(alternate logo by moozooh)
Hot damn, we made it to 10! TASvideos' favorite inconsistently hosted competition is back, in Pog™ form! This time, your host will be TASvideos' favorite inconsistently funny staff member: Me! Samsara! In Pog™ form!
WHAT THE H*CKIN' FR*CK IS DTC
The Dream Team Contest is a contest that has an incredibly rich history of wonderful games and Zook Man ZX4. TASers form teams of 3-4 people in order to produce the fastest TAS of a mystery game within the time limit. The fastest team is etched into the annals of
Dream Team Contest history, which is different to the Team Dream Contest, where the best cheater is etched into the annals of being banned from the SRC leaderboards. How did that Dream joke get relevant again? It was outdated when I made it and now it was ahead of its time!
Despite how it may sound, you do NOT have to have any TASing experience to sign up! DTCs are a great way for beginners to learn the ins and outs of TASing by working with experienced TASers. Don't be afraid to sign up even if you've never TASed before! That's the beauty of a team: You don't have to have the full skill set or the best TASing ability in the world, you just have to be paired up with someone who does! You can be the wind beneath their wings!
SIGNUP RULES
- You may sign up as a 3-4 person team or as an individual, who will be randomly placed in a 3-4 person team when signups have ended.
- I am currently assuming 4 person teams and will randomize individuals as such when the time comes.
- Team signups require confirmation from all members, so make sure that every member of your team is able to confirm! This does not necessarily have to happen in individual forum posts, as long as some sort of direct confirmation is provided to me.
- You can and definitely should come up with a team name. Any team that goes unnamed will be named by me. You do not want your team named by me. Somewhere out there is a stuffed animal named Texas Mike's Burgers n' Beer Drive-Thru, and if that's the name I came up with for a stuffed animal that isn't even mine, imagine what I can do with a team name.
- Sign-ups are no longer accepted starting midnight (Pacific time) on June 14th (or 7:00 AM UTC), the game will be revealed before 5:00 PM (Pacific time) on June 15th (nobody should trust my sleep schedule enough to expect a set time there), and submissions will stop being accepted approximately
10 16 weeks later at midnight (Pacific time) on September October 12th (or 7:00 AM UTC).
- The contest time limit can be either lengthened or shortened if there is a majority agreement.
- Contest results will not be announced immediately. I am a Judge. I will be watching every entry before tabulating the results, because that's my job. Be glad I am one of the faster-working Judges on the team.
- please god dont drop out now that signups are over ._.
CONTEST RULES
- Trash talk, irony posting and memes are not only allowed throughout the competition, but actively encouraged. This is being hosted by me after all, and y'all know I can't make it more than two sentences in a submission text without haha funney jokez. I will be judging all of this as well. Maybe the real Dream Team Contest 10 was the memes I judged along the way.
- Runs are to be submitted through either private message on the forums or DM on Discord (Samsara#4893), because there is absolutely no way I will remember to check an e-mail address. I barely even remember to check my own. Who do you think I am, Greg Popular? That's not even close to my name!!! How could you possibly think that!!!
- Your team is free to submit as many complete movies as they would like, but only a team's most recent submission will be counted when the contest is over, even if it is slower than a previous complete submission. Make sure your last submission is the one you want judged!
Or sabotage your team by submitting a really bad LOTAD 2 minutes before submissions close!
- In the event of a tie for first place, all tying teams
must fight to the death for my personal amusement win! c:
- In the event that ACE and/or GEG are possible in the chosen game, movies that take advantage of them will be judged separately from movies that do not. Or just... Don't use them, I guess. Don't complicate things. That makes things complicated.
- In the event that the game is correctly guessed,
uh... Well... Hey, try not to think about it, 'kay? <_< you'll get a gold star that says "YOU TRIED" for successfully guessing the game after it was announced.
- NEW: Entrants should use BizHawk 2.6.2 for this contest, with the standard BSNES core. I previously recommended the BSNESv115 experimental core, and will accept that, though I will not take accuracy differences into account. I will also allow lsnes, though keep in mind that unless the final movie syncs on BizHawk without modification, I will also not take accuracy differences into account for lsnes submissions.
- NEW: You're all probably following this already but just to make it explicit: No cheats or password usage is allowed in a contest submission. Feel free to use them for testing, but they must not remain in the final file. Anyone who is caught cheating will have 10 minutes added to their time, and then that time will be quadrupled, and then you will be disqualified anyway.
SAMSARA RULES
dang right i do :3c
GAME INFO
- It is an action game
- The console has not been used in a DTC before, but is available on Bizhawk
- It is not a handheld console
- The console is SNES
- Estimated TAS length is 15-20 minutes
- RTA runs clock in just above 20 minutes with room for improvement
- Routing and manipulation will be key factors...
- ...both of which will primarily involve the game's enemies
- The game has a run button, Colin,
- INFO'S DONE, Y'ALL
TEAM SIGN-UPS
1. CasualPokePlayer, InputEvelution, psx, RetroEdit -
"TAS to the MAX!"
2. BrunoVisnadi, brunovalads, Amaraticando, Redhotbr -
"FEIJOADA"
3. EZGames69, Really_Tall, fsvgm777, Memory - "The Trans-Atlantic TASers"
4. BillyWAR, PurpleSun, Shadow64, Xander - "The Galaxy Brains"
5. DrD2k9, xxezrabxxx, nymx, ThunderAxe31 -
"DENT"
6. g0goTBC, cyberpotato, WarHippy, lapogne36
7. ViGadeomes, arnaud33200, KiwiCracker, moozooh -
"Team 7"
8. R30hedron, FatRatKnight, Invariel, Mittenz
REAL ACTUAL TEAM NAMES:
1. CasualPokePlayer, InputEvelution, psx, RetroEdit - "We have no numbers... We must fight harder to make up for it!"
2. BrunoVisnadi, brunovalads, Amaraticando, Redhotbr - "Ha! What we lack in numbers, we make up for in Brunos!"
3. EZGames69, Really_Tall, fsvgm777, Memory - "Haha, your Brunos are pathetic! WE have the most numbers! We're unstoppable!"
4. BillyWAR, PurpleSun, Shadow64, Xander - "Ugh! That number level is off the charts! But we have an ace up our sleeve... Capital letters!"
5. DrD2k9, xxezrabxxx, nymx, ThunderAxe31 - "Oh no, that's a lot of capitals! Quickly, divert all of our power into our X count!"
6. g0goTBC, cyberpotato, WarHippy, lapogne36 - "Heavens above, they have more X's than Samsara! It's okay, we're well-rounded, we can take on anyone!"
7. ViGadeomes, arnaud33200, KiwiCracker, moozooh - "We only need ONE person for the numbers game! All together, we are unstoppable!"
8. R30hedron, FatRatKnight, Invariel, Mittenz - "[final boss music begins to play]"
The game is...
Ghoul Patrol is the oft-forgotten sequel to Zombies Ate My Neighbors, and has the same overall goal: Get through each level while rescuing between 1-10 innocent people. If all 10 victims die, then you really hecked up. If 9 victims die, then you're probably running any%!
You're running any%! One player, fastest completion.
This is the current RTA WR. There is no other speedrun-relevant information on this game. Good luck!
Checksums:
CRC-32: ea16b5a2
MD5: 657fa94cff4464cbc58c476ea642299a
SHA-1: bea0a40772574ae5e3896699d94f161339329c59
SHA-256: a4ceb31b82ea532e6eb640fa2eda61625758e72251efa5f0ae9a984f4a98a8a0
Tips for the Game:
- There is no gameplay difference between Zeke and Julie, except for 2 extra frames needed to select Julie. These two frames will not count against any team who correctly decides to use the superior character.
- Movement is absolutely key in this run, it's a lot more complex compared to ZAMN and should be mastered as soon as possible. Running (hold Y) and sliding (X) are going to be your best friends.
- Unlike ZAMN, which is a long string of disconnected stages, Ghoul Patrol is 5 sets of themed stages. Victims replenish at the beginning of each set, meaning you do have to optimize victim-killing multiple times throughout the run. Watch the RTA run and plan ahead! There's bosses you actually have to dang fight and everything!
Tips for DTC Itself:
- Divide and Conquer: You have teams for a reason! Set people on individual tasks, utilizing each member's strengths and weaknesses in order to maximize your overall efficiency.
