User Files from CoolHandMike

So I was going through my test Cyber Sled tas test with Alan Striker and noticing some errors. Although I do not think it would be enough to overcome the 112 frames necessary to beat Rex it might be possible. Also some machine gun shots that did not go off against one of the opponents.

1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,359 MAME is a multiarcade machine emulator

2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:08,000 that emulates arcade machines, computer

3 00:00:05,359 --> 00:00:10,200 systems, and more. The user must supply

4 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,080 the ROMs software, and any the other files

5 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:16,119 needed like bios or extra data files

6 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:19,119 such as CHD files. You can view more

7 00:00:16,119 --> 00:00:21,480 documentation and resources from mamedev.org

8 00:00:19,119 --> 00:00:25,800 however the main site I recommend for

9 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:28,119 this tutorial is from adb.arcadeitalia.net

10 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:30,320 . It has a search for the

11 00:00:28,119 --> 00:00:32,640 games and will list the status and files

12 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:36,040 needed to run them along with other

13 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:38,280 useful information. MAME arcade zips will

14 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:41,320 contain all the necessary files that

15 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:44,280 completes the ROM set. Separate files in

16 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:47,440 the form of CHD files or bios files may

17 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:50,360 be needed as well. ROM sets for arcade

18 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:53,120 games come in two main flavors; merged

19 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:55,199 and unmerged. Merged ROM sets will

20 00:00:53,120 --> 00:00:56,600 combine the files together such that the

21 00:00:55,199 --> 00:00:59,399 files are not

22 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:02,199 duplicated. Non-merged zips have all the

23 00:00:59,399 --> 00:01:03,199 files duplicated and this is what BizHawk

24 00:01:02,199 --> 00:01:04,720 needs to

25 00:01:03,199 --> 00:01:06,400 run

26 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:09,119

27 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:12,000 adb.arcadeitalia.net lists out the necessary files

28 00:01:09,119 --> 00:01:14,640 needed to create an unmerged zip if you

29 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:18,000 are unable to find a non-merged zip for

30 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:20,320 your game. Keep in mind that MAME is

31 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,799 updated frequently and many ROM sets

32 00:01:20,320 --> 00:01:25,840 change over time. It is important to get

33 00:01:22,799 --> 00:01:28,960 a ROM set with the same version to test,

34 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:31,119 otherwise the game may not work. In

35 00:01:28,960 --> 00:01:32,920 Arcade Italia searching the title and

36 00:01:31,119 --> 00:01:34,880 looking at the game status is usually

37 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,640 enough to determine if a game will run well.

38 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:40,600 Green means good and should always

39 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:44,399 work. Yellow means imperfect. There can be

40 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:46,040 some minor issues. Red means preliminary.

41 00:01:44,399 --> 00:01:48,000 This means that the ROM may not work at

42 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:50,759 all. You will have to play through it to

43 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:53,159 the end to check for playability. These

44 00:01:50,759 --> 00:01:56,320 may not boot, or may crash at certain

45 00:01:53,159 --> 00:01:58,119 points, or have minor graphical issues.

46 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:01,079 Make sure to always avoid games that

47 00:01:58,119 --> 00:02:03,799 have a bad dump status.

48 00:02:01,079 --> 00:02:06,920 How to run several games in Bizhawk. The

49 00:02:03,799 --> 00:02:09,039 first one is Karnov and I pulled it up here

50 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:11,800 in Arcade Italia.

51 00:02:09,039 --> 00:02:13,800

We are first going to look and see

52 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:16,160 at the status of the game. If you scroll

53 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:18,040 down you can see that the overall status

54 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:20,599 is all green. It's all

55 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:24,519 good. Next you want to check to see what

56 00:02:20,599 --> 00:02:28,400 files are required. Go to

57 00:02:24,519 --> 00:02:31,440 files needed and click on the expander. All

58 00:02:28,400 --> 00:02:35,000 it shows is one file, it does not need any

59 00:02:31,440 --> 00:02:38,840 other CHD files or any other bios files.

60 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,840 We can also see that the dump is

61 00:02:39,920 --> 00:02:45,879 good. To run this in bizhawk you could

62 00:02:42,599 --> 00:02:48,159 either drop in the file or go to

63 00:02:45,879 --> 00:02:50,800 file open

64 00:02:48,159 --> 00:02:54,519 advanced click, then launch

65 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:57,200 game. Then navigate to the folder that

66 00:02:54,519 --> 00:03:01,480 has the ROM set zip.

