Topic by unclejed

Posted: 3/23/2005 8:37 PM

Post subject: Lone Ranger

Quote

unclejed

Joined: 12/1/2004
Posts: 13

I'm starting to mess around a bit with this game. It looks kinda fun, and has a wide variety of elements. I was able to do a trial run of the first chapter in just under 5 minutes, and I think I can improve it by about 5 seconds are so. Question being... would anyone be interested in seeing this?

Posted: 3/24/2005 12:15 AM

Quote

Viewer

Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284

Defintely. I was actually considering this myself, and I know the first-person shooter levels would be fun to see. Go for it. One technique you might want to consider is the "quick draw"--always have your fist equipped, and wait until the very last second to switch to the gun and shoot. It doesn't do anything; it's just for aestetic purposes.

Posted: 3/24/2005 12:21 AM

Quote

Bag_of_Magic_Food

He/Him

Active player (277)

Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712

Heh, I was thinking of doing that with the Mirror Buster in Rockman World. Just hit B for the one frame where it'll reflect. People will say, "What? What'd he do??"

put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude

Posted: 3/24/2005 8:30 PM

Quote

unclejed

Joined: 12/1/2004
Posts: 13

Yep... I was about to knock about 15 seconds off the first level. Maybe another second can go, I'm not really sure. Frame advance in the conversations was the bulk of the improvement. I've finally gotten the hang of using it. Also, taking advantage of the fact that walking in a diagnal doesn't slow down your horizonal or vertical movement makes some parts go a bit quicker.

Posted: 4/10/2005 7:17 PM

Quote

spoonshiro

Joined: 2/10/2005
Posts: 16

I don't know much about this game, since I never really knew of it until emulators came along. I know a friend of mine would love to see it though.

Posted: 5/6/2007 3:09 PM

Quote

Aqfaq

Editor, Expert player (2460)

Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!

Lone Ranger is awesome. It has ripped content from Castlevania, Double Dragon II and many other NES games. There's also a bunch of super speed bugs caused by abnormal combinations with D-pad. Maximum horizontal speed is one screen length in 5 frames, but I have not been able to go to the right with it. Luckily, some levels have rooms that scroll left. In the side-scrolling levels, these combinations alter the vertical position: 1) left, right, shoot (Combined with jumping, the height can be altered so that you can exit any room downwards. Complete game crash is possible with this trick in certain areas.) 2) up, down, right, shoot 3) up, down, left, shoot In the bird view levels, pressing "updown" causes super speed to the right and "updownright" causes super speed to the left. These can be used to pass certain solid objects. Also, this stops the screen scrolling, so you can reach the edge of the screen at any time and exit the area. In the autoscrolling horse ride scenes, pressing "leftright" causes teleporting backwards. Lots of graphical mess can be achieved too. For example, it's possible to turn the main character into an axe or a dead lady. This game has potential for a very crazy movie.

Posted: 5/7/2007 5:01 AM

Quote

Aqfaq

Editor, Expert player (2460)

Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!

Cool, pressing "updownleftright" causes super speed to the south, so now the only direction that I can't travel fast is north. Here's the first chapter done in about 3,5 minutes: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5474/loneranger1done.fcm Crazy... Edit: I just found some super strange warp shortcut from the villain encounters on the road... Edit: Haha, the glitch warp went to the final level and I killed the final boss. Then the first chapter ended, not the whole game. If this route is faster than 3 minutes, it means that the final boss will be killed twice. Hopefully there are more shortcuts like these...

Posted: 5/7/2007 2:39 PM

Quote

Aqfaq

Editor, Expert player (2460)

Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!

Using the crazy warp glitch was not faster: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5477/lonerangerwarpglitch.fcm I have not recorded much NES stuff before, so I would appreciate if someone checked that these movies actually work.

Posted: 5/7/2007 2:48 PM

Quote

Dromiceius

Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332

It works. Looks pretty good, too. I had no idea the Lone Ranger was actually Chuck Norris. :)

Posted: 5/7/2007 9:05 PM

Quote

Aqfaq

Editor, Expert player (2460)

Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!

