This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2419: FatRatKnight's SNES E.V.O.: Search for Eden in 40:31.17

Lua-scripted subtitles. Instructions for viewing: - Copy entire code block into a simple text editor, like Notepad. - Save as filename.lua, though replace "filename" with whatever you want. Be sure to set "Save as type" to "all files". Now bring up your Snes9x emulator, load the right ROM, run the movie, then run the script. Just look in the File pull-down menu for a "Run Lua Script..." option. Words should appear on occasion in the emulator window.

--Subtitles for EVO

local MX= 2  -- If not using latest revision of Snes9x, set to 0
local MY= 2
local MsgDuration= 300
local t, y, L1, L2= {}, {}, {}, {}
local MsgTmr= MsgDuration
local Line= {}
Line[1]=""
Line[2]=""

-- Sets message and resets timer. Can also set y position
function NewMsg(Line1, Line2, yt)  -- y is optional

    MsgTmr= 0
    Line[1]= Line1
    Line[2]= Line2
    if yt then
        MY= yt
    end
end


-- Displays text
function DispMsg()

    if MsgTmr < MsgDuration then
        MsgTmr= MsgTmr + 1
        gui.text(MX,MY  ,Line[1])
        gui.text(MX,MY+9,Line[2])
    end
end

local i= 1
-- Shrinks file size
function S(st,sy,sL1,sL2) --Time, Y-pos, Lines 1&2
  t[i],y[i],L1[i],L2[i]= st,sy,sL1,sL2
  i=i+1
end

--*****************************************************************************
-- Begin text

S(    60, 2,"This run aims for speed"         ,"")
S(   500, 2,"Yes, this intro is unskippable." ,"")
S(  1840, 2,"This run has more evolutions"    ,"than a Pokemon TAS!")
S(  2300, 2,"I'll let you know my stats..."   ,"Stats: str= 1  agi= 4  jump= 1")
S(  2630, 2,"str for damage, agi for speed."  ,"jump affects... Jumps... Joy")

S(  2960,30,"There are other stats."          ,"They're all useless in this TAS.")
S(  3340,30,"The first Jellyfish you come to" ,"will always tell you this stuff.")
S(  3700,30,"Original Dorsal Fin: +1str +1agi","Stats: str= 2  agi= 5  jump= 1")
S(  3990,30,"Also boosts HP. Unimportant in"  ,"this run, so I don't care.")
S(  4300,30,"Jumping is the fastest form of"  ,"travel. Why else would I do it?")

S(  5400,30,"... If I can just avoid going up","for one frame...")
S(  6250,30,"Quick exit due to R button."     ,"")
S(  6870,30,"The cave where much luck is"     ,"manipulated in my favor.")
S(  7430,30,"1/16 chance for each flashy meat","and done rather stylish, too.")
S(  7700,30,"Different enemies have different","chances, however.")

S(  8080,30,"Eel is very fast. Though this"   ,"can randomly pick a slow manta.")
S(  8500,30,"Oh, right. The Eel's stats..."   ,"Stats: str= 3  agi=12  jump= 6")
S(  8890,30,"50 enemies must spawn. This is"  ,"why I swim at this spot.")
S(  9210,30,"Address 7E0766 is useful here."  ,"It is an enemy counter.")
S(  9600, 2,"Time limit for crystal forms"    ,"is 32 seconds (1920 frames)")

S( 10580,30,"Evil RNG... Poor jellyfish takes","a tackle thanks to it...")
S( 10980,30,"And this is why I want the RNG"  ,"to behave: Flashy meat.")
S( 12410,30,"Quick pause to manipulate luck." ,"Blame the evil RNG, man!")
S( 13200,30,"Stuff in the following cave have","1/32 chance of flashing meat")
S( 13600,30,"Tackled here to maintain Eel"    ,"speed for a short while.")

S( 14020,30,"Kuraselache's Tail: +4 agi +4jmp","Stats: str= 2  agi= 9  jump= 5")
S( 14330,30,"More HP, too. But again, HP is"  ,"not imporant in this run.")
S( 14700,30,"Tackle Fin: +3 agi, +2 str"      ,"Stats: str= 4  agi=12  jump= 5")
S( 15260,30,"Kuraselache's Dorsal Fin."       ,"Stats: str= 6  agi=14  jump= 5")
S( 15820,30,"Heads-up! Our heroic fishy will" ,"make silly faces!")

S( 16550,30,"Again, nothing is faster than"   ,"jumps. There's more, trust me.")
S( 17800,30,"Guess who's tackle will win out!","Imagine the perfect snapshot!")
S( 18750,30,"A message would pop up here."    ,"Naturally, it is skipped.")
S( 19800,30,"Oh, crud! I lost my fish stats!" ,"Stats: str= 1  agi= 4  jump= 1")


--Chapter 2
S( 21500, 2,"A few hundred million years"     ,"pass in less than 10 minutes.")
S( 22950,30,"Wazzat?! A Yellow crystal?  It"  ,"summons Dialogue: Time Waster!")
S( 23280, 2,"Detour. It's long, but the time" ,"it saves makes up for it.")
S( 24450,30,"And there's the reason for the"  ,"detour: Green Crystal!")
S( 24950, 2,"Ah, yes... Recall the fish..."   ,"Stats: str= 6  agi=14  jump= 5")

S( 25800,30,"Oh, silly me. I skipped another" ,"dialogue! Impossible w/o fish.")
S( 26600,30,"As a fish, I can't bounce on"    ,"enemies. So I bite instead.")
S( 27000,30,"Bites can stun enemies long"     ,"enough for me to jump away.")
S( 28080, 2,"Alas, it's many, many more jumps","from here on out.")
S( 30000,30,"It's silly how quick this battle","goes.")

S( 31500,30,"I make a short delay here, to"   ,"get rid of fish frames.")
S( 32700,30,"You can't bounce as a fish."     ,"But as an amphibian... Boing!")
S( 33040,30,"Gulping air in order to keep"    ,"bouncing. Maintains fish speed.")
S( 33350,30,"Keril: +4 agility"               ,"Stats: str= 1  agi= 8  jump= 1")
S( 34540, 2,"Those amphibians aren't foes."   ,"They're still good for bounces!")

S( 35500,30,"Look! I'm an amphibian! These"   ,"things are known for jumps!")
S( 36000,30,"10 minutes have passed"          ,"About 25% done with input file!")
S( 36600,30,"Eating stuff delays death."      ,"Still, less stuff to lag with.")
S( 37000,30,"Jumping Dorsal fin: +3s +5a +4j" ,"Stats: str= 4  agi=13  jump= 5")
S( 37400,30,"1/32 chance for flashing meat."  ,"I don't need them all to flash.")

S( 37900,30,"The boss won't show until ALL"   ,"the enemies and meat are gone.")
S( 38750,30,"Spring Tail:+2 str +2 agi +7 jmp","Stats: str= 6  agi=15  jump=12")
S( 39200,30,"Actually, I'm done evolving as"  ,"the Amphibian. No need for food")
S( 41190,30,"Another green crystal..."        ,"I'll make use of it!")
S( 42390,30,"I jump once. Fun how releasing"  ,"control coasts me through.")

S( 44400,30,"Biting Megausu gets him off the" ,"screen sooner.")
S( 45200,30,"Shorter tackles because I let"   ,"Queen Bee off the ground.")
S( 46130,30,"Oh, dear... Not again! NO!"      ,"Stats: str= 1  agi= 4  jump= 1")


--Chapter 3
S( 47900, 2,"I hear this is a bad time to be.","I mean, the meteors and all...")
S( 49050,30,"Ugh... No wimpy dino... Oh, my"  ,"Green Crystal! I'll use it!")
S( 49400,30,"Remember the amphy's stats?"     ,"Stats: str= 6  agi=15  jump=12")
S( 50900,30,"There will be a chain of stages" ,"where I simply jump through...")
S( 51780,30,"Eh? Don't want it? Oh joy! I'll" ,"take it off your hands, then!")

S( 53700,30,"Ah, another new creature to jump","on! Imagine the plot unfolding!")
S( 54700,30,"These yell when attacked. That"  ,"noise can deal damage to you.")
S( 57950,30,"Wait, did I see 'reptile' in"    ,"there? I'm not one, am I? Uh...")
S( 58150,30,"Gah! No reptile! NO! Must use"   ,"my other Green Crystal!")
S( 58550,30,"Seriously, 1 damage a hit?"      ,"6/hit takes a while as is!")

S( 59500,30,"Detour: Going to become a bird." ,"It's freakin' fast, man!")
S( 60700,30,"Sweet! A plot twist! We get to"  ,"jump to the LEFT now! Awesome!")
S( 61700,30,"Note, I never got any EVO.P as"  ,"a Reptile...")
S( 62500,30,"Ah, Mt. Brave. Amphibians like"  ,"me can jump up easily!")
S( 63460,30,"Reptile...?"                     ,"")

S( 63560,30,"Reptile...?  REPTILE!?"          ,"")
S( 63660,30,"Reptile...?  REPTILE!?"          ,"NO! Not that again! So weak!")
S( 63860,30,"I'm... Doomed... No more..."     ,"Bye world... I'm jumping off!")
S( 64180,30,"But wait!! What's that?! Joy!"   ,"I'm a bird! My savior!")
S( 64810, 2,"Bird stats start decent, though.","Stats: str= 1  agi= 9  jump= 4")

S( 65400,30,"But I need a little more stats." ,"One side trip here, and...")
S( 65800,30,"This thing has a 1/128 chance"   ,"to drop flashing meat.")
S( 66200,30,"Pronesaurus Dorsal Fin"          ,"Stats: str= 4  agi=11  jump= 6")
S( 66400,30,"Ptenodons Crest"                 ,"Stats: str= 5  agi=13  jump= 8")
S( 66850, 2,"The detour finally ends..."      ,"We're on our way through now!")

S( 67300,30,"Still smilin'. That meat was"    ,"THAT good, I tell ya!")
S( 68500,30,"Caution: Glitch ahead. I zip,"   ,"causing a mess with the sky.")
S( 69700,30,"Boss battle: Defeat 10 of these" ,"silly things.")
S( 70050,30,"They have a 1/64 chance of"      ,"forking over flashing meat.")
S( 70500,30,"The pre-emptive evolution helps.","5 damage instead of 1!")

S( 70950,30,"Mmm... Luck-manipulated meat..." ,"Part of a balanced diet!")
S( 71350,30,"Longtail birds Tail"             ,"Stats: str=10  agi=20  jump=11")
S( 72000,30,"20 minutes have passed"          ,"I'm just chugging along.")
S( 72500,30,"I hate lag. Avoiding it made it" ,"less epic than my test run.")
S( 74400, 2,"Ominous Green Crystal..."        ,"Floating like it's nothin'...")

S( 75000, 2,"Extreme dodgeball! Looks like"   ,"The Dinos are losing this one!")


--Chapter 4
S( 77400, 2,"This is the coolest chapter!"    ,"... I don't mean figuratively.")
S( 78650,30,"Non-mammals can't walk on ice"   ,"all that well...")
S( 79000,30,"I can always jump! Somehow, air" ,"has more traction than ice.")
S( 79400,30,"Tackles work well, too."         ,"Silly ice...")
S( 79750,30,"This is where you'd become a"    ,"mammal. I'll stay a bird...")

S( 81000,30,"Yes, I need to visit in order"   ,"to continue...")
S( 82300,30,"Now we can jump in a cave!"      ,"All the places we can jump!")
S( 83000,30,"There's actually an alternate"   ,"path. But this one's faster.")
S( 84050, 2,"Wonder how my bird manages with" ,"that cold air...")
S( 84650,30,"Now what did I just say? Now"    ,"it's not cold at all!")

S( 85600,30,"A more impressive zip glitch"    ,"takes place here.")
S( 85940,30,"I have indeed touched the sky."  ,"It's kind of red and stuff.")
S( 87280, 2,"Classic wraparound effect."      ,"I head south to North Pole!")
S( 87700,30,"Must be the off-screen teleport" ,"that I always heard about.")
S( 88650,30,"Another boss battle."            ,"Result is predictable.")

S( 89000,30,"Note how useful those downward"  ,"tackles are. Bird only")
S( 90750, 2,"Okay, this wraparound is silly." ,"Don't think too hard on it.")
S( 91720,30,"Warted Body: +2 strength"        ,"Stats: str=12  agi=20  jump=11")
S( 92100,30,"Notably, flying up this pillar"  ,"lets me get grabbed faster.")
S( 93100,30,"Ah, my favorite scene! Look at"  ,"how I bounce through!")

