This is a Tetris playaround. In this TAS, I aim to create the most impressive/difficult pattern I could think of. It might look random at times, but every block is carefully planned and manipulated. The planning of this TAS might have been more work than the actual TASing itself. Shortly before I die, the 18th line of the pattern is completed.
Emulater used: FCEUX 2.1.2
Completes pattern as high as possible as fast as possible
Manipulates luck
Genre: Puzzle
Thanks to NxCy and Nitrodon for being my soundboard :)
Baxter: Cancelling in favor of a submission which includes this playaround amongst other modes.
Baxter: Setting this back to new. The majority in the other thread preferred the playaround to be seperate from the other movies, and I agree this is the best option.
mmbossman: And I'm accepting this as a new "play-around" category.
I agree with Adelikat. Once you figured out what was going on, anticipating how the pattern would emerge was a lot of fun. I just wish it were possible to fill the entire play area properly. Oh, well.
Voting yes! I think this should be published, April Fools aside. As an achievement of planning and luck manipulation I find it far more impressive than our existing Tetris TASes.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
This was actually very fun to watch. Voting yes.
Only downside, for the style factor, if you could have draw "TAS" with holes/color it would have been realy outstanding ;)
I did consider the picture idea, but there are some difficulties. The field is only 10 blocks wide, which is not enough to draw even the most basic Mario or Link sprites. You are also limited because every line needs to contain at least one hole. Either way, in the ends, I couldn't think of a nice, recognizable image.
Things like spelling TAS are obviously possible, but I plan to make a Tetris DS (where each block shape has a different color) TAS in the future which will also include modes where one can make playarounds like this, so there might be something like this in the future.
I picked this pattern because every block really has to be handpicked to get this to work. A pattern like this would be pretty much impossible on the DS as the pieces can't be manipulated. The strength of this TAS I think is that a difficult puzzle, which would take hours to solve normally is being solved in a fast (but still watchable) pace. An image which might have relatively large areas of the same color wouldn't display that puzzle solving element that well (would even be a bit easy when one is able to manipulate each block), and might be better suited for a DS TAS, where the speed is too fast to keep up with what's going on anyway.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Shoot, I don't know if I actually liked this enough to be published, but it was pretty impressive once it got going. I won't vote.
Originally, I was going to pretend to give you crap and say that you shouldn't have picked a regular pattern. Instead you could've gone for something like the Rule 110 cellular automaton. That way, you could put arbitrary programs into Tetris displays! Then again, you don't have space, nor would it be fun or easy... ok, I'm done being a computer science theory wanker.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
If you don't want it, I'll have it back then.
I uncancelled this as it was more popular to have this seperately instead of grouped together.
I probably acted a bit too quickly before. Sorry!
Regarding compilation of similar movies (an issue that may arise again):
I think that unless it is almost-certain that someone will want to watch B after A, they should be kept separate. For example, though a single movie COULD be split into the various levels, to do so would be silly, since everyone will presumably want to watch level 2 after level 1.
Keeping movies together has the advantage of minimising clicks/downloads and - if you want to watch them all in the 'suggested' order - makes viewing more hassle-free.
However, if anyone later wants to watch just a single section (like someone might if you play different modes of the same game) that'll be a fair bit trickier, necessiating finding the right start point in the videofile and such.
Basically, if in doubt, I would suggest keeping all movies separate.
Assuming the movies are different enough, I don't think number of movies should ever be a restriction.
Regarding this run:
I enjoyed watching and it was a cool goal, skillfully achieved. The screenshot used on this site ruins the ending though, removing any sense of 'what is he doing' that I might have gotten from watching just the youtube thing.
With the next playaround, would it be possible to have multiple patterns/ pictures? Vertical stripes would be cool, as would the suggested sprites or 'TAS' lettershapes. I seem to remember Tetris DX's blocks falling faster, so maybe the pictures could be wiped and new ones created?
It would also be a fun bit of 'can you tell what it is yet?' the first time you watch, seeing a new sprite build up.
Anyways, this was a cool idea, fun watch and definitely deserved publication.
I'm just some random guy. Don't let my words get you riled - I have my opinions but they're only mine.
Hmm, one of the aspects that I like about this TAS is that you can somewhat follow the puzzling that is going on. I think that acpect might be lost in a Tetris DX playarond. I also then would rather see a regular GB Tetris playaround, as that will be roughly equally fast (though be it without real colors), and isn't represented on the site yet.
However! I am not planning on doing either of these. Somewhere in the (maybe far) future I want to do a Tetris DS TAS of (almost) all modes. Getting highscores in some modes requires unlocking level 20 first in a seperate run. This would be very well suited for doing a playaround.
Tetris DS would be a different kind of playaround as individual pieces can't be manipulated, and one has to make best of what one gets. This means a lot more lines need to be cleared for getting something particular (and maybe the hardest patterns / pictures (like the one in this TAS)) aren't even possible. However, that more lines are needed for them doesn't really matter as the blocks can be places so much faster, and the shape can probably still be formed quite fast (if not faster).
Particularly mission mode lends itself perfectly for such a playaround. Clearing a mission in mission marathon mode drops down the column a couple of lines, so the entire field can be cleared within seconds.
Wow, particularly the right one looks very nice!