Generally I tried to use all the lessons learned in my NES Arkanoid movies. However, this game is a bit more complicated since it contains more types of bricks, powerups, and bosses.
As per strategy, I always looked to get the Laser, 8-ball, M, and super powerups. Since the powerup type are not RNG but pre-determined (levels are paired to powerups pretty nicely), I had to devise a specific strategy for each level.
The game also contains several bosses types that require different approaches. The bosses repeat thrice and the game finally ends after you defeat the last boss in the 3rd iteration.
This movie took several months and severely inflated electricity bills to make, so I hope you enjoy!
nymx: Again, like your NES TAS, this is amazing work. I love the fact that you destroy the WR by over less than half of the time a human can do it. I've always said that a time that's 50% or less of human effort, is ROCK SOLID and probably can never be beaten. In this TAS, there are a few extra crazy things going on...IE multiple balls, which also made for a good showing. So, there is no reason to hold on to this any longer, since it is waaaay beyond human limits and doesn't need much critiquing. Just a sync verification and WR comparison.
Now, to Doh It Again, I'm accepting this SNES version!
Loving the video so far. One question: In Round 29 (13:37 into the video), you have Laser, but you don't destroy the blocks on the right with it; is that shot not possible?
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Loving the video so far. One question: In Round 29 (13:37 into the video), you have Laser, but you don't destroy the blocks on the right with it; is that shot not possible?
glad you're enjoying it so far!
You're right, that block would block (lol) the laser shot.
I am still the wizard that did it.
"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer." -- Satoru Iwata
<scrimpy> at least I now know where every map, energy and save room in this game is
Nice to see more Arkanoid. Two things. Since your NES movie made use of a different peripheral, how does using the SNES mouse compare to the joypad for this title? And sometimes you let balls disappear, even when there's blocks enough that they seem useful. I don't know the full mechanics, but can you not return the coloured balls that appear when you hit certain enemies? (Like in round 97.)
Nice to see more Arkanoid. Two things. Since your NES movie made use of a different peripheral, how does using the SNES mouse compare to the joypad for this title? And sometimes you let balls disappear, even when there's blocks enough that they seem useful. I don't know the full mechanics, but can you not return the coloured balls that appear when you hit certain enemies? (Like in round 97.)
Hi Chanoyu, thanks for your coments.
The closer to a specialized controller for SNES is using a mouse to control the paddle. However, the mouse has speed limitations and therefore cannot achieve the same effects as in my NES movie.
As per apparently sub-optimal situations (balls lost), it can be the case that dropping one or two in favor of keeping others far away alive ends up being the global optimum. However, this can also be attributed to the fact that I used a significantly narrower exploration space for this game than for the NES, since the latter can be emulated much (~6x) faster, and more states (200x) fit in memory
As per the colored balls, they will explore upon touching them with the paddle or with other balls. Unfortunately, it's hard to make better use of them.
Hope that answers your questions!
