Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
FODA, are you not going to make a custom track where you break the speed of light?
nesrocks
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Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
i already have a run on such a track, but i just lay the H ramps ramdomly, it gets an insane speed but thats pretty much everything that happens on it. http://www.angelfire.com/ex/uobt/excitebike-ju-demonstration-foda.zip right-click, save target as... Edit by Bisqwit: fixed link
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (978)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3109
Location: Sweden
you should probably switch the .cim for .com
Joined: 5/3/2004
Posts: 1203
Awesome! Doesn't take much to entertain me ;) .
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
Insane = Understatement That must've been like 500 miles an hour, the nametable was being updated too fast for the game o_o (or rather, the window wasn't moving fast enough to keep up with the nametable updates, so parts of the track appeared before they actually showed up -- consider making a run of ntohing but H ramps next time ;))
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Player (87)
Joined: 2/10/2006
Posts: 113
Location: US
Hi all--I've started working on a new version of the Excitebike TAS. I've figured out the programming, and in the process, discovered some nice tricks. Here's track 0 http://lukeg.50webs.com/ExcitebikeWIP-Luke.fcm I finish in 37.50, which is 1.42 ahead of the current movie. My interesting discovery is that input affecting your speed is only checked every 4 frames. First, that means that you only have to tap B every 4 frames, which will prevent the engine from overheating. Further, after going over a jump, you only have to press forward once every 4 frames to preserve your speed. While in the air, there is also a 4-frame timer for checking how your input affects the slant of the bike. If this timer is not in synch with the speed timer, you can actually tilt your bike backwards in the air while not losing speed!
Use the force
Hoe
Joined: 7/31/2004
Posts: 183
Location: USA
Luke wrote:
http://lukeg.50webs.com/ExcitebikeWIP-Luke.fcm I finish in 37.50, which is 1.42 ahead of the current movie.
Haha, very impressive work.
nesrocks
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Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
Impressive discoveries. You just learned how to fly, or almost :) I'm looking forward to a whole run now.
Player (86)
Joined: 3/8/2005
Posts: 973
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (978)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3109
Location: Sweden
Mwahahaha. This was hilarious. It will certainly be very entertaining once it's done.
Former player
Joined: 3/17/2004
Posts: 78
Location: Finland
Very nice! Now you only need to make sure that the current route for each track is correct.
adelikat
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Emulator Coder, Site Developer, Site Owner, Expert player (3569)
Joined: 11/3/2004
Posts: 4754
Location: Tennessee
:O amazing WIP!
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
That was one funny WIP! Great job Luke, looking forward for this run.
Skilled player (1409)
Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
:O, cool stuff :) Any particular reason why there was player-2 input?
Skilled player (1826)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2161
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Wow, that didn't even seem physically possible to do. :P Great job so far, very entertaining!
Joined: 12/14/2004
Posts: 261
Location: Mars
A Hack of Excitebike, Nothing special. Just a Car instead of Bike lolz IPS Patch: http://www.filefactory.com/get/v3/f2.php?f=b8918e5709876532e524579b
Radz.
Player (87)
Joined: 2/10/2006
Posts: 113
Location: US
Whoops, the 2-player input is just because my configuration is a bit messed up (probably from doing arkanoid actually). But it doesn't hurt anything so I won't redo it... Anyway here's a new WIP http://lukeg.50webs.com/ExcitebikeWIP-Luke-2.fcm this does tracks 0,1,2. I'm redoing track 2 because I found a way to get a bit more speed. Now that I know the tricks, I'm progressing pretty fast. I should have it done in a day or two I think.
Use the force
Post subject: Excitebike and improvement details
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
I'm not making this movie. I give up on actually trying to TAS anything; matching JXQ's skill in playing is a lost cause. Anyway, short and to the point (more details if this thread has interest): the optimal speed is 0x0800 (although 0x081F is optimal for shorter periods of time). This means that the former idea of "more speed = faster game" is incorrect, as shocking as it is. Anybody up for working on an improvement? I can provide you with Lua scripts for FCEUX that detail anything you might need to know.
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Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
So would you say that in some cases, 0x081F is optimaler? :)
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
No, more a case that one is optimal except when the other is. (0x81F will quickly become inoptimal if it takes too long)
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Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
Please Mr. Xkeeper, do explain how in Excitebike-land that d!=rt
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
I added it up.
C#    JXQ     81F
0    36.54   36.30
1    38.24   38.00
2    38.86   -----  (never goes above 800)
3    41.98   -----
4    41.02   41.02  (not high enough long enough for it to matter)
5    31.74   31.29
            
              0.93  max improvement (actual will probably be lower)
"81F" is just from forcing RAM to 81F if it's above that. You'd have to decelerate otherwise, but considering the fact you have about 16 frames to do so and you drop speed rather fast, it probably won't be much of a problem (losses from these times probably won't be very high). 0.93sec isn't a whole lot though, unfortunately.
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Lord_Tom
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Expert player (3142)
Joined: 5/25/2007
Posts: 399
Location: New England
I've had my eye on improving this game for several months, and when I saw this post I figured if I could find even 1 improvement myself to go along w/ xkeeper's, I'd do a run. Happily, I have done so...as JXQ suspected, there is indeed a way to take (at least) 1 jump with less slowdown. xkeeper: I don't know how you figured out the "delay to advance" thing, but...whoa. Nicely done!
Banned User
Joined: 12/5/2007
Posts: 742
Location: Gone
As many times as I seen runs + improvements of this game, it appears I've seen enough to witness the creation of a weapon that will set the world record forever. From here on, it could take 1000 years to improve again.