TASBot is best described as a special R.O.B. robot outfitted with Legos to hold a custom circuit board that can exactly mimic the behavior of a video game controller. TASBot can play games on real video game consoles with superhuman abilities, usually leading to game breaking glitches in front of live audiences. TASBot has a long and storied history that starts with the initial efforts to replay Tool-Assisted Speedruns on physical hardware via a process now called console verification.

TASBot was born on 2013-12-22 and is currently hosted by his creator and keeper, dwangoAC. He is on Twitter as @MrTASBot, TASBot.net (which redirects to this page), and on Freenode IRC in #tasbot. He has made appearances at AGDQ 2014, AGDQ 2015, SGDQ 2015, AGDQ 2016, SGDQ 2016, and AGDQ 2017 (although the earliest TAS involvement at a GDQ event was organized by DarkKobold during SGDQ 2011). TASBot has also participated in talks at TWiT's The New Screen Savers episode 60, DEF CON 24, and GeekPwn 2016.

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Event	Game	Platform	Category	People	VOD
SGDQ 2011	Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power (1982)	NES	NESBot	Darkkobold, Ferret Warlord, Dacicus	https://youtu.be/KQXVgMKJEDY
AGDQ 2014	Gradius (1985)	NES	TASBot	dwangoAC, adelikat	https://youtu.be/Uep1H_NvZS0?t=30 / https://youtu.be/Uep1H_NvZS0?t=1085
AGDQ 2014	Mario Kart 64 (1996)	N64	TASBot Special Cup	dwangoAC, weatherton	https://youtu.be/Uep1H_NvZS0?t=260
AGDQ 2014	Mario Kart 64 (1996)	N64	TASBot Mushroom Cup	dwangoAC, weatherton	https://youtu.be/Uep1H_NvZS0?t=672
AGDQ 2014	Super Mario 64 (1996)	N64	TASBot 0 Star	dwangoAC, snark, Kyman, sonicpacker, Mickey/VIS, ToT	https://youtu.be/Uep1H_NvZS0?t=1295
AGDQ 2014	Super Mario World (1990)	SNES	TASBot	dwangoAC, Masterjun	https://youtu.be/Uep1H_NvZS0?t=1910
AGDQ 2014 Bonus	The Legend of Zelda (1987)	NES	TASBot	dwangoAC, Baxter, jprofit22	https://youtu.be/T31xSVJFfII?t=51
AGDQ 2014 Bonus	Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988)	NES	no zipping or unintended exits	dwangoAC, Rising Tempest, Inzult	https://youtu.be/T31xSVJFfII?t=1571
AGDQ 2014 Bonus	Tetris (1989)	NES	fastest 999999	dwangoAC, Acmlm	https://youtu.be/T31xSVJFfII?t=1665
AGDQ 2014 Bonus	Tetris (1989)	NES	Mode B	dwangoAC, Baxter	https://youtu.be/T31xSVJFfII?t=1718
AGDQ 2014 Bonus	Tetris (1989)	NES	playaround	dwangoAC, Baxter	https://youtu.be/T31xSVJFfII?t=1786
AGDQ 2014 Bonus	Dr. Mario (1990)	NES	TASBot	dwangoAC, CtrlAltDestroy	https://youtu.be/T31xSVJFfII?t=1948
AGDQ 2015	Mario Kart 64 (1996)	N64	TASBot	micro500, Weatherton	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6ufr_V8AwE
AGDQ 2015	Super Mario World (1990)	SNES	TASBot Mario 1 In SMW3	dwangoAC, p4plus2	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=370&v=HvCoNSq3GEM
AGDQ 2015	Pokemon Red (1996)	Game Boy	TASBot Pokemon Plays Twitch	dwangoAC, p4plus2, Masterjun, Ilari, ais523	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=460&v=P28kp66XMw4
AGDQ 2015	Pokemon Red (1996)	Game Boy	TASBot Pokemon Plays Twitch: Round 2	dwangoAC, p4plus2, Masterjun, Ilari, ais523	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=815&v=tLqU8qDkOZE
SGDQ 2015	Mega Man (1987)	NES	TASBot Any%	Shinryuu, FinalFighter	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1140&v=jCEAZiJ7Pso
SGDQ 2015	Sonic Advance (2001)	GBA	TASBot Any%	Mukki	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=445&v=09boPxw4nlY
SGDQ 2015	Ikaruga (2001)	GameCube	TASBot Maximum Score	keylie	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=180&v=Om9SphYRzR8
SGDQ 2015	Streemerz (2010)	NES	TASBot Race	kaizoman, DragonFangs	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=140&v=QRxunjRvYoU
AGDQ 2016	Mario Kart 64 (1996)	N64	TASBot Star Cup	Weatherton	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=597&v=dRsO69jNcrM
