Yes! That game is so effin' hard. A cool TAS once this is planned out is to combine the tricks from the Out of this World run into this and make one long movie of both games. In case you didn't know the first game is on this disc as well and once you beat it the ending flows right into the intro movie of the second game.
Edit: I wish I could find my disc right about now. :-/
Synced fine for me, but only after switching to the 2.00 BIOS. (I don't know if that BIOS does anything for a TAS besides make it start up slightly slower than the 1.10 BIOS.)
That's a funny bug. Since it lets you move so fast (the first part of it) I bet it would save time if only the checkpoints were placed differently enough that you could reach one. I remember seeing another bug like that much later where I got too close to a guard and somehow fell and pulled up through the floor at the same time, and was able to glitch-run around for a while until the game decided to bring up the death screen.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
Indeed, the first WIP was done with 2.00 BIOS. Sorry for not mentioning it.
Despite the faster start in 1.10 BIOS, it seems that some loading times are slightly longer with it. At this point, I can't tell which BIOS is faster overall, but editing the final product to sync with either one is easy.
Also, found a little shortcut through a wall.
EDIT:
HOLY SH... GLITCH!
EDIT:
It is possible to get out of boundaries in these three screens:
This file shows how it is done: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1101510953/bugofthealien2.gmvUSE BIOS 1.10
Possibly useless, unless someone can find out what is outside the visible screen area.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
nitsuja wrote:
I remember seeing another bug like that much later where I got too close to a guard and somehow fell and pulled up through the floor at the same time, and was able to glitch-run around for a while until the game decided to bring up the death screen.
<klmz> it reminds me of that people used to keep quoting adelikat's IRC statements in the old good days
<adelikat> no doubt
<adelikat> klmz, they still do
Actually I think it was at that place where you have to flip a switch on the back wall to open a floor gate on the left side of the screen to drop the bad guy (probably shouldn't have called him a guard) into the pit. I guess I got the whip timing incorrect and started a death sequence that somehow got interrupted.
I also remember some slight glitchiness about the bomb you can put together. Like if I blew up a room and entered it a little too early it would only be partially-exploded. But there might be some way of abusing the way you can press a button sequence to enter a cut scene that places the bomb almost anywhere.
Aqfaq wrote:
Possibly useless, unless someone can find out what is outside the visible screen area.
It looks potentially useful. At the very least you could take a path like this and then continue normally (I haven't timed out whether it's actually faster but I hope it is since it looks so much like it belongs in a TAS):
But it could be more useful than that if there's any way for the character to interact with anything or trigger a screen load after he goes offscreen.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
nitsuja wrote:
It looks potentially useful.
The problem is that it takes so long to set-up the trick. However, just going through the wall and skipping the whole scene with the human friend is a pretty big timesaver already.
I have tried using the bomb to trigger cutscene in various places, but nothing interesting happened so far. Maybe getting the whip is a special case, because after it the player has changed to a whip guy:
death + cutscene + get whip = bug
death + cutscene = no bug
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EDIT:
Found another trick: Using the whip changes the position of the "action spot" of the player. This can be used to pick up the bomb parts from far away and it also skips the pick-up animation. (It looks awesome.) The trick also works in the final room, allowing pulling the switch without standing next to it. Now looking for more opportunities for telekinesis whipping...
By the way, autoskipping the red frames would make TASing this game very easy. Possible with LUA, I presume?
---
EDIT:
Oh crap... the whip trick only made the bomb parts invisible, but they are still on the floor. I thought the guy picked them up. What a strange graphical fault.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
I redid the first level and saved 34 frames.
Too bad this doesn't save any time.
Failed here too:
1 2 3Geronim......uh!
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EDIT:
First complete version done in about 5:20. Needs some polishing.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
First real version is now finished: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/931808480/heartofthealien-v1.gmv(Use BIOS 1.10)
All feedback is appreciated.
I believe the sound is not emulated correctly during the final cutscene and I have no idea how to fix it. It seems like a wrong sound effect is played around frame 27500. It's nothing critical, just strange.*
Note: Soon after planting the bomb, I make useless screen transitions to progress the bomb timer faster. It saves 9 frames, although it looks more like a mistake by the player.
EDIT:
* Problem solved by using a different version of the game with correct sounds.
I'm getting a desync pretty early on. But I can't tell if it's at the title menu, or at the acid lake just after you get the whip...
He gets to the screen with the acid lake, then stands around for a while, and then just runs to the left and falls in the lake...
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
There seems to be some bad game versions available. I tried another version and it solved the sound problem in the ending. I can't reproduce the desync, though.
I'm getting a desync pretty early on. But I can't tell if it's at the title menu, or at the acid lake just after you get the whip...
He gets to the screen with the acid lake, then stands around for a while, and then just runs to the left and falls in the lake...
It played through to the ending for me and I'm also unable to reproduce that desync. Anything I try either causes a desync much earlier than that (like if I change the BIOS (away from 1.10), delete a CD track (needs 2 through 42), or turn off the perfect syncro option) or doesn't cause any desyncs at all (like if I change the BRAM size or change any/all of the sound options).
for what it's worth, I'm using a bin/cue version of the game (only version I could easily find), not an iso+mp3 version, so deleting a track isn't a possibility. It is loading from the cue file, and cd audio plays, but perhaps binary image redbook support is not fully sync compatible with mp3 produced PCM support?
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
for what it's worth, I'm using a bin/cue version of the game (only version I could easily find), not an iso+mp3 version, so deleting a track isn't a possibility.
That's probably why (although deleting a track is possible with bin/cue if you want to do it, I wasn't using that).
upthorn wrote:
It is loading from the cue file, and cd audio plays, but perhaps binary image redbook support is not fully sync compatible with mp3 produced PCM support?
The music format really shouldn't matter for sync, since they are both in exactly the same format by the time the emulation tries to use them. But we haven't proven that having lower-quality music resulting from MP3 lossiness can't cause desyncs (as unlikely as that seems considering the vastly different music tracks we've been able to use in Sonic CD without changing sync), and if the music format is different in your version, then it's possible that enough other things about the music and/or the game binary were also ripped differently enough to cause a desync. It's like using a different version of a ROM. I'd say the bin/cue version you're using is likely to be the more "official" one, however, and it's too bad this doesn't sync with both.
Your description of the desync sounds like what would happen if a single frame of lag got displaced around the transition to the screen with the acid pool, so I bet you could make the movie sync to the end with the occasional frame insertion/deletion.
As it turns out, that was the only spot that required editing, but it was off by four frames, not just one.
As for my impression of the TAS... it's entertaining, but it seems that there are a few places where there are cutscenes, which are (understandably) skipped.
My personal feeling, though, is that in a game like this, I would prefer to watch the cutscenes if possible.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
upthorn wrote:
As it turns out, that was the only spot that required editing, but it was off by four frames, not just one.
Nice. By the way, four frames seems to be the standard. The loading times were sometimes 4 frames longer or shorter, when exiting a level at different times. Also, with BIOS 2.00 some loading times were off by 4 frames.
upthorn wrote:
My personal feeling, though, is that in a game like this, I would prefer to watch the cutscenes if possible.
I agree that the cutscenes are quite interesting in this game, but on the other hand they slow down the progress. It is easy to make two versions and let the judges decide whether to include them or not.
Ok, I'm finished with this game for the time being. Does somebody want to improve the movie? Otherwise, I'll submit it to the Workbench in a few days.
My personal feeling, though, is that in a game like this, I would prefer to watch the cutscenes if possible.
I agree that the cutscenes are quite interesting in this game, but on the other hand they slow down the progress. It is easy to make two versions and let the judges decide whether to include them or not.
That would be great.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
this game is pretty cool but it's creepy, especially the ending where the guy from the first game is burned. and the graphics looks like they've been done with mspaint. good job with the run, it was perfect.
Also, here is a demonstration of an insane glitch: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1879257580/bugofthealien1.gmv
This file shows how it is done: http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/1101510953/bugofthealien2.gmv USE BIOS 1.10
Possibly useless, unless someone can find out what is outside the visible screen area.
But it could be more useful than that if there's any way for the character to interact with anything or trigger a screen load after he goes offscreen.
Too bad this doesn't save any time.
Failed here too:
1
2
3
Geronim... 
...uh!
---
EDIT:
First complete version done in about 5:20. Needs some polishing.
