Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Thank you Pilif. That means I can go on playing? I was thinking of all the settings in Snes9x, if I missed something or if there are something I should add. Also I got these small "you-just-pressed-left-or-whatever"-notifications whenever I press a button. I don't mind these (and maybe it's the wrong thread) but are they in the way for future watchings?
Edit: Apparently there is a button for turning that off.
You should change the settings you use when recording in the record movie dialog. Turn "Use WIP1 Timing" on, "Allow Left+Right" off (so less people will have trouble viewing the movie) unless you know it does something cool, and it's probably best to turn "Sync samples with sound CPU" on.
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing this. (By the way, would it work to always make both characters save an equal number of people to minimize the delay time between levels?)
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
nitsuja wrote:
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing this. (By the way, would it work to always make both characters save an equal number of people to minimize the delay time between levels?)
Yes. This was only a get-starting thing. Thanks for the help.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I've done some reading at gamefaqs to check various stuff. I think I need a total of 25 skeleton keys to save all the neighbours.
Anyways, this depends slightly on if I'm going to do all bonus levels or not, what do you guys think?
My goal right now is to save all neighbours but if I were to do all the bonus stages the run will be much longer. I don't know how much but I guess it's an extra 5 levels to play through.
Also, if I stick to this goal I can't (I don't know if it's hard or not yet) use the glitch at some late level to skip a boss (maybe level 48?).
So, any suggestions?
Well, I would find it more impressive with the secret/bonus levels, and it makes sense to do them if you're also aiming for 100% of neighbors saved. Unless they're boringly long levels or something (I never managed to get to many of them).
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I have now completed the very first stage of this game. You can find it here:
http://sthick.cymoro.com/upload/ZAMN%20(U)%20[!].zip
I'm going for all neighbours rescued and to do that I will also do the bonus levels. To get to the first bonus level I somehow have to find something that can brake walls and doors. This can be done either by being a beast and simply smash the wall/dor out, or to get a bazooka. I do get a bazooka now because it was the fastest way.
There is however 2 small waiting periods, the first is when I have to manipulate the trash can to drop the bazooka, and the other is a consequense of this when I blow away the door for the guy.
I have tried all frames (this is what triggers items drops) several times and in different combinations (with the guy and the girl) and I found this the fastest, even though there are small waiting periods.
So, what do you think about it so far? And don't mind the playing in the bonus level 1-B. I played that at full speed and with no intentions to get it right ;)
Looks good to me so far, can't think of any way to do that faster.
I found an interesting glitch, doesn't seem to save time (although I haven't tested that extensively) but it might be fun to show it happening anyway: If you put a controller's L and R on alternating autofire and then walk around, the game will forget to update that character's animation so you'll glide around or stay in whatever pose you were in, which looks funny if done while jumping out of water or getting off a trampoline, or can be used to walk backwards. (Has to be turned back off to fire most weapons, though.)
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
The bonus stage is completed. I had to replay a part of the first stage to get a lawnmover since I couldn't manipulate one to appear later on smoothly and I didn't want to take a detour just to get one. Anyhows, I'm satisfied with and I'll move on to the real stage 2 when I have time.
Edit: Here's the WIP of the first two stages: http://sthick.cymoro.com/upload/ZAMN%20(U)%20[!].zip
(Thanks to XKeeper for hosting it)
Please DO NOT pay attention to the third stage (which is actually stage 2 ;p). I just fooled around and had no intentions of playing like that. Any comments regarding "The day of the tentacle" is welcomed though ;)
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I did the second stage also, this means the first 3 stages are completed. I'll refer to them by the numbers though to avoid confusion ;) Stage 2 is pretty short but due to where the neighbours are it's some running back n forth across the map.
I had to delay the girl at the jumpin neighbour so she afterwards could jump up-left instead of only up. This is because the screen has to scroll to the left a bit before she can make that jump.
Also, I didn't had time to check one.. uhm.. wardrobe? but it's ok anyways.
The new WIP is here: http://sthick.cymoro.com/upload/ZAMN%20(U)%20[!].zip
Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Two questions:
1) Was the 1-up at the end of the bonus stage worth grabbing?
2) Do the cabinets\trashcans/etc have defined drops, or could you, say, randomise running shoes out of them all the time?
The gameplay itself looks great. I dig how the characters work together to make faster routes, and the paths themselves seem pretty direct. I'll admit that I don't know the maps that well, so I can't really say whether or not the paths are improvable.
Good work so far. There are only how many more levels left?
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Zurreco wrote:
Two questions:
1) Was the 1-up at the end of the bonus stage worth grabbing?
