Submission Text Full Submission Page
Tetris DS. Standard Marathon Mode (200 line clear) cleared in 1 minute and 18.7 seconds, complete with must-watch credits. Enjoy!
This movie was made in DeSMuMe 0.9.4+ r2881. It works also on 0.9.4+ r2872, and probably, the newest SVN version.
Fix ARM Cycle Count must be on. Fast Fetch-Execute should be left off.
  • Aims for fastest completion of Standard Marathon.

About the game

Tetris DS is well-known for its intense Nintendo theme. It is also known for three other things that make it appealing to TAS:
  • The hold piece, which allows a player more freedom.
  • Sonic or Hard drop; where pressing up causes the blocks to fall immediately. This isn't new; it existed in some PC Tetris versions.
  • No delay between pieces, except during line clears. Similar to PC versions. In Tetris terminology, ARE=0.
  • Sliding pieces along a surface. If a piece comes to rest on a surface, or is nearby, rotating it will cause it to slither along the surface, sometimes in unexpected ways. This is particularly noticeable in the late stages of this run. It is possible to create "T-Spins" with the T-Block.

About the run

This run took longer than expected. Every time I thought I had figured out something, the game threw in something new. I redid the last few sections three times because I kept running into I-Block trouble (I need 50 Tetrises). The last 8 lines took a long time to optimize. Due to the unlucky piece sequence, I cannot complete it in 500 pieces, needing 501. To complete it in 500 pieces requires either an even number of T-Blocks in the first 500 pieces, or an I-Block as the 501st piece, neither of which happened.
I initially made the run without using Fix ARM Cycle Count. After completing the run, I figured out that Fix ARM Cycle Count is required to avoid a graphical glitching of the Level 4 transition (when the run reaches 40 lines). So I edited the DSM by a menu redo and gameplay copypaste. In doing this, I saved 38 frames on menu transitions and 1 frame in the gameplay itself.
Fix ARM Cycle Count is also required for Catch Mode to work correctly, although Catch Mode is not relevant to this run.
Gameplay is 4722 frames (1m 18.7s) long, from the first "ghost piece" appearance to when the line count reaches 200. A TAS I found on YouTube goes from frame 807 to 5571 (4765 frames). However, it is not exactly known what the beginning and ending points were.

Thanks

Thanks to Baxter for various discussions about a possible TAS showing off different modes. Since selecting what to show off is subjective, and potentially long, I decided to do a fastest run on the showcase mode because it is short and objective.
Thanks also to an anonymous TASer (probably a Japanese speaker) who made the TAS linked above so I can compare.
Greenalink and LightBlueYoshi deserve mention for other TASes, respectively.

mmbossman: Fast, technically sound (the youtube version that was posted is tough to verify, if someone can find the source for it, I reserve the right to review this decision), people like it, and the goal is easy to understand. Accepting for publication.

mmbossman: I would like to apologize to FractalFusion for prematurely accepting this. I thought I had followed along with the thread well, but I somehow managed to miss this post, which provides a [dead link removed] to a .dsm input file that beats this same mode with same goals in 1:37.53, or just shy of 3 seconds faster than this submitted movie. And, as I stated above, and as is stated in the rules, since this movie does not beat all existing records when aiming for the same goals, I am now setting this to "Rejected". I apologize again to FractalFusion for this oversight.


Former player
Joined: 7/14/2005
Posts: 103
What we're getting at now is partially why I don't even bother making TASes for this site anymore. The general attitude seems to be something like "you can save one frame, DENIED" or "a few people really enjoy this, but because a select few don't deem it the grand-supreme-apex-of-entertainment, we will fail you until you spend 1000 more hours working on this." So what can happen is the TASer takes a big hit to his ego and may give up, and others mayn't even try because they fear likewise denial. I understand if someone submits something everyone finds trite, the TASer doesn't know what he's doing, and it's not worth the time watching. However, what's so wrong with a TAS that at least some people really like and is the starting point of something that can be competed in and polished to something great later on? I think for at least this particular case, something is a whole lot better than nothing. And there are tons... tons of TASes on this site that are waaay less enjoyable than this.
