Silver Surfer is a shoot 'em up released in 1990. In this game you control the Silver Surfer through various levels that alternate between a side-scrolling and an overhead perspective. This game is famous for his legendary difficulty.
Emulator used: Fceux 2.40.10
Genre: Shoot 'em up
Aims to beat the game as fast as possible, killing as few enemies as possible (Pacifist mode)
Manipulates luck (enemy movement)
Comments
This is our first TAS. We chose this game because of its difficulty. Unlike what it seems, this game isn't easy to TAS because of bad hitboxes. We think that beating this game without killing any enemies unless absolutely necessary to complete the game is very entertaining.
We hope that you will enjoy our run.
Special thanks
Realmyop & Coeurdevandale for having shown us tasvideos.org
Martinitram for having encourage us
Please excuse us if there are any mistakes but we aren't english.
DarkKobold: So, I have to say, I think that the goal choice was good, given the game - and the movie was probably the most entertaining that this game will ever get. Which, granted, is not very entertaining. It is slow, autoscrolling stages, without a lot of extra room for playing around, beyond vibrating. It is clear the authors put a deal of work into this movie, but the end result can't make up for a really crappy, slow, painful, auto-scroller of a game.
Rejecting for bad game choice, but good work. I hope to see more quality submissions from you two.
adelikat
Unrejecting this submission for consideration into the Vault tier
Noxxa: Accepting for the vault tier. The pacifist goal does not appear to slow down the speed any, so this run can qualify for fastest time. For that goal, it surpasses all known records by a significant amount of time (over 20 seconds realtime compared to the fastest unassisted run) - so it qualifies for vault tier.
To tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure about this run. While I would like to see a run of this game, a pacifist goal doesn't seem like the most optimal goal choice for me because you're essentially robbing yourself of opportunity for entertainment here, and in a game where you can barely affect the speed, that is important. Also, it's inconsistent due to some regular enemies you have to shoot to get past. Also, the constant wobbling was annyoing.
The movie didn't seem quite optimal to me as well, but maybe I'm mistaken, it's been a while since I last touched this game, so ultimately, I think I'll go with meh.
Best of luck with future projects though
This game is (in)famous about it's difficulty level. However it's become easier if you learn the various enemies' moving patterns and plan a lil bit before take action, not to mention gaining the power ups in early game leads to victory.
Since this is an auto-scroll game, your only choice is raising the entertainment. I suggest you to choose the hardest difficulty by finishing the game 2 times in a row, or press Up on both controller at title screen and enter the S4FHFB password. And go for maximum kills. It requires much more dodging. I think I would vote it with a yes, but not this. I stay at meh to show that the game isn't the worst choice.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
It's infamous for its difficulty? I used to beat this game almost daily with my brother back when I was 10. I don't remember it being difficult at all v_v. I think games like Werewolf are infamous for their difficulties and wrath of the black mantra. I owned all 3 and this was definitely not in the league of Mantra and Werewolf =P.
As far as the TAS, didn't really like it, I'm in agreement with a previous poster. A pacifist run just isn't for this game, it just makes it pretty boring and I just ended up turboing through the movie. It doesn't help that the game just isn't very entertaining period being an auto scroller. Not impressed.
Pressing turbo start at the beginning is a bad habit, as you probably lose 1 frame half the time. I also think that maybe some shot opportunities are missed on bosses, but I do not know the game well enough to say for sure.
Just over 5k rerecords were used for 107k frames of gameplay. The average rerecord count of movies published on this site is around 20 per 1 second of gameplay. You rerecorded 3 times per one second of gameplay. This tells you that most TASers are recording 7 times more often than you. The rerecord count itself is not important, but it suggests that you may not be recording enough to produce a high quality, precise run.
I think pacifist is a bad goal because some normal enemies are required to be killed fairly often. I think it also takes away from the entertainment potential.
Alternating directions all the time is entertaining for a bit, but it gets old after a while. You have to be creative in a run like this. The run also doesn't do a great job with near death encounters. You need to be a pixel away from death instead of just arbitrarily weaving between bullets.
