[NO TRACE / GHOST RUN] METAL GEAR 2: SOLID SNAKE (MSX2 Vers)

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SnatcherMkII
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[NO TRACE / GHOST RUN] METAL GEAR 2: SOLID SNAKE (MSX2 Vers)

Post by SnatcherMkII »

Since the old thread got lost due to technical difficulties, I decided to remake this thread.



Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... fI49vFKg1e
08/25/2015 wrote:"You can't let anyone see you. You can't let the enemy know you're there. This is a stealth mission. You're a ghost, Snake, in every sense of the word." - Major Zero/Tom, Metal Gear Solid 3

The most important rule of a Metal Gear Ghost Run:

Never interact with guard; No distractions, no attacking, nothing. Leave them be, and be sure that they're not aware of your presence. If they hear or see you, restart the game.

Please watch this in 720p60 for 60fps.

So here's a long story:

After watching Jack Reacher's MGS3 ghost run (that's long since been deleted), I've been trying to do this challenge since 2011, until I got fed up with BlueMSX, since I feel like the guys behind it aren't going to fix their recording feature (it would sometimes not register any key registers, making Snake walk around like a doofus, and in some cases, trying to encode a video capture with a x264 codec with custom settings is bound to be screwed up), and they haven't updated it in 6 years (I'm not counting that Thanksgiving 2013 beta).

So then I bothered with OpenMSX as they actually update it on the occasion (like maybe once or twice a year), and hoo boy, is it one complicated emulator. To record gameplay video and/or audio, get this, you have to open up the command console and type the "record start" command. Since I wasn't too arsed to figure out how to open it (too lazy), I then resort for other options. OpenMSX's own launcher, Catapult, couldn't let you record, so then I found that another launcher, NekoLauncher for OpenMSX, actually allows you to record from it. Only problem was that it's only for Macintosh computers only. But lucky me, I just so happened to be using a Macbook (it's now shitty, after using it for five years), so I went and did that. Thing was, those videos were in 240p. Little did I realize, OpenMSX actually has an option to record footage with double the resolution (480p), and I can't remember if NekoLauncher 1.4 actually had that option (I know 1.5 does), but if it did, I feel like an idiot (like I always do). Looking back, I'm kinda glad I didn't upload them. Had I uploaded these videos in their current state, they would have look awful, and I should have mentioned this earlier, but whenever I upload a video on YouTube, they mess my videos up badly, and I still feel pretty sore about it. I no longer have this issue as of last year or two, so it may had something to do with my Internet connection (Windstream sucks).

Another problem I had was the rom hacks. Before you ask, yes, I'm aware that rom hacks aren't always legitimate when it comes to challenges and walkthrough videos, but I used both the Turbo Fix and PAN Card Plus to improve the game. For those who aren't aware, MG2 was developed under an HP 64000 computer, which would explain why MG2 felt so clunky when playing it on a MSX2 machine (emulated or on real hardware), as it required a faster processor, resulting frame skipping. As for the PAN Card Plus patch, from what I can recall, there was a cheat code where if you have a certain card, you can actually open the door without equipping it, kinda like on MGS2 and The Twin Snakes. So that patch was made so you won't have to manually do that.

Sure, I had a Turbo Fix and PAN Card Plus, but there was another patch that went under my nose. That patch fixes a couple of glitches (examples includes a glitch in the first building when the elevator is on 4F and several pixel glitches throughout the game, such as one in back of the lorry, where the light shines in the window and the too light pixels in the shade in the desert). So I wanted to patch the three, but I had some confusion on what .ips file should I patch first, so I had to ask on this forum and got everything sorted out.

So 2014 came around, and after seeing Revolver_FOX's MGSV Ground Zeroes Ghost Run, it motivated me to try my Ghost Run for Metal Gear 2 again. Of course, I went back to BlueMSX, now fully aware about it's Thanksgiving 2013 beta version, and low and behold, it's more or less the same piece o' crud, and it's record function is barely useable. The reason why I went back to BlueMSX was it's video effects, since OpenMSX's looks like a LCD screen trying to make scanlines. I feel that my playthroughs should look like they came from a TV since pixelated 2D games usually look good from a CRT screen. I also found out that BlueMSX was ported on OS X, under the name CocoaMSX, and from the looks of it, it seems the team behind it were the same ones behind BlueMSX, and I assume that they've abandoned that emulator as they seem to update CocoaMSX on the occasion. Of course, I barely even touched it, and I don't think I ever got around its record feature, since I wasn't arsed about it.

So anyway, getting back to the topic on hand. I went recorded my Ghost Run up to the second boss battle. Now I've run into another problem. The video sizes were pretty damn big, so I tried to use HandBrake to downsize the file, but then I remembered that .avi files aren't compatible with the software, so I tried VirtualDub to try to convert it into an MP4 file, since I worry that any video converter would lower the framerate down to 30. As you know, Alphabet Google announced that YouTube was gonna support 60fps captures, but only for any resolution higher than 720p. I tried upscaling the videos, but apparently, importing the videos kinda screwed up the colors (certain colors wound up getting inverted). So up to that point, I gave up on BlueMSX (and its OS X port) once again.

Early this year, I came crawling back to OpenMSX, still disgruntled about the whole affair with the other emulator, and then I learned how to use the command console, realizing that may be I should really start reading more carefully (learning disabilities are a pain in the butt and only people who like to self-diagnose themselves with this are lazy and just looking for pity points and attention). Played for a bit, and tried to upscale the video at 720p without dropping the frame rate, but VirtualDub can't recognize it because codec reasons, and after trying to screw around figuring out a way, I just gave up on that, and didn't bother upscaling my videos. That was until I found out that later builds of OpenMSX (0.11 Dev Builds and later) actually support 720p recording with its "record start -triplesize -stereo" command, so then I started my game all over again, for like the 10th or so many times.

Long story short: After 4 years of switching from emulator to emulator, testing romhacks fixes and video codecs, I feel like that I'm fully satisfied with my setup and now I can show you guys my Ghost Run for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
I do not know whether I should continue the run or not, as I kept dying on either the fourth-to-last boss, Metal Gear, Gray Fox, or the escape part. Not to mention, I've already finished the stealth sections, with just the last four bosses and the escape to tackle, and the whole point of this run was to prove that you CAN beat the game without attacking any guards or distracting them, hence the name "Ghost Run".

If you want more challenges from me, I'm currently doing a Survivalist Challenge for Zelda: Twilight Princess.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NzvT4B-iw6
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Re: [NO TRACE / GHOST RUN] METAL GEAR 2: SOLID SNAKE (MSX2 V

Post by Artemio »

Thanks for bringing it back, and sorry for the trouble
From the mathematical perspective, consciousness might be regarded as a second derivative of sensation.
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Re: [NO TRACE / GHOST RUN] METAL GEAR 2: SOLID SNAKE (MSX2 Vers)

Post by jovialsallow »

SnatcherMkII wrote: Wed May 17, 2017 7:28 pm Since the old thread got lost due to technical difficulties, I decided to remake this thread.



Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... fI49vFKg1e 1v1 lol
08/25/2015 wrote:"You can't let anyone see you. You can't let the enemy know you're there. This is a stealth mission. You're a ghost, Snake, in every sense of the word." - Major Zero/Tom, Metal Gear Solid 3

The most important rule of a Metal Gear Ghost Run:

Never interact with guard; No distractions, no attacking, nothing. Leave them be, and be sure that they're not aware of your presence. If they hear or see you, restart the game.

Please watch this in 720p60 for 60fps.

So here's a long story:

After watching Jack Reacher's MGS3 ghost run (that's long since been deleted), I've been trying to do this challenge since 2011, until I got fed up with BlueMSX, since I feel like the guys behind it aren't going to fix their recording feature (it would sometimes not register any key registers, making Snake walk around like a doofus, and in some cases, trying to encode a video capture with a x264 codec with custom settings is bound to be screwed up), and they haven't updated it in 6 years (I'm not counting that Thanksgiving 2013 beta).

So then I bothered with OpenMSX as they actually update it on the occasion (like maybe once or twice a year), and hoo boy, is it one complicated emulator. To record gameplay video and/or audio, get this, you have to open up the command console and type the "record start" command. Since I wasn't too arsed to figure out how to open it (too lazy), I then resort for other options. OpenMSX's own launcher, Catapult, couldn't let you record, so then I found that another launcher, NekoLauncher for OpenMSX, actually allows you to record from it. Only problem was that it's only for Macintosh computers only. But lucky me, I just so happened to be using a Macbook (it's now shitty, after using it for five years), so I went and did that. Thing was, those videos were in 240p. Little did I realize, OpenMSX actually has an option to record footage with double the resolution (480p), and I can't remember if NekoLauncher 1.4 actually had that option (I know 1.5 does), but if it did, I feel like an idiot (like I always do). Looking back, I'm kinda glad I didn't upload them. Had I uploaded these videos in their current state, they would have look awful, and I should have mentioned this earlier, but whenever I upload a video on YouTube, they mess my videos up badly, and I still feel pretty sore about it. I no longer have this issue as of last year or two, so it may had something to do with my Internet connection (Windstream sucks).

