An amusing way to assist skill

ducknerd:

registered on 2006-12-23 11:16:33 am.

Gender: male

Location: Not where you are

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ducknerd

2007-05-22 08:31:48 pm

Eschews avatars

I was wondering about ways to maximize rates of fire in Super Metroid, then came across some post (sorry, not sure where or who by) that said that Missiles could be fired every 10 NTSC frames and Supers every 20. This would create a rhythm that might not be easy to follow exactly in console play. So, I figured, why not have something else to keep time? I did a bit of math and found that "every 20 NTSC frames" is equivalent to 180 BPM. You should fire supers on the quarter notes of this and missiles on the eighths. I tried this on places where you need to fire constantly, such as the Ridley and Mother Brain fights, and it actually does help a bit. If you have a metronome, that will work; if not, this song (http://www.arch0wl.com/sims/index.php?songid=4435) has that BPM. (Don't worry, mods, it's free for download. Yes, I'm a total DDR geek.) I can't actually test it, but this should theoretically work for PAL too. This is mostly just for fun, but at this point, I figure every possible speed assist can help.

Oh, and also, does anyone know the number of NTSC frames it takes to charge a beam?

Thread title:

I was wondering about ways to maximize rates of fire in Super Metroid, then came across some post (sorry, not sure where or who by) that said that Missiles could be fired every 10 NTSC frames and Supers every 20. This would create a rhythm that might not be easy to follow exactly in console play. So, I figured, why not have something else to keep time? I did a bit of math and found that "every 20 NTSC frames" is equivalent to 180 BPM. You should fire supers on the quarter notes of this and missiles on the eighths. I tried this on places where you need to fire constantly, such as the Ridley and Mother Brain fights, and it actually does help a bit. If you have a metronome, that will work; if not, this song (http://www.arch0wl.com/sims/index.php?songid=4435) has that BPM. (Don't worry, mods, it's free for download. Yes, I'm a total DDR geek.) I can't actually test it, but this should theoretically work for PAL too. This is mostly just for fun, but at this point, I figure every possible speed assist can help.

Oh, and also, does anyone know the number of NTSC frames it takes to charge a beam?

Kejardon:

registered on 2004-12-07 07:21:36 pm.

Gender: male

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Kejardon

2007-05-22 11:05:41 pm

Embarrasing Fact: Power suit made by lowest bidder

I used to do the same thing for double bomb jumping. :P
Charge beams take 3C frames (or 60 frames = 1 second). Cooldown does not really matter - you can charge the beam even while waiting for cooldown. It's just that even if you manage to charge the beam while waiting for cooldown, it won't fire a beam - which won't happen except in very particular circumstances.
So it's hold for 1 second, release to fire then hold again for 1 second. The tricky part is that you lose however long you wait to hold the button again, so you have to add however long that is into your rhythm.

Speaking this entirely from memory, so I'm hoping I'm not messing something up. And yes, I have been working in hexadecimal way too long.

Cpadolf:

registered on 2007-02-14 03:32:46 am.

Gender: male

Location: Sweden

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Cpadolf

2007-05-23 02:18:22 am

Hurr Durr

Can anyone (probably kejardon) explain to my why many games (i think) counts in hexadecimal?

Kejardon:

registered on 2004-12-07 07:21:36 pm.

Gender: male

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Kejardon

2007-05-23 04:28:18 am

Embarrasing Fact: Power suit made by lowest bidder

All digital computers (which is pretty much anything you think of as a computer, and then some) work in binary - 1's and 0's. Hexadecimal is used basically because it's a convenient shorthand way of representing binary.
Hexadecimal is base 16, binary is base 2. 16 is an exact power of 2 (2^4 = 16). Ergo, 4 digits of binary correspond to 1 digit of hexadecimal. Because of this, there's really nothing to converting between binary and hexadecimal - it's just find and replace.
Decimal is base 10, which is not an exact power of 2 - it's about 2^3.322. 3.322 digits of binary correspond to 1 digit of decimal, which means converting from binary to decimal is a bit more messy.

Because of all that, it's usually easier for computers to work in binary or hexadecimal instead of worrying about decimal. So you get lots of limits of 255 or 65535 and such.
Though, since computers are such good calculators, it's fairly trivial to convert to decimal. Many computers nowadays (probably almost all, but I'm not an expert on processors) even have a way to work in decimal directly instead of having to work in binary and convert. It's just that it's not the native way computers work.

All digital computers (which is pretty much anything you think of as a computer, and then some) work in binary - 1's and 0's. Hexadecimal is used basically because it's a convenient shorthand way of representing binary.
Hexadecimal is base 16, binary is base 2. 16 is an exact power of 2 (2^4 = 16). Ergo, 4 digits of binary correspond to 1 digit of hexadecimal. Because of this, there's really nothing to converting between binary and hexadecimal - it's just find and replace.
Decimal is base 10, which is not an exact power of 2 - it's about 2^3.322. 3.322 digits of binary correspond to 1 digit of decimal, which means converting from binary to decimal is a bit more messy.

Because of all that, it's usually easier for computers to work in binary or hexadecimal instead of worrying about decimal. So you get lots of limits of 255 or 65535 and such.
Though, since computers are such good calculators, it's fairly trivial to convert to decimal. Many computers nowadays (probably almost all, but I'm not an expert on processors) even have a way to work in decimal directly instead of having to work in binary and convert. It's just that it's not the native way computers work.

Cpadolf:

registered on 2007-02-14 03:32:46 am.

Gender: male

Location: Sweden

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Cpadolf

2007-05-23 04:38:51 am

Hurr Durr

Ok thanks. The always reapering limits of 255 and 65535 and sofort was accualy the thing that made me understand that they use hexadecimal, I thought they were odd numbers so i tried to convert them to systems with different base and found that hexadecimal was the one used since 255= FF and 65535 = FFFF. Now i understand why though so thanks for the explanation.