Obscure game stash

What is it with me and knowing all the most obscure games ever. At the very least, it gives me good material to TAS. So, today I'd like to talk about one of my favorite games no one has ever heard of, Sutte Hakkun.

First released on the Satellaview before recieving a cartridge port, Sutte Hakkun is an interesting action puzzle game about blocks, paint, and a bubble thing. Somewhat similar to the game De Blob, you can suck up paint to inject into various objects, such as blocks or animalish things. These colors will then change how the object acts, such as causing it to move around. Your character can also suck up objects themselves to place them in different positions (you can only suck up an object or a color, not both). While the concept is simple, the game is not very easy at all. Later levels in the game can become very complicated.

The challenge of this game isn't just beating the puzzles. You also need to complete it in the minimal amount of moves possible. Each action your character performs takes away a certain number of points from your score, so in order to get the best score you need to find a quick way of solving it.

For a quick explanation, the paint colors do the following:

• Blocks:
• Red - Moves the block up and down.
• Blue - Moves the block side to side.
• Yellow - Moves the block diagonally.
• Animals:
• Red - Makes the animal get squished when you step on it, making it half size.
• Blue - Makes the animal move from side to side.
• Yellow - Makes the animal jump.

There are also special properties of animals - they fall through blocks, make you jump higher when sucked up, can destroy another animals if one falls on the other, are affected by gravity, and can not be passed through like blocks can.  Seeming a bit more complicated now, eh?
There's also another object in the game that is a stone. Sucking it up will make you jump lower, but will also allow you to fall through glass barriers. Colors can not be injected into it, however.

And I just spent half an hour typing about a Japanese-only game that none of you will never own. XD

Minecraft circuitry



I've been building a ton of stuff with redstone in Minecraft lately, and it's taught me quite a lot about circuitry. Here's my biggest project thus far, apparently similar to CaptainSparklez's vending machine (though I had not known of his idea at the time). The only thing is there are two differences between his and mine: One, it has no pistons or minecart glitching, and two, it only requires a lever rather than a lever and a button (would be possible with just a button as well, but I didn't have enough space to do so).

If you want to use this "vending machine" in your own file, import this schematic with a map editor such as MCEdit.
How to use:
1) Pull down only one lever to call a cart. Leave this lever down for now.
2) When the cart comes, take whatever you need from it and press the button to send it back.
3) Wait a short while for the cart to return to it's correct position, then pull the lever from step 1 back up.

Anyway, here are some screenshots of it:

 

The outside of the building. The levers on the left call the
minecarts when the button near the doorway sends the cart back.

   

A view of the right side of the building. Most wires are squashed in here.

 

The left side of the building, which give a good view of the minecarts.



The "basement", where wires that couldn't fit above are squashed.

Progress

• Super Demo World - The Legend Continues:A new project, a any% TAS with PangaeaPanga (Penangbenny) and bahamete, as with the Brutal Mario TAS. This project is a bit controversial as of right now as to whether or not we're going to do it, but we're aiming to beat Panga's old run, which was rather unoptimized and can be much improved. Mister, the Japanese TASer I'm attempting to beat in my Kaizo Mario 2 TAS, is also supporting this project.
• Super Mario's Puzzle Project 4:
  Been a bit lazy with this, I'm only just getting back into this project. I've gotten two levels done since a couple days ago, but kind of annoyed at the level immediatly after right now due to a rather annoying idea the creator had. ^^;







Really now? Really?


• Brutal Mario:
  We're just about done with the second world, with only the castle left (unfortunatly, that happens to be the most boring level in the game. Poor bahamete).
• Kaizo Mario World 2:
Grinded to a complete halt for a while, due to the fact that Fethy kind of died. I'll probably finish it up alone, but I really hate level 9 (it is a pain in the butt to optimize). Eh, oh well.
• Super Mario World 100% (2.0):So, we found a new strategy for doing the TAS using Powerup 106. By using the
powerup incrementation glitch over a hundred times, we found that we could get an interesting powerup from 1-ups and mushrooms, which could then give us both a keyhole exit AND a normal exit (our previous strategy took twice as many incrementations and only gave up a goal sphere). More information can be found out about this project on TheFinalBoss726's blog.
• Super Mario World Central Video Challenge:
Currently on Round 39, though the challenge appears to have taken yet another breather. This thing needs more stamina.
• Mario's Massive Maze:So, working on yet another new level for this hack (the old one is still in progress, though halted due to problems with the SMW engine. Freaking layer 2). The level I'm currently working on is a standard screen loop level, but you can't jump either, so you're forced to figure out ways to progress forwards. The first room is already on YouTube here.

Current Projects

• Super Mario's Puzzle Project 4:A 100% TAS.
  Currently halfway through the grassland side (so 13 levels are done so far). I have a list of breaks for the next few levels, but currently I have not finished optimizing any of them.
• Brutal Mario:A 100% TAS with two other TASers, Penangbenny (PangaeaPanga) and Bahamete.
  So far, we've finished the first world and all the secret exits in the Star World, and we were about 270 frames (4.5 seconds) ahead of LightBlueYoshi, another TASer who tried to TAS this hack, by the end of the Star World. ( ⏠⏝⏠ )
  Being a 100%, we don't really care much about reducing fadeout lag, so its likely someone will be able to beat us with just that.
• Kaizo Mario World 2:A 100% TAS with Fethy75.
  We're at the ninth level, called ウルトラのほしふたたび (trans. "Ultra Star Return", a reference to a Japanese TV show called Ultraman), which is being done by Fethy75.
  As of this level, we're 406 frames ahead Mister's TAS (a Japanese TASer who holds the record for the fastest completion of Kaizo 2). The hack is likely to be completed by the end of February.
• Super Mario World Glitched 100%:Halted for quite a while, as none of us have the patience to do this YW exit. Seeing as its supposed to be a secret, I'll stop talking now, k?
• Super Mario World Central Video Challenge:
  A set of challenges, created by SMW Central user Dotsarecool.
  Seeing as I'm in first place at 5850 points (over a thousand points over second place), I've not been submitting my entries for points.
• Mario's Massive Maze:
  A ROM hack that I'm making, to be submitted to SMW Central.
  The hack is currently at a halt, due to some technical difficulties with the ideas I have (Layer 2 and Layer 3 not working together, and Layer 2 not being able to scroll upwards when its scroll setting is not set to "none"). Once this is worked around, there are going to be some more videos of the hack.
  

  

  What IS a house doing in the middle of a cave?

  

  

  ...and what is lava doing inside this house?