Posts for scrimpeh

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BLMNDEF wrote:
Well thanks! That's encouraging! I'll try to learn what those do!
Really, disassembling the game is some very heavy stuff, you won't need to start quite that far. Still, from my own experience, you begin learning one tool after another. So let me round up and explain the more important ones: - Lag Counter: Counts every frame the game won't accept input. This is important, because a lag frame is essentially a wasted frame, so lag frames should be avoided. A lag counter makes it easier to compare your movie against others and figure out what things make a game lag. - Ram Watch/Search: Allows you to find and observe addresses in the system RAM. This is important because some information the game won't bother to tell you. What exactly you'll be searching for varies by game, but common important addresses are things like Boss Health, Position of your character on the screen or Random Numbers. - Frame Counter: Displays on what frame you're on. Important for comparing your run to others. - Input Display: Just a verification you've entered the proper input. - Spreadsheets/Text files: This is technically not an emulator tool, but they come really handy if you need to compare your run against another one. When I make a run, I usually have a text file open, in which I write frame numbers of level fade-ins/fade-outs and various other tidbits down so I can see whether an other approach or a second try is faster than my first or whether an attempt is faster than a previous movie. Above all else, don't fret it, you won't need everything all the time. You'll learn to use them as you'll need them and on the whole, as DeHackEd says, what it all comes down to is a sequence of keystrokes.
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Screencap'd for Validity:
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And another 2005 movie bites the dust, I see? I'm all for this.
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Personally I'd be in favor of skipping the enemy rundown and going straight to the "The End" screen as well, just because of how amusing the look of it is. It's like the game just says "Fuck it, I quit.", and I find that hillarious.
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I think it would about be the equivalent to using a Game Genie on NES game. And personally, I'd find it really boring. If there are no limitations to overcome by outright cheating your way through, what fun is there? I do suppose it'd make an interesting demonstration though.
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Allow me to quote my initial reaction when I saw this submission come up in IRC. "<scrimpy> awesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesomeawesome" Yeah. While it is a bit of a shame you didn't find any new tricks (and the massive boost thing didn't go anywhere), this improvement still is a very nice one. Yes vote for one of my favorite movies on the site improved.
Post subject: openMSX - rudimentary lag counter
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This is important enough that I figured I'd make an own thread for it. Quibus has added a simple lag counter to openMSX, which can be turned off and on with toggle_lag_counter. It should come immensely useful, as many MSX games are very prone to lagging. It isn't reverse-proof, however, as the lag counter won't decrease when you reverse back to an earlier point in the run. Instead, turning the lag counter on and off or loading a replay file will instantly zero it. Also many MSX games run at 30fps, on those, every second frame will be counted as a lag frame. The lag counter is part of the tas_tools.tcl script, put it in /openMSX/share/scripts to use. http://www.mediafire.com/?v03vys1dyqk3ai9
Post subject: Re: Input Log Files and Other Things
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Doctor Belmont wrote:
Sometimes when playing around, I sometimes accidentally press / which enters the game into frame advance. How do I turn frame advance off? Also, I read that you can watch TASs on an emulator with an input log file. Where do I find one of these on the site?
'lo and welcome to tasvideos, Doctor Belmont, hope you enjoy your stay! Going into frame advance simply pauses the game. Press pause (or whatever hotkey you bound it to) to continue playing, then. You can download the input files through the first link on any publication. (FCEUX movie (.fm2), for example)
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Alright, I quickly tried this game out, It can be completed in about 8 minutes, or less. Here's what I could gather from my first playthrough: In true Lupin tradition, the game is fucked up beyond belief. While it runs at 60 fps, which is nice, any enemy will still slow the game down dramatically. Also in Lupin tradition, everything is random, from enemies to items spawning to everything. Items give you score. Score is important, because enough score will give you extra life, which you need for damage boosts. Every 10.000 points, a minigame is activated, which should be avoided. Falling down bottomless pits sends you to land of hell (Hello, La-MuLANA), where you have to dodge flames. Surviving it will spawn you in the room you originally were in. Some enemies also send you there if they hit you. The game is as caothic and inconsistent as you'd expect. It might make an interesting TAS, but I do see it being unbelievably difficult, with the game being as caothic as it is. I may get on it at some point, but not now, I think. I've appended my first playthrough of the game, done with openMSX and reverse. Link to video
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Do I see another Baby Moses on the horizon? I better damn hope so.
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dartht33bagger wrote:
Way too much Mega Man 3 for me, but still an awesome list :)
I'm getting a curious Lack of Mega Man 4 - 6 here, those games had awesome tunes as well. But some whine is inevitably gonna come up for everyone, so, whatever, I suppose.
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Question, did you check to see wether it's faster or slower to go diagonal? From the looks of it, your y-speed remains the same, but it doesn't hurt to make sure.
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Finally got to watch the run. Great work, considerably faster and smoother than the Mega Man version. I think I overall like the Mega Man run more because it had more time for fancy weapon usage, though this run had plenty of that as well. Also, the vanilla run took no damage, but, oh well. Great run, yes vote.
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Nice improvement, yes vote.
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Lupin rejected, out of spite, I decided to just improve some of nitro's old runs. Thankfully, it isn't very optimized, as I managed to save about 5 seconds already. On the first level.
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Really exciting to hear you're making an improvement, Dooty. I'd definitely love to see this run get updated
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Yeah, just watched it, and as usual, the run was very nice. I'm amazed by just how much you managed to save, thus a yes vote from me.
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Oh man, you are very fast. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to view this right now, but I'm definitely looking forward to it.
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Out of my own experience, I found the drop in performance when using windowed mode to be completely negligible. I always used it for Team Fortress 2 because it made alt-tabbing a lot easier, even at a point where I had a computer that was less powerful than a bag of porridge.
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This was really awesome and quick. Please make a Shanoa run next! Quite obviously, this going to be a yes vote, because I really think Order of Ecclesia didn't have a run on this site for far too long.
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Good gracious, is it just me, or does the glitching get more severe every time? Anyway, great run, great improvement, and as insane as usual. Yes vote.
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NitroGenesis wrote:
Zelda 2 Overworld has a better ranking then Snake Man, Shadow of the Ninja Stage 2, Contra Force Stage 1... Wait, what?
And why is track xxx not on Place 1? I shall begin the mass complaining prematurely!
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Goodness me, that glitch is insane. I'm curious about it too
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FractalFusion wrote:
Just an update. We are now halfway through Boomer Kuwanger's stage. I discovered that you can glitch the elevator part. You can climb up to the top, die, and warp to the next area. Only condition is that the screen must scroll up for it to work; but just touching the elevator platform once and then going up is enough. From testing, it appears to be about 30 frames faster.
Nice find, I'll be looking forward to seeing it in action