Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
DREAM TEAM CONTEST 5(Be sure to read the rules, particularly the sign-up rules, before signing up!)
It's been a while since we've had a Dream Team Contest. The last one was in late 2011, about 3 years ago now. We figured it's time to start running a new one again.
So yeah, this will be the fifth edition of TASVideos' Dream Team Contest. The basic idea remains the same as usual:
You sign up as a team (or sign up to be put in a team).
When sign-ups are done, the teams are given a game to TAS.
The teams create their TASes and submit them before a given deadline.
The team whose TAS clears the game fastest wins. Their names will be engraved in Dream Team Contest history, and their TAS is to be submitted to the site.
Sounds simple and fun enough, right?
Game and emulator rulesThe game for this contest is yet to be revealed. When it is revealed, I will put checksums here of the ROM the movie has to sync on. See further below for details about the game.
Yes, that means unlike some previous DTCs there won't be game suggestions or polls. That said, I will base the game choice on its suitability for this contest: having the game be simple enough to run but with enough room for diversity in tactics, etc. Basically, it should be a good test for common platformer TASing skills and tricks.
Some details to know about the game:
It is a NES game
It is a platformer
Estimated TAS time is approximately between 15 and 20 minutes.
For the emulator, any FCEUX or BizHawk version is allowed. You can use anything you want, but the end result will have to be a submittable movie file, and it has to sync on any official FCEUX or BizHawk release. (In short, just follow the site movie rules on this matter).
For BizHawk, both the NESHawk and QuickNES cores are accepted. The game does not run in QuickNES; BizHawk will default to NESHawk instead. Keep this in mind if you are doing your run on BizHawk.
Sign-up/Team rules
To sign up, just post in this thread that you want to participate. You can sign up as either a team, or as an individual. Individuals will be randomly assigned into teams (either added to existing teams or forming entirely new teams) when the competition starts. If you already have a team, please state the names of your team mates when signing up, and (optionally) a team name.
Note that teams must have between 2 and 3 members. Keep in mind that unlike previous Dream Team Contests, the (maximum) team size is brought down from 4 to 3.
When signing up a team, I would prefer if all team members individually post to sign-up and confirm they will participate as a team.
Finally, when signing up as a team of 2 members, please state whether or not you want to leave your last spot open for another member. If you leave it open, it may or may not be filled depending on how the random draw for the individual sign-ups will work out.
TAS Movie rules
The run goal is to beat the game in the fastest time, with all tricks and techniques allowed.
In the event an ACE/game-ending glitch is discovered, competition will be held for both the fastest run using such a glitch, as well as the fastest run that avoids using such a glitch and clears the game by clearing every stage normally. More on this will be announced in the event a trick of this caliber is discovered and known.
Movies are to be submitted by uploading the movie file to userfiles (be sure to upload it as a hidden file!) and having one of the team members send me the link to the movie file via a private message. Be sure to also state the emulator version/revision and emulator settings (such as BizHawk core) the movie is to be run on. In case you found an improvement after submitting, you are allowed to resubmit as often as you wish, provided it is sent before the final deadline. If you submit more than once, only the latest submitted version will be considered.
UPDATE: Due to concerns about the integrity/security of uploading movie files to userfiles, I will accept (and recommend) uploading your movies at external sites, such as microstorage (if using FCEUX), dropbox, mediafire, or any other upload site. I do still require the movie to be sent by PM before the deadline, with emulator version/revision used and emulator settings for syncing if needed.
UPDATE2: As an additional alternative, teams can submit their movie by e-mail to dtc5submission@gmail.com.
The movie submitted for the contest obviously has to clear the game by reaching the credits without further input. Just make sure the movie file is in accordance with the site movie rules.
To prevent ambiguity in movie length, movies are timed by how fast the credits are reached, not by last input.
The winning team will submit their movie to the site.
Schedule
Sign-ups will close on Sunday 23rd November 2014, 23:59 UTC.
The competition starts the next day, on Monday 24th November 2014, 21:00 UTC. This is when the final team composition will be revealed and the game will be revealed.
