User Files for Mario Kart DS

A Lua script that aims to be helpful for creating tool-assisted speedruns for Mario Kart DS.

This script shows a bunch of information in text form on the bottom screen, and some information about collisions on the top screen. Use the view collision button to see a 2D top-down view of your kart's hitbox and nearby collision surfaces. Then change the viewing angle with the < and > buttons. Press < once for a 3D view from the camera.

Using a button you can toggle between viewing information for your kart and the ghost's kart. You can also use the copy from player button to copy the inputs (recorded by the game itself) for the current race, to the ghost. The Lua script will automatically rewind to sync the ghost (though this may fail; if it does, manually rewind until it does sync and modify an input in TAStudio there). It will also rewind if needed when you load a branch. Click the button again to stop auto rewinding/updating ghost inputs.

Most of the information displayed by the Lua script is explained on the MKDS Game Resources page.

Achieved on December 25, 2023

current TAS BKT as of April 30, 2024 (date of upload)

it's alright I guess lol

just the inputs for the run

my current 3lap TAS of Waluigi Pinball which clocks in at 1'30"653 [The TAS BKT as of April 29, 2024] note: this file does contain my previous TAS of 1'31"715 in the same file before the faster time, separating the two would be a nightmare and I simply want this project to be available for other to download and check out for themselves!

This TAS utilizes the newly discovered shortcut which allows racers to skip a significant portion of the track as seen here:

The red path shows the intended route through the track and the gold path is the route we take with the shortcut! It saves about 7-8 seconds a lap if done optimally and this TAS is an improvement of ~23 seconds over the previous TAS BKT without the shortcut so that checks out! There are a lot more details about the shortcut that I will add later to this post but for now I will just post the video and paste an explanation of how to perform the sc rta for anyone interested.

Credit to iMathII for this explanation: "aside from that, try to land on the ground and hit the wall at almost the same time, and you must hop frame perfect when you hit the ground you must be angled as straight-forward as possible when you hit the ground, ideally start pressing right a little bit before the jump, how much before depends on your setup. in my run with my "setup", i started holding right 15 frames before the jump, so 1/4 of a second.

keep holding right until at least 2 frames after the jump, after that, start holding up to fast fall (not usually necessary, but it helps) shroom timing is not important, as long as the shroom is active when you shroom (shrooming on the frame you hop will not work though, even 1 frame before is good but the same frame will fail)

hold down as early as possible after leaving the ramp, i forget how long exactly you need to hold it for but not very long, you can let go of it in the air pretty much whenever you like, but don't press up

also pressing A or B in the air or during the hop changes nothing

~~~~

for my setup specifically (you do not need to do this, but this is what helps me)

i put myself in the middle of the road before the ramp, where the road changes from green to grey. then i aim to the left where the solid grey road, grates, and zipper meet (a little to the left, if anything)"

Update to UserFiles/Info/638275741882298253 which re-adds the "real speed" variable, which is a simple arithmetic operation displaying your effective speed across the previous frame. It relies on data from the previous frame and thus will not display correctly after loading a save state.

This file is meant as a replacement to the other 100% complete tasproj file that my friend Lexi uploaded last year. The only difference between these two files is that my own personal time trial data has been deleted so that new TASers can get straight to trying out a track without having to go to the menu to delete all the ghosts I had saved. Everything is still unlocked and ready to use right away.

I am uploading this to the WIP section because I'm not sure on will it even survive even an hour in the Workbench.

I assume, it's not meant for submission. Pls suggest if I should submit it or not...

A BizHawk TAStudio project with SaveRAM of a 100% save file to use as a base for IL TASes. SaveRAM courtesy of Puddings. Created in BizHawk 2.8, tested in BizHawk 2.9.1.

Initial pass at converting some of the old DeSmuME RAM watch script from GameResources/DS/MarioKartDS to BizHawk. Renders data over the bottom screen. Window size of 2x (or higher) is required atm. Supports USA and (hopefully) EUR ROMs.

I guess this is the fastest way to do this using the "TAS" nickname.

Big thanks to BlackWinnerYoshi for the help!

Another test of my previous TAS.

System: Nintendo DS | Emulator: BizHawk 2.9.1 | Game Version: USA | Frame Count: 818 | ROM Filename: Mario Kart DS (USA, Australia) (En,Fr,De,Es,It).nds | Frame Rate: 16756991/280095 | Branch: account creation | Rerecord Count: 60 | Start Type: PowerOn | Authors: BlackWinnerYoshi

This is my first TAS ever.

I don't know if anyone will see this, but I'm doing it to confirm that I'm correctly using the markers and in general the frames I chose.

That's it.

Bus-level timing off, USA ROM, DeSmuME 0.9.9. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_VACDSJClw