(Link to video)
Submission Text Full Submission Page Publication Page
Ever since I stumbled upon TASVideos, I've wanted to make my own TAS. I tried to find a game that I knew very well, that wouldn't be a long TAS, and that hadn't been done yet that people wanted to see. I finally settled on Space Quest IV. Turns out, this may be the first mouse-based dos game to be TASed.
(Three chickens were harmed in the making of this film)

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: JPC-rr 11.2
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck (slightly)
  • Uses death to save time??

Comments

Route Selection

This run turned out to be a lot longer than I had originally anticipated. I figured that if I jumped straight from SQ XII to SQ I and back, the guard in the right hangar would be gone and I could enter Vohaul's complex from there. I TASsed that, just to discover that the guard was still there, and I was shot. So, I then tried jumping straight to the mall and back. Zap! Guard still guarding. Turns out, to get the guard to leave you have to summon the time machine and guards in the mall. To do that, you have to clean out Zondra's bank account. And to do that, you have to save the ladies from the sea slug. So, a trip to SQ X is unavoidable. Still, since the jar of slime is the only real inventory item you need to get to Vohaul, I was able to skip past SQ I, the software store, Radio Shock, as well as bypass catching the bunny.

Emulator Limitations (and Solutions!!)

JPC-rr is a very functional emulator in all aspects except one: mouse support. Unfortunately, in almost all cases, mouse input is faster than keyboard input for this game. As built, JPC-rr comes with a side menu with mouse movement options of Up 10, Up 20, Up 30, Up 40, Up 50, and corresponding options for down, left and right. The problem is, those increments are too broad for any accurate mouse movement. My initial solution was to alter the extramenu file to add Up 1, Up 2 and Up 5 options (as well as the same for down, left and right). This provided me with a more exacting way of specifying mouse movements. Still, mouse movement was always trial and error and it made TASsing painfully slow. "Up 20? Nope, not enough. Up 20, Up 5? Still not enough. Up 30? Too much. Up 20, Up 5, Up 2? Not enough..." Halfway through TASsing the game this way, I decided I couldn't keep going like this. I needed to find a better way.
Luckily, Ilari included the source code with the emulator. With some poking around, I was able to implement the ability to drag the game's mouse cursor around with my mouse. Click on the the mouse cursor, drag it to your desired location and release. The cursor will move to wherever you want, no menus or guesswork involved. I have no idea if it'll work for other games, but it made TASsing much, much easier for this one. I also added the ability to type in the x and y movement values so you can simply specify 'Move X 17, Y -11'. Finally, I added buttons to move the mouse cursor to the bottom left and right-hand corners. With this new functionality, not only was I able to TAS this game in a quarter of the time it took me before, but I was also to play around with the mouse cursor and do some fun things during player idle times.
I'm sending my changes to Ilari for consideration. If anyone is interested in using my hacked version, let me know and I can send it over to you.

Mouse Cursor Play

To add a little bit of entertainment, I incorporated some mouse cursor play into the run. After reading some of the comments on this submission, I realized that those who had never played the game before might think these movements were originally part of the game! XD There are in fact five different times I added mouse cursor movements to the run for entertainment. For a fun Easter egg hunt, try to find them all. (FYI, The bouncing nose and monorail mouth together only count as one). Some of them are really quick, so blink and you'll miss them!

Area-Specific Comments

Xenon Streets

Although it's possible to move diagonally between some screens here, I haven't found a way to move diagonally between the starting screen and the screen with the sewer grate. There's definitely some savings available if someone can figure out a way to do it.

Sewers

Once you approach the slime, it's kind enough to stay still for a few seconds to let you take a sample of it. The unfortunate downside of this is that if you leave the screen before it starts moving again, the game refuses to change screens and just stays stuck on that one screen. I try to get as close as possible to the screen boundary before the slime begins its movement again.

Flight Up to Hangar

This is one of several cut scenes where, no matter how fast you have the speed, you have to wait for the music to finish to continue. In some future scenes, I try to do some inventive things during this idle time. For this one, I decided to just let it play out.

