2 questions here.
1st is for people that have controlled 2 players at once. What do you recommend for the button configuration? For first player I usually use up, down, left, and right to control, and Z, X, C, and D for buttons. But for the second player, kinda stuck since it's new to me. I know it's gonna be going frame by frame anyway, so it might not need to be comfortable, but I'd like it to be.
2nd question is, when TASing an arcade game, is it acceptable to go to the debug menu in the beginning of the run? I was gonna run Metal Slug and then go to the debug menu to turn on blood and maybe a higher difficulty.
2 questions here.
1st is for people that have controlled 2 players at once. What do you recommend for the button configuration? For first player I usually use up, down, left, and right to control, and Z, X, C, and D for buttons. But for the second player, kinda stuck since it's new to me. I know it's gonna be going frame by frame anyway, so it might not need to be comfortable, but I'd like it to be.
Player 1: 8564 for d-pad, and asdf for buttons
Player 2: UDLR for d-pad, and qwer for buttons
In Final Fight, there are only two buttons other than the directions, so asdf served for both players.
I set up the d-pads like that because I can control player 1 with my fingers while controlling player 2 with my thumb. The frame advance button goes on the spacebar in this setup, so that my left thumb can handle that.
2nd question is, when TASing an arcade game, is it acceptable to go to the debug menu in the beginning of the run? I was gonna run Metal Slug and then go to the debug menu to turn on blood and maybe a higher difficulty.
There may not be a precedent yet, but raising the difficulty will almost certainly be a requirement in cases where the increased difficulty makes the game more interesting. I don't know if that's the case in Metal Slug, but the rule of thumb is:
Adding more enemies is good; more chaos.
Making enemies take longer to die is bad; more repetition.
You should check the differences between the difficulties and poll the community if you're not sure which is best.
But turn the blood on in any case. ;)
Genious setup, can already feel the comfort in it. Thanks!
I was gonna test a few things, mostly the difference in enemy health in 2-player mode (something I know is true, just need to figure out how much), but as far as hard mode goes, I don't even remember there being more enemies. If there were, it was negligible. I think the main thing with it is that bullets travel a lot faster and enemies take more hits. Is that acceptable? Metal Slug is already extremely chaotic, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make.
Genious setup, can already feel the comfort in it. Thanks!
I was gonna test a few things, mostly the difference in enemy health in 2-player mode (something I know is true, just need to figure out how much), but as far as hard mode goes, I don't even remember there being more enemies. If there were, it was negligible. I think the main thing with it is that bullets travel a lot faster and enemies take more hits. Is that acceptable? Metal Slug is already extremely chaotic, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make.
If the enemy bullets go faster, I'd definitely say you should do it on the hardest difficulty.
That's probably a good idea.
Last question: I was trying to do 100%, at least on Metal Slug 1 and X. Should I just be going for the POWs? Painstakingly shooting a secret spot until some random goodies comes out gets you points, but it would take a good deal of time to do. At least with the prisoners I can usually just breeze right past them and still get them. And after all, isn't this a speedrun?
I'm pretty sure "100% POWs" would be the only qualification for a 100% run of Metal Slug.
Score is cool too, though- in the currently published TAS of the original Castlevania, one of the goals was to gain as many points as possible without sacrificing any frames. It can look really stylish, and people like the attention to detail.
Aren't there some POWs that only show up if you take a long time against the bosses?
In any event, discussion as to what constitutes a 100% should probably be held in the appropriate forum (and thread, if one already exists).
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