S( 93900,30,"Bird flight speeds up this place","dramatically. So neat!")
S( 94270,30,"Yes, this is a teleporter maze." ,"It's quick enough, anyway.")
S( 94800,30,"Here's why Birdy speeds things:" ,"Going up. Yay for flight!")
S( 96400,30,"I take my time eating these."    ,"I must wait a fixed time!")
S( 97200, 2,"Dramatic escape sequence! ...Oh?","I'm already out?! Yay!")

S( 98000,30,"There would be this ice barrier.","A boom miles away took it out.")
S( 99100,30,"This tackle sequence is used to" ,"prevent me from taking damage")
S(100600,30,"You can tell she's female by the","teal eye shadow she wears.")
S(101100,30,"Same attack pattern to avoid"    ,"the same sort of damage.")
S(101700,30,"That time I needed to eat quick" ,"to trigger the next scene.")

S(102500,30,"Oh? About that 3800 EVO.P?"      ,"You'll find out later.")


--Chapter 5
S(104600, 2,"Never thought history would be"  ,"anything like this.")
S(105800,30,"My goodness! We're jumping to"   ,"the left again! Madness!")
S(106850,30,"You can become human. It is"     ,"disappointingly weak...")
S(107165,30,"Human form is only for mammals." ,"Like I care for this run...")
S(107670,30,"Water causes evolution. I fly"   ,"to avoid that mess.")

S(108000, 2,"30 minutes have passed"          ,"Are we there yet? NO!")
S(108700,30,"Rather conveniently placed"      ,"foe, would you say?")
S(109400,30,"Odd, but the Y button allows me" ,"to bounce off them...")
S(111850,30,"I tried. I really did. I just"   ,"can't manipulate them...")
S(114150,30,"Dialogue skip! No monkey shall"  ,"tell me to use elevators!")

S(114550,30,"Yes, repeated tackles is faster" ,"than straight flying...")
S(114870,30,"But only at a high enough"       ,"agility.")
S(115350,30,"This boss has an unusually short","stun time. Tough thing...")
S(115680,30,"However, short stun times are"   ,"good things for a TASer!")
S(116800,30,"If you think about it, this"     ,"place is insane...")

S(117400,30,"First, we have a bird underwater","")
S(118100,30,"And quite suddenly, there's ice.","")
S(118600,30,"And a fish riding another fish." ,"  With a gun, too.")
S(119100,30,"I manipulate their patrol so my" ,"dashes aren't interrupted.")
S(120500,30,"Then we meet a spell-casting"    ,"boss. Now there's magic?")

S(121600,30,"Top it all off with a throne"    ,"room.")
S(121920,30,"Complete with royalty, curtains,","red carpet... Underwater?")
S(122800,30,"Yeah... Back to the land for me!","I'm outta here!")
S(124000,30,"They talk about that flying fort","over in Chapter 4.")
S(125000,30,"I could use that zip glitch, but","low ceiling made it useless")

S(126050,30,"Alright, Cro-Maine, I'm-a go"    ,"and bury you!!")
S(126500,30,"Well, uh... What do you know?"   ,"I DID bury him! What the hey?")
S(127500,30,"Ah, the final place. You can"    ,"tell from the music.")
S(128100,30,"Elevator glitch. I can jump and" ,"still trigger it.")
S(128420,30,"Generally good for getting a"    ,"better position.")

S(130100,30,"Bolbox... A boss that takes"     ,"forever to die.")
S(131390,30,"Armor Body"                      ,"Stats: str=14  agi=18  jump=11")
S(131630,30,"Horned Helmet"                   ,"Stats: str=16  agi=16  jump= 9")
S(132000,30,"Agility has little meaning now." ,"So, strength all the way!")
S(132650,30,"I can attack Bolbox, but no"     ,"progress 'til minion is dead.")

S(133080,30,"Must eat as well. " ,"enemy won't show!")
S(133550,30,"Just killing time. May as well"  ,"act out while waiting.")
S(134000,30,"My test run used 12 damage hits.","")
S(134600,30,"Ulch... Avoiding lag made this"  ,"dance so much less appealing.")
S(135500,30,"If I hit again before eating,"   ,"Bolbox would recover 80 HP.")

