It can happen on the 25th and 40th deals, but only if you win the prior hand (so, the 24th and/or 39th). Yeah, duplicate cards are possible because it's just creating those cards from nothing, not picking them out of the deck. And I do believe you would win in case of a tie.
I don't think there's much to gain from it in terms of speedrun. One golden hand in isolation would give you a boost for, let's say, ~300k, optimistically? Which is not nothing, but you still have to win the prior hand, which is a pretty random prospect on its own. It also means you're lead bet with a royal flush in hand. I'd much rather be in position to raise manip him to squeeze out 300k+. Going for an "easy" 200k is fine, but even then it's still not guaranteed.
Nice! I didn't test it, but that should work as you said. Basically on the current route, the 3rd trip to Salish would be a straight walk to Licourtrix, that probably saves like 30 seconds, I think? And yeah, you can just finish everything up with the elders all at once after getting the Sharkey ride. Cool find!
It depends on the BIOS version, BUT, for an original US/Europen Master System with the v1.3 BIOS, yes that will work. In other case, you may have to do some testing to determine the number of demo iterations needed. Regardless, you should be finding the swimsuit in the same location after hard reset, and that location should change predictably each time the demo loads.
It's normal for the RNG to be fixed if you're starting from a hard reset. It also works the same on Master System hardware, since the BIOS puts the RAM into a known state. This will guarantee the same sequence of swimsuit locations from game to game. Note, swimsuit location is set on game load which happens on normal start OR when the demo starts after the title screen.
Running with SMS BIOS 1.3 should give the best swimsuit RNG if you're starting from a hard reset. In other cases, you may have to manually cycle the RNG by letting the demo load a number of times before starting. Exception: if you're running on hardware without a BIOS (e.g., Genesis w/ Power Base Converter), you can't guarantee the RNG because RAM doesn't get initialized.
Hi! There is currently no Casino Kid community (that I am aware of). But, feel free to ask any questions. I may be able to answer, if I can remember enough. I will try my best.
There's a game speed bug that was identified in the MS-DOS version of Flashback (original 1993 release) when running via DOSBox. It normally occurs when the game is configured for Roland music & Sound Blaster sfx. When bugged, the game will run faster than normal speed (70Hz vs 60Hz).
*** If you encounter this bug, you must take steps to avoid it. Any run not performed at normal speed (60Hz) will be rejected. ***
I created a video to demonstrate this bugged speed. Please read the full video description for details:
The workaround is to modify your DOSBox config's autoexec script (or batch file) to run the FB executable 2 times in a row. If the bugged speed is observed the 1st time, quit the game from the main menu and the game will restart instantly. Then, verify that the game speed is normal.
If you are having trouble, you can reply here or contact me directly to help work out the issue.
That's fair. In that case, I could mod a separate board for some of the others, at least DOS & Amiga I guess. Kinda speculative, given that there's only 1 posted run so far, but whatever it is, nbd.
No worries. I added the platform and updated VelCheran's run accordingly.
You probably don't need a loop. Just modify your DOSBox config to run FB.EXE twice in a row. I feel if it's going to work, it should do so after one restart only. There may be other factors contributing though, so I can't say definitively.
You can send me your config file if you want me to check it out. Also, I didn't ask before, what DOSBox version are you using? Not sure if it matters much, but I could do some testing based on that.
Oh, FB.COM is the crack launcher, but running FB.EXE should work just the same. Don't worry about that.
I retested, and it seems like you'd need to use the modified exec with the goto call. Somehow the quick action tricks the game into adjusting the speed correctly. Basically, the game is supposed to run at 50fps naturally, but it inits to 60fps based on... something? Very unclear.
I want to look deeper into this, but sadly I don't think it will happen anytime soon. Apologies if you can't get this to work. I'll let you know if I discover any other workarounds in the meantime.
Try exiting the game (not DOSBox) and run FB.COM again. I have that too, where the speed is wrong the first time (like it doesn't throttle down from 70Hz to 60Hz). It might be a random timing bug, but it usually works on the first restart. In my config, I have the exec set up like this to make the game automatically restart when you exit:
:run FB.com goto :run
The copy protection in the DOS version is triggered when you start a level, and again when you teleport. Once you pass those checks, it doesn't bug you again. So, enter the password for level 6 to trigger the 1st check. Once you pass that and you're in game, throw the receiver and use the control to teleport to trigger the 2nd check. Pass that one and you're done. Just exit out to the main menu and start the run as you would.
And yes, the "classic" version in the 25th anniversary release is the 1993 version in which one of the glitches was fixed (it's functionally equivalent to the SNES version).
OK. Based on these test results (and my own independent verification), I agree that there's a significant enough gap between emu and console to warrant a separate category. However, I don't agree that we need to restrict emu runs to Fusion.
Problems with limiting runs to Kega Fusion v3.64:
- That version was released for Windows only, so that's an immediate disqualification for other OSes.
- Some people could have troubles related to controller incompatibility, driver or hardware issues, etc.
- Fusion development ceased years ago, so it's unlikely to see any updates (at least not official ones). It would be a bad situation if a future Windows update or change were to break software compatibility.
- Since Fusion appears to be the fastest emulator tested, there's no good reason to ban emulators that run at a speed closer to console if they're already at a time disadvantage to Fusion (especially other emulators which strive for high accuracy).
Since there's clearly no ideal emulator from a timing perspective, I think it fair game to allow them all. Though if there are specific emulators which break the game in some way, that's another story. The more popular emulators that are being actively developed are unlikely to have such issues. If we're only talking about lag, and we're already excepting Fusion despite this, seems fine to accept other emulators that don't run any faster than Fusion.
No problem, Brando! I appreciate you taking a closer look at this. Since you're the one verifying runs, it's no doubt important to understand the timing differences for the sake of fairness.
Also, in case there are certain emulators that do provide an unfair advantage (for whatever reason), best to address such things in the rules now, rather than having to deal with controversy after the runs are submitted.
You never stated which emulator you tested. Note, some emulators are going to be more accurate than others, especially when comparing newer ones (like BizHawk) to older ones (like Kega Fusion). Even more, you still can encounter slight differences between versions of the same emulator if, for example, fixes were implemented to improve accuracy.
By lumping all emulator runs together in the same category, you may be inadvertently incentivizing people to use inaccurate and/or broken emulators to gain a slight time advantage. I think it would be healthier to encourage them to use more accurate emulators instead. This goes for all games, not just Flashback.
Yeah, ditto what z_tox said, especially about activating magic before you land. If you can throw an extra shuriken into its hitbox, it will allow you a bigger window to trigger the glitch. So, spamming them seems like a good approach. Doing it with just one shot can be quite difficult.
In general, you probably want to adjust your distance to the boss to increase your odds. If you watch other runners, you may be able to tell by where they're standing and how they're jumping when they get it. Note, the head can spawn at 3 different heights (though it may be difficult to tell quickly), so the optimal approach can change depending on which height the head is at.
Oh I wasn't the one running the Amiga version, but it's all good. :)
Yeah the small differences between all the ports kinda makes things pretty crazy. Doesn't help that glitches aren't consistent across all versions, but also the game is so CPU bound you can't compare runs played on different consoles due to varying amounts of lag.
In case you want to clean up the boards a bit: From the Edit Game page, you can mark the ports that don't have any posted runs to be hidden (or put under Misc. subcategory, rather). The option is kinda buried but it's there. Variables tab -> Edit value for the port -> Enable "Misc.". Then just remember to undo that when you have new runs come in for one of those.
Also, make sure you enable all the possible platforms so they can be selected when players submit runs. (These are the platforms that are listed on the sidebar.) Looks like PC and Amiga aren't yet enabled, so they also won't show up when browsing the site for games by platform.