Sunday, June 12, 2016

Episode 122: Nethack Tool-Assisted Speedruns

This is episode 122 of Roguelike Radio, where Mark Johnson interviews the Nethack Tool-Assisted Speedrun Team.

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.





Topics Discussed:

  • What is a Tool-Assisted Speedrun or “TAS”, and how does it relate to roguelikes and luck?
  • Video of NetHack TAS WIP by ais523 and dwangoAC
  • Exploring the best possible theoretical playthrough of NetHack with perfect luck.
  • Using speed and polymorph to ascend after the quest in just three turns
  • The value of spending a large amount of time walking into walls
  • NetHack and emulation
  • Creating and detonating an “egg bomb”
  • Acquiring a vast amount of gold through repeatedly dancing and petrifying a pet nymph
  • Polymorphing into a Queen Bee, picking up eight large statues, and flying around the dungeon
  • Selecting the initial game seed
  • The current state of the run
  • 500,000 attempts to optimize the first 900 turns
  • Improving and changing the run and discovering new glitches and tricks
  • Getting monsters to move you up or down floors without expending player actions
  • Perfectionism
  • Showing the TAS at one of the “Games Done Quick” events
  • Making the playthrough readable for non-roguelike players
  • Wish parsing and maximizing health and power
  • Open source software and long-distance collaboration
  • Links: Current turn-by-turn rundown of the run; the planned timings; the current thread for up-to-date info

Join us next time for a discussion of Geometry!

2 comments: