Post subject: Asterix and the Great Rescue
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
I've started work on a TAS for the little-known game Asterix and the Great Rescue. It is extremely hard to play with tools, let alone in realtime. Those of you who have played it (yes, both of you!) know that the collision detection is shit and you need pretty precise jumps to beat the game. Which just makes it more fun to play x_x. (to understand how hard this is, I have 337 rerecords for a minute's worth of work XD) Anyway, here's what I've done so far: Gaulish Village 1 Obelix (3:26) Gaulish Village 2 Asterix (0:56) about 20 frames off 55 x_x. The GMV is here: http://download.yousendit.com/3FAD653D0FDB54E5(works with Asterix and the Great Rescue (U) [!].bin) Note: the timer in this game ticks down, not up.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Editor, Expert player (2460)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Hi! I watched your movie. Here some questions: 1) Do you have a reason for not choosing the harder difficulty level? Usually the movie is more interesting that way. 2) Are you sure that you pressed start as early as possible? Did you use frame advance to find the earliest frame? 3) Why did you make Obelix hit the air so much? :)
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Aqfaq wrote:
1) Do you have a reason for not choosing the harder difficulty level? Usually the movie is more interesting that way.
Cuz I'm lazy XD.
Aqfaq wrote:
2) Are you sure that you pressed start as early as possible? Did you use frame advance to find the earliest frame?
Are you kidding? I spent twenty G-rated minutes getting frame-perfect menus.
Aqfaq wrote:
3) Why did you make Obelix hit the air so much? :)
a) uber air is essential in this game; it's impossible to go through the game without damage, and considering the amount of damage one takes during the course of game, I had to minimize it and b) because fat guys flying in the air are awesome. =D
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Former player
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1286
Location: Finland
If you are planning on submitting this run to the site, you should definitely start over and use the highest difficulty. It is not uncommon for runs to get rejected only because they are not played on the hardest difficulty. Runs of games that have a hard difficulty that only doubles the enemies' health or something sometimes do get published though, because it is decided that the hardest difficulty level doesn't really add anything that valuable to the movie. I'm not familiar with the game and don't know whether this is the case here.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Kyrsimys wrote:
If you are planning on submitting this run to the site, you should definitely start over and use the highest difficulty. It is not uncommon for runs to get rejected only because they are not played on the hardest difficulty. Runs of games that have a hard difficulty that only doubles the enemies' health or something sometimes do get published though, because it is decided that the hardest difficulty level doesn't really add anything that valuable to the movie. I'm not familiar with the game and don't know whether this is the case here.
The normal difficulty is damn hard enough, thank you very much.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
SXL
Joined: 2/7/2005
Posts: 571
well, you have tools, use them to own the game, do not let the game own/scare you... (besides, it's in the rules, and it indeed looks better) as for difficult games done, look at the Toki (juju densetsu) tas. now that's something insane...
I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death - NAS
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
SXL - I worked on that movie for a while! :D Also that game is a bitch when it desyncs as well. I do plan to make a V2 of that game some day as well. Now.. I will check this game out. Probably loads of fun. =) I have checked the run now. Doesn't seem optimal at some places. But I could be wrong. Have you checked if the intro text etc is skipable with other buttons than start? Seems like a very weird game. Please go on with it. But change the difficulty!
Joined: 6/6/2004
Posts: 223
The only difference between difficulty levels is the amount of time you start out with. I wouldn't think you need to go out of your way and spend time to change to Hard here.
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
Is the time counted down to score in some way? Because then, choosing hard would save you time. I don't really know how this game works though.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Highness wrote:
Is the time counted down to score in some way? Because then, choosing hard would save you time. I don't really know how this game works though.
I've been away from Gens for a while now (it's at my dad's and I'm at my mom's) and I don't plan to redo it in Hard mode. I also plan to do a run which abuses the 'DULCIS' password to go straight to World 6 (Rome) on Hard Mode.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
Passwords aren't allowed unless they have a VERY special purpose (e.g. content that cannot be reasonably accessed during normal playthrough). Why does your run need a password that skips levels? Anyone can enter that, you don't need tool assistance for that.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
HUZZAH! AN UPDATE! :o This new TAS update has all of Gaulish Village completed, with two intentional deaths and possibly the wierdest boss in the history of gaming ;-). The new GMV is here. Stats so far: 38,135 frames, 10 minutes 35.58 seconds long, with 1,652 rerecords (an average of ~ 2.6 rerecords per second.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
What's with the missed shots at the boss? And I think I count three deaths.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
KDR_11k wrote:
What's with the missed shots at the boss? And I think I count three deaths.
