Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2822
Location: Northern California
Just post these in the main game's thread. Hacks rarely ever generate enough buzz to warrant separate threads.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family.
Now infrequently posting on BlueskywarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Stages 10, 11, and 12 look like complete ass because of the palette, and the entire hack's design goal seemed to be, "What if we removed half the floors and stuck bats and Medusa Heads everywhere?" with the added effect of embedding half of the bone pillars in the ground (and one in mid air).
To your credit, you played through it well.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
I generally quite enjoyed seeing the onslaught of enemies Simon must deal with. Since his moveset is so limited, being able to power through the stages against such overhelming odds is quite impressive.
That said, it's hard to say as I don't have the ROM handy to check, but the TAS looks fairly unoptimal to me. I think that with, some better strategizing and more precision (where and when to use the whip, the holy water, and when to take damage), a lot of the waits could have been avoided. For example, in Stage 7, why use the holy water against the Bone Pillar on top of the stairs? If I remember right, taking damage was faster. In Stage 1, you seem to be using the whip in mid-air later than you would have to, which forces you to stay on the ground longer. In Stage 2, why do you move so far forward before jumping down to the lower ledge?
Generally, I think you should have manipulated more rosaries and invincibility potions to spawn to make it through some sections quicker.
Regardless, good work on the run. Looking at the game, it must have been very difficulty to get through.
Joined: 4/15/2013
Posts: 331
Location: In the attic
Ooh boy, constructive criticism time!
TheMechanicalKoopa: I've just given your TAS a quick watch, and I can say that, even though it seems to be pretty decent for (what I presume is) a first attempt, there's still plenty of room for improvement:
- Try finding ways to use up more Hearts. Tallying them down at the end of a level costs time, so you should aim to finish each level with exactly none left.
- Route out where to take damage in each level. You'll want to take as much damage as possible without dying, but if there are, say, five possible damage boost spots in a level where you would die in four, find out whichever one saves the least amount of time. (Think: Would it have been possible to get past the bat at the top of Stage 17 without stopping to kill it if you could take less damage elsewhere?)
- Try using luck manipulation. As scrimpeh noted, "you should have manipulated more rosaries and invincibility potions to spawn to make it through some sections quicker." Try destroying candles/enemies on different frames and see what you get.
One final note: Your first TAS of a game will never be optimal. Sometime further down the line, you may come back to this game and try to improve on your old effort.
Thank you all for the replies! I am still fairly new to TASing in general. I just finished my TAS of the Stairs of Doom Hack and yeah I thought about the hearts after I made the run. only problem is that on stage 12 it was hard to deal with the heart drops cause of the ass birds with fleamen that they drop. they almost always give u a big heart or the dreaded axe drop. but here is the NEW TAS of Stairs of Doom I jut finished yesterday. and with a new route! my old route TAS was 15:59 on time and with new found strats and damage boosts I got it down to 13:50.70 which is quite a bit faster! Plus I implemented more damage boosting and made sure I dropped hearts as fast as I could. with the exception of the first level due to the fact I don't pick up a sub weapon until I reach the bat at the end of the first level. but over all I am happy with how this one turned out! I plan on TASing Castlevania Fan Edition next which in place of the mummies there is a second DRAC and Cookie Monster fight in the game. which should be interesting to see how I finish that one. I also TAS'd Akumajou Dracula Extreme Easy mode in 11:47 and that game is another story. I will post both videos here shortly.
in response to posting videos in the game thread where do I do that at? you'll have to forgive me I am still new to this site and how to post on forums. but I kinda like it. it gets the word out there about my TAS videos and I like it! I think it's really neat!
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Edit [by Invariel]:
here is the TAS I just completed yesterday. I think you will like this one! and it's full of crits on just about every boss!
Link to video
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Edit 2 [by Invariel]:
this one surprised me due to the fact that in easy mode when you get hit it does not knock simon back at all. which means you can not damage boost! so for being 7 seconds off the original CV1 WR time by 7 seconds is pretty damn good. and as before this one starts u with 30 hearts and it's not easy to dump hearts very fast but the harder version should have a much better time.
Link to video
Invariel [mod time]: Please don't double- or triple-post in the same forum in quick succession. If you have additional information to provide, please do so by editing your post (which you can do if it is the last post in the thread) and un-checking the "This is a minor edit" button.
Thank you.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
No problem - everyone makes mistakes. Please enjoy your stay. :)
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