67 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:03,800 Select it and click open and

68 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:03,800 it should

69 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:11,360 run it.

70 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:14,040 Or you could just drop it in like

71 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:16,760 this by drag and dropping.

72 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:19,640 The next game I'm going to show how

73 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:23,239 to run is Area51.

74 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:26,319 I have it open here on Arcade

75 00:03:23,239 --> 00:03:28,439 Italia so let us look at the status.

76 00:03:26,319 --> 00:03:32,640 First, it's all

77 00:03:28,439 --> 00:03:35,480 good, now let's go look at the required

78 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:39,599 files. See here, you need the main file and

79 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:42,560 then the CHD file which is extra data.

80 00:03:39,599 --> 00:03:45,920 So what you have to do is first we

81 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:50,000 are going to open up Bizhawk, go to

82 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:52,280 tools, then go to multi-disk bundler.

83 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:55,400 Now the way this works is it's

84 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:58,720 going to generate a XML file that will

85 00:03:55,400 --> 00:04:02,280 select and load the

86 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:05,879 assets. We want to navigate to the

87 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:09,200 folder that we want the XML to be in and

88 00:04:05,879 --> 00:04:12,120 I'm going to name it the same name as

89 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:16,319 the game name aka the ROM set name.

90 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:16,319 For the game select the system as

91 00:04:17,359 --> 00:04:22,360 arcade then we're going to go back to

92 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:25,759 that same folder which I'm just copy

93 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:29,400 pasting, and select the ROMset.

94 00:04:25,759 --> 00:04:32,759 You have to select the ROM set first

95 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,759 then the CHD file

96 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:45,440 so here this will be the ROM set.

97 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:49,280 then you will have the CHD

98 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:49,280 file. we're going to select

99 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:54,800 save and it creates the XML file below.

100 00:04:52,560 --> 00:04:57,800 I'm going to click Save and Run you can

101 00:04:54,800 --> 00:05:00,759 overwrite it it's

102 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:04,720 fine. Because the CHD file is so

103 00:05:00,759 --> 00:05:04,720 large it will take a second to load.

104 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:13,639 Okay so this is Area 51 so it's

105 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:15,680 running now. What you can also do once

106 00:05:13,639 --> 00:05:19,000 you have the XML files is you don't have to

107 00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:21,479 continually open the multi-disk bundler

108 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,400 and select the files each time once you

109 00:05:21,479 --> 00:05:26,240 have the XML file, you can just drag and

110 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:28,479 drop the XML file in and it'll load the game.

111 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:28,479

112 00:05:28,639 --> 00:05:33,360

113 00:05:30,919 --> 00:05:35,800 Of course you all have to wait since the

114 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:38,560 game is large.

115 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:40,960 The next example is going to be

116 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:43,160 the most complicated. It's going to be

117 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:46,080 Guilty Gear XX.

118 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:50,680 We open it and we go to the

119 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:50,680 bottom we can see how this status is

120 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:55,680 preliminary. However this one can be run

121 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:57,360 but there might be issues. We can see the

122 00:05:55,680 --> 00:06:02,080 dump is

123 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:05,000 good and if we look at the MAME required

124 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:07,360 files there's a good list here. There's a

125 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:10,440 CHD, there is the ROM set and then

126 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:13,360 there's all of these other bios

127 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:16,280 files. Now to run this we are going to do

128 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:19,280 the same type of thing we did

129 00:06:16,280 --> 00:06:21,440 before. We are going to go to the open up

130 00:06:19,280 --> 00:06:25,720 bizhawk, go to

131 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:25,720 tools, go to multi-disk bundler

132 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:35,280

You're going to go to the folder

133 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:37,919 that we want the XML file to be

134 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:43,280 in, just name it the

135 00:06:37,919 --> 00:06:46,599 same file name as the name of the ROM

136 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:48,560 set. Select arcade and then we are going

137 00:06:46,599 --> 00:06:54,800 to go down the list

138 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:54,800 here. The first file needs to be the game.

139 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:01,520

140 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:05,720 the next is going to be the

141 00:07:06,639 --> 00:07:12,800 CHD.

