(Link to video)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 features the series' trademark open-ended gameplay, in which the player (playing as a professional skateboarder) completes a number of tasks which result in cash rewards. With money gained, the player can then purchase skill improvements and better skateboards. THPS2 was also the first game in the series to introduce the manual, a skateboarding trick where the performer balances on two wheels. This enables players to string together trick combos. The game also introduced the Noseslide, Tailslide, Bluntslide, Nosebluntside, Feeble, and Overcrook grinds. It was also the first of the Pro Skater games to feature Create-a-Skater and Park Editor features, now staples in the series.

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: Mupen64 0.5 rerecording v8
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Genre: Sport
  • Even better than the 1st one
Here are the four main tricks used in this run:

Grinding

Grinding usually adds to your speed. This is why I jump many times on the same rail to reach optimal speed. Upward rails give speed faster than downward rails for some reason.

Wallriding

While wallriding, you can jump a second time to reach higher areas.

Jumping

Jumping keeps most of your speed.

Manual

Manuals keep your combo going and add to your multiplier. They are useful to get the high points goals.

Comments

I chose to reach the ending credits as fast as possible, instead of going for 100% requirements.

Character Choice

I used Tony Hawk because he already has a lot of speed and spin. After the first stage, I just have barely enough money to max those two stats. Visiting the store takes about 6 seconds; since the other stats seemed useless to me I decided to visit it only once.

Stage by Stage Comments

The Hangar

After uploading my [/Forum/Topics/4739&start=101|first WIP], YouTube user stevoisiak notified me that it was possible to get both the first gap and the "nosegrind over the pipe" goals. It took a lot of work, but I finally pulled it out. I also was able to get the third gap and grind the end of the propeller at the same time.

School II

This stage is pretty straight-forward. I doubt there’s a better possible route here.

Marseilles

Again, another pretty straight-forward stage. I get the minimum points to still get in first position. In THPS2, you can’t trigger the ending credits if you don’t have all three gold medals.

New York City

Hitting "retry" here (like in neskamikaze's run) is slower, since I don't aim for in-game time. Looking back at this, I think there's a way to quit Joey's sculpture faster while still getting the goal.

Venice Beach

Here, there may be a way to get the sick score goal before reaching the secret tape, which would save a bit of time. I tried three different routes and the one you see turned out to be the fastest.

Skate Street

Same two rounds.

Philadelphia

My favorite stage! The route is pretty different from the RTA run and way more entertaining.

Bullring

Grinds, grinds, grinds, fun, gold medals, etc.

Comparison Table

Here I compare the times I got in each stage with neskamizake's times (taken from this video). Since there weren't any better/TASed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 run, those were my goals to beat.
LevelsNahoc's in-game timeneskamizake’s in-game timeTime saved
The Hangar14 seconds24 seconds10 seconds
School II22 seconds26 seconds4 seconds
Marseilles5 and 5 seconds7 and 7 seconds4 seconds
New York City45 seconds53 seconds7 seconds + retry time
Venice Beach18 seconds28 seconds10 seconds + retry time
Skate Street3 and 3 seconds7 and 7 seconds8 seconds
Philadelphia17 seconds31 seconds14 seconds
Bullring6 and 6 seconds8 and 9 seconds5 seconds
Total2 minutes and 24 seconds3 minutes and 27 seconds1 minute and 3 seconds

Special Thanks

  • neskamikaze: He gave me many, many tips and a lot of advices. He kept giving me new ideas to try and luckily, they worked quite often! His RTA run was also useful for comparison. Huge thanks to him.
  • sonicpacker: He encouraged me and gave me feedback throughout the run.
  • sportplanet.com: This site provided me with nice [link removed]that helped me build my routes.

