White Water (Compute's Gazette)

"There's nothing like it," they said. "Definitely a challenge, but you can handle it." As you drift toward your first set of rapids, you're beginning to have some doubts. After all, there's nothing between you and those boulders ahead but a flimsy rubber raft.
Rafting, especially in a powerful river, is a dangerous adventure. But with "White Water," you can enjoy river running in the safety of your own home. In this game, you must guide your raft down eight rocky rivers. But beware—you're not alone. Crocodiles and Hover-craft share these waterways.
The article for this game can be found on page 20 of Issue 77 (November 1989): https://archive.org/details/1989-11-computegazette/page/n21/mode/2up

Why TAS This Game?

The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute's Gazette. This makes my 10th TAS from this series.
I never actually played this game, because at some point...my subscription got canceled. So I missed a few in the series. Years later, I found someone on the internet that was selling their extra copies and I filled in the ones that I was missing.
I also decided to TAS this game, because the organization started tagging their "Best" games with a classification of "Editor's Choice". This game lives up to that recognition and stands above most of the games that were ever published by Compute's Gazette. I only wish that I had the experience of typing this one in, back in my youth.
Previous Compute's Gazette submissions include (In order of submission):

Game Ending

The article, outlined on page 20 of the Novemeber 1989 issue, states that their are 8 unique levels. At the end, the completion message changes to "White Water Complete". Afterwards, it starts over again.

Effort In TASing

This game wasn't much of a challenge, as I was able to keep up my speed in about 99% of the entire run. The ability to TAS this, makes this game look super easy...but of course, its not.

Human Comparison

I was surprised to find two videos, so I picked the one below...because it was longer. This player made it to level 3, but had to play it super slow in order to get there. So...it should do a good job in showing the level of difficulty that this game has to offer.

feos: Claiming for judging.
feos: Accepting.

despoa: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15569
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #8292: nymx's C64 White Water in 04:10.78
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4043
A bit of a sidestroller, but I can tell from how tight you take your turns that a human would have great difficulty matching this. Looks pixel perfect?
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
nymx
He/Him
Editor, Judge, Expert player (2231)
Joined: 11/14/2014
Posts: 929
Location: South Pole, True Land Down Under
Patashu wrote:
A bit of a sidestroller, but I can tell from how tight you take your turns that a human would have great difficulty matching this. Looks pixel perfect?
Yes, it is very touchy. Not hit box related, but the Commodore 64 has a built in sprite collision detector for when active pixels touch each other.
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. ---- 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? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
eien86
He/Him
Judge, Skilled player (1872)
Joined: 3/21/2021
Posts: 261
Location: Switzerland
- Guy on the boat: "Look! I'm going 200mph!" - Alligator coming from the opposite direction: *breaks the speed of sound* Yes vote 6.9/7
LoganTheTASer
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 7/3/2022
Posts: 463
Location: Berkshire, UK
that water looks blue to me. yes vote. loving these compute’s gazette submissions.
YouTube: @LoganL2008 Discord: sneakers_o_toole Watch my TASes here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmcAd4CTuEymf4qWKIE0Pv_NlA031cYR1&si=m1hP9qz9c8Ip35Ur
nymx
He/Him
Editor, Judge, Expert player (2231)
Joined: 11/14/2014
Posts: 929
Location: South Pole, True Land Down Under
eien86 wrote:
- Guy on the boat: "Look! I'm going 200mph!" - Alligator coming from the opposite direction: *breaks the speed of sound*
LOL. I just wish there was some game breaking trick that could do that. :P
LogansGamingRoom wrote:
yes vote. loving these compute’s gazette submissions.
Thanks. They sure do seem to be doing better than I expected. Just wait...the big one is coming.
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. ---- 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? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Twisted_Eye
He/Him
Active player (398)
Joined: 10/17/2005
Posts: 632
Location: Seattle, WA
so, judging by the island layouts, i take it the person who programmed this was named "Tim"
nymx
He/Him
Editor, Judge, Expert player (2231)
Joined: 11/14/2014
Posts: 929
Location: South Pole, True Land Down Under
Twisted Eye wrote:
so, judging by the island layouts, i take it the person who programmed this was named "Tim"
:) Yep.... Tim Ranson
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. ---- 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? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15569
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [5326] C64 White Water by nymx in 04:10.78