raocow's talkhaus

AlchemistHohenheim wrote: ↑4 years ago

Whimsical Calamari wrote: ↑4 years ago Kinda funny that it was somehow fixed to "Yoshi" between 2008 and 2009, too. I'm sure there's a story behind that that we might never know.

The 2008 LP would've been accompanied by a thread on SomethingAwful's Let's Play subforum, so presumably the story is "someone in the thread told Oyster and/or raocow that Detteiu is a derogatory name for Yoshi among Japanese SMW players, and so those level names were updated between LPs".

i may have a tendency to take a more mysterious tone than is absolutely necessary

AlchemistHohenheim wrote: ↑4 years ago

Whimsical Calamari wrote: ↑4 years ago Kinda funny that it was somehow fixed to "Yoshi" between 2008 and 2009, too. I'm sure there's a story behind that that we might never know.

The 2008 LP would've been accompanied by a thread on SomethingAwful's Let's Play subforum, so presumably the story is "someone in the thread told Oyster and/or raocow that Detteiu is a derogatory name for Yoshi among Japanese SMW players, and so those level names were updated between LPs".

In the 2009 LP he started off reading "And then there was a..." from his list before audibly going something like "that must mean Yoshi". The fact that the first two levels in the hack which had 'Detteiu' in them still had the "And then there was a", I'd guess that it was actually pointed out during the LP somehow, and it was raocow who did the correcting.

You press the P-switch, and a Yoshi's Island style red arrow pops up under the transparent ? blocks. Go in, and it goes here:



Then the left pipe goes to the textbox, and the right one to the boss.

I guess we should've put it as "shortcut", but we actually hadn't noticed this exit before, and weren't sure what this textbox referred to.
Expect it to be changed in the finalized version.

ow, even the old runs with savestates are lengthy. HERE WE GO

DailyMotion
guilty gear reference - March 26, 2008

YouTube
Aim at Heaven - optimistic first part - hitting the fan second part - February 4, 2009

Petzi wrote: ↑4 years ago Better to gain savestates than to lose your laughter!

A fine sentiment, but the laughter at the end of the DailyMotion run makes me think that maybe savestates weren't all worth it. It's a good tool, but as I've seen in these two older runs, it's also led to plenty of frustration.

Savestates couldn't help this level. They couldn't help a lot of levels, but especially not this one. Not only is it designed just sorta erratically, but its whole philosophy seems to be "if you don't get this one challenge, rewrite your strategy and try something else," in direct opposition to the "wait I almost got it I just need to tweak a little" rapid iteration of savestates. Savestating in a stage like that, as can be seen in the earlier playthroughs, just causes even more frustration.

The thing is, I can almost see what the level designer was going for? In the context of levels like Labyrinth Castle ~ vs. Morton existing out there, the author seems to have attempted making a level with a puzzle that could be solved in multiple different ways. But, in going for that, they naively assumed that the way to make a puzzle with many solutions is to make many parallel puzzles with a single goal. It explains why the level's so ungodly huge, why it has seemingly three paths to every point and not one of them really makes sense.

And it didn't help that they decided to add a second exit.

Zach808 wrote: ↑4 years ago Man, after rewatching Pure Savestateless Is Dead, I have to wonder: How did we end up where we are today with tool-less runs being the norm for raocow? That video made it seem like he was ready to quit doing that forever.

Well, in less than a year's time, rao went from giving up on savestateless three episodes in, to making it all the way to Absurd Athletic. And even after that rough moment, it took until freakin Yggdrasil up here for him to feel like rewinding like he did on DailyMotion was a legitimate tool - most of the savestates were on that self-imposed "once per VIP coin" rule. And honestly, I can feel a difference in each of the runs. With savestates, and especially rewinding, you're thrown right back into the action that just knocked you out, which raises stress and frustration, and makes it easier to zero in on a strategy that really shouldn't work, just because you see an opportunity and you can (flashback to this moment in the Ice Mansion where dailymotioncow spends a full two minutes rewinding and trying to force a solution that would have been solved much more quickly by a quick backtrack, and with less frustration to boot).

That big boo fight was definitely interesting. It kind of forces you to make the same mistake with Phanto that raocow used to make (but doesn't usually anymore!): hurriedly dropping the key.

(Phanto's biggest weakness is that he doesn't have brakes and will go flying wildly past you -- it works out so that whenever he's close, he's going too fast to steer, so dodging is easyish. When you drop the key, you make him stop near you, which he can't usually do. Then when he starts again he'll start with perfect aim, and be going slow enough to turn when he misses you, and generally be more in your way until he gets out of control again.)

This Eye o' Mine wrote: ↑4 years ago Then the left pipe goes to the textbox, and the right one to the boss.

I guess we should've put it as "shortcut", but we actually hadn't noticed this exit before, and weren't sure what this textbox referred to.
Expect it to be changed in the finalized version.

Oh yeah, I thought for sure the textbox was just saying "hey if you missed the secret exit, it's before this point".

DailyMotion
rotatoe (continued) - March 27, 2008
0:00 - normal exit
SKIP

HOT BEACH SECRET whooo! - March 28, 2008

YouTube
Hot Beach - secret exit - normal exit - February 5, 2009

dailymotioncow is very afraid.
2009cow is wildly amused, then apathetic.
WHO WOULD WIN??????

I really don't have much to say about this level, though. Sure, it was A Thing. But it's just, long and difficult. And flat. Nothing much else going on. /shrug

I feel as though most minigames in most videogames would be vastly improved if "while running from bees" was added on. Chrono Trigger's soda-drinking contest springs to mind.

DailyMotion
SKIP
don don duuuuuuuuuuu (continued) - March 28, 2008
5:12

YouTube
SKIP
Foaming Castle - February 7, 2009

raocow wrote:I'm sure back then I called it slime. Feels like something I would do. Boogers? That's a bit adolescent.

Well you were right on the first guess, mr the cow, but don't worry, you never took the juvenile route. However, you did call the strange green bubbles all of these different things!

• little squishy things that you can swim in
• podoboo paper
• foam, maybe
• jello
• poison stuff
• green stuff
• sad bubblegum
• gel tube

amazing

Couldn't bring yourself to go full weeb and call it Onegai My Melody, huh

This Eye o' Mine wrote: ↑4 years ago [We fixed] one VIP Coin that was placed on a horizontal screen boundary, which was also called out in the Japanese community and in all likelihood was not intentional, since the level doesn't draw attention to it, and the rest of it contained more VIP coins to collect.

I should probably eat my words here. Let's just say there was a miscommunication about whether this patch had been applied or not.

I for one, support the glitchy coin.

Oh wow, so much sprite lag today. For the sake of raocow's sanity, I hope you guys have at least fixed the lag in Bowser's Castle, otherwise we'll be spending dozens of episode 0s in the first half.

"Sometimes, it's ok to be greedy" - raocow, 2018
Channelling Wario there, raocow? :3

i keep trying to put dailymotion in the size tags for some reason
oy - March 29, 2008

but i always correct it before i get to youtube
Temple of Homing (normal exit) - February 8, 2009

secrets for everyone! - February 9, 2009
0:00 - secret exit

That is some remarkably unfortunate savestate timing in the DailyMotion run.

Is it just me, though, or are all the bullets faster in the DailyMotion version? I can't really tell, and def can't measure, but it vaguely seems that way to me, just by how much more trouble he was having in that run. I know the version that's being played now is slightly updated from the one in the 2009 run, but I think I've seen other hints that 2009 and 2008 were slightly different versions of the game, too.

(it also looks like the moon saw is higher than in the original run, but idk)

ano0maly wrote: I wonder if at 11:26 you could have let the bullet go past you.

it's possible! but it doesn't go well.

According to the VIP wiki, the intended way of getting the second exit in "Chasing That Koopa" is actually somewhat different than what raocow was doing:



You basically follow the skull raft up the lava, while collecting as few coins as possible. Once you're up there, you press the blue P-Switch immediately before the koopa is on the brown blocks. Since this turns the brown blocks into coins, the koopa will turn around at the edge and start walking in the opposite direction, while you can use the coins-turned-into-brown-blocks to walk back alongside him.

Ryrir wrote: ↑4 years ago According to the VIP wiki, the intended way of getting the second exit in "Chasing That Koopa" is actually somewhat different than what raocow was doing:

You basically follow the skull raft up the lava, while collecting as few coins as possible. Once you're up there, you press the blue P-Switch immediately before the koopa is on the brown blocks. Since this turns the brown blocks into coins, the koopa will turn around at the edge and start walking in the opposite direction, while you can use the coins-turned-into-brown-blocks to walk back alongside him.

It's easy to see why raocow always does it by taking a hit, that looks pretty tricky

I thought the enemies turning around to face mario was a well-known intended thing? At the very least it's quite noticeable when it makes a lot of deaths more hilarious, what with koopas turning to face you on the very frame that you die

This is what that 2nd bullet hell level of Vip2 should've been. Even though the level is full of bullets, the level gives you ways to fight them, meaning that a skilled player like raocow can get through it pretty easily. There also isn't a ton of homing shooters, so the level relies mostly on regular bullets.

The fact that there's a shortcut and lopsided midpoint as well as a tricky bit at the end makes me wonder if the authors of these two levels are the same. Though at least the shortcut doesn't totally break the level this time, just offer an alternate challenge.

Ivy wrote: ↑4 years ago I thought the enemies turning around to face mario was a well-known intended thing? At the very least it's quite noticeable when it makes a lot of deaths more hilarious, what with koopas turning to face you on the very frame that you die

Interestingly, I believe that was a solution for SACRIFICE in VIP3. Unless there is some weird obscure solution not requiring to be damaged, but there is even a message box that hints the solution, so it's unlikely.

Apparently people thought this was, like, the hardest level in the game? I don’t get the hype. Didn’t even take me very long, though I didn’t go for the coins.

Anyways, the level is pretty damn cool, if a bit glitchy. I wonder why there aren’t more rising lava or poison levels in SMW hacks? Also, I think this was the first time I’d heard a SMW hack get Krook’s March somewhat right. Most hacks I played at the time used this thing:



Warning: Your ears may bleed.

Zach808 wrote: ↑4 years ago Apparently people thought this was, like, the hardest level in the game? I don’t get the hype. Didn’t even take me very long, though I didn’t go for the coins.

Without the hints, I feel it's a lot worse.

BobisOnlyBob wrote: ↑4 years ago

Zach808 wrote: ↑4 years ago Apparently people thought this was, like, the hardest level in the game? I don’t get the hype. Didn’t even take me very long, though I didn’t go for the coins.

Without the hints, I feel it's a lot worse.

Maybe a little bit, but the lack of hints didn’t make the level that much harder for me. Once you realize the chains are just fences, things become easier to figure out. The switches did trip me up at Reznor, but after a couple tries, I noticed the coin guides.

made it to the current page of the thread oh boy

MailyDotion
time - March 30, 2008

TouYube
secrets for everyone! (continued) - February 9, 2009
3:04 - secret

Poison Water (normal exit) - February 10, 2008

"everything is amazing when you're raocow"

well, at least Poison Water didn't end up like Poison House? i got nothin lol

"woods have multiple necks" - raocow 2008

DM
cute lil' kitties :3 - March 31, 2008
0:00 - Blue Hills

YT
lightning and ice - February 11, 2009
0:00 - Blue Hills

STANDINGS

1. 0'46"32 - D M C
2. 0'48"10 - 2 0 1 8
3. 0'50"18 - Y T 0 8

no new record...
I N S E R T 2 C R E D I T S

"Trauma Tower"'s block placement design looks rather clever with the way they had you use the spin fly while weaving through killer black blocks, weaving 'tween killer black blocks on the chains, dodging Roto-discs & Ball-&-Chains on a slow-moving cloud, & the Yoshi hopping & flying. It's a shame it was hindered by bad implementation ( & a lame, superfluous control reversal @ the end ).

They e'en got the hit detection with the ground & acid water wrong: it counts as a collision if your sprite touches the horizon, not the middle part where you're actually s'posed to be in perspective as in the real DKC2. Throughout the level it's jarring to see you walk on the horizon o' the ground.

Rom hacks that try to emulate DKC games seem to have a lot o' trouble capturing the genuine feeling o' those games. While I consider the DKC games to be some o' my favorite 2-D platformers, DKC levels in SMW rom hacks usually seem to be some o' the worst levels.