Joined: 11/18/2004
Posts: 3
Location: St. Paul, MN
Dear Timeattackers,
I am pleased to announce that I am in the process of creating a short (10-15min.) documentary video about timeattack videos and the discussion surrounding them. I have secured the gracious guidance of Arc, aka JeffC, who I have known since Junior High School. This project is spurred by an assignment for a Documentary Video class I am taking at Macalester College.
A further description of the project is available at Bitmike.net.
I would like the timeattack community to participate in the making of the film. I do not want the video to be a textbook "how to" on creating timeattacks, but rather a testament to the skill involved and a brief discussion of the meaning/questions surrounding timeattacks. Part of what interests me is the parallel between creating a timeattack video and creating a documentary film. Many people have criticized films like Michael Moore's documentaries in similar ways that people like sdkess criticize timeattack videos.
To this end, I would greatly appreciate responses to seven questions, which I would like to include in the video. I would like to use some friends (here) as actors to "play" some of the leading timeattackers by reciting your answers to these questions. If that sounds confusing, check out the Bitmike.net link above. I will gladly answer any of your questions, and take suggestions on what to include in the film.
The Questions
(feel free to e-mail me at jmortenson@macalester.edu or answer here)
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
Thank you so much! My deadline for finishing the film is December 9, so responses in the next week would be most appreciated.
Joined: 11/18/2004
Posts: 3
Location: St. Paul, MN
Bob, thanks for the pointer. I've read the collegetimes article - hopefully the video will be a little more rich in content. I'd be interested to know what you thought of what was/wasn't included in that relatively brief piece.
Joined: 7/12/2004
Posts: 146
Location: Dirty South, USA.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
I live in TN, USA. I go by Zoizite(I don't give my real name out on the internet).
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
A friend told me about Morimoto's SMB3 video. I was very interested, so I Googled "time attack" and quickly wound up at bisqwit's site. I watched many videos here, but the one in-particular that got me into making them was Arc's Metroid run. It's always been one of my favorite games, and has a lot of potential for these kinds of movies.
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
If I had to sum it up quickly, I'd say, "they're fun to watch." I've been a video game addict my whole life. I love seeing games I used to play as a kid, and some I still play today, being turned upside-down and torn inside-out to show perfection, push the limits of the game's engine, and to exploit every glitch the game has to offer.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
I've only completed two videos. Arc and I are working together at the moment on a new video. All of these are for Metroid.
The first thing I do is plan the route that I will be taking through the game. For Metroid, this involves getting items in the fastest order possible, taking the shortest possible path. After that, I actually start making the movie. I play through each room a few times at normal or half speed to get the feel of what's coming up, and what I need to do. Then I go through the room at extremely slow speeds, or even frame-by-frame, making every move as perfect as possible. I probably redo each jump and shot 10 to 15 times to get it just right. I try to keep the movie as entertaining as possible. I'll take the most difficult path through, or do a crazy stunt, if I can do it without sacrificing any time in the process.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
I'm most proud of my latest movie. It's a run through Metroid only collecting the Morph Ball item, and the bonus missles awarded for killing the two sub-bosses. This sort of thing would be impossible to pull off on a console. In my opinion, it pushes the game to it's limit. I also put a lot of time into it to make it look as clean and precise as possible.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
I don't really get into all of this. I know many of the "legit" speed runners don't like what we're doing, and I understand why, although, personally, I think most of it stems from ego.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
I don't know if I would go that far. I see it as art and entertainment, so I guess I see myself as an entertainer.
If for honesty, you want apologies, I don't sympathize.
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
Mário Azevedo, i live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
I used to record pure runs on the nesticle emulator many years ago, but they weren't tool assited. the first tool-assisted run i watched was super mario 3, i had to watch it a couple of times untill i started wondering if it was humanly possible. and then i ended up on bisqiwt's site, which had maybe a total of 5 timeattacks at the time (mainly morimoto's ones).