142 00:07:09,879 --> 00:07:16,319 Click add to add additional

143 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:18,280 assets that will go into the XML

144 00:07:16,319 --> 00:07:21,919 file and then we're just going to start

145 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:21,919 adding all the other bios files

146 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:31,520 here. Just going down the list.

147 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:31,520

148 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:48,080 And After you've made this save,

149 00:07:48,479 --> 00:07:53,520 look in the folder to make sure

150 00:07:50,759 --> 00:07:56,840 that it created the XML file. We could

151 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:58,440 take a look at it by right clicking and edit.

152 00:07:56,840 --> 00:08:00,240 We can see I created it.

153 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:02,919 it

154 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:05,960 We're going to do Save and Run.

155 00:08:02,919 --> 00:08:08,919 You can just click overwrite

156 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:08,919 there's no problem with that.

157 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:16,400 Now for these larger

158 00:08:12,319 --> 00:08:16,400 files it will take a second to

159 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:25,120 load, because it has to load all of these

160 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:28,440 files, and CHD here is like 250 megabytes.

161 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:31,440 So okay it gives you a warning.

162 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:31,440

163 00:08:34,959 --> 00:08:39,320 You you see how it's running

164 00:08:36,919 --> 00:08:41,440 here. Some of these games may require some

165 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:43,760 extra buttons to start.

166 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:47,399

167 00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:47,399 But this will work.

168 00:08:56,560 --> 00:09:03,720 Here yep it's just going through here

169 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:06,200 Guilty Gear XX.

170 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:08,680 All right now as you can see that is

171 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:11,760 the most complicated example, if you can

172 00:09:08,680 --> 00:09:16,519 do that you can do anything else just

173 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:19,360 remember you need the ROM set name first,

174 00:09:16,519 --> 00:09:23,880 CHD, then the BIOS files.

175 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:26,040 In arcade games, games change

176 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:28,480 their settings through things called dipswitches.

177 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:30,000 These dip switches can be accessed

178 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:32,000

179 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,959 through the menu here in Bizhawk

180 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:38,160 First you need to select

181 00:09:34,959 --> 00:09:40,560 arcade then select settings.

182 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:43,959 Usually the setting that you

183 00:09:40,560 --> 00:09:46,440 want to change would be the difficulty

184 00:09:43,959 --> 00:09:49,040 mode, sometimes there may be some other

185 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:53,000 version here or

186 00:09:49,040 --> 00:09:56,839 lives but this is where you change it.

187 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:59,959 In an arcade game unlike consoles

188 00:09:56,839 --> 00:10:02,440 inputs can vary a lot, however typically

189 00:09:59,959 --> 00:10:06,240 they have a coin and a start.

190 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:07,519 These inputs could just be buttons

191 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:10,720 or they could have

192 00:10:07,519 --> 00:10:12,720 analogs, there could also be a light gun.

193 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:14,959 It all depends on what the game is and how

194 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:18,839 many buttons and there can be many

195 00:10:14,959 --> 00:10:18,839 different number of players as well.

196 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,399 To begin tasing an arcade game, go to

197 00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:27,040

198 00:10:23,399 --> 00:10:27,040 Tools and TasStudio.

199 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:33,720

200 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:36,440 now I'm going to open up a Tas project,

201 00:10:33,720 --> 00:10:39,160 which I have already

202 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:43,360 done, and you can you can see here that

203 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:46,240 you'll want a coin and then an

204 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:48,600 input here. You'll have to look at which

205 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:51,000 inputs are relevant, but if it's a one

206 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:53,360 player game you can get rid of the Show Player 2.

207 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,360

208 00:10:54,399 --> 00:11:00,040 As you can see there are all these

209 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,519 various inputs you'll have to play and

210 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:05,279 see what they do.

211 00:11:01,519 --> 00:11:05,279 Do a little bit of

212 00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:12,560 testing to get more info. You can go to

213 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,399 tools and you could do the ram search to

214 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:17,120

215 00:11:14,399 --> 00:11:20,360 get addresses When selecting memory domains

216 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:23,560 you want to look for RAM memory domains

217 00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:23,560 and possibly SystemBus.

218 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:31,480 Then once you find them you can

219 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:35,440 double click them and add them to the

220 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:37,880 Ram Watch. I have already a file that

221 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:40,600 I've made for this

222 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:43,440 game you can see I put a note for the

223 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:47,680 name of what the address is, the

224 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:47,680 value and it also lists the domain.

