Pikmin
GameFAQs archives
These are the full, expanded threads from the preserved GameFAQs threads. I had to exercise some wicked Perl voodoo to extract the actual text, bad HTML and all, from the archives provided by RockMFR 5 (and DistantSpring54), and patch up the code so it's valid. We couldn't preserve the links to the author name or message detail because they don't seem to work anymore.
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Posted by Ferret5317 - 3/18/2002 8:57:54 PM
SnapDragon isn't lying because he has recorded
videos of his Pikmin challenge mode games. Many of us have seen
them.
Anyhow, next subject
I haven't really
been able to progress much in the Forest Navel. I haven't really
tried the other levels much either. Once I get through getting all
A's in Sonic I might get back to it, since it seems that the only
way to beat scores is to continually practice, and lately Pikmin
hasn't been getting much attention.
Does anyone else have
the same problem? Or how about some progress?
---
THEY
ARE ALOD TO BE FEED - xIcexClimbersx
< Pikmin 9-DC /
SSBM - Sector Z Squadron - GO FOX! / Super Monkey Ball: Master!
>
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 3/19/2002 1:36:50 AM
My drug of choice right now is Tony Hawk's Pro
Skater 3. Just trying to get everything with all the characters so
that I can put the game to rest. Right now I've got 12 characters
completely maxed out so it shouldn't be too much longer. If I took
one whole day I could easily finish everything in the game. I'm
happy to have another game to distract me while I give Pikmin the
silent treatment. Those evil little veggie sprites must learn to
respect me. I will begin telling them what to do again when I finish
with THPS3. I think my first goal will be the Impact Site 278. I
still love that level!
Anyway, peace
out.............yo.
By the way, here are the choices the
GameFaqs spell checker gave me in its attempt to explain what I
meant when I typed THPS3:
THPS3: HIPS, HOPS, HP,
HOPIS, ETHOS, HOPES, HYPES, HYPOS, HP, TUPS, TAPS, THIS, THIS'LL,
THUS, TIPS, TOPS
Hehehe, I especially like ETHOS.
Posted by Kingfisher - 3/19/2002 6:33:45 AM
Well, Forest Navel owns me.
I turned a
362 yesterday. I've been getting all of the 20's in. But the blue
and yellow 10 in the water have cost me time and time
again.
---
This is a "Ruuunnn, Little Man, Ruuunnn"
scenario.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/19/2002 9:13:27 PM
OK, I'm feeling like I've pretty much turned the
corner on IS at last. I did another 273 today, and a few 269s, and I
think I've got the timing pretty much nailed. I'm pretty confident
that I should be able to fill my score list with 273s without too
much more trouble.
I'm also entirely sure that a 278 is
possible. I'm at the point where I think there's enough time, and
you just need a LOT of luck and good hits on the beetle. I've still
only gotten the extra 5 from him once, but I think it's just a
matter of time. I'm pushing for it!
I had one very wierd
thing happen on my last try tonight, which was another lock for a
273 - or so I thought. I've never seen anything like this. I had
everything underway except the blue 5 near the blue onion when the
clock started ticking, and a huge swarm behind me. I was a little
cocky and took my time and put 10 blues on it, and watched it drift
off... and I swear, the blues headed straight for the red onion. Way
past the "wide swing" thing they sometimes to do get to a place
right in front of them, they were inside its legs when I whistled
them back in disbelief. By that point the counter was at 3, and
there wasn't enough to time to get it under way again. Wound up with
268 on that one. I'm completely sure they were blue. Robbed by a
freak bug?
Anyway, I think I'm going to keep pushing for the
278, and then move on to figuring out FoH, and then on to the other
3, which I haven't even tried yet!! :P
Posted by SnapDragon - 3/20/2002 2:26:59 AM
Well, thanks for the kind words top. But I think
you may be underestimating just how much Pikmin I played way back
when. Hehe. My scores didn't come as, er, effortlessly as I might
make it sound. :) I can't remember for sure, but I probably played 6
or 7 hours a day during my productive periods. Pikmin takes a lot of
trial and error to hammer out strategies, I've noticed. Good thing
it's so much fun!
I'm effectively done with SA2, now, so I
think I'll go back and try to improve some scores. I won't touch IS
with a ten-foot pole, but I'll see if I can match or beat 565 on FOH
(it'll be tough!), that accursed TDS 520 (shouldn't be too hard),
and maybe add another 20 to FN (no idea how to do this...
hehe).
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 3/20/2002 4:11:28 AM
Good to see you're back, Snap. And good to see that Tomato is having success with Impact Site (I still haven't managed to get the second 5 out of the bug). Maybe I'll get back to Pikmin soon. Right now I'm busy fighting through a mid-mid-life crisis. Does that sound stupid to anyone else? I suppose quarter-life crisis is a better way to word it. Then again, I am a smoker so there's a possibility it could be a straight-up mid-life crisis! LOL!
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/20/2002 2:38:09 PM
Impact Site - 273 (x5)
OK, that's
that. Five 273s.
But that's not that. I totally had a
278 in my hand today and it slipped out. I had the extra 5 and
everything was looking great, but I botched the back half; only had
20 blues when I got back there, somehow, and all the management I
had to do made me run out of time. Unbelievable.
I'm not
moving on from IS until I get the 278. Five 273s isn't enough. The
278 is total mastery, I think. Everything has to go absolutely
perfectly, but it's doable. I'm either going to do it or check
myself into the hospital. :P :P :P
Posted by Jimithingr - 3/21/2002 8:00:05 AM
TomatoMan, Sounds like you may be the first to
grasp the 278. Unfortunately the FN has grabbed some of us by its
grubby little paws and won't let go. I am frustrated but I know I
can make it. Its just taking way too long. I managed a 390
today...Thank god I finally beat my 373 it was driving me crazy. But
that 390 was tough, but I hope I made the leader board again,
I'll wait for the next update. And yes Ferret I think I have had to
back off Pikmin for a while, its annoying me,.So I started Max
Payne....Excellent Game!
Funny, Everything seemed to happen
in a New York Minute, The Rain was falling like pitchforks out of a
farmer in the skies hands. Life was good. - That was pretty deep
Max
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/21/2002 7:05:34 PM
The 278 still eludes me.
So much
has to go right for a 278 to be possible. I've had the second 5
three times now, but never had enough time to pull it all together.
I'm doing 273s (when I play through, just to keep the back part
rhythm going) without much trouble, but there are so many start-over
points, where one tiny screw-up foils the whole attempt. You have to
play halfway through to get to the beetle and try to wrestle that
extra 5 out, which I think I'm able to do about one time in 15 or
20. You don't get it? Start over.
Hate the flint beetle.
Hate, hate, hate. But I've come this far, so i must continue my
ludicrous, pointless quest. Thpt!!
Posted by SSJMarth - 3/21/2002 10:19:27 PM
Dang Snap,i just became a member but i have been reading youre top scores board and have to say youre pretty awsome.but about the impact sight,i have hit the flint bug eight times,but i wasnt trying to make a score and only got a score of about ninety,he gives you a 5 right when you hit him on the 8th time.hope this is useful of anyways.
Posted by topotheclass - 3/22/2002 2:18:12 AM
Tomato, you are the IS king, man. 273s with
little problem? Are you kidding??? What happened to the "I can't
figure out what I'm doing wrong" guy? I guess you figured it out all
right!
As for me, nothing new to report on the high score
front. 565 is still my FOH tops. I had one heart-breaking FOH run
just recently. I don't even want to think about it, much less write
it down. But what the hell, maybe it'll be therapeutic. I managed to
sweep the level clean, got every darn thing there was to get, all
the pellets to the right onions, the works. On this run I lost a
grand total of 1 pikmin. So that's it! Perfect run minus one
right? That run should be good for, what, a 568? Well, not quite. I
looked at the score and it read 563. What happened?
Obviously one of the 5 pellets never made it back. It had to
be either the blue 5 in the water or the yellow 5 on the ledge near
the blue, I'm sure of it. I threw my 5 guys of the right color on
each the pellets, and one of them must have decided that it was too
much work for him after all and just quit. I must've been so into it
that I didn't hear the sickening <sigh> they let out when they
decide they have better things to do than heavy lifting. Aaaarrrrgh!
Bye-bye awesome score. It was right there.
I don't feel
that bad about it because I did lose that single critter. If
I had actually been working on a perfect run, and this happened,
lord knows what I woulda done. I probably would've been writing this
from the loony bin, 'cause I would've gone bananas.
I'm
thinking of writing up a walk-thru on how to get an almost
perfect score in FOH. Anyone who's interested should let me know,
I'll send an email. I'd rather not publish it to the board, outta
respect for those who prefer to figure the stuff out on their
own.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/22/2002 4:12:43 PM
:) Well, you can call me "king" if/when I manage
the 278. I haven't gotten the extra 5 once in two long sessions of
playing the past couple of days. GRRRRRR!!!!
I sort of wish I
was doing something more inventive than my present method; I was
experimenting with getting the yellow 20 from inside the onion area
a little while ago, which you can do with good aim, but although it
was cool, it didn't seem to give much of an advantage. My present
method is really just a sort of uber-refinement of the "vanilla"
technique, where I've really trimmed about all the fat you can trim
and go point to point to point.
One key difference is going
for the beetle (after the 10s) with as many blues as you can get -
and one yellow. You need the yellow to get the lone yellow 1
in the back. The rest should be all blue, I think, so you can just
pound the beetle and worry less about other non-blues escaping with
blue pellets while you're fighting. This is easiest if you get the
blue 10 with (at least) 9 blues and one yellow, and one yellow only;
get the blue 10 going first, pick the blues on the ground while you
wait, then whistle them all off and head for the
matchbox.
Timing the flowers so they drop blue is key, too,
and not as hard as I once thought: wait until a heartbeat after they
turn yellow, and then fling a blue up at it. If it hits, it will be
blue when the pellet lands; if you miss, whistle him back and wait
for the cycle to repeat. Squeezing into the area with your yellow
and a couple of blues as soon as the box is pushed back far enough
buys you a couple extra seconds; get the yellow on its way out
immediately and then knock the flowers down and go for the beetle.
I'm experimenting with flowering the 25 or so blues I chase the
beetle with, so they'll be less distracted when the beetle drops
nectar everywhere; this helps a bit, I think, but makes the timing
very tough because the other 10s are usually getting back by the
time the blues are flowered and they join your group and mess
everything up. Gah!
I played a 273 through last night and
finished before the countdown had started; that was pretty cool. It
does feel good to do that! I remain convinced that a 278 is
possible, but man, is it hard. I will NOT be going for five 278s. :P
If I manage it once, that will probably be the end of IS for me. I
have four other levels to get to! Next goal is breaking 500 on
FoH.
Posted by SnapDragon - 3/22/2002 5:08:07 PM
Played a little FN last night, enough to
get:
Forest Navel - 421
I have a 432 strategy now, but
it requires a lot of speed, and there are a lot of little random
things that can go wrong in the level. It's really annoying.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 3/22/2002 6:44:49 PM
Bah! Forest Navel 421? I need to start playing
again, really... Grrrrrr
---
*bangs head against
keyboard* ahdf;sabhupewpoir - Chozen1
< Pikmin 9-DC /
Super Monkey Ball: Master! / SA2B - 180 Emblems! GO FOX!
>
Posted by Medi Guy - 3/23/2002 11:16:17 AM
Why is it called "The Forest of Hope" when all
it does is make me LOSE hope in my Pikmining abilities? Maybe I
should just do another level...
---
Insert witty sig
here
rockets are worse than infantry
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/23/2002 11:53:38 AM
I think I'm going to shoot myself.
The
Impact Site - 276
I totally had it at last.
Thought I was finished and the countdown hadn't even started. Saw
that I only had 276 and must have missed a 1 somewhere, so I charged
down to the matchbox thinking I must have missed a blue 1 somewhere.
It was clean as the countdown started. I charged back up and saw a
yellow pikmin standing one micron away from a yellow 1 from the
colored flowers. I yelled and charged back up and flung two more on
it, and it was nearly at the onion when time ran out.
I am
not going to move from my seat until I get the f***ing 278.
Posted by Medi Guy - 3/23/2002 12:51:40 PM
If anyone has a strat 4 beating the Final Trial
Beady Long Legs quickly, I'd be glad to hear it... Here's an updated
score list, hope it's not against the law for someone like me to
update it...
Impact Site:
1. 276
(TomatoMan)
2. 273 (SnapDragon)
2. 273 (Nathan Ian
Bowers)
2. 273 (JimiThingR)
2. 273
(Ferret5317)
Forest of Hope:
1. 565
(topotheclass)
2. 563 (SnapDragon)
3. 528
(redpichead)
4. 507 (spenser)
5. 442
(TomatoMan)
Forest Navel:
1. 421
(SnapDragon)
2. 397 (redpichead)
2. 397 (Nathan Ian
Bowers)
2. 397 (Ferret5317)
5. 390
(Jimithingr)
Distant Spring:
1. 516
(SnapDragon)
2. 425 (redpichead)
3. 399
(soulja246)
4. 376 (Ferret5317)
5. 303
(Kalizam)
Final Trial:
1. 299 (SnapDragon)
2.
281 (redpichead)
3. 232 (Ferret5317)
4. 218
(Kingfisher)
5. 217 (RockMFR)
I believe this is
correct.
---
Insert witty sig here
rockets are worse than
infantry
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/23/2002 1:42:01 PM
I don't believe it. I just did another 276. GAAAH!!!
Posted by Ferret5317 - 3/24/2002 3:56:56 AM
WOW! 276! Who cares about the 278? I mean, I'm
sure you'll get it. But you have ALL of us whupped already! That's
awesome, almost enough to encourage me to shoot for it, myself!
Almost... I'm so frustrated with Pikmin lately that I have been
spending all of my time peacefully raising my Chao in Sonic
Adventure 2... Well, once again - Great job! I think you'll get your
damned 1-pellet sooner or later. :)
---
< GO FOX!
>
Why does your topic say SMART FRUIT, when you're most
likely a stupid fruit? - metalroy
Posted by Emmit310 - 3/24/2002 11:55:38 AM
I have been reading this topic for a long time
and I am new to pikmin challenge mode. I have been playing for a
couple months, but my scores don't come near any of the scores on
this topic.
My high scores are:
Impact Site:
203
Forest of Hope:296
Forest Navel: 221
Distant Spring:
166
Final Trial: 139
Any tips for the Final Trial? I can't
get any more pikmin on this level.
Posted by Baby Yoshi - 3/24/2002 2:56:50 PM
123 on Impact Site. How do you do so
good?
---
"Never argue with a fool; he may be doing the same
thing." - Anon.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/24/2002 2:57:50 PM
:) Hi, Ferret. Thanks for the encouraging
words... I really need them actually! :P
I haven't managed
the 278 yet. I have to say, it's getting close to just not being fun
anymore. I think if I hadn't nailed that first 276 thinking that I
was finished before the counter started, having just missed a 1 with
a quick fling and not noticed it until far too late, I might be a
little less obsessed with it. But since I now know in a concrete way
that it's possible, and that I should have had it but for a
freak miss, I feel like I need to soldier on. Since I've got a cold
and feel like bum anyway, I guess I'm not taking away from other,
more productive playtime...
What sucks is that you have to
play halfway through the level before you even get to roll the dice
with the flint beetle and try for your 1 in 20 or so chance of
hitting him 8 times, and then when you do you have to do everything
else perfectly. There's more luck involved than I'd like to admit.
You can do a 264 on more or less straight skill, and hitting the
beetle five times for a 273 is not too hard once you've done it a
few times, but so many things can go wrong on the 278, and it's a
nearly ceaseless cycle of start over, start over, start
over.
If I don't get it in the next session or two, I may
give up. :P
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/25/2002 7:58:12 PM
I've got tonight set aside.
I've got the
VCR poised and ready.
First session: no luck.
Mushroom
and green pepper pizza, then round two.
(What I'm not sure I
can do yet is digitize the video, but if I can't, I'm sure someone I
know can.)
Posted by Ferret5317 - 3/25/2002 10:39:15 PM
Good luck, TomatoMan! If you manage to get that
video, I'll gladly host it so others can download it
:)
---
Fox is the man... fox... thing... GO
FOX!
Why does your topic say SMART FRUIT, when you're most
likely a stupid fruit? - metalroy
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/25/2002 11:47:41 PM
No luck so far, but I did tape a couple of nice
273s - one where I came up short in the water-hole area and had to
improvise, and managed to correct my mistakes and get the last
pellet in just as the countdown started...
Video folks, what
hardware do you use for video capture? I'm realizing that my current
mac isn't A/V, so I'd need to pick up a FireWire DV converter. Seems
there are a few out there in the US$300 range... any
recommendations?
Not done for the night! :P
Posted by Ferret5317 - 3/26/2002 3:26:17 AM
Umm, definitely find someone to do it for you...
LOL
As far as I know, the best way to do this is with a TV
tuner card, which aren't very expensive. Perhaps you get better
quality with a video capture card, but I don't really know too much
about that.
---
Fox is the man... fox... thing... GO
FOX!
Why does your topic say SMART FRUIT, when you're most
likely a stupid fruit? - metalroy
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 3/26/2002 6:55:24 AM
First of all, congratulations to Tomato on his
276. I honestly didn't think anyone would make a serious crack at
278 (which I now believe you will break). Thus, I had been ignoring
Pikmin hoping to get back into it later. But when I saw that Tomato
beat 273 I immediately turned on Pikmin and made an Impact Site run.
I haven't lost any of my skill. In fact, the run was going better
than ever for the first half until I attacked the beetle. He led me
into the fire and I turned it off. I remember thinking, "Hey, if
Tomato is crazy enough to put up with this, more power to him." But
seriously, go get that score, Tomato. I honestly believe that 278 is
the maximum score and that if one achieves it he/she will be the
first one (or one of the first) on the planet to do so. There
is a slight possibility that 280 is possible because the flint
beetle pattern holds that hitting him 9 times yields another
one-pellet, but I know no one who has hit him 9 times - not even in
normal mode.
A note on video capturing:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! That should pretty much say it all, but
I will elaborate. I bought a $75 TV-tuner card from Dazzle software
that was very easy to use. The problem was that a 10-12 minute video
used up over a GIG!!! of space! That's INSANE! I tried
out all the different settings in the software. I used every
compressor and recompressor, changed the frame rates and
crispness/smoothness meters. I tried everything. But I could not get
a smaller file size. I returned the thing to Best Buy yesterday,
elated to lose it from sight. In summary, good luck!
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/26/2002 10:30:21 AM
Well, I just bit the bullet and ordered an
"ADVC-100 Advanced DV Converter", which in my research seemed the
best of the various FireWire analog-to-DV converters in the general
consumer price range. Not cheap at $299 + shipping, but I've got
racks of old videotapes I'd like to preserve, and a FireWire G4 just
sitting here waiting to be used for something, so I figured I'd jump
in and start learning about video production. :) This means I'll be
able to digitize my vids, so yay for that.
Nathan, I was
wondering if a 280 was possible, if the beetle barfed up another 1
on the 9th hit. Will we never have peace? :) I've managed to hit him
8 times on six occasions (so it's all the more painful that I don't
have the 278 yet), but never hit him 9 or seen another 1. I tried
for a couple of hours last night and didn't get the extra 5 once.
This is really insane... but since I'm in up to my waist, I guess I
just have to blast on and try to do it. It's only a matter of time
before Snap gets fed up and does it himself, despite his promise to
stay away from IS! :)
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/26/2002 11:37:49 AM
The Impact Site - 277 (on tape)
I
don't want to talk about it. Finished before the counter started.
Obviously a 1 went to the wrong onion somewhere,
somehow.
Open head, insert knife.
Posted by Ahlyis - 3/26/2002 12:06:42 PM
Very impressive. I'd really love to see that
video. I'm still working on the 9-day challenge. And I'm actually
playing 007 more right now anyway. But still, I'd love to see one of
the masters at work.
If you can get me the video, I can stuff
it on one of our servers here at work and provide a link for
everyone here. Our servers have automatic scripts, so the file will
automatically get removed after 90 days, but that should be more
than long enough shouldn't it?
If that sounds good, email me
at dwood@rational.com.
---
I'm just a pigment of your
imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/26/2002 12:26:29 PM
I'll be happy to provide the vid, and thanks for
the storage offer. I'd be happier to give you a 278, and I'm working
on it feverishly. :)
It's kind of fun to be recording runs
while trying for the 278; I just did the fastest 273 I've ever done.
The last pellet got sucked up right at the sunset warning. Olimar
had time to admire the view from the 10's log, and then go for a
little jog and climb both mountains before time ran out. :) Maybe
I'll digitize that one too while I'm at it.
My digitizing box
should be arriving on Thursday, and I will hopefully have them ready
by the weekend. Hopefully there will be a 278 in there too.
I
looked back at the 277 to see if I could see what happened. When I
was in the back, after putting the blues on the 20, the counter went
from 207 to 208. So one of the 1's from the log area must have gone
to the wrong place. Damned if I can see why or how, though, I'm sure
I nailed them all correctly. I've never been quite clear how the 1's
work with two different ones on them; I would imagine that in order
for the 1s in the water area to make it back to the correct onions,
since they all pass under the red onion and "pick up" idle reds on
the way to yellow or blue, that the color that gets it first would
be the one that decides where it goes. Is it ever random? Could a
yellow carrying a yellow 1 bump into an idle red that would wrestle
it to the red onion? I thought not, but I can't see how else one of
the 1s in my 277 could have gone astray. If that's the case, it
makes the 278 even harder. Anybody know?
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/26/2002 2:31:04 PM
Although the doorway is small, go deeply
inward.
- Gichin Funakoshi
Forgive the
melodramatics, but indulge me for a moment. It is
accomplished.
The Impact Site: 278 - on
tape
Finished before the counter started.
I'm
free.
I will never play IS again. (He said, confidently.)
Until Snap does a 280.
:P
http://slinberg.net/images/pikmin-278.jpg
Video to
come this weekend assuming no problems with my new box when it
arrives.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 3/27/2002 12:14:48 AM
*sniffle*
It's... Just... Beautiful! I'm
so proud of you! I'll be waiting for word from you that you have the
video captured. let me know when you do!
ferretdruid@aol.com
---
Fox is the man... fox...
thing... GO FOX!
Why does your topic say SMART FRUIT,
when you're most likely a stupid fruit? - metalroy
Posted by SnapDragon - 3/27/2002 4:50:50 AM
Wow, AWESOME job TomatoMan! After all your
complaining about IS, you were the first to achieve a perfect score!
:)
And you'll be very happy to know that I think it actually
IS perfect. Nathan, way back when I was testing, I hit the Flint
Beetle 9 times in normal mode, and I'm fairly sure it did NOT drop
another pellet. Somebody would have to test this in Impact Site to
be sure, of course, but I'm reasonably confident that nothing past 8
counts for anything.
I really, really, really don't feel like
fighting with that stupid Flint Beetle for the 278. Maybe I'll try
if somebody else reaches that mythic score... but I'm going to have
to be satisfied with second, I guess.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/27/2002 10:06:50 AM
Thanks, guys. Whew.
I poured so much of
my life-energy into this silly endeavor that I though it was worthy
of some reflection, and wrote a little story/essay about the whole
thing on my silly rant site. It's a little long, but you can peek
through it if you're
interested.
http://squiiish.net/story/2002/3/27/12610/1087
Hopefully
I'll get my converter tomorrow and can start the process of
digitizing the vid. That should be fun!
What's next, now:
FoH? Jeez. :)
Posted by Ahlyis - 3/27/2002 12:08:20 PM
That's awesome Tomato! Let me know when you have
the video.
If, by some miracle, the zipped file is less than
5MB, you can email it to me directly. If it's larger than 5MB, then
you will have to either break it into pieces or let me know what
other method you want to use to get it to me.
Once I have it,
I'll put it up and post instructions here for everyone on how to get
it.
---
I'm just a pigment of your imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/27/2002 12:44:42 PM
Ahlys,
I would assume it's going to be
substantially bigger than 5 megs. Snap's 273 was around 60
megs if I recall - it's twelve minutes or so of video with sound,
and video that's probably pretty hard to get good compression on.
I'm going to do it in QuickTime, and we'll see how it goes, but I
would guess that it's going to be pretty big.
Anyway, that
still assumes my box arrives working and I figure out how to use it
and everything. :) I'll keep you all up to date!
Posted by Emmit310 - 3/27/2002 3:57:04 PM
Wow! I knew someone would get a 278 over some
time. I knew it had a great chance of happening from the first time
it was disscused. The one thing I didn't know is how quickly someone
would actually accomplish it. THAT is just AWESOME!!! Good job
Tomatoman! Did I say good, I meant Great!
I have been working
on the Impact Site myself.
IS - 213
Yep, I improved it
by 10! I am starting to see how this is possible. The reason I got
10 higher is because I actually went after the Iresent Flint Bettle.
I got it to give it's first five pellet out of him. Still have yet
to go by the stone wall though. :)
Posted by Ahlyis - 3/27/2002 5:39:30 PM
I figured it probably would be, but our mail
filters have a 5MB file size limit.
I'm open to suggestions
for how you want to transmit it. I'm on a LAN with, I assume, a T3
connection to the internet. There are no bandwidth problems on my
end. I can receive it as fast as you can send it. :-)
I've
never used AIM or ICQ for file transfers, but I've seen others
mention it. If you want to set up something like that, just tell me
what I need to do on my end.
Or just let me know how you want
to work this. :-)
---
I'm just a pigment of your
imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/27/2002 7:10:21 PM
Hi Ahlyis.
There are a number of ways we
could do it; I could put it on my server, which is also on a T3, and
you could suck it right down; I can put it up, but I pay a lot for
bandwidth through my colo provider and it would be hard to host it
myself. Your help is certainly appreciated!
Alternatively, I
can put it on a machine at home behind a firewall and give you a
non-80 port in to pull it down from, which is essentially the same
as me uploading it somewhere. It will be slow; it's AT&T
broadband, and I'd guess the outgoing bandwidth rate cap is
somewhere around 15-20k/sec. But if you don't mind a slower
transfer, that would be the easiest thing for me. Let me know your
preference!
I was at Media Play tonight and saw the Official
Pikmin Strategy Guide on the shelf; it had guides for each challenge
mode. The suggested goal for Impact Site was 192. Got a chuckle out
of that. No mention of the Flint Beetle. :)
One thing I've
wondered a lot is whether the designers built the levels with clean
sweeps in mind - like "if someone totally nails this level, it
should be just barely possible to sweep it clean" - or whether we've
just managed to really stomp on something they did as more of an
afterthought. Makes me wish I could talk to the designer(s) and
learn what the creative process was.
Picked up "iMovie: the
Missing Manual" tonight, in preparation for my vid-creation efforts.
Should be fun!
Posted by spenser - 3/27/2002 8:05:57 PM
I too have put aside pikmin for SA2B
but now
that I see TomatoMan's perfect IS score (and buying the pikmin
strategy guide) I have decide to make a new run
IMPACT SITE-
271
it's not a 278 but still, an improvement on my old
one
FOREST OF HOPE- I've gotten good at this one 544 is my new
score
I may soon break 550
---
Fruit pulp Plank, fruit
pulp
Posted by topotheclass - 3/27/2002 11:36:45 PM
Tomato,
Congratu - freakin' - lations,
man! What an amazing accomplishment! Guys like you (and me) may not
be as naturally gifted as the legendary SnapDragon, but no one on
this board has matched you for the dogged determination that you
have displayed these last months.
