Note: Due to the page engine restrictments, my name is spelled with a capital "m" in the heading; however, I do not approve of spelling it with capitals.
That being said, this page happens to be a personal page of moozooh. Try not to vandalize it beyond recognition, as it currently is an example of nicely organized and fully informational page as I see it. :)
Special bonus feature: recursive link!
The list of the Most Popular Excuses viewers give for publishing a movie
— a half-serious document of bad argumentation used in Workbench forum
— a half-serious document of bad argumentation used in Workbench forum
(Please, try not to edit these pages without telling me first, unless it is a comment or typo correction.)
Some info about moozooh
Right here. I moved it to a subpage to avoid clutter.
Current TAS projects
All my current projects are related to my favorite SNES game, Super Metroid. I considered doing other games, such as Metroid (NES, 100% run), Super Castlevania IV (SNES) and Spawn (SNES), but realized I wasn't the right man for these tasks, since I didn't know the games well enough (besides, my motivation faded without even having born).
SNES — Super Metroid — NBMB TAS
A no-boss/miniboss "kejardon-run" I'm doing together with evilchen. We already have most things planned out, so we're hoping to finish with it already in autumn with decent level of optimization.
The run is made on Snes9x 1.43-rerecording9, cause we don't want to wait until a desyncless version of Snes9x 1.5 comes out.
Status: ongoing.
The goals: nothing in particular, but something like 0:15 by in-game timer would be nice.
The progress: 1st missile pack, 34 frames saved over the low% test run.
Discussion thread.
The goals: nothing in particular, but something like 0:15 by in-game timer would be nice.
The progress: 1st missile pack, 34 frames saved over the low% test run.
Discussion thread.
SNES — Super Metroid — low% TAS improvement
Seeing outdated runs for Super Metroid (now that I know it really well) is beyond my tolerance, so I'm improving Terimakasih's old 14% run. The new one will also have 14% collected, but with a different route and slightly altered item set. I decided not to use the X-ray climb since it will be much less entertaining both to watch and produce. The route would be: Morphball → Missiles → Bombs → Super Missiles → Varia Suit → Speed Booster → Power Bombs → X-ray Scope → Tourian. (8% items collected.) In other words, it will for the most part mirror the NBMB run we are working on.
I'm planning to go for state-of-the-art level of precision with this run, so I'm not going to make the test run WIPs that involve the low%-exclusive tricks and strategies public (note that the final run won't be public until submission in any case). Refer to Super Metroid tricks and project page for more information about technical aspects of the run.
The final version of this run will most likely be made on Snes9x version 1.5 for superior graphics and sound; the test run is being made on Snes9x 1.43-rerecording9. Which means I'll probably have to wait for a desyncless version of 1.5 if I encounter desync troubles with it.
Gocha's SNES9x memory watcher tool has already proven to be invaluable in the production of this (and the SMR any%) run. A recent version bundled with the config file I'm using can usually be found here.
Status: test run with selective optimization is on hold until NBMB is ready.
The goals: presumably sub-29 minutes by in-game timer (will be recalculated once the test run is complete). I'm planning to take the Speed route instead of the Ice route, and also pick 3 Super Missile packs instead of 2, which should speed up lower Norfair and Tourian considerably.
The progress: test run — Red Brinstar @ 03:54 in-game.
Project page — improvement list, WIPs and other notes.
Discussion thread.
The goals: presumably sub-29 minutes by in-game timer (will be recalculated once the test run is complete). I'm planning to take the Speed route instead of the Ice route, and also pick 3 Super Missile packs instead of 2, which should speed up lower Norfair and Tourian considerably.
The progress: test run — Red Brinstar @ 03:54 in-game.
Project page — improvement list, WIPs and other notes.
Discussion thread.
Possible future TAS projects
SNES — Super Metroid: Redesign — any% TAS
Super Metroid: Redesign (SMR for short) is a brilliant hack of one of my favorite games — Super Metroid. It features a huge, elaborated and well-thought new world map, lots of gameplay changes and so on.
This was my ongoing project a while ago, which I decided to put it on hold due to three major reasons:
- Super Metroid low% improvement gained a higher priority;
- Saturn is already working on it as well, and it's unlikely that I can keep up the pace of production and still deliver unexpected results (in any case, it would be wiser to analyze a complete movie once it's done to avoid making the same mistakes in planning and/or execution, if some new details will be uncovered in the process);
- Though unlikely, it might be that Drewseph will make a major overhaul to his hack in the not-too-near future, that will obviously contain many changes affecting sync;
- It had to be redone, anyway, since I've made more than a second worth of mistakes over the span of my v1 WIP, and it turns out that v2 isn't fully optimal, either. The new version should be made on Snes9x 1.5 due to superior emulation.
Drewseph's beta-TAS made on SMR version 2.0 (somewhat outdated route-wise) can be found here.
Status: on temporary hold and to be redone after completing SM low% TAS and Saturn finishing the work on his version.
