Tool-Assisted Speedrun Thrad

[Ⓐaron]

I'm probably not going to stop posting about this for awhile because it still astonishes the hell out of me.

And it gets weirder still. Someone actually used custom input to program Pong and Snake into SMW.

More info on this in the Awesome Games Done Quick stream of this run (relevant portion starts at around 31:50):

They demonstrate several people playing these versions of Pong and Snake live and explain how the glitches work in more detail. Ars Technica also ran a pretty long piece going into more technical details.

Seeing the controller input may also be of interest.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I should also add that many of these runs have excellent submission comments written for them at TASVideos that explain some/a lot of the tricks used in the videos (although some are also obtuse and/or nonexistent; HappyLee is Chinese so doesn't speak English very well, and some of the speedrunners didn't bother elaborating much on their submissions, while other comments are just really obtuse to anyone who isn't already intimately familiar with speedrunning for a given game). I probably should've provided links to them, but you can get at them by clicking the YouTube videos' titles and then looking in the descriptions. Also, most of the Kaizo hacks aren't on TASvideos (Kaizo Mario 2 and 3 and Air 2 are, but only Kaizo Mario 3 and Air 2 were accepted for publication; the community there doesn't tend to like Kaizo hacks) so there aren't submission comments for those.

TASVideos also has an excellent game resources section. In some cases this is the only place I know of to find some info about certain games; for example, it's the only place I know of that has a map for the ROM hack Zelda Outlands (which is also featured as a speedrun on the site and I will post it later with my thoughts when I do a big Zelda speedrun dump).

 

[Ⓐaron]

Finally, a Zelda I run that comes close to satisfying my obsessive completionism:

The Blue Ring, the regular boomerang and the White Sword are left out because they're replaced by better items later in the run, but everything else is included (including buying the Bait an extra time so it remains in your inventory at completion). Hopefully a movie for the second quest will be developed next, and/or one of the sequels.

Second Quest run: (note that this is not a 100% run)

Zelda Outlands run (Zelda I hack, glitched, both quests, neither 100%):

I can't emphasize enough how great this particular film is. It was the first run to demonstrate a number of glitches in the game that were completely unprecedented, to the point where the run was initially rejected from TASVideos because people thought they were glitches in the hack rather than in Zelda itself. While I'd love to see a 100% run of both quests at some point, it's also hilarious how he manages to abuse glitches in the game to avoid having to collect a single faerie (Triforce replacement) in either quest.

I posted the glitched Zelda II run above; here's one that completes all the dungeons (although it doesn't collect two or three items that aren't necessary for completion under TAS conditions, namely the candle, the cross, and possibly one other I forget. The runners also skip four spells and the upthrust and don't collect a single heart container, although they do collect all four magic containers if memory serves).

Link to the Past glitched (completes the game in barely over two minutes):

Note that some of these glitches are only possible in the Japanese version. And a run without wall clipping that completes all dungeons (but does not collect all items):

And here's a glitched GBA run:

Oracle of Seasons:

Sadly Oracle of Ages hasn't been done yet. I'd really love to see a run that does both and clears all the cross-content from both games (better yet, a 100% of both games), but that's probably a pipe dream.

Here's Minish Cap:

I already posted Link's Awakening and OoT above. Here's Majora's Mask, which I think is the only other one to be done:

And if you want to skip the cutscenes:

I suspect it'll be years before 100% runs of MM and OoT appear, but I live in hope that we'll see such runs of at least LttP and the second quest of Zelda in the near future. I also really want an OoA TAS :<

 

[Ⓐaron]

Never mind, Oracle of Ages has been done, it's just not on TASVideos.

Here's another Oracle of Seasons TAS. I think these two may cross-link with one another, but I'm not really sure because I haven't watched enough of either yet.

These aren't the most optimised runs but still better than nothing I guess.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Super Metroid hack stuff, to be watched later.

I think I've watched the Metroid Legacy ones before but the others are new to me. There are also (as far as I know still) incomplete TASes for Super Metroid Redesign, which is by far the largest SM hack I'm aware of, and I will probably post them later since an incomplete TAS is probably still better than nothing.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

A little old school just 'cause. (Not sure if this is TAS).

X

 

[Sprites]

40 Fathoms TR2 done in 3.23 seconds, some really impressive stuff in this one, an amazing dive bug towards the end, again I've never mastered that and then finally hilariously at the end because the game doesn't recognise you haven't filled that area with water, there's just a wall of water to jump into at the end.

 

[Ⓐaron]

rofl.

On a more serious note F-Zero has yet to be TASed in its entirety (at least, not to TASVideos' standards, because it's a super-difficult game), but someone demonstrated this concept:

I'm sure this can be abused on most of the levels for great justice.

I did, however, discover "Tool-Assisted Flawless Playthroughs" when searching for F-Zero TASes. These have a somewhat different set of guidelines than TASes and in some respects satisfy my gamer OCD better, but they're sometimes somewhat less entertaining to watch. F-Zero has been TFPed; here it is:

Also, if you want a more comprehensible custom track than the one in the first video being TASed:

Naturally this has led me to check out other TFPs as well. For future watching:

(Unfortunately the second quest doesn't seem to have been done yet, and for some reason the soundtrack is an octave below its usual pitch)

The Super Metroid hack videos I alluded to upthread will be posted in my next post.

