Posted: 3/4/2015 9:41 PM
Post subject: Ki no Bouken - The Quest of Ki
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fsvgm777
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The Quest of Ki is a video game developed by Namco in 1988. It is part of the Tower of Druaga series (in fact, it serves as a prequel to the series). The player controls Ki, a priestess sent by Ishtar in order to retrieve the Blue Crystal Rod, which was stolen by Druaga. Here's a small WIP I made that covers floors 1 and 6. (IMPORTANT: it will only sync in BizHawk 1.9.2 or newer!) And here's a list of addresses I found This game is interesting in the sense that once the game is beaten (the regular end is at floor 60), you can play 40 bonus floors. Therefore, there are 100 floors in total (but most of the regular game will be skipped thanks to warps). After the 100th floor is beaten, a special ending triggers. I'm not sure if I should include them in the full TAS or just TAS until the 60th floor.
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Posted: 3/4/2015 10:41 PM
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Patashu
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Does a TAS that goes to floor 100 play the first 60 floors differently?
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Posted: 3/4/2015 10:42 PM
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fsvgm777
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The route to the 60th floor would be the exact same, so no.
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Posted: 3/5/2015 12:34 AM
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KusogeMan
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100 pls
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Posted: 3/5/2015 7:46 AM
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fsvgm777
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Ah, by the way, I forgot to mention that this is going to be a route with warps; that is, a very large chunk of the regular game is skipped, thanks to it having a warp after a warp after a warp until floor 58, so the regular game would only be 11 floors in total. By the way, nothing past the 60th floor can be skipped, since the warps from the 61st floor onwards actually take you back to the regular game (with notable exception to the warp in the 61st floor, since it just takes you back there). So...a run with warps plus the "postgame" would be 51 floors in total.
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Posted: 3/5/2015 2:10 PM
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KusogeMan
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seems like a reasonable length,i hope people don't complain about the warping considering how many floors there are
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Posted: 3/5/2015 9:40 PM
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Patashu
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Well, if the routes are the same, you could make a normal ending TAS, submit that, and then continue from the end and make the special ending TAS.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Posted: 3/7/2015 7:02 AM
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CoolKirby
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I think you should do the 11-floor warps run first, and then if you want, make a run through all 100 levels "warpless" and obtain the special "best ending". Both of those runs should be acceptable on the site no matter what.
Posted: 3/7/2015 8:33 PM
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fsvgm777
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CoolKirby: Thing is, I feel that doing a TAS showing all 100 floors would be tedious, and I feel that it would be boring to watch (yes, I know the Vault exists, but still). Also, I wouldn't necessarily call the ending when you beat the 100th floor the "best ending", but more a "secret ending". Patashu: My initial plan was to submit 2 versions: One run (with warps) that goes until the 60th floor (regular ending, 11 floors in total) and one with warps that goes until the 100th floor (51 floors in total). Though, it seems like from the understanding of your post, I should make a TAS with warps going until the 60th floor and then make another one that only covers floors 61-100. If that's the case, I'd probably have to talk to a judge. But....anyway, here's my second WIP. It includes a 3-frame improvement on Floor 6 thanks to different input.
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Posted: 4/24/2015 8:31 PM
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fsvgm777
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I asked Mothrayas about the issue regarding the bonus floors some time ago, and he basically said that if I were to show off the bonus floors, I should make a full warpless run, since save-anchored movies aren't accepted per the Vault rules. However, the warps run (the one I'm making) can end at the first ending you get at Floor 60. Anyway, here's my third WIP. It goes until Floor 19. I've also made a small encode of the WIP: Link to video
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Posted: 5/1/2015 10:00 AM
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CoolKirby
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That looked fast! There wasn't a lot to that movie, but there'll be more to enjoy after more progress is made.
Posted: 2/21/2017 9:49 PM
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TaoTao
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I tried converting fsvgm777's current run into FM2, and it synced on FCEUX 2.2.3. So I put the fm2 for some convenience. I am considering make a special stage run, using warps until the stage 60. Because some people (including me) consider the special stages as main contents of this game, and the stage 1-60 as tutorials.
Posted: 2/21/2017 10:05 PM
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fsvgm777
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TaoTao wrote:
I am considering make a special stage run, using warps until the stage 60.
fsvgm777 wrote:
I asked Mothrayas about the issue regarding the bonus floors some time ago, and he basically said that if I were to show off the bonus floors, I should make a full warpless run, since save-anchored movies aren't accepted per the Vault rules.
(emphasis mine) So...I'd advise against it. On that note, I've been "working" on a full warpless run (that'd include the special stages) (I put "working" between quotes, since it's pretty much in a dormant state), with a WIP that completes the first 20 floors: User movie #37191664124536687 This was started on BizHawk 1.11.3, but it syncs all the way to BizHawk 1.11.9.1 (so I assume even converting it back to FCEUX does not cause any issues). Oh, by the way, I consider the special stages as, well, special stages that you can reach after "completing" Floor 60 (which really is just a glorified cutscene) and thus technically beating the regular game. This is among the hex- and sync-friendliest games I've encountered, by the way, since there's absolutely no RNG (at least not that I'm aware of).
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Posted: 2/21/2017 10:44 PM
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TaoTao
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fsvgm777 wrote:
I asked Mothrayas about the issue regarding the bonus floors some time ago, and he basically said that if I were to show off the bonus floors, I should make a full warpless run, since save-anchored movies aren't accepted per the Vault rules.(emphasis mine) So...I'd advise against it.
I am just afraid that the stage 1-60 are so easy that a warpless run would be boring. But if a warpless run is preferable, I will consider it. Ah, anyway, you can use a softreset to skip the ending and go straight to the special stages. I think there is no problem to use softresets.
fsvgm777 wrote:
a WIP that completes the first 20 floors: User movie #37191664124536687
Thank you for sharing the wip! It will be definitely useful for comparison.
fsvgm777 wrote:
Oh, by the way, I consider the special stages as, well, special stages that you can reach after "completing" Floor 60 (which really is just a glorified cutscene) and thus technically beating the regular game.
Yeah, I think there is no problem that we have normal stage runs and special stage runs in parallel. For reference, I put some videos I found so far: * hisatoki's TAS (special stages, using warps until stage 60, not using reset to skip ending) * nico's RTA (special stages, using warps until stage 60, using reset to skip ending) * A romhack demo, "Genkai no Bouken" (insane difficulty)
Posted: 2/22/2017 12:58 AM
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ruadath
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Saw your movie thanks to this thread, and have to say, very cool run (warps) fsvgm777! I enjoyed watching it a lot! I played around with your BizHawk file and found some time save on the penultimate stage (58). I haven't optimized anything yet, but I'm going to take a look at it tonight and see what I can improve. By the way, while I can edit your movie file, for some reason the soft reset does not appear to be reproducible on a new movie in BizHawk 1.9.11 (any idea why this might occur?)
Posted: 2/22/2017 5:58 PM
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fsvgm777
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ruadath wrote:
By the way, while I can edit your movie file, for some reason the soft reset does not appear to be reproducible on a new movie in BizHawk 1.9.11 (any idea why this might occur?)
If you're on TAStudio, make sure the Power and Reset columns are checked in the menu (Columns -> P (Power) and r (Reset)). Soft resets are in the Reset column (r). (I can add soft resets just fine when I start a new movie when TASing the classic way as well, it's through NES -> Soft reset). Though, you have to wait about 3-4 frames in order for the soft reset to actually skip the Namco screen. By the way, I'm glad this game sees a pique in interest.
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Posted: 2/23/2017 5:32 AM
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TaoTao
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I put some memory addresses: 
$08     U8      P1 input        # ABSTUDLR
$09     U8      P1 input on -1F
$0A     U8      P1 input on -2F
$0B     U8      P1 new input
$0C     U8      P2 input
$0D     U8      P2 input on -1F
$0E     U8      P2 input on -2F
$0F     U8      P2 new input

$10     U8      frame counter

$12     U8      $2005 x mirror

$14     U8      $2005 y mirror

$1A     U8      $2000 mirror

$34     S16BE   velocity x
$36     S16BE   velocity y

$3A     U24BE   position x
$3D     U24BE   position y

$40-$45 U8[6]   mapper 206 internal register 0-5 mirror

$51     U8      death flag
$52     U8      life
$53     U8      key
$54     U8      clear flag

$56     U8      wing

$58     U8      $2001 mirror

$59     U8      bit7:barrier

$5B     U8      wind

$5E     U8      timestop counter

$5F     U8      time (sec)

$64     U8      time (frame)

$69     U8      poison
$6A     U8      candle
$6B     U8      ring
$6C     U8      silence
$6D     U8      sleep
$6E     U8      bit0:cross, bit1:orb

$80-     U8[]      BG drawing data

$0144   U8      stage

$0148-$014F     U8[8]   score

$02C7   U8      stun counter

$0700-$07FF     Sprite[64]      sprite buffer
And, I wrote a HUD script to display position and velocity. You can increase/decrease the stun counter by pressing B/A. I am reading the game code, and I found that this game uses 2P input for a cheat. When you set $015F to nonzero, you will become invulnerable while you are pressing P2 A button. Though I have not found the canonical way to activate the cheat.
Posted: 2/23/2017 11:38 AM
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fsvgm777
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Perhaps you could add X acceleration ($35) and Y acceleration ($37) (signed ints). These are currently missing from your list (and are present in addresses list I've made and put in my OP).
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Posted: 2/23/2017 12:06 PM
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TaoTao
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fsvgm777 wrote:
Perhaps you could add X acceleration ($35) and Y acceleration ($37) (signed ints). These are currently missing from your list (and are present in addresses list I've made and put in my OP).
As far as I looked, $35 is subpixel of x-velocity, and $37 is subpixel of y-velocity (so I wrote the type as "S16BE", signed 16bit big endian). And, $3C is subpixel of x-position, and $3F is subpixel of y-position. I examined about the cheat which I mentioned before. Apparently it is a cut content or debug mode. There are unused code on $C301:
C2FB : A5 67       lda $67              ;
C2FD : D0 38       bne $C337            ;
C2FF : F0 2B       beq $C32C            ;
; --- unused code begin ---
C301 : A5 08       lda input1           ;
C303 : 29 C0       and #$C0             ;
C305 : C9 C0       cmp #$C0             ;
C307 : D0 23       bne $C32C            ;
C309 : A9 01       lda #$01             ;
C30B : 8D 7F 01    sta $017F            ;
C30E : 20 63 C6    jsr L_C663           ;
C311 : 20 FB D6    jsr L_D6FB           ;
C314 : A9 00       lda #$00             ;
C316 : 85 4D       sta $4D              ;
C318 : A5 0C       lda input2           ;
C31A : 29 80       and #$80             ;
C31C : C9 80       cmp #$80             ;
C31E : D0 1E       bne $C33E            ;
C320 : A9 00       lda #$00             ;
C322 : 8D 7F 01    sta $017F            ;
C325 : A9 01       lda #$01             ;
C327 : 8D 5F 01    sta $015F            ;
C32A : D0 12       bne $C33E            ;
; --- unused code end ---
You can activate this unused code by replacing $C2FF-$C300 with NOP (0xEA). With this code activated, you can use a stage select function (press P1 A+B when you select "normal start"): And, you can edit NES RAM with P2 input: And, if you press P2 A button when you exit the stage selection, you can become invulnerable while you are pressing P2 A button.