This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1390: Gunty's SNES Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions in 12:56.50

Unfortunately, the last frame of input was somewhere lost in the progress of submission. I've PMed Bisqwit the updated movie file, so hopefully it'll be updated shortly. Oh, and I hope you enjoy the movie :)

Very nice job, especially for your first submission! I was definitely entertained. The fast jetpack speed and some of the more crazy jumps were pretty cool. Only thing that stuck out to me was near the end, a couple hits were taken that caused some pausing, but I don't know the game at all so I'm guessing it was faster than whatever alternative there is. I vote yes.

Everything looked pretty good. The only problem I have is that, like JXQ said, it seemed that you took some damage in the last few levels for no obvious reason. An example would be the first lazer beam, where you drop on to it and take damage when you could have probably dropped behind it and waited a few frames to fall through. I'll withhold my vote until the smv is updated to complete the game. If I don't post in here stating the vote, though, be sure to remind me.

Looks pretty optimized to me, though, as JXQ stated, some of the hits did seem to cause you to stop moving (which could likely be optimized). All in all though, a pretty impressive run.

A very nice addition to TASVideos. I'm impressed, you're very first TAS is something great (while my first TAS was fairly good but a little mediocre, at least to me it was) and fresh so nice job there. The movie itself looks well optimized (I probably only played this game twice in my life and I remember very little of it). Nice job on making an entertaining movie of a relatively interesting movie. I vote yes for this.

I voted meh on account of that it violates the rule that the game should be played on the hardest difficulty when doing so is more entertaining. This game is trivial on normal difficulty; the most interesting part is the bosses, and the run practically skips them. Also, one thing i noticed was that the 3-3 boss could have been done at least 60 frames faster without using the blitz attack (or whatever it's called). Though, whether this can be made worth it in the long run i'm not sure. Other than that, it seems pretty well optimized, and a good job for your first tas. In any case, i'm looking forward to a hard mode run.

I voted Yes because there is no TAS of this game and it is entertaning enough in my opinion! The fact that it is the first TAS of this game means competition is on the way. Who will beat it?.. I like it. YES

I voted Yes because there is no TAS of this game...

This is bad. Theoretically speaking, we shouldn't lower our standards for the sake of a wider selection of runs.

i liked it. it was entertaning enough. No?

I have never played this game, so I can't judge the route selection and such. But from what I could see, you did use optimized movement, abused the game physics pretty well, you did a good deal of research and in general always kept momentum. But as the others have said, you seemed to take damage that stopped you too much sometimes, and I wonder if this could be avoided through luck manipulation (I think luck manipulation lacked throughout the entire game, if this is because the game doesn't have 'luck' or any other reason I dont know). Also you seemed to stop up every time you wanted to use jetpack. Game mechanic? When it comes to selection of difficulty, I dont know the real difference. If all it truly does is prolong fights due to only lowering weapon damage, then I do not see much use in it. Good work for a first submission, but hard for me to judge just yet.

Alright some explanations:

Only thing that stuck out to me was near the end, a couple hits were taken that caused some pausing, but I don't know the game at all so I'm guessing it was faster than whatever alternative there is.

I'm pretty sure you mean the times I 'fall' on the green laser beams. On the first beam, I had the alternative to turn around a few frames and blosck the beam, and then move further, but as you can see, right after the point I hit the beam, there's a martian walking around that cannot be dodged. So it actually saves time to eat the laser beam and abuse the invulnerability time to walk through the martian. The second laserbeam is less obvious, but right after I hit the beam, I have to change my walking direction. Fortunately, getting hit by a laser beam instantly resets your horizontal speed to zero, so this allowed for an extra quick turn. The third time I get hit in the last level is right after the point where I fly underneath the level and jump on the martian. This is one of those enemies without a ceiling above them, so I couldn't use the dodge glitch. Also I did not have enough fuel to fly further underneath the platforms, so that wasn't an option either.

I wonder if this could be avoided through luck manipulation

There is no luck manipulation in this game. Everything seems to be predefined. The time enemies spawn (and start shooting) is triggered by getting within a fixed distance with them, so the only option to influence the spawn time is to slow down on the way to them. The only really 'random' thing appears to be the lag frames, which makes the game really hard to hexedit :(.

Also you seemed to stop up every time you wanted to use jetpack. Game mechanic?

Yep. Standing still gives you a negative horizontal acceleration of 0.5 pixel/frame/frame, where walking the opposite direction only gives you ~0.22. Also note that while using the jetpack, it is impossible to change direction and the horizontal acceleration is capped. Therefore it is necessary to achieve the required horizontal speed prior to using the jetpack.

I voted meh on account of that it violates the rule that the game should be played on the hardest difficulty when doing so is more entertaining.

Fair enough, though the submission text actually states normal mode was chosen for extra entertainment. As for the differences between hard and normal mode:

Weapon Name      Price (per 10)  N-Damage  H-Damage
Normal Gun:              Free        14         8
Freeze Gun:              $400         5         4
Anti Matter Gun:         $400        44        30
Electricity Gun:         $300        32        20
Three-way Gun:           $300        30        30
Bomb Gun:                $350        48        32

As you can see, the main weapons of this run (normal, antimatter and bomb gun) do significantly less damage. Also, if you watch closely you can see that this run ends with only one bullet left for the bombgun and the final world is entered with no cash remaining. Doing a run on normal mode would lead to using suboptimal weapons which would be extremely hard to plan. Hopefully this will shed some light on the normal mode issue. Also, thanks for the positive feedback so far :). EDIT: Also, the rule about playing at hardest difficulty level isn't really a rule, but rather a guideline seeing that it's posted here: http://tasvideos.org/Guidelines.html ;)

i liked it. it was entertaning enough. No?

If you read what I was responding to, I never said that it being entertaining was a bad criteria. Accepting runs for games simply because we don't have any yet is a terrible idea. Accepting runs for games that are entertaining/impressive is a good idea, so long as it's fairly optimised.

Ok Zurreco your right. The main reason i voted yes exept for the fact that there is no TAS from it yet is i loved the Michael Jackson moonwalk... ;) No but seriously it was fast, its is first run and we dont know how much faster it could really be. He had is reasons for damage taken. The only visible reason why i would have maybe voted a meh is the fact that he dosent play the hardest mode but still... My vote is set!

Also, one thing i noticed was that the 3-3 boss could have been done at least 60 frames faster without using the blitz attack (or whatever it's called). Though, whether this can be made worth it in the long run i'm not sure.

Oh, I forgot to reply to this one in my last post. As said, I finish the game with only one bullet remaining for the bomb gun and none for the anti-matter gun. Using special ammo on this boss would make me run out of ammo during the final boss. The nutty attack (I think it's called that way) is used on this boss because he is one of the few bosses without invulnerability time after a hit, which makes him take 1 damage every frame.

Thanks for your answers, as you answered my doubts (about the only way to control randomness is through lag on frames and stopping before jetpack) I'm considering this a good TAS.

Alright, after reading some replys I'm leaning towards yes. But, my one question is, is it faster to run from point A to B normally, or to turn around and shoot and use the recoil to move quicker?

Alright, after reading some replys I'm leaning towards yes. But, my one question is, is it faster to run from point A to B normally, or to turn around and shoot and use the recoil to move quicker?

Both are equally fast, since horizontal speed is capped at 3 pixels/frame. While walking, turning around does not influence your speed if you immediately jump or shoot after it. In the air however, turning around does slow you down a bit, so doing this is avoided.

I voted meh on account of that it violates the rule that the game should be played on the hardest difficulty when doing so is more entertaining.

It is pretty standard procedure to use normal difficulty if the only difference between the two is enemy HP/weapon damage. Hard mode should be used if there are more enemies, if they are faster, or something else taht changes the run beyond just hitting the boss more times. I find normal mode a good choice here. Also, use abuse the game physics well and seem like you researched the game thoroughly. Congratulations on having your first run accepted.

Congratulations on having your first run accepted.

Well thank you :). Although it will probably take a while for this to get published, I'd like to point out that the movie file hasn't been updated yet. I'm not sure if anyone else besides Bisqwit can change the movie file in the submission, but if so, the updated movie can be found here. EDIT: Moved fixed SMV to Microstorage.

This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [798] SNES Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions by Gunty in 12:56.50

This game hurt my ears and my heart.

Congratulation on your first run published thought your second was published first :P

i seriously cant see how you cant see why he made tho's pauses etc. it's kinda blatantly obvious. yes vote :)