Posted: 10/28/2008 5:23 PM
(Edited: 10/29/2008 6:24 AM)
Post subject: Krusty's Fun House
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Twisted_Eye
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http://thatdenny.googlepages.com/KrustysFunHouseU-0.fm2 Here's an INCREDIBLY rough sketch of the first four rooms in area 1. Just a tester to see what a final run would look like, though I'm sure the final rooms will have better action and mousework. There were a couple spots with a lot of waiting to do here, so bleh. Krusty does eventually do an idle animation, but it takes so long to start up, it's not worth it. I stood still at one point for almost half a minute I think and he still didn't do it. I picked the NES version over the SNES version for several reasons: No timer bonuses to sit through! No menu messing with to get to hard mode--the game is instantly hard mode.--wait a minute, there isn't even a hard mode in the SNES version, what the heck game was I thinking of There's some sort of physics glitch that pumps Krusty forward one frame at the top of a jump and when going over an edge, providing some speed ups and is more interesting to watch as Krusty inches his way ahead of the camera. Also, you can jump immediately after picking up a block. I don't think I got it to work on the SNES version, but I might be wrong. After playing both, I just liked this one better. The feel and the music yeah. So I don't know how long this game is, or what most of the levels look like yet, but that'll be part of the fun.
Posted: 10/28/2008 6:28 PM
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Blublu
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You can very easily jump from a block while also picking it up in the SNES version. I used to do it all the time on the actual console to save time. I never played the NES version so I don't know anything else. Is is completely identical to the SNES version? (other than the graphics and sound, obviously). (edit: the below only applies if the SNES version is levellly (this should be a word) identical:) Oh, and the game is VERY long. So long in fact, I think it's unlikely that the run will go under two hours. You just can't speed up the damn mice unfortunately, so I think most levels will consist of: set everything up, then fool around for several minutes until all the mice have obliviously walked into their own doom like the annoying vermin they are. There are some levels that require walking back and forth to haul a bunch of boxes across the level one at a time, and some levels that require you to actually walk among the mice and direct them in real-time, but mostly just setup. I think. Do you plan on getting all the bonus items, or just kill all the mice and then get out? (you can do both most of the time, but some areas have just bonuses and no mice to exterminate). Actually, I don't remember exactly how the later levels were, and I never got past the fourth uh... world? I think it's the fourth, anyway it's the one where everything is gooey and disgusting and I think it's also the one where you first have to deal with putting the mice into bottles, the password to it is "bartdude" or something like that. So it might get interesting, I'm not sure. Anyway, good luck! (I'll watch the WIP later and comment on that when I have time) One thing that could make this run interesting is that by using the jump-pickup trick, if you have just two pick-up-able objects, you can reach any high place, or even take the mice with you if you can do it fast enough and bunch them all together. But I probably don't even have to tell you that. Edit: It seems that my memory of the game was slightly off. Apparently you do need to get involved with the mice and micro-manage them around a bit. I liked when you put the box down just long enough for one mouse to walk on it, then removed it and put in in another place for another mouse before the previous mouse had even finished walking across it. Good stuff! Probably a lot of shortcuts will present themselves since the levels were not designed with this kind of superhuman speed and precision. I still think the SNES version is superior, if only because of better sound quality, but oh well.
Posted: 10/29/2008 4:25 AM
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Twisted_Eye
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Thanks. Notice that in one part I was able to speed up the mouse by preventing it from falling, just making a bridge. That kind of in-your-face micro-managing would sure make it more interesting to watch. But if the game REALLY is that long, then man. I wonder if using a password to the last world is tolerable. Probably not as far as publication is concerned, but hey. Yeah, I liked the noises in the SNES version, too. I might start a TAS there and compare the two again after. The NES probably will be faster, but entertainment is the key factor here.` --as my edit above stated, there is no difficulty switch I was dumb. The stages, thusly, are much easier in the SNES version than in the NES, or at least half of area one's stages are. There are a couple stages where you have to manage the rats in the NES version, but in the SNES version all you have to do is set the block down once and you're done, and the block is in an easier to reach place at that! hm. In the NES version, you have to stop completely to use a door or pick up/drop a block. In the SNES version, you don't have to at all. I guess it wins for that! I also figured out that if you press reset after roughly two seconds, you can skip 500+ frames of unskippable intro sequence in the SNES version. It works in the NES version too, but still I think the SNES version will get a better TAS. --edit again: Actually, wait. In the NES version, mice will continue walking in the air if the block is taken out from under them. This is not so in the SNES version--they will always fall immediately. However, this can be used in the SNES version to group the mice together for better manipulation--but, you lose time because you can't strip a mouse of its foothold and expect it to keep going. That probably puts the SNES version into even more of a winning position in the end, actually. K yeah it's settled for sure.
Posted: 11/30/2008 6:53 AM
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Twisted_Eye
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Of the EIGHT versions of this game that were made (all of them identical yet completely different), SIX are on TASable systems: - DOS: However, fiddling with TASing in DOSBOX is just too much for me, and Krusty walks too slow anyway. Best graphics of the six, though. - Gameboy: But when you have colorful systems, why TAS this one? - Genesis: Movement and sound is pretty horrid so no. - SNES: Graphics, movement, sound and voices are great, but levels are all in a sort of easy mode. Plus, the game is better programmed, so manipulating the mice with boxes (like in the WIP) is not as flexible and not as fast. - NES: Hardest levels, decent graphics and controls, and using a box to bridge the mice can make levels faster, but it has no voices. The best TAS for this game, however, will come from a surprise winner: The Sega Master System version. Graphics as good as the SNES's, almost as many voices as the SNES version (and not retarded ones line in the Genesis one), the best movement (Krusty stops very quickly, so box grabbing will be much better), harder levels like the NES version, mouse manipulation (though it won't be bridging like in the NES version, there are some unique qualities that'll speed things up very well), and instead of having to wait for the death animation to finish on the last mouse before you can leave the level, you leave immediately, which is just better looking. So whenever I get around to dropping a WIP of Area 1-of-5 here for viewing, I might ask to move the thread over to the SMS forum. It sure will be long, but watching my old WIP again I was pretty entertained, so there's hope yet. Plus, I've engineered some even faster ways of doing the three levels I did in that WIP, so here's to hoping the game doesn't get boring as it goes on. I passworded and looked at later levels and they're not all of them that bad to do.