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
I must like the game a lot. I must want very much to see it played perfectly so i can make a run for it. I wouldnt try to make a run on a game i'm not interested because it takes time to make these movies and i wouldnt want to get bored at the end of the first level.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
As i usually know very well the games i choose to timeattack, I start recording right away. Sometimes i search for tips or guides to support me, but usually i just go timeattacking, in a kinda loose maner at first, just to test the game physics and paths, and then after i'm confortable and sure about how the game works, i start it over at slower playback speed and doing more precise movements.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
I think it's my NES battletoads warpless, for many reasons:
- because some things that i used to do when i was a child could be used in the movie and looked entertaining;
- because i found a glitch that i have never heard before and i wonder if it was known (the boss skip glitch on level 10, by killing the running rat).;
- for going through level 11 whitout tool-assistance on the first attempt (except the boss, which was tool-assisted);
- and for doing a lot of hard jumps that took dozens of re-recordings but that in the end i managed to accomplish, especially at level 4.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
I've seen 2 kinds of people who attack timeattackers. The first group are those casual players who find the games to be very hard, and they see the game beaten in 5 minutes they get mad because "the game is now ruined", those people usually never play a game again after finishing it. The second group of people are the pure speedrunners, who think that our movies make theirs less interesting, so they find ways of attacking us saying we "cheat". As a player, I was more "offended" by morimoto's smario3 video when i though it was a pure run than after i found it was tool-assisted. I judged myself a good player, but after i watched it i thought "wow, i'm nothing, this guy is a god". Then i learned it was tool-assisted, which took some emotion out of the video, but i still find it nice to watch.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
No, timeattacking is for me nothing but a search. It's about searching for the perfect play. The game is there it has set rules and objectives. I try to finish the game as fast as possible, and many times that leaves you no choice but to take a certain path or do a certain action. There are very few moments where you can really choose what to do, and at those moments i do what seems funner. So, this is about precision, films are about story telling.
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
teknoj wrote:
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
My name is Dan and I'm a student at SUNY Albany.
teknoj wrote:
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
I first saw the famed Morimoto Super Mario Bros 3 video via a link on insertcredit.com, and within a month I discovered a variety of sites like this one.
teknoj wrote:
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
The videos I enjoy most are made from games I played as a kid and remember. I would play these games for hours, either by myself or with friends, so to see them completed quickly and flawlessly really blows my mind. Mega Man 1 and 2 are still my favorites of the movies so far. They both go way "outside the box."
teknoj wrote:
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
As stated in number 3, games I played as a kid are of primary interest to me. The only movie I've completed (so far) was Bionic Commando, a game I was totally devoted to. Of course, the fact that you couldn't save your progress or use a password may have been a factor.
Planning means looking up/asking about any known shortcuts, bugs, or tricks. Beyond that, you have to try crazy stuff and see what works. It's also important to know how fast a regular (unassisted) run lasts, because that's the time you positively must beat.
teknoj wrote:
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
Well, I only finished the one, and it was completed obsoleted. But I hope to work with the Neo Geo games once Final Burn Alpha re-recording is perfected, as the Neo Geo rules. Still my favorite system.
teknoj wrote:
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
Political is more like it. The people who are angry are very angry, and they don't want to hear why they're wrong. The comforting truth I've realized is it doesn't matter what those people say. There's a simple logical explanation as to why "tool-assisted" and "unassisted" are different yet equally valid. The angry people don't want to hear it, so I stopped telling them. I just wish they would follow my example and shut the hell up.
