Touhou 1

2012-02-24 06:09:29 pm

I am considering doing a series of speedruns for Touhou 1: The Highly Responsive to Prayers.

Touhou 1 is not a shmup. It is most similar to Arkanoid, with the differences being:

1.) The orb can kill the player
2.) The orb is affected by gravity
3.) The orb goes through the objects it destroys instead of bouncing off of them
4.) The player character is capable of seven different moves, all with different properties
5.) Indestructible turrets shoot at the player
6.) Bullet-hell style boss fights
7.) VERY high difficulty

Touhou 1 should be speedrunnable as the speed at which each level and boss are defeated depends entirely on the player. However, the only way to play it is on Anex86 emulator. I didn't find any information about emulators in the SDA rules, but I assume they are frowned upon. Anex86 does not offer any advanced emulation features (as you can see, it doesn't even have menus) whatsoever, so it is impossible (as far as I know) to use it to cheat. Would it be okay to use the emulator for speedruns?

Thread title:

[img]http://kakeracomplex.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/touhou-11.jpg[/img]

I am considering doing a series of speedruns for Touhou 1: The Highly Responsive to Prayers.

Touhou 1 is not a shmup. It is most similar to Arkanoid, with the differences being:

1.) The orb can kill the player
2.) The orb is affected by gravity
3.) The orb goes through the objects it destroys instead of bouncing off of them
4.) The player character is capable of seven different moves, all with different properties
5.) Indestructible turrets shoot at the player
6.) Bullet-hell style boss fights
7.) VERY high difficulty

Touhou 1 should be speedrunnable as the speed at which each level and boss are defeated depends entirely on the player. However, the only way to play it is on Anex86 emulator. I didn't find any information about emulators in the SDA rules, but I assume they are frowned upon. Anex86 does not offer any advanced emulation features (as you can see, it doesn't even have menus) whatsoever, so it is impossible (as far as I know) to use it to cheat. Would it be okay to use the emulator for speedruns?

Exo

2012-02-24 06:27:44 pm

Sandbagging

You mean the only way to play it is to buy a PC-98.
Emulators are not allowed unless theyre officially sold (Virtual Console for example).

Wyvern K.

2012-02-24 06:54:57 pm

Quote from Exo:

Emulators are not allowed.

Oh. Well, you know that is what I would imagine, but there was just such a clearly stated lack of information regarding emulators in the rules that I was led to hope that they actually were allowed.

dballin

2012-02-24 07:53:40 pm

Balls jerky

but there is:

Quote:

-Virtualization: We will not accept speedruns recorded on emulators (ZSNES, VBA, DOSBox, etc.) or other virtualization software (Wine, VMware, etc.). Emulators commonly allow for recording games frame-by-frame and then playing back the input at normal speed. Also, most emulators and virtualization programs have minor inaccuracies in timing and slowdown that prevent accurate comparisons between runs. Finally, it is illegal in most countries to obtain ROMs. Note that an exception is made for officially sanctioned emulators such as the Game Boy Player for GameCube, Virtual Console, or GameTap. Due to problems with some official emulators, however, runs on those emulators may be considered a separate category.

Wyvern K.

2012-02-24 11:30:23 pm

I see that. I honestly thought I had read the entire rules section looking for it, but my eyes must have skipped over it without my realization. It's quite embarrassing...

Anyway, since Exo pointed it out, where do you think I could buy a PC-98? I've tried E-bay, Google Shopping and Craigslist with no luck.

dballin

Edit history:

dballin: 2012-02-24 11:57:53 pm

2012-02-24 11:47:47 pm

Balls jerky

A PC-98 might be a little hard to find outside of Japan since it was only released there. You might be in luck though because it was hugely popular so there's a lot of them. Either way it's probably going to cost a ton in shipping alone if you need to import it.

Also worthy of note is that Japan uses different voltage than the US so you need to figure out whether or not you'll need a new power adapter with it. I know with the Famicom you need a new plug but my ps2 doesn't so it all depends.

Exo

Edit history:

Exo: 2012-02-25 04:49:26 am

Exo: 2012-02-25 04:49:14 am

2012-02-25 04:48:25 am

Sandbagging

The only way to buy one is to use a japanese auction site like auctions.jp and buy one over there.

http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=pc98&auccat=0&tab_ex=commerce&ei=euc-jp

There are quite a lot of bidding services online that forward the item to your doorstep (and bid for you).
Search for "auction yahoo bidding service" on google and you will find a crapton of them.
Make sure to find one that doesnt take too much of a cut (about 5-10% for a fee I'd say) and watch out for decent shipping costs.
Good luck getting a PC98 Smiley

P.S.: I'm not sure if PC98 games are compatible with the laptop as well as desktop model of the computer.

Wyvern K.

2012-02-27 05:40:57 pm

Thanks! Last question: How would I record it? Do you know if the PC-98 has the proper outputs for it?