iMacmatician's videos

Marble Blast: Gravity = 8; Compilation —

I've told calebsoong (eNetro50) more than once that I'll do a Gravity = 8; video, but I never got around to doing so until now. In the back of my mind, I've also wanted to do one of these for quite a while. I've chosen levels that don't give very obvious paths or take longer than the normal gravity runs. Many levels have multiple paths, and some paths take advantage of movements that are not possible in normal gravity but are possible in lower gravity. The reason why I chose 8 as the gravity value, back in 2009, is that it is the closest integer to the geometric mean of 20 (the normal gravity) and 3 (the Gyrocopter gravity).

To modify the gravity in a level: Add the line defaultmarble.gravity=8; (without the quotes) between the second-to-last line and the last line of the .mis file.

Notes:

Learning to Roll: Just showing what the gravity does.

Pitfalls: It is surprisingly possible to edge-hit (almost!) up to the finish platform.

Platform Party: Another run just showing the gravity. I originally had this right after LtR but some Pitfalls came between them.

Great Divide: You can get to the Time Travel earlier. It should be possible to get that TT on the middle tower before the finish, but I didn't feel like trying.

Great Divide Revisited: I had a low 9.xx on the Time Travels until I carefully worked out the landing and jumping beforehand to get below 9 seconds. Best catch 8.28 but the time restarted. I don't need to get the last Time Travel on the second pink platform, which is good since I need to turn the marble to get it, and that decreases its speed and then I can't seem to get it up to the finish platform.

Survival of the Fittest: This was the fastest path I could find. When I tried to get the last Time Travel directly, I would have too much leftwards movement to properly rebound to the right afterwards.

Whirl: An old path I found in 2009 but with the start I use now (different from the start I used then). I think I got 3.73 or so back then (it's close to or equal to my best catch now) but I'm not sure how I could have done it.

Path of Least Resistance: Arch hit….

Ordeal: Two paths for 6.xx, one of them doesn't even use the Super Speed.

Battlements: Another 2009 path, I really like this path.

Gravity Knot: The two paths here are two different simplifications of JRONI's unsuccessful normal gravity Big Marble path.

Keep on Rollin': In normal gravity, there seems to be no way to use the Super Jump without, you know, dropping down from the finish platform or something. In lower gravity, on the other hand, ….

Floor Climb: Inspired by my No Jumping run. One of my interests in this game is how paths from modification runs (no gems, low gravity, no jumping, etc.) can help with runs on standard settings as well as runs using a different type of modification.

Fighting Slopes: If you try an edge hit at the start using normal gravity, you probably won't quite make it up the slope. In low gravity, it became almost too easy and I found that the sign hit approach might be faster. It's possible to go from the last diamond straight to the finish by wall-hitting on the wall below the finish pad, but the trim got in the way at least 90% of the time.

Songs: Muse - Undisclosed Desires, Will Bedford music - Prometheus (a Portal 2 song/remix).

No Gems: The Second Compilation Extra: Marble Blast Platinum Director's Cut

I had a bit of time during winter break before school started again, so I decided to make this. It didn't take me very long, I might as well have done it back when I made the NGC2.

Notes:

Castle Wars: Did a little tweak after the wall-hit.

Cubed Maze: A slight change in the start gives sub-1. My best time is 0.92.

Diamond Travel: It was hard work getting 0.67 (0.68s are common). I actually missed the finish the first time around, but luckily I got back without the time restarting.

Dual Perspectives: Unexpectedly got 0.02-0.03 faster than any of my other finishes.

Excalibur: Two paths involving a Speed Boost and different edges.

Getting Squeezed: The trap would generally launch me a bit too high, which was quite annoying.

Gravity Shaker: The lowest time you can get….

Half Pipe Dive: I found that one can get to the finish directly using the right jump pattern.

Happy Birthday!: None.

Magnetic Adventure: I had 10.21 before I decided to try again (got two 9.3x's then this time). Evidently I got out of the initial magnets faster.

Master the Jump Boost: I accidentally found out that a double Jump Boost + wall-hit makes it up to the top. It's easier and faster than the old path.

Newton Knows Best: All you have to do is turn the camera 90º, and a fast time is straightforward.
The alternate path shows a way to finish after activating one Gravity Defier. I jump and let the marble fall partially back down before activating the Speed Boost because that downwards motion translates into upwards motion after hitting the Gravity Defier.

Platformer: See the comments for Trampoline Box below.

Pool: None.

Stairmaster: The first edge hit here is unexpected. I also sped up the jump up the thin stairs before the Helicopter by jumping sooner after reaching the next step (although I didn't jump right on one step).

Trampoline Box: I got a 0.95 or something, which didn't reach my PR of 0.93, set about 4 years ago. Then I was playing at 1152x720 (the game lags on my computer, so I use a lower resolution) and I couldn't seem to get below 0.97. So I decided to change my game resolution from 800x500 to 640x480, then I got a 0.92 very quickly! I tried this resolution trick on Platformer and Half Pipe Dive, and on both levels I got times 0.02 lower than before. It didn't seem to work on Diamond Travel (I got a non-recorded 0.67 on 800x500 and a recorded 0.67 on 640x480) or Cubed Maze though.

Songs: Sylver - Forever in Love, Portal 2 - Robots FTW

Nice Job! The trick on Happy Birthday! was great. Also, I'm planning on doing a MB Emerald No Gems compilation. I'll make a trailer of it on Thursday.

Great video. Unexpected blooper on Squeezed.

Link for everyone coz iMac didn't include:

Marble Blast Levels: Compilation 22 —

I’ve been taking a break from making runs for the MBP WRR2 because I got discouraged by Mountaintop Retreat, so I decided to make this. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to the WRR soon.

Comments:

Alice-TC’s Mountaintop Return: I found the “trick” with the fan and the water by accident. I found it surprisingly hard to do, but if you go slightly to the left (right) of the middle of the fan, you get pushed up to the left (right) enough to get to the upper platform without hitting the bottom of it. I think it’s easier to land on the upper platform if you go left instead of right.

CheckpointChallenger: Best catch 2.68. After seeing some videos of this, I decided to try the level for myself.

fripletic: I actually recorded this run a month or so ago. A fairly fast-paced level.

Galaxy Invader’s Quick Course 2: The ending part with the Jump Boost is tricky because it is easy to either miss the JB or (more often) hit the wall. There’s another path that will get this time easily, but I don’t think its ending is possible (or at least can’t be done fast enough to save time over this path).

Ramps, Curves, & Gems: The UT is 20.00 and I barely made it.

Test Level: Spin control before the edge hit is important because if you don’t slow down before it, you’ll overshoot the edge.

Treacherous Road: New WR (AFAIK), the old WR was 2.02, by me, and was set something like 3 and a half years ago.

Trim Troubles: The part with the TM was annoying and the run of that part in this video isn’t (anywhere near) ideal.

Water Path: The second path here is based on my No Gems Roll Like the Wind! new path (in the NGC2 update 2). This one’s somewhat trickier though since there is an edge hit beforehand.

Wavering: This was the fastest path for this level I could find.

Whirl Extreme: None.

World of Gravity: By Theo Pringle. I tweaked the original path a few times and optimized the run quite a lot, although I could speed up the ending by a bit.

Songs: Evanescence - Erase This, Half-Life 2 - Apprehension and Evasion (“HL2_song29”).

You may have noticed that I'm using an actual 1152x720 video now, instead of 1152x720 Marble Blast runs put in a 1280x720 video. I've also changed the name format because I'm trying to make a more standardized naming format for my upcoming videos.

Amazing Job!

As awesome as many of those were, Water Path's 2.98 takes the cake. That was genius.

Amazing runs!

Awesome job as always!

Marble Blast Levels: Compilation 23 —

This compilation ended up about 2-3x as long as I originally planned it, and close to that much better too.

Notes:

Recoil Training: Tried to beat the WR for the MBP WRR2 but couldn’t make it.

A Little Taste of Gravity: A path that gets to the finish without the time restarting.

The Apokkolypse: I think my path may be a bit faster than AlexTheProMacGamer’s path. The part where I catch the Marble Recoil and Anti-Recoil can be done faster, but this path was extremely annoying (it is so easy to mess up anywhere!) so this is all I have.

Ascending Towers: On the first tower, I jump late enough to get over the central shaft with the diamond on top, but early enough so that the elevator is still moving up, which means I get an upwards boost to get to the other tower.

Beach Palace: You have to do some good timing and movements with the two Helicopters.

Buzz’s Skill Course 2: I can’t do the sub-9 second path, but here is an 11 second path.

Curvaceous: A bit tricky with all the jumps. I think the wall-hit on the cylinder was a nice touch.

Frictious: This level is tricky because in this path, you have to get from the Random Force to the sand while keeping your direction, and once you reach the sand, you can’t be spinning too fast or you’ll fall off immediately.

Jumping Philosophy: The blooper gives a blooper of a different ending I tried before this one.

MMG: Flooded Castle: I had a 10.64 before I saw buzzmusic100’s video, which had the same time. I decided to try to beat it, and I’m glad I did.

Puzzle: Red: There are several points in the level where it is easy to slip off.

Skyscraper Island: Quite annoying for me to do with all the catwalks, and it was frustrating to miss the double Jump Boost at the end. But it was still worth it in the end.

Slope Climber: Found a cool start that saves a few seconds.

