Table of contents

Introduction

This page will host all runs that attempt to find a non-trivial minimum for an action, such as jumping, weapon usage, and puzzle moves. Non-trivial means the minimum is not clear, meaning that low% runs do not qualify if it is known before running what path yields the lowest percent. HappyLee's Super Mario Bros. "lowest score (500)" is another example of a trivial minimum.

Ranking

Although there is no consensus on how these types of TASes should be ranked, Brandon suggests completely separating each sub-goal as attempting to achieve several at once would inevitably lead to trade-offs, which would render ranking impossible. In these divisions, runs with less actions will obsolete runs with more actions, and a shorter run with the same amount of actions will obsolete a longer one. However, the "record holder" for a particular game is the first person to reach the smallest amount actions. Here's an example of a possible list of Super Mario Bros. TASes in the "minimum buttons pressed" category:
300 buttons pressed by John
As you can see, John, the first player to achieve 300 presses, holds the rank. However, Chris' movie obsoletes John's.

Minimum Buttons

Nach once suggested the idea of a kind of TAS where button presses were minimized. Sadly, no one could agree on what constitutes a press. Therefore, Brandon proposed two groups for these kinds of runs:

Pressed

This category means that the player tries to press as few buttons as possible. A button press is defined as one button down counting as one button press, regardless of how long it's held. For example, if a player holds down two buttons for 5 frames, the number of buttons pressed is 2.

Runs - 5 active, 7 obsolete

GB Super Mario Land
289 buttons pressed by MUGG
NES Donkey Kong
35 buttons pressed by nitrogenesis
NES Donkey Kong Jr.
47 buttons pressed by Brandon
NES Super Mario Bros
142 buttons pressed by Brandon
Super Mario Bros. 3
235 buttons pressed by Brandon

Inputted

This category means that the player inputs as few buttons as possible. For example, if a player holds down two buttons for 5 frames, the number of buttons inputted is 10.

Runs - 1 active, 1 obsolete

NES Urban Champion
40 buttons inputted by Brandon

Resources

bkDJ created a program that can calculate several statistics on the buttons pressed and inputted for a movie file. In addition, Brandon wrote a Lua script to track button presses and input. Its best incarnation is for Bizhawk. There's another version which works satisfactorily on several other emulators, which you can find at Brandon's TASing repository, tastools, and FCEUX's repository (It is set to be bundled with the release of FCEUX 2.1.6). For more information on both scripts, such as what platforms they support, see their tastools Wiki page.

Encoding

For encodes of these runs, we have FractalFusion's DDR Input Lua script. It generates the input as if it were a song from Dance Dance Revolution, making it clear what the duration of the presses are. It also displays the number of buttons pressed on top. A few tweaks will be necessary to make it work for "minimum buttons inputted".
Minimum last edited by Brandon on 6/6/2012 6:39 AM
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