Post subject: Lizard - homebrew by Brad Smith (rainwarrior)
juef
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Joined: 1/29/2007
Posts: 208
Location: Québec, Canada
See here in case you haven't heard about this excellent game! It is an average-length NES game, but in TAS form it should be very short as most of the game is exploration. This is my very first attempt at any kind of TAS, so constructive comments are very welcome! I thought I'd let you see a bit of my work before I progress further, in case I'm missing something important. I am slowly learning to use the awesome features of FCEUX's TAS Editor, but I'm pretty satisfied so far with my efficiency of the TASing task. And sorry for the awful encode quality! Link to video
MESHUGGAH
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Not familiar with the game. My comments based on the video: - first of all, it's a really good start :) Keep up the good work. - make sure your horizontal speed is at maximum. at the 4th screen (0:07), it seems like you bump the wall. Can't go on the top route? - at the 8th screen 0:22 you need to aim for hitting the platform on the next screen as soon as possible. Probably you would want to make the highest jump early enough to fall down at optimal speed and reach the bottom platform next screen to be fastest. - around 0:40, it's more advisable to deaccelerate by going to the right instead of bumping the wall. In most of the games, your speed has more values instead of simply 0 and 1 px/f, so you are looking for accelerating to your fastest speed exactly when going over an obstacle. So instead of bumping the wall straight forward, you could (probably) squeeze out 1-2 frames by moving the opposite direction and then towards the wall with enough Y position to avoid losing horizontal position loss.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
juef
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Player (155)
Joined: 1/29/2007
Posts: 208
Location: Québec, Canada
MESHUGGAH wrote:
Not familiar with the game. My comments based on the video: - first of all, it's a really good start :) Keep up the good work. - make sure your horizontal speed is at maximum. at the 4th screen (0:07), it seems like you bump the wall. Can't go on the top route? - at the 8th screen 0:22 you need to aim for hitting the platform on the next screen as soon as possible. Probably you would want to make the highest jump early enough to fall down at optimal speed and reach the bottom platform next screen to be fastest. - around 0:40, it's more advisable to deaccelerate by going to the right instead of bumping the wall. In most of the games, your speed has more values instead of simply 0 and 1 px/f, so you are looking for accelerating to your fastest speed exactly when going over an obstacle. So instead of bumping the wall straight forward, you could (probably) squeeze out 1-2 frames by moving the opposite direction and then towards the wall with enough Y position to avoid losing horizontal position loss.
Thank you for your comments, MESHUGGAH! :D - At 0:07, the island is too far to jump on. I do lose some horizontal speed underwater, but it is on purpose: you can't jump as high underwater, so running full speed would make you run into a wall and lose all your speed. I slow down just enough to make the jumps. - Unless there's something I'm not understanding, that's what I did. If I jump earlier or slow down any less, I'll hit the first platform on the way down and lose significant vertical speed. - Around 0:40, I do bump into a wall, but for the following steps, the required horizontal speed can be gained without losing time (during the jumps). Not slowing down saves a few frames (from the tests I have done, anyway!). But many times earlier in the run, I did decelerate (e.g. when first going into the water around 0:33-0:36). Thanks again for the comments! Coming from someone with your talent, they mean a lot :)
juef
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Joined: 1/29/2007
Posts: 208
Location: Québec, Canada
So, 0garrison beat his own record and even my TAS with this new run! The biggest difference is that he uses the password room after beating a boss: when one doesn't enter a password then, you can simply continue at the last save point you used, with the lizard you had. This makes for a new, very efficient route! And his execution was impeccable. I intend on making a new TAS in a few weeks' time.