#Improvement: Speedrun Edition

[lienwyn]

Kang Yo Han in his natural habitat, as observed by Kim Ga On

OR

You want to fuck that old man so bad it makes you look stupid

[surreal-duck]

With love, for you.

(extra vers under the cut!)

[kalmiaclown]

🎁🎉HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DR. HABIT‼️🎊🎈

Oh and happy new year 🙄🥂 I guess 🙄🙄

[valeriefauxnom]

Now I very well could be being a dumb-dumb at this time of day (or night, as it were), but wouldn't Emile being in the back make it even more solid that he's taller, by rules of perspective, for the same reason Nedrick and Notte look gigantic because he's close to the viewpoint? Even if he's leaning forward, all that means is that he's not standing at full height and is still seemingly even or taller than people more in the foreground, who would be looking slightly bigger... right? Take it all with a grain of salt (I'm not an artist!), but those would be my initial thoughts.

What's funnier is that I ultimately would not believe Emile is that tall either, in my personal headcanon, but per this art I can admit that it sure looks like he's very tall.

Too bad Emile hates standing up straight or in ways that allow him to be compared to others easily!

He seems to always be hunching over or otherwise never standing fully straight, much less with clean reference to others:

Someone fix this man's posture and make him stand by his siblings in a clean manner on even terrain so we can answer this Very Important Question!

One thing I always loved about taking things at face value instead of thinking of the more logical, meta reason why this is the case is that it leads to situations like this:

How do we get here?

The answer is art. Well, that, and trying to fit in multiple characters into a single frame coupled with Ranzal being too short to allow the rest of them normal-er heights.

It all starts at this early dragalia life comic, and this panel specifically:

So, apparently somebody (whether the artist actually asked anyone else or just winged it, I don't know!) decided Ranzal was 6'1. Fair, a pretty tall height for such a big dude, right? Well, it's not tall enough when we then put this in mind with pretty much every art with him in the picture and can't be explained by perspective (ie, everyone is likely on a relatively flat surface)

(Yes I know Euden's kneeling in that one but still, don't think standing is going to help him much in this case! He's still got more in common with Daikokuten the Mouse Dragon in that picture than any human or sylvan...)

And yes, these are some of the more egregious examples, but just the fact there's more than one makes this so funny trying to re-contextualize everyone else's height around Ranzal when we look at art like this. Because, as the very first image suggests, Euden is at best 5'1 in some of these arts if Ranzal is 6'1. And since Dragalia seemed to go with a vague 'comparison heights' to keep in line that Euden is taller than Zethia, but not Luca, etc, means quite a few people are absolutely tiny with the only fact that they're shorter than Euden as evidence needed.

Now, of course you can easily ruin this by logical, unfun recognition that Euden is also one of the most egregious size-shifters in Dragalia over the years (which by itself might make for some funny headcanons that he doesn't know/can't remember his own height and just guesstimates if there's some sort of conscious mental influence in trying to return to human form after shifting...Like if he's feeling on top the world, powerful when he's shifting back everyone is suddenly wondering why he looks so much taller, etc), as evidenced by even just these dragalia life panels:

(This would put him at about 5'9/152 cm)

...Whereas this likely only cracks 4' something or another. You get the picture: heights aren't exactly stable in comics or art. And I get it, it'd be a pain to try and keep everything consistent 24/7 over so many comics and artworks.

But oh, is it funny to imagine that everyone in Grastea is falling into one of two camps: huge-normal and very small. There is almost no in-between. You are either 6'+ or you are 4'8. Like...

A party approaches, two taller figures and three small ones. One of them looks like a the leader of this group, a bulky frame and commanding, harsh presence that signals not to play games with him. Surely that's the most dangerous member of the party, right? He looks like he eats whole horses for breakfast and it all turns straight into muscle.

...And then the one 5'1 kid randomly multiplies in size several times over and is now a huge freakin' dragon and setting you on fire/sending a tidal wave at you/kicking up a tornado/electrifying you/breathing poison/etc...

Appearances....can be deceiving?

So yeah, there we have the hilarious and unintentional effects by that one damning comic so long ago provides, if you so choose to take it at face value instead of introducing silly things like facts and logic and an understanding of the difficulties of being an artist!

Bonus round (ie, edit)

Also, judging by this exact one (1) piece of art, Emile very well is taller than Phares. Emile looks like he's hunching over somewhat and is still about even with Phares:

So yeah. Figured I should share that Emile might be way taller than I thought, at least.

[samuelmorgan3d]

Big Update:

-Added a big secret

-1 House, 3 Symbols, 3 Secret Levels, 3 Secret Doors and 9 Secret Buttons.

-2 of 3 of the secret levels are already completely finished (Mini-Dipper's adventure in the enchanted forest (including retro filter)) & (Very difficult jump and run level in the style of Squid Games Green Light/Red Light Game) Edit: All 3 Secret Levels are done

-The last level is currently in progress (Mini-Dipper's adventure in Gravity Falls Mall) Edit: Level is done

-Fps improved

-Sounds improved

-Added speedrun timer

-Photo mode fixed

[sincerely-sofie]

which zelda game is the TPiaG's casts favorite

WE'RE RUNNING ON HUMAN AU TERRITORY Y'ALL LET's GOOOOOO

Twig likes Wind Waker, but specifically the original GameCube version. She appreciates the quality of life improvements that the HD remake included, but she doesn't like the changes to the visuals they made in it.

Ark is bad at video games and is the designated Walkthrough Reading Consultant whenever someone is playing a game. He enjoys watching Ruby play her favorite, which is Skyward Sword.

Opal loves watching her family play the various Zeldas, and while she doesn't enjoy most video games as much as one might assume, she ADORES the Hyrule Warriors series.

Spindle likes A Link Between Worlds. He has the special edition 3DS that comes with it pre-downloaded and it is his pride and joy.

Ruby, as mentioned above, enjoys playing Skyward Sword the best--- specifically the HD remake, because she's into speedruns and that's the best version for doing them. She and Ark get super into her various attempts to beat her personal best time. The Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks duo are a close second, though!

Kip enjoys Tri Force Heroes and was absolutely crushed when the 3DS servers went down.

Sen has never played a Zelda game, but she once made a 1-to-1 reconstruction of The Adventure of Link in Python with loving attention to detail after hearing people describe it as the black sheep of the series and feeling bad for it.

Lucky is a big fan of Wind Waker, but grew up with the HD remake instead of the original. She and Twig bond over it and she is endlessly horrified by the difficulty of certain parts of the original.

Calypso is a MASSIVE Zelda nerd and can’t pick a favorite. She would sooner give you a top twenty-nine than a top three.

Torrent likes Ocarina of Time and acknowledges that it’s his favorite because of nostalgia and not because of it being the ultimate Zelda game.

Gengar likes Ocarina of Time and swears that it’s the best game in the series.

Celebi likes Majora’s Mask and feels a spiritual connection to Tatl.

Grovyle is a mobile gamer and thinks that Link’s name is Zelda.

Dusknoir was given a Switch and a copy of Breath of the Wild by the Sableye one holiday. It was mainly so that they'd have something to play party games on whenever they visited his house, but they figured they'd at least give him one singleplayer game. He hasn't beaten it but he has made all 118 recipes.

Darcy hasn’t been able to think of anything but Echoes of Wisdom since it was announced.

Bennett is the same as Darcy, but he was the one who played the Link’s Awakening remake that got Darcy into the series.

Clara likes Tears of the Kingdom and hasn’t been able to even look at Breath of the Wild since she started playing it.

Eve is a huge fan of Minish Cap and has the Four Swords companion manga volumes in a stack on her nightstand at all times.

Chatot and Wigglytuff were huge fans of Link’s Awakening DX as kids. Chatot still plays it every once in a while to calm down after the work day, and Wigglytuff has been trying to convince him to give the second remake on the Switch a shot.

[bluebead]

⚠️ Video contains flashing colors

Alright alright, I'm starting to click with this character! I didn't know any Chaunter-specific strategies during this run, but during editing I got some tips from folks that have been working great! I almost finished a run that would have been a whole minute PB improvement, but alas, I tried to blast helm without bombs on the last final boss hit and perished. o7

I still love the inherent silliness of Chaunter's gameplay. Getting a boss kill as a headless skeleton is so hype.

This run was 26th place on the speedrun leaderboard at the time it was submitted.

[clowngames]

Had a dream that a friend of mine made a powerpoint presentation on how to speedrun The Oldest View - a horror film by Kane Pixels which my brain decided was a video game.

Now, the film itself is terrifying, but the horror factor is lost a bit when you can do things like push the entity that's trying to kill you backwards far enough during phase 1 that it's a full checkpoint cycle behind you and doesn't enter phase 2 where it gains a kill hitbox until you're halfway through that chapter of the game.

Strangely though, when showing me the presentation, my friend kept referring to the entity as Cassie. This is weird because it already has a name I just can't remember - Rolling something - because it's a direct pull from a real life art project of the same name. I asked her why she was calling it Cassie and she was like "that's the name the speedrunning community gives it" and I asked why and she said "it just kind of looks like a Cassie"

Also apparently there's a build of the game called Joshua Edition made specifically for a YouTuber named Joshua. This version had a significant number of improvements which made it the version speedrunners preferred to run. You could not find this version online, the only way to get it was to personally ask Josh.

[satoshi-mochida]

Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition launches June 25 for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC - Gematsu

Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on June 25, Ubisoft announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via Ubisoft:

Swoop into the marvelous world of Hillys as action-reporter Jade to investigate the mysterious DomZ alien attacks alongside colorful characters, like her adoptive uncle Pey’j or the valiant Double H. Embark on this epic adventure in up to 4K, 60 frames per second with improved graphics, controls, and audio, along with brand-new autosave and cross-save features. Enjoy exclusive new rewards as you explore the planet and discover more about Jade’s past in a new treasure hunt throughout Hillys. Put your skills to the test thanks to the new speedrun mode and updated achievements, and learn more about the game’s development and secrets in the anniversary gallery! Armed with her dai-jo and faithful camera, Jade’s adventure will get you to freely explore Hillys, combat creatures large and small, infiltrate dangerous areas, solve enigmatic puzzles, play addictive mini-games, race the best hovercraft pilots, and take pictures of the whole experience. Be ready to dive into a trailblazing blend of action gameplay and thrilling emotional cutscenes!

Watch a new trailer below.

Release Date Trailer

[The video can't be embedded on here]

[karama9]

4, 17, 30

4: unwritten story idea

The two big ones right now are one featuring a Robin Hood like Link and royal lover shenanigans, and one featuring a Link that literally goes out of bonds to speedrun his quest.

17. Writing and editing process

For longer works, I tend to write a very short summary to pin down the driving idea, then a fairly detailed summary that will 100% be changed as I go along writing the draft.

Then the draft, then a first edit to add missing pieces and descriptions and make general improvements.

Then a bunch more rereads to tweak grammar and spelling to try and minimize the number of errors left when I post. It’s still not going to be zero, but I will have done my due diligence!

For shorter one shots, it starts with the draft but the rest is the same.

For the first few chapters of A Link Against the Dark, the first edit was extensive because I’m writing this one in a more detailed style. I’ve gotten better at being more detailed in the first draft so it’s not as bad now.

30. Share a fic you’re especially proud of

Oh, that’s hard. In terms of flattered vanity, hands down Arashikage. It got a few people interested in the fandom, I had to write out what was not actually canon in it because a lot of readers couldn’t tell (lots of source material that was hard to access) and it was one of the first stories to be added to the fandom’s recommended fic list on tv tropes. And no, I didn’t add it myself…

And I am proud of it. Worked hard on it and it shows. I still mostly like it when I reread it, with the small nitpick that the first arc could have been shorter.

But… Vigilante and Identity were much more challenging and I love how they turned out. Super proud of them too.

And then there’s my current fandom, Zelda. I am really happy with Gifts from the Past and its prequel Chosen.

Vigilante and Identity aren’t on AO3 yet but can be found on my fanfiction account.

Thank you @amelias-hart for the ask!

[chenswire]

Now that you said it I’m really curious about the foods in swummer files and voice lines now😳 not knowing Chinese is a pain sometimes.

copypasting this following paragraph from a writeup i did for a friend so it might sound a little more deranged than usual

in swummer's profile archive 4 they say the LGD officers will sometimes secretly(🤨) compare the difference between chen and swire's leadership styles in private; when following chen you have to yolo speedrun with her and will need half a day to recover from it while following swire requires you to multitask but in a controlled and not chaotic way and everything is very clearcut etc etc everyone generally agrees that they both 'seem to have 8 heads each, if i were in their shoes i would have been a goner after the first day' and it ends with rat king and wei two lungmen boomers drinking tea talking about the two of them too i was like ???? telenovela moment??? well not as crazy as the archive also saying that chen's desk was vacant (read: untouched and not taken over) for 2 years before swire tidied it up and put all the stuff into a box (read: not throwing them away) and labeling chen's (full) name on it (very normal about this meaningless detail)

Voice lines time

Talk 3

咳……检查了一下最近的行动记录，看得出这几年来，罗德岛的战术也更专业了，不错不错……哈？作为曾��的训练顾问看看任务记录不是很正常吗？我才没有偷看陈的资料！ Ahem...! I just checked your recent operation records, and it seems like Rhodes Island's tactics have significantly improved (lit: even more professional) in the past few years, not bad at all… HAH? Isn't it completely normal (CNT: Is there a problem) for a former instructor to be interested in this sort of thing? I-I didn't sneak a peek at Chen's data!

Talk after promotion 1

当上局长也没什么大不了的，无非是任务重了点、操心的事多了点，更能理解陈了点……啊，再强调一遍，我是接管近卫局，不是接陈的班！就算她现在回来，也是要叫我“长官”的！ Becoming the (department) Chief isn't that big of a deal. It's just that my work and responsibilities have increased by a little bit, and I can also understand Chen a little more... Ah! I'll say this again, I'm not taking over her position, but the entire LGD! So even if she comes back now, she'll have to call me Chief!

I like how she uses the same syntax? for all three, but I couldn't figure out how to word the [(noun) (verb) 少少] pattern succinctly in english AND keep the nuances lol skill issue... repeating 'a little bit more' thrice just sounds so wordy yea but anyway

the first two is 重 (heavier so a increase in both amount and importance) and 多 (more) but CNT has the last verb as 深(deeper) and also instead of 操心 its 烦 which is more like 'bother' than 'worry' aren't nuances great yippee

in her JP dub she says あのバカ龍 on the last chen mention while CN/CNT just uses the equivalent of 'her' instead of 仆街龍 but understandable because the word is a little strong lmao but im taking the nuance of her using 而家返嚟 as opposed to 現在回來 as a W regardless (something like come home vs go back)

this line is also referenced in a 123 rhodes comic strip

she does call her 仆街龍 in her module when talking to Hoshiguma though i'm tell you

别看那个了， 快帮我分分礼物。这是给你的冲浪板，这是给臭老鼠的火山泥面膜，这是给扑街龙的唱片——等她回来自己拿吧，还有给老魏的水果罐头…… Stop looking at that thing already and help me sort out my souvenirs. This surfboard is for you, this lava mud mask is for that cau lau syu, this album is for that puuk gai lung—she can take this herself when she comes back, and there's the canned fruit for old Wei...

>>>>>>>>>>等她回来自己拿吧 a more literal TL would be like '(you can kinda fit a I'll/we'll in here..???Let's) wait for her to come back here to take it herself'

this and the box thing from her profile the 'waiting for her wife to return from the war' vibes is off the charts tehe still hoping we get an actual voiced Puuk Gai Lung (swire edition) one day though (looks at global)

[mechanations]

frieren spoilers

it makes sense why frieren had to kill off qual the moment he woke up outside of the fact he would have killed off the people in the village. the whole point was that he was a genius at magic. the longer he's left alive and concious in this new world, the stronger he'll get as he learns all the new magic that his work helped establish and continue to progress it for the demon's cause. the lamest example i can think of is a former speedrunner coming back to speedrunning and learning all the new strats quickly and eventually pioneering new strategies. this fact i feel is even shown when he shows how quickly he deduces the flaw with defensive magic because he probably can infer what would be required to counter his own magic technique.

being a genius doesnt just have to mean your a walking encyclopedia of knowledge with an unrealistic capacity to predict everything, it could also mean you're good at coming to conclusions and knowing what information you need to find to come to find an answer. i think theres a good amount of people who misunderstand why Qual was so "weak". magic in frierens world has to be approached like a science, where its improved over time

Edit: Last thing to note, even for the other demons, its probable that they would have been all stronger than Qual. But something like that would be irrelevant to demons because they have no reason to kill each other, what mattered was how well it killed off humans. it doesnt matter if Aura and Macht's capabilties were arguably more powerful individually if Qual was able to use magic that is arguably the most straight forward and efficient way of killing humans. For a comparison, a sword and an axe would be definetely stronger than a bug spray, but what would be the best tool to specifically get rid of a large amount of insects? Arguably Macht's ability would be worse at killing humans compared to Soul Track, because all it does is preserve the humans in gold, and although theoretically they are essentially dead until his ability is undone, its would be a matter of when, not if, because magic ultimately improves as humans/demons/elves further continue to research it. It makes sense why Macht still learned Soul Track because Diagolza is bad spell in terms of complete eradication of a human.

[tamblerdraws]

for the questions ask game:

2, 5, 39?

2: Picture of your handwriting

I might put this on my intro post just to like have an image on there

5: Why did you start your blog?

When I was like 11 I wanted to post my drawings somewhere bc I wanted to get feedback on how to improve and I thought it would be fun, so I kept asking my parents for some kind of social media but they always said no (understandable, I was like 11)

And then one day (like 3-4 months ago) my friend and I were talking about tumblr and they were like "You should totally get tumblr" and I was like "Mkay lemme go ask my parents"

So I asked my parents and they let me have a tumblr (which really surprised me bc they used to be extremely strict about internet access)

Et voilà

Tambler has a tumblr

At first I wasn't gonna post anything bc I was a bit scared to, but I did eventually and it's been great :D

39: Youtuber you're obsessed with?

AstralSpiff

He does speed runs, and is most well known for the fnaf ones probably

He did a fnaf marathon not too long ago (he has done like 4 of them and isn't gonna do another until much later)

He plays and speedruns other games too tho, like poppy playtime which he's probably also known for

I like the editing style of his videos

I dunno how to describe it tho

They're fairly long videos which are great for having on in the background while drawing or playing minecraft

And it's like edited streams of his and like sometimes he puts in voice overs that segment the videos up kinda which is great for the especially long ones (like the fnaf marathon one) (Also dude or his editor or both had to go through like 16+ hours of footage for that video, oof)

He also has a lot of stories which are fun to listen to

Also he ate a whole lemon. And banana

Peel and all

The lemon was during the fnaf marathon and I dunno when the banana one was

I could go on but I shall stop here, go check him out (if you want) (but you should) (he's pretty cool)

[jcmarchi]

Beyond Good & Evil - 20th Anniversary Edition Arrives Early Next Year

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/beyond-good-evil-20th-anniversary-edition-arrives-early-next-year/

Beyond Good & Evil - 20th Anniversary Edition Arrives Early Next Year

Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition arriving early next year. The news was accidentally posted early to the Xbox store and was even briefly available to play (albeit in unfinished form) on Ubisoft Plus. 

According to its now-deleted Xbox Store page (which was shared by Wario64 on X), the 2003 adventure will now feature 4K graphics and 60 FPS with improvements to controls and audio. It will also feature auto-save and cross-save functionality. Here’s the full blurb:

Swoop into the marvelous world of Hillys as action-reporter Jade to investigate the mysterious DomZ alien attacks alongside colorful characters, like her adoptive uncle Pey’j or the valiant Double H.

Embark on this epic adventure in up to 4K, 60 fps with improved graphics, controls, and audio, along with brand-new autosave and cross-save features.

Enjoy exclusive new rewards as you explore the planet and discover more about Jade’s past in a new treasure hunt throughout Hillys.

Put your skills to the test thanks to the new speedrun mode and updated achievements, and learn more about the game’s development and secrets in the anniversary gallery!

Armed with her daï-jo and faithful camera, Jade’s adventure will get you to freely explore Hillys, combat creatures large and small, infiltrate dangerous areas, solve enigmatic puzzles, play addictive mini-games, race the best hovercraft pilots, and take pictures of the whole experience.

Be ready to dive into a trailblazing blend of action gameplay and thrilling emotional cutscenes!

This game leverages Smart Delivery allowing access to both the Xbox One title and the Xbox Series X|S title.

The store page also included a big batch of screenshots of the remaster, which can view in the gallery below.

According to Ubisoft’s statement to IGN. , the store listing went up early due to a “technical error” 

“As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Beyond Good & Evil, we’re excited to share that the official launch is set for early 2024, and we look forward to sharing more with you in the new year,” says Ubisoft in the statement. 

Beyond Good & Evil originally launched for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and PC in 2003. It stars Jade, a reporter and fighter who joins a resistance movement to uncover a conspiracy on an alien planet. Gameplay involves taking on enemies in martial arts melee combat while using Jade’s camera to take photos of clues and evidence while solving puzzles. While the cult classic received its first big remaster in 2011 in the form of an HD upgrade, while its long-lost sequel, Beyond Good and Evil 2, has seemingly been in development limbo since its formal reveal at E3 2017. 

Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition is expected to launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. 

[skyboxeye]

Capturing the ambience of Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

This cult Xbox title launches pilots into dogfights above a handful of locales, each with its own auditory footprint.

Running the game

At the time of writing, the two dominant Xbox emulators offer significantly different experiences. Cxbx-Reloaded is performant but exhibits some (minor) graphical issues. Much more significantly, it sometimes crashes which can prevent the completion of story missions.

If your system can handle it, you can use Xemu. Or, continue using Cxbx while skipping missions (see below) to avoid any problematic portions in the game.

Installing DLC and title update

Xbox Live is no longer operation for original Xboxes, but fans have archived this content, and made it easy to install. Before installing it, you'll want to apply some rendering-improvement modifications - see below.

Widescreen

Extract the game's content and apply this hex edit, courtesy of Esppiral and retroszur, to the game's XBE. Once again, please note it is for the XBE with DLC:

Find:

00 00 80 3F 8B CE E8 31 09 03 00 F3 0F 10 06 F3 0F 10 4E 0C F3 0F 11 44 24 40 F3 0F 10 46 04 F3 0F 11 44 24 44 F3 0F 10 46 08 F3 0F 11 4C 24 50

Replace:

00 00 40 3F 8B CE E8 31 09 03 00 F3 0F 10 06 F3 0F 10 4E 0C F3 0F 11 44 24 40 F3 0F 10 46 04 F3 0F 11 44 24 44 F3 0F 10 46 08 F3 0F 11 4C 24 50

Unlocked framerate

To unlock the framerate, find:

01 00 00 00 5B 83 C4 08 C3 D8 0D 58 36 29 00 89 46 10 89 4E 14 E8 D6 30 0C 00 5F 89 46 18 5E 33 C0 5B 83 C4 08 C3 CC CC 83 EC 08 56 8D 44 24 04

And replace:

00 00 00 00 5B 83 C4 08 C3 D8 0D 58 36 29 00 89 46 10 89 4E 14 E8 D6 30 0C 00 5F 89 46 18 5E 33 C0 5B 83 C4 08 C3 CC CC 83 EC 08 56 8D 44 24 04

You'll want to apply this timing fix along with it. Find:

00 00 7A 44 00 00 20 41 30 B7 01 00 C0 93 01 00 90 93 01 00 70 52 01 00 90 AD 01 00 00 2C 13 00 80 76 0E 00 80 52 01 00 60 28 0C 00 60 28 0C 00 90 52 01 00

And replace:

00 00 FA 43 00 00 20 41 30 B7 01 00 C0 93 01 00 90 93 01 00 70 52 01 00 90 AD 01 00 00 2C 13 00 80 76 0E 00 80 52 01 00 60 28 0C 00 60 28 0C 00 90 52 01 00

Capturing footage

To record footage from The Pandora, which serves as the Hunters' hangar, we can remove the HUD elements present at plane selection. The easiest way to achieve this is capture one of the HUD-less frames during the short transition between mission selection and fighter selection, and render it as an overlay on top of our recorded hangar footage.

I don't know of any Xbox emulators which support texture mods. If such an option existed, we could replace the textures which make up the HUD. We could also try to manipulate the extracted texture files, and run the modified game. But I didn't try either of these.

The HUD is briefly hidden when your plane is shown exiting the Pandora to enter a free-roam area. I tried getting this state to persist using Cheat Engine, but failed.

Extracting sounds

My favorite tool for extracting Xbox files is wx360 v1.6.

Crimson Skies has a ton of audio directories. We're most interested in Pandora_Internal, inside the UI folder, and the dedicated ZIP archives for each locale (AX, CH, LC, and SH). There are some other streams in the general archive as well.

To convert the Xbox audio files we can use vgmstream (I recommend the command line tool) or VLC. I found the results were slightly different - personally in these situations I tend to trust vgmstream.

After comparing in-game recordings to simple asset loops, I believe that the game somehow specifies loop start/end points for its ambient streams. I'm not sure where this information is stored however - perhaps the SDB files inside the data archive?

For mission areas, it seems like the game crossfades relevant ambient assets by about 5 seconds to create a continuous loop.

Skipping missions

You can use CrimsonData.txt files from completed saved games, or use cheats to speedrun the game. However, I couldn't get the former to work - presumably there is some kind of checksum system at work to prevent cheating or DLC piracy. There are tools to re-sign saved content but the one I tried doesn't support Crimson Skies.

Putting it all together

Render your properly looped assets on top of your footage and any overlay to eliminate HUD elements.

[lizardywizard]

okay since original super slurpers post is Not letting me reblog it despite the reblog button being available (it's active but it says post not rebloggable when you try?) let me talk about super slurpers golden

so the deal with golden and jack russell is. theyre not like pokemon games or nintendogs where its just like. different theming. these are two completely different games.

golden is the sequel to jack russell. ssjr was alright. your standard nintendogs style, virtual pet game for the vita. it was originally released in 2013 under the name Koinu no Bouken: Jack Russell, or "Puppy's Adventure: Jack Russell". it was mostly notable for one of its minigames, called (naturally) super slurpers, in which you control your puppy in a battle against 3 cpu-controlled puppies to slurp the most water in 60 seconds.

it sounds simple, strange even, but it was actually the most fun you could have in the game. the physics were amazing, and you really felt like you were making that pup leap and dive in front of other pups to get that water. moreover, as you got better at it you'd unlock more levels, with their own unique mechanics and powerups - like being able to spit out the water you'd gathered and fire it into rube goldberg waterwheel machines that would give you access to other areas, or firing the water at the ground so you could fly. it was a balance of making sure you still ended the battle with the most water, but also using some of the early water you get to propel yourself into areas with the most.

then people started to speedrun. this random shovelware virtual pet game bonus level. it got memetically popular for a brief while in late 2013, at which point rio games, the western publisher, decided to release it in the us and europe under the title super slurper: jack russell edition. the attention was enough that the original devs, sunnysoft, developed a sequel. and that sequel was super slurpers: golden.

golden, unlike jack russell, is 90% about the slurping minigame and 10% about the pets. there's your bog standard tamagotchi interface behind it, you can name your pets and dress them up and even do a spot of breeding, but for the most part you're running around a mario kart-esque arena trying to slurp the most. and best of all, they gave you online multiplayer. it improves on the original in every way.

sadly, by 2015 the servers were shut down, and barely anyone remembers super slurpers anymore. but for those who were there, it was a time.