The movie deadline will be Saturday 31st January 2015, 23:59 UTC. In other words, the teams will have about 10 weeks for their run. This is significantly longer than prior Dream Team Contests, but I want to make sure that the teams will be able to make a reasonably optimized movie and finish it before the deadline, while also not giving them too much time pressure for their movie.
After the deadline, results will be evaluated and posted as soon as possible, but I am not setting any dates for it yet.
Additionally I would like to monitor progress in some way, to try and make sure teams don't fall too far behind and/or end up not submitting. However, this is yet to be figured out.
Tips
Communication with your team is essential! Set up an IRC channel, or Skype group, or anything similar with your team and make sure to keep up communication with your team.
Try to keep a consistent working pace up when working on the run. If you end up slacking off until the end, you may find yourself unable to finish the run in time.
That all said...time to start signing up now! Sign-ups are closed now.
</hr>
Sign-ups:
Teams
-Team 1: Aglar, Anty-Lemon, Aqfaq - "AAA"
-Team 2: adelikat, Got4n, Scepheo - "GAS"
-Team 3: Masterjun, MESHUGGAH, MUGG - "MMM"
-Team 4: Brushy, Tompa, Warepire - "The Sophisticated League of Nordic Gentlemen"
-Team 5: Exonym, TASeditor, Zeupar
-Team 6: fsvgm777, jaysmad, lapogne36
-Team 7: NitroGenesis, TehSeven, thelegendarymudkip
-Team 8: arandomgameTASer, solarplex, Spikestuff - "Solar's Random Spike"
-Team 9: bsbisleet, hegyak, Truncated
-Team 10: ars4326, Kurabupengin, Samsara
-Team 11: Bobo the King, Eszik, Personman
Individual player pool
These players will be randomly shuffled into teams when the contest starts.
-N/A
Total player count: 33 (11 teams)</hr>
The competition is set to start now - and the final teams that will be competing are as follows:
Team 1 - "AAA" (logo)
‒ Aqfaq, Anty-Lemon, Aglar
Team 2 - "SAC"
‒ (Got4n) Scepheo, adelikat, Cardboard*
Team 3 - "MMM" (logo)
‒ Masterjun, MUGG, MESHUGGAH
Team 4 - "The Sophisticated League of Nordic Gentlemen" (logo)
‒ Brushy, Tompa, Warepire
Team 5 - "ZETAS" (logo)
‒ Exonym, Zeupar, TASeditor
Team 6
‒ fsvgm777, lapogne36, jaysmad
Team 7 - "TTT" (logo)
‒ (NitroGenesis) TehSeven, thelegendarymudkip, Truncated**
Team 8 - "Solar's Random Spike" (logo)
‒ solarplex, arandomgameTASer, SpikestuffTeam 9 - "Judge, Jury and Executioner"
‒ hegyak, BSBIsLeet, TruncatedTeam 10 - "Mission: InTASible™" (logo)
‒ (dekutony) ars4326, Alyosha*, Samsara
Team 11
‒ Bobo the King, Personman, Eszik
*Team member entered the contest replacing another team member
**Team member joined team after previous team was disbanded
Finally to start the contest, the game to run for the competition. The game is Metal Force for the Famicom/NES.
Metal Force is an unlicensed game developed by Open Corp. (the same developers who made Buzz and Waldog) and released in 1994 in South Korea. It is of surprisingly solid quality for an unlicensed title. It controls somewhat similarly to classic Mega Man, except you have two different weapons which you can switch between and upgrade by collecting certain powerups from enemies. Besides that, it is a linear adventure with 7 missions, and a boss battle at the end of each mission. The stages of each mission are quite expansive and packed with enemies and obstacles, which, combined with the weapon choice, means there are a lot of different ways to approach each mission.
Checksums for the Metal Force ROM:
File: Metal Force (K) [!].nes
CRC-32: 7e3ba9fd
MD4: 26824a757dafa27e116a001d1a4a68b1
MD5: 7f8ad0311b51776cffd59812ee77dfdb
SHA-1: a83be1e67e9e4d27ca9f6bc55f6fada17535ccb6
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.
Sign-ups will close on Sunday 23rd November 2014, 23:59 UTC.
The competition starts the next day, on Monday 17th November 2014, 21:00 UTC. This is when the final team composition will be revealed and the game will be revealed.