Thanks, Dromiceius. Movie update: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5485/lonerangergotplates.fcm Chapter 2 is almost done. Edit: Hehee, there's a villain encounter at the beginning of the 3rd chapter, which means that I'll be replacing the whole chapter with the warp bug. Edit: Another amazing warp was found near the end of the 2nd chapter, but it will probably be slightly faster to complete that chapter normally.

Posted: 5/10/2007 3:05 AM

Quote

Aqfaq

Editor, Expert player (2460)

Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!

Chapter 4 is almost done: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5511/lonerangerchapter4.fcm It was actually 9 seconds faster to use the warp glitch near the end of the 2nd chapter. The warp brought me close to the chapter 6 boss which was killed to trigger the chapter 2 ending. Funny. I also improved the final level a bit, but it's still more than 1600 frames longer than completing the first chapter normally. The final level has a secret door that leads out. It can be used to access the whole overworld area early. However, the game loads only one chapter at a time, so all the later towns are empty.

Posted: 5/26/2007 12:09 AM

Quote

Aqfaq

Editor, Expert player (2460)

Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!

New movie: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5686/loneranger6boss.fcm I'm at the chapter 6 boss, but will run out of ammo in the next chapter. Ammo is needed for a few shortcuts and fast bossfights. In other words, this movie failed and I'll cancel the project for now. These are the main mistakes I made: 1) Used bullets when I could have used fists. 2) Did not manipulate luck in the earlier FPS scenes to save bullets. 3) Used bullets when I could have taken damage instead. Here are some plot explanations I wrote while making the run: Chapter 1 - Find Silver, the legendary white horse. * Talk to a woman. She tells that Silver was seen on the other side of the river. * Talk to the bridge guard. He wants to see a permission from the sheriff. * Talk to sheriff. He is afraid of bandits and can't give the permission to cross the river until the bandits are defeated. * Go to the hideout and defeat bandits. * Talk to sheriff. Got permission. * Talk to bridge guard. * Chapter 1 complete. Alternative solution (1600 frames slower): * Encounter bandits and go to the final level through a glitch shortcut. * Defeat Butch Cavendish (the final boss). * Chapter 1 complete. Chapter 2 - Find the legendary Spanish gold. * Talk to a guy. He tells that there is a legendary Spanish treasure hidden nearby. There are three metal plates that show the location, but two of them have been stolen by bandits. * Get plate 1 - mountain. * Get plate 2 - FPS scene. * Buy lots of silver bullets. This is necessary at some point and the gunshop is on the route. * Talk to the village elder. He uses the plates to find the location of the treasure. * Go to the location. * Walk through a wall to warp near chapter 6 boss. * Defeat chapter 6 boss. (This was about 9 seconds faster than getting the Spanish treasure.) * Chapter 2 complete. * WTF cutscene. Chapter 3 - Defeat three bandit bosses... NOT! * Encounter lesser bandits to warp to the final level. * Defeat Butch Cavendish and cut his Double Dragon II train to l i t l e pieces. * Chapter 3 complete. * Surprisingly, the chapter 3 ending cutscene fits here quite well. Chapter 4 - The imposter. * Go to town. Get caught by the local police. Find out that there's some criminal pretending to be you. * Encounter necessary horses. * Chase the imposter while avoiding further horse scenes. * Literally go through the hideout to find the imposter. Defeat him. * Chapter 4 complete. Chapter 5 - Peaceful indians. * Get attacked by indians. * Get attacked by indians. * Talk to the chief to find out what's going on. He won't trust masked men. Lone Ranger must steal an egg of an eagle to gain trust. * Steal the egg and show it to the chief. * Chapter 5 complete. Chapter 6 - Save Clara from the ninjas. * Visit Clara's house. * Talk to people to get information. * Go to the mine. Defeat ninja boss. "Sorry, but Clara is in another castle." * Go to the hideout 1. Defeat ninja boss. "Sorry, but Clara is in another castle." * Go to the hideout 2. * Defeat chapter 6 boss (again). * Chapter 6 complete. Chapter 7 - The soldier camp. * Run out of ammo and get slaughtered brutally.

