Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
simply put, you end your movie when there is no need for further input. this also means that if you were to, say, end your movie upon starting the final blow, no one would be able to then take the helm and kill you/ruin your no hit run, or whatnot. usually, the movie is stopped when the player cant control anything anymore (ie when a final boss begins a slow motion death sequence). that way, when the movie is recorded, the recorders dont have to worry about pressing any buttons while the movie is playing.
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Post subject: Re: When to stop recording
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Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7468
Location: Arzareth
There a few choices for this. Inclusively, some of them are: 1. At the first possible moment when keypad is no longer needed for game completion 2. At the first possible moment when keypad input can no longer prevent game completion 3. At the first possible moment when the ending goal has been accomplished In most games, the goals come in this order, but in some games they can be in different order. Which one is considered best depends on the game. Generally, I don't like movies that end before the choice 2 has been fulfilled.
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Joined: 4/17/2004
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If you don't put in your initials in Streets of Rage 2, the game stops and you will never see the ending demo (which almost always is also encoded in the video file). This is probably the reason in this particular case.
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Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
I found an interesting case in which the difference between 2 and 3 is quite debatable in the game Eggerland for FDS. Once you finish the last room, you switch the disk side, and then you play a game of rock-paper-scissors as Lolo against King Egger to reach the ending. But I've found that the game is rigged--not only do you always win the tournament, but the entire sequence of wins, losses, and draws is the same every time you play. So I could just stop the recording after the disk side switch and let the choice be Rock every time, and the result would be no faster or slower than actually playing and picking lots of different choices. The only change would be the graphics for Lolo's and King Egger's hands. So would I right in stopping the recording that early? Or would I need to let it actually record through the rock-paper-scissors fight so that it "looks the same" every time and doesn't confuse the viewer into thinking the movie was unfinished? The other issue I can think of here is when there is a secret in the ending itself. Would you want the movie to be longer to unlock that secret? In Eggerland, you can push Start when the ending's over to get a short song surprise, and in the Japanese version of Contra, you can hold Select during the credits to get a secret message from Red Falcon. But other games have less exciting things to do during the credits, like allowing the player to start the game over upon pressing a button. So are ending secrets necessary to record? All this adds up to confusion over whether a movie is "better" than another just because it has fewer recorded button presses. A movie could be faster at reaching the ending but come up longer just because it records more at the end.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Joined: 8/12/2004
Posts: 42
Location: Washington, DC
If you don't put in your initials in Streets of Rage 2, the game stops and you will never see the ending demo (which almost always is also encoded in the video file). This is probably the reason in this particular case. I forgot about that, I was thinking of a typical fighting game where you can just leave the ending alone and it will put initials in for you.
Post subject: Streets Of Rage 2
Joined: 2/15/2005
Posts: 246
Location: Torquay, England
Ok, Imageshack decided to employ a system to check their filetypes so I got a random file hosting site. But enough about that. http://mercury.walagata.com/w/bobxp/sor2.gmv It only goes up to the end of the first scene (ie after beating Jack) but tell me what you think of it before I continue. I mostly used 20% speed and frame advance. What's really annoying is that it wouldn't recognise enter (my frame advance key) while I was holding down two directions (like down+right) so I had to use slowmo instead. Maybe this is just my laptop though, since I don't recall this happening on my desktop PC.
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
I have the same problem with the keystrokes on my laptop. I can only use two buttons at the same time. You know there's an accepted submission for this game right? http://tasvideos.org/movies.cgi?id=155M It's a bit better than yours.
Joined: 2/15/2005
Posts: 246
Location: Torquay, England
Oooh. I searched, but I didn't find it - thanks. But it's still fun to make them! By the way, thanks to whoever told me to use 3 button mode - it fixed the desync in stage 2! anyway, I'm going to watch that video now. Edit: okay, it's certainly faster, but I am going for no damage. ;)
Post subject: Streets of Rage 2 (2 players)
Joined: 8/12/2004
Posts: 42
Location: Washington, DC
I want to make a 2 player video. Obviously, it won't be easy. Any suggestions? (I will be using Axel and Blaze)
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Sweet. I really want to see a run of this, especially if Axel and Blaze are used. I'd recommend the J version, Bare Knuckle 2, instead of SoR 2, because English versions are almost always censored in some way. I don't know of any differences that would affect speed, though. Other than that... All I can really suggest is that you make sure to do your homework so you don't end up wasting a lot of time in the long run. (Pun intended.) Make sure to read everything you can about the game on this site, on gamefaqs, and use google to learn about any programming errors that may have been documented.