teknoj wrote:
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
I aspire to be a filmmaker but I wouldn't consider this a part of that aspiration.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
Eric Stratmann. CT USA
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
Read the above posts and take a guess :)
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
What makes me like them is seeing how far the game can be pushed. I want to know what the perfect play is. Well, it's not just video games where I am interested in this, but that's not important (*waits for mankind to discover the perfect chess and go games*) It seems like perfection is a concept that everyone can like, so actually seeing it is amazing. Of course, sometimes the stunts and glitches are really freaking cool. Thinking of an ingenius way to get something done, or seeing it done, is great.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
First, is picking a game. While this may seem completly obvious, it is not. Any game can be time attacked, yet many of them will be boring even if played flawlessly. Some, even with slow motion and rerecords, are just to hard to do near perfectly (no I'm not talking about solar jetman >_>). Once I have decided on a game, I play through it once in real time, with some save states. Upon finishing it, I go read all of the faqs that I can on the game (or just the bigger ones for more popular games). With these in mind, I go and play the game again. I make sure I use everything I know from the faq, and try to think of things that even they did not think about. Once I have decided what to do, I go ahead and make the video. (funny how the most important part is the least detailed)
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
I've only created four so far, but from what I have made, my most favorite is my Umihara Kawase run with warps. The game has complicated rope physics that allow you to crazy (and hard) manuveurs. The part that I enjoyed though was the competition with Blechy, where my final movie ended up beating his by less than two seconds.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
Well, the way that I figure it, we are ruining something, but nothing important. I do admit that this makes speedruns (non-emu assisted runs) less entertaining if you only consider the final product. However, I don't feel this is the point of them. I see the speedruns more as showing the accomplishment of man, because playing the game like they do is just incredible. Seeing them leaves me in awe of the player. However, the run is not perfect. Some people don't see it this way though. They think that since these movies are better played than speedruns, it is unfair to them because we have an unfair advantage.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
Eh, by defenition, yes, but in reality, no.
1) Daniel Fowler -- Washingon, USA
2.)On another message board, somebody asked if anybody knew of any other videos akin to Morimoto's SMB3 video. Naturally, I googled different terms such as Morimoto and Speed Run, and eventually found this site.
3.)I would have to say the most interesting thing, to me, is seeing what the least possible time is that it takes to complete a game. However, this is a different opinion from most people on this site, who create movies with a primary goal of being entertaining, and the secondary goal is to be as fast as possible. I prefer the other way around. A timeattack that will interest me is usually one of a game which I am familiar with, or one that is full of crazy tricks and tactics.
4.)Once I find the game I want, I play through it normally. After I beat it, I'll record the first level playing as well as I can with slowdown and savestates and the such. After that, I'll review it over and over again, taking note of places that could have been done faster. Then, I will redo that level, and review it again. Once I am satisfied, I move on the level 2. Lather, rinse, and repeat as desired :P
5.)Ehh... Out of the ones I've finished, I would have to say Journey to Silius. However, I have a few projects in the making of which just the incomplete movie is, in my opinion, better than the aforementioned project.
6.)I believe that timeattacks and speedruns (emulator enhanced movies as opposed to those played on a real console) are completely different things. There have been many, many, many different discussions on this topic, and after reading through most of them, I have come to this conclusion. Because they are different things, they should not be judged as equal participants in some sort of contest, which the nay-sayers seem to do.
7.)Nope.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
My name is also Daniel (geez we seem to have alot of Dans here). I live in Alberta, Canada.
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
The same way everyone else seems to have. I learned about timeattacks when I saw Morimoto's SMB3 video, which caused me to search for more "speedruns" (not timeattacks, heh) and I found SDA. The thing that really got me hooked was the Metroid speedruns there. Metroid is my favourite series, and watching people full off tricks and obtaining times I had never dreamed of seemed amazing to me. Naturally this caused me to go back and replay the games with my newly learned moves. I eventually watched all the movies there, and thirsted for more, and came across this site.
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
As with feitclub, I the main thing that draws me to these videos is watching games which I have played in my youth. My favourite runs are those which make me go "Wow I didn't know you could do that!" or "Oh man it took me FOREVER to do that". I prefer the movies that don't abuse slowdown/save-states too heavily, and could TECHNICALLY be possible for someone to do, unlike a movie like Morimoto's Gradius movie. An example of this would be TheAxeMan's Jackel movie, where he just trucks through the game ignoring everything around him. Something you would never attempt to do when playing the game yourself, but is a blast to watch.