Posted: 5/26/2007 5:33 AM

Quote

Dromiceius

Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332

Holy broken crap, Kemosabe!

Defeat Butch Cavendish and cut his Double Dragon II train to l i t l e pieces.

That was almost as good as when the Lone Ranger turned into a fainting woman. Craziness.

Posted: 6/24/2023 10:36 AM

Quote

ktwo

Player (243)

Joined: 8/10/2008
Posts: 113

After having played through this game casually not long ago, I was interested in what the TAS looked like. Unfortunately, there is none. There is only a rejected submission, which seems to have sparked the activity in this thread. The latest emu I could get Aqfaq's movie to sync on was fceu 0.98.25 (https://tasvideos.org/EmulatorResources/FCEU - thanks for the help in the tasvideos discord for finding me the link!). The movie desyncs on newer releases of FCEUX at the chapter 4 boss and early in chapter 2 in Bizhawk. I started looking into if I could build on Aqfaq's work and finally get a TAS done for this game. I will however say that I have now abandoned that idea. It looks really interesting, but it's just too much of a commitment for me. I still wanted to make a post about it and share some thoughts. The following movie syncs up to the last action scene of chapter 6: https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638231974742825749 I basically just tried to sync a movie in a modern emu that followed Aqfaq's route as close as possible. While I didn't test much in terms of optimizing movement, my general impression is that Aqfaq did a really good job, especially considering the emu tools that were available at the time. I can see why Aqfaq got discouraged when realizing there were not enough bullets to complete the run and abandoned the project at the end of chapter 6. After finishing the syncing task, I decided to look at the inventory management and if I could come up with any ideas on how to move forward. Each shop visit costs at least ~300 frames and that assumes the shop is on the way. The only shop along the route is in chapter 2. With cash being scarce, this means there is only a limited amount of money you can grab before the shop visit without resorting to very time-consuming cash farming. There are a few ways to conserve ammo: a) Punch enemies instead of shooting them. This depends on the enemy position and is not always possible. b) Fists do 1 damage, standard bullets do 3 damage and silver bullets do 4 damage. Since silver bullets are twice as expensive, standard bullets are more economical to use. c) Some enemies in the gallery shooting scenes can be ignored d) Just tank hits or take detours Aqfaq used 'c' and a bit of 'a' and 'd' towards the end (probably when realizing there were not enough bullets to get to the end). I mapped out Aqfaq's inventory route and a new route I worked on in the following spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQsJmmfpwmkWvAdWMDyQjyHan6l4Ki3VNIRPVO9wKHHG4YiEZCVwf9JnWJMfS9kE6JlzPxtpkldQxR8/pubhtml There are plenty of assumptions in the new route. It was only meant as a concept for a first TAS draft to follow and see if things worked out in the end. The first 6 chapters are somewhat realistic, since I could test them out in my TAS. The inventory route for the last two chapters are however more of a guesswork. I just watched an RTA playthrough and made a rough estimate of where I think a TAS could clip and which enemies that had to be dealt with. I still ended up with a deficit of silver bullets, but some of the sections were difficult to estimate, so I think it should be possible to squeeze out a few more silver bullets, especially in chapter 7, even if that would mean using method 'd'. Doing a second shop visit to stock up on ammo would in comparison take forever, so that simply isn't an option. There weren't any major roadblocks that I could see. It just looked overall like a big commitment to get an optimized TAS done. Some challenges/reasons why I didn't continue: * The movement glitches are not intuitive. How they function need to be looked into in more detail to ensure optimal use. * I stopped my sync movie when getting hit by a crusher in chapter 6. I couldn't easily figure out how to avoid it (Aqfaq managed to avoid getting hit by it). * Because of the item management, I think one might have to TAS a few full iterations before finding the correct item route. It's quite possible that most of the game syncs after re-doing earlier sections though. * Quite a few comparisons will be needed in order to judge which time losses are the least severe when trying to conserve bullets. * Some of the action scenes seem to have different variants that seem to be determined by RNG (the RNG can be controlled by player input). Is this only for the "gallery shooting scenes" or can also other action scenes have different variants?