Overall I don't really get what a concept demo is at this site.

I think it means that the movie has one major interesting feature. For example, the only reason the Monopoly movie is fun to watch is because of the extremely unlikely manipulation involved. A normal movie features more general creativity such as route planning, item usage optimization and creative discovery and exploitation of glitches. Whatever the answer is should probably go in the FAQ somewhere.

For example, the only reason the Monopoly movie is fun to watch is because of the extremely unlikely manipulation involved.

The current Monopoly movie actually isn't tagged as a concept demo. This one is more of a concept demo than that, because its goal is basically to be the "shortest TAS ever", not to entertain with what goes on during the movie (which Monopoly can do at least to some small extent.) If there's any entertainment to be had from this movie, it's entirely in the idea of what it does. Since the effort required to publish this would probably be quite small compared to publishing any movie of normal length, I don't see what the problem would be with putting this up as a demo the next time some other movies are getting published, with the understanding that any shorter game-beating movie can obsolete it and that similarly-short movies won't be published for any other reason. EDIT: Voting Meh, though I can understand how someone familiar with the game might actually be entertained by this.

I did watch this run and I didn't find it entertaining (though it might be because I have never played this game). A question I ask is this: What is the chance of landing the sceptre on a given tile? Must be pretty small, but how small? The number was not given. To any viewer who has never played the game, the character moves downward for half a second, and ... that's it. Sure it could be published as a concept demo, but publishing the run doesn't give the right impression of the entertainment as a site goal. It seems to say "bizarre runs should be published". Also, the label "shortest TAS ever" is lacking in objective basis now. At the 10s level, people ask "How do you define the 'shortest TAS ever'?" If I complete Chessmaster in 8s, is it the "shortest TAS ever"? If Aqfaq completes Clue in 3s, is it the "shortest TAS ever"? Looking at my own Monopoly submissions, I see that I was correct in cancelling my 0:27 Monopoly run, and indeed my 1:08 concept demo intends to obsolete the published run, giving the title of shortest published TAS to Aqfaq's Dark Castle. Voting no.

I think a quick explanation for those who haven't ever played the game is needed. King's Bounty is a direct predecessor of Heroes of Might and Magic series, with less strategy elements compared to the HOMM games. For instance, there's no distinct separation of days here, and you have a timer running in the background, that decrements after a number of your moves (in PC version) or 10 second intervals (in Genesis version). That said, the PC version's overworld travelling is turn-based, while on Genesis, it is realtime. The goal of the game is to open the map to the Scepter of Order, go to the place where it lies and dig it up before the time runs out. To accomplish this seemingly easy task, one needs to build a strong army and defeat all the evil heroes ("villains"), who in their turn sit in their castles scattered across the continent. Which is almost impossible, to be honest. Each time you defeat a villain, one piece of the mosaique covering the map of the Scepter's location disappears, just like the obelisks that show the location of the Grail artifact work in the HOMM games. Most players take advantage of this fact and don't defeat the last couple of villains (simply because they're WAY too powerful), and just try digging in the places which resemble the one showed on the map. After you find the Scepter, the game ends automatically. What Aqfaq does in this movie, is just manipulating the Scepter to appear on the tile just below his hero's spawning location, and thus completes the game without ever fighting once. Considering the map size, this is a very good achievment. But I'd like to see a full completion as well, just because it's so damn hard. %)

If it's boring, don't publish it. Don't still publish it and put it in a seperate section in an effort to stay on the fence about its validity.

If this needs to be put in the concept demos, then why not Monopoly as well? I don't understand the difference.

Good point my fiend, goot points.

The monopoly run is entertaining in that you see a CPU bankrupted with an incredible amount of luck manipulation and planning. Yes, Monopoly took a lot of strategy (find best spots to gouge the CPU without bankrupting self)... This is just boring.

More boring than the "walk through walls directly to the end credits" Link to the Past run?

How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.

the last 2 posts for the win.

This is just boring.

I find this as entertaining as Monopoly, and as remarkable, for pretty much the same reasons.

Good point my fiend, goot points.

Awesome :) (you can find this on my page of quotes now)

A question I ask is this: What is the chance of landing the sceptre on a given tile? Must be pretty small, but how small? The number was not given.

I don't know the exact chance, because I don't know how the RNG works in this game, but Monopoly is definitely much more complex than this. There are 4 continents, here's the in-game map for the first one: It's roughly a 1/4 chance that the sceptre is located in the first continent and it can be only on the light green squares.

Also, the label "shortest TAS ever" is lacking in objective basis now. At the 10s level, people ask "How do you define the 'shortest TAS ever'?" If I complete Chessmaster in 8s, is it the "shortest TAS ever"? If Aqfaq completes Clue in 3s, is it the "shortest TAS ever"?

Now that I think of it, "the shortest TAS" sounds stupid and mostly fails to be an interesting concept for a movie. (By the way, Clue can be completed in 30 seconds, not 3 seconds ever.)

I don't understand why this should be obsoleted by a shorter run of another game. This is still interesting even if it isn't the shortest run. I also don't understand calling it boring. uninteresting might be an ok description but there is no way I can be bored in only 10sec. Hell, I could watch paint dry for 10sec and not be bored.

That argument is 1 step away from justifying that it would be OK to publish a TAS of "watching paint dry". But I agree this is hardly capable of boring whoever watches it. And if a lot of people were familiar with this game (if it were a Zelda game, for instance), this would probably be a shoe-in for publishing.

What does rejecting this run say to the concept of TAS? "complete a game as fast as possible at all costs but if you do it TOO fast then it is boring and will be rejected" And yes, if watching paint dry can be done in 25 frames of gameplay then you got a yes vote from me :p

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Coming Soon: Mario Watches Paint Dry

Or by it's better known title, Mario is Missing.

What about Mario's Time Machine? Or is it Luigi's Time Machine?

What does rejecting this run say to the concept of TAS? "complete a game as fast as possible at all costs but if you do it TOO fast then it is boring and will be rejected

I think this justifies it all.

Or by it's better known title, Mario is Missing.

I actually started making a test run for this, using the logical fallacy of "if I can luck manipulate all the drops in ideal locations, people will enjoy the movie!" Boy, was I wrong...

of course yes. this made me laugh my ass off (once i actulaly found the damn rom) Of course with 20 yes votes, 1 now and 3 meh it will either get arbitrarily rejected or published in 30 years

Just watched it and count me in with the yay voters :) Entertaining.

I find this hilarious, and I have not watched the movie or even played the game. Talk about "0wn4ge", indeed.

I find this hilarious, and I have not watched the movie or even played the game. Talk about "0wn4ge", indeed.

If you went so far as to mention said 0wn4ge was unalloyed, I would not fault you.

Funny movie. This movie clearly doesn't do the game justice, but I will vote yes anyway.