Lex
Joined: 6/25/2007
Posts: 732
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Exactly. Nico hit the nail on the head here. I'm not sure if has, but it feels like it's gotten to the point where a lot of TASers who make precise, entertaining, and skillful runs aren't even submitting here.
Banned User
Joined: 12/23/2004
Posts: 1850
nico wrote:
words
Don't bother. The site's been headed on this path for the last several years and it isn't going to change.
Baxter wrote:
Making a TAS like this takes quite a bit of time, which amongst emulator differences that don't support my current WIP and other projects didn't make me work on this for quite some time now. No offense at all meant to Fractal_Fusion... but this 200 line submission I could have made months ago, in a matter of one or maybe two days of work.
Baxter wrote:
With this submission, I meant a 200 line submission, but I haven't said anything about being able to beat this run, or that there were particular mistakes in this run... so I have no claim to defend or proof here.
I can make this submission with my hands tied behind my back while blindfolded, and that means this submission should be rejected even though I pulled this figure out of my ass with no justification. Also I haven't actually claimed anything so I don't have to prove anything and this submission should still be rejected.
Baxter wrote:
I do recognize why there is such a positive response... the gameplay is really fast, and it looks entertaining. This is however mostly due to how the game is, and not particularly due to the goals or effort put into the TAS. Voting no.
Oh, shut the hell up. If the goals of this TAS had nothing to do with the goals of this TAS then random videos of people playing Tetris DS would be just as popular. It's the fact that aims to beat this game as fast as possible that is the reason for entertainment. Jesus fucking Christ I hate the tasvideos community sometimes
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Lex wrote:
Exactly. Nico hit the nail on the head here. I'm not sure if has, but it feels like it's gotten to the point where a lot of TASers who make precise, entertaining, and skillful runs aren't even submitting here.
Welcome to TASvideos!

Your submission has been
 [ ] accepted
 [x] rejected
due to its
 [ ] lack of Mario, Metroid, Megaman, or other popular gameisms
 [ ] speed
 [ ] lack of speed
 [ ] judge favoritism
 [ ] too much "playing around"
 [ ] too much not "playing around"
 [ ] single frame imperfection
 [ ] lack of subpixels
 [ ] non-standard goals
 [ ] decision to actually play the game instead of pressing up+left+down+B+select for a glitch that goes to the ending
 [x] all of the above
.

Congratulations on your new contribution!
TASvideos team
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nico wrote:
What we're getting at now is partially why I don't even bother making TASes for this site anymore.
I was wondering why you were coming out of the woodwork to complain, and then discovered that the two movies you had published were Tetris movies..... And published 3 years ago. If the site has been heading downhill for that long, why do you still bother visiting? It's obvious you lost interest in actually making TASes a long time ago, so why insinuate that you just decided to stop recently because of current events? Oh, and likewise, your insinuation of "perfection or nothing" is completely unfounded. If there are better goals for this game, that does not exclude this from publication. Likewise, if the author aimed for fastest time possible, and verifiably failed that goal, why should this submissionbe given special treatment? "Runs must be faster than all existing records" has been a guideline since the inception of the site. Don't try to pretend otherwise.
Living Well Is The Best Revenge My Personal Page
Joined: 7/21/2007
Posts: 9
Location: Austin, TX
As an observer, a lurker for a few years now, I think Xkeeper and Lex are right. Xkeeper's list of things seems accurate enough. Oh, or my all time "favorite" reason - "this game wasn't a good choice to TAS"! What. Well, gee, I bet the person who spent however many hours of their life on making it, no matter how technically sound that movie may be, will appreciate having it not seen by anyone for the worst reason possible. It really begs for a section of non-encoded movies or something for these supposedly poor choices... but perhaps I'm misinterpreting the argument in this topic. Ah well. I've made my statement...
Editor, Expert player (2080)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3284
Baxter wrote:
MUGG wrote:
A comparison video featuring FractalFusion's and 5z98qTHveupDQ5kL's movies. http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm8779719
The submission text says Fractal_Fusions movie is faster, but in this comparison video, the other version is clearly faster... what's the deal?
Interesting video. I had assumed that I was always faster, but ... I'll have to check whether it could be due to emulator differences, or FPS differences (but I don't see why, 60fps is 60fps, unless Youtube messes with the framerate). The other TAS I think was made in a different version (maybe the official, I can't tell yet). Some research is needed.
Joined: 2/12/2008
Posts: 67
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA
A solid run that's entertaining and well-executed, with clear, simple goals. Easy yes vote in my book.
Lex
Joined: 6/25/2007
Posts: 732
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
FractalFusion wrote:
Baxter wrote:
MUGG wrote:
A comparison video featuring FractalFusion's and 5z98qTHveupDQ5kL's movies. http://dic.nicovideo.jp/v/sm8779719
The submission text says Fractal_Fusions movie is faster, but in this comparison video, the other version is clearly faster... what's the deal?
Interesting video. I had assumed that I was always faster, but ... I'll have to check whether it could be due to emulator differences, or FPS differences (but I don't see why, 60fps is 60fps, unless Youtube messes with the framerate). The other TAS I think was made in a different version (maybe the official, I can't tell yet). Some research is needed.
Note that his copyright screen fades in after yours and out before yours. Either it's a different version with a faster copyright screen or you just didn't know you could make it fade that early. I'm betting it's the former, though it's possible to be the latter. Edit: It's also possibly something wrong with the encode, but that difference in duration is a higher ratio than the gameplay's difference ratio, so I think that's unlikely. Like you said, 60fps is 60fps.
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Joined: 5/31/2004
Posts: 1821
Whoah, people... don't respond to whatever you might want me to have said... try reading a bit more carefully next time.
nico wrote:
What we're getting at now is partially why I don't even bother making TASes for this site anymore. The general attitude seems to be something like "you can save one frame, DENIED"
Nowhere have I said that this movie should be rejected because the quality of TASing wasn't good enough, or it is/might be possible to save frames.
nico wrote:
or "a few people really enjoy this, but because a select few don't deem it the grand-supreme-apex-of-entertainment, we will fail you until you spend 1000 more hours working on this."
No judge has made a decision on this TAS yet. If I were to judge this movie (which I won't do), I would take into account all the opinions in this thread. Just because the majority of the opinions are positive on this TAS however doesn't mean that I can't post my personal opinion as a member of the TASvideos community (which is not the same as judging a submission as a judge).
Nico wrote:
I think for at least this particular case, something is a whole lot better than nothing.
This might be true, but look at it from my perspective. I was/am planning on doing about 9 modes like this. With the argument you just stated, I could have submitted a wip of the first mode, and state in all honestly: "This is a wip which completes this mode. I will add other modes later, so stay tuned for my next submissions.". People would say "Dude... just make your complete movie before submitting it.". If I were to call it a complete movie and state in all honesty: "This is a TAS of this mode. I will make 8 more seperate submissions of other modes.". Then people would say "Dude, if you have all this planned, just include it in one movie.".
Nico wrote:
So what can happen is the TASer takes a big hit to his ego and may give up, and others mayn't even try because they fear likewise denial.
Lex wrote:
Exactly. Nico hit the nail on the head here. I'm not sure if has, but it feels like it's gotten to the point where a lot of TASers who make precise, entertaining, and skillful runs aren't even submitting here.
I would point out again like I stated above that everyone is entitled to post his opinion in the thread, and that no judgement has been made yet. I do have something to say about making a negative post regarding a submission, and its goal (after all, it might only discourage a TASer and others do like the TAS, so why spoil their fun?). Let me begin by saying that a post explaining a no-vote is better than no explanation at all. Then, there are several factors that I consider when making a negative post on a submission. If I don't care/don't know a game, mainly rpg-games, which take long and I don't enjoy, I won't vote or comment on it, as like you mentioned... why spoil the fun of people who do know the game and love the TAS. If I however do know and like the game, and I have something in particular that bothers me with the TAS, what is wrong with pointing that out? I always mention what I think would be a good idea to change (like I did at this submission), and I try to do this without something that the TASer might take personal (as I said my post in this submission thread: "this post is in no way meant to be against Fractal_Fusion"). I also take the amount of work that went into a TAS into consideration, and I am less likely to be critical if a LOT of work went into it (5000 rerecords is a different story than 100.000 rerecords).
