Submission Text Full Submission Page
  • Aims for fastest time (by input)
  • Manipulates luck
Recorded with FCEU 0.98.16, but will work in any version.
I spent a week continuing Acmlm's disassembly and found out how the cards work. After another week, I found the optimal delays for this strategy and manipulated time at the naming screen better to minimize delays.
This movie is about 3 seconds faster than the published version and 1 second faster than hero of the day's trading strategy. Similar to hero's strategy, I use trading, but in a way that is completely unexpected.
I won't give the strategy for suspense. If you really want to see what it is before watching, a near-identical strategy is somewhere on a message I posted at this forum.
What I will say is the following:
  • I found out that using Player 2 was better in terms of minimizing delays.
  • I spend a couple seconds on the naming screen. Why? Using the card searcher program (monopoly.cc) I created, I found out that the desired combination occurs after some 2500 executions of the random function RndFunc1. I also found out that although RndFunc1 usually executes once per frame, the naming screen executes RndFunc1 multiple times, depending on RndCount1, and that pressing A will reset RndCount1.
  • The name I enter isn't just for show. Because pressing A will reset RndCount1, I press A at optimal times, which results in pressing A four times, plus "OK".
  • The delays in the game were minimized with a separate delay searcher program (monopolysolve.cc). It took me a whole week to search the timing of every action in this strategy. I extensively used the (monrngtriv.cc) program to find the "distance" between two random seeds.
  • Interestingly enough, the current source for (monopolysolve.cc) was a result of a lot of tweaking to get the desired result. The delay searcher program accommodates a few different strategies, to increase the chance of a solution turning up. There is a part where I must manipulate three CPU rolls at once, so it would be stupid to try and find it manually. After tweaking to correct a timing error, I found a solution, then tweaked the source a few more times before I was satisfied with the result.
Delays:
cards: 1+136+0 (strategy-dependent here) first turn: 0+3+0 cpu turn: 2 second turn: 15+0 cpu 3 turns: 3+7 (I think)
Source to programs (not very neat): http://rapidshare.de/files/30535975/monopoly_source.zip.html---
See /HomePages/FractalFusion/Source/Monopoly for source.
Thanks to Acmlm for his part of the disassembly.
Enjoy the movie!

adelikat: Accepting for publication. Publishers should note that most people (including me) voted for this run to be published along side of the existing run.

FractalFusion: After a long time of trying to decide, I have decided to cancel this submission for a few reasons:
  • For Monopoly, there isn't much point to fastest input anymore.
    • This submission can be beaten by a less entertaining run by 8 frames.
  • Trading is not a good strategy. Lack of "controlling the CPU" is one factor. Arbitrarily setting the price is another.
  • Most other facets of this run are encompassed or extended by submission #1199.
  • The only thing that really remains is bizarreness. Publishing bizarre sub-1-minute runs is not indicative of what the site's goals should be.
  • Having two Monopoly runs published is also not indicative of what the site's goals should be.


Active player (406)
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 708
Hmm. It occurs to me that since the run that bankrupts four players uses the same tactics as the :30 run, it's not so big of a deal if this obsoletes the original run. Then we'll still have two Monopoly runs using the two different tactics. I still am not convinced this should obsolete the :30 run, but I won't lose any sleep over it if it does.
TASVideosGrue
They/Them
Joined: 10/1/2008
Posts: 2785
Location: The dark corners of the TASVideos server
om, nom, nom... blech, stale!
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Link to video Mediafire download (<2MB): http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?h9iq6yupa3bvg0a The recent monopoly discussion reminded me of this TAS I made six years ago. There are faster runs that abuse trading and other stuff, but this one is funny because the CPU goes bankrupt one minute after end of input. The CPU even buys houses and hotels!
Skilled player (1741)
Joined: 9/17/2009
Posts: 4981
Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
FractalFusion wrote:
The recent monopoly discussion reminded me of this TAS I made six years ago. There are faster runs that abuse trading and other stuff, but this one is funny because the CPU goes bankrupt one minute after end of input. The CPU even buys houses and hotels!
I think you should uncancel it so it can at least be in the vault. :)
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Current rules do not allow TASes of board games to go into vault. This submission was accepted before I cancelled it. I think things are different now though, and if I uncancel it, I don't think judging will come to the same conclusion.
Skilled player (1741)
Joined: 9/17/2009
Posts: 4981
Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
FractalFusion wrote:
Current rules do not allow TASes of board games to go into vault. This submission was accepted before I cancelled it. I think things are different now though, and if I uncancel it, I don't think judging will come to the same conclusion.
Well, perhaps old runs that violate vault guidelines could be grandfathered? Is this the right way to use this term? That'll make sure those runs could be improved instead of staying sub-optimal forever.
Skilled player (1741)
Joined: 9/17/2009
Posts: 4981
Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
Uh..... Since Mothrayas just made me aware that board games are legible for moon tier at least, and the current run is indeed in that tier, I wonder if this has a chance of publication now? :o Also somewhat related, but does this game also use uninitialized RAM in a way that affects the RNG?