225 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:56,600 One other thing you can do here

226 00:11:52,399 --> 00:11:56,600 is that arcade games do not show

227 00:11:56,639 --> 00:12:04,560 lag so what you can do is is open up LuaConsole.

228 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:08,360 There is a

229 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:10,720 script ManualSetLag and I will right click

230 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:12,880 to show you what it looks like.

231 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:14,639 Essentially what it's doing is you have

232 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:18,199 to search for an

233 00:12:14,639 --> 00:12:20,880 address that will change based on

234 00:12:18,199 --> 00:12:23,560 whether you can put in input or not.

235 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:25,240 So if the game is loading like in

236 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:28,000 the middle of in between levels you

237 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:31,240 shouldn't be able to put in any input.

238 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:34,920 It's just no input there and you need to

239 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:34,920 find that address and then put it

240 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:41,440 here right here on this line 15, memory.readbyte.

241 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:44,000

242 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:47,120 I will show you what this will

243 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:50,279 look like in TasStudio.

244 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:52,320 We'll go back to the

245 00:12:50,279 --> 00:12:55,040 beginning now it's loading and you can

246 00:12:52,320 --> 00:12:57,160 see how all the frames are red.

247 00:12:55,040 --> 00:13:01,120 It's not able to really read input

248 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:01,120 there now, but with the green it does

249 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:04,480 so this script is very useful.

250 00:13:06,399 --> 00:13:12,240 In closing I'd like to show you a

251 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:14,160 common issue if you do happen to have a

252 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:17,360 merged file.

253 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:21,120 So this file I'm going to

254 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:23,839 open is not going to work because it is

255 00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:26,519 actually missing files and I'll show you

256 00:13:23,839 --> 00:13:26,519 what that looks like.

257 00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:33,440

258 00:13:30,399 --> 00:13:33,440 Okay so I'm going to open this

259 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:38,760 file and then it'll show you this

260 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:45,079 screen. It'll show you a list of the

261 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:48,199 ROMs in the set but it won't know what

262 00:13:45,079 --> 00:13:51,440 to do because it doesn't have a complete

263 00:13:48,199 --> 00:13:55,240 set. Now if you click

264 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:57,920 Cancel it'll show you an Arcade Load

265 00:13:55,240 --> 00:14:01,560 Error System Exception. And then it' will

266 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:03,600 show you the ROMs that it doesn't have.

267 00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:05,240 So what you can do is you could

268 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:07,279 search for these files or you could

269 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:11,560 search for just the

270 00:14:07,279 --> 00:14:13,839 non-merged file for that game.

271 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:16,440 That is something to keep in mind.

272 00:14:13,839 --> 00:14:18,000 And that's a wrap thank you for

273 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:21,759 watching and have fun playing arcade

274 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,759 games in Bizhawk.

On Line 15 Find an address that seems to correspond without taking any input and input that address to be read. This will determine whether TasStudio will mark the frame as not accepting input.

"Works on Sonic 1 locked onto sonic and knuckles ... and should work on s3k as well." There is also a script inside the zip that works for the Blue Sphere Plus hack.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HChC4oJ7Cqk

Reviewing SFan's submission. Example of near end before extra stage was able to loop one of the yellow shots that was missed. I think these shots could used more to get more points, but I think SFan's tas is a good high score tas. GG!

Using for Bizhawk issue in github for testing. Has some visuals and sound that need work. Just some normal controller human level playing and dying.

Uses orb despawning trick. Slower IGT at 42"36 really due to knocking Cutman to left. About 200 frames faster. Ending on frame right before killing Wily due to personal preference.

Original submitted one before pending replacement. Does not use the orb despawning trick. IGT 41"71.

This script recreates Zelda 2's Inventory Menu in Lua using Bizhawk. This is actually a zip with a ".lua" extension. Cannot normally upload zips here so added ".lua". Just rename to zip removing ".lua", then extract again.

This bk is originally from me just playing the game normally and encountering the glitch.

For one, I am not sure if that works outside of towns but the idea is that you jump, attack, then you can press and hold jump. Holding jump is like jumping in a lot of games where you hold it and you jump higher.

Bizhawk 2.4.1

pastebin of the inputs at that point https://pastebin.com/05eLT9Ua

original tasvidoes forum post http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21919

youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvqfqcu5X8w&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=CoolHandMike