Pirate Cove (Compute!'s Gazette)
In this game, your child plays the role of a buccaneer who's found a map showing the locations of ten islands. Starting from Pirate Cove, he or she must navigate around the territory trying to find Treasure Island.
Why TAS This Game?
The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute!'s Gazette. This makes my 99th TAS from this series.
When I got this magazine, all I was interested in was "Chopper 1". Because of that game, I really never gave the other two games in this issue any chance. :(
Game Difficulty and Ending
There is no difficulty selection. The ending is clear...you find "Treasure Island"; however, you have to find the key to open the treasure chest first.
Effort In TASing (Not BOTed)
RNG in this game is very strange. Any changes I made to the "Seed", didn't really affect anything. After I found a way to change it, I discovered very quickly that there weren't that many different layouts. After experimenting with a number of maps, I eventually found a very quick route that allowed me to pick up a key and head to Treasure Island very quickly.
Key Points to optimizing this:
- RNG seed to produce an optimal route
- Mostly Southern Route (Faster due to less menuing)
- Route is mostly over the water (Less Menuing)
- Treasure Chest Key was found very quickly.
- Buffering Inputs
Human Comparison
Here is the only video that I could find of someone playing this game.
Darkman425: A pirate I was meant to be! Trim the sails and roam the sea! (Claiming for judging.)
Darkman425: Boy, is that a generous input buffer. Everything seems well optimized here. Nice work!
