Hocus Pocus, made by Apogee, is a great platformer which I used to play a lot. It's a bit repetitive, however, but has some variety and good music. The game is also available in a shareware version (http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html), which includes all of episode 1 (2-4 are registered version only).
I'm TASing the Registered version (v1.1) using JPC-RR (11.2), so chances are I'll also do episodes 2-4.
Playing on fast speed settings, hardest difficulty.
First WIP:
Link to video
Some notes:
- I've rerecorded the whole thing a number of times and tested various possibilities and different jumpings patterns but I either got same results or slower.
- Corner clipping to first crystal is slower.
- Based on your jumping patterns (maybe other things?) it seems the key doors were also manipulated to open up without slowing you down (for example, a brick is stuck in your face for a second). At some point it was not possible to manipulate any further and I had to re-record everything to get better door opening patterns.
- Corner clipping & stair/floor clipping info: http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/DOS/HocusPocus.html
Thanks scrimpeh :)
It might take a while until I get 1-3 up. I wanted the next WIP to be both 1-2 and 1-3, but I guess this might not happen. Oh well.
Notes:
- There's both bad and good luck here, some of it was manipulatable and some I just couldn't (luck = enemies being in my way or not appearing until certain points).
- I'm really happy with the last few seconds of the level, that took way longer than it looks as I can only afford getting hit once and not have the invincibility run out.
Link to video
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
Nice! I was probably going to tackle this myself if JPC wouldn't be so dang slow for me.
Anyway, it looks like you can improve level 1 a tiny bit around 38s by waiting until the top step before jumping so Hocus doesn't have to wait to reach the top of his arc in order to reach the next set of stairs.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Anyway, it looks like you can improve level 1 a tiny bit around 38s by waiting until the top step before jumping so Hocus doesn't have to wait to reach the top of his arc in order to reach the next set of stairs.
I was thinking that too while doing level 1, but ends up that no matter when you jump, be it before or after where I jumped, you still get to the top of the 2nd set of stairs at the same time. As such, no time was lost whatsoever, despite it looking so.
Apologies for no progress, I actually had done 1-3 last week but wanted to post it with 1-4, which took a while because I had exams. Since my year is now over, I got plenty of time to TAS :) 1-4 was done today, pretty simple compared to 1-3.
Notes:
- Quite a lot of points to manipulate on 1-3, especially the disappearing blocks (so those jumps/shootings are actually for a reason), the one with a switch towards the 5th/6th crystals was impossible to manipulate any better :(
- 1-3 has lots of damage abuse towards the end, I've actually redone it for better health management.
- 1-4 start might seem weird, but it's half a second faster than getting the bottom crystal first. Also, I looked up to manipulate the bear on the start because normally it's in your face and you take damage.
- More manipulations (those flying lizards were annoying, the bears towards the end were simple enough) and massive trigger skipping on the way to 7th crystal; took quite a lot of rerecords there.
Link to video
Two-thirds of the episode done! I HATE 1-5 so I'm glad I finished it, and prefer not to see it ever again :P . I thought 1-6 would not be of trouble but boy was I wrong. Nasty hard! 1-7 and 1-8 should NOT give me trouble (could very well be wrong here) but 1-9 should be pretty fun to do.
Notes:
- [B]DIE EVIL PENGUINS!!![/b]
- 1-5: I stopped to kill some enemies because otherwise I get damaged too much (the rest were manipulated). The reasoning behind actually doing so is that taking the warping potion is SLOWER than getting crystal and going back by myself on foot.
- 1-5: Those disappearing blocks were manipulated the best I could, and I even manipulated them NOT to disappear so I get through 3 switches even faster (also a block didn't disappear until I was on the floor above it :D)
- 1-6: massive enemy manipulation as well as getting those disappearing blocks to fully co-operate. The whole health-enemy management is really showing here and the worst scenario was a trade off of 4 frames in favor of 64% health with the lightning demons at the start. Ended level with 2% health.
Link to video
Almost there, one more level to go and it's all about the boss fights. I already thought I finished 1-8 five hours ago when I noticed I could do something in 1-7 faster, so I had to do the ending of 1-7 and then the entire 1-8 again. Good thing too since I found two improvements in 1-8.
Notes:
- 1-7: Pretty simple level, it's just getting enemy manipulations properly and not triggering them (such as the green flying lizards, which were a lot harder than it seems). Fun fact: I got to the end of 1-7 but nothing happened... ends up I had 4/5 crystals as I completely forgot about the first one <_< . Second fun fact: Level faded out when the music ended. The third "loop" of the song is now the score screen.
- 1-8: Another simple level with quite a number of enemy and disappearing blocks manipulation.
Link to video
Episode 1 TAS completed! I'll be submitting soon.
Notes:
- 1-9: I skipped 3 of the bosses and manipulated enemies up until 4th crystal, and can anyone guess what happened with the penultimate boss's health bar?
Link to video
and can anyone guess what happened with the penultimate boss's health bar?
You were still in range of the previous boss, so both health bars were being shown. Even though the one you were attacking was losing health, there was another health bar there, so it wouldn't look like it was decreasing.
FreezerBurns, correct!
Okay guys, after loads of trouble in life (including 2 dead comps), I finally managed to get around to Episode 2! Technically I started it 3 weeks ago when trouble started...
I decided to upload my progress every 2 levels but I may do levels 2-7 to 2-9 together, undecided atm. I'm not sure if I'll finish before new year's (doesn't seem to be) but I'll start going faster and putting in more time when I can.
Notes:
-> Starting the game: I managed to improve the intro screens and menu movement to be 8 frames faster than Episode 1 TAS.
-> 2-1: An interesting level with good enemy manipulations and triggering, but a nightmare to manipulate all the disappearing blocks at the end. Taking the right side first is faster by at least 10 seconds than going left first. 386 rerecords.
-> 2-2: A very simple level, but had to manipulate a few things properly and is really tight on health. Going left at the end is faster than going right. 100 rerecords.
Total rerecord count: 486.
Link to video
Small update as these 2 levels were extremely simple. Next ones are going to be much harder to perform.
Notes:
-> 2-3: Health management is the main issue here. I had to lose time in the silver key room so I don't take damage twice, but profited by not needing to take potions at a later point, which in turn saved in much more time. Luck manipulation was heavy in the switches for the 4th crystal and a bit less in the gold key room (didn't want to take a third hit). These double-headed snails sure were annoying to manipulate; they're hard! Also triggered them to spawn later than normal on the lava jumps but that's minor... 229 rerecords.
-> 2-4: Simple level, there's a lot more to it than seen in the TAS (check out how many treasures I missed!) such as silver key room + door and a warp potion at the start. 86 rerecords.
Total rerecord count: 801.
Link to video
I wanted this done before New Year's but I was taken out to a vacation so I couldn't. Instead, here's an update!
Notes:
-> 2-5: At first I thought the laser shots at the start to the right would be required due to the large amount of enemies in the level, but ends up you actually don't need it. The wonders of TASing. Saves 4 seconds right off the bat (err, no pun intended), and no need to worry on manipulating the bats to the right either. The level did end up pretty annoying, there are a lot of tight spots and on at least 3 occasions I'm a frame away from getting hit. I only take health at the very end of the level so I can get through the ending without losing any time. Loads of manipulations, some more tricky than others to get them right, hence the abnormal rerecord count. 505 rerecords.
-> 2-6: A short level, the laser shots came in handy plus good jumping around enemies as well so I didn't lose more health than needed. The start went much better than anticipated by not getting hit on the very first enemy spawn I encounter, followed by good bat manipulation on the first crystal. Using the Jump powerup saves time, mainly because I skip a single enemy spawn so I don't have to slow down. Bats were manipulated the most. 195 rerecords.
Total rerecord count: 1501.
Link to video
At last, another Episode is done :)
Notes:
-> 2-7: I accidentally found that looking up/down saves time after jumps as the camera needs not re-adjust after landing (assuming keys are no longer pressed). Manipulation went well and also added some fun with the flowers and their collision detection with Hocus. More info @ submission notes. 448 rerecords.
-> 2-8: A crappy level to manipulate and I had to think carefully about my movements and where I take damage, as well as minimise it. The bats at the silver key room probably can go better (1 hit instead of 2), but I was unsuccessful in manipulating them so. Always one darn bat in my way so I gave up. 760 rerecords.
-> 2-9: Unreal. The Tree Demons co-operated without even trying to manipulate them. Who has ever heard of that? They were pretty hard to manipulate better than what I got (apparently they don't like to be manipulated), but I still managed to improve by ~6 frames. 179 rerecords.
Final rerecord count: 3159.
Link to video
I actually started this back in April, but got busy until the end of July where I've done the first two levels. I just finished the third one so hopefully more updates will roll out soon.
Notes:
-> 3-1: Health management and luck manipulation were tough. I found that looking up/down managed to manipulate enemies. All in all, a tight level that was revised three times. The third elevator I take took ~200 rerecords to do and it's 2 frames away from perfect (no blocks in my way).
Please note that I did try to look down to manipulate it further and indeed the lowest blocks disappeared, but the upper 4 blocks wouldn't disappear.
556 rerecords.
-> 3-2: An easy level becoming really tricky. First crystal's enemy spawn was hard to do with the least amount of damage possible and losing no time.
On the way to 4th/5th crystal there are 3 lizards which normally you take damage from, but I killed two of them and despite my infinite shooting ending before the revisit, the last one wasn't in my way >_>
630 rerecords (those flying lizards were dicks).
Link to video
Well done.
That said, this does remind me of why I don't like Apogee: the three games are too similar to each other. At least Keen 4/5/6 each had much more different locations and monsters.
Those aren't three different games, it's one game.
Yeah, that's basically my point. The Keen trilogies feel like three different games, and the Hocus Pocus trilogy does not, and they used to be priced equally. So id feels like a creative designer to me, and Apogee like a sellout.
But anyway, that's not related to the TAS, so I'll shut up now :)
Yeah, that's basically my point. The Keen trilogies feel like three different games, and the Hocus Pocus trilogy does not, and they used to be priced equally.
Actually no, HP was sold 1 as shareware, 2-4 as a single game purchased. Keen was 4 shareware, and 5 and 6 were separate games each with a full ticket price.
An update of the sorts. As you might've noticed I indefinitely suspended this project mainly due to loss of motivation, and lots of things happened in the last couple of years and it's about to get even more hectic.
I've uploaded the video for 3-3 & 3-4 which I've done 2.5 years ago, as well as the in-progress TASes:
HP Episode 3
- Now at the third crystal. Need to manipulate the skeletons, ghosts and bats to get either no damage or one damage. I managed to do one damage only but accidentally overwrote the save file. Lots of enemies to kill here.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/14110894922976285
HP Episode 1 100%
- Level two at the hidden massive treasure location. Finish the current area and continue normally with enemy manipulations. At current damage you can finish the level if you do this smart. Manipulation of disappearing blocks went very well imo and while improvable, it's not something I want to grind and the current loss is very minimal.
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/14110896982220651
If I ever get back to this I'd like to redo episodes 1+2, complete episodes 3+4 and finish episode 1 100%.
Might not happen for at least a year or so at least. If anyone wants to pick it up, go for it.
If you want to continue where I stopped, feel free to. I did an update last year to the resources page of it to include all information I know of.
http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/DOS/HocusPocus.html
Further info (episode 3):
Once you finish level 5, level 6 should be a breeze. Level 7 I had a lot of the times both keys appearing if I went left at the start and got the weapon upgrade. If you can manipulate it you save a lot of time, but there are tons of enemies here though.
Level 8 should be alright and 9 will be interesting as to whether any dragon bosses can be skipped.
World 4 I had little research on. Level 4-1 however you have no potions to heal you so that level is gonna be annoying. If you can manipulate the laser shots to randomly appear as a bonus you can destroy the 4-9 boss on the spot and be done.
If you require my submission info comments or anything else, feel free to shoot me a PM/e-mail.
Link to video
Notes:
-> 3-3: You get introduced to the "smart bombs" which are a new type of enemy. Destroy them (only takes one shot) and all enemies on screen get killed instantly. Must be shot in the front only, no collision box in the inside.
Overall a quick and fun level, I thought I'd finish with lots of health but no dice. As always manipulated the ending to have lots of 'Yahoo!'s.
256 rerecords.
-> 3-4: Lots of health management and luck manipulation. Jumping on the spikes meant no enemies spawns and thus no extra health lost. Flying demons are still a pain in the butt. The two switches between the elevator to 2nd crystal (and elevator itself) was the hardest to manipulate to ensure absolutely no time was lost (3:10-3:12 in the video).
Discovered really late that the demon spawn where the gold key can be manipulated to give you no damage (extremely tough though, only got this once). While this can save a few frames at the start of the level by going through the spikes for more damage boost rather than stopping, you have the ending which is impossible to do without taking damage, so another spot where taking no damage must be found, because otherwise this timesaver is nullified.
Another fun improvement is to stack up the laser shots. A previous run through the level had 4 laser shots for the last set of enemies (though you still take damage regardless).
589 rerecords.
I hope you enjoyed!