S(137400,30,"That white ball transforms into" ,"a cute harmless amphibian!")
S(137900,30,"Finding actions to entertain"    ,"you during waits ain't easy.")
S(138470,30,"Static noise? Seems it tried to" ,"attack. I didn't let it.")
S(139100,30,"It's nearly over... Just one"    ,"more orb after this one...")
S(140250,30,"Uh, oh... Bolbox's last resort"  ,"is coming! Here it comes!")

S(140625,30,"It's almost here! It's... It is-","")
S(140705,30,"It's almost here! It's... It is-","... A hunk of meat?!")
S(141200,30,"Alas, Bolbox's last ditch effort","to bribe me ends in failure.")
S(144000, 2,"40 minutes have passed"          ,"Enjoying the ending?")

--End text
--*****************************************************************************


i= 1
while t[i] and (t[i] < movie.framecount()) do  i= i+1  end

while t[i] do
    if t[i] <= movie.framecount() then
        NewMsg(L1[i],L2[i],y[i])
        i= i+1
    end
    DispMsg()
    snes9x.frameadvance()
end

local timer= 0
while true do  -- Idle loop. Prevents pre-lua pause state
    DispMsg()  -- To get that last message...
    timer= timer+1
    snes9x.frameadvance()

    if timer >= 72000 then
        gui.text(0,200,"Um, sir... You have an active script...")
    end
    if timer >=216000 then
        gui.text(0,210,"If you want hidden messages, open the darn script!")
    end
end

holy sh*t

Having played this game, passing up all the food went against my 'Get it! Get it! Get it!" mentality. That said, it was quite fast. It looks like there are some points where you're dawdling, but I'm quite convinced that you weren't. It's been a while since I went all the way through the game myself(I'm half-way convinced to go through it again just based on what I saw in the TAS), so I can't exactly confirm or deny where the delays are likely to happen. Aside from the technical details, it was fun to watch. I think the few idle times weren't filled as much as they could've been, but neither were they devoid of activity. Yes vote

I didn't really enjoy it. By the time I got to the Ice Age, I was suitably bored and stopped watching. Meh vote.

Never did finish this one on my own, thanks to terrible timing of power outage. Good to see what happens, though I guess I technically didn't need a TAS for that. The run was amusing in appropriate dosages, and I can't think of anything to contribute as far as suggestions or gripes. The caption script was helpful in seeing some of the behind-the-scenes work, which I'm sure works to your favor, and breaks up the monotony of the game. Yes vote from me (though I do wish you'd put the emulator version number in the description of the movie).

Yes vote from me (though I do wish you'd put the emulator version number in the description of the movie).

Oh, shoot... That is kind of important. I'll update the submission text! Thanks for letting me know your thoughts, everyone!

Looks solid and kept me entertained. Voted yes. I definitely endorse the subtitles, by the way. Subtitles are much more user-friendly (for the casual watcher) than a long scene-by-scene submission description.

yes vote, the subs are more than recomended if this run is published. also, i'm surprised that you didn't upgrade jaws even once in the run as they should add str (if i remember corectly ?) and could have shortened amphibian / fish boses (did the evo animation took too much time ?) also too bad you didn't take the dragon form :/

Awesome, and I agree that the subs should be in the final encode. They really help to keep the run from getting too monotonous.

The caption script was helpful [...]

I definitely endorse the subtitles, [...]

the subs are more than recomended if this run is published.

Awesome, and I agree that the subs should be in the final encode. [...]

Clearly, there's a lot of positive feedback here. There's not much I need to say here, pointing these out should let you know how I feel.

also, i'm surprised that you didn't upgrade jaws even once in the run as they should add str (if i remember corectly ?) and could have shortened amphibian / fish boses (did the evo animation took too much time ?)

