It's Alive! It's Alive!

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: BizHawk 1.2.0
  • Longest Atari run so far
  • Boring as heck
  • Contains a giant spider

Comments

THIS SITE NEEDS MORE ATARI, K?

Stage by stage comments

Now, I'm using the term "stage" loosely since it's basically the same thing with a different amount of enemies and platforms.

Stage 1

  • Spiders: 1
  • Platform: 1
  • Holes: 1
Not much to say here; It's the simplest layout of the game.

Stage 2

  • Spiders: 1
  • Platform: 3
  • Holes: 1
The main platform has split into 3. Otherwise, the same as before.

Stage 3

  • Spiders: 2
  • Platform: 1
  • Holes: 3
The main platforms have merged into 1 again. This time, it moves. While waiting for the platform to float back, I hop around like a demented pogo freak. Don't you just love the annoying noise that plays every time I jump? No? Well, get used to it.

Stage 4

  • Spiders: 3
  • Platform: 3
  • Holes: 3
Now I know you all might be asking is: "Is it possible to jump back onto the platforms?" Well, yes, but I had to wait for the white spiders to GTFO disappear, causing me to miss the platforms and wait. At least I raped your ears during the wait.
Also, did you know that while I could simply go back and place the brick, doing so would cause me to hit the blue guy AND go to the bat stage, which I then freeze for ~200 frames, causing me to miss the platform in the next stage. So I played around with the rope.

Stage 5

  • Spiders: 2
  • Platform: 1
  • Holes: 3
Oh look, the holes became bigger. Also, the platform disappears for a while, but that didn't stopped me! Otherwise, this stage is pretty much the same as the rest.

Stage 6

  • Spiders: 1
  • Platform: 3
  • Holes: 3
The final stage contains an arachnophobic's worst nightmare - a giant spider. This time, the white spiders were out of the way, so I managed to hop back onto the platform without waiting.

Other comments

This game is easy to optimize, but hard to route plan. Input for horizontal movement in the main stages occur once every 2 frames, except for jumping, which can occur any frame. For going up/down ropes, delay 7 frames before the next input. Yes, rope movement follows a frame rule. Here's the addresses for both movements:

Addresses

0014 - X. Pos
002E - Rope Pos

adelikat: While people enjoyed it, seems the consensus was it was subpar on entertainment value. However, the movie meets all requirements for the Vault, thus accepting for publication to this tier.

Brandon: Publication underway.
Update: The ending doesn't sync for me. Anyone else want to try it?

