The SNES Test Program is a program used by Nintendo's World Class Service to diagonise issues on the SNES. The program was meant for testing the capabilities, You can test the electronics, character, controller, sound, color, and accesories.
I used BizHawk 2.4.2 and used the American SNES BIOS, It was the fastest possible, it took about a short time to make the movie.
GoddessMaria: Hello, LucianoTheWindowsFan, and welcome to TASVideos. Unfortunately, this submission is unacceptable for a few reasons.
The "game" in question is not actually a game. It's a program that only serves in helping diagnose accessories while seeing miscellaneous imagery such as beta elements from Super Mario World.
This doesn't complete everything as it's impossible to do so.
Outside of a few parts, it's just scrolling through visuals.
There's no entertainment value to this submission or this "game", for that matter.
With that said... Rejecting for poor "game" choice and lack of entertainment. Better luck next time!
Looks like it's your first submission. Welcome aboard, Luciano. ;)
So... here's a brief explanation I must put down. And forgive me if you're uncomfortable with all this.
In 2016, Moth rejected an earlier submission, concluding that it's "basically Mario's equivalent to Where's Waldo," assuming that the game doesn't have an interesting feel with the clear images coming about. At the time I came up with that reason, I'm not sure now if it's accurate enough to see why that submission got rejected.
I found out later that it's "one of around four discovered cartridges once used by Nintendo World Class Service to test and diagnose problems with the SNES and controllers" according to TCRF. Now I'm figuring that SNES Test Program is not a good "game" to TAS because of that.
I don't think this submission will make it for publication, very sorry! But don't let all this down... you'll get better eventually. I'll have to refrain from voting for now, though.
Yaaay, I'm an active player now! :D (as of 11/9/2024) Thanks to TASVideos for the support, they're awesome.
I'm Asumeh, semi-expert SMB1 TASer. :)
Check out some of the TASes I don't submit/upload to TASVideos on my YouTube channel, if you'd like.
In progress:
- Extra Mario Bros. (redo) (with HappyLee and w7n) - I'm currently assisting with finding improvements before the boss. On hold; we're currently struggling to confirm that we have the fastest route. Some debugging may also help with finding glitch exits, but neither of us are experts in that field.
- Record my older TASes (excluding any obsolete TASes) and upload to YouTube.
- Pretty busy at the moment...
Check out my other links here. (Mostly WIP hehe)
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't
12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!"
Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet
MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish
[Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person
MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol
Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Joined: 11/14/2014
Posts: 932
Location: South Pole, True Land Down Under
Rejected...you forgot to plug in the player 2 receiver for the super scope.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence.
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SOYZA: Are you playing a game?
NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing.
SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real?
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Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes?
Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :)
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BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
It's tradition for users on TASvideos to use April Fools to submit movies that have no chance of being accepted, either by being a bad game choice or having really weird goal choices. Notably, there've been a few Test Program TASes submitted on April Fools.
So, yeah, for this submission. It breaks the site rules about not being a game, so it can't be accepted into Vault, and there's nothing in the movie that would qualify it for Moons.
I’m going to take the position that this movie does actually play a game, but it’s not a “proper” game that would meet the Vault standard, and it should be rejected on the basis that there is “no user creativity altering the game in any way.”
A ‘game’ occurs when a player operating with intentionality within a particular set of rules could potentially achieve perfection. The easiest example to look at is the game of ten-pin bowling. Within the rules of the game, the potential perfection is a score of 300. There are more complex examples, but there is no need to go into all that.
Any resource on its own is not a game. Consider a deck of playing cards. The cards are just pieces of paper until they’re given a defined role within a rule set of a card game. Likewise, SNES Test Program isn’t what you would think of as a game, but it is a resource that can become part of a game if you use it as an object within a rule set.
SNES Test Program is used for a simple game, but it’s still a game. The goal is to get through all of the tests as fast as possible. Just going through all the tests might be considered ‘work,’ but adding the ‘as fast as possible’ element turns it into a game. There is an objective, perfect time possible that the movie aims to achieve.
But now we get to the part where it is not a “proper” game. Because the player just presses a button to activate a very avant-garde story about flipping princesses, color changes, and innumerable stars. Most of the movie is waiting for the animations on level 2 to complete, and a small portion involves pressing buttons as quickly as possible. Essentially it is watching someone else’s art rather than creating art.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
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.
Not quite. Although it wouldn't be a major stretch to say that they can be, because the concept is the same as game shows, quiz bowls, trivia games, and related variants. But typically a high school test would lack the intentionality part of the definition. Imitating the actions of a game is distinct from intentionally playing a game.
Not quite. Although it wouldn't be a major stretch to say that they can be, because the concept is the same as game shows, quiz bowls, trivia games, and related variants. But typically a high school test would lack the intentionality part of the definition. Imitating the actions of a game is distinct from intentionally playing a game.
What do you even mean with intentionality?
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
An in-game task or puzzle that is meant to be accomplished or solved by a human while playing the game, by sending inputs to the game and getting its reaction.
It was written to help us handle #6466: Masterjun & ais523's NES Super Mario Bros. 3 "game end glitch" in 00:00.78.
A game's goal is making the player play it. If a game is entertaining, it is being played. We know it is entertaining if the player prefers it to doing nothing. Some games are more annoying than doing nothing, but the challenge compensates for that, indirectly making them entertaining. If there's no challenge in the game, then it should entertain the player with something else. But that entertainment should remain interactive, otherwise it's not a game anymore.
TASVideos is the site that isn't satisfied with simply playing games. Our goal is superplay, or metagaming. We impose artificial challenges to entertain ourselves by solving them, and by watching the resulting movie.
This game has no interactive challenge. It has no gameplay aside from running a few automatic events with questionable artistic value. It wasn't designed to represent the artistic taste of the creator, it just either uses placeholder images from actual Nintendo games, or shows purely technical images. Probably there is some entertainment in watching a static image like this:
But after you've seen it a few times, watching it again becomes as entertaining as doing nothing.
As a result of the above, simply going through all the menus fast does not hold any superplay value, because it's identical to checking out every menu item on a DVD, except there may be something of artistic value on that DVD, while this game exists for purely technical purposes and only allows you to test if your console is functional enough to pass all tests.
Probably relevant: http://tasvideos.org/Nach/HistoryOfGamesAndRelevanceHere.html
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
The same physical act can have different meanings depending on the intent of the person doing it.
A person can drive a car for Uber with the intent of doing work.
A person can drive a car for NASCAR with the intent of playing a game.
A person can drive a car as an actor in a film with the intent of creating art.
The way I'm using 'game' is consistent with how it's used in ordinary language. There was a Simpsons episode (“Bart the Murderer”) in which Skinner became trapped under a pile of newspaper and dribbled a nearby basketball. He says, "I made a game of it. Seeing how many times I could bounce the ball in a day, then trying to break that record." Just dribbling the ball is not a game, but when he acted with intent toward a potential perfection within a set of rules, he was playing a game.
The author of this movie was not trying to test an SNES; he had intent to use the resource for a game (a very bad game). Someone could take a frozen turkey and use it as a football and play a game with it. What matters is how the resource is used.
I'm just saying I think that the movie should be rejected because the gameplay lacks user creativity rather than rejected for not being a game at all.
I'm just saying I think that the movie should be rejected because the gameplay lacks user creativity rather than rejected for not being a game at all.
Obviously you're not claiming this should be accepted, but your comments regarding considering this submission as a "game" did make me pause and think.
Disclaimer: I understand the site's current stance on the following topic. While I don't completely agree with it, I can respect the perspectives which guide the current rules.
I'm not looking to start a debate, I'm truly just curious.
So how do these intentionality and user creativity perspectives affect your thoughts regarding board game/edutainment titles validity for publication on our site?
They are currently not allowed, but many of them could easily offer an opportunity for user creativity.
Paraphrasing your own comments; because the software in this submission has been treated as a game, you believe that it can be considered a game.
While I can follow your logic, it does introduce a comparison point regarding intention of software like this submission vs. Board Game/Edutainment titles...Namely, what its intended use actually is. This submission's "game" is simply software intended to test a system and wasn't intended by the developers to be a game from the perspective of the user achieving some goal that challenges the player. Board game/edutainment titles, however, typically are intended to be games with defined challenges that must be overcome (even if the purpose of the game itself is to reinforce the learning of some educational topic).
End of curiosity question.
My thoughts regarding this submission.
I tend to lean toward a more inclusive perspective of what our site should consider publishing. However, when we are considering whether or not something should be deemed a game for the purposes of our site, I feel that a developer's intended purpose for a particular piece of software takes precedent over what the user actually does with that software.
In my opinion, this submission's ROM should not be considered a game by our site as the software wasn't intended to be a game by the developer. It is software designed to challenge the system, not to challenge the user who happens to be operating the software.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11475
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
We definitely treat the process of TASing as a game for ourselves, but aiming for fastest speed, or any kind of perfection, does not turn the very piece of software we're TASing into a game, if it has no interactive challenge inherent to it, independent from our metagaming/superplay approach.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
The Family Feud TAS shows creativity well beyond what would be expected of a game-show game, and that is relevant to my position. No one would expect something like SNES Test Program to even play a game, but they should be open to the (small) possibility that someone could use it to play a game (created by the author) in an unexpected and entertaining way. This particular movie definitely does not do that. But a future movie could, in theory. Related precedent is the Super Mario World ACE, which codes custom mini-games and uses its own method of completion. What if the exact same thing had been done with SNES Test Program instead of SMW?
If the site created a rule that ROMs must have been originally intended to be used as games (e.g., no test programs), I think that it would contradict the site's philosophy encouraging the creation of gaming art. I think Pokemon Plays Twitch is a related precedent, because it is the inverse of what is happening here. It took a resource intended to be used as a game (Pokemon Red) and converted it into a non-game (chat text display). It is considered a creative and technical masterpiece. The issue is that becoming a non-game places it outside the site's jurisdiction. But I'd think the inverse—converting a non-game (like a test program) into a game (through total control or otherwise) with the same level of expertise shown in PPT—would be encouraged if it meets all additional site rules.
Does Microsoft Word count as a game if you could find ACE in it?
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Does Microsoft Word count as a game if you could find ACE in it?
What is still unclear about what I've written? If you use Word to type an essay, like most people do, you're doing work. If you and a friend used Word to see who could press the X button the most times in one minute, you'd be playing a game. If you somehow inserted your own code into Word to allow you to play pong in it, that pong would obviously be a game.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't
12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!"
Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet
MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish
[Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person
MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol
Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
But after you've seen it a few times, watching it again becomes as entertaining as doing nothing.
As a result of the above, simply going through all the menus fast does not hold any superplay value, because it's identical to checking out every menu item on a DVD, except there may be something of artistic value on that DVD, while this game exists for purely technical purposes and only allows you to test if your console is functional enough to pass all tests.
Probably relevant: http://tasvideos.org/Nach/HistoryOfGamesAndRelevanceHere.html
