Mario Kart 64 Mario Raceway non-shortcut fastlap (time trials) by Michael Fried
1 lap of Mario Raceway completed in 22.89 seconds without shortcuts.
Some people in the IRC chatroom think this won't make a good TAS, but I disagree, so I guess I should give a list of reasons why this TAS is interesting, and one of the best possible examples of highly optimized racing. I know this isn't exactly a typical TAS, but it could be put in the concept demos category.
Mario Kart is a very competitive series of racing games, probably more competitive than any other series.
Many people consider Mario Kart 64 to have the strongest world records of any Mario Kart.
Mario Raceway is one of the most played tracks in the game, probably 2nd only to Luigi Raceway.
Mario Raceway non-shortcut fastlap is the most sought after world record in the game, and has long been considered one of the strongest world records, with 2 people tied at 23.10 and 3 people with 23.11, and 28 more people with 23.30 or faster. Of course it's always interesting to be able to see how much faster a TAS is than the world record, especially one that's strong. For comparison, you can find the world record videos here and here
You might be thinking that .21 seconds isn't a large amount for a TAS to beat a world record by, but for such a strong world record, I can assure you it's a very huge amount. For a person with experience in Mario Kart 64, the difference is very noticeable. Before this TAS was made, many people estimated the perfect time to be ~23.05.
The strategies are very complicated, more than just taking turns tightly. It normally takes many months just to develop a proper understanding of the game physics, so you could say in a way I did many months of research for this TAS, even though the TAS itself took me less than a week to make.
Why only 1 lap, you might ask, instead of the whole race? 3 laps would get repetitive. Also, as I said before, the fastlap world record is very strong, and it's always interesting to be able to compare a TAS to the world record. This is also the reason I did non-shortcut. People are more familiar with the non-shortcut fastlap than with the shortcut fastlap (because they've spent more time playing it), and people have worked much harder on optimizing the non-shortcut world record, so it's stronger than the shortcut world record. Also because the shortcut would skip over several parts of the lap that look very cool when done as fast as I did in this TAS.
Main differences between this TAS and the fastest non-TAS runs (in addition to these, the TAS also has faster MTs (mini-turbos), tighter turns, and various optimizations:
I AB spin at the start to turn more quickly.
Perfectly timed mushroom (just before the speed would have started decreasing), and perfect angle (yes, I tested them all). You need to find just the right angle to get a good balance between taking the mushroom tightly and taking the next left-facing mini-turbo tightly.
After the first left-facing MT, I hop to turn more sharply, followed by an SSMT (straight-stretch mini-turbo). People normally just drive straight here in a non-TAS run.
Perfectly timed hopping through the grass, and tight around the wall. Very hard to do perfectly in a non-TAS run. It might look like I hit the piranha plant. Actually I jumped through it (though everyone jumps through it so that's not new).
At the next part where I hop through grass, I enter the grass from earlier than most people do, to cut down on distance. It also makes the hopping much harder to control, and with this strategy, clipping the wall seemed to be the only way to avoid going wide (luckily it didn't slow me down by a significant amount). Also, as before, the hops are perfectly timed, which minimizes speed loss.
I used the 2nd mushroom earlier than most people do, to get back up to top speed sooner.
Emulator used: mupen64-rerecording-v8
Video: Jabo's Direct3D8 1.6
Sound: Jabo's DirectSound 1.6
Input: N-Rage`s Direct-Input8 1.60
RSP: RSP emulation Plugin
Length: 43.6 seconds (power-on to completing the lap)
Frames: 2616 (951 input)
Bisqwit: Your test on the submission form was successful. Next time, submit an actual publishworthy movie :) (See discussion for details.)
Why did the movie end so abrubtly? I'm pretty sure with some real heavy handed attempts a MK master could match it, or at least make it look identical, then again they might choose to jump over a wall and cut the lap in half, until that is found then this is a perfect lap.
There seems to be a misconception of the site's purpose here.
I will skip over all the talk about numbers (for those only matter to people who are utterly familiar with the track times in this game, and that is not the core audience of my site) and look at the other reasons the author provided for accepting this movie.
* The strategies are very complicated, more than just taking turns tightly. It normally takes many months just to develop a proper understanding of the game physics, so you could say in a way I did many months of research for this TAS, even though the TAS itself took me less than a week to make.
* Why only 1 lap, you might ask, instead of the whole race? 3 laps would get repetitive.
The first reason quoted only makes me wish to see more than just one lap of one track.
Agreed 3 laps might get a bit repetitive, but I would like to see all tracks instead of just one.
Hence, out of concept, my vote for this movie is an automatic no.
Edit: About the purpose of the site? Well, Michael Fried's movie is clearly aimed as a TAKE THAT for Super Mario Kart 64 speedrunners. Those who compete on the fastest time. It is not aimed to please the general audience. This is clear from the abundant comparisons to world record times in the submission message, and in the talks preceding the submission.
Such curiosity movies should be published at youtube or something, I think.
Accepting this would mean that every other single lap time trial movie should be accepted. Also a 3 lap time trial movie should be accepted. This also means each grand prix can be made into a single TAS... but wait, there is 50CC, 100CC, 150CC and reverse. Adding this all up means 48 possible TASes for this game (well... technically, you can use 8 different characters, which means 384 possible TASes for this game). This would be awesome, since half of the TASes on this site would be Mario Kart 64 TASes.
On the other hand, we can also reject this run. Maybe something like this would be better in a forum post than a submission. A TAS which completes all 4 GPs should be enough, and perhaps, a run which completes all 16 courses at time trials. More than 2 TASes for this game would be hard to imagine.
Your reasons for why this is a good TAS are either pointed out as typical bad reasons in the submission instructions, or I would guess that they aren't shared by a non-hardcore Mario Kart 64 player/watcher.
One appealing part of a TAS is to show things that are not possible on a console. A different, slightly faster number is boring to an average viewer, even if a hardcore fan is interested in what that time is.
The best part of existing Mario Kart 64 TASing is the use of shortcuts that are unreliable / near impossible in real time. This submission does not contain that appeal.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
erokky wrote:
OH MAN THIS IS THE AWESOMENEST TAS I'VE EVER SEEN. YES VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You forgot your 111111s there at the end :P
NesVideoAgent wrote:
Some people in the IRC chatroom think this won't make a good TAS
Agreed. Although it's fast, there's a definite lack of substance. At least complete the entire track one time through, a single lap just jamming on mushrooms isn't very entertaining.
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Congrats for beating the WR.
Shame on you for submitting it as a run.
Honestly, there was no need to. My own run is in the works and should meet all Mario Kart 64 needs that TAS members want; this .m64 doesn't even beat the course so fails the rule in ending input to see the end credits, and is too much of a "pride"movie.
If you had wanted this to be in the concept demos, maybe a full run through an entire course. Heck, 16 time trial full run through I can see as a publishable run.
I've nothing more to say, the best of what I wanted to convey has been already well stated.
Why did the movie end so abrubtly? I'm pretty sure with some real heavy handed attempts a MK master could match it, or make at least make it look identical, then again they might choose to jump over a wall and cut the lap in half, until that is found then this is a perfect lap.
It ends after I complete my goal, which was to finish a single lap as fast as possible. The game cartridge saves both fastlap times and 3lap times, so both are important. I already explained in my submission why I choose to do non-shortcut.
Many MK masters have tried very very hard to beat the world record. As I explained, the world record is already very strong. I can't see anyone going faster than ~23.04 on a real N64, and even that would be extremely hard.
The first reason quoted only makes me wish to see more than just one lap of one track.
Agreed 3 laps might get a bit repetitive, but I would like to see all tracks instead of just one.
There's a published Top Gear run of just 1 track, and Mario Kart 64 is much more popular than Top Gear.
Edit: About the purpose of the site? Well, Michael Fried's movie is clearly aimed as a TAKE THAT for Super Mario Kart 64 speedrunners. Those who compete on the fastest time. It is not aimed to please the general audience. This is clear from the abundant comparisons to world record times in the submission message, and in the talks preceding the submission.
I'm one of the top Mario Kart 64 players myself, so I'd have no reason to try to insult the skills of Mario Kart 64 players. It wasn't meant as a "take that". It was meant as a "here's something cool and surprising". If you don't like comparing TAS's to legit speedruns then that's your personal preference, but it shouldn't be a reason not to publish the TAS.
Accepting this would mean that every other single lap time trial movie should be accepted. Also a 3 lap time trial movie should be accepted. This also means each grand prix can be made into a single TAS... but wait, there is 50CC, 100CC, 150CC and reverse. Adding this all up means 48 possible TASes for this game (well... technically, you can use 8 different characters, which means 384 possible TASes for this game). This would be awesome, since half of the TASes on this site would be Mario Kart 64 TASes.
I already explained why this TAS in particular is interesting. Because people have spent more time competing for this world record than any other.
Am aware of that.
The history of its publication seems to be unclear, but it is not a "see, see!" movie I'd want to draw as a precedent to yours. It is one of the many disagreements between me and Phil, the author of that movie who was also a judge at that time.
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1058
Location: United States
Even though the polls asks if I enjoyed watching this movie, I am voting no despite having enjoyed the movie. The site does not need individual course runs, and picking Mario Raceway seems way to arbitrary. A full time trial run that beats all the courses (3 laps each) with the use of shortcuts would deserve a yes.
It's pretty insane by how much you beat the current very strong MK64 WR, nice work.
I've done the same for some other N64 games too (not MK64), just for fun. Submitting something like that to this site seems a bit absurd, what if everyone else would submit their single level or track WR broken TAS? There would be at least 120 seperate runs for SM64 for example ;) .
It's an impressive TAS nontheless and great work for the MK64 community and I am sure it will make a great YouTube video :D .
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Baxter wrote:
Accepting this would mean that every other single lap time trial movie should be accepted.
While one should always be mindful of the dangers of creating a possible precedent for something you don't really want to establish as "OK," I think the author here has gone to sufficient lengths to make it clear that a single lap of this particular track is not comparable to a single lap of most other tracks.
However, I agree with the majority here that the purpose of this site is not to pander to hardcore fans of a particular game who are trying to achieve an arbitrary goal (i.e: not a goal of "fastest/fast and very entertaining completion") for it.
Personal example: I absolutely love the original Megaman X game and have made "X-buster only" runs through the game dozens of times on the console and with an emulator, simply to challenge myself. I've toyed with the idea of making a TAS of that, but ultimately decided that it wouldn't be appropriate: it's just a gimmick, and it doesn't add anything to watching the movie for a viewer aside from a certain novelty value. (I may still make the movie one day, just for curiosity's sake, but unless I got a lot of positive feedback on the forums I wouldn't try to publish it.)
It's cool that you like the game enough to have done this, and I find it interesting that you've managed to beat a time so very closely contested by so (relatively) much, but I don't think it should be published, even as a concept demo.