The main reason I started to make timeattacks was for enjoyment really. Mine, as well as everyone elses. I had some free time, and decided I would pick up a game and work with it. It's enjoyable to do, and other people out there will hopefully like the final product.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
Well, as i've just started timeattacking this is a very easy question to answer. I started out by thinking of a popular game which I enjoyed as a child. I came up with Ninja Gaiden as there wasn't a published run for it yet. I then went about learning about the emulator, and how to use it's tools. I toyed with that and produced a small section of the movie which consisted of the first level. I think came onto these forums, and found a thread for Ninja Gaiden containing some work from other people. I read the thread and compaired what was there to what I had done, realising that what I had done was not very good. It was a decent enough attempt, but I had done no prior research to the game at all, so I was missing out on some very important tricks and information which are very important to the run. I took the information from the topic, and also read about the game at GameFAQs to get as much information as possible. I then went back and redid the run, and added the second level. At this point my run was pretty good, and faster then any of the other two runs out there at the time. Though, as I played through it I found more things which could save time. So far I have done this 6 extra times, for a total of 8,which has taken an extremely long time as i've been playing through the game frame by frame. At this point, I decided that things needed to change, as I would go insane if I kept having to do the first acts over and over again every time I find a new trick which saves a few frames. I am now going through the game, doing one level at a time, and analysis each level before I record it a number of times.
So in short, now my method will go like this: Pick a game, research it fully, if I haven't already beaten it do so, and then research and record one level at a time until it's done. I will also probably be posting progress to get suggestions on this messageboard.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
Ninja Gaiden I guess, but that is kind of by default ;p
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
There sure is, although in my opinion their argument isn't really a valid one. Alot of them base their arguement on the idea that what timeattackers are doing is wrong because we are using software and hardware that different from the stock console to "cheat" and do things not possible on a console. This slightly bothers me as i've seen a number of legit speedruns that seem like they use rapid controllers to attack at a very fast rate, which also goes against this thinking. This is defended by the idea that it can TECHNICALLY be done on a normal controller, but I could also TECHNICALLY press on a NES D-PAD so hard breaking it during a run allowing me to push left and right at the same time, which causes some interesting glitches. The timeattackers aren't trying to compete with or steal the thunder of legit speedrunners, infact I have alot of respect for the guys. I think most of us think of what we are doing to be way different then what they are doing.
This animosity towards timeattackers isn't always the case though, some of the "great" speedrunners hang out with timeattackers and use our material to help improve their own runs.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
I haven't though about this up until now, and thinking about it now i'm not really too sure. I don't think I do, i'm just someone in it for fun, the end result happens to be a movie.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
Stephen Kalb, in Ohio
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
I first heard of the site back when it got Slashdotted. I first started doing vids when Gens got rerecording (I was a Genesis fanboy back then, and in some ways I still am)
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
They're fun to watch, especially when you know how bloody hard some of those games are.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
I do games I already know pretty well, and plan as much as I feel the need to. Typically, it just takes a few versions of a movie to get good results.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
I haven't decided. I only have two pubished movies, Quackshot and Flashback, and multiple submissions that weren't all that impressive. Quackshot went through something like four different iterations (Three full versions, plus I had to redo the first and second halves of the game for the third and first versions, respectively), so I'd call it the one I've put the most work into.
Really, I'm most proud for having inspired some things Truncated is using in his Kid Chameleon run.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
I've stopped caring. Towards the end of my Genesis's life I played most of my games with a Game Genie so I could explore the games without getting myself killed in the first few minutes of play. I don't really care if someone criticizes me for it since I consider it my game (in the sense that I'm the one playing it) and I'll do what I want with it.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
Only in the sense that the end result of my works are put up for everyone to see.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
Joel Yliluoma, and I live in Finland, the real home of Santa Claus.
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
Seeing Morimoto's SMB3 movie somewhere.