AGDQ 2016	Pwn Adventure Z (2015)	NES	TASBot vs Humans Race	Bismuth, dwangoAC, EmoArbiter, Tompa, psifertex	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=873&v=QXLP-L2ZgpQ
AGDQ 2016	Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987)	NES	TASBot Glitched	TASEditor	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=357&v=gecOjBTIqFs
AGDQ 2016	Brain Age (2005)	DS	TASBot x100	micro500, xy2	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=922&v=mSFHKAvTGNk
AGDQ 2016	Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)	NES	TASBot Any%	Lord Tom, dwangoAC	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=421&v=eM8Z9e-WoFs
AGDQ 2016	Super Mario World (1990)	SNES	TASBot Super Mario Maker	dwangoAC, p4plus2, Masterjun, Dram55	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=674&v=IOsvuEA2h4w
SGDQ 2016	Super Mario Land 2 (1992)	Game Boy	TASBot Memory Tour/Glitchfest	dwangoAC, link_7777	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=429&v=EHfw-BEuRO8
SGDQ 2016	VVVVVV (2010)	PC	TASBot 20 Trinkets, No Death	dwangoAC, Mundungu	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1310&v=EHfw-BEuRO8
SGDQ 2016	Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 + 3 (1988)	NES	TASBot One Controller Three Games	dwangoAC, agwawaf, MeGotsThis, ogNdrahciR	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3355&v=EHfw-BEuRO8
SGDQ 2016	Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)	NES	Any%	dwangoAC, agwawaf	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=76&v=BZPQ29NayVQ
SGDQ 2016	Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)	NES	Hot Pocket%	dwangoAC, mitchflowerpower	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=243&v=BZPQ29NayVQ
SGDQ 2016	Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)	NES	Rom Hack	dwangoAC, mitchflowerpower	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=381&v=BZPQ29NayVQ
AGDQ 2017	Galaga (1984)	NES	TASBot vs NES Classic	dwangoAC, micro500, MediaMagnet, Spikestuff	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1780&v=Ukq29ePnTqI
AGDQ 2017	Gradius (1985)	NES	TASBot's Revenge: Gradius Round 2	dwangoAC, Adelikat, link_7777	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1931&v=Ukq29ePnTqI
AGDQ 2017	Super Mario Bros. (1985)	NES	TASBot plays Super Mario Bros.	dwangoAC, total, Ilari	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2805&v=Ukq29ePnTqI
AGDQ 2017	Mega Man (1987)	NES	TASBot dominates Mega Man 1	dwangoAC, total, Ownasaurus	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2957&v=Ukq29ePnTqI
AGDQ 2017	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)	SNES	TASBot plays A Link to the Past	dwangoAC, Tompa, Masterjun, Arkun	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3129&v=Ukq29ePnTqI
AGDQ 2017	Portal (2007)	PC	TASBot plays the Community Choice	dwangoAC, Masterjun, micro500, Ilari, p4plus2	http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3670&v=Ukq29ePnTqI

(The above table was populated using data from the excellent GDQVods.com TAS page.)

Date	Event	Description	VOD
2016-07-02	TWiT	The New Screen Savers episode 60	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3YDO5YJje4&t=30m47s
2016-08-05	DEF CON 24	Robot Hacks Video Games talk	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kj5ZmoTckI
2016-10-24	GeekPwn 2016	How a Game Robot Plays Games Faster	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA9nlUtepR4
2016-11-16	Bay Area ACM	How TASBot Exploits Glitches and Plays Games Perfectly	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-gxBbVOLTY
2016-12-13	NBLUG	TASBot remote development environment	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn8rpP3Xc9I
2017-03-19	Californithon 2017	TASBot console verifies MK64 and SM64	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv1Do7K07e8

• 2003
  • 11-20: Morimoto creates the first widely distributed Tool-Assisted Speedrun (TAS), labeled as a Time Attack of SMB3.
  • 11-26: Bisqwit discovers a .WMV of Morimoto's SMB3 time attack, eventually leading him to create the website that became TASVideos.org.
• 2006
  • 08-07: Ash Williams comes up with the concept for a "tas-bot" AI that learns how to play games which later turns into a 2012-12-29 Github project by the same name similar to the more recent MarI/O project.
  • 08-27: Myria starts a discussion thread on the feasibility of playing back Tool-Assisted Speedruns on real hardware.
• 2008
  • 10-20: true suggests "With typical frame-by-frame input, if the emulator is accurate, a movie could possibly be replayed on a real console."
• 2009
  • 10-14: true creates the first working controller interfFreenode IRC at #tasbotace using a PIC microcontroller which he uses to perform initial controller emulation testing on an NES.
  • 11-02: Jaku creates a BS2 based replay device and successfully plays back prerecorded input of SMB1, completing the first level.
• 2010
  • 07-16: micro500 announces an NES replay device named NESBot.
• 2011
  • 02-10: micro500 creates an Instructables guide to build an NESBot using an Arduino Duemilanove microcontroller and a breadboard along with the first complete console verification run in the form of SMB.
  • 02-11: DarkKobold suggests creating an icon and a special Verified category for all movies that have been replayed on a console (which adelikat refers to as "machine verified" at the time).
  • 07-07: DarkKobold presents an NESBot demonstration at Summer Games Done Quick 2011, playing back SMB2 (Archive.org encode) and Wizards And Warriors 3 (Archive.org encode) in front of ~1,500 viewers.
  • 11-12: SoulCal announces a TI MSP430-based N64 bot named Droid64 that verifies SM64 0-stars and 120 stars.
• 2012
  • 03-01: micro500 creates a Parallax Propeller-based N64 bot that also verifies SM64 0-stars.
• 2013
  • 03-20: GhostSonic creates an Arduino-based SNES replay device that verifies SMAS and other SNES games.
  • 04-13: GhostSonic posts a verification of Sonic the Hedgehog using his Arduino-based replay device adapted to work on a Genesis, marking the first non-Nintendo platform.
  • 05-18: GhostSonic further adapts his Arduino-based replay device to function with an SNES and verifies Masterjun's SMW game end glitch.
  • 08-22: dwangoAC offers to present a TAS demonstration for AGDQ 2014, pitching Gradius, SM64 and other games. The same day, Mecha Richter leaves the comment "I second having TASbot play Gradius so hard!!!" in the SDA forums marking the first time the term TASBot is used in the context of replay devices (outside of the TASVideos forums).
  • 10-04: true completes the initial prototypes of his standalone NES / SNES Replay Device.
  • 12-22: dwangoAC attaches a Raspberry Pi and one of true's prototype boards to a R.O.B. and dubs it "ROBBerry Pi", marking the first time a R.O.B. robot is used in conjunction with console verification.
• 2014
  • 01-05: dwangoAC, micro500, and weatherton present at AGDQ 2014.
    • dwangoAC demonstrates Gradius by adelikat (but it desyncs).
    • weatherton and micro500 present a MK64 demonstration.
    • micro500 and weatherton present a SM64 0-Star run (which beat out SMB3 with a $0.25 bid war donation margin).
    • dwangoAC demonstrates Gradius again with commentary from adelikat via Skype but the game desyncs a second time, likely due to interference from the cart acting like an RF antenna as well as microphone cables draped over the controller cables.
    • dwangoAC and micro500 present SMW Pong and Snake by Masterjun with couch commentary from TheGreekBrit.
    • Chat volume increases to its highest point of the day during the SMW presentation (http://i.imgur.com/87BucJE.png).
    • During the SMW presentation, Tommy Refenes of Super Meat Boy fame makes a $500 donation with the comment "I'm loving this TASbot! Great work everyone!"
    • A Twitter post from GDQ reads "Want to buy a TAS Bot? Check it out here! http://truecontrol.org/".
  • 01-10: Adam Fabio from HackADay publishes an article titled "Teaching Mario to Play Pong and Snake Through Innumerable Exploits".
  • 01-12: dwangoAC presents a bonus stream at AGDQ 2014 and demonstrates Legend of Zelda, Zelda II (not fully broadcast due to stream crash), Tetris "999999", Tetris Mode B, Tetris Playaround, and Dr. Mario.
  • 01-14: Sebastian Anthony from ExtremeTech publishes an article titled "Super Mario World speedrun hack takes up up down down left right left right B A to the next level".
  • 01-14: Kyle Orland from Ars Technica publishes an article titled ""How an emulator-fueled robot reprogrammed Super Mario World on the fly" which increases attention to TASVideos.org.
• 2015
  • 01-04: dwangoAC, micro500, and Weatherton present at AGDQ 2015.
    • Weatherton and micro500 demonstrate a MK64 Choco Mountain race between Flippy_O, rwhitegoose, Weatherton, and imperfectclark.
    • dwangoAC and micro500 demonstrate SMB on SMW made by p4plus2 using true's MultiReplay device.
    • dwangoAC and micro500 demonstrate Pokemon Plays Twitch made by p4plus2 using true's original NES/SNES replay device employing a movie file made by dwangoAC and Masterjun and Python scripts developed by TheAxeMan, ais523, twm, micro500 and others.
    • Kyle Orland from Ars Technica publishes an article titled "Pokémon plays Twitch: How a robot got IRC running on an unmodified SNES".
    • Nach posts a speedrun of SMB on SMW using a variant with SMAS sound effects.
  • 08-01: dwangoAC and endrift present at SGDQ 2015, eliciting a $5K donation from Notch and leading to Mothrayas winning the Streemerz speed TAS competition.
  • 08-02: The term "TASBot" trends on Google for a third time, showing a clear spike in searches coinciding with each GDQ event.
  • 08-04: Combining data from various sources shows the TAS presentations during SGDQ 2015 helped raise over $35k for charity, bringing the total raised to just shy of $100k between all GDQ-related events.
• 2016
  • 01-10: dwangoAC, micro500, and Weatherton present at AGDQ 2016.
    • Weatherton demonstrates a Mario Kart 64 race.
    • dwangoAC hosts a competition between live players and pre-made TASs of Pwn Adventure Z.
    • dwangoAC shows of a TAS of Zelda II.
    • micro500 shows a TAS of Brain Age on a real Nintendo DS he hooked up to a screen, which includes user submitted images from our members, and some live Twitch Chat.
    • dwangoAC shows of a TAS of Super Mario Bros 3..
    • p4plus2 shows off a TAS of Super Mario World which turns the game into a level editor.
  • 01-11: Kyle Orland from Ars Technica publishes an article titled ""How a game-playing robot coded “Super Mario Maker” onto an SNES—live on stage" which increases attention to TASVideos.org.
  • 07-09: dwangoAC presents at SGDQ 2016.
    • Super Mario Land 2, VVVVVV, and SMB 1 + 2 + 3 simultaneously along with a 16-frame completion of SMB3. TODO: Fill these details out
  • 07-12: Kyle Orland from Ars Technica publishes an article titled ""How to beat Super Mario Bros. 3 in less than a second".

