Spy vs Spy was originally a comic strip featured in MAD magazine which began in 1961. To celebrate 45 years of two spies constantly plotting against each other, I present to you this run. There are 8 levels, which all are completed. To avoid having to see the long animation at the end of each level, the "9th button" is used.
The object of the game is to collect a suitcase and 4 items, then leave the embassy. Items can be collected in any order, but you can only hold 1 item unless you have the suitcase.
In regards to Time Bombs, it is impossible to make it across the room horizontally, nor going up or down ladders. You can make it through the room in any other direction.

Level 1

The level is fairly straight forward. However at the end Black is standing in the room with the exit. As long as he is there, I cannot leave, which I end up pausing just outside the door until he spring the exit door. At this point I can walk in and exit the level. In-game Time: 00:16

Level 2

Due to Black's movement of himself and an item, I need a weapon to fight him. The dagger is more powerful than the club and happens to be right in my path. However, you cannot pick it up while holding the suitcase, which is why I drop it off, grab the dagger, then go back for the suitcase. In-game time: 00:35

Level 3

Not much to discuss here as it's fairly straight forward. In-game time: 00:42

Level 4

For some reason, Black did almost exactly as I wanted him to: He didn't pick up the papers or money bag. He did get the club, leading to a few frames to have to maneuver around him at one point, but a lot of time was saved by not having to get the dagger and fight him. In-game time: 00:46

Level 5

First off, the death in this level is unavoidable, without having to do a superlong (and probably impossible) manipulation of Black. The item I'm carrying when I die gets dropped off in the room, because there is an empty spot for the item to go. If there was not, it would warp to a different location, much like the item Black was holding when he went back to his starting spot.
Also, I have to fight Black here because I cannot carry the item through the room.
Black also managed to set off one trap on himself, leading me to stop and laugh. The rest went well. In-game time: 02:05

Level 6

Black had to set up a trap in the way (go figure) but with some manipulation (me walking around really funny) I got him to set it off AND get on the ladder before I could laugh (with just frames to spare!). Outside of Black's stupid trap placement, another smooth level. In-game time: 01:12

Level 7

Black was really stupid and fell for his own Time Bomb trap TWICE. IN THE SAME ROOM. The first time I was able to pause slightly so I would be on the ladder when he died (and thus not laugh). Second time was unavoidable laughter though. Or uncontrollable laughter. Hey, I thought it was funny too. In-game time: 01:31

Level 8

I got Black to do what I wanted him to do...take out the one Time Bomb! This level went great. In-game time: 01:10

Possible Improvements:
  • Figure out how to manipulate Black to the fullest. I haven't been able to quite understand how to make him move properly, but I know it can be done.

  • Uses death as a shortcut
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Performs a console reset
  • Genre: Strategy
Recorded on FCEU 0.98.15.

Truncated: I think that even though it is short, this movie offers very little entertainment in comparison to how long it is. After two levels it is really just a lot more of the exact same. Feedback has been lukewarm, if that. All in all, it sums up to a rejection.

adelikat: Unrejecting and accepting for publication to the Vault

natt: processing

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1296: Sir VG's NES Spy Vs Spy in 08:47.38
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Yay, first reply! Hmmm, just one question... do items spawn randomly when the level begins, or are they always in the same places? The levels look randomly generated, so it may be possible to manipulate each level to be such that it is more optimal to speed though. But judging from the number of rooms, it may mean quite a lot of iterations etc if a bot is created... not sure if its possible.
Truncated wrote:
Truncated is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. -- xoinx
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xoinx wrote:
Yay, first reply! Hmmm, just one question... do items spawn randomly when the level begins, or are they always in the same places?
They are always in same places.
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Looks quite alright to me then, just hate the lag when the game tries to load a new room... as well as that music o.O Would have voted yes if I could
Truncated wrote:
Truncated is the most fiendish instrument of torture ever devised to bedevil the days of man. -- xoinx
Sir_VG
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Items always start in the same locations. The only time it seems random is if you drop an item in a room that either has no storage places or all of the storage places have an item. And even then it's very predictable if you study the game a bit. As the only occurance for me is in Level 5, I know when Black drops his item in his starting spot, it has always wound up in the upper left corner of the 2nd floor. Works the same on a console too. And yes, the lag between changing rooms is annoying, but what can ya do?
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
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Sir VG wrote:
but what can ya do?
Bad boys bad boys, what you gonna go, what you gonna do when they come for you?! What en they the heei! (never could the rest ^_^) Voting yes since the character looks so incredibly goofy, and his head is made of a carrot.. and the run looks optimized. Im sure Bisqwit will give a much more elaborate feedback. Good job nevertheless on your first TAS!
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
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Nicely done. I hope eventually you can figure out a way to eliminate the time-wasters altogether (dying from the time bomb, laughing at black spy) but the last few levels are really well done. I love how you manipulate the black spy into falling for his own traps a lot. I particularly liked how he put a bucket of acid over the door then opened it moments later, frying himself, so you could run right through his room to the exit. Now, you'd mentioned that while you're climbing a ladder, the laughing animation doesn't play. I wonder if this also happens if you're going through the door at the exact "laugh" moment. Have you experimented with this?
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Oh, that was acid? I thought it was coffee. Coffee so hot that it burned the guy's skin off.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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Rulewise, this movie is as clean as it gets. Doing all eight stages leaves no point for argument. I also verified, and you never did reset the game before the door opened, so it's clean in that aspect too. Perfectionwise, you have done good job optimizing each stage via several iterations. Entertainmentwise ― this movie does not really offer anything interesting for those who have never seen this game. Those who have, get quickly bored. Only the music is interesting; it is a brainrelaxer in the same way as the Jackie Chan's Kungfu background music is. You can easily jump over minutes of the movie and you won't miss anything. Well, except for the four or so times Black walks into his own trap, which are quite amusing I must admit. As a trip down the memory lane, that purpose would have been accomplished in just the first 20 seconds of this movie. I.e. this movie is way too long. The only thing that deserves merit is the level of perfection that you have done. I cannot say that it is enough to get this movie published on the front page. My vote is "no".
JXQ
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I have no idea what's going on in this movie. I only watched the first three levels. I'm not voting. Fourth sentence.
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I voted yes, even though the music isn't very good. It's fun to watch the funny animation of the spies and watch all the rooms that are mostly the same but all painted different colors. It's like a mix of this first-person shooter I used to play and this puzzle adventure game I used to play.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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While I understand the point of the game, and I like its music, such a run would only appeal to those who like this type of games (and this game in particular). However, it looks very good qualitywise. I don't know what to vote, to be honest.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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I didn't watch more than the first 4 or so levels. It could be perfect, but there aren't very many interesting things happening. I'm not voting since I didn't finish the movie, but this is a good example of a game to avoid.
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
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IdeaMagnate wrote:
I'm not voting since I didn't finish the movie
Finishing watching the movie is not a requirement for voting. It is your perception of the movie that matters. I usually make my voting/judging decisions from the first few minutes of the movie, unless I know/have read that more interesting content will come up later in the movie. Usually the first few minutes are enough to tell the quality of the playing, as well as the entertainment value of the game.
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Voted meh. Really meh-no. Looks pretty well done, and the game looks fun, but it just doesn't work for a TAS. Good run though.
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Seeing Black blow himself up repeatedly (or other silly deaths) was amusing... The lag between rooms really sucked, but it didn't ruin the movie enough to really have an effect. +1 Yes
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JXQ wrote:
I have no idea what's going on in this movie. I only watched the first three levels. I'm not voting. Fourth sentence.
The game's actually really simple. You need to collect four items and escape through the airport door. You need the bag to be able to carry more than one item at a time, so you need all five of those. The idea is to outsmart or outgun the other player to ensure that you get all items and escape. Normally this is done by brawling with them, or setting traps for them. In this run, the player almost completely avoids contact. He avoids the black spy or manipulates him into setting off his own traps. For those who didn't watch past the first three or four levels, that's because those parts aren't as entertaining. (Maybe they can be improved?) The last couple of levels are the best.
adelikat
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Voting No. Bisqwit said pretty much everything I have to say about it. The biggest disappointment about the GAME is that the items are not random. If they were you could have shown incredible luck manipulation to move them to the closest possible rooms. Which would also have shrunk the length of this movie dramatically. I am amused by the cpu character walking into his own traps but if you have played this game for any length of time, you will see that it is not uncommon for him to do so.
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
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adelikat wrote:
If they were you could have shown incredible luck manipulation to move them to the closest possible rooms. Which would also have shrunk the length of this movie dramatically.
But luck manipulation is boring! It takes too long to get what you want, and you don't really "see" it in the movie unless it's terribly drastic, in which case it's boring because you win too fast for anything interesting to happen.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
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om, nom, nom... blech, stale!
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fceu 0,98,15-rr
  File: Spy Vs Spy (U) [!].nes
CRC-32: 23d23dcc
   MD4: c08648862278ef110849657d8ed62dae
   MD5: 495d63a908ee76f9bd88ab20a10380f8
 SHA-1: c78094d25f091c053272867444e88e80841c85eb
This is not the rom in the fcm header.
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Considering the changes in the site priorities, I would vote 'yes' for this movie now.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2137] NES Spy vs. Spy by Sir VG in 08:46.52