I went on to collect all of his movies (URL was at the end of the movie) and since I was unsatisfied with the ASF video quality and good quality video files were nowhere to found, I created them and put them all for public viewing. The nesvideos site was born. I oftencreatewebpageswithinspirationlikethat.
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
I like to see the characters perform superhuman activities. I don't care so much about the numerical limits of the game, but the actual performance of the character whom the player controls. This definition mostly applies to platform games. There are more aspects, but this is the easiest explained one that I frequenctly crunch to the one word: entertainment.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
Picking a game is usually invoked by curiosity.
Planning is usually driven by trial & error, and some expertise on how games work and what kind of exploits to try. Some calculation might be involved.
Completing is process of iterative labor. Movies get better and better by each attempt. It's important for the player to keep the eyes wide open and look for things that can be done better and things that might lead to new discoveries about the game.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
Definitely Rockman (aka. Mega Man) -- it was the most gratifying result of a huge work. It shows something that nobody has done before, it totally surprises the watchers, it is full of action and all of the action is meaningful.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
I'm a hacker (person who likes to make machines do fancy things), and I promote creative work instead of being breastfed by the game makers.
Although I don't despise high physical skills and reactions, I value intellectual skill more than that, and that's why I see no problem with tool-assisted movies. We're not competing with non-tool-assisted players anyway. These are two different schools.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
Yes I do. I think of the characters of the video games as actors and the player as a director. Given the script of the game (eh, save the world et cetera), the director has the hard task of making the movie interesting to watch.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
It seems like I'm the only person whose real name isn't on their movie page, and it's kind of cool heh. Call me Blechy. I'm from New York City.
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
I stumbled upon a link to the SMB3 video on a friend's page. Maybe a month or two later, I came across a couple more on DC++. I searched for the usernames within the file names, and found even more, then learned searching for "time attack" came up with the most results of what I wanted. When I first saw bisqwit's opening to the movies, I didn't visit the website because I thought they would list videos only by a few individuals, but I did finally visit, and found it to be the center of time attack videos. I downloaded a bunch, loved them, and eventually started posting on the forums. First I was considering doing kickle cubicle, then considered metal storm(which I'm still considering). When somebody mentioned umihara kawase, a game I hadn't heard of before in my life, I checked it out simply out of curiosity. The game was interesting enough to me that I got the urge to make a video for it, which was far from perfection as it was my first.
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
The (attempted) perfection. Watching a game be dominated that I used to have such trouble with. Watching glitches be exploited that I never knew about. Knowing that extensive planning went in to every move performed.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
Select a good game(something I don't think is overly difficult, but quite a few of the movies on this site are of movies which just could never be entertaining). Use all resources available, and then use the emulator to become your own resource. It's hard to be able to spot areas which might be manipulated in a way which literally has never been found before. Consider the super mario wallclimb technique. It is my believe that that is something that would be pretty hard to stumble upon, and probably a bit of testing went into discovering it.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
I'm a perfectionist, and am not particularly proud of any video I've made. I hadn't a clue how to achieve perfection when I made the umihara movie, though it ended up looking very cool. During the development of MMX2 is when I really learned how to perfect a movie, and this is sort of made clear as the movie progresses: Wheel gator's stage contains many errors, whereas the sigma stages on might just be within frames of perfection. While ideally I plan to eventually redo it, in the meantime it is one of my favorites on the site because of the variation involved(and probably due to unintentional bias). Plus, the majority of the errors cannot be seen by the naked eye.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
Please see my response at http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1032&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
No, but it has nothing to do with using emulator tools. I don't consider speedrunners to be film makers either. As zoizite said, I feel we are entertainers.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
Hans Olsson / Walker Boh. Lives in Sweden.
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
Same for me as the others I think. I saw some Mario 3 movie. Probably Morimotos. After that I searched around and ended up here. And after 100's of questions to Bisqwit I finally learned how time attacks worked. Glad he helped me out that much ;)
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
I like creating stuffs for folks to enjoy. I've also played games (mostly NES-games) since I was 7 years old. Which makes it 14 years now I think. So when I realized I could combine my urge for creating things AND playing the games I like most it was just natural for me to start making time attacks.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
I pick games I like to play for time attacking. Unless someone has already made a movie out of them. Then I usually let it be, if I don't have a good reason for picking it anyways.