Xkeeper wrote:
Nico wrote:
words
Don't bother. The site's been headed on this path for the last several years and it isn't going to change.
I don't really know what direction you are talking about, but I think I've posted a response to all the points that Nico made, so I probably also covered whatever path you are talking about. Maybe you can elaborate...
Xkeeper wrote:
Baxter wrote:
No offense at all meant to Fractal_Fusion... but this 200 line submission I could have made months ago, in a matter of one or maybe two days of work.
Baxter wrote:
With this submission, I meant a 200 line submission, but I haven't said anything about being able to beat this run, or that there were particular mistakes in this run... so I have no claim to defend or proof here.
I can make this submission with my hands tied behind my back while blindfolded, and that means this submission should be rejected even though I pulled this figure out of my ass with no justification. Also I haven't actually claimed anything so I don't have to prove anything and this submission should still be rejected.
I thought my point was quite clear, but I might have formulated it wrong. Lex wrote "If Baxter thinks he can do better on these goals with a day's work, I challenge him to beat this run!. What I meant to say is that I never claimed anything of that sort, since I only claimed I could make a 200 line submission like this in a day or two months ago, and I had not claimed that I can improve it in a day or two. But you are right in a way... I did make a claim (just not the one Lex read into it), and let me respond to the claim that I did make then. 1) What I meant by "months ago" is that I completed a mode and posted it here over half a year ago. This is a completed mode just like this submission, and would have been an equally valid, and I think equally appreciated submission as this one. 2) It's obvious what I mean by "in a matter of one or maybe two days of work" and I can't actually prove it without doing it I guess... but I somehow think it would be a waste of time, as I would be making a movie with goals that I myself wouldn't consider the best possible set of goals. There are however three things that might persuade some people that there is some truth to this claim: * I have TASed this particular game, and have a good knowledge on how it works. * This submission has about 5000 rerecords, and it is very possible to do 5000 rerecords worth of TASing in a day. *I have submitted: - NES Tetris A mode within a day of Primo's submission. - NES Tetris B mode within a day of Chef Stef's movie being published - GBC Tetris DX within a day after submitting my NES Tetris A mode TAS - GB Tetris within a day after Nineko said that his movie was perfect unless someone else proved otherwise I agree... this doesn't prove that I can make a submission like this in one or two days (and I say again, "like this" doesn't necessarily mean an improvement)... but I would say that there are some indications that might point to the claim not being entirely random.
Xkeeper wrote:
Baxter wrote:
I do recognize why there is such a positive response... the gameplay is really fast, and it looks entertaining. This is however mostly due to how the game is, and not particularly due to the goals or effort put into the TAS. Voting no.
Oh, shut the hell up. If the goals of this TAS had nothing to do with the goals of this TAS then random videos of people playing Tetris DS would be just as popular. It's the fact that aims to beat this game as fast as possible that is the reason for entertainment. Jesus fucking Christ I hate the tasvideos community sometimes
"If the goals of this TAS had nothing to do with the goals of this TAS"... I am totally clueless what you mean by this, or how you could deduce anything like this from what I said. I only said that this submission is very popular because the game is very suitable for TASing, and not because the most awesome goals were picked (and by goals, I don't just mean "completes as fast as possible", but "completes this particular mode as fast as possible"... and I don't think the best goals for this submission were picked, because a whole lot of awesomeness that the game has to offer isn't displayed... this could mean that this particular goal might be one of the ones included in such a full TAS). To your claim that "random videos of people playing Tetris DS would be just as popular"... Well, maybe not completely random... but I would think that the TASes Fractal_Fusion pointed out in his submission got an equally enthusiastic response at youtube as this movie, and one should take into consideration that this was the first submission of this game at TASvideos. So while completely random playing obviously wouldn't be as popular, I do think that youtube movies with a particular level of play, be it with different goals or whatever, would indeed be just as popular, especially if they were the first submission of this game here. The list Xkeeper posts in his next post is completely rediculous in a multitude of ways. First of all, the submission hasn't been rejected or accepted. Then he lists 10 reasons for rejection and says all of the above, while for this particular submission (we are still talking about that right?) none of the above applies. The only objection I stated were the goals, and the objection wasn't "non-standard goals".
Gohanks wrote:
As an observer, a lurker for a few years now, I think Xkeeper and Lex are right. Xkeeper's list of things seems accurate enough. Oh, or my all time "favorite" reason - "this game wasn't a good choice to TAS"! What. Well, gee, I bet the person who spent however many hours of their life on making it, no matter how technically sound that movie may be, will appreciate having it not seen by anyone for the worst reason possible. It really begs for a section of non-encoded movies or something for these supposedly poor choices... but perhaps I'm misinterpreting the argument in this topic. Ah well. I've made my statement...
Please, read everything I posted above, and read it carefully. Both of the things you claim here are completely the opposite from what I said. I think the game is totally great choice for a TAS, and it's so great that I think this particular submission doesn't do justice to the full potential of the game. Second, you talk about the technical soundness of the movie maybe not being ok, but that not mattering... while I haven't said anything about the movie not being technically sound. I did wonder about that comparison video posted... but my inquery about that was rather objective I'd say.
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Nico wrote:
So what can happen is the TASer takes a big hit to his ego and may give up, and others mayn't even try because they fear likewise denial.
Lex wrote:
Exactly. Nico hit the nail on the head here. I'm not sure if has, but it feels like it's gotten to the point where a lot of TASers who make precise, entertaining, and skillful runs aren't even submitting here.
lmao so you do what of your movies? you starve at em ? youtube or whatever... who cares... when i want to watch TAS'es i go to tasvideos.org, i dont go to youtube and all alike, even tought if im redirected by tasvideos.org to those site, who cares, man thats statement was bs and everyone know TAS'ers do post here... now you can call me and all others here bad TAS'er if that make you feel better... i guess As for baxter post, wow, that was long couldnt make it to the end, but anyway, i think its based on those biased comments around so its not like very important i assume Movie was ok, ill trow yes, it was fun, i wouldnt take on a hour long of it, would be boring imo, the ending pretty bad too :p (just to be picky on something lol)
Former player
Joined: 7/14/2005
Posts: 103
mmbossman wrote:
If the site has been heading downhill for that long, why do you still bother visiting? It's obvious you lost interest in actually making TASes a long time ago, so why insinuate that you just decided to stop recently because of current events?
I visit to watch the TASes and I was posting here to contribute to this particular TAS? And I simply didn't insinuate that I stopped making TASes recently.
mmbossman wrote:
Likewise, if the author aimed for fastest time possible, and verifiably failed that goal, why should this submissionbe given special treatment? "Runs must be faster than all existing records" has been a guideline since the inception of the site. Don't try to pretend otherwise.
You're right. For example, my SSB run was "officially" denied because it was found I could fall through a platform instead of run off and save like 3 frames. Afterwards I tried to edit that fix in, but couldn't figure it out. Then, I realized I was just wasting my time trying to create something cool for people who were acting just brutal towards my work, so I gave up on making TASes. Nobody wins. This is the point I was trying to make why maybe this practice isn't such a hot idea.
Baxter wrote:
If I however do know and like the game, and I have something in particular that bothers me with the TAS, what is wrong with pointing that out?
Nothing. I, too, pointed out things that could be improved.
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nico wrote:
[ You're right. For example, my SSB run was "officially" denied because it was found I could fall through a platform instead of run off and save like 3 frames. Afterwards I tried to edit that fix in, but couldn't figure it out. Then, I realized I was just wasting my time trying to create something cool for people who were acting just brutal towards my work, so I gave up on making TASes. Nobody wins. This is the point I was trying to make why maybe this practice isn't such a hot idea.
I won't get into the hellhole that is SSB, but by looking at some of the responses, it appears some people found it to be repetitive, and thus not entertaining. That's the nature of self-expression and the risk you take by putting something into the public eye: Some people won't like it. I haven't watched it, so I can't comment, but I can apologize for Phil's attitude. There's a reason he doesn't judge any longer.
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mmbossman wrote:
That's the nature of self-expression and the risk you take by putting something into the public eye: Some people won't like it.
