Posts for Qlex

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Posted: 11/4/2019 2:10 PM
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Qlex
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Hi. As a speedrunner of this game I noticed the locations of each patient when trying to find the correct antigens ("Race for the Cure") is random. I've been trying to reverse engineer that selection process, but it's turned out to be quite difficult, namely because I'm not sure how to debug and dump the code that writes into certain bits of ram. Can someone help me with some of the debugging tools? How can I dump disassembly code of the rom? I'll send shortly a savestate with a ram watch file. Thanks in advance. Any help would be greatly appreciated. EDIT : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k5b233akcroe0co/AAC2t8p3lbNV6MVSv2DyBX31a?dl=0
Posted: 5/23/2019 6:03 PM
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Qlex
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Thank you very much for the help, that does correspond to my findings as well :D I noted all addresses and what they seem to correspond to here : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G8aK_-vHCpXS0OoJWiANcz-Llf1BruksbsAwqVPrNqI/edit#gid=875989594 My next step is determining how the meteors are spawned, but that seems more chaotic than the slot machine... I'm having some obligations these days but I'll try to stay active here.
Posted: 5/11/2019 11:05 AM
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Qlex
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I see. Thanks for your help on the topic. I had read some of the links but some data was missing on my end (I had no idea what a tracelogger is but reading the appendixes it's all good.) The only big issue I have now is, well I'm not an expert on decompiling so this proves rather difficult to understand how some addresses are being read and to what extent they have an effect. My last bit in my search was instructions 1921E onwards, those do a bit of reading in addresses FFAEBA FFAEBC FFAEBE and those RAM addresses seem to vary inbetween RNG experiences. I think I have a better understanding of some addresses and how they are mapped. I think it's important that I look up all Ristar data, namely the positions and camera scrolling positions. I have a hunch that those are crucial to understanding the RNG. I think that FFC036 is invincibility frames of Ristar btw, I'll keep searching those. Thanks again for the help!
Posted: 5/7/2019 12:10 PM
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Qlex
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Thank you so much for the help! This is very helpful to me. I'll start analyzing the PC instructions. To test the levels, the menu password "ILOVEU" makes "Game start" go to stage select (The meteors are in stage 3-1.) I did some research and found that the items spawned by the meteors are very likely to be read from FFC883, FFC88D, FFC8D3 or FFC8DD. There are other variables in RAM that keep increasing but these ones I could correlate to the item drops because they only go from 0 to 7. There were other addresses that had variables going from 0 to FF so it could be those as well. So far I have found out that the items spawn like a slot machine that goes "Star" -> "Blue star" -> "Life" -> "Statue" -> "Star"... every frame, and the draw is done whenever Ristar headbutts the meteor. Some research was done live and can be found here. Some issues remain regarding where the meteors spawn, but I'm assuming the RNG is even worse for this case (it seems even more chaotic than the item randomness). By the way, how did you find the PC instructions? I'm using BizHawk and I don't think the debugger can stop to an instruction with breakpoints. Maybe I'm not using a tool?
Posted: 5/3/2019 4:13 PM
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Qlex
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Currently trying to reverse-engineer the RNG in Ristar, in order to help the runners of 100% namely for GDQ. Chubbus found this out : https://gyazo.com/1c609974531ede42cc5e784257f5331d You can carry this statue over in any% but in 100% it's almost mandatory to farm the meteors for the statues : https://gyazo.com/ae4e382d9d8a61cdfeed618537bbd36d The meteors can spawn at random positions, and contain health, 1up or statue. Basically, I'm trying to understand what piece of code determines the meteors and what they spawn upon being knocked. I tried reading some addresses that were promising, so far I believe ED02 has some answers. I'll delve into this later but I had some questions : Is Ristar based on Sonic engine? If so, do we know anything about the RNG? Any input greatly appreciated :)
Posted: 9/10/2014 2:21 PM
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Qlex
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Thank you very much True, I sent you a PM!
Posted: 9/10/2014 10:27 AM
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Qlex
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Thanks! I do believe people haven't tried Arcade-verified runs around here, it seems like it's completely different, so I totally understand that I don't get a lot of answers, but I appreciate your feedback! I have asked a TGM JAMMA specialist, and he basically told me that it's absolutely possible. The only things that are needed are a Supergun (basically a small arcade cabinet that you plug on a TV), the game with the NVRAM reset (just to be sure) and a TASbot that you can plug to the Supergun. I'm not a TASbot specialist, but I have heard that there are models that can adapt to the framerate so the potential framerate difference is not a problem. Can anyone link me to an explanation on how some TASbots work? Thanks in advance =)
Posted: 9/9/2014 9:46 PM
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Qlex
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If no one wants to get there, then I imagine I could help with the total control commentary, or the twitch memes advisor!
Posted: 9/8/2014 8:55 AM
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Qlex
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That was to be expected, I guess. At this point, the 20 hit combo is like the holy grail of Magical Tetris Challenge, it's a possibility, but it seems so incredibly luck-based... Gotta hate the devs for showing that 20!
Posted: 9/7/2014 10:35 AM
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Qlex
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Nice! Hopefully all three of them get past second round of cuts. The Family Feud thing will be entertaining indeed, but I'm not sure I have enough knowledge to manage that stuff. Best of luck for the rest in any case!
Posted: 9/5/2014 8:57 PM
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Qlex
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Hm, yes vote as well. It's pretty hard to decide which one is better, though... The 6 all clears were interesting and it varied enough, this one is also good and shows these mechanics, also that twist at combo 17 was pretty awesome... But it doesn't have Wolf's theme ;) In any case, I think it's fair that a "plays on the hardest difficulty" takes it. Either way pretty good TAS ^^
Posted: 9/4/2014 9:05 AM
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Qlex
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Best of luck. Things are in good hands =)
Posted: 9/1/2014 10:46 PM
Post subject: Console verifying on a supergun/arcade cabinet (AGDQ stuff)
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Qlex
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Hi everyone! I am part of the Tetrisconcept team, and recently I have been discussing the potential AGDQ presentation we might be having for the game Tetris the Grandmaster. Everything is very hypothetical for now, and I realize I am asking a lot here, but I am now just willing to have more information in console verifying a TAS of the game that we have. The game is Tetris : The Absolute : The Grandmaster 2 PLUS Here is the INP file : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6430099/TAS/TAP%20Death%20Gm%202-48-93.inp The video supposedly looks like this, but it's been going a bit of frequency change so the sounds are a bit distorted : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZaq0jQcZVQ The reason why this TAS didn't get submitted is because the author (zzymyn) thinks there are several possible improvements, but I thought having a TAS of this mode would be pretty interesting in a live demonstration. One of the main problems I can think of is that the framerate is very weird with this game : 61.68Hz (so weird that it's not even emulated correctly by MAME by the way : 60 Hz!), so I'm not even sure if there's a possibility of verifying this run. In any case, I'd just like to have some thoughts on the matter, I would be very grateful for any answer you could give. See you around!
Posted: 8/31/2014 11:51 PM
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Qlex
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PoochyEXE wrote:
Edit: I went back and tried to optimize one of my previous failed runs, and it turns out I was able to pull off a run with a 17 combo and 3 All Clears on Expert. It's still slower than this run by 123 frames and 5 seconds of in-game time, but it makes for a decent proof of concept. I've uploaded it as a WIP in case anyone's interested. Thanks for the inspiration, Qlex!
Wow, that last hit in the combo looked gorgeous haha! Awesome work :)
Posted: 8/27/2014 8:07 PM
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Qlex
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I also have a question : I can't even begin to imagine how a 20 hit combo might be possible, given how well you've done the 15 hit one, but it might be a good help with the score multiplier... Has anyone seen a 20 hit combo? And would it really be helpful (I imagine not given how mindblown I have been with the thing up until now)?
Posted: 8/26/2014 10:51 AM
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Qlex
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Is this not going to the moons ? I'm not exactly sure this is the thing to argue with, but having seen the previous one, this one is just destroying a number of things and even has time to make a good joke about how TAS this is. Yes vote in any case.
Posted: 6/22/2014 6:50 AM
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Qlex
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Wow, they got it indeed! Many thanks to people who contributed one way or another, those last days have been exciting! Eager to see the demo version in around August :)
Posted: 6/17/2014 12:44 AM
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Qlex
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I'm verily afraid that whoever donated will not be enough, but at least it got a better showing than in the previous campaign, and we should have interesting stuff in the last days EDIT : Put English subtitles on my video btw, so if you feel like discovering my understanding of the game feel free to do so!
Posted: 6/13/2014 6:21 PM
Post subject: Beast's Fury (Kickstarter)
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Qlex
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beastsfurygame/keep-beasts-fury-going Hi everyone! Sorry for just barging in, I hope it's alright if I show you a link about a kickstarter project of a fighting game that has much more than meets the eye. Please take a look if you want =) Also, if you're French or you want to watch something stupid, don't hesitate to check out my video about it : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luGGZy5a-5w Thanks for reading!
Posted: 3/9/2014 12:32 PM
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Qlex
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Nice and entertaining, yes vote for me =)
Posted: 6/23/2013 6:54 PM
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Qlex
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That's totally understandable. Congrats again for your publication, a job well done. Best of luck for whatever you are willing to do next ;)
Posted: 6/22/2013 10:05 PM
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Qlex
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Atro city! What a surprise! What a coincidence. To tell you what, my school year got really hectic and I didn't see tasvideos.org for weeks, so I eventually have got time to do random stuff and I'm thinking "yeah, what's new on Tasvideos". And what do I see! You did well on that one, I was entertained, but a lot of the video wasn't such a surprise to me, as I saw the WIPs several times before =) Nice dancing moves and funny moments, of course. I could see how infuriatingly hard the AI manipulation was, especially near the end (right before robot X and so). Even with ridiculously healthy bosses the later parts were entertaining, so congrats for that as well. Well! You've done it now! Congratulations for finishing that long piece of work and a late yes vote! Do you have any other ideas TAS-wise?
Posted: 7/24/2012 5:04 PM
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Qlex
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I didn't think Skate would be that interesting in a 2-player mode. Was a very good surprise. Heck, even picking "1 player" got me puzzled, I thought it was so smart Well yes vote
Posted: 7/9/2012 2:35 PM
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Qlex
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Even though the game seems to be a bit lacking due to the graphics, I still found this run enjoyable. It's my first time watching this game, so I have no idea how difficult it was to make your way out of this, but the later stages were fast-paced and showed some funny happenings in my opinion. I would say yes.
Posted: 5/29/2012 5:54 PM
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Qlex
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I have to say I was sceptical when I saw this at first, but it was entertaining. Maybe too many double kos/interventions from other characters? That's my opinion, but the rest was very entertaining, and I busted out laughing quite a few times. Overall, big yes vote
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