adelikat: Claimed for judging.
adelikat: Good viewer response, accepting for publication.
Nahoc: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3464: Nahoc's N64 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 in 05:18.72
Guga
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Joined: 1/17/2012
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I just watched. I loved it. This was one of the games that I played all the time. Yes vote.
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
I've played this game too, and this is a really great run. It was enjoyable to watch. Yes vote!
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
Voting no because Blood Brothers by Papa Roach is only in the PS1 version. I think the suggested screenshot in Hangar is the best choice because it's the most iconic level.
Warepire
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While really well made I think that most of the entertainment in these games come from 100% completion runs as they shows off even more crazy skill. I am voting Meh. Sorry.
Active player (440)
Joined: 3/21/2006
Posts: 940
Location: Toronto, Canada
Ah, the childhood memories! I too played the PS1 version, but it's great seeing this game TAS'd no matter what version (except the GBA one of course :P). A weak yes vote, though I agree with Warepipe about wanting to see a 100% run, preferrably ending with a run of Skate Heaven as Spider-Man.
My current project: Something mysterious (oooooh!) My username is all lower-case letters. Please get it right :(
Player (48)
Joined: 10/18/2011
Posts: 45
Warepire wrote:
While really well made I think that most of the entertainment in these games come from 100% completion runs as they shows off even more crazy skill. I am voting Meh. Sorry.
This, but I did vote Yes. I just didn't get that much of a kick out of the run.
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
youtube wrote:
Unfortunately, this video is not available in Germany because it may contain music for which GEMA has not granted the respective music rights.
WTF? I'd love to watch this, but the N64 emu doesn't agree with my computer.
m00
Joined: 5/14/2007
Posts: 525
Location: Pisces-Cetus filament
Very nice. I loved your strategies in Skatestreet and The Bullring because I didn't expect them. Was it you who came up with them? Did you test if grinding up that slope after 50-50'ing Joey's sculpture was faster than going up normally? I wonder if you can somehow manipulate the songs that play without losing time. By the way, I would like to see a row for totals in your table. Did you notice that this TAS is almost as long as your run of the first game? Will you TAS Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 now? :P
theenglishman wrote:
but it's great seeing this game TAS'd no matter what version (except the GBA one of course :P).
I think the GBA version would make for a good TAS.
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3 xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D Help improving TASVideos!
Active player (263)
Joined: 4/15/2010
Posts: 197
Location: England
Despite that "When Worlds Collide" plays for a matter of 6 seconds, YouTube still manages to content match it, which is likely why you're having issues Tub. Because, of course, we all watch an 11 minute video due to a 6 second audio track. (Edit: Just realised it plays during the credits. Still ridiculous) Anyway really good run, I love this game and some strategies really surprised me. Entertaining throughout. I have the inherent bias of "HOLY SHIT NOSTALGIA" with this though. :p Yes vote of course
Zeupar wrote:
I wonder if you can somehow manipulate the songs that play without losing time.
Don't they just go in order?
Retired smw-96, smw any%
Editor, Experienced player (851)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
Zeupar wrote:
Very nice. I loved your strategies in Skatestreet and The Bullring because I didn't expect them. Was it you who came up with them?
Yes. I got lucky finding the Bullring strategy though.
Zeupar wrote:
Did you test if grinding up that slope after 50-50'ing Joey's sculpture was faster than going up normally?
Yes. Slower. I messed with the quarter pipe under it and was able to reach the top but it still ended up to be slower.
Zeupar wrote:
I wonder if you can somehow manipulate the songs that play without losing time.
I doubt this is possible... same thing goes for THPS1.
Zeupar wrote:
Like in THPS1,By the way, I would like to see a row for totals in your table.
Just added one.
Zeupar wrote:
Did you notice that this TAS is almost as long as your run of the first game? Will you TAS Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 now? :P
I don't think I will. THPS3 is a real mess; everything is scattered all over the place and makes routing very difficult. Plus, the current published run is a play-around and I'd prefer to TAS something that aims for speed. tl;dr probably not.
Player (50)
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 70
Lovely run, I liked it a lot
Editor, Expert player (2310)
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<mugg> lmao, I can't watch the thps2 tas on youtube because it has copyrighted music <mugg> is there a downloadable encode?
Player (50)
Joined: 2/7/2012
Posts: 70
Here's a upload of Nahoc's youtube video for those who can't watch it there
Joined: 5/2/2006
Posts: 1020
Location: Boulder, CO
Yes vote here. I especially enjoyed the Bullring bit. Just curious: why do you start some stages by going switchfoot? is this just to change direction?
Has never colored a dinosaur.
Editor, Experienced player (851)
Joined: 8/12/2008
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Location: Québec, Canada
Twelvepack wrote:
Yes vote here. I especially enjoyed the Bullring bit. Just curious: why do you start some stages by going switchfoot? is this just to change direction?
Oops, forgot to mention this in the submission text. It gives me a little bit more speed which sometime saves 1 frame (not always).
Jungon
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I didn't recognize some of the stages due to it being too fast.. +D So, I'm voting Yes, it used to take me around 1 hour to put one character on the max stats, and even that is not needed.... x.x
*Jungon*/*Johnnyz* smilie weirdo =P ^^ o.o @__@ +D
Editor, Expert player (2310)
Joined: 5/15/2007
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Location: Germany
Thanks to biggyboy. Well, what can I say? I enjoyed this, voted yes. :) Though I think 'all gaps' or some such 100% goal would make the best TAS for this game - too bad probably nobody's gonna do it in a long time..
BigBoct
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Warepire wrote:
While really well made I think that most of the entertainment in these games come from 100% completion runs as they shows off even more crazy skill. I am voting Meh. Sorry.
This is exactly how I felt as well.
Previous Name: boct1584
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
I have to agree that a 100% run would be... at least 100% more entertaining. That's not a reason to stop this from being published though, so I have to vote yes.
m00
mklip2001
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Location: Georgia, USA
My sentiments are pretty much exactly the same as Tub. I personally really like the playaround/100% runs for these games. The speed-oriented runs are less fluid due to frequent loading screens and such. However, I do appreciate the skill that goes into finding things like the quickest combo that still earns the Gold in competitions. Yes vote. Also, much thanks for providing a good encode!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
I'm giving this a weak yes. While it is well executed I felt that the entertainment level was a bit low. Loved the bull-ring strategy though. I feel that there are more loading screens and menu scrolling than actual game play going on. I would suggest going for a 100% run with no restarting of stages, as in not reload the stage to go from start again in order to achieve the goals, unless needed in order of completion of course. That way we get to see a lot more creativity going on I'd say. Mind blowing combos, as well as dazzling stunts, and maybe even completing a level in one sitting? Cheers for taking on this game!
Joined: 6/30/2010
Posts: 1093
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
As much I would enjoy a 100%, I still think that this category should exist. It's incredibly fast and short enough to be entertaining, despite the loading times. Yes vote.
Current project: Gex 3 any% Paused: Gex 64 any% There are no N64 emulators. Just SM64 emulators with hacky support for all the other games.
Editor, Experienced player (851)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
As I mentionned on IRC, I feel like I could also provide a "loading-screens-less" encode. It should be way more entertaining/mind-blowing to watch.
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
Yeah, an encode without the loading screens would be preferable in my opinion too. :)