add "2 players" to the tags (there seem to be 2 players?). Not to the category name*, but just the tags.
* http://tasvideos.org/ReadySteadyYeti.html - my user page on the TASVideos site * https://www.youtube.com/ReadySteadyYeti - my YouTube channel * My Discord username is "RSY#3799".
kazblox
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IDSI is an American company; these games were supposed to be intended for NTSC systems.
DrD2k9
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kazblox wrote:
IDSI is an American company; these games were supposed to be intended for NTSC systems.
I've been occasionally working at updating this run using NTSC settings, between other projects. It will get an new NTSC submission at some point. It's anticipated that the NTSC run will be faster.