Yeah, you're right about that. But more on this after this next quote:
Baxter wrote:
This might be true, but look at it from my perspective. I was/am planning on doing about 9 modes like this. With the argument you just stated, I could have submitted a wip of the first mode, and state in all honestly: "This is a wip which completes this mode. I will add other modes later, so stay tuned for my next submissions.". People would say "Dude... just make your complete movie before submitting it.". If I were to call it a complete movie and state in all honesty: "This is a TAS of this mode. I will make 8 more seperate submissions of other modes.". Then people would say "Dude, if you have all this planned, just include it in one movie."
For the sake of generating more interest in TASing these modes, I'd hope you'd submit the modes separately. I'm personally interested in TASing this game, but I'm afraid to do that until someone else's run gets published for the reason mmbossman stated, "some people won't like it." So if I wait until I know a certain set of goals will fly at tasvideos.org, then I can just improve the last run and it won't be at risk for getting denied. This is one more reason I don't want to see this TAS rejected--there's no way I'll take the time to make an improved, much better TAS knowing mine may also get rejected. Now for example, say you do a Tetris DS run that TASes eight different modes. I only am interested in one of those modes. I can polish that mode up and make it even better, but there's no way I can compete with you since I'd have to also TAS seven modes I have no interest in doing. In other words, separate TASes with separate goals/modes are more conducive to competition, thus more likely to be polished and improved.
Player (122)
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I agree that each mode should be a separate submission. In addition to nico's example, I would like to know what will happen if Baxter submits his TAS and I later submit a Touch Tower TAS (assuming he does not change his mind and include Touch Tower in his).
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Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3284
The time for the other TAS was given in the description info as 807f-5571f, which is 4765 frames (inclusive), or 1:19.42. I do not know exactly when the starting and ending points were, but various points in this TAS are: 896 - Frame of first control 898 - Frame where ghost piece first appears 5617 - Last piece drop 5619 - Line count reaches 200 5620 - "Congratulations" I cannot imagine there being other feasible starting points, so I will assume that 807f-5571f refers to one of these starting and ending points. Even if 807f-5571f should refer to first control -> "Congratulations", this run would be 896f-5620f which is 4725 frames (inclusive), or 1:18.75, 40 frames faster. Both Youtube videos have the gameplay segment around 1:19, so the figure must not be far off. I think what happened is that the videos which were pasted together were different framerates(the comparison video puts my run at about 1:18, and the other at about 1:17). Either Youtube encodes all videos into different framerates of own choosing (even if all sources are 60fps), or the other TAS in the comparison video was ripped from niconico.
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http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BRQMP3UT This is the movie file of my new version 1:17.25 (old one's 1:19.42) made with v0.9.4. It also works on 0.9.2-rr or 0.9.4+ with "Fix ARM Cycle Count" off. The time I meant was "frame of first control" to "last piece drop", there was no special reason though. I don't know should I post here because of the emulator difference. But that file may be useful for some marathon runners. Anyway, thanks for watching! =)
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yes vote ended before it got boring.
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Making a 9-in-1 Tetris DS submission has more merits for the viewer, while submitting the modes separately has more merits for the TASer… We should probably go with the former but make it possible to accept partially improved movies (where one or several modes are improved, but not all) if it's possible to freely hexedit them in.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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moozooh wrote:
Making a 9-in-1 Tetris DS submission has more merits for the viewer, while submitting the modes separately has more merits for the TASer… We should probably go with the former but make it possible to accept partially improved movies (where one or several modes are improved, but not all) if it's possible to freely hexedit them in.
I don't get the "better for the viewer" idea. For me the best version is really like dumping them on YouTube; choose what you want to watch, and start watching it immediately. Though by the same token I would be in favor of changing this antiquitated "judge" system and moving to one where any reasonable submission is accepted and encoded and certain movies that, under the current system, would be published, are instead starred or otherwise set apart as being high-quality. This would also mean that issues of not-well-known games aren't rejected on that, as there are several times I have stumbled upon an interesting random game getting TASed that I've never heard of (see Don Doko Don as played by SistermindR). The problem is (again) that TASvideos is run primarily by dinosaurs from the old age of this site where there were few games published and the few games that were had massive possible improvements with new technology. These days we're getting to the point where to get a movie published you would have to go about optimizing frame counts or reverse engineering how something works, which is still a huge hurdle to newbies.