I have to wait for the door to get open before I can get in, thus I grabbed the 1-up because it didn't matter, and I'm sort of allergic to things lying around ;)
Zurreco wrote:
2) Do the cabinets\trashcans/etc have defined drops, or could you, say, randomise running shoes out of them all the time?
Every frame gives me a theoreticall chans of getting something new but that's about it. Thus I can mostly try every frame for 10-100 frames depending on what situation the other character is in and if I have time to stay and manipulate something to appear. I haven't found anything else affecting the drop rate. The answer is yes and no, I suppose I could get speed shoes from all cabinets but it would take time. Also, I plan to use a bunch of Pandoras Boxes later on.
Zurreco wrote:
The gameplay itself looks great. I dig how the characters work together to make faster routes, and the paths themselves seem pretty direct. I'll admit that I don't know the maps that well, so I can't really say whether or not the paths are improvable.
Good work so far. There are only how many more levels left?
Now it's only 50-55 levels left maybe ;) I don't know exactly how many bonus levels there are.
I have this game, and I very distinctly remember that, in the level where the zombies take on the forms of the players, the trashcan by the cheerleader at the bottom part of the map once gave me a skeleton key, so it's possible to get them this way.
I remember it so vividly because when I went to get the key, I accidentally entered the door to complete the stage. I'm sure I've had skeleton keys appear like this before, it's just that the other incidents were no match for this particular one.
Andreas
Nice WIP, Walker Boh. I only got to see the first level because SNES9X just loves to desynch on me right at the beginning, but it was really well done from what I saw.
This is gonna look awesome finished. ^_^
He probably didn't watch it with the left+right option because he wasn't using the same emulator version. This is why I suggested not using left+right, unless... does it actually do anything in this game?
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Someone mentioned earlier in this thread that he had managed to pull off a glitch at a trampoline while pressing left + right. This made me think of enable it, but also I think it's better to have the option enabled than disabled just in case somethings that requires left + right occurs.
Well I don't think thta the glitch was using Left+Right because in all honesty, I have NO idea how to enable or disable it, and what it is by default. I think it's just a very, very little known trick that I happened to stumble across.
I do wanna try doing the Left+Right thing. How do you do enable it?
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Level 4 is now completed and ahead of me is "Weird kids on the block". I think that's a very good stage for getting useful stuffs since there are loads of stuff to open and that are pretty much in my way. I think that small detours is worth the minor time they take to maybe get an extra pair of speed boots or something.
I fooled around a bit at this stage and got a skeleton key at full speed and with no luck manipulation from a trash can ;) Good to know.
Ooo, nice! I know for a fact that there's only two skeleton keys lying around in the whole game, and I know that one of them is for a bonus level which is I think used in level 22 to get to it. I can't remember about the other one, but if you can manipulate luck to get one more skeleton key, then you shouldn't have to go out of your way to get one.
I know one of them is in the level where there's a house on the island (I think it's level 17, but don't quote me on that) where if you swim out to the southwestern part of the level, there's an island with just a skeleton key on it.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I give up for tonight. I'm halfway through the fifth level. This level appeared to be a gold mine. So far I have got 3 skeleton keys without much effort. I'm trying to get another speed shoes so I can boost through level 6 and 7 but it's annoying to manipulate those stupid trash cans or whatever to drop something useful. Besides the 3 precious skeleton keys I have stocked up quite a bit with regular keys since I figure those will always be handy.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I'm currently in level 7: Dr. Tongues Castle of Terrer (I'm pretty sure that that's the levels name ;P). The tourists are saved and I don't have much left to do before I can proceed to level 8. And here is where my new problem kicks in.
Level 8 is the boss level with the gigantic baby running around, crushing whoever comes in his way. So, for my concern. There is the usual 10 victims in this stage which I intend to save, however, when the baby is killed he will transform into a regular baby which can be saved. This means that there are 11 victims in this level and if I save it I will lose a fearsome 2 seconds or something due to the bonus I'll receive afterwards.
My plan is however to kill him and get the 11:th victim because I'm going for a 100% run.
One alternative is to let one victim get killed by the baby and then save the other 9 + 1 (the baby that appears after the boss is killed), but I think that the aesthic will suffer from this, even though it might be a few seconds faster. But then again, IMO it doesn't really matter since the run will be pretty long.
Any suggestions or comments about this plan? If not I'll proceed later.
A small side note. I noticed the game is getting harder. I had to kill a few mummies and zombies in level 6. The thing is, at the end of the game I think I'll receive some sort of point award for enemies killed. Thus I want to kill as few enemies as possible. However, some are not really avoidable without losing time going around them, and I don't think some action will hurt the run.
