Game Description:
Moon Patrol is a horizontally scrolling shooter released for the Atari 2600 in 1983. You play as a tank who can shoot aliens and dirt, jump over holes and dodge bullets.
Tags:
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.8
Goal:
This TAS fills the meter as fast as possible by clearing 5 levels. I thought this was a suitable ending point since the game itself goes on forever.
In-Game / TAS Comments:
- The tank and alien physics run at ~7.49 frames per second (60/8).
- Your tank can only jump every 8 frames and shoot every 12 frames.
- Sometimes an alien can make holes on the moon depending on where it shoots its bullets.
- Alien RNG is dependent on how many aliens your tank shoots.
- Input ends when I set up for the final jump.
Thanks for Reading
Thanks to nymx for the encode.
As usual, if you find any improvements, you can be added as a co-author.
Full Version (10 Levels / 2 Courses)
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Setting to "Delayed", per author's request.
nymx: Updating submission with longer movie file that includes the 2nd course. Additionally, created an encode for embedded use.
nymx: I've held on to this submission for a while, because I wanted to understand the mechanics a bit better. From what I'm seeing, this game's speed is constant throughout the entire run. When pressing left, you are not truly slowing down...but re-positioning your patrol car to avoid obstacles. This means, you just have to survive in order to get to the end. Proof of this speed can been seen in a number of ways:
- The In Game Timer (IGT) consistently ends up 42 at the end of each round, except the last round of each course...which would be 50. This was due to one extra check point. (5 check points per stage, 6 for the last).
- The frame count of each course is roughly the same, although LGR end input earlier. (I extended it to see if it would be close)
- Unlike other Moon Patrol versionis...this truly is an auto-scroller and I can't see any way to improve it. (famous last words. :( )
Ending input earlier is the only conceivable way to improve the time, from my analysis. Game meets the classification of "No Major Skips".
Accepting to "Standard" for publication.