Meh. I'll fix it later. EDIT: Fixed, except for one essential miss. Working on Roman Encampment right now.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Good news. Roman Encampment is finished! *you may commence applause*. The new GMV is here. Stats are now: 62,560 frames, 17 min 22.67 seconds, 2,096 rerecords, ~ 0.5 rerecords per second. EDIT: Just as I was finishing Germany, guess what? I accidentally recorded over my TAS, so now I have to start at the Forest AGAIN! (I only did this so I didn't triple-post ;) )
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
I guess I have to triple post :( Anyway, The Forest is now complete including the Log-Rolling Roman...IN THREE SECONDS! O_O The GMV is here: http://download.yousendit.com/E7EA57A05E970E49 The stats are now: 79,177 frames, 21 min 59.62 seconds, 2,318 rerecords. EDIT: Sorry about the desync. I'm fixing it right now.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Joined: 6/6/2004
Posts: 223
I get a desync in Forest stage 6. At first it looks like you take an intentional death, but then with 1 life left Asterix walks into a pit to go to the continue screen. The first two areas play correctly.
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
The desync has been fixed, biatches! The undesynced GMV is here. Not only that, I've COMPLETETLY REDONE Forest 6-8 (or Huts 26-28) and added some 1337 new techniques to put my time down even further. Stats so far: 79,022 frames, 21 min 57.03 seconds, 2,438 rerecords.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Active player (441)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
The TAS is FINISHED. FINALLY!!!! The poll is here.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
I did post some comments about it in the workbench thread. Hope I'm not stomping on your feets. Thanks for the credits in your submission info!
Eszik
He/Him
Joined: 2/9/2014
Posts: 163
I wanted to TAS this game so I went ahead and did the first two levels : Link to video Some comments : - Health management is hard in this game, because a lot of enemies can't be killed without being hit (basically all the enemies moving in the same direction as you). - I lost some time to kill two enemies in the first level because I will have to take a damage during the third level - I needed to avoid the last potion in the second level because I would have lost the cloud potion if I took it.
I problably made mistakes, sorry for my bad English, I'm French :v
Editor, Experienced player (883)
Joined: 7/20/2011
Posts: 345
I needed to avoid the last potion in the second level because I would have lost the cloud potion if I took it.
You don't lose potions by taking another, you just have to switch back to it with Up+C I believe. Edit: Just some other information about the game that I found out because I was somewhat bored. Choosing Hard difficulty results in 10s less time to complete a level. The level counts down at the end but does so incredibly fast, so the difference between them only saves 3 frames per level by choosing hard. However choosing hard takes an incredibly long time of 389 frames because it has to go through a bunch more animations to open the options menu. This means that if hard mode saves 3 frames per level, there would have to be 129.66 levels to make up for choosing hard in the first place. That is to say I'm not sure the timer is always 10s less for every level. I know this game has a lot of individual levels but I'm pretty sure there aren't 129 of them.
Current thoughts: Hachiemon (J) for GBA.
Joined: 10/28/2013
Posts: 130
Location: United States
On Hard, enemies take more hits IIRC (can't remember if bosses do too), so if there are any unavoidable foes that'd easily undo any gains on the timer. I always thought this game was a lot better than people say, with clever stage design and great music. The collision detection makes perfect sense if you know you're never supposed to pursue enemies, but always let them come to you; the manual even says as much. The platforming/play control gets pretty wonky sometimes, though.
Editor, Experienced player (883)
Joined: 7/20/2011
Posts: 345
I never noticed any enemies requiring more hits but I didn't do analysis on every single enemy. I liked the game since I had it when growing up but it is very awkward to play. I don't think the hitboxes make much sense, those archers that pop up from the ground in roman encampment for example can be pretty far away from you and still hurt you. Certain other things like the falling wax hurts you as soon as the animation starts, despite where the actual wax is.
Current thoughts: Hachiemon (J) for GBA.
Editor, Experienced player (883)
Joined: 7/20/2011
Posts: 345
Did the first two worlds out of boredom, but didn't add the music item swapping yet, because I think it's better to make sure the run is optimal first. That said the game is very edit friendly so it's easy to make a small change using TAStudio and sync up afterwards. Even the seemingly RNG based bosses still sync up. Open to suggestions, but if you've played the game you know how annoying some things can be. For instance, your jump is always a fixed height so it makes certain jumps awkward. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/21099200014297059
Current thoughts: Hachiemon (J) for GBA.