It's good to see this thread active! Perhaps we should have an "answer to anticipated questions" list too? I've a short one here, with questions that occasionally pop up:
Hi! I'm new to this site, and I just wanted to introduce myself! Is there anything in particular I should know before posting or submitting a TAS?
Welcome to TASvideos! There are a few things you should know before posting in the forum or submitting a TAS: First of all, make sure you've read the
forum rules. Secondly, I suggest you read the
Why and How page very carefully. It will tell you what you need to know about how and why we make these movies. Basically, the thumb rules are to be polite and articulate, and educating yourself about what the site is about, before posting here.
I'd like to make a TAS of a game, but I've never done one before. What specific game can you recommend?
This is hard to say, but personally, I'd recommend any simple platformer for any of the older consoles, such as NES or Gameboy. I also suggest that first of all, you learn all the basic tools of the emulator before recording anything. When you decide to start recording, I think it's a very good idea to have picked a game that already has a TAS published, and constantly compare your run to that one, making sure that yours is at least as fast. I personally favor NES games, so here are a few simple NES platformers:
*Kid niki 2
*The smurfs
*Hudson's adventure Island
*Amagon
*Flintstones
I've started doing a TAS, but it's not going very well... I'm having a hard time getting the same time as the TAS I'm comparing to. Can you guys help me out?
Of course! That's what the community is all about. If you have a question about the emulator, such as how a certain feature works or so, ask your question in the appropriate emulator thread. If your question is about the game you're TASing, post your question in the appropriate game thread. Please do not be discouraged if you find it hard to get a good result the first time you TAS a game. I promise you that you'll get better and better the more you try, and eventually you'll find that you can get at least as good, if not better, results than the TAS you're comaring to! And really, don't be afraid to ask questions, especially here in the Newcomer's forum section. As long as you ask nicely, we will answer nicely.
I have finished a TAS! Should I go ahead and submit it?
If this is your first TAS, I strongly suggest you post your run in the forum before submitting it. If everyone in the forum give their thumbs up, you can go ahead and submit it. The reason we prefer that you post your first TAS in the appropriate forum thread is simply because for your first TAS, even if you've studied the tools and the previous runs thoroughly, it's not certain that it's site material, simply because it often takes a long time to learn TASing. But again, if your run is well made and good material for the site, we will most likely give you thumbs up!
Make sure you post your run in the correct forum thread - use the forum search feature to find it.
Where can I upload my run if I don't want to submit it just yet?
You can upload your run to
Microstorage. Just copy the link that it gives you after uploading your movie file, and post the link in a forum post. This way everyone can watch what you've done!
I don't know how to use the forum search feature, can you help me out?
Sure! At the top of the forum page, you'll see the word "search" with a magnifying glass next to it. Click on that link. In order to search for your game, simply type in your search in the first textbox. If your game contains multiple words, such as Super Mario Bros, put "" around the name when you search, so you search for "Super Mario Bros" instead of Super Mario Bros. You can also select which sub forum to get results from, under the Forum: list under Search Options. If your game is a NES game, for example, set this option to "NES games" to sort out all the hits you're not interested in.
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I might fill this out with more later, but I think you get the idea. Perhaps this isn't exactly what this page is for, but on the other hand, you can replace all these questions with more tool and TAS oriented ones.