It's actually a combination of reasons. See how fast I knock the bosses around? King Kuraselache has 75 HP, and with 6 Strength, it takes 13 tackles to finish him off. Adding a single point of Strength would allow 11 tackles to do the job, which might save a second, but the evolution time and hunting for EVO.P would swamp out that saving. Note how I reach each early boss with 0 EVO.P, so I would have to hunt for more. Additionally, jaws don't affect Strength at all, unless you're a Mammal. Probably the big reason why I didn't touch the jaws at all.

also too bad you didn't take the dragon form :/

The detour to the dragon... Is simply long. Very long. I didn't see any way that the 30 damage bites and 25 damage horn would make up for that. On the other hand, I didn't actually test it -- I merely checked the length of time to get through the clouds and back for the dragon. It was something like a minute or so detour. Domain of Tyrosaurus takes less than a minute even without the high damage.

This game is awesome and the run reflects that. A pity that you cannot show all the possible endings in one sitting. The only thing I miss is that you don't marry the sea monster, or is it that only mermaids can do that?

Is it weird that as soon as I saw the intro of the game (I usually let a new game run a bit before starting a movie), I could tell the game was made by Enix because of the style they use to draw the blue Earth? It reminded me immediately of Illusion of Gaia :-) I enjoyed this run, though it has a really large amount of downtime in the overworld map. Also, why do bosses have to pause for about a second before you can scroll their text? The subtitles helped with the downtime, but occasionally they were in the way... I'm not sure there's much you can do about that. It dawned on me, though, that the reason that the downtime seems so long is BECAUSE you're hurtling through the stages at breakneck speed, sometimes chaining jumps off of creatures. The fights are generally awesome. It's clear that the game wasn't really designed to be played as minimalist as you did, skipping so many enemies. Also, I found it darkly funny how you beat up Papa and Mama Yeti and then Junior goes by crying, and then even later you beat Junior up too! Anyway, Yes vote. I would be interested in seeing other evolutionary paths too, but I'm not sure if any other paths are worth making a run category for.

Great run. This really puts that sloppy test run I made a while back to shame. I'm glad to see that this game finally has a legit run done. Yes vote. I think that a lot of people won't find this run as impressive as they could/should because the average player usually has the exp hording mentality when playing this. Trying to speed through this game skips a lot of what makes it charming: branching evolution paths, interacting with NPCs, killing random amounts of people for days. Still, the slight repetitiveness and lack of involving content is a byproduct of simply skipping what isn't necessary. I hope that this doesn't hold the run back from publication.

my fav part of this game is that you can actualy kill the npc's and eat them (funny drawback too) @FRK : i think too that the dragon would be a waste of time because basicaly you would have to fly trought a cloud maze...

Much like wat Zurreco said, it's a great run. I didn't expect you could find such a zipping glitch. But congratulations! However, I still wonder whether it can be faster by manipulating more flashing meat when you fought tyrosauruses to get the warted body earlier.

wow, I can't wait to be able to watch this !! I'm really happy someone made a run of this game

I couldn't get this to sync. It kept desyncing right when you attacked the guys who split in half. Any ideas why?

I couldn't get this to sync. It kept desyncing right when you attacked the guys who split in half. Any ideas why?

That sounds exactly the spot where left+right or up+down is used for the first time. Is that disabled on your emulator? Enable it if possible! It is one of the listed options in my submission text. If that doesn't work, then I'm out of ideas.

However, I still wonder whether it can be faster by manipulating more flashing meat when you fought tyrosauruses to get the warted body earlier.

That's a good point. However, the reasons I didn't: - The last two Tyrosaurus' meat comes practically free in terms of time. Before those, I would have to spend a second or two of waiting. - The extra strength after the Tyrosaurus would only be of benefit at the Mammoth Brothers. They have 75 HP each, so 12 Strength would save a total of three hits. About 1 second. - The RNG was uncooperative. Look at how long I delayed at the last Tyrosaurus before the last hit! THAT was for one last flashing meat. Incidentally, I was thinking about increasing my size for Bolbox, to maximize my strength at 18. But I didn't have the EVO.P for it... I'm not sure if it would save more time than it eats up, but manipulating flashing meat from both of the last two Tyrosaurus is a start.

Clearly I am retarded. I forgot to set it despite double and triple checking my settings.

Great to see the finished run. Definite yes.

Yes

You know, I realized I forgot some suggested screenshots in my submission text... Suggested screenshots: 17970 - Mirror match? 71721 - Double smash 85938 - Red mess 126451 - Buried boss Suggestive screenshots: (... No comment) 101028 - ... Really, no comment! 139388 - I will especially "no comment" this.

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes.