Gamer beats both Mega Man X and Mega Man X2 using the same controller | Hacker News Reader

Gamer beats both Mega Man X and Mega Man X2 using the same controller

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107 pointshuac21 comments

I think it would be fun to solve multiple Zork games by feeding them all the exact same input. I'm thinking you'd need to build a tree of all possible inputs and responses from each game, then try to find a path through the tree that completes each game. It would interesting to see how you'd probably have to put the player in one game into a 'safe' room for a time so specific input can be given to another game that moves it forward (while just turning into noise/junk in the other game). Would probably need some pretty sophisticated heuristics to help trim down the massive search space of possible commands.

Pokemon should be possible as well.

I mean if twitch chat can win it...

Currently, Twitch Plays Pokémon is playing two different modified Pokémon games at the same time, with the same input.

If you thought that was crazy, here's a tool-assisted speedrun of Mega Man 3, 4, 5, and 6 (four games!) all using the same controller input:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoThCyif9Oc

There are a few similar runs of other game sets on TASVideos:

http://tasvideos.org/Movies-C2020Y.html

I know TAS isn't easy, but I still think the crazy thing here is that it isn't TAS

For anyone non-familiar with the nomenclature. TAS stands for "Tool-ASsisted" run, which means running the game on a special emulator and playing it with additional help of features like save-states, slowing the time down or even inserting input frame-by-frame. The emulator keeps track of controller input for every frame and then is able to "playback" it so it appears as it would be normally played by a super-skilled player.

While some consider TAS runs as "cheated", they have their own niché, because usually they are pretty entertaining, showing what can be achieved in the game that's otherwise not possible in real-time runs, showcasing game glitches, and so on.

> TAS stands for "Tool-ASsisted" run

I was under the impression TAS stood for Tool Assisted Speedrun.

Not all TAS videos are speedruns, some just rely on the incredibly intricate controls made possible by Tools.

This level only exists to be run as a TAS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuRQjaOhwGM

So? That doesn't change what TAS stands for. Saying it's "Tool ASsisted" is wrong.

If someone referred to, oh, Paris Hilton's dog as a VIP, would you really want to make the argument that VIP actually stood for "Very ImPortant"?

The about page of TASVideos.org now defines the term as "Tool-Assisted Superplays".

I'm pretty sure that is a re-definition of an acronym that began life as "Tool-Assisted Speedrun". It's worth noting that the video you linked to talks a lot about "saving frames" in its description - not something anyone would care about if speed wasn't still a thing on their mind.

"Niche" is a French word, but even in French it doesn't have an accent (and you don't pronounce the e at all).

niché is the past participle of Nicher, to nest.

https://xkcd.com/326/ ?

I can't find it used as a noun anywhere.

Oh, sure. Still, it's not the first time a speedrunning trick has made its way from TAS into "live" runs. For instance, the SMW credits skip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14wqBA5Q1yc

The actual live speedrun/TAS communities seem to get along fine. TASbot has been well-received at Awesome Games Done Quick, for instance. I think it's generally acknowledged that live speedrunning is meant to push human skills to the limit, while TAS is meant to push the game to the limit, and that these are complementary goals (and that both require a great deal of cleverness).

That doesn't change how every YouTube video of a TAS has comments along the lines of "this is dumb, ur cheating lol". But YouTube comments are always bad.

Before that was the Ocarina Of Time wrongwarp trick [1] that became so ubiquitous in real-time runs that real-time and TAS are going head-to-head nowadays (The TAS times are actually slightly slower, due to including the title screen/outro sequence in their measurements).

[1] https://youtu.be/0M7IINwTFVw

This is insane, even from just watching I couldn't really keep up.. not to make it sound less impressive, but it's interesting how the timings of the levels/bosses are pretty similar

This is blocked by my work, is it just a blog with a link to a YouTube video? Could someone post it here if it is? Thanks

https://youtu.be/COGmRYA-eV4

Audio is mixed. Should have had each game's audio go to a different ear.

I couldn't even beat just one like this! Haha wow. Humans are amazing!

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