For the planning bit I usually play through the game once or twice so I know what im dealing with. As for routes, items or various things that needs to be planned. After that I start record and then it's pretty much trial and error. If I found something on the way that could be useful I often redo big parts until im satisfied.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
In my case it's Rygar. That's because I loved that game as a kid and when I time attacked it I found out so much new things about the game. Like the "air walking-glitch". Rygar totally surprised me when I time attacked it in several aspects.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
I think they got it all wrong. I'll come back to this question when I know how to express myself.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
Well, not really. I like to create time attacks (movies) but that's about it. But it's great when you discover something that will amuse the audience ;)
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
Philippe Côté. Québec.
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
Well, it happens a day I have nothing more interesting to do than browsing www.suprnova.org site. Then found Morimoto's SMB3 video. I have downloaded the video, WMV format file, then watched it. I was impressed and I thought a crazy maniac that plays this game everyday did this but not so much later, I see the truth when finding Bisqwit's site. At first, I felt a little deceived but thinking of that, I told myself that I can do movies myself.
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
Hard games that looks easy when watching them after.
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
I usually choose a game that I know. Though, sometimes, it' not true ;).
If it exist, I watch a current video and correct the guy's errors. Otherwise, try and errors. Sometimes, when I don't know the game very much, I check an entire stage so it gives me a better idea how to do it. Sometimes, I check some FAQs at www.gamefaqs.com to help me.
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
All of them but I actually love my Double Dragon 2 played alone.
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
One word, jealousy.
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
Yes I do. I think the same as Bisqwit.
1) What is your name? Where do you live?
2) How did you first hear of/get into timeattack videos?
3) What about timeattack videos captivates you? What makes it worth spending many many hours creating them?
4) What is the process you use to start, plan, and complete a timeattack video?
5) Which timeattack video that you've created are you most proud of? Why?
6) There seems to be some criticism/antagonism directed at the creators of timeattack videos. How do you explain this? Does this represent competing philosophies about how video games should be played?
7) Do you consider yourself a film maker?
1) Scott Jones, upper east Tennessee
2) I must be the only person who didn't see Morimoto's SMB3 as their first tool-assisted run...for me it was Crazygodtechnique. At first, I thought it was realtime, and when I found out it was done with Famtasia, I thought, "no wonder they were able to hit all those jumps dead-on". At this point, I hadn't really gotten fully interested. A bit later on down the road, my friend gave me some AVis of runs from Bisqwit's site, which rekindled my interest for good.
3) For me, these runs are all about being as impressive as possible. Things like manipulating luck, shooting before an enemy is visible onscreen, anything that shows extreme knowledge of the game. IMO, any run that does something outside the normal properties of the game engine is impressive.
4/5) I haven't actually created any released runs, only some small practice runs in SMB1 and SMB2j. And I haven't started using rerecording yet, I'm merely boning up my skills. Even at slow speed, it's not that easy to tweak the SMB engine.
6) I pretty much agree with others' comments on this issue. Realtime speedrunners feel threatened by tool-assisted runs, because they fear that someone will pass off a tool-assisted run as realtime. The difference is, tool-assisted speedrunners don't advocate that realtime speedrunners not be able to do realtime speedruns.
7) I don't see this so much as filmmaking, as I do a form of programming. Essentially, you're programming the emulator to depress certain buttons on certain frames.
Joined: 11/18/2004
Posts: 3
Location: St. Paul, MN
Thanks for all the responses, everybody. I apologize for not responding earlier, but I am still working on the project. This weekend is crunch time for editing.
I will definitely incorporate a number of your comments into the video. I will be happy to share the result with you all. I should be done within 11 days or so, probably sooner.
