Posted: 10/12/2006 3:55 AM
Post subject: Pin Bot
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Inzult
Active player (435)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
NES TAS of 2021
I was fiddling around with this game the other day, and I got to testing, and I got to thinking it may make for a good movie. I watched the rejected submission, but unfortunately, it didn't look very much like a TAS. The goal in that run was to play through all the tables, but that doesn't make much sense to me. Plus it was weird to see the movie end in the middle of play. There are credits if you get a certain score (9.98 some-million). So there is an ending. Is anyone interested in seeing a more polished score attack, or should I just forget it? I would have to get a gameover to get the credits. I'm not sure how to make failure interesting, but I bet there's a way.
Posted: 10/12/2006 5:49 PM
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qFox
Joined: 4/25/2004
Posts: 615
Location: The Netherlands
Funny you should mention it, I watched that run this week as well. I've played that game so many times on my NES and the other day I just wanted to see what actually happened when you reached the 8th (or w/e) table. It was kind of disappointing to find out what, but whatever. You get the creditlist for reaching a lower score I believe, but maybe it's just beating the #1 score (and curse Nintendo for not saving the highscores on that cardridge...). Anyways, the rejected pinbot movie, although a little sloppy, was indeed rather boring. Especially since there was no real ending. I'm not sure whether a much better one will be any more interesting. You can obviously keep on playing forever in a TAS. It's a good game though. Perhaps reaching the last world is best. Has anyone checked what comes when you go through the entire cycle twice? (so once with the triangle balls)
qfox.nl
Posted: 10/12/2006 6:44 PM
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Inzult
Active player (435)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
NES TAS of 2021
Okay. Mild yet cautious interest. I'll take it :D
qFox wrote:
You get the creditlist for reaching a lower score I believe, but maybe it's just beating the #1 score.
This is exactly right. Which is why it's such a weird number. The top score is 9,983,270.
qFox wrote:
Perhaps reaching the last world is best. Has anyone checked what comes when you go through the entire cycle twice? (so once with the triangle balls)
The cycle of balls is supposed to be independent of the cycle of tables. I think it's related to your cycle through the planets. After the cheese wedge shapes, you get cubes. Short answer: I haven't tested, but I doubt anything happens. Anyway, the time needed to clear all tables should be about the same as the time to get the high score*. The rejected run almost gets enough points. The main difference is the time that is wasted by the game pausing for the digitized voice (and maybe using the solar ramp*) can be worked out, but is replaced (and surpassed) by needing to lose 3 balls to get the gameover screen. *Still testing the possibility of getting one ball stuck in the vortex. If it's possible and the vortex multiplier still goes up, then the high score can be reached much, much faster than clearing all tables. The ingame time can be optimized over the rejected run by quite a bit. Also, it may be worth considering both clearing all tables and getting the high score.
Posted: 10/13/2006 8:16 AM
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Inzult
Active player (435)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
NES TAS of 2021
Well, I can't sleep, so here's a testrun As far as I can tell, this is the quickest way to ten million. If I can keep the balls more in sync, I can exploit extra multipliers on the vortex shot because you are awarded the multiplier after falling into the launch chute. And as you can see, the balls can pass through each other. This may save an extra solar ramp shot, the points woud probably easily be covered. Also, I can increase lateral movement by tilting the machine. I paid some attention to that, but not too much. Also, there are a few instances of me finding a quick solution rather than waste my time finding an elegant one. Even still, 3:17 to get ten million points, die 3 times and enter my name on the test. This is a more accurate idea of what I was thinking of for this game. What do you guys think: A/R/F?
Posted: 10/18/2012 1:04 AM
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hegyak
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Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
Over 6 years. I am necroing this hard. After watching the testrun I have to say that it is kinda dull to a degree. At first it's, Ho hum. Ima lose. Then Ball 3 comes up then skill takes over. But is that the fastest way? Solar to Vortex until score reached? Technical side, it's a good plan. On the entertainment side, it's majorly lacking.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Posted: 10/18/2012 4:19 AM
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Inzult
Active player (435)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
NES TAS of 2021
hegyak wrote:
But is that the fastest way? Solar to Vortex until score reached? Technical side, it's a good plan. On the entertainment side, it's majorly lacking.
AFAIK that's the fastest way. I can't say I have thought of everything though. And I agree, sort of a boring run.
Posted: 10/18/2012 7:39 AM
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partyboy1a
Player (137)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
I used to play this game for hours during my childhood. I got the 10 million after a few hours of continuously playing. The game has a lot more to offer than just 10 million points. The ball can become a triangle, and later on it becomes a cube. I think it's more fun to activate all extra lives, play all tables once, and get those helpers which kick your ball back to the center of the table. For a special challenge, you could show how you survive with both flippers destroyed (there are rockets in two levels which can damage the flippers), or even advance to the next table afterwards. I don't know if that is even possible though.
Posted: 11/16/2012 11:52 AM
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partyboy1a
Player (137)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
Some memory watch file: Download Pinbot (U).wch
Language: wch

3
00000	0058	b	u	0	y
00001	043C	b	u	0	y2
00002	0056	b	u	0	x
I made a discovery which allows for a faster strategy than the (unsubmitted) TAS by Inzult: You don't need to shoot the solar ramp to get the Vortex points, it also works -> this way <- (extract the file to your fceux folder, start the game, load the movie, let the movie play until the flipper table appears, then load first savestate. If you load the savestate instantly after starting the movie, you will get messed up graphics). Well, and this strategy would allow you to get 10.000.000 points without ever using the flippers, might be somewhat interesting. I did some math with it: The best strategy for ball 3 would be: start double ball, shoot solar ramp once with each ball (vortex multiplier is then 4, and multiplier for double ball is 2, so each vortex shot gives 800.000 points.), then try to get the two balls to score vortex shots in the same way as demonstrated (which is very difficult to do, I just was really lucky that it worked at all.) If it is fast enough, it should save about 1.000 frames. Shooting the solar ramp once more doesn't save time, because you can either get 1 vortex shot + increased multiplier or 3 vortex shots in the same time.