Another problem I had was the rom hacks. Before you ask, yes, I'm aware that rom hacks aren't always legitimate when it comes to challenges and walkthrough videos, but I used both the Turbo Fix and PAN Card Plus to improve the game. For those who aren't aware, MG2 was developed under an HP 64000 computer, which would explain why MG2 felt so clunky when playing it on a MSX2 machine (emulated or on real hardware), as it required a faster processor, resulting frame skipping. As for the PAN Card Plus patch, from what I can recall, there was a cheat code where if you have a certain card, you can actually open the door without equipping it, kinda like on MGS2 and The Twin Snakes. So that patch was made so you won't have to manually do that.

Sure, I had a Turbo Fix and PAN Card Plus, but there was another patch that went under my nose. That patch fixes a couple of glitches (examples includes a glitch in the first building when the elevator is on 4F and several pixel glitches throughout the game, such as one in back of the lorry, where the light shines in the window and the too light pixels in the shade in the desert). So I wanted to patch the three, but I had some confusion on what .ips file should I patch first, so I had to ask on this forum and got everything sorted out.

So 2014 came around, and after seeing Revolver_FOX's MGSV Ground Zeroes Ghost Run, it motivated me to try my Ghost Run for Metal Gear 2 again. Of course, I went back to BlueMSX, now fully aware about it's Thanksgiving 2013 beta version, and low and behold, it's more or less the same piece o' crud, and it's record function is barely useable. The reason why I went back to BlueMSX was it's video effects, since OpenMSX's looks like a LCD screen trying to make scanlines. I feel that my playthroughs should look like they came from a TV since pixelated 2D games usually look good from a CRT screen. I also found out that BlueMSX was ported on OS X, under the name CocoaMSX, and from the looks of it, it seems the team behind it were the same ones behind BlueMSX, and I assume that they've abandoned that emulator as they seem to update CocoaMSX on the occasion. Of course, I barely even touched it, and I don't think I ever got around its record feature, since I wasn't arsed about it.

So anyway, getting back to the topic on hand. I went recorded my Ghost Run up to the second boss battle. Now I've run into another problem. The video sizes were pretty damn big, so I tried to use HandBrake to downsize the file, but then I remembered that .avi files aren't compatible with the software, so I tried VirtualDub to try to convert it into an MP4 file, since I worry that any video converter would lower the framerate down to 30. As you know, Alphabet Google announced that YouTube was gonna support 60fps captures, but only for any resolution higher than 720p. I tried upscaling the videos, but apparently, importing the videos kinda screwed up the colors (certain colors wound up getting inverted). So up to that point, I gave up on BlueMSX (and its OS X port) once again.

Early this year, I came crawling back to OpenMSX, still disgruntled about the whole affair with the other emulator, and then I learned how to use the command console, realizing that may be I should really start reading more carefully (learning disabilities are a pain in the butt and only people who like to self-diagnose themselves with this are lazy and just looking for pity points and attention). Played for a bit, and tried to upscale the video at 720p without dropping the frame rate, but VirtualDub can't recognize it because codec reasons, and after trying to screw around figuring out a way, I just gave up on that, and didn't bother upscaling my videos. That was until I found out that later builds of OpenMSX (0.11 Dev Builds and later) actually support 720p recording with its "record start -triplesize -stereo" command, so then I started my game all over again, for like the 10th or so many times.

Long story short: After 4 years of switching from emulator to emulator, testing romhacks fixes and video codecs, I feel like that I'm fully satisfied with my setup and now I can show you guys my Ghost Run for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
I do not know whether I should continue the run or not, as I kept dying on either the fourth-to-last boss, Metal Gear, Gray Fox, or the escape part. Not to mention, I've already finished the stealth sections, with just the last four bosses and the escape to tackle, and the whole point of this run was to prove that you CAN beat the game without attacking any guards or distracting them, hence the name "Ghost Run".

If you want more challenges from me, I'm currently doing a Survivalist Challenge for Zelda: Twilight Princess.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NzvT4B-iw6
Thanks. You are so nice.
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