TODO: Add more details to the timeline including SVLUG / DEF CON 24 / NBLUG / GeekPwn 2016 and other appearances.

• 2017
  • 01-14: dwangoAC, micro500, p4plus2, Tompa and others on the TASBot team present at AGDQ 2017.
  • 01-14: Kyle Orland from Ars Technica publishes an article titled ""How a robot got Super Mario 64 and Portal “running” on an SNES".

When true released his board he called it true's NES / SNES Replay Device. I subsequently hacked together a Lego case and put it on ROB and dubbed it ROBBerry Pi. Then, due to being frazzled because of last-minute issues and being in front of 60,000 people I proceeded to do an absolutely horrible job of introducing who TASVideos was, who I was, and what the name of the bot was. Later, GDQMonitor and Masterjun's SMW executes arbitrary code submission both referred to the combination of true's replay board, the Pi, and ROB as "TASBot". (As an aside, there was previously an unrelated project named TASBOT but no new development appears to have happened on it since 2013)

TASBot as a "person" has become something far larger than I ever imagined. There's fanfic out there about @GDQMonitor (apparently a girl) and @MrTASBot having an ongoing relationship. The SDA community seems to refer to TASBot about the same way the Nico Nico Douga community references TAS-san (TASさん, known as "Mr. TAS"). I know true has never particularly felt comfortable with calling his board "TASBot" and at this point I think the name transcends any particular replay device. I've come to think of TASBot as the combination of ROB holding a controller or board and participating in his favorite pastime, playing games perfectly in front of a TV and a loving audience. What could be better?