Time Buster 2000 SUX (The time machine)

Welcome to the customizable part of the TAS! Roger enters two codes into the Time Buster (your first code always fails). You can put your own message into this TAS by altering the following lines:
First Time Code
Lines: 1056-7, 1061-2, 1066-7, 1071-2, 1076-7, 1081-2
Second Time Code
Lines: 1104-5, 1109-10, 1114-5, 1119-20, 1124-5, 1129-30
You'll notice for each time code there are six pairs of lines. Each corresponds to an X and Y mouse movement. To customize the time codes, replace each XMOUSEMOTION and YMOUSEMOTION pair with one of the following number pairs:
Letter (X, Y)
  • A (-15,10)
  • C ( 15,15)
  • E (-15,15)
  • G (-10,10)
  • H ( 10,17)
  • I ( 10,10)
  • S (-15,17)
  • T (-10,15)
  • U (-10,17)
  • ! ( 15,17)
  • ? ( 15,10)
So, for example if you wanted to spell 'ACCESS', you could use:
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard XMOUSEMOTION -15
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard YMOUSEMOTION 10
...
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard XMOUSEMOTION 15
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard YMOUSEMOTION 15
...
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard XMOUSEMOTION 15
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard YMOUSEMOTION 15
...
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard XMOUSEMOTION -15
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard YMOUSEMOTION 15
...
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard XMOUSEMOTION -15
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard YMOUSEMOTION 17
...
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard XMOUSEMOTION -15
+# org.jpc.emulator.peripheral.Keyboard YMOUSEMOTION 17}}
(Just be sure not to change the numbers represented by #)

Latex Babes of Estros

Simple speed run through this section. Nothing interesting to see here.

Galaxy Galleria

I hate moving sidewalks. Imprecise mouse movements and moving sidewalks make for very tedious TASsing. I optimized Roger's movement as much as I could around here, but I'm sure there are some frames to be saved if someone wants to try their hand at it.

Big and Tall

This store can actually be skipped completely. If you come to the mall first and work at Monolith Burger before you go to the rocky ledge in SQ X, you'll have enough money to buy the women's clothes in Sacks. The robot there doesn't care if you are missing your pant legs, though for some strange reason your pants are fixed when you change out of drag. Unfortunately, the extra hop in the Time Buster takes more time than it saves, so it's not really worth doing.

Monolith Burger

If the Snake Eater TAS can skip the battle with The End by moving the clock forward, I certainly can skip the burger making mini-game. Besides, it'd be really boring to watch. Trust me.

Arcade & Ms. Astro Chicken

This shortcut only works in the disk version of the game. In the CD version, the time police are waiting for you once you finish your game. There are four ways to die in Ms. Astro Chicken, and they each take different amounts of time to process your death:
  • Shot by Farmer: Instantaneous
  • Caught by Dog: Fast
  • Hit by Squirrel: Very Slow
  • Hit by Windmill: Very Slow
This is why, on the second life, I avoid the flying squirrel. It's faster to go by a hill with absolutely nothing interesting on it and be shot by a farmer than it is to be hit by the squirrel. Oh, and I egg the dog, not just for fun (though it is fun), but also to make another dog appear right at the start of the third life.

Time Buster 2000 SUX (again...)

Since the time travel sequence only ends after the time travel music is finished playing, I decided to use that time to show something else...

Vohaul's Maze

There are robot drones patrolling the maze, and initially there is one that approaches from the left. Normally, you need to run and hide from this drone. But, if you time it just right, you can safely pass the drone during the screen change. This is one of the few parts of this speed run that I think could only really be done in a TAS.
After going to the mega-computer and flushing the brain (This is your brain on toilets..), I have to dodge another drone. If I could save two more frames between dodging the first drone and the second, I'd be able to use the safely-pass-drone-during-screen-change trick. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I've tried, I've not been able to find those frame savings. If someone is able to find them, they could shave a couple seconds off the run. Even with having to wait for the drone to pass (which takes < 2s), it's still faster than flushing the drone program on the mega-computer (which takes > 3s).

Fight with Vohaul

Regardless of who wins each battle, you have to battle Vohaul five times before he gets pushed into the force field. The final input is closing Roger's son's second gray speech box.

Other Comments

Perhaps a future run of this game might include a TAS of Ms. Astro Chicken. It wouldn't be the most entertaining TAS out there, but it would be interesting to have a TAS nested within a TAS.

Screenshot Suggestions

Here are a few possibilities:
Files:
HDD, 16 tracks, 63 sectors, 16 sides.
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DarkKobold: Judging.
DarkKobold: Great user feedback on an underrepresented genre! Accepting.
Velitha: Processing... first JPC run I've worked on, so may take a bit.

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Posted: 10/6/2011 8:42 PM
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15670
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3317: c-square's DOS Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers in 07:36.52
Posted: 10/6/2011 10:24 PM
Quote
Sticky
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1365
Location: Minnesota
This game is all sorts of weird. I enjoyed the 4th wall jokes, as well as the game in general. Yes vote.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Posted: 10/6/2011 11:41 PM
Post subject: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
Quote
alden
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
OMG OMG THIS IS AWESOME OK, calm down... One of the great pleasures I get from tasvideos is nostalgia, and personally this game is VERY nostalgic, one of my favorite games of all time. In fact one of my only complaints about this TAS is it skips too much :P Also, the long loading/cutscenes near the beginning are a little annoying, but overall HUGE YES VOTE Double impressive that you modified the source code to allow for mouse movement! OMG OMG OMG I THINK I LOVE YOU
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
Posted: 10/6/2011 11:51 PM
Post subject: ...let's lob an unstable ordnance into the mix, shall we?
Quote
sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
As against the grain as this is judging from the last two posts here, I'm going to have to vote No. For the record, yes, this is a game I have played before (and yes, I'm familiar with the rest of the series as well). I happen to think that the charm of an adventure game is enjoying the storyline and puzzle-solving at a relatively leisurely pace. If you know exactly what it is that you have to do to reach the ending sequence and just blaze through the game as quickly as possible, you're losing a lot of the entertainment value inherent in the game. What does the solution here amount to from a technical perspective? Basically, it's knowing where to click and when for a set (and relatively small) number of puzzles. The only aspects of this that I think would look to a casual viewer as though they could not have been done unassisted are playing at high speed (which isn't necessarily a benefit - see #3308: DarkKobold's DOS Mega Man in 02:23.55), adjusting the laser locks without the benefit of the cigar (which is something I've seen done unassisted before, albeit not on the first try) and dodging the security robots at screen transitions. Does this make up for the high-speed walkthrough feel of pointing and clicking through the rest of the run? I don't think it does. Essentially, given the nature of the genre, and holding this up as a specific example, I don't think that classic adventure games are suited for speedrunning in any traditional sense.
Posted: 10/7/2011 12:07 AM
Post subject: Re: ...let's lob an unstable ordnance into the mix, shall we?
Quote
goldfish
Joined: 2/20/2010
Posts: 209
Location: I'm in space
sgrunt wrote:
Essentially, given the nature of the genre, and holding this up as a specific example, I don't think that classic adventure games are suited for speedrunning in any traditional sense.
pshah, I vote yes because IMO the scenes that happen slowly enough to be comprehended are amusing, the run is quite short, and I'd bet most who have played this game would appreciate the TAS. I also pointlessly vote yes on King's Quest V, which, I would like to note, garnered 83% "yes", but was rejected anyway. I consider a run of SQ4 to be more entertaining than KQ5 (though I personally liked both), and really hope this one makes it through, and that we avoid setting a general precedent concerning classic adventure games.
Oh, play it cool. Play it cool. Here come the space cops.
Posted: 10/7/2011 1:01 AM
Post subject: I think this is the beginning of a beautiful spaceship.
Quote
Aqfaq
Editor, Expert player (2482)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
Sega TASer of 2008 Lucky TAS of 2008
Wow, I actually owned this game. Watching this TAS about time traveling feels like traveling back in time. The game seems to be emulated perfectly. The character speed, sound effects and the unnecessarily long pieces of instrumentation... Everything looks so... 486! It was also played extraordinarily. The cursor movements while waiting, route planning, cursor precision... Everything looks strangely funny and TASsy.
Perhaps a future run of this game might include a TAS of Ms. Astro Chicken.
