Arcade games speed run?

2013-09-07 08:45:42 pm

I haven't noticed any yet so I will assume no, but are arcade games acceptable for speed running if they meet the required criteria?

Thread title:

MURPHAGATOR!

2013-09-07 09:32:25 pm

Terraffirmative!

They are acceptable, the difficulty of recording is just offputting for many people.

zallard1

2013-09-07 10:58:59 pm

B+Left, Left, Up+B, ★

It depends on the game when it comes to recording. Some arcade games have had console ports in the form of arcade collections or vc/xbla. For ones with no ports however, you'd basically need to get the arcade pcb with some kind of supergun setup going, which isn't very convenient.

Carcinogen

Edit history:

Carcinogen: 2013-09-07 11:11:48 pm

2013-09-07 11:11:12 pm

Quote from zallard1:

It depends on the game when it comes to recording. Some arcade games have had console ports in the form of arcade collections or vc/xbla. For ones with no ports however, you'd basically need to get the arcade pcb with some kind of supergun setup going, which isn't very convenient.

That. Superguns + The PCBs are really expensive/hard to build.

There are other ways that exist too, though. Check this out:

http://www.arcadeshock.com/items/hardware-and-gaming-systems/video-capture-board-rgb-to-ntsc-converter-rgbntsc-acc-detail.htm

You're still gonna need something to record it with though.

Dr.D

Edit history:

Dr.D: 2013-09-08 11:49:28 pm

Dr.D: 2013-09-08 11:47:42 pm

2013-09-08 11:46:37 pm

That's interesting, thanks for linking that.

The particular game in question is DDR which opens up another can of worms since I've read on this forum that in general rhythm games and the like aren't good candidates for speed running since there's not a clear way to "speed run" them. However, I do think if a clear goal is stated, a challenging speed run could be made.

Take DDR for an example, the max score you can get is a "AAA" rank. (there are some exceptions depending the the game version) I think an interesting speed run for DDR would be to obtain perfect scores on every selectable songs in the game as fast as you can, which take my word for it, is pretty hard. I suppose this challenge could more easily be done on a console version though I and many other in the community prefer arcade mix.

I've already attempted said runs a couple times to get a feel for it. The following was one of my recent attempts. In no way would I submit to be a SDA worthy run, but I would like ideas and tips on how improve my concept, rules, info, cams, etc.

Most people today in the DDR community who still play DDR seriously have their own machines like me. I know of a few others who would like to attempt this challenge and would like a better community standards.

That's interesting, thanks for linking that.

The particular game in question is DDR which opens up another can of worms since I've read on this forum that in general rhythm games and the like aren't good candidates for speed running since there's not a clear way to "speed run" them. However, I do think if a clear goal is stated, a challenging speed run could be made.

Take DDR for an example, the max score you can get is a "AAA" rank. (there are some exceptions depending the the game version)  I think an interesting speed run for DDR would be to obtain perfect scores on every selectable songs in the game as fast as you can, which take my word for it, is pretty hard. I suppose this challenge could more easily be done on a console version though I and many other in the community prefer arcade mix.

I've already attempted said runs a couple times to get a feel for it. The following was one of my recent attempts. In no way would I submit to be a SDA worthy run, but I would like ideas and tips on how improve my concept, rules, info, cams, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bTBNV2SzyA

Most people today in the DDR community who still play DDR seriously have their own machines like me. I know of a few others who would like to attempt this challenge and would like a better community standards.

Hsanrb

2013-09-09 01:51:50 am

The dilemma becomes the fact that rhythm game speedruns cannot be optimized by playing better. Songs don't go faster if you get max score, you don't play less songs because you took an improved route. While seeing all AAA's on a version is an amazing feat, you might as well play every song back to back and compute the maximum score. There would be no way to improve a time, because all the playable elements are at a fixed rate. Load times would be factored out, so technically the only way to improve the Real time of a run is to reduce the time spent in the mod menu (aka play every song at 1x)

Music games whether it be DDR, IIDX, DJMax, etc are competitive at a purely score level. Maybe if you wanted to look into speedrunning one of the Universe modes from the awful Xbox versions (I believe all the PS2 versions had courses and challenge modes like AAA measure 15-22 of XYZ song) that might be the way to go into getting a DDR speedrun but it might still be stretching the speedrun definition. It would be like speedrunning 1943 because you can technically speedup the plane fights and blow up the last parts of a ship at the highest part of the screen, but 99% of the game is auto scrolling for the 1% you can manage to speedup ever so slightly.

The dilemma becomes the fact that rhythm game speedruns cannot be optimized by playing better. Songs don't go faster if you get max score, you don't play less songs because you took an improved route. While seeing all AAA's on a version is an amazing feat, you might as well play every song back to back and compute the maximum score. There would be no way to improve a time, because all the playable elements are at a fixed rate. Load times would be factored out, so technically the only way to improve the Real time of a run is to reduce the time spent in the mod menu (aka play every song at 1x)

Music games whether it be DDR, IIDX, DJMax, etc are competitive at a purely score level. Maybe if you wanted to look into speedrunning one of the Universe modes from the awful Xbox versions (I believe all the PS2 versions had courses and challenge modes like AAA measure 15-22 of XYZ song) that might be the way to go into getting a DDR speedrun but it might still be stretching the speedrun definition. It would be like speedrunning 1943 because you can technically speedup the plane fights and blow up the last parts of a ship at the highest part of the screen, but 99% of the game is auto scrolling for the 1% you can manage to speedup ever so slightly.

MrLonghair

2013-09-09 02:25:24 am

Audio-guy. twitchtv:ohgoddamnit

Superguns are cheap if you can find them, the cheapest ones are just professionally made circuit boards with a JAMMA connector, plugs for audio, video, control input and an ATX power supply or even a dedicated power adapter.

Boards aren't quite as cheap since it's up to where you shop, and the collector culture in your country. In Sweden which has the strongest arcade collecting culture in the world (for its little population) we freaking give games away. Name an arcade PCB and the prices you've seen it go for, it's traded hands for an Nth of that.

Recording is the universally tricky part of it. Cheapest method? DVD recorder that takes RGB Scart or Component, and maybe an RGB to Component adapter. Unless you have a supergun that flat out outputs S-Video (VOGATEK).

Then you need verifiers. I've done side by side tests with original boards, when it comes to speedrun precision MAME isn't always reliable.