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Topics - yoshifan

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1
Competition Central / Sonic Adventure 2 story mode races
« on: September 16, 2011, 02:12:47 pm »
Zeph and I (and others) have been doing full-story races of Sonic Adventure 2 on speedrunslive.  Feel free to join in or watch!

Next scheduled race: None scheduled yet

Resources:

Speedrunslive
We're using this to organize our races.  For Story mode, we start with a new file, so you have to collect upgrades as you go.  Start timing (Racebot says GO!) at the Story Select screen, and end timing (type .done) when we get the last hit on Shadow/Sonic 2.
Site: main page, SA2 page
Channel: irc.speeddemosarchive.com, #speedrunslive
Racebot commands: here

Player streams
Zeph/Buizel
Yoshifan
During a race you can watch both streams simultaneously here. Just click on our names under the Sonic Adventure 2 Battle section to open up the streams.

SA2 help
TSC Videos
son1cgu1tar's Hero and Dark story speedruns
99 lives trick (Just for practicing, obviously.  Also, I find that the beetle needs to move 8-9 times to get close enough for the death into the back ring.)
Hunting locations.  I made this for my Hero story speedrun from a while back.  Will be added to and improved.

2
Mario News / Super Mario 64
« on: July 21, 2011, 01:23:40 am »
Super Mario 64's open for submissions!
There's more Times charts than you might expect, given that Super Mario 64 levels generally don't have a timer.  I'll let the Rules do the explaining here:


For all Times charts, you must input a code to make a timer display on the screen.

There are several different timer codes out there, but any timer code must adhere to the following rules:

  • When the level starts, the timer should start. (Some codes reset the timer to zero automatically as the level starts; others require you to reset it by pressing a button during the star select screen or the fade-to-black.  Either type of timer is allowed.)
  • When you collect the Star (or grab the key/star that Bowser leaves), the timer should stop, showing your time for that level.
  • The timer may not reset or pause at any time during the level, except during certain messages such as the instructional message in the Tower of the Wing Cap.  Note that some timers pause for a short time when you use a warp (such as the one between flower beds in Bob-Omb Battlefield) - avoid using this kind of timer if you use a warp during a level.
  • The timer must display tenths of seconds.  Displaying hundredths or thousandths is okay, but you must submit your time in tenths; if you use a timer with hundredths or thousandths digits, simply ignore those extra digits to get your time in tenths.

Allowed versions: Nintendo 64, Wii Virtual Console, and emulator.


All charts are available for submission now!

(The only stars that don't have charts are Bob-Omb Battlefield Star 2, Tiny-Huge Island Star 3, and the Princess's Secret Slide in under 21 seconds.  The reason is that the timer code and the level's race timer interact poorly, making it impossible to time these stars from start to finish.)



There's quite a few very talented Super Mario 64 speedrunners on YouTube, and many of them use the timer hack for individual-star speedruns and challenges.  Hopefully these charts can be a useful way to collect everyone's best times for each level.  For those unfamiliar with the setup required to use the timer hack, we'll do our best to get more informational links.

If you don't have a timer hack, you can try your hand at Coins and Races.  But don't forget about the coin chart rule (if you don't know what it means, then you're probably fine):


Tricks that can be used to spawn infinite coins are not allowed.


Thanks to Devin for the game information, as well as the suggestion to add the game.  (And thanks to Gerbil for tech support.)

Update: charts issues have been resolved!
Thanks to Gerbil for the help again.  For the new Koopa the Quick / Secret Slide charts, see the Races category.  These Races charts do not require timer codes, so those who play on console without access to codes can compete.  (Also, the "Princess's Secret Slide - Block" star time is still there under Times (Sub Courses); that one still uses a timer code, to time from the start of the level to the star.)

3
Mario News / Some powerups charts
« on: December 25, 2010, 08:34:06 pm »
Happy holidays!  They're pretty overdue, but I finally added powerups charts to New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, and Super Mario Bros. 3.  In these charts, you can start a level with whatever powerups you like.  Powerups charts for more games may also be added, if people request them.

The rules for the original Times categories have remained the same.  I'd like to re-name the "Times" categories for these games to "Times(small)", for clarity, though I asked GerbilSoft about re-naming categories and he said there wasn't a way right now.  Maybe someday.

Note that any stats that you achieved for Times can also be submitted to Times (powerups), since Times (powerups) just has more relaxed rules.  So feel free to copy your Times stats over to Times (powerups).  Then go ahead and hunt down the levels which get easier or faster when you start with powerups.

Also, if you missed out on Super Mario All-Stars for the SNES, and you're not into using emulators, there's been a Wii release of All-Stars lately.  Yes, it's a bit expensive for an SNES re-release, but it is an option for SNES competition.

4
Leaderboard Disputes / ATTN: Wellbe6 (from Mario Center)
« on: December 12, 2010, 02:43:05 am »
I hope it's okay if I bring up a semi-handled Mario Center case here (and yes, a months old case... I've been busy/lazy).  I figure this is a better idea than trying to catch an unsuspecting mod in the TSC chat to handle this.  I'll try to give plenty of detail so that someone not so familiar with Mario can take further action/inaction on this post.
If this isn't okay, this topic can be removed.


I'd like to suggest that Wellbe6's times be removed from the rankings.  He has many submissions in Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, but it's mainly his SMG2 submissions that concern me.

In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Wellbe6 submitted many first place times (times page here), many of which tied the incumbent first-place times despite the fact that the game tracks centiseconds (see the "2 players" records here).  Other submitted times beat packattack's well-optimized (as evidenced by videos) times by significant margins.  Wellbe6 submitted enough to gain the championship for Galaxy 2.

I sent Wellbe6 a PM and mentioned that his times were obviously fake to me, but I did not mention specifically why, or which ones.  I'm not sure if he noticed the PM, but a few days later he changed about eight of his submissions into slower times (all 6 Sky Station levels, and the first 2 stars of Yoshi Star).  Most of these times were suspicious ties before he changed them.  He changed enough stuff so that he would forfeit his championship.  Many of the new slower times were strangely even times such as 1:50.00.  He's changed some of these times yet again on November 28, so check out the stat histories if you're inclined to.

Many of the un-changed times are still strange centisecond ties or beat solid records by large margins (e.g. by 2 seconds in a 20 second level).

About a week after the PM, I posted in TMC's Leaderboard Disputes to call out Wellbe6.  He visited the forum well after the LD post was made, but hasn't replied.


I'd also heard that Wellbe6 got into some trouble at Cyberscore ( http://www.cyberscore.me.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1323.0 ), though that may or may not hold weight for this case.

5
Leaderboard Disputes / Wellbe6 - Mario Galaxy 2 times
« on: November 05, 2010, 11:42:56 pm »
Sorry to make a topic about this, Wellbe6, but I tried PMing you and haven't gotten a response.  Anyway, can you give any explanation of your stats in SMG2?  Are you unclear about how the site works?  You're only allowed to submit times that you've achieved yourself.  If you're not willing to do that, then it'll spoil the competition for others, and we'll have to suspend your account here.

6
Mario News / Super Mario Galaxy 2
« on: May 14, 2010, 01:07:43 am »
Well, I hear that this game might be coming out pretty soon, so here's a hype topic!  If you haven't been following, it's out in the US on May 23.  Official gameplay footage can be found here.

And yes, there's been talk of adding 3D games to TMC before; I think the main reason it hasn't happened is laziness.  In the meantime, I think some Galaxy 1 charts are in order - it'd be a bit awkward to add Galaxy 2 before 1.  I'll leave the coin charts alone for the moment, as I don't know whether people wanted to have one coin chart per galaxy or per star.  That's something worth discussing for Galaxy 2, as well, when people get to play it.

EDIT: Galaxy 1 times charts are up.  Discussion for coin charts (per galaxy vs. per star) is welcome.

*EDIT 2*: Galaxy 2 charts... are up!
Still have to decide between level or division totals, though.  Also, game-completion-time charts will be added in the future.

7
Mario News / New Super Mario Bros. Wii
« on: November 12, 2009, 12:42:56 am »
It's almost out (for most people), so I figured a news post would be good.

Let's try to get this game added fairly soon after release, so that we can start the competition while the game is still new.  We would need a list of levels (and secret exits), and we'd have to determine which ones are autoscrolling.  Then there's the rules on power-ups, which may work differently from NSMB DS.

In the meantime, feel free to post your thoughts, preliminary times, etc. about the game.  Since we could be revealing stuff like secret exits, read with caution if you don't like spoilers.


[EDIT] Miles has provided us a level list in post #2 of this topic.  Also, rules issues are detailed in post #3.  Please discuss!


[EDIT 2] The rankings have been added, have fun!

8
Mario News / About Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
« on: July 16, 2009, 12:48:30 pm »
Charts for Wario Land are up.  However, please don't bother submitting Coin stats yet.  Just after adding the coin charts, I've remembered one point that may hamper competition: the randomness of getting coins from breakable blocks.  Sorry for the unprofessionalism, but even though I went and added them, we must decide whether the coin charts should be kept or not.

Also, certain courses are not up for Times because we need a ruling on courses that change as the game progresses.  At certain points, courses 1, 3, and 31 get water level changes, and course 10 becomes a different course, course 13.  To compete in the before-change version of the course, you would have to start a new file (separate from the completed file you would usually use) just for that course.

So here are my questions to all of you:

(1) What should we do about the coin charts?  (a) keep them and count them toward the overall ranking, (b) keep them and don't count them toward the overall ranking, or (c) delete them?

(2) What should we do about changing courses?  (a) have one chart per changing course, just for the after-change version, (b) have one chart per changing course, allowing both versions of the course, or (c) have two charts per changing course, one for the before-version and one for the after-version?


[EDIT] Please see Reply #2 in this topic for current decisions, which should take effect fairly soon.

9
Mario News / Super Mario World rule change; new game additions
« on: July 08, 2009, 12:08:55 am »
First of all, rankings for Super Mario World PAL have been added, so Europeans and Australians don't have to play on emulator to compete.  Sorry for not adding this ranking earlier.

Second, Super Mario Advance 2, the Game Boy Advance version of Super Mario World, is no longer allowed for SMW times.  The reason is that the GBA version has some notable differences from the SNES versions, and we don't know of the full extent that the differences affect competition.  Once we have more collective experience with Super Mario World, we may or may not choose to re-allow the GBA version or create separate rankings for it.  But for now, disallowing the GBA version seems to be the safest plan.  The same reasoning goes for the GBA version of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the GBC version of Super Mario Bros. (although these versions were already disallowed for a while).

What if you already submitted SMW stats that you got with the GBA version?  If possible, please replace your GBA-played submissions with your best SNES times.  Though, the most important thing is that everyone uses SNES from here on.   Also, if we think you submitted GBA times and gained an advantage from it, we'll let you know.

So, summary of allowed versions for SMW: in the NTSC rankings, play on the US/Japan SNES versions only.  In the PAL rankings, play on the Europe/Australia SNES versions only.  Wii Virtual Console releases of these versions are allowed too.
To learn about the other rules for SMW (or rules for other games), read the rules here.


By the way, You vs. Boo time charts for Super Mario Bros. Deluxe were added several days ago.  And in case you didn't notice, Yoshi's Story and Mario vs. Donkey Kong were added a little while ago.  There are plenty of other games that can go up in the future, as well.  Keep in mind that we're only focusing on Mario platformers, though (not Kart, Party, Golf, Tennis, etc.).

10
Competition Central / Version rules for the SMB series
« on: June 22, 2009, 09:42:44 pm »
First of all, please refer to the Version Differences topic for (1) a list of versions for each game and (2) version differences.  Ask if anything in the list is unclear.

Now, here's the current status on version rules for Times in SMB1, SMB2J, SMB3, and SMW:

Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 (JP):
1A - PAL and NTSC are ranked together.
1B - NES and SNES are ranked together.
1C - GB Color version is not allowed.
Super Mario Bros. 3:
2A - PAL and NTSC are ranked together.
2B - NES and SNES are ranked separately.
2C - GBA version is not allowed.
Super Mario World:
3A - NTSC US and NTSC JP are ranked together.
3B - PAL and NTSC are separate (but a PAL ranking still needs to be added).
3C - SNES and GBA versions are ranked together (GBA must use Mario, not Luigi).

----------

To make this simpler, I'd like to focus on rulings 1C, 2C, and 3C, which deal with the Game Boy versions.  These are the rulings that seem the most subject to controversy.  But if there's a real problem with any of the other rules, you can bring that up too.

For each of the three GB-version rules, we have three choices: (1) rank the GB version together with the other versions, (2) rank the GB version separately, or (3) disallow the GB version.

----------

Here are some examples of things we might consider:

- Consistency: it's best if all three GB version rulings are the same.  If there are any ruling differences, we should be confident that the cases we are ruling on are different enough.

- Minimize duplication: whenever possible, we want to avoid splitting up the top players of a multi-versioned game among different rankings.  Also, some players want to be on as many of the rankings as possible, and we don't want to make them play the same thing again and again.

- Accessibility: different players own different versions, and we want as many people as possible to be able to compete.  Emulators are available for almost everyone, though some people might prefer not to play on emulators.

- Fairness: ideally, any allowed version would be nearly equal to the other versions it's ranked with.  The original version(s) might take priority in fairness, or perhaps the version which is most convenient for everyone.

----------

Sorry for the long post, I wanted to lay out as much information as possible first.  So, share your opinions: what are the best rules for the Game Boy versions?

11
Competition Central / Version differences
« on: August 18, 2008, 08:53:13 pm »
So far, I feel that we at TMC haven't been very confident about our decisions regarding different versions of the classic Mario games.  These decisions include what versions could be ranked together, what versions should be ranked separately, and what versions shouldn't be ranked at all.  Basically, we lacked enough knowledge of the games and their different versions to come up with sound judgments about these issues.

So what I'd like to have here is a big compilation of version differences, for each of the multi-versioned Mario games that we rank here.  Of course, I mean the differences that we need to know about - the ones that may affect competition in our charts.  This list is intended to help us make decisions about how to rank the various versions of each game.  Hopefully, it should also serve as a helpful resource for competitors.

 
Some notes on terminology used - this list may be updated whenever the need arises:

J,U,E - at the beginning of each game's post, all the official versions of the game are listed.  J stands for Japan, U stands for United States, and E stands for Europe.  JU indicates the single version released in both Japan and the US, and so on.

NTSC - the video standard used for televisions in Japan and North America, among other areas.  NTSC video games run at 60 frames per second, meaning that the game screen can be updated up to 60 times per second.  When I refer to the NTSC versions of a game, I'm referring to the Japanese and American versions of a particular game.

PAL - the video standard used for televisions in Europe, among other areas.  PAL video games run at 50 frames per second.  When I refer to the PAL versions of a game, I'm referring to the European versions of a particular game.

Ticks - one tick is what one might call a "game second" as defined by the game's timer, though I call them ticks because they're never really a second long.

12
Recently there's been a bit of interest in SA2(B) Mission 4 ring attacks, so I thought I might bring this up again.  Should Mission 4 rings or scores be added to TSC's charts?

With the exception of Routes 101 and 280, Mission 1 and Mission 4 of every stage have just two differences: only Mission 1 has checkpoints, and Mission 4 adds a time limit (or a stricter time limit for Green Forest, Security Hall, and White Jungle).


Implications on Mission 4 ring attacks:

- There's no checkpoint manipulation.  In Sonic/Shadow and Tails/Eggman levels, M1 and M5 ring runs often involve creative and risky backtracking tricks to maximize checkpoint bonuses.  M4 has no such thing - this may be good if you think backtracks are tedious and/or annoying, or bad if you think ring runs become bland without the backtracking tricks.

- Time limits may or may not present a good challenge.  All but 2 of the M4 ring attacks are already known to be 'maxable', but some levels are much more difficult to max than others.  Levels like Prison Lane, Mission Street, and Iron Gate don't add too much difficulty to the Mission 1 RA, but levels like Wild Canyon, Pyramid Cave, and Radical Highway may require a lot of practice and planning to max in M4.

- M4 ring attacks may feel like a direct extension of M1 ring attacks which don't involve checkpoint manipulation.  In particular, all Knuckles/Rouge M1 ring attacks have no checkpoints, so those M4 ring attacks simply add a time limit.  Is this a bad thing or not?


Implications on Mission 4 score attacks:

- No checkpoints to get points or shields from.  This will slightly lower M4 scores compared to M1 scores, but this probably won't affect strategies much.

- Speed is already an important element in M1 scores, but time limits still may make a difference.  In many Sonic/Shadow and Tails/Eggman levels, a few time consuming point sources may have to be skipped in favor of time.  In other levels, though, the top M1 score runs may already meet the M4 time limits.  In particular, Knuckles/Rouge score attacks will likely be exactly the same in M1 and M4.


Edit: I'm not considering Mission 4 stats for Routes 101 or 280 in this topic, as those are different from M4's of other stages and would thus be argued for or against differently.

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