Dunk (Compute's Gazette)
Consider yourself warmed: This game is very difficult to master. Even the most ardent game players will find it a great challenge.
"Dunk" will challenge any previous conceptions you may have had about your joystick. Pressing up may move your player down while pressing left may move you right. And just when you think you have the pattern mastered, it changes.
Why TAS This Game?
The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute's Gazette. This makes my 29th TAS from this series.
This was one of the rare magazines that had only one game in it. Well, it was written in machine language and I knew that games written in this fashion were usually a lot better and more exciting. Woah!! Was I about to be shocked!
This game was a NIGHTMARE! I couldn't play it, and I think I probably scored 2 or 3 dunks. If was majorly confusing and just too much for me to handle. Even in terms of TASing, it was a bit aggrevating to keep up with all the motions on the screen. One funny thing that I laughed at, was the mention of scoring in the article. You should read it to see what I'm talking about. I would love to track down the author and show him this, since the max score of 75 is absolutely not humanly possible...I could be wrong though. :P
Previous Compute's Gazette submissions include (In order of submission):
Game Ending
The game drops 25 balls. Once they all fall off the screen, the game is over. So this leaves a category of "Maximum Score", which 75 points i the highest possibility. So the ending is simple...a prompt will show to play the game again.
Effort In TASing
To start off with, this was very challenging. I went through this TAS 3 full times. I did so, because I noticed time saving techniques on each run-through. The last time, I saw nothing else that could be improved...so here it is. Even though this is a "Maximum Score" run, I still want to do it as ASAP.
Human Comparison
Couldn't find anybody with a video. I wonder why? LOL
nymx: Replaced existing movie with an improved version of 660 frames, after finally figuring out an RNG situation that isn't normal for games written in machine language. Encode has also been updated.
nymx: I missed something. This game is so hard to pay attention to. 25 frames cut.
DrD2k9: While the action is slow-moving, I can see where the challenge would be for a human. If ball drops could be better manipulated for more rapid drops or if the location of the platform holes could be better manipulated then perhaps this could be beaten, but it would take a lot of testing to determine. As-is, nothing is obviously sub-optimal. As a slightly faster run could be accomplished by getting a lower score (while still not losing any balls), an any% run could still be performed. Therefore, I feel this run should maintain the "Maximum Score" branch label. If someone were to attempt an any% run, I feel that losing any balls off the platforms (other than at the scoring marks) should be considered failure to complete the game.
Accepting
