This topic is for the purpose of discussing #506: nitsuja's SNES Out of This World in 15:25.57

Man, that was strange. Reminds me of those space and police quest games. This movie seems more like a normal movie rather than just someone playing through a game extraordinarily. I'm surprised I had never heard of this game before. Just strange enough for a yes vote :)

http://tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=23183#23183

Would you like some cheese with that whine? On topic, haven't gotten a chance to finish watching it, but I like what I've seen so far :o

I like it very much, as I wrote in the snes-board topic. The sound is a total bummer though. I will vote yes, but I think this game will probably have some problems getting published because of it.

Excellent run through a classic adventure. Too bad it wasn't enough to keep this company above water! By the way, there's hope that the sound bug will be fixed soon.

I'm glad people are liking it. Also it's a good thing the sound bug and various Snes9x desync bugs are finally being worked on. In fact, maybe in the patches (like Bisqwit's) that already have deteministic sound, this movie will play back / encode correctly with sound on as long as volume envelope reading is still off. (I'm on Windows and have had no luck compiling Snes9x though so I can't try any proposed patches yet.)

This movie seems more like a normal movie rather than just someone playing through a game extraordinarily.

The game is somewhat slow, so I guess it looks easier than it is unless you've played it. The controls are actually really clumsy and the likelihood of getting eaten/vaporized/crushed trying anything in this movie so very high, that pulling this off in real-time would be insanely difficult. Those who've played it know that normally this game relies heavily on trial-and-error (try something, die, restart, try something else, die restart, try something else, finally survive, then die 10 seconds later, restart...) which I found very annoying when I first tried to beat it on console, but luckily that process doesn't have to be watched in a rerecorded movie of its completion.

I can't see it... Maybe it's due to a difference between the SNES9X for Mac and Windows. I don't have "<No sound>" as playback rate, but tried with both disabling sound in general, and any combination I could possibly have chosen. I really hope this get published, though, since it is a real classic. (btw. Was it just the european version that was called another world?)

I can't see it... Maybe it's due to a difference between the SNES9X for Mac and Windows. I don't have "<No sound>" as playback rate, but tried with both disabling sound in general, and any combination I could possibly have chosen. I really hope this get published, though, since it is a real classic. (btw. Was it just the european version that was called another world?)

Under UNIX you need to use: snes9x -r 0 perhaps you have a similar setting. cu Fabian

Those who've played it know that normally this game relies heavily on trial-and-error (try something, die, restart, try something else, die restart, try something else, finally survive, then die 10 seconds later, restart...) which I found very annoying when I first tried to beat it on console, but luckily that process doesn't have to be watched in a rerecorded movie of its completion.

I'm sorry, at least with my detsound patch (very similar to Bisqwits) the game did run some times faster. I have resynced half of the movie, but every 3000 frames I had to make a correction. And having tried to resync it, I can say: Yes, its an incredible hard game. cu Fabian

I'm sorry, at least with my detsound patch (very similar to Bisqwits) the game did run some times faster. I have resynced half of the movie, but every 3000 frames I had to make a correction.

Oh, well it was just a wildly optimistic guess that it'd work as is. I won't mind redoing it with sound once the issue is properly fixed in the emulator. (Or do you think it's easier to just insert the frames throughout the movie to fix it? When I try doing that usually it stays in sync for a long time but then a guard later on will decide to shoot me in the head too soon.)

I created this simple patch to my snes9x... now attempting to record this movie, with sound. The patch will simply disable the feedback from mixer propagating back to APU, acting as if the sound is muted, even when it's not. The sound will probably be wrong somewhere, but it's better than no sound.

--- soundux.cpp        2004-07-10 22:52:38.000000000 +0300
+++ soundux.cpp 2005-02-12 05:06:57.000000000 +0200
@@ -156,6 +156,9 @@
 extern "C" void DecodeBlockAsm (int8 *, int16 *, int32 *, int32 *);
 extern "C" void DecodeBlockAsm2 (int8 *, int16 *, int32 *, int32 *);
 
+int FakeMute = 1;
+int DoFakeMute = 0;
+
 // F is channel's current frequency and M is the 16-bit modulation waveform
 // from the previous channel multiplied by the current envelope volume level.
 #define PITCH_MOD(F,M) ((F) * ((((unsigned long) (M)) + 0x800000) >> 16) >> 7)
@@ -174,9 +177,11 @@
 {
     ch->state = SOUND_SILENT;
     ch->mode = MODE_NONE;
+  if(!DoFakeMute) { 
     APU.DSP [APU_ENDX] |= 1 << i;
     APU.DSP [APU_KON] &= ~(1 << i);
     APU.DSP [APU_KOFF] &= ~(1 << i);
+  }
     APU.KeyedChannels &= ~(1 << i);
 }
 #ifdef __DJGPP
@@ -185,7 +190,9 @@
 
 void S9xAPUSetEndX (int ch)
 {
+  if(!DoFakeMute) {
     APU.DSP [APU_ENDX] |= 1 << ch;
+  }
 }
 #ifdef __DJGPP
 END_OF_FUNCTION (S9xAPUSetEndX)
@@ -864,6 +871,8 @@
     static int wave[SOUND_BUFFER_SIZE];
 
     int pitch_mod = SoundData.pitch_mod & ~APU.DSP[APU_NON];
+
+    DoFakeMute=FakeMute;
        
     for (uint32 J = 0; J < NUM_CHANNELS; J++) 
     {
@@ -1148,6 +1157,7 @@
         }
 stereo_exit: ;
     }
+    DoFakeMute=0;
 }
 
 #ifdef __DJGPP
@@ -1160,6 +1170,8 @@
 
     int pitch_mod = SoundData.pitch_mod & (~APU.DSP[APU_NON]);
        
+    DoFakeMute=FakeMute;
+       
     for (uint32 J = 0; J < NUM_CHANNELS; J++) 
     {
                Channel *ch = &SoundData.channels[J];
@@ -1433,6 +1445,7 @@
         }
 mono_exit: ;
     }
+    DoFakeMute=0;
 }
 #ifdef __DJGPP
 END_OF_FUNCTION(MixMono);

Edit: Casting my Yes vote for what it matters. I can't know whether this movie is perfect or optimal, but it indeed is entertaining - in completely different way than, say, Castlevania.

This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [296] SNES Out of This World by nitsuja in 15:25.57

Oh, this game is great. I remember that at the beginning, the gun has exactly enough shots to make it past that first door. Shield, big blast, and kill the guards, then the gun runs out. Waste any, and you die. Classic. You really have to play the game to know just how hard it is. As an example, if you don't hold up at that very first water scene, a tentacle drags you down to your death. Those leeches are fatal, the beast takes alot of practice to get past, you have to rattle your cage free, the first gun fight is very tough, the steam in the pipes is fatal, you can drown, spikes, teeth, tentacles, leaps of faith, and tons of gunfights. The colleseum scene is a puzzle in itself- you better hit the buttons in the right order, or you'll get caught. And you better make it to that control panel at the end, or the guard will kill you. Just like the Sierra games of old, there were a million ways you could die, and only one way to survive. It was truley a great adventure game like no other. And the best part is, there weren't any box puzzles! How many adventure games can you say that about?

Wow, thanks Bisqwit, I didn't know that was even possible. (This movie made a really small AVI too, probably thanks to the game's abysmal frame rate and mostly static backgrounds.) And I'm glad you found the movie entertaining. About the code you posted... it looks like more than just a temporary workaround for this movie, I think it would work well as a general-purpose fix for the sound desync bug, at least until an official one is available. The only games that it alters the timing of are ones that experienced random timing changes anyways, so apparently the only "side-effect" is a positive one. Existing movies still play fine with it. And I haven't heard the sound mess up with it at all (even including games like Tetris Attack that have sounds with dynamically changing pitch/volume). So... are there any reasons not to use it like this? I'm fairly certain that everything that's possible in a game when the sound is muted is also possible when it isn't muted.

What the patch literally does is that it prevents the game knowing when a sound sample goes off. It might be a problem in games which want to chain samples using CPU&APU cooperation. That way, only the first sample will be heard. But surprisingly, contrary to my expectation, it doesn't affect Tales of Phantasia (which uses a software voice driver) at all...

I played the PC version of this game, it was like, 2 megs :D and the sound was better on PC than on the snes, which was the opposite for doom... hmm, thinkin of it, i'd like to see a doom movie :D But the most interresting thing about OOTW on PC was its ability to produce PCM sound over the pc speaker... yep! Real PCM audio over that beep speaker! That was really surprising, but.. boy that sounded like crap! lol! but still... and the 3d graphics... boy that game even ran full speed on my 386 33mhz!!! And like the movie author said, this probably the most difficult game on snes... ONE way to survive and dozens to die :D that's why i've been more impressed by the game features than by the game itself...

This movie seems more like a normal movie rather than just someone playing through a game extraordinarily.

Yeah! Just add voices and you could watch this with some popcorn and coke... Well, i actually did anyways :P

windows 3.11 could play any wav file on the pc speaker (at least mine could)

*shocked* really?!?!?! i'll have to try this!!!

And the best part is, there weren't any box puzzles! How many adventure games can you say that about?

What do you mean with box puzzles?

Oh, this game is great. I remember that at the beginning, the gun has exactly enough shots to make it past that first door. Shield, big blast, and kill the guards, then the gun runs out. Waste any, and you die. Classic.

Urgh. I prefer adventures designed by forgiving designers. ;)

Is "Heart of the Alien" (the sequel of this game) available on any emulators?

I bet it is!

I think the only console release of it was for the Genesis CD addon.

The weirdest game ever. I just watched it and walked away not knowing what the hell just happened.

The weirdest game ever. I just watched it and walked away not knowing what the hell just happened.

This movie is actually mysteriously on the top-three list of my ratings. I think it is very good.