Daylight savings time falls back extra long this year, eh?
I'm interested in signing up this year, but I'll be unaffiliated for now. I'll probably poke around on the IRC channel for teammates in the coming week, but if anyone is interested now, please reply or PM me.
Be aware that I am horribly, horribly busy until the second week of December, and then I'm only somewhat less busy.
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
Bobo the King wrote:
Daylight savings time falls back extra long this year, eh?
This is what I get for changing dates around a lot while writing. :P That wasn't even the only date error in the topic.
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.
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3
xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D
Help improving TASVideos!
I... I... I DON'T KNOW! I always go last place so I don't wanna... But I want to try, but I know I'm going to lose... I don't even get it this is so bad for my health.
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
Kurabupengin wrote:
I... I... I DON'T KNOW! I always go last place so I don't wanna... But I want to try, but I know I'm going to lose... I don't even get it this is so bad for my health.
Remember, it's a team contest - you won't be up alone for it. You will have one or two team members joining you, with whom you will be able to back each other up and help each other out.
Also, I would say there is no shame even if you end up in last place. It is working on (and completing) the run with your team altogether that counts :)
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.
Current:
Rayman 3 maybe? idk xD
Paused:
N64 Rayman 2 (with Funnyhair)
GBA SMA 4 : E Reader (With TehSeven)
TASVideos is like a quicksand, you get in, but you cannot quit the sand
Joined: 11/13/2006
Posts: 2823
Location: Northern California
I'm in, if only to see how disappointed my teammates are when they find out I'm on their team.
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family.
Now infrequently posting on BlueskywarmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6449
Location: The land down under.
Okay...
Edit: Apparently "Okay..." wasn't good enough so here I am writing random things so Moth can be happy that I wrote something rather than nothing and still letting him know that I am doing this too.
Yea, might as well join this and see how it goes.
Edit2: Got a "sure" from arandomgameTASer and a "definitely!" from solarplex to join their team when I asked.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account.Something better for yourself and also others.
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
I'm noticing most people who sign up don't actually specify anything beyond that. I will just assume by default for those people that they want to be randomly assigned to teams when the contest starts. I'd just like to make sure that you're aware you do have the choice of forming teams yourselves with other people and sign up as that team, without having to be randomly put into teams.
But if that's what everyone (who didn't specify anything) is going for, that is fine too. Again, just wanting to make sure you know you have that option.
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.
Current:
Rayman 3 maybe? idk xD
Paused:
N64 Rayman 2 (with Funnyhair)
GBA SMA 4 : E Reader (With TehSeven)
TASVideos is like a quicksand, you get in, but you cannot quit the sand
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
Kurabupengin wrote:
Ok, I'll join if you join FluffyMoth! =3
I won't join. I am the host and judge for this contest, it wouldn't be fair if I joined.
Got4n/adelikat team has been added, now that adelikat has confirmed his participation and teamup on IRC. As a team of 2, you didn't specify whether you're open to another member or not, so I'll just see how it will work out.
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.
Got4n/adelikat team has been added, now that adelikat has confirmed his participation and teamup on IRC. As a team of 2, you didn't specify whether you're open to another member or not, so I'll just see how it will work out.
DREAM TEAM CONTEST 5
(Be sure to read the rules, particularly the sign-up rules, before signing up!)
It's been a while since we've had a Dream Team Contest. The last one was in late 2011, about 3 years ago now. We figured it's time to start running a new one again.
So yeah, this will be the fifth edition of TASVideos' Dream Team Contest. The basic idea remains the same as usual:
Metal Force is an unlicensed game developed by Open Corp. (the same developers who made Buzz and Waldog) and released in 1994 in South Korea. It is of surprisingly solid quality for an unlicensed title. It controls somewhat similarly to classic Mega Man, except you have two different weapons which you can switch between and upgrade by collecting certain powerups from enemies. Besides that, it is a linear adventure with 7 missions, and a boss battle at the end of each mission. The stages of each mission are quite expansive and packed with enemies and obstacles, which, combined with the weapon choice, means there are a lot of different ways to approach each mission.
Checksums for the Metal Force ROM:
