Post subject: Pocky & Rocky 2
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
Hello everybody. I'm a long time lurker who has decided to stop being lazy and get to work in a TAS :P, so I played some games from the "Ideas List" and found this one pretty funny. I have here a first try at TASing the game. It's not frame-perfect and no, it isn't even close to optimal, but, if the feedback is good and the people finds it interesting and help me a bit (finding strategies, glitches and discussing routes), I'll try to finish it.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
OK, here is the first real attempt at TASing the game. It's the first level player with all the tricks I've found in the game, and it's 2092 frames faster than the first WIP. I'm aiming for: - 100% kills. (Everything that shows in the screen, dies! >:) - Fastest speed. - No damage. (Taking damage doesn't seem to give any advantage) Also, I've discovered several interesting things: - The walking speed of Pocky's companions is the same as Pocky's. - Even powered up, cards always do the same damage. Only thing that changes is direction (first power up) and size (second power up). - The collision detection is BAAAAD. Pocky can avoid shoots by pixels, but the enemys will die from a card that is visually far from them. Only the fishes seem to have a smaller collision box. - The scroll is EVIL. I still don't know how to make the screen scroll when it stops (p.e: the crossroad). Tricks: - The four frame multidirectional card machine gun: This is a way of shooting a card every four frames in any direction. Frame by frame, it is: 1 - Direction you're walking + shoot. 2 - Direction you're walking. 3 - Direction you want to shoot the card. 4 - Direction you want to continue walking. 5 - GOTO 1. - The three frame unidirectional card machine gun: This is a way of shooting a card every three frames, but only in one direction. I try to avoid using this, because it makes Pocky lose her momentum. In this WIP it's only used before the last gate against one of the evil trees. Frame by frame, it is: 1 - Direction you're walking + shoot. 2 - Direction you're walking. 3 - No input. 4 - GOTO 1. By the way... Is this post well written? :P. English is not my mother language, so I beg you: Please, correct me when I write something wrong.
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>The walking speed of Pocky's companions is the same than Pocky's. Either it's faster THAN Pocky, or the same AS. >Even powered up, cards do the same damage always. It's feels more natural to put the "always" earlier to me, as in "... cards always do the same damage". (Disclaimer: English is not my first language either, and I didn't check your post after these lines.)
creaothceann
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Joined: 4/7/2005
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Uh... server is down?
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 325
good luck with this run, i loved the first game (even though i could never beat it ) so i'll probably love this i don't know anything about it though so i can't really help you but it shouldn't be a game with much planning anyways
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
Here we go! Second level complete! (Click here to watch it). Those walking tombstones were a real pain in the ass. They have a really big collision box and, also, they move way too fast. The boss (Foxy) is harder in her first form than after she becomes a fox. I use once the instant of invulnerability you get while throwing your partner to avoid being hit by her shots. Now, I want to hear you. Does this look good? Funny? Interesting? Should I continue and record the entire game?
creaothceann
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Thaurlom wrote:
Does this look good? Funny? Interesting?
yep³
Thaurlom wrote:
Should I continue and record the entire game?
I'd definitely like to see it.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
Here I go again on my own! Going down the only road I've ever... Ahem... Third level complete! Download the movie file here! This one was easier than the last one, and Impy was just a breeze. The fourth level should be soon complete, and I think it will be really funny, because it's a very fast vertical shoot'em'up scroller... Riding a dog (you know, little card throwing girls do that all the time). As always, I'd like to have some feedback so... Write something here if you like it! (And if you don't like it, write too, and say me why).
Joined: 12/11/2005
Posts: 13
This video is really well done, I would like to see it fully complete
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
I've just noticed that I've being giving wrong numbers to the stages so, this is the FIFTH stage, and not the fourth as I was thinking. Anyway, download the movie here. This was a really straightforward level. It's an autoscroller so the only times where I can really be faster or slower is in the boss battles and even those battles are easy (ignoring the fact that Volta takes FIVE HUNDRED cards to die). There are also those mask things. You will notice that I leave one alive. Why? Will you ask. Okay, I'll answer you. No, no, really, I'll do it! There's no way to hit it! It's placed further to the left than Pocky can ride and even with the second powerup I couldn't find the way to shoot it two times.
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Why is this being done as a 1-player run instead of as a 2-player run? (To make it not too hard to do, or is it actually faster?) It's fine either way, I'm just wondering what the reason is.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
nitsuja wrote:
Why is this being done as a 1-player run instead of as a 2-player run? (To make it not too hard to do, or is it actually faster?) It's fine either way, I'm just wondering what the reason is.
Because there are a lot of laggy scenes where it's better to have your henchman dead (one less sprite on screen) and as this is a no damage run, I couldn't do that in a two player run. Edit: There's even a better reason. This game doesn't have a two-players mode XD
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 141
Thaurlom wrote:
Edit: There's even a better reason. This game doesn't have a two-players mode XD
Actually, it does. After the practice stage (Pocky's Practice Stage) you are given an option to either play a 1P or a 2P game. I just checked. A 2P run would be more interesting to do than a sole 1P run IMO.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
Wow, you're right, I didn't notice it. I'm going to check what are the changes between a 1-player and a 2-player run to see if it's worth changing. Edit: Ok. Two-player game is the same as one-player game. The only change is that the second player controls Pocky's henchman. He / she can still be launched to the enemies and does less damage than Pocky with his / her attacks. As this is only a test run, I have no problem changing the way I'm going to play the game so, help me decide. How about: - Two players. - No damage (this time, including Pocky's henchman). - 100 % kills.
Joined: 5/6/2005
Posts: 141
Yes, that sounds just fine. I've noticed that games where you can play as 2 players or more are typically more fun and interesting to watch than 1P games, AND in some cases it helps finish the game faster (ie: Super Bomberman 2P run). Go for it!
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
Just a little update. I'm busy studying my exams, so I don't have too much time to play, but still, today I finished the fourth stage 1479 frames faster than the last version. But now comes the tricky question. The henchman throwing movement can be a huge timesaver sometimes. Should we consider it as "taking damage" for the second player? Throwing the henchman makes Pocky invulnerable for a short time, and also, does 4 hp of damage every odd frame to bosses (they start with 480 usually).
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Thaurlom wrote:
The henchman throwing movement can be a huge timesaver sometimes. Should we consider it as "taking damage" for the second player?
In Pocky & Rocky, if both players dash into each other they rebound all over the place while invincible, which can save a good amount of time, but they also lose a little health. I would consider it not taking damage because it is spending health to perform an action rather than losing health from getting hit by an enemy (and it doesn't do the "getting hurt" noise or animation). I think that also applies to this situation in Pocky & Rocky 2, unless you think it actually makes the movie less interesting to use this throwing move.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
It's much more interesting. If i didn't use it, boss battles would be about four or five times longer, so I think I'll use it.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
Hello, guys, I'm back! Yes, I know, it's been a long time. I just got in the mood and continued this project, and this is the progress so far: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/2448/Thaurlom%20-%20Pocky%20%26%20Rocky%202%20-%20Two%20Players.smv
creaothceann
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PR_Error.png What ROM did you use? I have this version, checked with NSRT:
---------------------Internal ROM Info----------------------
       File: Pocky & Rocky 2 (U).sfc
       Name: POCKY&ROCKY2          Company: Natsume
     Header: None                     Bank: LoROM
Interleaved: No                       SRAM: 0 Kb
       Type: Normal                    ROM: 12 Mb
    Country: USA                     Video: NTSC
  ROM Speed: 200ns (SlowROM)       Version: 1.0
   Checksum: Good 0xD3EA             CRC32: 3B94B032
--------------------------Database--------------------------
   Name: Pocky & Rocky 2
Country: USA                    Version: 1.0
 Port 1: Gamepad                 Port 2: Gamepad
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
There are two versions of the game. The one I used is Pocky & Rocky 2 (U)(6254)
creaothceann
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Location: Germany
Thanks. Now it works :)
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 19
So... How does it look? ;)
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Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 373
Location: Oregon
I stumbled upon an interesting trick: if you use Magic to merge into one character and then move around using both controllers to push in the same directions the merged character will move twice as fast. Unfortunately, there's the transformation animation times to consider, the magic doesn't last for very long and the the screen holds you back somewhat once you reach the edge of it (though you'll still be moving somewhat faster than usual), but I thought I'd throw it out in case it ends up being useful somewhere.