Carnival

Hurry! Hurry! Step right up and prove your skill at hitting targets in this challenging carnival shooting gallery. Authentic carinval music and gallery sounds set the mood as you build up your score with good aim and a careful choice of targets. But watch out for the bullet eating ducks! Once you clear the gallery you get a chance at hitting a special bear target for extra points.
More information can be found in the manual.

Tools Used

  • BizHawk 2.9.1

Effort In TASing (Not BOTed)

Like many of the game's I've done in the past, I either go through the game entirely and redo it from the beginning or start over the moment I find something new. In this case...I started over after making a few discoveries to make it faster. So I never made a full run to have a comparison of my efforts.
Optimizing this TAS comes down to a number of things:
  • RNG. You must control the appearance of new obstacles. Not doing so, makes the round longer.
  • Shooting order. You need to be conscience of the order of shooting. If you shoot things that are coming towards you...it saves time over traveling. Some rounds, I allow some obstacles to move towards me so that I don't have to backtrack.
  • Spinning Wheel. The wheel occasionally doesn't respond to a shot, therefore, it may be necessary to shoot the wheel from the other side. This is done a few times, but timing of the wheel must be taken into consideration.
  • Bonus Round. After playing a few of these rounds, I noticed that the speed of the bears could be increased so that they exit the screen faster. At the end, this isn't necessary...since I'm ending input early.

Difficulty and Ending Choice

This game is played on the hardest level of 4.
This game doesn't have a clear ending. Speed-Runners have a curious ending of Four rounds, which I don't understand. If you look at the game, you'll notice numbers on the right. Well, the manual says that these stop increasing after Five levels. So I continued on until I completed Five rounds.

Human Comparison

This speedrun is done over four rounds. I don't know why, but that is the only comparison I can give you.

eien86: Claiming for judging.

eien86: A quircky little galaga-style shooter that takes setting in, of all places, a Carnival. This movie quickly completes five whole rounds (normal + bonus stage), after which the game has nothing else to offer. The run is greatly optimized, so I reckon only some heavy duty botting could make noticeable improvements, if any.
Accepting to Standard

Spikestuff: Processing...


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #9195: nymx's Coleco Carnival in 03:01.45
GJTASer2018
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Here's a trick not documented in the manual that might help:
StrategyWiki wrote:
if you fire a shot at that sign on the right side of the screen with the musical note in it, the note will disappear and the music will stop... if you finished one round with the music off, the next round will start with the music back on again.
If there's a lot of lag frames in the run, you may save more time by shutting off the music (reducing the amount of work the program has to do and thus the chances of lag frames) than you would spend moving the gun over and back to take the shot to turn it off. I think it's worth at least investigating whether it could help or not. :)
c-square wrote:
Yes, standard runs are needed and very appreciated here too
Dylon Stejakoski wrote:
Me and the boys starting over our games of choice for the infinityieth time in a row because of just-found optimizations
^ Why I don't have any submissions despite being on the forums for years now...
nymx
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GJTASer2018 wrote:
Here's a trick not documented in the manual that might help:
StrategyWiki wrote:
if you fire a shot at that sign on the right side of the screen with the musical note in it, the note will disappear and the music will stop... if you finished one round with the music off, the next round will start with the music back on again.
If there's a lot of lag frames in the run, you may save more time by shutting off the music (reducing the amount of work the program has to do and thus the chances of lag frames) than you would spend moving the gun over and back to take the shot to turn it off. I think it's worth at least investigating whether it could help or 9not. :)
Sounds like something I need to check out. Thanks.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
nymx
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As requested by [user:GJTASer2018], I did look into the "Sound" issue, on whether or not it reduces lag. I've been trying to give this a fair look and I'm not having success for reasons listed below: *The previous lag frames are still showing, maybe one frame off here and there, but they still exist. *If lag frames were being reduced, I would certainly want to shot that "Note" object as early as possible. Because I tested that scenario, the game started throwing harder situations to deal with...which in turn wrecked any potential improvements. IE: flying ducks started to descend, which means I need to take care of them before they cause destructive time loses (eating of bullets). *If some can be improved by shooting this "Note', then it would have to recover the time it takes to make that special shot...which I'm not seeing.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
eien86
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Hey Nymx, here I am thinking about the correct ending point of the movie. Notwithstanding the human TAS, I do believe the movie needs to end on shooting away the bears (i.e., the completion of the bonus level), and not where it currently ends now. Whether that is in the last round where a noticeable change happens (i.e., three bears appear in the bonus), or when the user manual indicates, it's debatable. However, for me it's clear that the fast killing of bears in the bonus stage should be the end point. Let me know your thoughts
nymx
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eien86 wrote:
Hey Nymx, here I am thinking about the correct ending point of the movie. Notwithstanding the human TAS, I do believe the movie needs to end on shooting away the bears (i.e., the completion of the bonus level), and not where it currently ends now. Whether that is in the last round where a noticeable change happens (i.e., three bears appear in the bonus), or when the user manual indicates, it's debatable. However, for me it's clear that the fast killing of bears in the bonus stage should be the end point. Let me know your thoughts
Sorry for the delay. I started football today. I'm back and ready to discuss. My thoughts was to let input end early, because after those 3 bears...it goes right back to the normal screen again. Shooting them, so that they exit the screen faster, makes the game progress faster but neglects the "Early Input". So doing nothing will still complete the round. If you want me to complete that round, i can do so...I just fee like its not necessary, seeing that its not required to keep the game going.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [6093] Coleco Carnival by nymx in 03:01.45