How to guarantee a repeatable movie?

If you're having problems with Snes9x, or think you've found a bug, this is the place to be.
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balacobaco
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2016 3:10 am

How to guarantee a repeatable movie?

Post by balacobaco »

I have been trying to record a movie with Snes9x but I am running into problems that do not make sense to me. I will tell here what I have done to try to guarantee it and the situation I am in now. I imagine that I do not know other "details" that I should do to create *good* movies with snes9x.

1. The game I am trying to record is Tetris Attack which md5sum (to guarantee that others may try with the same things I used) is:

aac82e2aa4a1149caf17bd3e8cb885f5 tetrisattack.zip # zip file I give to snes9x
1ab6533f8578b07c54931f225da57886 tetrisattack.smc # the actual ROM checksum, if we extract it from the zip file above

2. First I tried to record the movie and used the rest of Snes9x features normally. Specifically, I used the fast forward feature and did not care about keys pressed in places where the game do not act to them. This did not work, the movies did not replay with the same set of stones.

3. Then I tried to record the movie by never using any "extra" key pressed in the game, so it would receive always the same buttons in the same times. And assumed that s9 gave it always the same set of "state" everytime it was run. It did not work.

4. Then I tried to record without using any saved states, any features or functions of s9, and without pressing keys where the were not used. It worked, but we cannot press ANY key (s9's or emulated pad) for it to play correctly.

4.1. I have sent my working replay movie to some friends. Knowing that the movie is hard to use, I have explained to them how they should play it: I used an Ubuntu Snes9x version 1.51.52-1 GTK . And explained to them how they should repeat the movie correctly (or they would just see moves for *another* set of stones, as happened to me):

a use the ROM I have sent to them;
b. load game;
c. reset emulation;
d. load movie;
e. (important) NEVER do anything or pause the emulation until the movie ends, or it will break the game's future sets of stones.

5. A few weeks ago I reinstalled OS in my computer, and now I am using Snes9x for unix (the one which we call through the command line), version 1.52. I have seen that it has the -playmovie .... why not testing it?? So I run it with:

snes9x -v8 -playmovie super-dificil-em-12min.smv tetrisattack.zip

And, as I discovered before, I never press anything in my keyboard after hitting enter for the above command... but it did not work! :( I cannott replay my movie, and my friends probably could not do it too. The movie is correct just until the actual game play begins. The set of stones if different. What worked is just what we do to start another game. I need the emulated SNES memory to be repeatable!

What should I do to make movie guaranteed to work with this game? (and, if possible, with all games, even if it needs to use exactly the same ROM's files).

Is it possible to replay that movie correctly? It is attached here, in case you want to test it and see.
balacobaco
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2016 3:10 am

Re: How to guarantee a repeatable movie?

Post by balacobaco »

Everyone, please say if you tried to replay the movie I attached in this thread. And if you tried, if it worked or not (and other details, if you please). If you do not have the ROM, say so.
balacobaco
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2016 3:10 am

Re: How to guarantee a repeatable movie?

Post by balacobaco »

Because this wrong forum silently removed the file I attached, for no reason, I am sending it here in a URL everyone will be able to download it:

http://balacobaco.insomnia247.nl/tetrisattack.smv
odditude
Snes9x Green Belt
Posts: 445
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 2:35 pm

Re: How to guarantee a repeatable movie?

Post by odditude »

use BizHawk instead of snes9x.
balacobaco
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2016 3:10 am

Re: How to guarantee a repeatable movie?

Post by balacobaco »

I have not heard of this emulator before. Thank you for suggesting it, I may try it someday. Seems a very nice project, sadly it is only for uindoze, which I do not use anymore.
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