Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player
(3575)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/2187/Gradius.fcm
My new gradius run. This is one is by far the most intense ever made. I put this run on hold to wait for a macro feature of fceu (the ability to assign many keypresses to a single key). Miau has been so kind as to patch a basic one (not released yet because it is still experimental.
I think this wip demonstrates the potential of this feature, allowing me to do things near impossible without it.
Shinyruu should be interested to note that I defeated the boss 6 frames faster than the old version :P
enjoy.
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Allright, I watched your run just now, and I have some feedback and questions about it...
Question 1: What are your goals with this run? I'm guessing "fastest completion", but do you have any more sub-goals?
Question 2: I'm not very familiar with gradius, but around 4500, a blue powerup spawns. What does this powerup do, and why didn't you take it?
Question 3: Do you know how much faster than Morimoto's movie this movie is at this point? I know it's a pain to compare an .fcm to an .fmv, but could you give me a hint perhaps?
And here is my overall feedback...
In my personal opinion, I think you did those tiny loops (wobbling-loops) way too much. At first it was quite cool and I thought "Nice, that's really fast", but after a while it got more and more irritating seeing you do those loops over and over. I found it similiar to "wobbling" on platform games: in the right proportions it can be fun to watch, but in this case I think you did it too much.
Second, I think that the first "boss fight" (the one with the lava bursting out) could look better, unless you were manipulating luck or anything to get it done faster. While Morimoto flies around mostly all over the screen during that boss fight, you mostly (not all the time, but in total) stick to one place, doing your small little loops. :P
And last, I know it's probably not your goal in this movie, but I know that it's indeed possible to kill every enemy in the first stage. Aiming for a 100% kills run as well as fastest completion would at least in my eyes look more entertaining, but maybe that's just my opinion. And if you're not aiming for 100% kills, at least I would like it more if you flew closer to enemies than you have done so far. I'm not saying that you haven't done that in this movie, but I would like to see some more intense "one pixel from getting hurt" action. :)
I'm sorry if I sound winy (I hope I spelled that right now), it's not my intention. :) I always find Gradius movies (and all your runs too, for that matter) entertaining to watch, and I hope that you found my feedback constructive, because that is my intention. Anyway, I hope this feedback helped you at least some, and good luck on the rest of this, I'll try to follow this up closely.
I think that looks really neat. This sort of run probably stands a better chance of obsoleting the current Gradius movie than anything else. My only complaints are:
You didn't include "100% kills" as a goal. Surely it's possible to fit that in without sacrificing too much of the other stuff you do.
Instead of each movement pattern happening extensively in a certain area, I'd rather see them mixed together more (such as that X-shaped pattern near the end of the movie replacing the loops in the first level sometimes... and more complicated things like rotating figure-eights would be cool).
Better synchronization with the music is probably possible.
I know that it's indeed possible to kill every enemy in the first stage
Even at the two vulcano's?
I really liked some parts of the wip (like the part after beating the boss), sometimes the movie was a little boring however (the circling around constantly was a bit overdone).
I especially like weaving in and out of enemy formations and circling around enemies and enemy shots, but yeah, circling everywhere and for no reason is silly.
Um, while everyone seems to be in the 100% kills category, I personally think "only kill when you'll get a powerup, otherwise annoy but don't destroy the enemy" is more entertaining.
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster.
I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
Seems like the best of both worlds would be to play with the enemies for as long as possible before killing them at the last possible moment. 100% kills where you kill everything as soon as you can would indeed be more boring.
Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player
(3575)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
JXQ wrote:
That poor pilot must be dizzy.
I'd like that to be in the movie description.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. To answer some questions:
My goals:
1) To max out speed as soon as possible
2) is to make a playaround (as Morimoto did) taking advantage of the ship's ridiculous speed
3) Make it as fast as possible while doing this. I shouldn't have to make any sacrifices for speed except for the first boss. Ironically, being superfast without weapon upgrades costs about 20 frames due to the fact the moving at 8 pixels per frames give me poor accuracy. By the 2nd boss, I will be maxed out and be able to destroy them optimally.
4) I will not aim for %100 kills but as Boco said, kill only enenies needed for powerups. Often I need to destroy certain enemies in order for power-up carrying enemies to appear.
The first level is basically a tease. I don't want to abuse all the possibilities just yet. From your comments I realize I need to be maximizing the amount of screen I am using when moving patterns around.
My usuage of circles, L's, and X's is to take away the element of the ship itself. A ship is not moving in circles. Rather a circular object is moving around the screen dodging enemies. Of course I need to keep pushing this to the extreme and play with death even more.
In the first two levels I have to deviate from this a lot in order to power up, I actually have to stop and play gradius periodically. After powering up, my goal is to take these mini-patterns (L's X's, circles, etc) and move them about in larger scale pre-planned patterns.
I will make "visual art" all while never running into an enemy. The macro function allows me to plans these pattern far in advance and find the right frame/position to begin them in order to squeeze my way through all the enemies/bullets.
In the first two levels I have to deviate from this a lot in order to power up, I actually have to stop and play gradius periodically.
Did anyone else think this was hilarious? El oh el.
yes but i also laught at your avatar every time i see it.
You should focus on spelling out words, along with the other stuff. Then leave clues as to what you spelled out.
Looks good ATM
We could do a TAS of the Arcade Conversion of this game.
The Arcade Conversion is a graphics, sound, and level hack, as well as implementing an options menu, and you can have 4 Options instead of 2. And it uses the MMC3 mapper and vertical scrolling was implemented.
We can also do a 2nd loop run with the bullet hell lua script.
We can also do a 2nd loop run with the bullet hell lua script.
I'm actually pretty interested in ridiculous difficulty level TASes of gradius games in general (I recall that all the arcade games had ridiculous loop 2s, for example, and all those are quite interesting to watch)
'ready for a comeback? I just played in for the first boss. adelikat's run is powerful; says
a lot that this video has been posted over ten years ago, and is still hot. I still haven't
learned how to program macro, but I've learned TASstudio; where one can set inputs for
different buttons, and make the ship fly in circles and make other lovely movements.
What are your take on this, guys?
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/55462499292561747Moderator edit: I moved your post here. Please use the main game thread for discussing new research. — moozooh
