Emulator Resources / Using

All methods are for the current version(s) of the emulators.

Italics to load the game ROM, bold to load the movie.

Famtasia	File>Open Edit>Movie>Play
VirtuaNES	File>Open Edit>Movie>Replay
FCEU	File>Open File>Replay Movie
SNES9x	File>Load Game File>Movie Play
Gens	File>Open ROM Tools>Movies>Play movie/Resume record from savestate
FBA	Game>Load game Game>Replay input
VBA	File>Open ROM Tools>Play>Start playing
Mupen64	File>Load ROM...>OK Utilities>Movie>Start Movie Playback
Nintendulator	File>Open Misc>Replay Movie...
ZSNES	Game>Load Misc>Movie Opt>Play

In the Unix version of FCEU, you either

• have to place the movie into the FCEU preferences directory (~/.fceu) with a name composed of the ROM name, the ROM md5sum and .fcm extension, and then press shift-F6 to load it.
• start the emulator with a command line like this: "fceu -play moviefile.fcm moviefile.nes"
• start the emulator and hit shift+2 and enter the movie filename

depending which version of FCEU you have.

For some emulators such as FBA, you may need a system BIOS (ex. Neo-Geo). For Mupen64, you may need appropriate plug-ins.

Do not ask us (the author of this site or the people at the TASvideos forum) to send you ROMs or FDS images. Any such messages will be deleted.

Below are the available number of save slots with each emulator, and the default keypresses involved to save or load a state. When you load a state while recording, it will resume recording from that state, allowing you to undo any errors.

Famtasia	10 slots. Select slot: Alt+number. Save/load state: configure the keys in the keyboard options.
VirtuaNES	10 slots. Select slot: 0-9 on number pad. Save state: F5, or Alt+0-9 on number pad. Load State: F7, or Ctrl+0-9 on number pad.
FCEU	10 slots. Save state: Shift+F1 to F10. Load state: F1 to F10. Configurable under Config>Map Hotkeys... In Linux version, select slot: Alt+number, Save: S, load F, record movie shift+1, load movie shift+2, stop movie shift+3 Out-of-order loading is supported.
SNES9x VBA	10 slots. Save state: Shift+F1 to F9. Load state: F1 to F9. Out-of-order loading is supported.
Gens	10 slots. Next slot: F7. Previous slot: F6. Save state: F5 or assigned button. Load state: F8 or assigned button. or Save state: Shift+0 to Shift+9. Load state: 0 to 9. Out-of-order loading is supported.
FBA	8 slots. Next slot: F8. Previous slot: F11. Save state: F10. Load state: F9.
Mupen64	9 slots. Save state: Shift+F1 to F9. Load state: F1 to F9. (Customizable.) Out-of-order loading is supported.
ZSNES	100 slots. Can use Game>XXXX State, or configure keys in Config>Saves. Can setup quick keys for slots 0 to 9, + and -, rewinding, as well as a quick selector to visually select the state (screenshots). Defaults are F2 to save, F3 for quick visual selector (navigate with arrow keys and enter/esc to accept or cancel), and F4 to load.

People who are new to making tool-assisted speedruns often don't know how to resume recording at a later time, after stopping their recording. It is sometimes assumed that it cannot be done at all. This table illustrates how to resume recording for those unaware that it was possible.

Famtasia SNES9x VirtuaNES FCEU FBA Gens VBA Mupen64	The general case is that in order to resume recording, load the ROM, pause emulation, play back the movie that exists so far then load your current savestate. If you happen to accidentally erase your savestates for any strange reasons, play the movie and when you reach the point where you want to resume recording, pause emulation, create a save state and load it soon after. P.S. If you don't pause emulation before playing the movie, be sure to load the saved state before the movie is done playing. If the state is loaded after the movie is done playing, it will load the state, but will not resume recording. That means to resume recording from the very end of a movie, you must pause the emulator right before the movie ends, then save and load, then unpause. Also, you must be playing the movie back in non-read-only mode or it will rewind instead of recording.
Gens	Alternative methods: 1) Play the movie back, get to the point where you'd like to resume recording, and select CPU>Resume record from now. 2) Make a savestate where you want to continue from, stop the movie, and select CPU>Play Movie/Resume record from savestate. Select the savestate you made, uncheck "Read only", and click "Resume record from savestate".
VBA	Alternative method: Play the movie back, get to the point where you'd like to resume recording, and select Tools>Play>Continue recording from here. If that option is disabled, select Tools>Play>Read-only mode first to enable it.
ZSNES	Misc>Movie Opt>Append

If you load a movie with Read-only checked, the movie will jump to the savestate position but it will not resume recording, it will just continue playing from there. This is useful if you are viewing a long movie and want to skip ahead (or backwards). In emulators such as VBA that let you change read-only mode during the movie, you can use this to watch parts of your movie while making it, and switch back to keep recording or recover a lost save state.

