Long time no post :)
I've decided to make a speedrun of this cool game on "crazy hard" difficulty. In this mode you only have ONE life, NO continue and ONE hit (from every enemy or item) kills you.
In that way the game is harder but still beatable with an emulator. I think my movie will be a little bit longer than Dan's one because of tougher enemies, that is to say they are more resistant and longer to kill. The "takes damage to save time" is useless in this mode due to the "one hit = game over".
I've just finished level 1, tell me what do you think of it and if it worth to be continued ;)
http://users.rockweb.org/mastermag/Rocket Knight Adventures (E) by Maniac.gmv
PS : Yeah, I know, this url is weird, just copy/paste it into your Internet browser to download the file ;)
Hokuto Shinken wa muteki da !! Omae wa mo shindeiru !!
Hmmm... I haven't seen your movie so I can't comment on that, but I don't think it's a good decision to play on the crazy hard mode, simply because taking damage in this game saves a lot of time. A movie where one hit kills you eliminates a lot of opportunities for killing bosses faster, and you also have to finish each level with full life, which adds another second or two to each level. I'll watch what you have later and see if it changes my mind :P
Still no reply from Dan... Too bad :(
What should I do ? I continue on my speed run or I stop ?
Feel free to post comments about my WIP, even if you don't know this game.
See ya gamerz !
Hokuto Shinken wa muteki da !! Omae wa mo shindeiru !!
Reply is almost = answer. But you can reply (i.e write something back) without answering the question.
In this case I think Dan did both. That is, if you are referring to the "tell me what do you think of it" question, his answer was "I don't think it's a good decision to play on the crazy hard mode".
Well, I've decided to continue my run to see if it can be fast even with a higher difficulty :)
I've just finished level 2. Things were easier that I thought before doing it. I was surprised how fast the "dragon" in the waterfall exploded. I'm faster than Dan_ on this sub boss ^^
For the train, its "hands" were a pain to aim correctly, even with slow motion. I did my best, I'm not sure I can improve it a lot.
Well I let you watch it :
Here or here
If the links don't work, i'll edit and upload somewhere else.
The movie is 9min34 long, 29088 frames and 484 records so far. Enjoy ! ;)
Hokuto Shinken wa muteki da !! Omae wa mo shindeiru !!
Neither of those links work :P
I watched the level 1 movie though, and it can be improved quite a bit. Watch my latest WIP for some tips. I still don't think that the hardest difficulty is a good idea. While it may be impressive to never take a hit, you gain a lot of time by taking hits. I think the time gained is significant enough to overrule the harder difficulty. This is just my opinion though.
Oh, and don't compare times with the published movie. It sucks :P Hopefully someday I'll make a version that meets my standards.
Thanks for your answer Dan_ ;)
After watching your new WIP, all I can say is "Woh *_*, very impressive !!"
You've done things I've never thought about, even if I have been playing this game since my childhood lol.
It's sure taking damage saves time a lot in this speedrun, but I think you (or me if I can do like you ^^) should do the game in very hard. It's quite like the crazy hard mode, except that you can take some damage.
The goal of the site is "as fast as possible, the harder the game can be" isn't it ? ^^
I'll try soon to start a new game in very hard :) I hope you'll try it too !
For the dead links : retry here or here but hurry to take them, it only remains a week or so :/
ENJOY ! ^^
Hokuto Shinken wa muteki da !! Omae wa mo shindeiru !!
Joined: 11/22/2004
Posts: 1468
Location: Rotterdam, The Netherlands
You should get a seed from the automated bot soon. I believe it's programmed to start seeding files that are requested automatically if there is nobody else to help you out.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
I usually search for runs that have 0 seeds and put it for download so i can eventually become a seeder, but the file size of this one made me skip it... I'm currently seeding all the runs that i have, but i got a crappy dsl connection which uploads each run at less than 1kbps... :P
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
FODA wrote:
I usually search for runs that have 0 seeds and put it for download so i can eventually become a seeder
You don't have to search for them, you know. There is a page on the site that lists all torrents that have more downloaders than seeds, which makes seeding efficiently a breeze.
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
Time to bump up this thread. : )
Rocket Knight Adventures was one of my favorite games from childhood. After thoroughly enjoying other people's tool-assisted speedruns, I'm inspired to try one out myself.
Dan_ wrote:
[...]don't compare times with the published movie. It sucks :P
Well, OK then. I intend to make a movie that doesn't suck. ; p
So far I've only completed under twenty-four seconds worth of gameplay, so it's too early to post a WIP, although it is "so far" faster than both the published run and Dan's unfinished (?) version three run. I have a feeling I'll be able to make a very high-quality speedrun eventually.
I do have a question though.
