| Ryan Foley (hero of the day) | ||
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My name
is Ryan Foley, I go by "hero of the day" online. Hero of the day is the
title to a Metallica song in case you were wondering where I got it from. I
am 21 years old and I am about to finish up my final year in college. My
main passions include bodybuilding, poker, movies, computer art, and tool
assisted speed runs. Please check out the text below to learn more about my
speed run movies.
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My tool assisted speed runs can be found here
http://tasvideos.org/Subs-696up.html.
Below are a description and the thoughts I have on each run.
Chrono Trigger (4:21:12)
This game in my opinion is one of the best games ever made, and easily the best
RPG ever made. This was my second attempted TAS after I completed Mystic Quest.
The difference between this game and most other RPGs is that this one does not
allow for manipulation of luck. Every battle in this game is scripted, so the
only way to achieve a good time is to figure out the optimal attacks for each
turn, not try and get critical hits. This run was very easy to make after I had
every single battle planned out. This run was quickly made, and as such there is
room for optimization. Due to new strategc changes, this run can be obsoleted by 30+ minutes. I am working on a new run.
Contra III – The Alien Wars (13:03)
This is a very cool game, and also one of my favorite runs. This was the first
run where I extensively used the memory watch feature to ensure that the bosses
went down as quickly as possible. This game was also the first game where I was
in control of 2 players at once, which made for a real challenge. The normal
side scrolling levels were easy, but the top down view levels required constant
button reconfiguration to get right. I thoroughly enjoyed making this run, and
it did not require too much time to complete. This run is currently receiving a
second revision by me after the discovery of a new faster form of travel in the
top view levels. I predict 3-4 seconds may be saved, which would put this run
under the 13 minute mark.
Final Fantasy – Mystic Quest (2:09:38)
This was my first submitted run at the TASvideos website. This game is a royal
pain in the ass to optimize. There are far too many fights that require luck
manipulation; in fact almost every single fight in the game required extensive
luck manipulation. My technique for manipulating luck involved delaying frames,
like most people would expect. The waiting period was not really detectable by
human eyes, but the delays were there none the less. The delays added up to a
staggering amount apparently. DonamerDragon submitted a run that bested mine by
12 minutes! He had found a way to manipulate luck without delaying frames, quite
an amazing discovery. I assumed his run was damn near perfect, but he then
released a second version that beat his old run by 8 minutes. After seeing how
much time and effort he put into this game, I knew that I had no chance of
besting his time. I threw away my second revision of the run and said that I
will not be TASing this game ever again.
Hook (15:13)
This was a run that I decided to do mainly because I was familiar with the game.
I thought the game had some potential for a TAS because it had a run button and
the ability to fly. Apparently this run was very improvable, and will indeed be obsoleted by 40+ seconds.
Super Metroid (40:58)
This is by far my proudest accomplishment in all of my TASing work. I am currently working on an improved run. I won't make any predictions for how much time can be saved, because I am always wrong about that.
soon.
Monopoly (00:32) & (00:30)
I was a key player in the infamous Monopoly wars that occurred on the TASvideos
workbench. After Phil submitted and published a Monopoly TAS with a time of
00:34, a new strategy was found by Acmlm and he submitted a new run of 00:32.
After tinkering with the game, I found a way of reducing the time by 32 frames.
I quickly made my own Monopoly run and submitted it with a time of 00:32. Acmlm
went ahead and squeezed even more frames out of his run and got a time of 00:31.
Not to be out done, I went ahead and found a slight strategic change. I got my
time down to 00:30 and submitted it. I considered this run perfect (at least for
a human). Well I was right; my run would end up being the last Monopoly run done
completely with a human brain. Acmlm wanted his title back, so he went and made
a Monopoly program that would brute force thousands of possibilities in order to
find the smallest amount of controller input needed. The Monopoly program only
bested my run by 16 frames, and the final time was still 00:30. I knew then that
I could no longer compete with a machine. I conceded and stopped trying to
improve my run. Neither of my runs were ever published.