- Don't Lose Touch: Even if you're all working on individual things, stay in active contact! Talk to each other about what you're doing, ask for advice, share ideas and suggestions, give your teammates constant updates and let them check in. Your team, much like Slotermeyer's publication history, has 8 eyes! They should all be in use!
- Play the Dang Game: Never underestimate the power of a casual (poke) playthrough. It's a great way to learn the game before you jump straight into TASing it. Heck, you can even LOTAD it, if LOTAD is the kind of term you like to use, you nerd, you absolute nerd, you complete and utter nerd, you all-encompassing and unabashed ne-
- Take Your Time: Given the length of the run, the complexity of the game, and Discord pulling some mad BS, I have given
10 16 weeks of TAS time. While you shouldn't procrastinate, you should definitely not feel like you have to rush, either! Rushing could lead to burnout, which could lead to not working for your team, which would lead to me saying "Haha, yeah, that's me in group projects" and being very sad. Do you want to make me sad? Please don't answer that.
- Everything is Useful: As long as you're working on something, you're helping your team! Work on routing, or glitch hunting, or a Lua script, or creating level maps, or finding RAM addresses. Give advice on what your teammates are doing, encourage them, take a second or third look at their work, start and participate in conversations about your run, offer every weird little idea in your head. Everything is useful! It's like it's the title of this tip or something!
- Take Notes: If you find something, take note of it and remember it, even if it doesn't seem immediately useful. Everything could be useful! It's like it was the title of the previous tip or something!
- Have Fun: This isn't a super serious contest, so don't take it super seriously. If you're not having fun, take a step back for a bit and lessen your workload. Remember that even if all you're doing is talking to your team, you're helping!
Fun DTC10 Trivia:
Other Game Choices:
- Biker Mice from Mars (SNES): Scrapped because a full game run would have almost certainly been too long and complex for the limited time frame.
- Pilotwings 64 (N64): Scrapped because N64.
- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater "all goals and golds" (PSX): Scrapped for complexity due to 3D movement.
- Skuljagger - Revolt of the Westicans (SNES): Was my original choice, but scrapped because I found a couple better ones.
- Demolition Man (SNES): My original choice and backup in case Ghoul Patrol went over poorly. Still think it'd make for a great, short TAS.
SPECIAL THANKS:
- psx made a great joke about onion rings a while ago which in no way will affect their final time now that they are participating
- moozooh made the alternate logo which is better than mine even if i am morally opposed to how accurately i am depicted in it
- colin how in the actual hell did you
LITERAL DREAM TEAM:
Currently,
2 people have had actual dreams about the contest.
1 of them has turned out to be prophetic.
1 person had a dream about Naruto that was unrelated to the contest, but I feel should be mentioned here anyway.
Your DTC10 champions are...
Team 6 - g0goTBC, cyberpotato, WarHippy, lapogne36!
Final Results:
1st Place: Team 6 -
14:13.41
2nd Place: Team 8 -
14:29.67
3rd Place: Team 7 (Team 7) -
14:37.34
4th Place: Team 4 (The Galaxy Brains) -
16:35.28
5th Place: Team 3 (The Trans-Atlantic TASers) -
DNF (2-BOSS)
6th Place: Team 1 (TAS to the MAX!) -
DNF (2-BOSS)
7th Place: Team 2 (FEIJOADA) - did not submit
Last Place: Team 5 (DENT) - submitted a rickroll
Stage Comparisons by Level:
Stage Comparisons by Total Framecount:
"START" is the first frame of allowed movement on 1-1, "FINAL" is the frame the character disappears on the final door, each other framecount is the first full frame of black on the fadeout after each stage.
EDIT: Small clarification on 1-2 in the individual level sheet - Team 1's victim routing in 1-1 was vastly different than any other team so I couldn't accurately compare their 1-2 time to the rest... And also I just forgot to look slightly more to the left when doing the colors <_<
I intend to take a deeper dive on every submission and put together some notes, but I wanted to get the results up first since notes + bigger deep dives would take me forever.
Thanks to everyone for participating, and congratulations to everyone for crushing it on such a complex game! If there's anything to take away from these results for DTC11: Sign up late and don't give your team a name! Feel free to discuss the game, your work on it, and definitely organize a space for people to freely work on the final site submission together... And make sure I'm invited, dangit! I wanna work for that free co-authorship credit!