Ilari: Got the files from Spikestuff.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3735: jlun2's A2600 Frankenstein's Monster in 02:52.07
Skilled player (1741)
Joined: 9/17/2009
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Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
Oh, lookie there, another Atari game that has an end. Before I go to bed, I'm going to upload a temp encode, because I like you guys alot. Now don't take that too seriously. Edit: Btw, what's with the messed up frame count? On BizHawk, it says 10318. But here it says 10324. 0_o
Player (164)
Joined: 4/14/2012
Posts: 25
Location: Japan
good work! i vote "yes". I found this is much more comprehensible than the other Atari TASes.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
Nice TAS! Still slightly boring, and it doesn't deserve a Moon, so Meh vote. Definitely publish to Vault though! By the way, I think you used bold instead of strikethrough for part of your submission text. And what are all those things Dr. Frankenstein has to run through when he touches the green platform to reach Frankenstein? Bats?
Skilled player (1741)
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CoolKirby wrote:
Nice TAS! Still slightly boring, and it doesn't deserve a Moon, so Meh vote. Definitely publish to Vault though! By the way, I think you used bold instead of strikethrough for part of your submission text. And what are all those things Dr. Frankenstein has to run through when he touches the green platform to reach Frankenstein? Bats?
Thanks, fixed. Also, I think those things are bats, since it fits into the halloween theme.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4036
It's like at a weird angle, though, as if he's running across a green field to get to the monster, dodging bats. Not sure what they were going for. Oh, and thanks for the HD temporary encode.
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
WOW! I have never played this, so kinda disappointed it has an ending.. but it looked like a lot of fun and I can definitely see what you mean by being a pain to optimize. You made it look clean and entertaining. Definite Yes vote here. Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Joined: 9/21/2011
Posts: 49
Location: San Antonio, TX
Nice, this one is definitely more comprehensible than some of the others! Dodging those bats must be hell when playing in real time. A shame those spiders got in the way of making it back to the platform. I give it a yes nonetheless, as it looks well-executed, and it will be nice to have a slightly meatier Atari run accepted.
--Graywords
Active player (406)
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 708
This doesn't feel optimized to me. There are a lot of parts where you wait or backstep to avoid enemies. I wonder if there's a better way to manipulate them or avoid them. There are parts where things are VERY smooth, though. If it is indeed optimal, I give it a yes.
Editor, Expert player (2073)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Interesting game. I find it to be no worse than Donkey Kong, a current star-tier movie.
Skilled player (1741)
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Heisanevilgenius wrote:
This doesn't feel optimized to me. There are a lot of parts where you wait or backstep to avoid enemies. I wonder if there's a better way to manipulate them or avoid them.
You're welcome to try. Also, the frame count is still messed up.
Joined: 5/25/2011
Posts: 6
Location: Upstate New York
It looks quite optimized to me. I notice spots that look like he's about to collide with an enemy, but he never does. Even with the old rules, this is a welcome addition to TASvids. It's fast, and it doesn't go on forever. I was very entertained by this vid. It probably helps that the AVGN introduced this videogame to me first, however.
adelikat
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I vote yes, I was most definitely entertained. Most entertaining A2600 submission so far :)
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
Spikestuff
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adelikat wrote:
I vote yes, I was most definitely entertained. Most entertaining A2600 submission so far :)
^ Those words. That must have been very technical as well legitimately I'll vote this high compared to the random 10s I gave to E.T.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
mklip2001
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Thanks for the temp encode! This ended up being pretty fun to watch. First of all, the graphical detail IS good enough to see what's going on properly. Also, there are some good close calls, and I like seeing the little zip you do at the tops of ropes to dodge brown spiders and whatever those blue dudes are on the top level. The bats at the ends of levels were also a good touch. I voted Yes.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 6/4/2009
Posts: 893
throwin' another yes in !
Active player (406)
Joined: 3/22/2006
Posts: 708
Okay. Yes vote.
Player (13)
Joined: 6/17/2006
Posts: 508
This game is terrible and the technical quality of this run is not impressive at all. No vote.
Joined: 5/2/2009
Posts: 656
Funny how most Atari 2600 games so far were featured in AVGN. And yes vote. Very interesting movie
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ
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Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
And this was the most sold console of the time... I have hard time understanding how people find this TAS entertaining given how repetitive the game is. All the levels are almost identical and there are lots of them, and they are all solved in the exact same way...
Active player (328)
Joined: 2/23/2005
Posts: 786
With simpler games like this, there is a sort of fascinating subtlety to the gameplay. It helps if you try to imagine yourself playing the game as you watch the movie. I voted yes.
Former player
Joined: 3/31/2005
Posts: 192
Location: Argentina
I played this game so much when I was a kid, though I could never beat it. It's actually pretty hard, even though enemies don't actually kill you. They just freeze you for a few moments, but there's a very tight global time limit, so you still need to dodge them. Oh, falling in the water in the bottom level does kill you.
adelikat
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The votes show 80% of people found this movie entertaining. I think this shaping up to be the first Moon tier Atari publication. However, is this accurate? I know this was submitted before, or right after the tier business. So maybe a lot of these votes didn't have this tier consideration (or a misunderstood version of it).
It's hard to look this good. My TAS projects
NitroGenesis
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I vote no for moon because it's pretty repetetive and the game looks clunky.
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
I think this game got called Frankenstein because it was made from spare parts from Pitfall. The game looks hard, and the player does make it interesting in some moments, but it's fairly repetitive. I think for the standards of an Atari game is a pretty entertaining TAS, so if I applied a lower criteria to Atari games I would vote yes. As I don't, I vote meh.
No.