I've decided I should make a TAS of this game.
Unlike Tetris, Dr. Mario has a definite beginning and end which might possibly make it more suited for a TAS.
It's possible to simply start at the highest level, but I think it would be just as interesting, if not more so, to simply start at the first level and continue on up to level 20.
Regarding optimization, I've observed the following:
- Luck manipulation doesn't work the same way as Tetris. Once the level begins, the pills always come in the exact same order. The only way to manipulate this is before the stage begins (most likely by manipulating the frame the stage starts on.) The types and positions of the virii are very likely manipulated the same way. The virii and pill order might be linked. I'll have to experiment some more to see.
- Turning pills actually causes them to move faster. By flipping a pill as it drops, it falls faster. A pill also moves faster side-to-side if you flip it while doing so.
- The biggest hazard to speed seems to be the remaining pill bits dropping after a virus is destroyed. Not only do they fall much slower than the pills you manually control, but when you get a chain reaction, it waits for all the remaining bits to land before any additional virii are destroyed. This will have to be minimized above all.
Actually, the game does continue past Level 20. However, doing 20 levels is gonna get repetitive quick (Hey, if nobody can stand 8 levels of Spy vs Spy...).
I'd say snap it up to Level 20 on High and blow the snot out of the game. THAT would be a fun TAS to watch.
After level 20 it's just the same thing repeated, though, right? Level 20 would seem to be the place to stop.
And I think considering how fast you can TAS a game like Dr. Mario, 20 levels would probably go really quickly. Besides, there would be some cool stuff I think you can do in the first few levels before you get to the crazy hard ones.
I'm not completely married to this idea though. I'm just going to play around with it and see what would be best.
Once I do two or three levels, I'll post a WIP and see what people think. If everyone's still convinced going straight to level 20 would be best, that's what I'll do.
If you beat my time, you'll get my yes vote... I would be suprised though, if someone makes a faster movie.
You did yours in slow motion and not frame advance, though, right?
Edit: Oh, I see. I guess I didn't read your submission text properly. I'm willing to give it a shot, though.
You did yours in slow motion and not frame advance, though, right?
I'm not sure, but possibly. How would that matter? Playing at 1 or 3 % speed gives the same affect, if done correctly.
Either way, if you compare your time with my time, you can subtract the frames I gained from the soft reset, but also have to click start to get to the cutscene with the tree.
Ehm... you should watch my movie :P
Either way, after every 4 levels you beat there is a cutscene, with the viruses sitting on a tree. So there is a cutscene after beating level 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20.
However, if you beat level 20, the virusses sitting on the tree will be obducted if you wait long enough :P
I've decided I should make a TAS of this game.
Unlike Tetris, Dr. Mario has a definite beginning and end which might possibly make it more suited for a TAS.
It's possible to simply start at the highest level, but I think it would be just as interesting, if not more so, to simply start at the first level and continue on up to level 20.
Regarding optimization, I've observed the following:
- Luck manipulation doesn't work the same way as Tetris. Once the level begins, the pills always come in the exact same order. The only way to manipulate this is before the stage begins (most likely by manipulating the frame the stage starts on.) The types and positions of the virii are very likely manipulated the same way. The virii and pill order might be linked. I'll have to experiment some more to see.
- Turning pills actually causes them to move faster. By flipping a pill as it drops, it falls faster. A pill also moves faster side-to-side if you flip it while doing so.
- The biggest hazard to speed seems to be the remaining pill bits dropping after a virus is destroyed. Not only do they fall much slower than the pills you manually control, but when you get a chain reaction, it waits for all the remaining bits to land before any additional virii are destroyed. This will have to be minimized above all.
Can you max out the score in Dr. Mario? wouldn't it be better to do that as fast as possible than to get to level 20? I would like to see you get a chain reaction so big that your score maxes! that would be cool.
Shadow Byrn wrote:
Wow. I remember my MOM getting to like level 30+ on High on this once. It was kinda scary to watch....
I dont think the speed increases. I think I got to level 27 and then stopped because I realized this.
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner
- Andrew Gardikis
Can you max out the score in Dr. Mario? wouldn't it be better to do that as fast as possible than to get to level 20? I would like to see you get a chain reaction so big that your score maxes! that would be cool.
