Posted: 12/20/2012 11:47 PM
Post subject: Presentation and questions about emulation using VBA
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baeiouyx
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 8
Hi I am new to TAS speedrunning and want to share with you my project of making a tool assisted speedrun of the game LEGO - Bionicle - Matoran Adventures. First, how can i be sure the ROM i got is a good one? I read that ROMs have to be good dumps, which should be labeled by a [!]. What is that? I never saw such a thing. Second, which BIOS should i use, the Game Boy advance one or the emulator one? Third, is there such a thing as "going back in frames", like the opposite of frame advance, in VBA? If so, how does one do such a thing? And finally, should my movie start from power-on or SRAM reset and which VBA version would be the best for what i'm trying to do? Thanks in advance for your answers, I'll post my movie as soon as I get something done!
Posted: 12/21/2012 12:00 AM
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CoolKirby
Editor, Experienced player (570)
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Hi and welcome to the site! 1. If you found the ROM online, the filename would have contained a [!], something like "LEGO - Bionicle - Matoran Adventures [!].gba". 2. You don't want to use a BIOS at all. There's no reason to wait for the GBA logo to be able to start your run, and I've heard it makes the run non-deterministic (which is bad). 3. There isn't currently a "reverse frame advance" feature. Savestates work quite well for this purpose though. If you will want to return to frame 600 later, TAS until frame 650 and then load the state and you will be back at frame 600. 4. It's best if your run starts from power-on if you don't need existing save data.
Posted: 12/21/2012 1:05 AM
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baeiouyx
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 8
Thank you for your answers! I'm currently unable to find a ROM with a "[!]" tag for the game I want to TAS. Is there a specific source to get ROMs from?
Posted: 12/21/2012 2:10 AM
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Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4045
baeiouyx wrote:
Thank you for your answers! I'm currently unable to find a ROM with a "[!]" tag for the game I want to TAS. Is there a specific source to get ROMs from?
We aren't allowed to distribute roms here or talk about where to get them. (Google around.)
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Posted: 12/21/2012 4:24 AM
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CoolKirby
Editor, Experienced player (570)
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Like Patashu said, try Google searching the name of your game along with "[!]" and you should find some good dumps.
Posted: 12/21/2012 9:00 AM
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baeiouyx
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 8
I'm currently unable to find a ROM which is a "good dump" for my game. Should I change game? What are the possible drawbacks of using a ROM of unspecified quality?
Posted: 12/21/2012 9:06 AM
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Spikestuff
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baeiouyx wrote:
I'm currently unable to find a ROM which is a "good dump" for my game. Should I change game? What are the possible drawbacks of using a ROM of unspecified quality?
Won't get accepted Try finding a pal version they're also accepted because gba fps on all regions is 60fps (59.95 i think is the correct number)
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Posted: 12/21/2012 9:49 AM
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CoolKirby
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Joined: 11/8/2010
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Hm, I can't find one either. For this game, you should be fine as long as it says (U) after it, just as long as it doesn't have one of those annoying hacked intros (don't use (U)(Mode7)).
Posted: 12/21/2012 10:10 AM
Quote
baeiouyx
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 8
Ok, so would something named like this be appropriate? 0685 - Lego Bionicle Matoran Adventures (U) Also, what about the difficulty level? Should i play on default mode or hard?
Posted: 12/21/2012 10:21 AM
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Noxxa
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baeiouyx wrote:
Ok, so would something named like this be appropriate? 0685 - Lego Bionicle Matoran Adventures (U)
Sounds alright. Filenames aren't everything, though. The only thing that matters is that it syncs when played back on a good dump.
baeiouyx wrote:
Also, what about the difficulty level? Should i play on default mode or hard?
Depends. If the hard mode is available from the start, go with that. If it needs to be unlocked, use normal mode instead.
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Posted: 12/21/2012 10:22 PM
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baeiouyx
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 8
Thank you for your input! I'll post a part of my movie for review when it will be ready!
Posted: 12/21/2012 10:33 PM
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MUGG
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If all that hard mode does is increase enemies' health or damage dealing and the former would prolong the TAS needlessly and the latter wouldn't matter if you never take damage, then use the default or easiest mode. But if the hard mode increases enemy count, pattern, speed or other things, then you can use hard mode. It is your choice.
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Posted: 12/26/2012 8:15 AM
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baeiouyx
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 8
I finished the movie of the first level. Here is the thread i made for it: http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=336258#336258