Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Absolutely loved this one. I wish I had the ability to orchestrate something this cool.
I thought the trick of flattening the spring was very very funny. I was laughing a long time about that.
I liked how you collected too many extra lives in the chocolate island level with the silver P-switch
I thought that showing Mario try and do things such as grab a fire flower when it was stuck in a block, or use a key when it was stuck in Yoshi's head was very funny.
Yes vote for sure
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
This was absolutely amazing.
You make it seem so easy to get stuck in pipes/walls that I feel that I could do it in real time effortlessly.
6-2 was incredible with the 1-ups
Big Yes
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Hi
I'm curious if anyone else has tried to compile snes9x-1.51 in Visual C++ Express 2005. I'm trying to do just that and I am running into some problems that I have never seen before. I was hoping someone could help me out.
When I opened the project file for the first time VC asked my to convert the project to a newer format. I think it wanted to convert from VC6 to what ever VC Express is.
I got a warning stating the following after the conversion:
Sure enough after compiling -- I removed the support for zlib and libpng as well as added additional include paths to point to directx lib files and some windows headers -- I was getting a linker error complaining about a duplicate manifest.
CVTRES : fatal error CVT1100: duplicate resource. type:MANIFEST, name:1, language:0x0409
LINK : fatal error LNK1123: failure during conversion to COFF: file invalid or corrupt
I googled the problem and there seemed to be some issues about VC Express creating its own manifest and it conflicting with the user defined one.
I tried to comment out the line
IDR_RT_MANIFEST2 RT_MANIFEST "rt_manif.bin"
in the snes9x.rc file, and then adding the rt_manif.bin file in the project properties->linker->manifest file->additional manifest dependencies window, but doing that gave me a bunch of unresolved external symbol errors.
Here is a sample of one
wsnes9x.obj : error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol __imp__GetParent@4 referenced in function "long __stdcall DlgChildSplitProc(struct HWND__ *,unsigned int,unsigned int,long)" (?DlgChildSplitProc@@YGJPAUHWND__@@IIJ@Z)
Has anyone seen something like this before? I'm not familiar with manifest files so I'm really stuck!
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Sorry if this has been explained elsewhere, but I have been searching for quite some time and have not been able to find anything on this.
How do people encode those bigame, or in some cases quadgame avi files?
Is each individual avi saved separately, and then combined at the end into one dual movie? If this is the case, what program can do this? I have tried mencoder but have had no luck trying to figure out the command line options. I downloaded a GUI front end for it and have not been able to get that to work either.
I'm using Windows XP FYI.
Thanks in advance for any help with this!
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I think that this is very reasonable. Given you know the position, speed, and trajectory of the ball at a given time -- which I believe would be some memory addresses in RAM, along with the layout of the remaining blocks -- more addresses, you could calculate where the ball is going to be at any time in the future.
That actually would be very interesting to see.
I made a bot a long time ago with the concept of it being a user created state machine. A bot of this type wouldn't quite be universal because it would require human logic to program it's goals (i.e. should we mash buttons randomly, or move is a certain direction?), but it could be close. I believe that most games we play can be broken down into a series of yes/no conditions. If we know what the goals are, we could write a decision tree large enough to get to that goal, as well as handle any obstacles in our way.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I believe the idea behind a universal turing machine is that given enough instructions a universal turing machine can do the work of any other machine.
Since a TAS bot is a state machine, given enough states and decisions, I guess it could do anything, but limitations on computing resources prevent this.
I don't think a TAS bot could love
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I'm in the process of moving and don't have stable internet access, but I definately want to check this out as soon as I can.
As well as this site, I'm also a fan of ocremix
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Well in general autotuning is not a bad idea. If you have the tools to polish a vocal track why not do it; a little bit of this effect goes a long way. Also sometimes using this effect to the extreme can result in interesting and creative musical results. See Cher's song Believe for a perfect example of this.
But I don't think using re-records is really like "musicians" using or depending on this effect. When you make a TAS, the idea (in my opinion) is to show off your ability to find the fastest/most entertaining way of completing a game, not to trick your audience into thinking you are actually that good at the game. I think the same logic can be applied to this. Now for really good (again my opinion) tool-assisted music check out aphex twin, autechre, or venetian snares.
Ah, this is getting way off topic of the thread, but it's my 2 cents. To get back on topic, did you ever try other sequencers such as Live or Cubase? I remember trying FL Studio for a while, then I started to try Live and instantly fell in love with it. For some reason I feel like the VST support in Live is a little easier then FL.
Also I like that mic you are working with. It's got good bang for the buck.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I agree, and I feel this can be applied to all genres of music. It is my opinion that a lot of the music we hear on the radio today is made by formula. Add some lyrics about some of the following: drinking/partying/sex -- it can be in any order -- apply serious amounts of Autotuning to correct for lack of talent, compress the hell out of a track to remove all dynamics, and then normalize to 0db to blow out car stereos.
I rest my case
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Hey cool stuff. I like the game references in the songs, I think it adds a unique and personal style.
Music is also a big hobby of mine, so I have to ask: What software/gear did you you use to produce this?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
absolutely, it would most likely be a horrible movie and ugly to watch.
but the concept of it interests me, planning your current actions based on what they will do in the future and all
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Yes a full version movie will happen eventually, but before I do that I need to do a lot of testing. As awesome as the wolf is with his B-D weapon combo, I don't know if it is faster than the robot's C weapon in all situations (certain bosses). Bringing in player 2 as the robot and killing off player 1 might be necessary for the full movie, but I'm not 100% on that yet.
I had no idea there was a new release of Gens, the next movie will use the updated version
I'm Glad everyone liked the run so far. It was tough, but fun to make.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
The other day I was thinking about bi-game tases, and I started thinking about the possibility of instead of running multiple games with one input, you ran every level of a game with the same input.
For example, if you had one input sequence that could be applied to the minimum 8 stages of Mario, or if you could find one input sequence that could beat all robot master stages of Mega Man, you could copy paste it a
If you wanted to make a bot beat a game, it would be as “simple” as
while(1)
{input sequence}
Kinda like the ultimate the Konami code, you would just key in some button sequence enough times and eventually you win.
I know it is not very likely that one of these movies would ever be made, and even if one was made, it would probably look very bad. Also it would also be very hard/impossible for the viewer to notice the repeating input, but then again there are people out there that have the ability to run 4 Mega Man games at the same time, so I figured I’d throw the idea out there.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I mean that you can start with 1 player, do a level skip to level 2, and then die. At the game over screen you can choose to continue with 2 people. After level 2 you can game over this player until he is needed again (maybe at level 5). Whether or not this is faster than using 1 player needs to be tested however.
I looked for memory values for the score and found two interesting addresses. 7E1FA0 and 7E1FE0 count the score for player 1 and player two respectively on my snes9x, but it does not count in the same way the end of the level score counter counts. It is strange, according to these addresses you get the first extra life around 150000, but enemies give around 10000 points each. Strange enough you get 5 points for shooting the weapon carriers and around 3000 for the car in the beginning of the first level.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I like the idea of a half 2 player run where you would start with 1 player and bring the second one in as needed for levels 2 and 5 by using a continue.
In my opinion, using a continue and having two players for levels 5 and 6 should save more time than playing levels 5 and 6 with one because with two players you are able to beat level 5 faster as well as kill the bird boss in level 6 before it enters its second attack phase. But I can't say this 100%
Just curious Spider-Waffle, why does a player need to obtain two bombs in level two?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Awesome, a 3 year bump from the last page of the forum...
I saw an interesting Contra 3 glitch on youtube that seems to let you skip entire levels. If someone was planning to improve the current run, this trick could save a TON of time. I would guess anywhere around 5 minutes.
The trick works by killing an enemy to get an extra life and dying around the same time. The game fades out to the game over screen and respawns you just before everything goes black, but rather than the game over screen, you get the level end screen instead.
I think that when you lose all of your lives the game triggers the same fade out function as when you beat a boss. If the game can detect you have remaining lives it assumes you beat a level, if you are not, it assumes you lost.
I was able to get this to work on the side view stages, but I wasn't good enough or didn't spend enough time to get it to work on the top view stages. If you do the trick on the last level, it takes you back to level 1.
Here is the youtube link
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uqXYIM2Yw44
Here is an SMV of the trick done on the first level
http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php/info/5774/Contra%20III.smv
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Very nice run. I like seeing games that were impossible as a kid beaten so quickly. I liked that trick at the top of the silly race near the goal, it looked very smooth.
I have a question though, why was the second player's controller used, does it make the marble go faster?
Yes vote
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I'm glad you guys liked the run.
mikwuyma nailed the glitch. Once you use the B weapon you switch to the D weapon. You have to wait 11 frames from when you first fired before you switch off the D weapon, and 10 after that before you can shoot again. I don't always do this however because sometimes it's faster to let the first shot hit the boss more because when the second one is fired, the first goes away. And yes using the bomb lets me end input earlier, but only after I fire 1 shot, it's not enough alone to kill the boss.
As far as playing on "easy", the game play is the same between the (J) (U) and (E) versions, except for the hit points. I guess this makes it easier for the normal person, but the way I see it for a TAS, it's just another tool for going faster.
It is not faster to have two players, my second attempt at this movie was with 2 people. I found it much harder to be able to fly through the beginning of the first level with 2 people. Also the game doesn't register damage as quickly with 2 players than with 1. Boss health is the same, but I think the game alternates frames to check for enemy damage between players.
I would argue that this run should obsolete the old one only because this movie is faster up until the choice to get the secret ending. Otherwise you could have up to 5 movies for this game because each ending takes a different route. I'm leaving out the game over ending because I don't think anyone would want that.
I hope no one else had problems playing the movie through to the end. I watched it on the 2006 version and it still worked.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
I hope you don't mind me asking, but I was curious if it is a known bug in gens_20061213 that doing a ram search with the data size set to 2 bytes freezes the program. This usually happens when I try to filter the initial searches.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 6/2/2006
Posts: 63
Wow great job! I can't believe the amount of frames saved.
Thev wall crawling boss was a super pain in the ass for me because it seemed that each time I fought him it took a different number of frames to get to the top. It's good to see that you found a better way to get up.
The bird boss was awesome by the way. And if you found a way to save 8 frames in the score tally screens, well then this run is well deserved.
Yes vote; great job again.