Maxing out the score is in no way a show of skill, since you can pretty much just keep destroying rows of pills indefinitely (leaving virii unscathed). If there is a way to get nothing but chain reactions, that would be pretty cool, but I doubt you can max your score with them.
I took a stab at just doing level 20. I got close to Baxter's time but not quite. Still have some optimizing to do but even still I probably just chose a bad stage. When I'm done, I'll post my run of that stage in this thread (but not add to workbench because I'm pretty sure I can find a stage that's faster, such as Baxter's.) Mostly because even though it's not faster, it's still pretty cool and I'd like to show it off before I take a stab at a differently generated stage.
Joined: 4/13/2006
Posts: 150
Location: Caratinga - MG - Brazil
Hyena wrote:
andrewg wrote:
Can you max out the score in Dr. Mario? wouldn't it be better to do that as fast as possible than to get to level 20? I would like to see you get a chain reaction so big that your score maxes! that would be cool.
Maxing out the score is in no way a show of skill, since you can pretty much just keep destroying rows of pills indefinitely (leaving virii unscathed). If there is a way to get nothing but chain reactions, that would be pretty cool, but I doubt you can max your score with them.
Destroy the pills without the viriis don't give you points.
I would think that would be the fastest way to get a lot of points if that's what you were aiming for. just a thought. I think if you can continue to kill viruses in chain reactions, your score will keep increasing. I just thought it would be cool.
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner
- Andrew Gardikis
Joined: 5/22/2006
Posts: 58
Location: Denver, CO USA
ah dr mario has always been one of my favorites, i couldn't figure out which rom to use to watch your submission though baxter, though i gave up after trying u and e...
What would Mr Belvedere do? Probably eat some butter.
Joined: 3/17/2006
Posts: 243
Location: Back to good old Germany
hippo wrote:
ah dr mario has always been one of my favorites, i couldn't figure out which rom to use to watch your submission though baxter, though i gave up after trying u and e...
I could watch it with the JU version although Baxter used a different rom.
Thanks for mentioning this game. At the moment, I'm playing this up and down :)
Ugh. Had a setback... my latest backup was deleted somehow.
However, I still have my non-optimal run to use as a guideline. I just need to re-optimize. It's probably just as well, since I wasn't so sure that some parts at the beginning were completely optimal.
Edit: By the way, I determined that Baxter's SRAM trick only saves 40 frames in picking level 20 and high speed, so in order to beat his time I need to finish within 40 frames of his movie.
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/4141/cad_drmario_testrun.fcm
I recently thought of an interesting way to play Dr. Mario: Try to clear the entire level with a single combo. I tried it out, and with a lot of effort, I was able to beat the first four levels (0-3) like this. Not only that, but, in my opinion, it looks amazing. I think an extended movie of this type of playing would be very publishable.
Unfortunately because of this game's lack of luck manipulation, I got an impossible setup on level 4 - I could only get rid of 9 of the viruses in one go (it was mostly due to the bad pill sequence, though). Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. I might restart in hopes of getting better luck, but... dang, that was a lot of work.
Anyway, I thought this would be fun to show off.
That's a very unique idea. I actually like it lots. But would it be posible to clear some of the later stages with only one combo? I guess when you get to that point you try to clear with as few combos as possible.
I am just a silhouette, a silhouette of a memory of a solitary night .. nothing more.
Looks very nice... but you already knew there were limits to it I presume. Now it's level 4, but if it wasn't it would have been 5, or 10 or 20.
You will eventually end up at some level where it's not possible... what would be the goal of the run? To play until it's not possible anymore? To complete the game with as few combo's as possible?
At any rate, if you find out where to place the blocks to make your combo, at least make it as fast as possible... the blocks are the same anyway. This looked great for the concept, but the execution can be made more entertaining.
This was a test run, I was only looking for solutions. Once I found them, I'd make another movie with frame precision and better optimization of junk blocks.
I imagined that once I hit the point where I could no longer do this, I'd try to clear the levels with 2 or more combos as necessary. But I was really hoping that I'd get farther than level 4.