Some of the things I love
about this message board: The camaraderie. The way we can share
stories (little bits of our lives, really) with others who can
relate. The friendly competition. The way we can follow each others
progress. I, like many others here, have followed your quest for
perfection from the earliest days. Here's a quote from your first
post:
Impact site!
I haven't even played the
others, really... I'm so focused on the impact site right now. My
best is still 188; I'm trying to imagine how on earth I could
harvest 50 more to be in the range of the best reliably-reported
scores.
(I love looking back at early messages.
Remember SnapDragon started this thing off by reporting on his 202
and by stating that he (chuckle) wouldn't be taking this
seriously.)
Anyhow, after that and for a long time you were a
230s-240s guy, wondering how the hell you could possibly get the
264. But you kept trying. Then you got your 264 and embarked on the
273. And you had a hell of a time with that. But you kept trying.
Then you got your 273, but couldn't repeat it. Went back to the
230s-240s. Couldn't figure out what you were doing wrong. But you
kept at it. Ahh what the hell, you know the story. But my point is
that none of this was happening in a vacuum. We were all following
along. And what a ride it was! We were there for your ups and downs.
We felt your anguish and your joy, your frustration and your
elation. We rooted for you hard, especially when you were getting
oh-so-close (those 276s and the 277 must have been awful-harsh). You
let us into your home, and it's a big reason why you are (IMHO) the
most popular guy on this board right now.
Hell, I know it's
"only" a video game. But I think some real positive things can be
drawn from your story. It's about perseverance and not giving up
when the prize is in sight. But more than that, it's about
inspiration. I know I'm not the only one, but I'll just speak for
myself. You inspired me. You inspired me to pick up the game again,
after it had started to feel a bit stale. You inspired me to excel,
as I even now continue to strive for my own perfect run in Forest of
Hope (565 still my best, accomplished twice). But most of all, and
simplest of all, you inspired me to play. That's it, to play, and to
have fun. And that is one of the biggest compliments I can
give.
Now, about that 280...
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/28/2002 12:42:04 AM
sniff
Thanks, Top! I feel the
love!
Seriously, I really appreciate all the kudos from
everyone here, and all the support you've all given me and each
other. And I want to stress again that I'm in no way considering
myself the "champ" of anything - any of you who did 273s could do a
278. I'm just the only knucklehead who stuck with it long enough to
have it happen. Snap is God, and you guys are all my
teachers!
Now, about that 280...
(fingers in
ears, eyes closed) LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA
Your FoH score is
just jaw-dropping for me; I tried one run tonight and totally
botched it. And I'll confess I did my first try on FN tonight too,
just to see it, and I can understand why everyone's so hooked on it.
Part of me is saying "I just got back from there, I don't
want to go there again just yet!" :) But propz to all of you who
have dabbled in all of the levels and brought up decent-to-amazing
scores. If I decide to get serious about another level, it might
very well kill me. :)
This whole experience has been very fun
and very cool. Knowing that even after all of this I'm 1/5 of the
way to Challenge Mode Mastery is a pretty mind-blowing thought. I've
sure gotten my $49 worth out of this game, I'd say we all
have.
- TM
Posted by topotheclass - 3/28/2002 9:01:57 AM
Update...
Forest of Hope - 568 (no
bomb rocks used to defeat any enemies, only to knock down
walls)
Yes, that's right, one away from a perfect run.
Aaaaaaarrrrghhh!!! Got everything to go to the right place, but I
lost a critter along the way. Most of FOH is pretty manageable from
an enemies perspective, but there are a couple of spots (I call 'em
danger points) where it's darn near impossible to get by unscathed.
I was about 2/3 into a perfect run, at the point where I throw my
guys up on the ledge where the four dwarf bulborbs, one bulbear, and
blue 10 pellet are. I had (I think) 60 pikmin with me, and I was
ready to attack the dwarves. This is definitely a danger point. Sure
enough, just as I thought I had it licked, one of my guys let out
that sickening "aaaaaaah" and I saw one little pik-ghost floating on
up.
Drat! I soldiered on and managed to complete the level
without any more casualties, and even though I managed the highest
score to date on this board, I still somehow felt unsatisfied. I
mean it was right there! Ugh. I now know how Tomato felt on
his 277. Well, now I really have no choice. There's no way in heck
that I'm stopping now.
Posted by Ahlyis - 3/28/2002 10:20:02 AM
Great score Top. And I expect to hear of a 569
tomorrow :-)
Tomato, either is fine with me. Just email me
the info (port, login, password, etc.) when you have it up and
ready. dwood@rational.com is my work address, so I will only get
your email when I'm at work. But I do plan on going in sometime over
the weekend and can check then.
---
I'm just a pigment of your
imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/28/2002 11:20:46 AM
I got my converter box, and I was able to suck
the vid in via iMovie and export to a trial QuickTime
movie!
However, I'm not thrilled with the results so far. I
did it at "CD-movie" settings, which is 320x240, 15fps, and the
resulting file is 73 megs. That's not too far off what I expected,
but the quality also isn't that fantastic; it's a bit blurry and
grainy. It's definitely good enough to watch, but I was hoping it
would be smoother and a little clearer.
I was using a 2-head
video player that's been gathering dust for a few years; my regular
4-head might provide slightly better input, but it means
disconnecting it from the stereo setup in the living room and
hauling it in here. Ugh. Well, all in the name of art, I suppose.
I'll give it a try. I'm hoping that a slightly more stable picture
might be the result, and that that might help the image quality and
compression a little bit.
I'm brand new at this
video-production stuff, so my first efforts will probably be on the
amateurish side... bear with me while I get up to speed on it
all!
BTW, the raw DV video for the 11:37 clip took up about
2.5 gigs on my HD. Yikes! The converter box is very, very cool,
though. What I want to know is, how do you back up a 2.5 gig file?
Split over 4 CDs, I suppose. What a pain!
Top: I can't effing
believe your FoH score. No bombs at all except for walls? Not even
for the pearls? A recent thing I've been trying is taking my
original 42 (flowered) out the exit not leading to the Bay (how do
you describe the areas of the map?), taking out the dwarfs, getting
two bombs, then heading to the area with the blue and yellow 5s,
bombing the big critter, then clearing it out back to the yellow 1s,
and bringing everything back; this gets me over 100 and then I go
out the other way and start the bay-sweep and go for the pearl by
the matchbox. I'm always way out of time by the time I finish this,
though, coz it's so friggin slow carrying the big guys back, and I
rarely have time to get the second perl - if I do, I have no time at
all for the blue-10 area, the bugs up there, and the yellow 20.
Sigh...
Reach for perfection, babe! And tape that bad boy if
you can!! If you want, you can mail me a videotape and I'll digitize
it for ya. W00t!
Posted by topotheclass - 3/28/2002 12:02:16 PM
Correction to previous message: Yes, Tomato, I
did use the bomb-rocks for the pearls. All enemies were beaten with
only the pikmin. Sorry about the misinfo.
You know, I've
been toying with the idea of taping my runs. I think I'll go for it.
And thanks for the assist offer. As soon as I get a really good run
on tape, I'll let you know and send the tape!
Posted by Emmit310 - 3/28/2002 12:07:57 PM
I have improved very slightly on my old score on
the Impact Site. Very, Very, slightly.
IS - 214
I have
done perfect except the Flint Bettle (did not go after it at all)
and everything behind the stone wall. Those two things added up
together equal abut 64. If I master the rest then I will (over the
period of a year at least) get 278. 278 is so far away! :sigh:
Posted by TomatoMan - 3/28/2002 1:33:58 PM
Video-production dilemma. Help me out here,
those of you that want to see it.
I've been experimenting
with different codecs and compression settings, and I've found one
that looks sharper and better than the default "Cinepak" one -
Sorensen at medium quality is a definite improvement. At 320x240 and
15fps, a test run I just did was 90 megs. The earlier one was 73,
and looked much worse. So one question is: if you're willing to
download 73 megs, are you willing to download 90? (If I recall, some
of Snap's vids were well over 100, although his impact site one was
around 60. Hm.)
I could also do a postage-stamp, lo-res one
that would look like ass but be much smaller. Or I could do
both.
I could also trim the intro/title animation and the
post-level counting and scoring, and that would knock maybe 5% of
the size off.
Or I could just say "scwew it" and make the
vid, and let it be 90-95, which is what it's looking like
now.
Too big to host? Too big to download?
It takes
about 45 minutes to render the vid this way on my G4, and it'll take
a good hour and change for Ahylis to grab it from me, but it's not
out of the question that it could be available by tonight if I can
get it done in time and he has time to pull it down.
Opinions
before I start the final prep?
Posted by topotheclass - 3/28/2002 2:02:51 PM
Well, I guess I might be one of the lucky ones
with a big hard drive with loads of room to spare and a fast
connection. File size is no thing to me. Personally, I'd prefer to
see a nice, sharp picture.
Taped my first FOH run today. Was
going Ok (1-2 deaths) until the end, when I got careless in my rush
and a Big Black Bug chomped on 14 of my little friends (sniff). Of
course this tragic loss made it so I didn't have enough guys left to
carry all the cargo. Ended up with 543. Actually, I had done one run
previous to this, a decent one which finished at 564, but since I'd
never done the tape thing before I had the hookups wrong and it
didn't work.
And Tomato, if you're worried about file size,
you ain't seen nuthin yet. A day in FOH is approx 20 minutes, as
opposed to 12 minutes for IS. The file size will probably be
likewise 70% bigger. Yeeesh.
