Tool-assisted movies (8)

Circus Charlie is a simple game that most people probably know from pirate multigame carts. The first stages are easy for anyone even on real NES, but stage 3 is already quite challenging.

This movie plays "1 player game A" (easy). Ironically, this is MORE challenging for tool-assisted gameplay.

Stage times: 3410, 3560, 3750, 3890, 4270.

Yet another "perfect" movie beaten. This time by 18 frames.

The currently fastest "game B" (hard) TAS can be found here.

The story is about a mysterious robotic force which attacked the world and drove the ninjas out of Japan. Two of the ninjas set out to reclaim the land, but not only did they abuse the powers given by the ninja-obsessed video game industry, they did it in style.

The teamwork of the two ninjas is remarkable. One of the ninjas often transforms into a tiger on which the other ninja can ride.

Moai Kun is a fun, fast-paced puzzle-platformer where the goal is to rescue all your pink friends and then reach the door - to continue to the next stage. It has a surprising amount of action for a puzzle game.

In this run, all 56 levels are well-solved and well-played. There are some unexpected twists, such as going through walls, that allows levels to be beaten much faster than normal.

This game is yet another example of Konami's fascination with moai (Easter Island statues).

A storybook game like Shadowgate and Uninvited.

In this one you star as Ace Harding, a detective who wakes up having no idea who or where he is. As the game progresses you discover that you have been framed for a crime you didn't commit, and must find a way to clear your name.

This, the third submission of this game by the same author, is a 22 second improvement over the author's previous attempt, mostly by not picking up SNAPSHOT and not examining LETTER1.

Further reading:

We recommend Mr. Kelly R. Flewin's Déjà Vu Speed Guide.

This is a game similar to Shadowgate and Deja Vu. In it, you wake up in a crashed car just outside a strange mansion, desperate to explore the ghost-ridden building to find and rescue your missing sister.

The speed at which the author manipulates the menus is impressive. This is an 4.12 second improvement over the author's previous movie.

Super Spy Hunter (1992) was originally released in Japan under the name Battle Formula (バトルフォーミュラ). The game has "become" a sequel to Spy Hunter, the arcade classic from 1983, already after its initial release — when the developer purchased the license from Midway.

Since the main character drives a wheeled vehicle, this game shows to be the rare kind of a variable scrolling speed shooter, where you can slow the car down if you can't keep up with the action (which obviously never happens in a TAS). The core gameplay holds true to its spiritual predecessor, but this time it's spiced up with stage bosses and various sorts of powerups.

This movie is a 1 minute 14 second improvement over the previous one thanks to increased precision, lag reduction, and better boss fighting.

Shadowgate is a storybook game in which you wake up in front of a big castle and must make your way through it solving a variety of puzzles.

This run is 00:07.70 seconds faster than the previous run of the game. The improvements come mostly from using the spell Illumina on the first visit to the Gargoyle-room, as well as throwing the key1 in the lake.

Solstice: The Quest for the Staff of Demnos (1990) follows a wizard called Shadax on his quest to retrieve the eponymous staff in order to save a princess from being unjustly incarcerated. The game is essentially a huge isometric labyrinth filled with devious traps and oddball creatures to ensure especially frustrating peril in the absence of any kind of map to help the player. (Well, at least it was like that before the Internet era, but make no mistake: the game isn't by any means easy nowadays, either.) One of the most memorable aspects of the game is its jazzy musical theme filled with deep bass notes uncommon for the NES.

The Solstice any% has had more revisions than most movies on this site. This one improves the preceding version by 1.25 seconds thanks to a new trick and even better optimization. More details can be found in the author's comments.

We also have a 100% Solstice run.