Since April 1 happens to be Easter, it seemed appropriate to beat the best-selling Atari 2600 game as quickly as possible by finding an Easter egg. I play on the hardest difficulty level: Game 6 (Ultimate Yars) with Difficulty set to A.
The bad guy is called the Qotile. The Qotile changes colour on a timer (it is not random) which counts down until the colour becomes 0x34, which turns it into the Swirl. That happens on frame 190. There is then a countdown until the Swirl attacks, which happens on frame 389. There is also a Destroyer Missile which tracks the Yar. In Difficulty A, the Zorlon Cannon destroys the Destroyer Missile (and is destroyed) instead of passing through it.
The Qotile/Swirl can only be killed by the Zorlon Cannon. In Game 6, you have to get 5 TRONs in order to fire the Zorlon Cannon, which are acquired at a rate of 1 for every piece of the shield eaten, or 2 for every frame in which Yar is touching the Qotile. You also have to touch the left side of the screen in order to load the cannon. If the Swirl is killed while it is in attack mode, an Easter Egg becomes available. During the explosion, there is a vertical line where the Qotile/Swirl died. If Yar is on that line, and in the bottom 1/3 of the screen, when the explosion disappears, the game ends and the score lists as the author's initials, forwards and backwards. (Howard Scott Warshaw = HSWWSH)
In this run, I acquire 5 TRONs and destroy the bottom half of the shield so that I have a place to park the Yar. I rush to the left to load the cannon, then rush back to the right and get as close to the Swirl as I can. I fire on frame 313, which is the first frame where the Zorlon Cannon will hit the Swirl after it enters attack mode on frame 389. I then push down on 3 input frames to get the Yar out of the way of the Zorlon Cannon (which will otherwise kill the Yar instead of the Swirl). Since the Yar is already where it needs to be to activate the Easter egg, the Yar can then stand with its back to the Swirl like a badass and let it die 1 pixel behind it, with the Destroyer Missile 1 pixel away as well.
fsvgm777: Replaced movie file with one that contains a close pass of the Destroyer Missile. Total time unchanged.
feos: It's Easter in my country, so I felt dealing today with this Easter egg movie submitted on Easter is the perfect timing.
I'm really sorry to reject this run that I suggested to make. But this is exactly why I believe it should have been done: to showcase a rejectable concept when doing so is appreciated and traditional, on April Fools!
This Easter egg basically brings us to the SELECT screen. Can we call this an ending? To answer that question we must first decide what tier this movie belongs to.
It's short enough not to become repetitive and annoying.
Does it showcase superplay?
Maybe it does. But a similar level of play could be also reached by a trained human, given how short this run has to be. We've seen plenty of times how RTA guys made use of tricks that were believed to be TAS-only.
Is the movie actually entertaining?
I'm not sure. Playing this game is clearly entertaining and fun. But for the viewer to enjoy even a full a TAS of this it takes a bit more than just watching it for the first time: you need to understand what's going on. And this game is quite complicated in that regard, so in most cases it ends up looking very impressive or incredibly boring, depending on your experience.
And even then, this run only plays through one level. Some years ago we decided that single-level movies shouldn't be accepted, because they don't beat the game. Why don't we want such movies? Because they don't feel like superplay anymore, and because they can be made in a proper, acceptable way instead. Single-level movies are generally not impressive, they feel abrupt and anti-climactic. So even this Easter-egg run feels like it's not showcasing anything enjoyable, just makes a point for the sake of it.
Therefore, it's not a Moons material. Therefore it has to be judged by the Vault rules. Therefore it has to be rejected, because Vault rules require certain approach to game completion when dealing with infinite games:
Quoting Vault
Must be clearly definable as having completed the game.
Games that loop endlessly can still be defined. The completion point is one where there is no new content, and the game is no longer increasing in difficulty.
A run that does it will be accepted. This run can only serve as a reference, like "Yes, we have this done as well for the sake of it", but can't be published.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
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Can you post a video so we get at least some feedback? If not, I'll encode it later.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
Thanks for motivating me :D
I made my own video.
You can safely remove yours now.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Great run, was cool to watch. Unfortunately, it's so short that I lean a bit towards a Meh on the grounds that what there is is entertaining, but there's not enough. Nonetheless, I voted yes.
I forgot to subscribe to the thread and, as of yesterday, no one had commented. Thanks a lot for the encode!
TheProJamer wrote:
Great run, was cool to watch. Unfortunately, it's so short that I lean a bit towards a Meh on the grounds that what there is is entertaining, but there's not enough. Nonetheless, I voted yes.
I'm actually working on a "fastest to the hardest difficulty" run, but feos encouraged me to make a "fastest ending" via the Easter Egg for April 1. The longer run will be repetitive, but there will be times when I'm beating levels in less than a second. I hope it will be entertaining.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
This Easter egg basically brings us to the SELECT screen. Can we call this an ending?
I have to disagree with that. The SELECT screen says "SELECT" and shows the game number. The Easter egg leads to the score screen, which only occurs in two situations: before a level begins, and when the player runs out of lives (game over). Indeed, reaching that screen ends the game. It's actually the only way to end the game without running out of lives.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
I mean the same actions that you can do on the SELECT screen you can also do on that easter egg screen, and their result is identical. So it is functionally a SELECT screen with some changed graphics.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
I mean the same actions that you can do on the SELECT screen you can also do on that easter egg screen, and their result is identical. So it is functionally a SELECT screen with some changed graphics.
Pressing the Select lever at any time takes you to the select screen -- the Select lever will end a game in progress -- so, by that logic, the levels are also part of the SELECT screen. I have disassembled source code. The HSWWSH is the score screen under "game over" conditions. I'm not disagreeing with the rejection, but I can disprove the assertion that the Easter Egg screen is the SELECT screen.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
Ah okay. I'll fix it.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Oops, I'm wrong. It is the SELECT screen, with the word "SELECT" overwritten with "HSWWSH". I mis-remembered the JMP instruction. $00 reveals that, on Frame 614, bits 8 and 7 flip from 0 to 1. 8 means "game over", and 7 means "select screen".
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11495
Location: Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg
LOL
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