The goals: will most likely have to be recalculated based on Saturn's work and possible future changes, but as of now, it remains sub-1:00.
The progress: the old WIP and other things can be found here permanently (well, at least until I submit it).
Project page — all the useful info on this run is/will be there, including progress reports.
Discussion thread.
The goals: will most likely have to be recalculated based on Saturn's work and possible future changes, but as of now, it remains sub-1:00.
The progress: the old WIP and other things can be found here permanently (well, at least until I submit it).
Project page — all the useful info on this run is/will be there, including progress reports.
Discussion thread.
Other TASVideos-related activities
Editor duties
I'm actively (not really) maintaining Super Metroid Tricks page, and will probably add Super Metroid Redesign Tricks if needs be (so far I've been gathering SMR-related stuff on this page). Experience gained from TASing Super Metroid engine based games and analyzing others' runs gave me lots of useful information that has yet to end up on those pages.
I also monitor recent changes and try to contribute by doing minor corrections, adding new content and [re]writing movie descriptions. I don't do that too often, though.
Encoding
I plan on helping to encode movies for this site, but I'm too lazy to create myself a decent encoder logo. Oh, the irony.
Favorite Runs (in somewhat particular order)
Tool-assisted
- SNES "all items" Super Metroid in 1:10:45.02 by JXQ;
- Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles in 34:22.02 by Nitsuja;
- Genesis Golden Axe in 08:30.48 by Neofix (obsolete);
- Genesis Altered Beast in 06:22.57 by Dan (obsolete);
- GBA "Maxim Version" Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance in 00:24.3 by Comicalflop;
- SNES "any%" Super Metroid in 40:57.85 by hero of the day;
- GBA Metroid Zero Mission in 33:07.53 by Dragonfangs;
- NES Excitebike in 05:35.38 by Luke;
- Genesis Gunstar Heroes in 35:28.92 by arkiandruski;
- GBA Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance in 30:43.92 by JXQ (obsolete);
- NES Gradius in 10:52.35 by adelikat;
- GBA Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon in 21:51.08 by Cardboard;
- Genesis Sonic The Hedgehog 2 in 19:55.43 by Nitsuja;
- GBA Sonic Advance 3 in 35:56.75 by Nitsuja;
- SNES Donkey Kong Country in 24:23.88 by Arnethegreat;
- Genesis King's Bounty in 00:10.17 by Aqfaq;
- SNES "pacifist" Contra 3: The Alien Wars in 14:25.25 by Ash Williams;
- GBA Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow in 12:17.5 by pirate_sephiroth;
- SNES Umihara Kawase in 01:46.42 by flagitious;
- NES Super C in 12:20.02 by Baxter & Adelikat;
- GB "any%" Metroid II - Return of Samus in 45:08.42 by Cardboard;
- NES Ninja Gaiden 2 in 09:14.32 by Scumtron;
- NES Ninja Gaiden in 10:52.68 by Scumtron;
- Genesis Vectorman in 11:41.75 by mmbossman;
- N64 Mortal Kombat 4 in 09:13.72 by Xyphys;
- SNES "any%" Donkey Kong Country 2 in 41:49.02 by Arnethegreat;
- GBA "100%" Metroid Fusion in 1:36:57.52 by BioSpark;
- NES Castlevania in 11:20.5 by Phil. Côté & Morrison.
See also:
- my "Top-10 TAS moments";
- my rating page.
Unassisted
- Half-Life 2 in 1:36:57 by Half-Life 2 done Quick team;
- Half-hour Half-Life by Spider-Waffle;
- Castlevania: AoS Soma Boss Rush in 1:21.38 by dingusSJr;
- Quake done 100% Quick lite 2 by QdQ team;
- Touhou 07: Perfect Cherry Blossom score-attack by HASEGA;
- Diablo in 06:07 by groobo;
- Quake done Quick with a Vengeance by QdQ team;
- Super Metroid in 00:32 by Hotarubi;
- Castlevania: AoS Julius Boss Rush in 3:28.63 by sarou;
- Deus Ex in 0:43:20 by dex;
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 18:12 by stanski;
- Super Mario World no powerup run by jimsfriend.
Runs I look forward to (in order of anticipation)
Tool-assisted
- SNES
- Super Metroid: Redesign any% by Saturn (public WIP, discussion thread)
- Super Metroid any% v2 by hero of the day (public WIP, discussion thread).
- Super Metroid any% improvement by Saturn (discussion thread).
- Super Metroid RBO/Suitless/NMB run by Saturn (previews: 1, 2, 3, discussion thread).
- SMW2: Yoshi's Island 100% by Baxter and Arne_the_great (spezzafer's discontinued WIP, discussion thread).
- Donkey Kong Country 2 102% v2 by comicalflop (discussion thread).
- Super Castlevania IV improvement by Phil and AngerFist.
- Donkey Kong Country any% improvement by Arne_the_great and Tompa.
- Donkey Kong Country 101% improvement by Arne_the_great and Tompa.
- Genesis/32x
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles Sonic+Tails any% v3 by nitsuja.
- Rocket Knight Adventures improvement by upthorn. Done, go vote!
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sonic+Tails any% improvement by upthorn.
- Alien Soldier by Truncated (discussion thread).
- Vectorman 2 improvement by mmbossman (public WIP, discussion thread).
- GBA
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow all-souls run by pirate_sephiroth (public WIP, discussion thread).
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow warpless/no damage/any% improvement by Yrr (discontinued WIP, v2 public WIP, discussion thread).
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow warpful any% improvement by klmz (?) (test run WIP, discussion thread).
- Gunstar Super Heroes blue/hard/no damage run by pirate_sephiroth (discontinued WIP, discussion thread).
- Metroid Zero Mission low% by P.JBoy (discontinued WIP, discussion thread).
- Metroid Zero Mission 100% by Dragonfangs (semi-public WIP, discussion thread).
- Metroid Fusion 100% improvement by BioSpark and Deign (discussion thread). Since the guys started working together, the improvement values have increased twofold!
- Metroid Fusion 0% improvement by BioSpark (discussion thread).
- NES
- Arkanoid full version improvement by Baxter (discussion thread).
- Ninja Gaiden v3 by Scumtron (beta version?).
- Ninja Gaiden 3 improvement by Scumtron (discussion thread).
- Megaman 2 v2 by Shinryuu (public WIP, discussion thread).
- Megaman 5 v2 by Baxter (public WIP, discussion thread).
- Bucky O'Hare improvement by AnS.
- GB
- Metroid II: Return of Samus 100% non-secret world v4 by Alter or Cardboard (discussion thread).
- N64
- Mortal Kombat Trilogy by… Dark Fulgore, perhaps? (discussion thread)
- Killer Instinct Gold (currently unassigned).
Unassisted
- PC
- Quake done Quickest — the improvement of QdQwav by QdQ team (improvement tables).
- Quake done Quickest lite — the improvement of tRR by QdQ team (improvement tables).
- Quake done 100% Quickest — the improvement of QdQ100Qlite2.
- Half-Life: Episode One Done Quick by HL2DQ team (test run video, discussion thread).
- MDK by Kahless_GOA.
- Diablo II: LoD (sorceress) improvement by suga (discussion thread).
- SNES
- Super Metroid SS 100% by Hotarubi or BlueGlass (whoever makes it first/better) (discussion thread).
- Super Metroid segmented any% improvement by Azor (discussion thread), assuming he's still working on it.
- Super Metroid PAL SS any% by Tonski (?).
- GBA
- Genesis
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 v4 by stanski.
My movie rating scale explanation
Some time ago I moved to an absolute yet more versatile perception-based rating scale. I find that it works rather well without contradictions. My standards aren't exceptionally high (the basic range is 6—8 for both values), but I don't grant 9 and 10 lightly, either. The amounts listed in parentheses account only for separate movies (no two versions of the same movie, the one with higher marks is taken into account; tech marks are adjusted for obsolete movies).
Entertainment rating:
- 10 — incredibly impressive and/or funny movie, can watch it over and over;
- 9 — very interesting and versatile movie that I'd gladly watch/have watched several times;
- 8 — rather interesting movie that I will most likely want to re-watch;
- 7 — mildly interesting movie that is easy to watch the first time, but has little rewatch value;
- 6 — nominally interesting movie with low rewatch value;
- 5 — a movie which is on a border line from keeping me fastforwarding through;
- 4—1 — boring movies that I can't stand watching at normal speed (or at all), rated depending on the degree of boredom.
Technical rating:
- 10 — a movie that is known to be unimprovable by all the known means — i.e., if something could be done, it had been done (implying that author has chosen the best route, used every known way of optimization and had perfect luck manipulation throughout);
- 9 — a movie that shows extraordinary planning, brilliant and thorough execution and little to no time lost in luck manipulation; a movie which leaves an impression that the author has considered everything and made things thought of to be impossible possible;
- 8 — a movie with no flaws apparent to the outsider (or little flaws apparent to an experienced person), which keeps the flow and maintains high quality throughout its length; there's hardly any first-generation run (i.e., the one that didn't have a previous TAS to improve upon) that can go above this point;
- 7 — a movie which contains things like small generic mistakes, minor inoptimizations and close-to-average luck manipulation; a movie where the lack of thoroughness is apparent to an experienced viewer;
- 6 — considerable amount of flaws both in planning and execution, bad luck manipulation and apparent improvability;
- 5 — obvious bad mistakes throughout the entire movie, poor planning and little to no luck manipulation;
- 4—1 — movies of such poor quality that they shouldn't have been published here in the first place.
Comments
(Feel free to write comments, suggestions and other things here, if you want to. Any feedback is welcome.)