Incidentally why does no one ever talk about F-Zero's soundtrack? It was amazing.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Spoiler: Super Metroid Redesign incomplete 100% tas by Kamb3ck

This run hasn't been updated in years so I'm doubting it'll ever be finished, which really sucks because the creator said it would probably only take one more video to finish the game

Spoiler: Super Metroid Redesign any% TAS by Saturn

I think this one's actually finished but I haven't watched it in awhile.

Note that this game has substantially different physics than the original Super Metroid; most importantly, if memory serves, Samus doesn't jump as high. This makes it somewhat difficult to get used to playing it for the first time. Not to mention it's super difficult anyway.

Spoiler: Angry Fire Chozo 101% TAS by Hoandjzj

The run creator made the unfortunate decision to cut out all the scene transitions, which makes the video a lot jumpier and also necessitated the omission of the in-game soundtrack (because it would've sounded like crap if he'd left it). Still an interesting video though.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I don't know why I forgot to post this video but I am now flagellating myself for it

but that pales in comparison to this hack, which might as well have been called Kaizo Super Metroid

just in case it wasn't obvious from the hack name, you have to go through all of Norfair and Maridia before getting either the Varia Suit or the Gravity Suit, and that's not the only ridiculous change. I'm amazed anyone has ever finished this even under TAS conditions.

Incidentally, the person who did the reverse boss order TAS also made Super Metroid Impossible.


Edit: A different TAS of Super Metroid Impossible that gets all the items.

Unfortunately, the creator of this run edited out all frames that don't count towards the in-game timer, which in addition to causing annoying skips in the music means that it is very difficult to work out what some of the items are.

It's kind of a toss-up as to which is a more impressive speedrun; there are segments in each that are more impressive than the corresponding segments in the other. The latter speedrun manages to collect all the items with just one additional minute of in-game time, though, which either means that the route was way more efficient or it just doesn't take that much extra time to collect all the items.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Evidently the first SMI speedrunner has done a new 100% TAS of the original game. It can be found here:

Or here if you want door transitions, item jingles, etc. cut out:

I haven't watched this run yet (JXQ's remains my favourite of the ones I've seen despite being significantly slower, mostly due to the controller input). I'll comment on this one later.

Meanwhile, here's another horribly glitched TAS of the game which doesn't fight a single boss, also from the same speedrunner:

This may help to make more sense of what's going on here. Pay attention to the y value.

 

[Ⓐaron]

lololololol

Also that new 100% Super Metroid run is really good; everyone watch it.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Not exactly a speedrun but:

I think the creator of this hack was just wearing a giant trollface the entire time he was making it. This is even more of a "Kaizo Super Metroid" hack than Super Metroid Impossible, I think.

And a Kaizo Yoshi's Island level, by the same hack creator:

These levels were both created by the creator of Mario Must Die, of which I'm pretty sure I posted a TAS above.

Edit: Another YI hack, from (I'm assuming) a different creator:

 

[Ⓐaron]

Ok, wtf

I like how the camera just stops being able to even keep up with the player character by the end of every race in this run.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I think these two speak for themselves as to how awesome they are.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

That Gradius one made my day. I've been slowly going through these in my downtime, so thanks for keeping this thread intersting, Aaron!



X

 

[Ⓐaron]

Glad you're enjoying them

This is an annotated speedrun with commentary from its author and various info on the enemies and other things in the run, which is nice to have

Note that this one has subtitles explaining what's going on in the game and translating some of the dialogue, but you may need to enable closed-captioning to see them.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

That Secret of Mana video was fucking excellent. I'm just starting the Seiken Densetsu 3 one.



X

 

[Ⓐaron]

yeah, those really are fantastic

Sadly this doesn't visit every world and skips several levels, and there aren't anywhere near as many glitches as there are for earlier entries in the series (not sure if that's just because it hasn't been out for as long or if there simply aren't as many) but it's still impressive. I'm hoping for an "all star coins" run though.

I don't think I posted this but it's one of the best SMB3 hacks.

This is a really weird SMB1 hack. One of these days I'd like to see a complete playthrough of it rather than just a warped run.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Not a perfect run by any means, but still entertaining. Anyone who's played this game beyond about world 5 knows it's much more difficult than this run makes it look.

I just wish there were a 100% run of this game, but we'll probably have to wait several years for that.

Note that this video actually is proper 1080p, unlike virtually every other encode posted in this thread. That's one of the advantages of TASing a recent console game, I guess.

 

[Sprites]

These are just so awesome to watch Aaron, cheers for keeps ng me entertained on my lunch breaks over the last week

 

[Ⓐaron]

Strangely, Mega Man 9 doesn't appear to have been done yet.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I don't think any of these even qualify as normal gameplay anymore

 

[Ⓐaron]

Ok, not a TAS but probably the most hilarious LP I've ever seen, and it's so broken it might as well be one

 

[Ⓐaron]

Lawl.

Yes, this is using the same input for both games. It also manages to be faster than the previous published FFVI TAS. I can't remember if I posted the other multi-game TASes, but here: