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Gameplay & Discussion / Undiscovered Challenge 100 Trials skips?

« on: May 05, 2016, 01:59:27 AM »

Having been aware of one or two well-known hidden skips in Challenge 100 trials, I decided to decompile the game and root around the gmk for more. As it turns out, there are 11 such skips, all of them before floor 60, many of them allowing you to completely bypass entire screens, and most are quite easy to pull off.

[Update!: After counting the skip Stalkor found, and 3 more I discovered today while looking around some more, the total count of hidden skips is now 15. I've updated the imgur linked below album to include these. I think it's really awesome that these were included, so thanks to AquaWaddledee for all the care and time he took to make a game with so many interesting skips and fast strats that really add to this game's appeal, especially in a speedrun.]

As far as I know, only a few of these were known. I took a look at Nogard's 32 minute world record video, and he only partly makes use of a single one of them, and his run wasn't perfect so I'm thinking that sub-30 should be quite achievable with these new skips. I estimate they will save about 2 [update: ~3] minutes combined.

Here's a link to an album containing screens of all the skips: httpss://imgur.com/a/Si79j

The skips are really well-hidden, so I'm not surprised they remained unknown for such a long time. There's no way of detecting them in-game at all until you're inside of them, and even to take a quick glance at all the rooms in gamemaker isn't likely to reveal any of them, since large chunks of blocks are spawned from a single block object with x_ and y_scale arguments placed in the top left of each chunk, so hidden passages aren't readily visible by looking at gaps in blocks, and the fade-away sprites that cover them in game also appear over everything else in the room editor. I was able to find most of them by finding the matching skip to each of these sprites, but some don't have a fade away sprite, and finding these was an especially tedious process that involved mousing over each block object and seeing where they end, or looking for extra block objects that would denote an extra space.

For anyone who's salty about me finding them this way, I can only say that I don't see decompiling at all as an act of disrespect, and also I honestly don't think there's any more value in having people find them 'organically' by spending their time hugging walls and jumping into spikes. It doesn't take anything admirable to find them that way, only meaningless extra patience for wasting one's own time. But thanks again to Aqua for including them and making this already great game even more special.

If you want to check the gmk to see them for yourself and how they work, I've attached a Gamemaker 8.x decompiler for your convenience. Just drag+drop the game exe onto this exe.
[update: "Attachments" folder on the forum is apparently out of space, so I can't link this anymore. ]

Happy speedgaming and a nice congrats in advance to anyone who manages to get the sub-30 sub-28!

2

Gameplay & Discussion / Fangame keyboard review thread

« on: March 23, 2016, 04:52:15 AM »

Hello, friends. After purchasing a new laptop and trying out some fangames, I found myself confronted with the issue of its god-awful keyboard(laptop: Asus G700 series). My previous laptop's(HP Pavilion 17) keyboard had been more than adequate for this, so I haven't had the need for a standalone keyboard as of yet.

In my search for one that was right for me I found myself at a loss for a solid resource in the community to aid this very important and potentially life-changing decision, so I scoured the forum for suggestions, and found some others that I thought worthy of giving a shot. Some cheap ones, and some expensive (mechanical) ones. Here I will be giving an overview of the selection of keyboards that I purchased and how they hold up for fangaming.

First, I will detail the couple that are just worthless. Complete busts for a fangamer. I returned these.

Apple Wired Keyboard
I chose this keyboard for its very low key profile. This attribute had served me well in my old lappy's keyboard. Such short keys require just a small press and usually a very light press also, and I was able to make fast and accurate keypresses with the old laptop keyboard. Unfortunately this keyboard is plagued with a problem that makes it an immediate no-go for fangames, and the same problem my new laptop's keyboard has: it's impossible to make less than a 3 frame jump, and to move less than 6 pixels at a time. Literally impossible. Trust me, I tried for minutes.

Here's the link. Don't buy this for fangames: Apple Wired Keyboard

Rosewill RK-9000 V2 RE w/Reds
Although I liked the feel of this keyboard, which made a soft feel and sound on being pressed, it had an issue of the same sort as the Apple. With this keyboard, you are unable to take less than a 3 frame pause between your jump and re-jump. Even the crummy laptop keyboard and every other one I purchased could do this with ease, so the fact that this one mechanical could have such an issue was surprising. This bug means that you will not be able to perform jumps of a certain height, no matter how hard you try. This board is made by the same OEM as some from Coolermaster. I know some of you have this brand and like it, but I'm curious if they suffer from the same problem.

Rosewill RK-9000 V2 RE

The next one is a mixed bag

Logitech K120
This is a really cheap keyboard, but actually somewhat adequate. The feel is not the greatest, but it's not going to impact your play, I think. One could do a lot of things without trouble on this keyboard, but if you're into intermediate needle expect to have problems. For one, 1 and 2 frames are very possible, but good luck to you because half the time my light presses don't even register and I have to try a few times to get one out. The same goes for 3px movements. I won't be using this, but if you're really between a rock and a hard place this will do. I would suggest this for someone on a tight budget, except I purchased another for just a few dollars more that is insanely better, so you shouldn't bother.
 
Logitech K120

Onto the good shizz

Karnotech Wired Keyboard
Another keyboard I selected based on the low key profile. This one is pretty good. 2 frames and 3 pixel movement are no issue. It's nice and easy on the hands and feels fine. My gripes are the sound the shift key in particular makes, which is not very satisfying, and also this keyboard is EXTREMELY LIGHT. So light that without some sort of slip protection this keyboard will move quite a bit during use. But the performance is on point and you should be able to do anything with this keyboard. If you need a really cheap keyboard for fangames, this is my suggestion for you.

Karnotech Wired Keyboard

Ducky Shine 4 w/Reds
This keyboard is just lovely. Easy 2 frames and 3px movement, and it's very satisfying to play with. When I use it I feel like I'm able to play not necessarily better, but with more accuracy. This keyboard gives you just the response that you want from it. The linear red switches are perfectly fine for me. I don't find the bump in brown switches necessary as it's fairly easy to get a feel for pretty precisely where the keys will activate. I don't know if one switch or the other is better, but I imagine it's somewhat of a trade-off between the lack of interference from a bump that a red switch provides, and the knowledge of exactly where the key will activate that a brown switch provides.
I can't really provide any negatives for this keyboard. In addition to being completely up-to-snuff for fangames, it is a really good looking piece of hardware. The branding is nice, it's a nice shape, and the dual LED settings are rad as hell. Good stuff.

Ducky Shine 4

Das Model S Professional w/Browns
This measures up to the Ducky in terms of performance is just about every way. It will give you just the response that you want every time, which is something that mechanicals have over other types of keyboard. It's possible that 2 framing is just a hair more difficult on this, but it could be just me. Making very fast re-jumps is also marginally more difficult than on the Ducky, but you should be able to do a 2 frame pause and re-jump fairly consistently. I haven't actually been able to perform a one frame pause at all with a single shift key, which is a little dismaying, but the scenarios where this is required are not that common in my experience, so it may not be a significant turn-off. This keyboard also feels great, and is almost even more satisfying to use than the Ducky with the tactile feel of the brown switches.

Das Model S Professional

The Das and the Ducky are by far the best of what I purchased, and I will be giving both a lot of use to try to get a really good idea of what kind of switches are for me. I feel comfortable recommending both of these mechanicals very highly, and I think the biggest point of decision between the 2 is your preference for red or brown switches. Then again, both of these offer a selection between red and brown anyway, but since these keyboards I have have different switch types, I can't really recommend, say, a red switch Das over a red switch Ducky because I don't know how exactly they would differ in that case.

The Karnotech is also quite good, it just doesn't feel as good to use and I feel like accuracy in input response suffers a small bit on this board which is clearly very cheaply made. But again, it's totally passable and a great option if you don't have money for a mechanical.

So, that's that. Let me know what you thought of my assessments if you'd like. I'm not a keyboard expert and arguably not a fangame expert either so let me know if there were any criteria that you think important that I left out, or just tell me that I'm completely full of shit and don't know what I'm going on about. I'd be more than happy to give some more detail on these keyboards to anyone with questions about em. Also feel free to chime in with your own opinion of these keyboards, or other suggestion or reviews of any keyboards you own that may aid keyboard seekers in making a purchase.

Best fangaming wishes, everyone

3

Meet and Greet! / My belated greeting!

« on: April 20, 2015, 06:35:57 AM »

Hello fellas and fellettes.    I'm glad to finally introduce myself here, although I know some of you are familiar with me through the various wannabee twitch streams I've been frequenting for the past couple of months. I'm very fond of the community and the people that make it up, and have been becoming gradually more involved in streaming and in fangames over the past 8 months. Recently, I've been trying to get more involved with the wider fangame community! 

I'm a heavy viewer and fan of many twitch streams, and I actually found these games and the community through seeing RockLeeSmile do a playthrough of Celebrate 100. Having played IWBTG on lunchbreaks in middle school, and being a long-time fan of difficult platformers, the game immediately caught my attention and I played it right away. At this point I started discovering the wannabee team and peeking into various channels from time to time.

Pretty soon after, I found I basically couldn't stay away from these games and the community  There's just something about these games and watching people play them that is incredibly addictive. Since I am largely a loser who sits in my house all day, a large portion of my time is spent watching and playing fangames. After finding Celebrate 100 and playing it over and over, I started streaming occasionally, for proof of my speedruns of it. Nowadays, I stream pretty frequently(with a very small following), doing various casual playthroughs and speedruns of fangames, and you can find me live at literally any hour of the day, because what is a normal sleep pattern? I've been honing my fangame skill over this time, and I hold the record for Celebrate 100 and also I Wanna Bread  although I am by no means an expert player yet.

I frequent twitch streams a lot more often than forums, usually, so I will probably see you around there more often than here, but I recognize this is a place where I can begin to make some formal contributions to the community and (maybe?) have some more thoughtful conversation.
So even though it's a tiny bit redundant at this point for some of you, this is my formal super-official bona fide introduction to you all. o/