Joined: 8/12/2004
Posts: 42
Location: Washington, DC
As far as I know the only differences between BK2 and SoR2 are 1. The title screen (obviously) 2. Blaze's panties (Some people will like watching this but in my opinion it doesn't warrant usage of the Japanese rom) 3. You can check your KOs when the game is paused (and I won't be pausing the game during this run) What I'm really concerned about is what Axel and Blaze can do together that a single character can't. Namely, high-damage moves (Kikoshouzan + Grand Upper) and infinites (Axel can do this by himself but Blaze will make it much more effective) And of course I want to figure out how to manage 2 players simultaneously while keeping the camera moving.
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
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First things first, have you seen the Max only run? I'm quite sure a Max + whoever run would be faster than Axel + Blaze. The only other difference I know of is that Mr. X smokes a cigar in BK2.
Player (246)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
It would be worth your time to see if the 2 player downward attack bug exists in this game. For those who are unfamiliar with this, in Streets of Rage 3, when you get more than one enemy in between both players and both of them use their downward attacks (or one of them uses a downward attack and the other just attacks), the number of hits scored multiplies and the damage is uber. It would also be worth your time to research if you can hit an enemy from both sides at the exact same frame and kill him/her instantly. I'd imagine Max + Axel would be the fastest. Blaze has no distinct edge over Axel as far as power is concerned, and Axel has Grand Upper. And Skate...well, he's just too weak.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
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>It would be worth your time to see if the 2 player downward attack bug exists in this game. It does, in some form. I've had it happen to me when an (or two?) enemy drained my whole life with one punch, me and coplayer standing inside each other. I don't know how to reproduce it. >And Skate...well, he's just too weak. He has the speed to keep the screen constantly scrolling while fighting, though. Probably there are so many places where the screen stands still that his lower damage output doesn't make it worth it.
Player (246)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
However, in this game, the screen scrolls really slow, and even Max can both fight and keep the screen scrolling.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Joined: 8/12/2004
Posts: 42
Location: Washington, DC
The main reason I didn't choose Max was because we have a Max video already, and I wanted to see what the other characters were capable of. Then again I really haven't done anything yet so I can still go back and change that.
Player (246)
Joined: 4/24/2005
Posts: 476
Let's just say they're capable of a lot less. I personally enjoy watching Max brutally dominate everyone. His power is just sickening and highly amusing at times. Now that I think of it, it would be kind of boring to watch Grand Upper after Grand Upper (or infinite combos, for that matter). Maybe Blaze would be a good choice just for the variety of moves that she can do. It would be slower, but a lot less boring.
[URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcuV2JdaBYY]Streets of Rage 3 (2 players)[/url]
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
>... even Max can both fight and keep the screen scrolling. But that's because of his slide and tackle moves. Axel and Blaze don't have any such moves, but Skate can run.
Joined: 3/23/2006
Posts: 211
I've watched this run dozens of times, and I've played this game hundreds of times.... and now I'm wondering about attempting to obsolete SprintGod's run, mainly by using better accuracy, achievable by watching memory locations. I'm just mentioning this incase anyone else starts trying to obsolete it.
do not forget to *ENJOY THE SAUCE*
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 883
You should record yourself with camstudio. I would like to see how you do this :P
adelikat
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Expert player, Site Developer, Site Owner (3581)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4736
Location: Tennessee
I would be interested in seeing an improvement of this game. The current run needs updating badly. I think it should be 2-player. That would make it more interesting and save a lot of time. Plus the 2 players can hurt each other, which might make for some creative time-savers. And if not, they could at least beat the crap out of each other during wait times :)
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Joined: 8/12/2004
Posts: 42
Location: Washington, DC
If anyone cares, I started on a video using Skate. Obviously this won't obsolete the current run, I just wanted to have a little fun, that's all. http://www.zshare.net/download/250823138b2eb7/ (don't expect anything huge, it's less than 2 minutes)
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 102
kotetsu213 wrote:
If anyone cares, I started on a video using Skate. Obviously this won't obsolete the current run, I just wanted to have a little fun, that's all. http://www.zshare.net/download/250823138b2eb7/ (don't expect anything huge, it's less than 2 minutes)
Skate is the showman. A real good player, even if not TASing, can always do some outstanding tricks and combos with him. Even though, his attacks are not as strong as Max's so if a Skate run was made, it most likely wouldn't be even as close as fast the actual run is but, otherwise, would seem quite more impressive I think!
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Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 717
I usually prefer playing with Sammy (or Skate) when I play that game, just because he can cause so much havoc that the other characters can't. I do think that the run should be 2-player, though.
Joined: 5/15/2006
Posts: 102
arkiandruski wrote:
I usually prefer playing with Sammy (or Skate) when I play that game, just because he can cause so much havoc that the other characters can't. I do think that the run should be 2-player, though.
Ya, you could do the cheat to select the same characters, then do it with 2 Maxes or Skate + Max or even 2 Skates, I dont know! So many possibilities... I do think, though, that Blaze and Axel are useless to speedrun.