BK TAS Challenge 1

Hi Everyone, welcome to the first Banjo-Kazooie TAS Challenge. Hopefully this will end up being a recurring thing!

For those of you who are not familiar with Bizhawk and TASing and want to give it a try, but don't want the daunting task of a full game TAS, this is for you. I will explain everything in detail how to begin, and you will be given 2 weeks to start so people have plenty of time to work out issues and route their challenge.

Firstly, please download and install the current version of Bizhawk. This can be found here: https://github.com/TASVideos/BizHawk/releases/tag/2.3

You will need the NTSC Banjo-Kazooie 1.0 ROM. You must acquire this yourself.

This TAS challenge will start from a savestate. You will load the savestate and start from there. The exact timing method will be listed below.

The savestate can be downloaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cysmx4szadycuu9/Task1.State?dl=0

Once you open the ROM, please ensure the settings under the N64>plugins tab are as follows:

Core Type: Pure interpreter		Video Plugin: GlideN64




From this point on I will give a short tutorial on TASing for those unfamiliar. If you are already familiar, you can skip to the bottom of this pastebin for the actual challenge.

Next, load the savestate provided, and pause the game. Next, go to file > Movie > Record Movie. Name it Task1*insert username here*.bk2
Start the movie from "Now" rather than the default "Power On".

The game will now begin recording. You'll want to immediately make a savestate. While recording, these savestates will be specific to your movie. You have 10 slots to work with, and it may take some time to become comfortable with using them. Generally I like to use slot 1 for the very beginning of the movie, and later slots for the end of a section. Once you feel comfortable with the optimization of your section, you can overwrite an earlier state to that, and use it as the beginning of that next section. Just make sure slot 1 is the very beginning of the movie so it is easy to watch from the beginning.

You will want to bind a frame advance button on your keyboard that is convenient for you. Try and become familiar with the keybinds for Bizhawk. The important ones are:

Frame Advance - simply advances the game one frame. Since this is a 30 fps game on a 60 fps emulator, you actually have to press this twice for a visual frame change to occur.

Q: Toggle read only mode - When in read only mode, the movie simply plays back until the end of the input. When you turn this off, loading a savestate will delete all input after that point. So be careful and manage your savestates wisely as to not lose progress. You will become comfortable with this after a little playing around.

Load state and save state - these are already bound to function buttons and shift function buttons respectively. Pretty self explanatory I think.


Try to use the framecounter at the top of the screen to judge your progress. You will immediately be able to see how you can save frames everywhere.

SAVE OFTEN AND MAKE LOTS OF SAVESTATES. I can't stress this enough. I've lost progress before and it sucks.

Please make use of Isotarge's script. It gives LOADS of useful information about movement, speed, angles, etc. For example, Banjo is very animation heavy. When you see "idle" under the movement state, generally you can now perform a new action after a cutscene, or leaving a loading zone. "Locked" means you can't do anything. But make sure you open this script AFTER you have started your movie or reopened it.

His script can be found here: https://github.com/Isotarge/ScriptHawk
And you load this by opening Tools > Lua Console > Open Script > Scripthawk (TAS Safe)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pzickwffhsdqrtp/bk_osd_minimal.lua?dl=0
This script is an alternative and is less resource heavy, for those of you with less powerful computers

You will use the Tools > Virtual Pad for your inputs. Some people prefer to use TAStudio, but I feel that it is not beginner friendly.
You can also use keybinds, but I would not suggest this.

That's basically it! And the rest is up to you, but feel free to ask any questions that may arise.


*THE ACTUAL CHALLENGE*

The savestate will load Banjo entering the loading zone from inside Ticker's Tower at the top, inside Mumbo's Mountain.

Collect:
2 Jiggies
2 Jinjos
15 Notes
1 Mumbo Token
In any order
End on a death

The timing will be from first "idle" frame, to the first "damaged" frame that kills Banjo.

PLEASE pay extra close attention to the level condition, as several items have already been collected.

This task will be due on Wednesday, October 24th, 2018  at 11:59PM EST

Please email your BK2 file to [email protected]

GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!