SGDQ2015 : TASBlock Interview v2

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f: Hello?

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Hi everybody. I'm Feasel.
I'm here with two of the guys from the TASBlock.

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We got link_7777 and dwangoAC.

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l: Hey everyone.
d: Hello.

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f: Thanks for joining me guys.

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So first of all tell me, What is a TAS?
For people who don't know.

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l: TAS is a Tool-Assisted Speedrun.

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So basically what we get to do is we start from power on time.

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Which is actually different from what everyone is used to for their RTA runs.

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And we start doing our inputs and it's deterministic.

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So we can play the game essentially, frame by frame.

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And look at memory and do what we want and try and complete the game as fast as possible.

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Like say if you were superhuman, maybe.

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d: Right and of course we're doing this inside of an emulator.

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So we are able to fully control everything about the environment.

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Where we take it an extra step is at GDQ events. Where we do the same thing but with real hardware.

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And that's where TASBot comes in.

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Although the first run we're doing. Actually we'll be doing it to show off memory addresses.

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That's actually link_7777's run.

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l: Yeah that's the run I worked on, so.

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d: Yeah, so we will be doing Super Mario Land 2. In an emulator to show certain addresses,

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and show some of the techniques on how we've done some of this.

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f: Okay.

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So TASBot that's basically a bot for playing back these TASes on actual hardware.

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d: Right.

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f: And would you say that TASBot has changed the way people do TASing?

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Do they--. Is it hardware verification changing the TASers work now?

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d: Somewhat. I mean certainly TASBot become somewhat of a mascot.

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Kind of a, character that has been associated with TASing with real hardware.

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There's plenty of other people that don't have a physical R.O.B. robot.

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With a bunch of Legos and a custom replay board.

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But TASBot is definitely more special this year than last.

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He has custom hardware built specifically for him.

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A board called the "TASLink" board. Made by micro500.

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More info. at taslink.org

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It's custom built just for a certain run we're doing later today.

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f: So this is a big collaborative effort.

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There's a lot of people who not only working on these TASes,

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but also the hardware aspect of it, to make a demonstration like this happen.

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How many people do you think were involved in this total?

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Just a ballpark figure.

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d: Oh man, over a dozen.

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l: Dozen or more probably yeah.
f: "Over a dozen."

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l: Dozen or more probably yeah.
d: Or more like two-dozen.

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l: Dozen or more probably yeah.
d: There's more behind the scenes.

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Like we have, and people came in at the last minute to do even more.

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It's a big effort.
l: So quite a few behind the scenes for sure.

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l: So quite a few behind the scenes for sure.

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d: And certainly for AGDQ2015 when we did Pokémon Plays Twitch.

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We figured we'd literally, put a man year of effort into it.

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For somebody doing something for the Python scripting.

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For somebody, make, building the hardware. Someone building the reset switch.

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Everything had some component of team effort.

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So I am the main presenter of TASBot.
I mean the main organizer of the event.

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But there's no way I could do it without all the work of everyone behind the scenes.

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f: So suffice to say it's the biggest collaborative effort of anything that goes on within this marathon.

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d: Oh yeah. I can easily point to hundreds of hours that have gone into what you are going to see today.

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f: Okay.

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And how do, do you try to top your previous performance?

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I mean how do you compete with some of the stuff, you've done in the past?

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How do you keep finding new things to do?

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d: There's a certain point that we won't be able to.

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I don't know how you could-.

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I didn't know how we were going to top Pokémon Plays Twitch.

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That was just, so over the top.

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And we were able to do some really cool things with Super Mario Brothers 3 Total Control.

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And I thought that the Mario Maker was a really nifty thing.

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But...

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How do we top that?

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I think we've definitely met our bar for quality.

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So you'll have to stay tuned for that.

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f: Okay, yeah you've got some surprises coming up?

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d: We have a couple of surprises.

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l: A few yeah.
d: We have a couple of surprises.

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d: Even surprises to the TAS community.

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f: Oh cool. well we'll look forward to that.

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Well, it looks like they're getting set up over there for Pokémon Blue.

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d: One other thing please.

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We have a TASBot t-shirt available at the Yetee.

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You really need to check that out.

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TASBot t-shirt. 3 dollars goes to Doctors Without Borders.

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Please check that out.

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f: Great.
l: Thanks Feasel.

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f: Thank you very much.
d: Yeah, thanks.

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f: And good luck in setup for your TASBlock.

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d: Thanks.

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f: Alright. Well we're going to throw it over to the Pokémon guys, looks like they're ready over there.

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Thanks.