Table of contents
We use special emulators that support tools such as savestates and frame advance, and generate movie files from them. These movie files are nothing more than a recording of input. They do not contain images or video. All movie format specifications can be found here.
Disclaimer: The majority of rerecording emulators are third-party modifications of existing open-source emulators. In most cases, only these rerecording emulators can play and make TASes, and not the official emulator.
We do not by any means claim that using any of these emulators will guarantee "correct" results. There may be bugs in these emulators which have gone unnoticed due to lack of testing.
You should read DesyncHelpTAS before making any serious projects. All movies are highly dependent on timing and the slightest difference may cause a desync. We cannot help you if you lose work due to desync problems. You must also read the Movie Rules if you plan to submit your work to this site.
For a comprehensive list of supported platforms and their emulators, see the Platforms page.
Emulator overview
| System | Emulator | Movie Format |
|---|---|---|
| Apple II | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Arcade/Neo Geo | MAME (in libTAS) | LTM |
| Arcade/Neo Geo | MAME-RR | MAR |
| Arcade/Neo Geo | FBA-RR | FBM |
| Atari 2600/7800 | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Atari Lynx | BizHawk | BK2 |
| ColecoVision | BizHawk | BK2 |
| ColecoVision | openMSX | OMR |
| Commodore 64 | BizHawk | BK2 |
| DOOM demo | (various) | LMP |
| DOS | JPC-RR | JRSR |
| DOS | PCem (in libTAS) | LTM |
| Flash | Ruffle (in libTAS) | LTM |
| Game Boy Advance | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy | lsnes | LSMV |
| IntelliVision | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Linux | libTAS[3] | LTM |
| Mac OS | libTAS[3] | LTM |
| MSX | BizHawk | BK2 |
| MSX/MSX2 | openMSX | OMR[2] |
| Neo Geo Pocket/Color | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Nintendo | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Nintendo | FCEUX | FM2/FM3 |
| Nintendo 64 | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Nintendo DS/DSi | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Nintendo 3DS | Citra | CTM |
| Nintendo GameCube/Wii | Dolphin (5.0+)[9] | DTM |
| PC-98 | Neko Project II (in libTAS) | LTM |
| PCE/PCE-CD (TG-16)/SGX | BizHawk | BK2 |
| PICO-8 | Standalone executable for the game in libTAS | LTM |
| PlayStation | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Sega 32X | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Sega Genesis/Sega CD | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear/SG-1000 | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Sega Saturn | BizHawk[7] | BK2 |
| SpectraVideo SVI 3x8 | openMSX | OMR |
| Super Nintendo/Super Game Boy | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Super Nintendo/Super Game Boy | lsnes | LSMV |
| Uzebox | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Virtual Boy | BizHawk | BK2 |
| WonderSwan/WonderSwan Color | BizHawk | BK2 |
| General Computer Vectrex | BizHawk | BK2 |
| ZX Spectrum | BizHawk | BK2 |
| Odyssey 2 | BizHawk | BK2 |
| System | Emulator | Movie Format |
|---|---|---|
| Game Boy Advance | Visual Boy Advance | VBM |
| Nintendo 64 | Mupen64-rr | M64 |
| Nintendo DS | DeSmuME | DSM |
| PC-98 | Neko Project II (in Hourglass) | WTF |
| Sega Genesis/Sega CD/Sega 32X | Gens | GMV |
| Windows | Hourglass[3] | WTF |
| System | Emulator | Movie Format |
|---|---|---|
| Nintendo | Famtasia | FMV |
| Nintendo | FCE Ultra | FCM |
| Nintendo | VirtuaNES | VMV |
| PlayStation | PCSX | PXM |
| PlayStation | PSXjin | PJM |
| Sega Master System/Sega Game Gear | Dega (altered versions) | MMV |
| Sega Saturn | Yabause | YMV |
| Super Nintendo | ZSNES | ZMV |
| Super Nintendo | Snes9x | SMV |
| Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Super Game Boy | Visual Boy Advance | VBM |
| PCE/PCE-CD (TG-16)/SGX | Pcejin | MC2 |
| Virtual Boy | VBjin | MC2 |
| (Multi)[1] | Mednafen-rr | MC2 |
See also: Other Emulators.
Supported Operating Systems
Tell us if one of the entries is wrong or if you can resolve one of the "Unknown" ones to a "Yes" or "No". If in doubt, just test it yourself.
| Emulator | Windows | Linux | Mac OS X |
|---|---|---|---|
| BizHawk | Yes | Yes (with Mono)[4] | Yes (1.x; with Mono)[8] |
| Citra | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dega (altered versions) | Yes | Yes | Unknown |
| DeSmuME | Yes | Yes (with Wine)[6] | Unknown[6] |
| Dolphin | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DSDA-Doom | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FCE Ultra | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| FCEUX | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FinalBurnAlpha | Yes | Yes (with Wine) | Unknown |
| Gens | Yes | Yes (with Wine)[5] | Unknown |
| Hourglass[3] | Yes | No | No |
| libTAS[3] | Yes (with WSL2) | Yes | No |
| lsnes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mednafen-rr | Yes | Yes | Unknown |
| Mupen64-rr | Yes | Yes (with Wine) | Unknown |
| openMSX | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pcejin | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| PCSX | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| PSXjin | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| Snes9x | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| VisualBoyAdvance | Yes | Yes (with Wine) | Unknown |
| VBjin | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
| Yabause | Yes | Unknown | Unknown |
Explanation
- "Yes" - The emulator compiles and runs. Limitations are given via annotations (e.g. "Yes (with Wine)") or footnotes.
- "No" - The emulator does not compile or run at all (even with Wine or Mono).
- "Unknown" - It is neither known whether the emulator compiles nor whether it runs at all.
Using Emulators
- Using - Instructions on how to perform common tasks on different emulators. For more specifications, see each emulator's Source Code Repository.
- Platforms - List of all rerecordable platforms and links to emulators and movies
- Platform Resources - Contains knowledge and notes for TASing various platforms using BizHawk cores.
- Platform Framerates - A list of framerates used for each platform to determine movie timing.
- Encoding Guide - Instructions on how to encode movies into high quality multimedia files suitable for easy viewing. (You do not need this for submitting movies.)
Development
- Potential support for single game/series/engine TASing tools - Discussion thread for developers interested in submission support for specific game based TAS movies.
- Recent emulator bug reports - Recent bug reports for the rerecording emulators.
- Desired features - Lists emulator features wished by users and compares the features of different emulators.
- Development - List information about source code projects, how to compile, and how to contribute to emulator development.
- Potential emulators - List of ideas for developers. Lists non-approved open source emulators with links and status of their development.
- TASVideos Requirements - Lists emulator features required by this site.
- Laws Of TAS - Tips on TAS tools implementation.
Accuracy tests
- NES emulator accuracy tests
- Game Boy emulator accuracy tests
- SNES emulator accuracy tests
- Playstation emulator accuracy tests (Archived mirror, relevant Reddit post)
[1]: Mednafen-rr supports all flavors of TurboGrafx/PC-Engine, including CD-ROM, as well as Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket/Color, and WonderSwan/Color. It also supports PC-FX, but only for the Linux version.
[2] The older .gz extension is no longer supported.
[3] Technically speaking, Hourglass and libTAS are not emulators. They are API translation layers between the game and the operating system.
[4] Most features and cores work, notable omissions being Mupen64Plus (N64) and Octoshock (PSX). See BizHawk issue #1430 for details.
[5] AVI capture may be dysfunctional.
[6] Some tools may not work or look garbled (e.g. Memory viewer) and various (minor or major) bugs may occur. There are native versions, but those don't seem to have rerecording. Alternatively, a Windows virtual machine may be used (though it runs rather slow).
[7] Sega Saturn movies in BizHawk must use 2.0 or a higher version of the emulator. Older versions are not accepted.
[9] Dolphin versions prior to 4.0-3595 are deprecated and will not be accepted in the future.