Stride: The very beginning of this run is marked by a weird glitch that “skips” the run for a fraction of a second. It happens rarely, but with no warning and apparently no way to stop it. Usually I am in some important part of a level when it happens, which leads to considerable frustration and often a restart. That’s why I got the first TM about 0.25-0.3 second later than usual. But the edge roll before and at the 2nd diamond makes up for it. I can’t seem to get to the finish normally; I have to edge hit at the end otherwise I always miss the finish.

Super-Speeding: None.

Tower of Terrors: I used some fairly precise movements in this run, although I think I went a bit too far right near the end.

The Twist of Simplicity: The last gem should get a Platinum Award for Collision Boundary Abuse.

Upon the Hilltop: Pretty cool path if you ask me.

Wall-Rebound Hill: Like The Apokkolypse, this level features many places where one can mess up very easily. I’m not sure if this path is optimal or even anywhere near optimal, but it worked for me.

The Water Climb: My .rec’s keep failing on this level for some reason. I had to directly record this run. The first edge hit is not hard but getting to the first gem is. Even then, one has to not make a landing that will make the marble fall off the level after getting the gem. This combination dooms almost every attempt to failure before the first 10 seconds.

Songs: Half-Life 2: Episode Two - Vortal Kombat, Nephew - A Wannabe Darth Vader, Swedish House Mafia - Don’t You Worry Child, Portal 2 - 9999999.

I can't watch it. Its blocked in my country

Blocked here too

It's actually blocked for me too if I log out. Stupid YouTube won't tell me where it's blocked in, so I'll reexport the video with different music and reupload. Wait about 1 hour.

Aw man!

Don't worry. He will re-export the video.

I know but thanks

Feb 28, 2013, 9:02pm, imacmatician wrote:Stupid YouTube won't tell me where it's blocked in

Actually it does if you look in the copyright claim info.

Also count Australia in blocked list. Whatever song you chose (which is copyrighted to EMI) you should've first checked in YouTube if its even there-- if not then it's blocked... and if you got this widespread one then it's a heavyweight song or something

Feb 28, 2013, 10:07pm, admin wrote:
Feb 28, 2013, 9:02pm, imacmatician wrote:Stupid YouTube won't tell me where it's blocked inActually it does if you look in the copyright claim info.For me, it either does not or I can't load the part that tells me where it's blocked. Either way, it's not useful to me.

Okay, I poked around in the edit options for the (original) video and I removed the song causing the copyright notices (processing was taking too long on the reuploaded video so I tried other approaches). It appears to work for me now (when logged off). Try it and see if it works for you.

It works now And amazing paths on alot of those. My favorite was Water Climb(why small resolution) and Slope Climber.

The small resolution was to lessen the amount of resources Screenflick takes which makes the game not lag as much. I also recorded that run at 15 FPS instead of my usual 30.

I totally loved the video, super recommended to Moshe while I was watching and he's very much enjoying it as I type this post. Puzzle Red is perfect and indeed its far better than attempts I gave it (which were like 30 seconds lol).

Many small tricks that really sped things up and won't be noticeable unless you're one of the elite marble blaster, as well as awesome ones that I can totally relate to their absolute difficulty and how well you're pulling them off with ease.

Amazing speed and precision. How long do you have to play a level before you can dominate it like those?

Pure awesome video, grea paths and execution, loved evry run.

Mar 1, 2013, 11:45am, pablovasquez wrote:How long do you have to play a level before you can dominate it like those?1-3 hours usually.

Portal 2 in Marble Blast [Around and around (14.93)] —

I decided to play the level Around and around for the first time in quite a while, and after watching the end of Portal 2, I saw a few similarities that I used to make a video.

Notes: The tube part of the run is too short to match it with the soundtrack. I copied parts of it to make it seem longer.
This run is from a few months ago (hence the 2012-2013 marble skin), I just got around to the voice clips yesterday.

Sound clips from Valve.
Soundtrack: Bombs for Throwing at You and Your Precious Moon, both part of the Portal 2 soundtrack.

A fine piece of work from this level.

Marble Blast Levels: Compilation 24 —

A fairly short compilation consisting of more custom levels. You will also see my new marble skin.

Notes:

Easy As Can Be: Two paths, one is a full path and the other is the obvious 3 second shortcut.

Flooded Castle: Included because this run is an example of jumping near but not at the top of the half-pipe in order to get forward movement as well as upward movement.

The Frozen Road: A bit tricky due to all the ice.

Grass Castle: None.

Le parkour 2: If I don't do the edge hit, then there is a good chance I won't make it to the finish before the time restarts.

Nobody's Trippy Level: Trippy indeed.

Skill Practice (no gems): The nuke respawned just in time.

Up and Around!!: Requires some careful bounces and rolls, I was able to pull off most of them properly.

Songs: Imagine Dragons - Radioactive, Left 4 Dead 2 - Midnight Tank

Good video, but some levels can go lower.

Another well-done job! Btw, Andrew has a 4.47 on Nobody's Trippy Level: