I think runs that abuse a particular design of an emulator rather than the console should be disallowed.
If I understand the submission description correctly, this run isn't abusing an emulator quirk. It's just that the method used to achieve arbitrary execution requires part of the save data to be in a certain state, in both the published run that does arbitrary execution and this submitted run. It just happens that the published run works correctly when the SRAM is clean.
This submission reminds me of NG+ runs, like Chrono Trigger. For those to be accepted, a separate input file needed to be available to create the NG+ file. That way, judges could verify that the save SRAM can be generated by the game. I wonder if that could also be applied here.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
There is a bit of a precedent when it comes to using faster CPU speeds on a game that is heavily influenced by CPU speed. I didn't immediately find any other examples though, and there's no mention of it in the rules. So a judge probably should weigh in.
I'm not sure where I remember hearing this, but if I remember correctly, fastest mode in AGI games lets many things run as fast as the CPU is able to run it. A quick Google search seems to corroborate this, but I didn't immediately find a definitive source.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
The issue being fixed here involves an unpredictable process where the GC/Wii GPU is configured to instantly render something differently than it has before so your general purpose GPU needs to compile code to produce the same effect. If too many of these new configurations are needed at the same time, it causes real-time emulation to lag. The ubershader solution is to make a giant GPU program that is capable of all of the different configurations without needing compilation for each configuration, so it requires more rendering resources while being consistent and preventing this process from causing spikes in rendering time.
Of course, this wouldn't make much of a difference when performing a frame-by-frame TAS or rendering a video of it. It would have an effect if you were just playing the game or playing back a TAS at full speed.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
From the standpoint of game-to-game, it would be easy to check the stats of the character at the end of the game and put a character file in the image that matches those once the route and stats have been established. I'm not THAT picky on my bounty.
From a TASvideos.org standpoint, though, that would probably be dirty and unacceptable. :/
There is a precedent where runs that require a start from SRAM are acceptable as long as a verification movie is provided. If something similar was done where the clear character file from one run was provided as the character import for the next run, that should work because the previous run is the verification movie.
One question would be: how would timing work? Would beating the game be the moment that time stops or would the moment that the clear character file is created be the stopping point?
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
None of the textures look better to me. It's adding a bunch of lines where there were no lines before. And it doesn't work at all on Peach's eyes; it just looks like her eyes were processed with nearest neighbor instead of bilinear, even though it isn't, so they look pixellated instead of blurry.
I also just noticed that there's a bit more aliasing in the filtered video too, but that's not a big issue.
(yeah, I was a bit in defense before, but I never looked at the clouds before, just a ground texture)
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I believe they're referring to the filter on the textures. It's more obvious if you do a side-by-side comparison, but if it's not clear that something's different without that comparison...
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Wait I thought that the wing cap needed like 10 stars or something. Unless they somehow got that in 4 minutes?
That video demonstrates that the moat skip is possible, so finding a faster way into VCUtM probably wasn't a priority yet. It's clear in the video that the wing cap is not a fast way in, since they indeed needed to collect 10 stars (the video skips the collection of those stars, but the HUD shows 10 stars).
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I can see them just fine, but maybe it was fixed already.
For future reference, you can find links to the encodes on archive.org, YouTube, etc. in the pile of links under the name of the game. They'll take you to a separate page rather than embedding a video player.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
In Mario Party 5, when I tried to reach the story mode ending in 2010 or something, the game would softlock/crash. I was wondering if that's fixed by now..
The wiki page suggests no breaking issues, so it's probably worth a shot. Granted, it makes no mention of that issue, but 2010 was a long time ago...
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I dunno if you're being serious or not, but that rule refers to actual passwords that actually skip to actual game end. Here the password doesn't skip, it's used as RAM that contains arbitrary code, and then the game is glitched to make execution jump to there. And the code written there is skipping to the game end.
There's text hidden between the --> and ;)
So that wasn't being serious.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
The gameplay doesn't look all that different to me. There's more enemies and an extra boss in the prologue and you get a full party to go through Lizard Rock, but otherwise things are basically the same. Well, and you're more powerful, but I'm sure that's for demonstration.
There are other minor differences, like the inconsistent performance, Kid's different profile image, what appear to be unfinished battle animations, and a different cutscene for going back in time for the first time, but otherwise it seems similar enough to the actual game to not be drastically different.
Interesting that they put two major spoilers in the "trailer" of various scenes though. I guess they might have changed the gravestone text (can't tell for sure), but there's still the thing that Chrono Trigger fans would easily recognize.
speaking of easily recognizable stuff, how did I not notice that CC's main theme had part of CT's main theme in it
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
When trying to open an HTTPS page on tasvideos, my Firefox (Dev Edition, so roughly v43) is giving a sec_error_cert_signature_algorithm_disabled error on the certificate.
Checking the certificate itself, it uses 'sha512WithRSAEncryption' so there's a possibility it's a Firefox issue, but I'll err on the caution side.
(Oh, and the certificate is valid until 'Oct 12 22:09:51 2015 GMT'. That's tomorrow.)
I tested this in Chrome and it appears that the issue is that it wasn't signed by a trusted authority.
Then again, it doesn't look like tasvideos really has any HTTPS functionality; attempting to access the forums results in a 404 and the home page results in a plaintext "Hi".
By the way, nudging you guys again about Gmail saying that e-mails sent from this forum are not following proper standards for bulk e-mails. You really should fix that, as notifications keep ending up in spam where they don't belong.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
As of yesterday, forum notifications have been going to spam in Gmail. The reason given is that the e-mail does not follow Gmail's guidelines for bulk senders. It doesn't look like the e-mails themselves changed, so I'm guessing Google's standards changed, unless they accidentally got too touchy.
Learn More leads to this: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126?hl=en#authentication
EDIT: this has continued to happen since I posted this, so it's an actual issue.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Now that this game has been re-released as EarthBound Beginnings, should we change the game title on the site?
Suggested revision to the publication description:
"EarthBound Beginnings is the first game in the Mother/EarthBound series. It was originally localized for a 1990 release, but was not officially released outside of Japan until 2015. The English translation's original title was EarthBound, but this name was instead later used for the English version of Mother 2. In retrospect, the first game was subsequently referred to as EarthBound Zero by fans, before being re-titled EarthBound Beginnings for its Wii U eShop release."
(Wording is only a suggestion.)
Edit: Hellooooooo? Anyone read this?
I just learned of this today. I'm more curious on how different is the original NES prototype compared to the GBA "Mother 1 + 2" release.
I recall that "Earthbound" had new glitches compared to the original, so I'm curious how this might also occur for Earthbound beginnings.
Speaking of which, are the glitches the Earthbound TAS(es) use fixed in the GBA version? If so, it might make more sense to TAS the GBA version for Mother 2 as well, since people have been wanting a relatively glitchless TAS for a while.
Some differences are documented here: http://starmen.net/mother12/diff/
I recall Mato also mentioning once that the zombie tent glitch didn't work in the GBA version. I think I also heard something about GBA Mother 2 having a completely different engine, which is one of the reasons that nobody really touches it for hacking until recently. I'm not entirely sure about that, but I do know for sure that the text scripting for the game uses completely different command codes, thanks to the project going on right now for porting Earthbound's text to GBA Mother 2's format in preparation for a VWF translation patch.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
There is something I noticed a while ago, just remembered it now:
Youtube normally doesn't require Flash and some browsers have it pre-installed anyway (Chrome). But for some reason, embedded Youtube videos in submission texts tell you that you miss a plugin if you browse that site on a browser like Firefox without having Flash installed. Embedded videos in posts don't have this problem, only submission texts, which seems really strange. Did anyone else notice this or is it just specific to a PC I'm using?
Wiki pages are using the Flash player instead of the HTML5 player (which extends to submissions, I assume). Right clicking the embedded YouTube player reveals this.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
Anyway, how do you beat the final Lavos without Magus?
For survival, apparently you have to use a fast Robo (after consuming some speed tabs) combined with him wearing Greendream (one time revive after death) and the triple tech Lifeline (Crono, Marle, and Robo) which is basically Greendream cast on the party.
So the whole party dies due to Lavos' first attack, Robo revives due to Greendream, he revives everyone with revival items, and the party casts Lifeline to survive the next attack. Then you just have to keep casting Lifeline when needed, with Megalixirs to resupply MP. And attack when possible, I guess.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
As a rule for sake of maximizing the difficulty of this challenge and
for certain sentiment. Magus should be excluded from any fighting
party and Chrono included wherever possible."
That is such an arbitrary rule.
Not entirely. Magus is OP (he starts at level 37) and Crono always being dead at the end of the battle means less XP earned. Excluding Magus reduces the average level of all the characters. Also, XP is not split up per character (get 1000 xp = 1000 xp per alive character), so more dead characters = less XP earned overall. Placing Crono outside of the party would also easily level him up once (you gain 75% of earned experience out of battle, but with a cap of one level up).
Additionally, if you wanted to make Crono useful during endgame, you would have to pump a lot of XP into him and raise the average level. Other characters start at higher levels, so it makes more sense to pump them up just enough to finish the game.
Starting levels:
Crono: 1
Marle: 1
Lucca: 2
Frog : 5
Robo : 10
Ayla : 18
Magus: 37
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
The publication text contradicts itself; the first line says the improvement was 48 seconds and later it says the improvement was five minutes.
The first line is wrong and is otherwise redundant to the line that states the correct improvement time, so it would probably be best to remove the first line.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
From what I can see, you need to be able to eat to be able to duplicate.
You don't need to eat the item you want to duplicate, you just need to be able to eat a different item. The item you want to duplicate is just thrown away (and picked back up), but doesn't actually get removed from your inventory.
Plus, you need an item that would exceed your inventory space.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
From what I understand, Esc is the button you press to bring up the menu to return to the main menu. The reason for returning to the main menu is explained in this submission text about text storage, which looks like a pretty in-depth explanation as-is.
Esc isn't used in the submission text, but I suppose whoever wrote the movie description assumed Esc was obviously the way to get to the main menu. Calling the movie "No main menu" wouldn't be proper since you do use the main menu to start the game regardless, so "No Esc" was used instead. Maybe "No returning to main menu" would be better? Or maybe just say "The Esc button is used to return to the main menu." or something like that in the description.
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.
I took a quick look at the issue with the messed up movie pages in Chrome because the lack of a fix was really bugging me, and I think I might have found the issue.
For some reason, the td and th elements for the movie title, the bunch o' links section, and the category section all have:
style="height:1%"
in the tag. If you remove that height style (I did so with Chrome's element inspector), any messed up movies get fixed.
I'm guessing that for some reason, this 1% height overrides the CSS and/or automatic height calculation sometimes, but not always. It isn't really clear why that happens, but I guess something in Chrome changed at some version and that local style sometimes broke it.
So perhaps if you remove the 1% height thing, this will be fixed. I don't really have the time to test whether or not this breaks something in another browser though... I have a feeling it might be there for a reason (old version of IE, maybe?).
<ccfreak2k> There is no 'ctrl' button on DeHackEd's computer. DeHackEd is always in control.