I'm using the US version of the ROM on "Hard" mode, which is equivalent to the "Crazy Hard" difficulty on the European and Japanese versions. In this mode, some enemies and all bosses have more hit points, and one hit instantly kills the main character. Whereas in the PAL and Japanese ROMs this difficulty level requires a hidden code, it is immediately selectable on the options of the US verison.
I think that the "Hard" (or "Crazy Hard") difficulty is approriate for a tool-assisted speedrun, which is supposed to show the game completed under the most challanging conditions. I absolutely hate Dan's idea (no disrespect) of taking damage intentionally throughout a level to save time in the after-level bonus screen (time which I feel doesn't really "count" toward the speedrun anyway), and I don't think that taking damage will save that much time otherwise.
If I need to, it would be fairly trivial to "convert" my run over to the Japanese ROM, since I keep a journal of which buttons are pressed on which frames and why.
My question is, if I continue my run on the hardest difficulty of the US version and my run eventually gets published, will I have to worry about someone else using a different ROM with easier bosses and the ability to take damage to save time on the bonus screen, copying everything from my run and calling it an "improvement"? That would be pretty insulting if the other run had no other improvements to offer.
Any comments? And please understand that I don't mean to offend anyone, I just want to make sure that my hard work is put in the right place.
Also, are Dan, Lezard, and MangaManiac59 still working on this game?
Also, are Dan, Lezard, and MangaManiac59 still working on this game?
I wouldn't count on that, it's been quite a while.
Well, my first question is (I don't remember if and how Dan did it): does taking damage during play save really a considerable amount of time? If it does, it would be better to do that, since taking damage to save time gives more variety and is faster by definition. If it doesn't, then of course, go with the hardest difficulty.
I suppose you're fully familiar with the tools? If you are, then good luck. It's always good to see outdated runs improved.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
I think that if the hard mode add some entertainment, it should be selected, if the only thing is that it slow you down just because you need to hit more to do less damage, in that case I don't know.
But once publish, I don't think that other game could do it on easy and just do it faster.
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
moozooh wrote:
[D]oes taking damage during play save really a considerable amount of time?
Taking damage saves considerable time on the bonus screens that appear after each level, but not during the levels themselves. That's why I'm against the idea.
FractalFusion described a scenario in Sonic the Hedgehog here where acheiving a slower per-level time would actually result in a faster overall time. Of course, in a tool-assisted speedrun, the very idea is absurd, which is why the movie "ignores delays caused by bonus effects". To me, taking damage (which doesn't save any time in the level) to save time in the after-level bonus screen is equally silly; if the idea of a TAS is to demonstrate mastery over the game, why would I run into enemies on purpose for (almost) no good reason?
It doesn't look like there's any need to take damage to save level time at all.
But I am concerned that, after what will probably be hundreds of hours of hard work, someone will come along and "improve" the run simply by using a ROM with an easier difficulty level. I would like to complete my run on the US ROM on the hardest difficulty (taking no damage) and also avoid this scenario if at all possible.
moozooh wrote:
I suppose you're fully familiar with the tools?
I'm a little fuzzy when it comes to using savestates to rerecord (so far I've just been using "stop movie" -> "play movie" -> "seek to frame" -> "resume record from now") but I'll figure it out. Right now the larger issues have my concern.
But I am concerned that, after what will probably be hundreds of hours of hard work, someone will come along and "improve" the run simply by using a ROM with an easier difficulty level. I would like to complete my run on the US ROM on the hardest difficulty (taking no damage) and also avoid this scenario if at all possible.
Yeah, I'm already seeing armies of runners eager to obsolete your movie by doing that. :) For the record, the original run still haven't been improved, and it's more than two years old by now (which kinda shows the groundlessness of your concerns). If you make sure your run is unimprovable otherwise, no-one would accept a new run made on an easier difficulty. However, if a new run will be faster not only due to taking damage, obsoletion will most likely be imminent in such case.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
N. Harmonik wrote:
And maybe afterwards, you could attempt Sparkster! I've heard the ones for the SNES and Sega Genesis are very different from each other...
Maybe. But this run is going to take a lot of work. You are correct that the SNES and Genesis versions of Sparkster are two completely different games.
Even though it's only twenty-five seconds long, I've decided to post a video WIP anyway just to show how I'm doing so far.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-926045347878720311
You can also download the Windows Media Video (at the full 60fps) here.
I spent an awful amount of time (and rerecords!) trying different ways of defeating the trucks, which is why this is all I have right now. Progress should be much quicker after this.
Don't be afraid to be rough with your opinions. ; )
Joined: 12/26/2006
Posts: 256
Location: United States of America
Attacking charges the rocket booster, which is how I'm able to move so fast. (That, and jumping preserves momentum.)
The reason that's there is so I can immediately take off once the second truck is destroyed.
Thanks for watching! : D
