From Zero to Near-Hero: How I conquered 1980's Nintendo technology to capture a THOTCON Gold Badge

Presented at THOTCON 0xB (2021) Rescheduled, Oct. 8, 2021, 3 p.m. (25 minutes).

In 2017, THOTCON 0x8 held a Tool Assisted Speedrun (TAS) contest. Entrants submitted a video of a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game edited with the FCEUX application, an open-source NES and Family Computer Disk System emulator. FCEUX's TAS Editor enables the execution of a game's button presses with extreme precision.  This allows a player to optimize the game sprite's speed, action and timing with a goal of completing the game as quickly as possible. In essence, a TAS video is animation with a console game as the medium. The TAS contest presented an opportunity to learn the FCEUX application and then demonstrate creativity in producing a video that would be judged on style and performance as opposed to speed. Prior to entering, I had never heard of TAS videos and my gaming experience was limited to casual play at best. I also had no experience in editing Read Only Memory (ROM) of NES games.  But my passion for learning how things work and getting stuff for free compelled me to take up the challenge. This turbo talk will summarize how I approached the contest's scope and then created the winning entry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXmfqpXwkeY). I will also present the various applications and resources used in customizing the THOTCON themed ROM.


Presenters:

  • Steve O'Reilly
    Offensive Security, LLC., freelance bug bounty researcher, former FBI Special Agent, SWAT operator, and Marine infantry officer.

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