There are some games with bonuses for merely having a save of another game on the memory card.
Would it be permitted (this is purely hypothetical) for a run to start with a (virtual) clean card, play game B (which is NOT the game being ran) until a save point, save, turn off and reset with the same (virtual) card inserted and start game A (which is the objective of the run) and start a new game with the bonuses? The time spent on game B would be included in the run time. Granted, all the games I know of that include such bonuses have them be stupidly minor, but worth an asking.
Again, purely hypothetical.
2 subquestions as well
1:There are some DS games that give bonuses merely for having the GBA game in the slot, even if the GBA game is completely clean. Is using these allowed?
2:Some games allow much greater depth to importing, being meant to play back to back to some degree, would a "two game" run (running both games back to back) be allowed? This one actually does have an example game (Golden Sun 1+2 all Djinn run) I can say (though again, hypothetical question, not making any runs)
I'd say that using bonus content for prior saves wouldn't really be a "pure" run of the game any more, but that's just my opinion, and I don't hold it that strongly. I could definitely see room for a dual-game TAS, though. The example that leaps to mind is Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons, where a continuing game gets a slightly different plot and a new endgame section.
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I think if you can TAS it and it's interesting, go for it! Whether it would be accepted on TASVideos is a matter that should be thought of only after the TAS is complete. None of my TASes are acceptable on TASVideos because of their format, but that didn't stop me from making them and perfecting them because they were of interest to me. :)
I would personally be very interested in a TAS that was faster due to achieving bonuses from playing another game up to a save point. That's a really cool idea.
Playing a game only a part of the way through in order to improve a later game seems both tedious and potentially unenjoyable.
I'd be more in favor of options that don't require SRAM for the second game (such as most DS games that give bonuses from the GBA games), or don't precisely care about the details of the save data (though this one is somewhat shakier).
Though one would wonder, that if influencing a game by having a GBA game in the slot is okay, then it would also somewhat encourage those few GBC games that get bonuses by being played on GBA, such as the Zelda Oracle games.
First a movie gets submitted, and ends up accepted despite breaking rules other runs have been rejected for. And when I vote less than spectacularly on this movie, I become the victim of harassment and threats.
Yay, favoritism.
Checking for ownership of old games should be ok. After all, we are in spirit emulating on how a god would play the games. And a god would most likely own a copy of all games ever made.
Of course, there should be a point to doing it. Don't do it if it doesn't help the run.
I'd say that using bonus content for prior saves wouldn't really be a "pure" run of the game any more, but that's just my opinion, and I don't hold it that strongly. I could definitely see room for a dual-game TAS, though. The example that leaps to mind is Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons, where a continuing game gets a slightly different plot and a new endgame section.
As I've said before, the only reason to have SRAM, Codes, etc, is to add content, like Derakon's example. Simply making the game easier is not the point of the site.
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I thought it was the point to be quicker?
Like I said in the first post, the run would start clean, with getting the save data as part of the run itself.
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deuxhero wrote:
I thought it was the point to be quicker?
Like I said in the first post, the run would start clean, with getting the save data as part of the run itself.
Ultimately, it's to see a game played as if God himself were playing. So usually that means that the game should be the hardest possible to provide the most entertainment.
As another hypothetical for you: If one of these old save bonuses you're talking about gave you an extreme advantage (i.e. a Kill everything gun in an FPS, or a kickass magic spell in an RPG), would you really want to do a run with that extra benefit added on?
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mmbossman wrote:
deuxhero wrote:
I thought it was the point to be quicker?
Like I said in the first post, the run would start clean, with getting the save data as part of the run itself.
Ultimately, it's to see a game played as if God himself were playing. So usually that means that the game should be the hardest possible to provide the most entertainment.
As another hypothetical for you: If one of these old save bonuses you're talking about gave you an extreme advantage (i.e. a Kill everything gun in an FPS, or a kickass magic spell in an RPG), would you really want to do a run with that extra benefit added on?
How about making the publication be for two games in one. One game being the base game that creates the .srm file required for the successor game to use. I think such a subject could be very interesting.
The suggestion was to play game A only enough to generate a savegame that unlocks stuff in game B, then to switch to playing game B. The theory being that the unlockables would save more time than is cost by generating the savegame. I have trouble believing there is such a scenario. It'd have to be for a rather lengthy game (e.g. in the adventure/RPG genre) to warrant such shenanigans. Or the unlockable would have to allow for a significant skip.
I have trouble believing that the above approach would, in general, be more entertaining than just playing game B straight. In the specific case of the first movie published with such an approach, I could see getting some entertainment out of the sheer novelty value...but it still feels weird.
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There are a few games, such as the PS2 .hack series, where you can actually load a previous game's save file and use the same characters/stats/etc in the new game. In that way part 2 becomes like a "second quest" of part 1, except that you can play it without actually finishing (or even starting) part 1.
There is a precedent for allow this in, [303] NES Metal Storm by TheAxeMan in 12:54.23. May not be entirely comparable, because it's a single game, and it's not using previous save data, it's using a password.
Personally, I am of the opinion that the only case where previous save data should be used is a case like the aforementioned .hack series, where the games don't quite stand on their own, but each one connects to the next.
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Lex wrote:
I think if you can TAS it and it's interesting, go for it!
I must agree with Lex here!
Whether it would be accepted on TASVideos is a matter that should be thought of only after the TAS is complete. None of my TASes are acceptable on TASVideos because of their format, but that didn't stop me from making them and perfecting them because they were of interest to me. :)
I tend to agree here too. But with the caveat that it is possible that with some pre-planning that one could come up with a reasonable compromise that could make it publishable. (This is getting rather hypothetical though). You can't really lose if your goal is making what interests you rather than what will or won't be published. I would of course prefer to see anything submittable (notice the word submittable, not publishable used there) be submitted here :)
I would personally be very interested in a TAS that was faster due to achieving bonuses from playing another game up to a save point. That's a really cool idea.
Me too. And I think this would be a novel concept that would be quite welcome here.
