He posted this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xsf771PchY and claims that he did this legitimately. Watching it, however, makes me think it's tool-assisted (the gradius ship at max speed-up moving that precisely between bullets and enemies? I doubt it). Let's hear what the rest of you think.I have manage to pull out one of the most hardest challenges you can do with this game which is play as a pacifist.
I challenge anyone to play Stage 2 "bubble stage" at Hard or Arcade difficulty without killing anything Even the Boss.
Get all the upgrades you need "speed + shield ..etc from stage one and once you are in stage 2 you are not allowed to kill or shoot anything Till the Boss dies.
Demonstration :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xsf771PchY
in this video I played on loop 4 at arcade difficulty. (Loop 8 is the maximum Difficulty)
Is this Gradius III (SNES) video tool-assisted?
Is this Gradius III (SNES) video tool-assisted?
On another forum I frequent, a guy registered just to post this topic:
"I think Ikaruga is pretty tough. It is like a modern version of Galaga that some Japanese company made."
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My money is on fake. There are too many times when his jittery motion would be damned near impossible to pull off without slowdown (and there doesn't appear to be any slowdown in this video) or fake slowdown.
SiKrAiKeN: While I don't think everyone here -is- a Ninja Turtle, I DO believe everyone here has the potential to be a Ninja Turtle. No doubt.
There are certain parts to that video that COULD have been real.... with enough skill, of course.
What really proved to me otherwise though, well, I didnt have to watch the whole thing through (though I did)..... right at the start, where he goes BETWEEN those 2 curving lines of..... uh, brown spinny dudes, whatever those are.... WHILE they're firing at him...... no. Wouldnt happen.
I hate when people do things like this to try to make themselves out to be more awesome than they actually are.
What really proved to me otherwise though, well, I didnt have to watch the whole thing through (though I did)..... right at the start, where he goes BETWEEN those 2 curving lines of..... uh, brown spinny dudes, whatever those are.... WHILE they're firing at him...... no. Wouldnt happen.
I hate when people do things like this to try to make themselves out to be more awesome than they actually are.
Ooooooookay.
I just spent some time attempting this myself (though not on loop 4, Im not that damn patient).
Stage 2 on hard without shooting.
.....and now Im not as completely certain as to that video being fake.
Here's what I did:
Went through stage 1 normally; once I got to stage 2, I made a savestate right at the start (before enemies show up) to make it less time consuming for subsequent attempts (as such my replays all start there).
I had the following powerups active at the time: Reduce, 2 speedups, and Laser (to pop things in stage 1).
In my main replay that I got doing this tonight, I make it much of the way into the level..... with the same type of wild movements (this is how I tend to play games normally, lol. Didnt get hit at all.
The run doesnt end in a stage clear though; actually the replay ends after I accidentally hit the warp zone to the bonus stage while trying to dodge one of those accursed crab-things that come out of those bubbles. This is, of course, an incredibly moronic way to end something like this.
The replay is here for anyone that cares to see it:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UR3RPQPS
I wasnt ENTIRELY sure which files were which here, so there's a few in there, including the savestate I'd used, just in case.
If you wanna have a look, just load up, in the ZSNES emulator, the exact same version of the game as what's in the names of those files, and then the option to play replays is in the Misc menu (load the game up FIRST though).
It's replay number 5, specifically, where I got that far. The other ones arent as good.
I just spent some time attempting this myself (though not on loop 4, Im not that damn patient).
Stage 2 on hard without shooting.
.....and now Im not as completely certain as to that video being fake.
Here's what I did:
Went through stage 1 normally; once I got to stage 2, I made a savestate right at the start (before enemies show up) to make it less time consuming for subsequent attempts (as such my replays all start there).
I had the following powerups active at the time: Reduce, 2 speedups, and Laser (to pop things in stage 1).
In my main replay that I got doing this tonight, I make it much of the way into the level..... with the same type of wild movements (this is how I tend to play games normally, lol. Didnt get hit at all.
The run doesnt end in a stage clear though; actually the replay ends after I accidentally hit the warp zone to the bonus stage while trying to dodge one of those accursed crab-things that come out of those bubbles. This is, of course, an incredibly moronic way to end something like this.
The replay is here for anyone that cares to see it:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UR3RPQPS
I wasnt ENTIRELY sure which files were which here, so there's a few in there, including the savestate I'd used, just in case.
If you wanna have a look, just load up, in the ZSNES emulator, the exact same version of the game as what's in the names of those files, and then the option to play replays is in the Misc menu (load the game up FIRST though).
It's replay number 5, specifically, where I got that far. The other ones arent as good.
One thing is for sure: the guy played on the emulator. SNES outputs 256x224 in 4:3 aspect ratio, making it ~299x224. Consequently, any attempt to capture its output will return a 4:3 frame.
This guy's video is a non-corrected 256x224, which is emulators' default output, with black borders added.
That said, reaching 4-2 with 25 remaining lives is kind of suspicious at best. Not to mention that he's using maximum speed, which is a sure killer.
So yeah, most certainly a disguised tool-assistance.
This guy's video is a non-corrected 256x224, which is emulators' default output, with black borders added.
That said, reaching 4-2 with 25 remaining lives is kind of suspicious at best. Not to mention that he's using maximum speed, which is a sure killer.
So yeah, most certainly a disguised tool-assistance.
Matskat wrote:This neighborhood USED to be nice...until that family of emulators moved in across the street....
spadgy wrote:My gut feeling goes with fake, though Bridget's comments are inmteresting.
It's just the lack of flow in the movement, and the souless flicking neatly from one position to the other. Plus, I didn't spot anything that looked like a quick correction of an error or an improvisation....
Hmm, I actually failed to notice that somehow when I saw that video originally...... but you're right, that seems to indeed be the case.
As I'd said before, what had ORIGINALLY caught me as being "impossible" was him just flying between a bent double formation of those spinning brown guys at the start while crap is fired at him.
"Impossible", that is, until I did the same dang thing earlier at one point (I dont THINK I got that in any of those replays though.... not sure. I believe I died like 10 seconds after anyway, lol).
I really dont get what the point of doing something like this is.
If I show off something like a replay or game video, it's because I actually accomplished something interesting/impressive in it.
Why the heck would anyone see a point in faking that? Others might be fooled, but the one doing it still never actually got the accomplishment.
Bah, I just dont get some people.
At least I had fun trying it myself though. Im sure I can get all the way through at some point...... hopefully.
And yeah, Im using emulators myself half the time, though I do actually still have the cartridge of this upstairs.
These are these people who put a bad name on TAS, causing these "THAT´S CHEATING!" comments under every single tool-assisted speedrun, ever.That was another video; the "girl" had four options and it was a far more blatant forgery (to the point of having "Loaded gradius3.000" message appeared in the lower left corner, which was pretty hilarious).
Matskat wrote:This neighborhood USED to be nice...until that family of emulators moved in across the street....
Well, that point I can address: it's fairly easy to bullshit through bullet clusters in danmaku games; doesn't work remotely well with Gradius.
When you don't have a known history of playing games well, nor a proof of having played on an emulator legitimately, nor a coherent way to comment your own achievement ("it wasn't easy and i failed too many times till i finally masted it"), there's no way it's going to be believable.
I do agree, however, that it's possible. It just doesn't look like this guy did what he said he did.
When you don't have a known history of playing games well, nor a proof of having played on an emulator legitimately, nor a coherent way to comment your own achievement ("it wasn't easy and i failed too many times till i finally masted it"), there's no way it's going to be believable.
I do agree, however, that it's possible. It just doesn't look like this guy did what he said he did.
Last edited by moozooh on Wed Oct 08, 2008 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Matskat wrote:This neighborhood USED to be nice...until that family of emulators moved in across the street....
Most final bosses in danmaku are about learning how to dodge specific patterns then putting it all toghther without mistakes....it's a long process it's hard but in the end enough practice will make it possible.doesnt look nearly as hard as most danmakugames last bosses etc etc so why not.
the patterns in this video cannot be learned, someone would have to rely on pure dodging skills which doesnt seem completely impossible but VERY HARD.
also the way he nevers stands still when a bullet wont cross his hitbox is what sticks out the most I find(the common scared of bullets behavior seen on beginners). this is 100% fake..
b.t.w. when I watched the vid it had 666 views
and the music is awesome
I've been working on this myself and can get about halfway through the stage without dying, using 2 speedups and reduce (I'm positive that reduce is completely necessary to get through the first section of this stage). The video still looks pretty fake to me. As people mentioned, the music is a giveaway (I hadn't thought of that), as well as the movements of the ship. The best way I found to get through the beginning section was to NOT move around very much because all the bullets are aimed at you. Herding the bullets at the very bottom and top of the screen works while I memorized the enemy patterns to avoid those at the same time. Took a long time to manage to get through that part and I still can't do it every time. In the video the guy just flies around the screen zipping into the tiniest spaces and avoiding shots that are fired at him the instant the bullets appear on the screen. Pay attention to his fight against the boss, and you can see that his reaction time seems a little too much sometimes. It's one thing to get a really quick reaction and avoid one bullet or pattern, it's another to do it against a boss for 30 seconds straight flawlessly.
"I think Ikaruga is pretty tough. It is like a modern version of Galaga that some Japanese company made."
Hmm, I dunno.....ZOM wrote:Meh. Sounds & looks fishy to me.
As kengou already mentioned, since all the bullets are aimed at the Vic, the worst thing to do is buzzing around like a madman.
I don't say it's impossible but... nah, the crazy movements look a bit too suspicious to me.
I ended up doing the same thing, just due to my usual style in games in general; constant movement, never stopping, very wild.
Actually, with that first section in particular, if I DID stop and attempt to do things calmer, with more precise movements and being more "careful", that's exactly when I'd go down. For whatever reason I can do this while dashing around wildly but I cant do it at all if Im trying to stay calm.
That type of movement is definitely possible, thusly, but I think it's just something that is definitely not seen very often.
Hmm, I should give this a try with max speedups myself and see just what occurs. Might be interesting, and Im bored as all heck here.....
Ok, that didnt take long.
Now Im even less sure than before.
Hard mode, max speedups, Reduce, and the Laser, are what I picked up, and had grabbed a few red items after that that I didnt use.
So that's what I had going into stage 2.
This time it only took me 3 tries to get past the first segment, which is about what I wanted to accomplish. This attempt wasnt about getting through the entire stage, I just wanted to do that first bit because it's the fastest/wildest segment; through much of the rest of the stage the game actually slows down a bit, so I figured.... meh.
A couple of things:
Firstly, like my last attempts this is loop 1, not loop 4. Or loop whatever that guy said it was. I dont think there's a particularly huge difference though.... looking at that vid again, there's a few more bullets but not many. Im too dang lazy to loop this anyway.
Secondly, I did this without getting hit at all. Notice something in that original vid though: that guy actually DOES get hit, and he gets hit rather fast; watch closely, something pops him and the ship grows a little (the Reduce can actually take 2 hits before fading, the third hit being the one that kills you). That's another thing that makes me less certain.
Third, again, the replay I have here is just meant to show that first section; which works out well, because into the bubble section of the stage, lol, the run ends when I ram the hell outta the biggest freaking bubble in the universe. Same dang idea as when I ram bosses sometimes in Cave games...... heh. A little stupid. I do that sometimes, so sue me.
The link:
**EDIT** Put new link up. I have NO idea why the first replay corrupted... though Mame does that to me on rare occaisions even if I follow the procedures all correctly. As it is though, I came up with a better replay this time; I die by the damn warp again, but it's the crabs that kill me. Im not really sure what to do about them without shooting.... I'll worry about it later.
Please let me know if the replay doesnt work (if, in the replay, I die sooner than that). It's replay number NINE this time.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VMM11ORD
Basically the same Rar file as before, just with replay #9 added, which is the one that Im talking about here. Again, ZSNES is the one that this was done with. And no, I dont use tools or whatever.... danged if I'd even know how. Or care. If it's not challenging I lose interest.....
Have a look at that if you want, uhhhh....... I forgot the rest of what I was gonna say.
Anyway, that one replay will have to do, Im too lazy to make more attempts and I wanna spend some time playing Baroque tonight before I go to bed
**EDIT** Now I dont have time for that, thank you corrupted files.
Now Im even less sure than before.
Hard mode, max speedups, Reduce, and the Laser, are what I picked up, and had grabbed a few red items after that that I didnt use.
So that's what I had going into stage 2.
This time it only took me 3 tries to get past the first segment, which is about what I wanted to accomplish. This attempt wasnt about getting through the entire stage, I just wanted to do that first bit because it's the fastest/wildest segment; through much of the rest of the stage the game actually slows down a bit, so I figured.... meh.
A couple of things:
Firstly, like my last attempts this is loop 1, not loop 4. Or loop whatever that guy said it was. I dont think there's a particularly huge difference though.... looking at that vid again, there's a few more bullets but not many. Im too dang lazy to loop this anyway.
Secondly, I did this without getting hit at all. Notice something in that original vid though: that guy actually DOES get hit, and he gets hit rather fast; watch closely, something pops him and the ship grows a little (the Reduce can actually take 2 hits before fading, the third hit being the one that kills you). That's another thing that makes me less certain.
Third, again, the replay I have here is just meant to show that first section; which works out well, because into the bubble section of the stage, lol, the run ends when I ram the hell outta the biggest freaking bubble in the universe. Same dang idea as when I ram bosses sometimes in Cave games...... heh. A little stupid. I do that sometimes, so sue me.
The link:
**EDIT** Put new link up. I have NO idea why the first replay corrupted... though Mame does that to me on rare occaisions even if I follow the procedures all correctly. As it is though, I came up with a better replay this time; I die by the damn warp again, but it's the crabs that kill me. Im not really sure what to do about them without shooting.... I'll worry about it later.
Please let me know if the replay doesnt work (if, in the replay, I die sooner than that). It's replay number NINE this time.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VMM11ORD
Basically the same Rar file as before, just with replay #9 added, which is the one that Im talking about here. Again, ZSNES is the one that this was done with. And no, I dont use tools or whatever.... danged if I'd even know how. Or care. If it's not challenging I lose interest.....
Have a look at that if you want, uhhhh....... I forgot the rest of what I was gonna say.
Anyway, that one replay will have to do, Im too lazy to make more attempts and I wanna spend some time playing Baroque tonight before I go to bed
**EDIT** Now I dont have time for that, thank you corrupted files.ZOM wrote:Hmm... Interesting read -Bridget-. If I have some spare time I might mess around with it aswell.
Off topic: Baroque is AWESOME!!!
Yes. Yes it is.
I think I've played it a BIT too much; My 2nd time playing through the game (thank you broken down PS2), I did the Neuro Tower completely through without dying once, on hard, and I think I've got most of the item list memorized...... heh.
That one got me into the whole Roguelike genre, it did.
Like Giga Wing and Mushihime getting me into THIS one.......