I also made a TAS of the English fan translation that was made by Stardust Crusaders Translations. It was made on FCEUX 2.6.6 as the translation didn't work with BizHawk.
Alternate English encode:
Introduction
Dead Zone is a November 1986 Famicom Disk System adventure game developed by Sunsoft. The introduction in the manual starts with the protagonist Kirk McRae, romanized as Cark in game, and his beloved Mary getting engaged. Their wedding had to be delayed as Mary's new job working on Lionex. Before departing, Mary gave Kirk a gift: a robot named Carry. Five months later Mary sent a message to Kirk that the Lionex project had been set up a month early and invited Kirk to celebrate. When Kirk arrived, the colony was empty and Kirk was knocked out. The game begins at the point Kirk wakes up in the scrap heap of the ship. From here, players must guide Kirk through the ship to figure out what happened on Lionex.
This is an early adventure game by Sunsoft, around the time when the company was known more for questionable games like Ikki and Atlantis no Nazo. It's an incredibly short game with its main draw having some voice synthesis provided by the tech from Electronic Speech Systems. Outside of that novelty and a few interesting ideas, the game design is a mess with a lot of commands that aren't useful, items that don't do anything to progress the game, and questionable event flags needed to progress. This game was developed around what a few folks consider the turning point of Sunsoft going from a developer of questionably fascinating games to an incredible developer of fantastic games.
I've been playing the Famicom Detective Club remakes on the Switch and been enjoying them. This made me curious about other adventure games on the NES and Famicom, starting with this one since that's one I've heard of for some reason. I've heard that the game was pretty rough to play and kind of had to see for myself. I came across agreeing that its design isn't good, especially if I had to look up the exact order of events to do something as simple as plugging in a computer. However, I still found it interesting on what does work, or at least interesting enough to make 2 whole TASes for it. It also gave me an excuse to make a "dual language" TAS though obviously the English text makes that one run longer.
Game notes
Area notes
The name I went with at the start is a reference to the MOS 6502 processor used by the Famicom and NES. The cast list says that the other characters are played by the HVC 022, which is the code name on the Famicom Disk System unit. I went with something related to that though you have to squint to read GSOZ as 6502.
Scrap heap
The first battery is ignored since it's a dead one. The other battery is needed to power up Carry again. Once Carry trips the alarm, actions are needed to enough time to allow for climbing up. I went with the ones with the shortest text.
Mary's room and living quarters
This is the first area that requires using the Look command before being allowed to interact with objects that are plainly visible. This is unfortunately a common occurrence. In this case, the drawer is opened for the chemicals to melt the door lock controls. There's also milk and rations to find with are meant for the Drink and Eat commands. That's not mandatory to proceed so those are skipped.
Botanical area
Turning around immediately is done to find and take a liquid oxygen tank. The tube is ignored as it doesn't do anything to progress. The door requires examination to go through, as not doing that causes Kirk to bump into it for no real reason other than to frustrate the player. The lights have to be checked before being allowed to take a light cover. The capsule has to be broken first before using the liquid oxygen tank and light cover are used on the temperature sensor.
PUSH IKKI
In this complete non sequitur, Carry must grab onigiri that's thrown in an are meant to be a homage to the title screen of NES Ikki. This section is 100% timed with no way to speed it up. This also requires grabbing all of the onigiri as failing to do so means having to repeat the entire sequence from the spot. Once this is accomplished, the game will proceed without ever acknowledging that this happened at all.
Security hallway
This is by far the most interesting section of the game to actually play. The room to the side is entered immediately to find a wrench hidden on the underside of a toolbox's lid. Back outside the pipe has to be checked twice for the laser knife. This is missable, though at least death restarts the player at the start of an area. After the knife is obtained the hallway is flooded by removing the bolts on the pipe with the wrench. A bit further down the hallway the security robot is electrocuted by messing with the power wire by juggling the fuse and cutting the power wire.
Factory and engine room
In the factory room, power is turned on by pressing the switch. Kirk has to check the computer after getting the power back on to realize it has no power because it's unplugged, possibly set up like that to pad game time. Once the computer has power the monitor will say that the conveyor belt's malfunctioning. Once the scrap stuck to the rollers is removed and Carry tosses it into the abyss, the power once again has to be activated to use the computer again. Kirk then enters a command that allows for the conveyor belt to run, allowing him to enter the engine room.
Kirk checks some panels and breaks the handle of the middle box which Carry keeps around. The left panel contains a phone to Sunsoft's hotline while the right panel contains an optional Atlantis no Nazo cartridge which is apparently Kirk's favorite game in the future. This is an unserious game. Taking the elevator, Kirk throws the loose handle at the lights to trigger the security alarm. This opens the door to the next area.
Mary's wack ass glass prison
Kirk finds the engagement ring he gave Mary. The ring is immediately used on the capsule to weaken it. Yes, this does require using the ring 7 whole times on the glass to weaken it despite not having that many messages. Once the glass is weakened, it can be knocked on to break it. Once that happens, a lot of the remaining plot happens.
The first password given by Carry doesn't work, though the game is kind enough to let the player enter the second password before knowing the hint to it. The hint is Mary's name. Once the password is entered the last action needed to reach the final text boxes is simply selecting Move.
Special thanks
Publisher note
While it would be nice to have a separate encode of the English fan translation there are a couple of issues. The first issue is that I don't want to actually give the publishers extra work if it's not actually needed. I don't want to come off as demanding at all, especially for what is ultimately inessential. The other issue is that it's a fan work and I don't know the logistics of needing the translating group's permission for that to be on the TASVideos channel. I'm open to discussion about it if it's something worth addressing.
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Well, I can't argue with anything here. Perhaps there are some RNG differences that could seed a different result at "Dead Zone". (I think that is the place it is called). Doesn't matter though, this game mostly runs on lag frames, which tells me there is nothing much to do but what for an opportunity. I say, well done on this.
Accepting.