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Xkeeper wrote:
I don't get the "better for the viewer" idea. For me the best version is really like dumping them on YouTube; choose what you want to watch, and start watching it immediately.
You download a chapter'ified MKV, choose whatever mode you need and skip whatever you don't. You vote once, you rate once, you download once and you don't watch things you've already seen. No disadvantages as far as I can see, at least not compared to 9 separate submissions.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.
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moozooh wrote:
Xkeeper wrote:
I don't get the "better for the viewer" idea. For me the best version is really like dumping them on YouTube; choose what you want to watch, and start watching it immediately.
You download a chapter'ified MKV, choose whatever mode you need and skip whatever you don't. You vote once, you rate once, you download once and you don't watch things you've already seen. No disadvantages as far as I can see, at least not compared to 9 separate submissions.
I would mean splitting apart for viewer digest. If I want to watch one or two modes, I don't want to sit around and wait for a torrent to download. That's what I'm getting at.
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Joined: 5/31/2004
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moozooh wrote:
Making a 9-in-1 Tetris DS submission has more merits for the viewer, while submitting the modes separately has more merits for the TASer… We should probably go with the former but make it possible to accept partially improved movies (where one or several modes are improved, but not all) if it's possible to freely hexedit them in.
Hmm, while I did indeed talk about 9 modes, there are some modes that would have to have some other modes completed before they can be done (aiming for a highscore generally requires starting at level 20, which has to be unlocked before). So the main modes can be grouped together, which wouldn't mean 9 different TASes... but a few less. Of the 9 modes I mentioned: (1) Mission time trial mode, level 1-5 (2) Catch mode, unlocking level 20 as fast as possible (3) Regular marathon mode, unlocking level 20 (this is what this submission does) (4) Push mode, (If it works, first game, get a draw) then beat level 5 as fast as possible (5) Mission marathon mode, unlocking level 20 while playing around (6) Catch mode, get the maximum score of 99.999.999 as fast as possible (7) Regular vs mode, beat level 5 as fast as possible (8) Regular line clear mode, get highest possible score as fast as possible (9) Mission marathon mode, get maximum possible score (without being allowed to fail a mission) (1) + (5) + (9) would make a good Mission mode TAS (2) + (6) would make a good Catch mode TAS (3) + (8) would make a good Standard mode TAS (4) + (7) don't really have a good place here... but maybe they could be combined with a (10) which does Touch mode This would mean 4 TASes to show everything in the game... As Moozooh said, this would be the best option for the TASers, as they don't have to do all modes when wanting to attempt a TAS of the game... and Touchmode might also be TASed. I have however gotten several signals that some people think there are already too many Tetris TASes published, and this would add another 4. This idea would have to be given an "ok" from the people who decide about categories first though. Even with these cutdown TASes though, this submission would still complete too little, only doing the unlocking (3) and not using the unlocked level 20 to set a highscore (8). Setting this highscore would also have some debate though, since endless mode can't be done... as maxing out the score would take hours. Then there is an option to set the highscore at 200 lines mode (which that youtube TAS did) or at line clear mode (where you have to clear 25 lines, and can start at a blocks on the screen already). I would personally go for line clear mode, but an opinion to do it on 200 line mode would be equally valid (I would do it on 25 line mode to avoid some repetativeness... 9 triple T-spins instead of ~66 Triple T-spins.) Both would have some problem though, highscore runs without maxing out a score might be a little problematic... what if someone is way faster, but get a slightly lower score, or gets a slighty higher score, but is way slower?
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Xkeeper wrote:
These days we're getting to the point where to get a movie published you would have to go about optimizing frame counts or reverse engineering how something works, which is still a huge hurdle to newbies.
This is complete and utter bullshit, and you know it. Of the movies recently published on the front page, 11 of 18 are of games that have not been published yet. Stop trying to create problems and instead try to be productive.
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Xkeeper wrote:
I would mean splitting apart for viewer digest. If I want to watch one or two modes, I don't want to sit around and wait for a torrent to download. That's what I'm getting at.
Doesn't matter, make 9 links to a single YT video with timecodes at the start of each mode. I really don't see how 9 submissions are going to be better.
Warp wrote:
Edit: I think I understand now: It's my avatar, isn't it? It makes me look angry.