Submission Text Full Submission Page
Temporary notice: This is a C64 game that was completed in ~1:37 but it is currently misidentified because the site does not yet recognize Commodore 64 submissions (...this is sort of not the first time I've caused this problem either, but I digress).
C64anabalt is an official conversion of Canabalt for the Commodore 64 (in cartridge form). Canabalt is the game that defined the endless runner genre and has an awesome soundtrack that was extremely faithfully ported to the C64's SID sound chip. The game controls consist of a single jump button to alter the height of the player's suit-clad character (who runs right for great justice from an unseen terror at an ever increasing pace).
In this TAS, I run right while avoiding any obstacles that might slow the character down until the speed increases to the point that the game hits a killscreen. If I had hit even a single obstacle the speed would have slowed down substantially, but as Aqfaq pointed out the player hit an average running speed of 111 mp/h (180 km/h). The speed increases to a point that high jumps have to be predicted because the landing point isn't even visible on screen. Toward the end I had to specifically manipulate building layouts that were simpler than earlier sections in order to avoid having to slow down. Eventually, the speed increases to the point that strange things start happening such as conspicuously missing chunks of buildings before the game finally hits an impassable killscreen. (Input could be stopped a few frames earlier by not demonstrating various effects on the player after reaching the killscreen such as zipping around the screen and becoming embedded in walls but I think it's better this way; stopping input as soon as you land on the final platform would end input earlier but the player just stops forever and you don't get to see the game over screen.)
Note: The Commodore 64 core of BizHawk is unfinished and is currently not suitable for any purpose, express or implied. Specifically, any attempt to save or load a state will crash or cause a desync, as will stopping the movie, reloading it, and continuing recording. However, if you save a movie with no savestates and then replay it, it will replay perfectly every time. I went to great lengths (including hex editing and even compiling BizHawk from source) to try to find a way to fix the savestate problems to TAS this game correctly, but to no avail. I finally resorted to the same trick ais523 employed when he used the rerecording framework I created in his NetHack "Fastest Death" run - I put the emulator in a virtual machine and used the VM's savestates instead. It worked, although I wouldn't recommend it; I would have greatly preferred figuring out a way to fix the emulator as this solution felt dirty and wasn't particularly efficient. As a consequence the rerecord count of 1 is technically accurate, but the actual attempts on this through my various testing are probably in the low thousands.
But don't let those challenges stop you - go grab the freely-available ROM and give this faithful port of a great game a shot! With any hope, the added exposure of this submission will spur the Commodore 64 core developers for BizHawk into action. :) I hope you enjoy this run.

Noxxa: Added YouTube module.
Noxxa: Claiming for judgment.
Noxxa: Let's start off by saying that this is a nice and well-executed run of a nice game. However, there are a number of issues with it.
First off, the emulator for the system (C64Hawk) is incomplete in multiple ways. Emulation itself is quite incomplete - the game itself is emulated well enough, but the BIOS emulation has a few issues, at least in that it displays just a blue screen, instead of blue text on a darker blue background. It works, but it still obviously would need some work.
As a TASing platform, it also has some big problems, not the least of which being that savestates do not work in the emulator. That is really significant, as savestates are one of the core features of any TAS-capable rerecording emulators. The way dwangoAC made this run using a virtual machine was a creative solution, and it can work as a workaround, but it is still not really a good solution, as was admitted in the submission text. It's a dubious case, but I don't think we are ready yet to approve it as an emulator, considering its current inability to properly create TASes with it.
Next, the run has another issue, which in my opinion is an even bigger factor: its goal choice. The glitch showcased in this run is referred to as a "kill screen" in that it unavoidably turns the game unwinnable. I disagree with this definition however, as unlike most kill screens, there is no preset criteria where it is triggered; this is unlike e.g. Pac-Man's kill screen on the 256th level, Duck Hunt's kill screen on the 100th level, and Donkey Kong's kill screen on whichever level causes its death timer to overflow. In fact, due to the way the glitch is triggered in this game - through running at maximum speed combined with some randomness - it actually is possible to avoid the kill screen entirely through slowing down, which, in my mind, defeats the point of a kill screen. Instead, I'd opt to call this a "crash", as it more unpredictably puts an end to the game. However, "fastest crash" - while it has been done for multiple April Fools' or joke submissions - is not an acceptable category, as it does not constitute finishing the game. It only really shows off how the buildings can glitch out and impede further progress.
I'm rejecting this run for the above reasons.
As to what would make an acceptable category for an endless game like this - I'd be more inclined to think of a "maximum score" run to be the best way to run it, in the same vein as other endless games like Tetris. While the game's distance counter technically does not stop, it does have a maximum distance accounted for by the game, at 99999m. It would take much longer than this short run, so one would have to see if entertainment can be kept up over the course of the run. If it does, it would be great.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15629
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4425: dwangoAC's C64 C64anabalt "Fastest Kill Screen" in 01:21.03
Editor, Skilled player (1441)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2113
This is huge, and very unexpected. I wasn't aware C64 could run games as of right now, let alone make actual TASes. Great going on being able to pull this off from a technical standpoint. After some fidgeting with the firmware, I was able to get the run to sync. The gameplay was pretty smooth, which made the run quite a nice watch. Simple, but short enough not to get boring. With that, I'm happily yes for what I guess is our first C64 submission. Also, it bears saying, the music is awesome.
Noxxa
They/Them
Moderator, Expert player (4128)
Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
Location: The Netherlands
Encode added to submission.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
ars4326
He/Him
Experienced player (778)
Joined: 12/8/2012
Posts: 706
Location: Missouri, USA
The C64 sound processor can jam! Also, this game totally reminds me of Keanu Reeves in the Matrix, where he's jump training on the skyscrapers with Morpheus.
Yes vote :D
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." - 1 Corinthians 2:9
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
This is not only fantastic and unexpected, but also an incredibly polished job. Color me impressed. I talk about both the TAS and the C64 conversion.
No.
Skilled player (1743)
Joined: 9/17/2009
Posts: 4986
Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
1. What happens if you use cheats to bypass it? 2. This was fun for a "endless" runner. I blame the kill screen + speed at the later parts. 3. I wonder if this would sync once the c64 core is finished lol
Zarmakuizz
He/Him
Joined: 10/12/2013
Posts: 279
Location: France
Any technical details about the reason(s) of this kill screen? As scrimpeh said. Yes vote.
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4045
LOL! This is awesome. How hard is this to get to in real time? Someone discovered it after all, right?
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Editor, Active player (297)
Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Zarmakuizz wrote:
Any technical details about the reason(s) of this kill screen?
Probably similar as the graphical distortions that happen in Zelda 2, Battle of Olympus, Super Mario Bros. or Excitebike when going faster than the game can render.
mklip2001
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
To echo the crowd, the music is pretty bitchin'. It doesn't seem like most of it really requires a TAS until the very end; it's a short-enough game that somebody could probably memorize all the reactions. In fact, is there any way to change your finishing time at all besides dying? Does anything slow you down in this game? It seems like the movie file is being reported with incorrect timing too... the run seems more like 1min40s and not 1min21s. I'm voting Yes on this. I'm hoping that the Commodore 64 emulation is judged stable enough to merit publication.
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.
Dimon12321
He/Him
Editor, Reviewer, Experienced player (597)
Joined: 4/5/2014
Posts: 1228
Location: Romania
Em.... .... .... .... .... .... .............. In short, Yes vote.
TASing is like making a film: only the best takes are shown in the final movie.
Patashu
He/Him
Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4045
mklip2001 wrote:
To echo the crowd, the music is pretty bitchin'. It doesn't seem like most of it really requires a TAS until the very end; it's a short-enough game that somebody could probably memorize all the reactions.
It would be easily memorizable! ... Except it's randomly generated every time you play.
In fact, is there any way to change your finishing time at all besides dying? Does anything slow you down in this game?
Yes. If you run into one of those box things, you slow down.
My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu My twitch. I stream mostly shmups & rhythm games http://twitch.tv/patashu My youtube, again shmups and rhythm games and misc stuff: http://youtube.com/user/patashu
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Hey, nice! And the C64 implementation is impressively faithful to the original, kill screen aside. I hope this presages the creation of more C64 TASes, presumably after applying some polish to the emulator so you don't need a VM to use it.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
Very entertaining! Congrats on the first submitted C64 run, too! Yes vote.
Spikestuff
They/Them
Editor, Publisher, Expert player (2656)
Joined: 10/12/2011
Posts: 6449
Location: The land down under.
No vote, music didn't go long enough. Obviously voting Yes if you're trying to figure out if sarcasm or not. Seriously Good Job dwangoAC!
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Editor, Expert player (2480)
Joined: 4/8/2005
Posts: 1573
Location: Gone for a year, just for varietyyyyyyyyy!!
You ran 4481 metres in 90 seconds. Your average running speed was about 111 mph or 180 km/h.
Former player
Joined: 6/30/2010
Posts: 1107
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Aqfaq wrote:
You ran 4481 metres in 90 seconds. Your average running speed was about 111 mph or 180 km/h.
That's what happens when a Jedi finds out, that he's living in the Matrix.
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.
MESHUGGAH
Other
Skilled player (1920)
Joined: 11/14/2009
Posts: 1353
Location: 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝑦𝔞𝔯
I absolutely don't find this as any means of an ending point for this game. First, the game is about travelling as far as possible before dying. Second, what I see from the encode is the character walks on the glitched platform and hits the wall, falling between the side of the screen and the wall and everything else is history.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Editor, Skilled player (1824)
Joined: 8/25/2013
Posts: 1200
MESHUGGAH wrote:
I absolutely don't find this as any means of an ending point for this game. First, the game is about travelling as far as possible before dying. Second, what I see from the encode is the character walks on the glitched platform and hits the wall, falling between the side of the screen and the wall and everything else is history.
The game is endless otherwise. Better an arbitrary end then no end.
effort on the first draft means less effort on any draft thereafter - some loser
Post subject: Kill screen ending choice
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player (908)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
MESHUGGAH wrote:
I absolutely don't find this as any means of an ending point for this game. First, the game is about travelling as far as possible before dying.
Indeed! Had I hit obstacles (the boxes or briefcase-looking square objects) I could have slowed down and played literally forever. One of the other possible goals I considered was playing the game until the background music looped, but that would have been about 5 minutes long and I discovered the kill screen instead.
MESHUGGAH wrote:
Second, what I see from the encode is the character walks on the glitched platform and hits the wall, falling between the side of the screen and the wall and everything else is history.
Almost - I just updated the submission text with some more information on what happens here. In short, I crafted input that embedded the player character into the wall and caused the player to zip around the level, and I paused for a few frames to demonstrate the player being embedded in the wall. (When all you have is a single jump button, options are a bit limited :). As noted in the updated submission text, I could optionally end input at the moment the jump is complete to land on the last platform where you get boxed in, hit the wall, and walk in place forever but I felt this was a more entertaining and complete ending that shows the game over screen. If you have another goal choice in mind, though, by all means let me know!
I was laid off in May 2023 and became too ill to work this year and could use support via Patreon or onetime donations as work on TASBot Re: and TASBot HD is stalled. I'm dwangoAC, TASVideos Senior Ambassador and BDFL of the TASBot community; when healthy, I post TAS content on YouTube.com/dwangoAC based on livestreams from Twitch.tv/dwangoAC.
Skilled player (1417)
Joined: 10/27/2004
Posts: 1978
Location: Making an escape
Seems like they also replicated C64 developers' uneasiness at having their music drop out due to sound effects, and thus forcing players to choose between Sounds Only and Music Only.
A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills but never know my name. And that will be good enough for me.
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player (908)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
Ferret Warlord wrote:
Seems like they also replicated C64 developers' uneasiness at having their music drop out due to sound effects, and thus forcing players to choose between Sounds Only and Music Only.
Well, according to http://www.rgcd.co.uk/2011/12/c64anabalt-c64-2011.html there are two different audio tracks you can pick from; I made the TAS on the official Encore soundtrack and regrettably the run does not sync with the Ghormak version. I'm unaware of a version with jumping sound effects, and the only way to "choose" is by playing a different version of the game / cartridge file. Having said that, I really like the charm of only having the background music, which is absolutely amazing considering the SID chip was developed ~34 years ago.
I was laid off in May 2023 and became too ill to work this year and could use support via Patreon or onetime donations as work on TASBot Re: and TASBot HD is stalled. I'm dwangoAC, TASVideos Senior Ambassador and BDFL of the TASBot community; when healthy, I post TAS content on YouTube.com/dwangoAC based on livestreams from Twitch.tv/dwangoAC.
Eszik
He/Him
Joined: 2/9/2014
Posts: 163
Yes vote! Category name seems bad though‚ since you could just fall in the first pit of the game and get the same screen.
I problably made mistakes, sorry for my bad English, I'm French :v
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player (908)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
Eszik wrote:
Yes vote! Category name seems bad though‚ since you could just fall in the first pit of the game and get the same screen.
Ah, there's a difference between a Kill screen and a game over situation. This is a killscreen as defined by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_screen where the game crashes and it is impossible to continue. On that note, I tried altering input a bit but I couldn't figure out a way to make the kill screen happen later, all I could do was change what it looked like. The kill screen appears to be directly tied to the character's speed.
I was laid off in May 2023 and became too ill to work this year and could use support via Patreon or onetime donations as work on TASBot Re: and TASBot HD is stalled. I'm dwangoAC, TASVideos Senior Ambassador and BDFL of the TASBot community; when healthy, I post TAS content on YouTube.com/dwangoAC based on livestreams from Twitch.tv/dwangoAC.
fsvgm777
She/Her
Senior Publisher, Player (226)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1217
Location: Luxembourg
Just as a note: The run is 1:37.16 long, per WolframAlpha (a PAL C64 runs at 985248/63/312 FPS, which is around 50.1245 FPS).
Steam Community page - Bluesky profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.