Slowdown should always be used when creating a movie (unless you use frame advance instead), and can be changed at any point during making it.

Some people choose to do their TA-runs at 5% speed (300 ms per frame), some do them at 30% (55 ms per frame). Usually the smaller the number, the better the result. For critical and very precise parts (or better yet, the whole movie) it is recommended to use frame advance.

Famtasia	Config>Speed You can change the speed from 1 to 999%, 100% being normal. Ensure the "occupation" setting is at the lowest value, and that frameskip is at 1. Setting the "auto" checkbox is not recommended, because it may cause frame skipping when you don't notice it.
SNES9x	Windows version: Shift+ lowers the speed (as milliseconds per frame). Shift- raises the speed (as milliseconds per frame). Pushing + or - without shift alters the frame skipping, and using it is not recommended. If you accidentally use it, press - until it is back at automatic. If using Nitsuja's modified Snes9x, it is different: - lowers the speed, + raises the speed, no Shift. X11 version: Shift+ lowers the speed (as percentage to normal speed). Shift- raises the speed (as percentage to normal speed). Pushing + or - without shift is not recommended. It will adjust the frame skipping, but you will always want to see all frames.
VirtuaNES	Option>Emulator Make sure "Auto Frame Skip", "Throttle Use", and "Disksystem Throttle Use" are all checked. Set Framerate to desired speed (60 is normal). Pressing Tab while playing toggles this framerate on and off.
FCEU	- lowers the speed. + raises the speed. Configurable under Config>Map Hotkeys...
Gens	- lowers the speed. + raises the speed. Alternatively: Select the speed from Tools>Slow Down speed. Then toggle it with Tools>Slow mode or your assigned button.
FBA	Shift- lowers the speed. Shift+ raises the speed.
VBA	- lowers the speed. + raises the speed. Can configure in Tools>Customize...
Mupen64	- lowers the speed. + raises the speed. Can configure in Options>Settings>Hotkeys...
ZSNES	Config>Speed, to use a menu to change, or setup hot keys.

Frame advance is a powerful feature which allows you to press a button at any exact frame. Thus you can try every frame methodically instead of "hoping" to get the right frame at a low speed. It is especially useful for menues and inputting complicated button sequences, shooting/jumping at the very first possible frame, etc.

Generally, you hold the button(s) you want pressed the next frame, and then tap the frame advance button. Some emulators support holding down the frame advance button to advance several frames (continuously) after a short delay, as a convenient alternative to either tapping the frame advance button many times or unpausing to slow motion and pausing again.

Famtasia	Not available.
SNES9x	Pause the emulator with Pause. Advance to next frame with \. Supports holding for multiple frame advances.
VirtuaNES	You must configure the One step(Pause) function in Shortcut key configuration.
FCEU	Pause the emulator with Pause, advance to next frame with \. Configurable under Config>Map Hotkeys... Supports holding for multiple frame advances.
Gens	Pause the emulator with Esc or your assigned button. Advance to next frame with your assigned button. Supports holding for multiple frame advances.
FBA	TODO
VBA	Pause with Pause or Ctrl P. Press \ or Ctrl N to advance to next frame. (Or configure it in the Tools>Customize... menu.) Supports holding for multiple frame advances.
Mupen64	Pause with Pause. Press \ to advance to next frame. (Or configure it in Options>Settings>Hotkeys.) Supports holding for multiple frame advances.
ZSNES	Config>Speed, to setup hot keys.

Approximating frame advance is possible in Famtasia (or other emulators that don't support frame advance) by setting the emulation at very low speed (such as 5%) and then unpausing+pausing rapidly in succession. At such low speed, differences in the sound can be used to clearly show where the frame changes. Of course, it's not as convenient as the real frame advance feature.