I think it is possible for this game to be published, but I think the entertainment value has to be better. Moving with the music, moving as close as possible to enemies, and killing a lot of enemies could all make this movie more entertaining. I think many expert TASers would have a hard time keeping this movie entertaining for 30 minutes, but I do think it is possible. Watch the NES Gradius run for some suggestions of what this movie should try to be like.
Like MESHUGGAH said, it should also be played on hardest difficulty. The rules say that runs should most often be played at the hardest difficulty. This is a case where a password is allowed to make the game harder and more entertaining.
MESHUGGAH wrote:
press Up on both controller at title screen and enter the S4FHFB password.
You guys had the right idea, but I don't think it is within the capabilities of most new TASers to present a run so highly dependent on entertainment value. I'd encourage you to work on a different game and in the future post your progress in the game's existing topic for feedback. I'm sorry, but I have to vote no.
(If someone could translate this it may be helpful to the authors.)
Joined: 1/27/2011
Posts: 78
Location: Minnesota, USA
Sorry, gone for a few days. Uploading now.
Edit: Well, I have an SD going, but feel free to upload it if you like. For some reason people don't like this run.
Pressing turbo start at the beginning is a bad habit, as you probably lose 1 frame half the time. I also think that maybe some shot opportunities are missed on bosses, but I do not know the game well enough to say for sure.
Just over 5k rerecords were used for 107k frames of gameplay. The average rerecord count of movies published on this site is around 20 per 1 second of gameplay. You rerecorded 3 times per one second of gameplay. This tells you that most TASers are recording 7 times more often than you. The rerecord count itself is not important, but it suggests that you may not be recording enough to produce a high quality, precise run.
I think pacifist is a bad goal because some normal enemies are required to be killed fairly often. I think it also takes away from the entertainment potential.
Alternating directions all the time is entertaining for a bit, but it gets old after a while. You have to be creative in a run like this. The run also doesn't do a great job with near death encounters. You need to be a pixel away from death instead of just arbitrarily weaving between bullets.
I think it is possible for this game to be published, but I think the entertainment value has to be better. Moving with the music, moving as close as possible to enemies, and killing a lot of enemies could all make this movie more entertaining. I think many expert TASers would have a hard time keeping this movie entertaining for 30 minutes, but I do think it is possible. Watch the NES Gradius run for some suggestions of what this movie should try to be like.
Like MESHUGGAH said, it should also be played on hardest difficulty. The rules say that runs should most often be played at the hardest difficulty. This is a case where a password is allowed to make the game harder and more entertaining.
MESHUGGAH wrote:
press Up on both controller at title screen and enter the S4FHFB password.
You guys had the right idea, but I don't think it is within the capabilities of most new TASers to present a run so highly dependent on entertainment value. I'd encourage you to work on a different game and in the future post your progress in the game's existing topic for feedback. I'm sorry, but I have to vote no.
(If someone could translate this it may be helpful to the authors.)
Appuyer sur start en turbo au début est une mauvaise habitude, car vous allez probablement perdre 1 frame la moitié du temps. Je pense également que certaines opportunités pour tirer sur les boss ont été manquées, mais je ne connais pas le jeu assez bien pour en être sûr.
Il y a juste un peu plus de 5000 rerecords pour 107k frames de jeu. La moyenne de rerecords pour les films publiés sur le site sont de 20 par seconde de gameplay. Vous avez enregistrés en moyenne 3 fois par seconde de gameplay, ce qui signifie que la plupart des TASers ont enregistrés 7 fois plus souvent que vous. Le comptage des rerecords en tant que tel n'est pas si important, mais il suggère que vous n'avez probablement pas fait assez d'essais pour produire la plus grande qualité dans la précision du run.
Un run pacifiste est à mon sens un mauvais but car plusieurs ennemis doivent être tués assez souvent. Ca retire de l'intérêt à l'amusement potentiel.
Changer de direction tout le temps est amusant pendant un moment, mais ça passe vite. Il faut être plus créatif pour un run comme celui-ci. Ce run ne met pas assez non plus en avant le fait de jouer avec la mort. Il faut être à un pixel de la mort plutôt que juste slalomer entre les tirs.
Il est possible pour ce jeu d'être publié, mais l'amusement proposé doit être meilleur. Se déplacer avec la musique, se coller le plus près possible des ennemis et tuer un tas d'ennemis pourraient rendre ce run plus amusant. Je pense que de nombreux TASers experts auront du mal à garder ce run amusant pendant 30 minutes, néanmoins je crois que cela est possible. Regardez le run de Gradius sur Nes pour d'eventuelles suggestions sur ce que vous pouvez faire.
Comme l'a dit MESHUGGAH, le jeu doit être joué à la plus haute difficulté. Les règles spécifient que les runs doivent être joué à la plus haute difficulté. Il y a des cas où un mot de passe rend le jeu plus dur et donc plus amusant.
Appuyer sur haut sur les deux manettes à l'écran-titre, et rentrer le mot de passe S4FHFB.
Vous tenez le bon bout, mais je ne crois pas que ce soit à la portée de nouveaux TASers de présenter un run dépendant tellement de l'amusement. Je vous encourage à travailler sur un autre jeu, et à l'avenir à poster votre progession sur les topics des jeux associés afin d'obtenir un feedback. Je suis désolé mais je vais voter non.
I'm going to claim a specific title for translating so much french->english->french these past weeks.
We thought about doing a "maximum kills" run but the the problem is that there are a lot of enemies you can't kill, so the objectif woudn't be very clear. Moreover, the boss fights are going to be so long because of killing all the enemies (if possible) at the back.
That's why we did a "pacifist version" (the last possibility for this game, or maybe is it a bad game choice in spite of it's celebrity?)
Otherwise, we understand that this run could be a bit boring, but we encourage all of you to play a bit this game and then to re-watch the run. You'll see how hard it's to play like that.
Of course the tas could be more entertaining if a expert TAS-er make it. This is our first TAS, that's why it isn't perfect.
Anyway, thanks to everybody for your advices and encouragments for future projects (and to FerretFaucet for yes-vote!), we appreciate that. We'll maybe try to re-TAS it or rather to do an other game.
And again, excuse us for any mistakes. ;)
PS: you don't need to translate your posts, we understand enough english
Link to video
I'm pretty sure this is not the best place to share this video, but you guys might get a kick out of it regardless. I beat Silver Surfer on the actual NES without a turbo controller, and without dying in 29:54, back in 2008.
Since it is an autoscrolling game, the SDA did not accept it as a speed run, so the video pretty much has no purpose anymore, other than demonstrating that the game can be beaten without dying.
Getting within 10 seconds of a TAS is not too shabby though, hehe.
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1) This states it is a pacifist goal, but am I correct in assuming that the pacifist goal does not interfere with aiming for fastest completion time?
2) Auto-scroller games provide little opportunity for optimizing for speed. Should they be accepted to the vault? SDA does not accept speedruns for autoscrollers. Should I amend the vault description to say that a game must provide opportunities to optimize for time? (plus better wording)
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adelikat wrote:
1) This states it is a pacifist goal, but am I correct in assuming that the pacifist goal does not interfere with aiming for fastest completion time?
2) Auto-scroller games provide little opportunity for optimizing for speed. Should they be accepted to the vault? SDA does not accept speedruns for autoscrollers. Should I amend the vault description to say that a game must provide opportunities to optimize for time? (plus better wording)
1) From the looks of it, pacifist goal does not intefere with fastest completion time.
2) I think autoscrollers should be accepted - at least, for the vault. We're not SDA.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Stupid question: If the whole game is an autoscroller, how is this run 20 seconds faster than any other attempt? Boss times don't seem to count for that much.
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
natt wrote:
Stupid question: If the whole game is an autoscroller, how is this run 20 seconds faster than any other attempt? Boss times don't seem to count for that much.
The bosses do make quite a difference. At least the final boss alone loses several seconds in the fastest real-time run (see earlier in this thread). That boss and the other bosses might possibly count up to 20 seconds difference.
There might also be lag differences - I recall there barely being any lag in the TAS. Maybe the real-time run shooting up everything causes lag frames here and there. Not sure about that though.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa
<dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects.
<Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits
<adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
Not to mention that in games with at least a modicum of complexity, there's always a chance that some unexpected glitch will save even more time. Or maybe that's just the optimist in me talking.
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The viewers could at last enjoy one of the best OSTs for NES.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
