Tool Assisted Speedruns (TAS)
A tool-assisted speedrun (abbreviated TAS) is a speedrun movie or performance of a video game produced by means of emulation and using features unavailable to regular players
Main website:
http://tasvideos.org/What are the Tools used in such videos?Contrary to some, 'cheat codes' are never used in these videos. The Tools, however, include:
- Button macros (emulating pressing a button as fast as possible)
- Speeding up/slowing down frame rate (to make movement more accurate)
- Saving positions to undo mistakes
What are emulators?Emulators are programs used on computers to emulate gameplay from other videogame consoles. They have the capability of recording sequences of key presses — it is the key presses that are recorded, and the video and audio resulting from the emulator playing this back makes up the videos themselves.
Sounds interesting. Where can I see these videos?There are plenty on YouTube.
http://tasvideos.org/ also has an enormous collection of such videos.
Is it possible for me to do this? Where can I get the programs?Of course! There are plenty of different emulators available. My current favorite is N64 emulators, and Mupen64 is one of the most commonly used emulators. If you want an emulator that can use cheat codes, get Project64. If you want a different console emulator, a simple Google search will fix that. The TAS website also has some links.
NOTE: DO NOT DOWNLOAD ROMS (Videogame files the emulator uses) UNLESS YOU OWN THE GAME YOURSELF. Having an emulator is legal, using ROMs without owning the corresponding game, however, is not.
My personal favorite:
http://tasvideos.org/1784M.htmlDiscuss