Well, this run actually did it, but the minigame category just happened to be fastest death instead of high score, am I right? A little TAS within a TAS? Or Roger Wilco speedfailing a game in a TAS? But does this TAS really "use death to save time", because it is not the player character who dies? Roger is only using the game machine as he would use any other item, thus he does not use death to save time. On the other hand, the player is fully controlling the virtual virtual chicken and deliberately kills it, so technically it is no different from any other death shortcut. But the minigame can be played repeatedly, so the chicken is not really dying at any point. So, which one is it? Uses death or doesn't use death? I'd say it uses death as a shortcut. The deaths being in a game within a game won't change the situation. The input is still delivered by the TAS author and it just happens to be someone else than the main character who dies in a direct consequence of that input. Good work, c-square! A very impressive first submission!
Posted: 10/7/2011 1:27 AM
(Edited: 10/7/2011 1:43 AM)
Post subject: Re: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
Quote
c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
alden wrote:
OMG OMG THIS IS AWESOME OK, calm down... One of the great pleasures I get from tasvideos is nostalgia, and personally this game is VERY nostalgic, one of my favorite games of all time. In fact one of my only complaints about this TAS is it skips too much :P Also, the long loading/cutscenes near the beginning are a little annoying, but overall HUGE YES VOTE Double impressive that you modified the source code to allow for mouse movement! OMG OMG OMG I THINK I LOVE YOU
Thanks for the great show of support! One of the reasons why I made this is because there seemed to be a desire for games like this. :D
sgrunt wrote:
As against the grain as this is judging from the last two posts here, I'm going to have to vote No. I happen to think that the charm of an adventure game is enjoying the storyline and puzzle-solving at a relatively leisurely pace. If you know exactly what it is that you have to do to reach the ending sequence and just blaze through the game as quickly as possible, you're losing a lot of the entertainment value inherent in the game. Essentially, given the nature of the genre, and holding this up as a specific example, I don't think that classic adventure games are suited for speedrunning in any traditional sense.
I was concerned that an argument like this would come up, mostly because there's some validity to it. With a couple exceptions, much of the game could have been done without the use of tool assistance. Yet I question whether that means the speedrun (and the genre as a whole) is inadmissible. If you look at the first speed runs of games such as Deja Vu, Shadowgate and Uninvited, they suffer from the same criticisms. However, those TASses were accepted, and are now part of the TASVideos collection. Should they have been rejected? No. If you look at the current Shadowgate run, it manipulates RAM and relies very heavily on resources that only a tool can provide. If the original Shadowgate TAS had been rejected, or if the whole Storybook game genre had been rejected, such a TAS would never have come into being. The same argument can be made for this TAS. Although it may only take advantage of tool assistance in a few parts of the run, it should be seen as a starting point. By publishing this run, it will encourage others to beat it, and to find more creative and tool dependent ways of optimizing the run. Finally, there are requests for sierra games in both dos game wishlists as well as on the windows games forum. There is definitely demand for TASses in this genre. EDIT: (I'm trying to avoid a double-post)
goldfish wrote:
I consider a run of SQ4 to be more entertaining than KQ5 (though I personally liked both), and really hope this one makes it through, and that we avoid setting a general precedent concerning classic adventure games.
Thanks goldfish. I hope it makes it through too! And Sticky, I'm glad you enjoyed it! If you have a chance, play the whole game sometime. It's lots of fun!
Aqfaq wrote:
It was also played extraordinarily. The cursor movements while waiting, route planning, cursor precision... Everything looks strangely funny and TASsy. But does this TAS really "use death to save time", because it is not the player character who dies? Good work, c-square! A very impressive first submission!
Thanks Aqfaq. I was a little nervous on how this submission would be received, so it means a lot to hear that. Yeah, I wasn't sure whether that as using death or not. I guess it could go either way. :)
Posted: 10/7/2011 1:40 AM
Post subject: Re: ...let's lob an unstable ordnance into the mix, shall we?
Quote
Sticky
Joined: 2/26/2007
Posts: 1365
Location: Minnesota
sgrunt wrote:
words
For the record, I have never played this game before. I was caught off guard by the charm of this game; I honestly want to play this game now. This post is only used to point out that I have never played this game, and I enjoyed the movie. A blind TAS, if you will.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
Posted: 10/7/2011 2:51 AM
Quote
Riddim
Joined: 8/2/2011
Posts: 39
As a non-voting member, I really like your video, due to familiarity with the game. Would love to see more classic PC TAS videos here :)
Posted: 10/7/2011 10:00 AM
Post subject: Re: ...let's lob an unstable ordnance into the mix, shall we?
Quote
Radiant
Player (26)
Joined: 8/29/2011
Posts: 1206
Location: Amsterdam
sgrunt wrote:
If you know exactly what it is that you have to do to reach the ending sequence and just blaze through the game as quickly as possible, you're losing a lot of the entertainment value inherent in the game.
Doesn't the same argument apply to any MetroidVania game? This run still takes a game that takes hours on a normal playthrough, completes it in less than eight minutes, and using methods considered impossible to any regular walkthrough. I'm impressed, and would like to say more runs on adventure games.
Indie game developer
Posted: 10/7/2011 2:50 PM
Quote
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
First of all, thank you, c-square, for also providing an encode of your run! It was especially helpful for seeing this. Second, I do admit that adventure games have issues as TASes. The dialogue and text boxes are usually much more interesting / relevant in these runs, so skipping over them quickly loses more entertainment than in games with more action. You also don't have luck manipulation to the same extent as in RPGs. Given this, a good adventure game TAS needs to exhibit sufficient variety, probably not last too long, and demonstrate enough challenge in route planning. I'd say this one passes! The run is fairly bite-sized and still goes through a lot of different scenarios. This run makes the game look a lot easier than it actually is, and that's a plus in this case. Nice job with your first run, and I vote Yes.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Posted: 10/7/2011 4:43 PM
Post subject: Re: ...let's lob an unstable ordnance into the mix, shall we?
Quote
sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
c-square wrote:
If you look at the first speed runs of games such as Deja Vu, Shadowgate and Uninvited, they suffer from the same criticisms. However, those TASses were accepted, and are now part of the TASVideos collection. Should they have been rejected? No. If you look at the current Shadowgate run, it manipulates RAM and relies very heavily on resources that only a tool can provide. If the original Shadowgate TAS had been rejected, or if the whole Storybook game genre had been rejected, such a TAS would never have come into being. The same argument can be made for this TAS. Although it may only take advantage of tool assistance in a few parts of the run, it should be seen as a starting point. By publishing this run, it will encourage others to beat it, and to find more creative and tool dependent ways of optimizing the run.
I am only accepting of Shadowgate in its present form due to the memory abuse glitches that the run demonstrates in its latest iterations. I maintain that the main reason we have runs of those games at all is historical precedent, rather than any standard of entertainment or technical merit.
Radiant wrote:
Doesn't the same argument apply to any MetroidVania game?
A Metroidvania game's solution is not comprised solely of "click at this location, then click at this location, etc." - it's significantly more technically complex to run and optimise well than what we are dealing with here.
Posted: 10/7/2011 5:13 PM
Quote
N._Harmonik
She/Her
Joined: 8/27/2006
Posts: 502
Location: Canada
More Sierra adventure games please!
Why, oh, why do I even <i>try</i> to understand my own species?
Posted: 10/7/2011 9:24 PM
Quote
CoolKirby
Editor, Experienced player (571)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
Exotic platforms TASer of 2014 NES TAS of 2013
This is a nice fast TAS of a classic adventure game I haven't played. I liked the screen scroll abuse and the codes you entered in the Time Buster. Voting Yes.
Posted: 10/7/2011 10:10 PM
Quote
alden
Player (121)
Joined: 2/11/2007
Posts: 1522
How hard it is to do is not directly correlated with how entertaining it is... yes, for tasers who know that Super Metroid is hard to tas, that adds some element of entertainment, but the general public does not know that.
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs
Posted: 10/7/2011 11:35 PM
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DrSaturn
Joined: 1/8/2011
Posts: 74
Location: Saturn Valley Medical Center
Very entertaining run, I noticed the code in the first teleporter spelled cheatin' which I found very funny. Also the simple joy of seeing a grown man in a dress adds much to entertainment value. Oh! The technical aspects were good too.
Samus plays the SA-Xaphone
Posted: 10/8/2011 8:05 AM
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FractalFusion
Editor, Expert player (2082)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3284
Glitchy TAS of 2013 Gameboy TAS of 2013 PSX TASer of 2010
Even though I've never played this one before, it seems nicely well done. I was hoping though that the game speed was slightly slower at least. Also, some parts (involving cutscenes and waiting) really stand out as unsuitable for high speed. That being said, it's an adventure game, and it seems OK paced enough. After all, it's not overly fast like DOS Mega Man or too slow like NES King's Quest V. There are some good sequence skips as far as I can tell.
Posted: 10/12/2011 7:47 PM
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Joe
Joined: 6/10/2006
Posts: 152
Location: Wisconsin
I agree with c-square that adventure games like this and earlier ones can make great TAS's. It's not super-linear like KQV and SQ in particular has a lot more humorous charm that still entertains. I can think of many adventure games that could work as entertaining TAS's and hope this is the first of many. Yes vote from me.
Posted: 10/13/2011 6:51 PM
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hegyak
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
I loved the playing around with the watch cursor. I was "WTF?" when I saw it bouncing around then I realized what you were doing. That bird thing also took the cursor and left in on it's nest. Great job making it look so good. I have never played this game before, but if it gets accepted, then I would like to work on Sam & Max Hit the Road. Though, it would be an argument of "Sacrifices Speed for Entertainment" or "Fastest route possible"
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Posted: 10/14/2011 11:28 AM
Post subject: Thanks everyone!
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c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
Thanks everyone for all the support! In response to specific posts:
mklip2001 wrote:
I do admit that adventure games have issues as TASes. The dialogue and text boxes are usually much more interesting / relevant in these runs, so skipping over them quickly loses more entertainment than in games with more action. You also don't have luck manipulation to the same extent as in RPGs. Given this, a good adventure game TAS needs to exhibit sufficient variety, probably not last too long, and demonstrate enough challenge in route planning.
I think you've come up with good standard by which to judge adventure game TASses. I hope that a standard like this can be adopted instead of having the entire genre excluded from consideration.
hegyak wrote:
I loved the playing around with the watch cursor. I was "WTF?" when I saw it bouncing around then I realized what you were doing. That bird thing also took the cursor and left in on it's nest. Great job making it look so good.
Ha ha! Glad you caught that! I put a fair bit of effort into playing around with the mouse cursor. I never considered that people might think it was just part of the game. XD There are in fact five different times I added mouse cursor movements to the run for entertainment. For a fun Easter egg hunt, try to find them all. (BTW, the bouncing nose and monorail mouth together only count as one)
Joe wrote:
I can think of many adventure games that could work as entertaining TAS's and hope this is the first of many.
Me too! This is a completely untapped genre when it comes to TASses, so I'm hoping this will prompt others to begin to fill the void. :)
Posted: 10/23/2011 8:53 PM
Post subject: Movie published
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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15670
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1907] DOS Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers by c-square in 07:36.52
Posted: 10/31/2011 6:23 AM
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JoLiKMC
Joined: 11/20/2004
Posts: 236
Location: United States
I just want to say that this movie was fantastic to watch! I really enjoyed watching this game from my childhood be superplayed as it was. I really hope more MS-DOS games get played in the future. (Personally, I'd love to see Mega Man/Mega Man 3 get whomped. XD)
I'm not that hard to find... if you know where to look. -=( http://jolikmc.tumblr.com )=-
Posted: 10/31/2011 4:44 PM
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Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
DOS Mega Man was TASed by DarkKobold. DOS Mega Man 3 hasn't been done yet though.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 11/11/2011 3:15 PM
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zaphod77
Joined: 1/13/2007
Posts: 343
I agree this is a great TAS. In my opinion, unless there are serious sequence breaks that are difficult to do unassisted (beyond save state abuse), then the adventure game is a poor choice to TAS. This one was clearly not a poor choice. There is no entertainment value in watching an adventure game being played as fast as possible as intended. But it's certainly entertaining skipping stuff that's not supposed to be skippable. :)
Posted: 2/8/2017 9:59 AM
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BillBull
Former player
Joined: 5/22/2004
Posts: 462
I love this movie! I really enjoy the fact that someone has taken the time to TAS one of my favorite games from my childhood. However, the question must be asked (even 5 years late): at what CPU cycles did you record this movie? I admit to full ignorance of JPC-rr v.11.2, so if it runs on a fixed number of CPU cycles, I'm curious as to what it is. The question arises because I've recently become interested in speedrunning old Sierra adventure games, and because they are basically universally ran through DOSBox, we try (try) to set a standard number of CPU cycles for runners to use so that everyone is at a fair playing field. EDIT: The only speedrunner of this game (that I know of) uses 10,000 CPU cycles, so that's unofficially the standard for this game.
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