Often it is helpful to know exactly how many frames your movie has used by a certain point. This can be particularly useful in comparing different movies, to see if one handled a section more quickly than the other. If no frame counter is available, you can still find how many frames your entire movie is in the screen where you load your movie.

Famtasia	Not available.
Snes9x	Press the . key.
VirtuaNES	TODO
FCEU	Press the . key. Configurable under Config>Map Hotkeys...
Gens	Use the checkbox in Option>General... In older versions, pausing with Esc shows the current frame number.
FBA	TODO
VBA	Press the . key. Can configure in Tools>Customize...
Mupen64	Always enabled during movie in bottom-left of window (not in fullscreen)
ZSNES	Misc>Movie Opt>Display Frame Counter

For reviewing movies, or understand how a specific trick is done, it can be convenient to turn on input display. It shows what keys the author pressed in the movie as it is played.

If you are making a movie which requires a lot of buttons to be held down simultaneously, and some do not register while being pressed at the same time, you can use input display to determine exactly which.

You can also use input display if you are using an emulator which supports "hold button" commands to determine which buttons are currently held.

Famtasia	Not available.
Snes9x	Not available, except in Nitsuja's modified Snes9x (press the , key).
VirtuaNES	TODO
FCEU	Press the , key. Configurable under Config>Map Hotkeys...
Gens	Use the checkbox in Option>General...
FBA	TODO
VBA	Press the , key. Can configure in Tools>Customize...
Mupen64	Always enabled during movie at bottom of window (not in fullscreen)

Using autofire, the emulator presses the designated button every other frame. If it was pushed once every frame, it would be as if the button was being held. Because of this, beware of using it for certain things since it may be pressed a frame too late. Autofire has been mostly obsoleted by frame advance.

Famtasia	In the input configuration, you can select the checkbox that is next to a button you wish to have autofire on. Note that the autofire is not full speed by default. You can get full speed autofire by adjusting the setting at the "emulation quality" tab in the input configuration.
VirtuaNES	TODO
FCEU	In Config>Input... you can specify a separate button for autofire-A and autofire-B. If it doesn't work, your FCEU is too old.
SNES9x	Hold Shift and press one of the following: [, ], Insert, Delete, Home, End, PgUp, PgDown
Gens	Configurable under Option>Joypads...
FBA	TODO
VBA	Press Alt 1 to Alt 0 to autofire different buttons. Alt ~ clears all autofired buttons. Can configure in Tools>Customize...
Mupen64	Not available, unless you can find an input plugin that supports it.
ZSNES	Config>Input, set keys under Turbo.

Some emulators (such as VBA, Gens, and Nitsuja's modified Snes9x) also support similar hotkeys called "auto-hold", which simply hold down a key (or multiple keys) for you. This is useful if your keyboard can only register a limited number of keypresses at once, or if you don't want to manually press down the "run" button for hours on end, and is especially helpful for making 1-person-controls-2-players runs.

Normally you will want to slow down the game to gain more precision of control. However, there are situations where it is useful to speed up the game instead of slowing it down. For instance, if you must wait through a long unskippable cutscene, you can fast-forward until before it ends, or if you are watching a movie playback, you can fast-forward past parts of the movie that you are uninterested in seeing. You can usually use the same set of controls for slowing down the emulator to speed it up, but most emulators also have a special button dedicated to a high-speed fast-forward which reverts to the previous speed afterward.

Famtasia	Not available. Going to Config>Speed and changing the speed to 999% and temporarily increasing the frameskip is the closest you can get to fast-forwarding in this emulator.
VirtuaNES	TODO
FCEU	Press the Tab key. Configurable under Config>Map Hotkeys...
SNES9x	Press the Tab key.
Gens	Press the Tab key. (Note: in older versions, Tab resets the game.) Alternatively: Press F4 (repeatedly) to speed up and F2 to go back to normal speed.
FBA	TODO
VBA	Press the Tab key. Can configure in Tools>Customize...
Mupen64	Press the Tab key. Can configure in Options>Settings>Hotkeys... If it doesn't work, try switching sound plugins, or you may just need a faster computer.
ZSNES	Can set speed and hot keys under Config>Speed, default is ~ for fast forward.

Confusingly, fast-forward is often called "turbo" in addition to autofire also being called "turbo".

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EmulatorResources/Using last edited by Nach on 2008-02-20 14:59:11
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