TASVideos

Posted: 1/18/2016 5:19 PM
(Edited: 1/18/2016 5:30 PM)

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

^ sure, I'd be willing to rework things in BIzhawk, its not a difficult run by any means, more of a technical novelty. EDIT: oh, and also quicknes core in Bizhawk seems to have trouble with this game for some reason, didn't look too deeply into it though. EDIT2: Probably has to do with quicknes setting everything to FF after a cursory look at the RAM.

Posted: 1/17/2016 7:45 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I have been testing out improvements for the diddy route and so far can only save a few dozen frames at most. The biggest problem with diddy is that to move efficiently horizontally he has to roll, but to move the camera efficiently he has to jump, and since diddy loses speed when jumping, I end up not gaining significant time. So I'm pretty comfortable now in declaring Expresso the winner. I would estimate that a final optimized version will likely save an additional ~30 frames, and I am still optimistic that more frames can be saved during the setup.

Posted: 1/17/2016 3:08 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Radiant wrote:

BrunoVisnadi wrote:
A run must be stared to be Newcomer'd?
Yes. Newcomer is essentially the fourth tier, one step higher than Star. (that might not have been intended, but that is in practice what it turned out to be, anyway)

I found this comment pretty interesting, are we actually trying to present these TASes to newcomers or just being pedantic? After all I was a 'newcomer' only a little over a year ago and never noticed 'newcomer' TASes until one of the random star movies on the front page happened to be one with a question block, and only realized that block meant 'recommended for new comers' after clicking on it since I didn't know why it was there.

Posted: 1/16/2016 2:05 AM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

^ that was fast, seeing that new glitch is action is really neat though, it makes the any % run seem much faster. I had a bit of a breakthrough in 4-4, and expresso is now ~150 frames ahead of diddy. I think this is the last attempt I'll make with expresso until the final version TAS gets up to 4-4. http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/28246805744061414 Now I'll try and take what I learned and see if Diddy can catch up. Diddy has much less down time to work with though, so I'll not sure how much I can save, time will tell though.

Posted: 1/14/2016 12:00 AM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Personally I don't think that either of these runs is documented in a newcomer friendly way. "Newcomer' doesn't necessarily mean 'stupid' , and some newcomers might be pretty technically knowledgeable, but my opinion would be that any ACE TAS recommended for newcomers should have author's notes written with this in mind. (The SMB3 run for example has 'as seen in the previous run' references which are not newcomer friendly.) So I think an ACE TAS could be a good newcomer candidate, since as GDQ's show they are extremely popular, I think some more careful documentation is needed first.

Posted: 1/13/2016 3:34 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I usually try to follow this game as I played it a lot, even though things have gotten too technical for me. I just want to say I am amazed at the research done here and the results are incredible, can't wait to see a TAS with the new strats, hopefully even console verified!

Posted: 1/13/2016 3:32 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Emulation accuracy effecting RNG state is something that happens in NES all the time, so its quite possible that the same could be true in PCSX emulators. Some RNGs are implemented as idle loops and are thus cycle dependent, so it wouldn't surprise me if this is the case here if you can't seem to find any other explanation Samtastic. But it sounds like you fixed the problem, so all good anyway!

Posted: 1/13/2016 12:50 AM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Back in 4-4 i have saved more time with expresso and am currently 45 frames ahead of the diddy route, i think i can save an additional second or so as well. Things are starting to break with increasingly minor changes now, so I take that to mean I'm closing in on an optimized version.

Posted: 1/12/2016 6:52 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I voted for Pocky and Rocky, I really liked that one.

Posted: 1/12/2016 6:51 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I voted for warcraft 2, I actually watched the whole thing, and that is probably the only TAS of that length I can say that about.

Posted: 1/12/2016 6:49 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I voted for lost Vikings, as that seems like a masterpiece to me.

Posted: 1/12/2016 6:47 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I will vote for arandomgametaser and samsara as I think they did the best work this year. I am particularly envious of Samsara's ability to add entertainment to otherwise bland games / stages.

Posted: 1/12/2016 2:39 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Wow that's a very timely discovery , awesome !

Posted: 1/10/2016 10:06 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

On a bit of a side note here, I was wondering why quicknes ended up being the preferred BizHawk core? Was there something in particular or a lesson that was learned to improve emulation?

Posted: 1/10/2016 9:40 PM
(Edited: 1/10/2016 9:54 PM)

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I am wondering which version of the game is preferred, the GDQ modded one or the original? Would the real RNG in the original allow for a faster run due to more optimal farming? VVVV I prefer the original as well, in fact even if it turns out to be slower. But either way I think this question should be answered before any frame war type stuff gets going, so no one wastes their time. EDIT: or at least give this one a "GDQ Edition" branch to distinguish it.

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:51 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I tried for about an hour before realizing I really needed a team to make anything decent. I guess I should have taken that suggestion in the opening post a bit more seriously! One other point I'd like to make besides the ones listed above is that one utility of this speed TAS competition is to give ANYONE a decent chance of being able to submit a run, even if not high quality, kind of like an outreach opportunity. This one though was definitely for experienced TASers only. But hey, this was only the second iteration of the contest, gotta climb that learning curve somehow! Still great work with the organization of everything. I did like the format of expert TAS team vs human runners, but perhaps that is better as a seperate item to the speed tas competition.

Posted: 1/9/2016 11:40 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Absolutely amazing, very impressive and original content. The fact that it can all be done on console is even more impressive and shows the level of mastery that has been developed both in working with the NES and with this game in particular. ACE + console verification never gets old for me, really awe inspiring.

Posted: 1/5/2016 2:39 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

If you happen to be using TAS Studio, you can also do this from Metadata -> Header

Posted: 1/5/2016 2:37 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Alright time to strike off Strider! Work on Out to Lunch is already well under way too. I didn't quite reach my goal of having the list down to 20 by year end, but my new goal for this year is to have it down to 10. Possible completion in 2017? Let's go!

Posted: 1/3/2016 4:26 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Go Tompa! Save those frames! I doubt I can be of much help in the early levels given your level of expertise in this game, so I'll leave you to it and focus on Croctopus Chase for now. I want to get at least 2 more iterations done with and without expresso. Perhaps we can reconvene somewhere around Master Necky skip. In the mean time, good luck!

Posted: 1/2/2016 1:41 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

Oh wow glad to see this is still being worked on, looking forward to seeing this finished, good luck with the lag.

Posted: 1/2/2016 1:33 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I might suggest 2 games that jlun2 recently pointed out to me: #834: tool23's NES Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 05:08.28 #863: Aqfaq's Genesis Rolo to the Rescue in 09:04.55 These games have submitted runs you can use for reference while still being pretty easily improvable. A bit more challenging would be: #4898: Alyosha's NES Mickey Mousecapade in 07:16.58 There is still some room for improvement here and you can learn many TASing ideas from this game while still being relatively short. Also I'm pretty familiar with it so could help along the way. Finally, a short game that you could work on from scratch would be NES Quattro Adventure: Linus Spacehead. It's the last game in Quattro Adventure that doesn't have a TAS, so it would be good both to complete the series and you can learn a bit from it. Hope this helps.

Posted: 1/2/2016 1:23 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I would like to say that I am 100% in favor of everything arkiandruski is saying. That page zeuper made looks like a good starting point. The vault/moon thing seems to me like an outdated model that site has simply outgrown, which I consider to be a good thing.

Posted: 12/31/2015 2:18 PM

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

micro500 wrote:

I have console verified Weatherton's MK64 Star Cup TAS: http://www.twitch.tv/micro500/v/32566286

wow that was amazing to watch be console verified, great work! What did it take to console verify it? Is it the same as SM64 where it just happens to work?

Posted: 12/31/2015 1:52 PM

Post subject: Effects of illegal opcodes

Quote

Alyosha

He/Him

Editor, Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Expert player (3572)

Joined: 11/30/2014
Posts: 2744
Location: US

I wasn't quite sure what to do with this so I'll post it here. While looking at some trace logs for NES ghosts 'n goblins at a particular glitch, I was trying to compare FCEUX and Bizhawk to see if there are any differences. I noticed that FCEUX sometimes hangs and Bizhawk (NESHawk core) always resets as the glitch occurs. I traced this down to how the emulators handle the opcode 02. It crashes FCEUX but Bizhawk manages to get by it and keeps on going: Bizhawk:

0390  FF ???                  A:0B X:01 Y:01 P:35 SP:39 Cy:498589133   TBIC
0393  FF ???                  A:B6 X:01 Y:01 P:B4 SP:39 Cy:498589140   NTBI
0396  FF ???                  A:5F X:01 Y:01 P:75 SP:39 Cy:498589147   VTBIC
0399  FF ???                  A:08 X:01 Y:01 P:35 SP:39 Cy:498589154   TBIC
039C  FF ???                  A:B0 X:01 Y:01 P:B4 SP:39 Cy:498589161   NTBI
039F  FF ???                  A:56 X:01 Y:01 P:75 SP:39 Cy:498589168   VTBIC
03A2  02 ???                  A:00 X:01 Y:01 P:37 SP:39 Cy:498589175   TBIZC
03A3  80 NOP #$D0             A:00 X:01 Y:01 P:37 SP:39 Cy:498589176   TBIZC
03A5  54 NOP $02,X            A:00 X:01 Y:01 P:37 SP:39 Cy:498589178   TBIZC

FCEUX:

i288661349         $0399:FF        UNDEFINED                                    A:08 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIzC 
i288661350         $039C:FF        UNDEFINED                                    A:B0 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:NvUBdIzc 
i288661351         $039F:FF        UNDEFINED                                    A:56 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nVUBdIzC 
i288661352         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661353         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661354         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661355         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661356         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661357         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661358         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661359         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC 
i288661360         $03A2:02        UNDEFINED                                    A:00 X:01 Y:01 S:39 P:nvUBdIZC

I don't know which is correct, all I can find is this nesdev article which says 02 should "Jam the machine" , leading me to believe FCEUX is correct: http://nesdev.com/6502_cpu.txt This only matters for things like ACE and such but it seems like an important distinction.

Posts for Alyosha