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To note a few things. This won't suddenly enable every modern game to be played in PCem, because of processor instruction sets (like SSE) that Pentium 2 doesn't support, and other limitations.
There has been a TAS created with the 2GHz CPU:
Link to video
I don't know how difficult the process was and what FPS they got while making it (450 MHz is already quite slow to work with).
I wasn't aware of anyone experiencing desyncs on existing PCem movies from poor performance. If that's the case then it's probably worth making a couple of test movies to check sync with others.
Also I assume this discussion will also apply to DOSBox in BizHawk, which may be more popular and I could see people requesting this in the future.
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2012 TAS with (I think) the same ruleset, for possible comparison.
Link to video
In the IWBTG thread there's mention of a way to glitch the credits to get the final input sooner. Is that done in the submission?
CoolKirby wrote:
I don't know why our site parser detected 51 FPS as Hourglass does show 50.
The 4 bytes at 0x014 in the movie file = 51. Haven't checked inside Hourglass.
Edit: Site parser has been fixed now
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scrimpeh wrote:
In general, for TAS-adjacent content, it's easier to start with what's already there. I would therefore consider linking to existing videos from speedrunning-focused content creators about TASing on the site (with permission). Any kind of "speedrun explained" or "record history" videos are good for this (although I don't know any great videos highlighting the history of specific TASes off-hand).
Bismuth has a great "what is a TAS" video as well as some videos on specific TASes/history.
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0.2 was released Apr 2011 (couple months before this submission). Submission comments say May 2010 though, so it's either 0.2 or a bug-fix release of 0.1.
Would've been hosted on Zophar but obsolete versions get deleted there.
On the forum I linked it looks like the author is adding attachment downloads to posts but I don't know what they are exactly (might need to make an account).
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GJTASer2018 wrote:
You might recognize this game as essentially a fancy 3-D JezzBall clone. (The original release of JezzBall unfortunately doesn't run under DOS so can't be TASed through the usual method of libTAS + PCem - did anyone ever try it through Hourglass "back in the day", perchance?)
?
This very submission is showcasing Windows NT with PCem
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Link to video
AIRXONIX.ISO - this is the Kellogg's Frosties release, equivalent to this dump.
md5 checksums after verification movie:
Hard drive image: 4f52a8ca4a9f19bfc9f9c36a694042a8
nvr: 52a74ff0b68996140e7bb5f09ce9e6a8
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Link to video
Not sure if the Google Drive upload was changed but it does seem to be a verification movie. Reuploaded here.
Verification movie produces SHA1 C99DF8487D92C4FF03FD17CF4ACAD774D2B77372 which is different to the submission's SaveRAM.
Verification movie is also on a different ROM. Submission uses a bad ROM.
However, it seems to sync with the correct SaveRAM and good ROM.
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You submitted this in FCEUX's binary format, rather than the normal text format. The parser only supports the text version at the moment.
How did you end up with this file? Did you rename a .fm3?
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The FPS limiter on the XP version is controlled an 8ms Sleep call:
https://github.com/k4zmu2a/SpaceCadetPinball/blob/Release_1.0/SpaceCadetPinball/winmain.cpp#L274
Checked with Ghidra that the same code is in the XP executable.
I think a TAS of the 3D Pinball version of the decomp should use v2.0.1 or earlier, since v2.1 changed the collision system to Full Tilt version. There's a typo in 2.0.1 with "Commendation" though.
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Experimenting with the "hidden test" debug mode. Pressing Y afterwards displays the FPS in the title bar.
Windows 95 version runs at about 15,000 FPS.
Windows NT version about 7,500 FPS.
Windows XP version, 120 FPS. This was when Raymond Chen put the limiter in, clearly.
The decomp version has options for both "updates per second" and "frames per second" and the choice to uncap updates per second. For me it maxes out around 350 FPS/UPS on lowest resolution though. In practice there's not much to do with this info, but it's helpful to note the different versions can behave quite differently.
Hidden test also works in Full Tilt, but you need to use Tab instead of Space.
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Link to video
Needs redoing and fixing audio but this is a decent improvement.
I don't actually know if multiball is faster. Also, there's a glitch on 3DPB version that progresses the launch mission multiple times at once.
Link to video
I partially replicated this in PCem but I don't know why it happens, and I'm unsure if it's possible in the decomp version, or why it doesn't work in the original Full Tilt version.
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Re bootleg: More of a personal thing. I've read it in the movie rules before and felt like it doesn't really clarify anything. Unlike every other type in the unofficial games list (e.g. homebrew, ROM hack), it doesn't have a dedicated Wikipedia article. But I looked more into it and can't see any obvious term that would be more widely understood. The BootlegGames Wiki explains the nuances quite well.
Re the rules: As I understand, we give preference to official games and official versions. This isn't explicitly stated in the current movie rules from what I saw, but seems to be implied just by the fact they have their own mention and condition:
We allow unofficial games, such as bootlegs, prototypes and ROM hacks. However, these games are judged a bit stricter than their official counterparts
In the legacy rules this was more explicit (the sentence is about bootlegs but the clause isn't necessarily).
Legacy Rules wrote:
Bootlegs are not accepted if they are direct clones of licensed games on the same platform: we prefer official versions.
Whether or not the game was authorized by the copyright holder shouldn't have any bearing: they're all under the umbrella of "unofficial game". I don't why see bootlegs are any different to other unofficial games.
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Bigbass wrote:
Since the game does have some small changes, it's arguable that Nintendo's license no longer applies, but Nintendo hasn't licensed the numerous homebrew games that we've accepted TASes for. Plus, to my knowledge there are no site rules against accepting games that were not licensed by the manufacturer of the console/system. So that aspect shouldn't matter.
Of course we accept homebrews and unlicensed games in general, that was never in question. And based on all the evidence, it would seem wrong to call this a bootleg (I hate that term anyway).
As I said before I would prefer this rule apply to any unofficial or unlicensed game if anything.
Not the movie rules wrote:
Unlicensed games must not be direct clones of a licensed game on the same console. Unlicensed ports with unique gameplay, such as demakes, are allowed.
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I meant to link to the unofficial games section. I'm asking if this game falls into any of those types.
This is still an unlicensed game as far as the console manufacturer is concerned. And it's exactly the same as a licensed game save for the title.
