(Link to video)
Submission Text Full Submission Page Publication Page
In 1990 the renowned Sid Meier released Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon. The game received many accolades including Computer Gaming World's Game of the Year. The goal of the game is to achieve the highest job ranking by slowly expanding your railroad empire across the land, building stations, buying trains, creating industries and fending off your competition losing as much money as possible.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: JPC-rr 11.2
  • Retire with the highest job rank (Prime Minister)
  • Uses hardest difficulty (100% Difficulty)
  • Genre: Strategy

Comments (w/ spoilers)

Game Setup

England is chosen simply because it takes the least number of frames to set up. 100% difficulty is chosen just for kicks. It doesn't really affect the TAS, but it doesn't take any more frames to choose it either.

Money Underflow and Time Management

The whole TAS is set around the fact that money is tracked with a signed int. By losing money past negative 32,767,000 pounds, the value wraps around to be positive 32 million. (Even though the money value turns black at 20 million pounds, it's still negative) So, the goal is to lose money as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, there's another consideration. Your job rank isn't reevaluated until the end of the fiscal period, which means the earliest the TAS can end is two years from the start of the game. So the first thing that needs to be done is to crank up the game speed to Turbo, to get time to go as fast as possible. Running on Turbo has some other consequences for the TAS, which will be discussed later. (Short version: Never play this game on Turbo)
There's one more thing. The more actions you pack into a frame the slower the game clock goes. So, although it's possible to hit the underflow faster by doing all your actions at once, this ends up stopping the game clock while you do it. It turns out, you get to the end of the fiscal period faster if your actions are spaced out as evenly as possible. In this TAS, the final action that causes the money to underflow happens one frame before the end of the fiscal period.

Losing Money

The fastest way to lose money is to build track. This is where the first extra consequence of Turbo speed comes in. On Turbo, all in-game messages and notifications are instantly closed as soon as they pop up. This includes dialog boxes asking if you want to build a bridge over water, a tunnel under a mountain or if you want to build track on a slope of any significant grade. The result of this is that it is impossible to build track on any of the above-listed features while the speed is set to Turbo. In other words, never play this game on Turbo.
Luckily for me, the map tile that is in the exact middle of England is pretty track friendly. After zooming in, you can see there's only a small section in the top left corner that can't be built upon (they're too close to those mountains and have slopes that pop up messages). Also, if you build track two tiles away from the window border, the game will readjust the window to center on your cursor, slowing down the game clock (which I want to avoid at all costs). I build as much track as I can before I run out of money.
The game is smart enough not to let you build track once you're in the negatives, so we need to find a new way of wasting money. Luckily, the game has no problem with you going further into debt by turning your existing track into double-track and then back to single-track. This costs 8,000 pounds and can be done an infinite amount of times. The TAS uses this method to get the rest of the way to negative 32 million pounds. It is possible to do this manually, but at my fastest it took me 17 minutes to get all the way to negative 32 million. Even if someone with more nimble fingers than I have could shave a couple minutes off that, there's still no humanly way to get all the way down to the underflow within the first fiscal period without freezing the game clock.

Freaky Flashing Heads Glitch

This glitch is not an emulation bug, nor has anything to do with the money amount or the underflow. These freaky flashing heads appear whenever you play the game on Turbo. As I said, never play this game on Turbo.

Other comments

As soon as the year-end report comes up, I buffer the keyboard commands to retire so that I can end input early, and cut this TAS just under a clean 40 seconds. It may be possible to pull a few more frames out of this by playing around with the track-laying sequence or ordering the double and single-track commands slightly differently. Finally, the rerecords value is not really accurate. I did most of the work for this TAS altering the movie file directly.
Suggested Screenshots: (15154, 15981)
Files:
HDD, 16 tracks, 63 sectors, 16 sides.
TimestampMD5SizeFilename
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Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: The idea behind this run is simple, but entertaining. Accepting for Moons.
fsvgm777: Processing.

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Posted: 2/26/2015 7:07 AM
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TASVideoAgent
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Posts: 15619
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4593: c-square's DOS Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon in 00:39.93
Posted: 2/26/2015 7:33 AM
Quote
Tangent
Joined: 3/9/2009
Posts: 530
For other people's information, you can retire and end the game at any time, it just doesn't 'update' your score IIRC until the end of a fiscal period. Otherwise, the game just ends when it hits the end of the timeframe (varies by difficulty). The high score is from the overflowed cash, high difficulty, and minimal game years passed. Prime Minister/President is the highest rank.
Posted: 2/26/2015 10:14 AM
Quote
DrJones
Joined: 4/3/2005
Posts: 575
Location: Spain
How proper that you become a politician after getting ultrarrich by losing huge amounts of money in record time! Yes vote!
No.
Posted: 2/26/2015 10:20 AM
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scrimpeh
Editor, Skilled player (1441)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2112
TAS of 2017 First edition TAS of 2017 PSX TAS of 2017
This was a remarkable metaphor for the current state of modern economics. Also a very exciting watch. Yes vote.
Posted: 2/26/2015 12:40 PM
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Bamahut
Joined: 5/8/2010
Posts: 177
Location: Entropy
This game is politically correct, Yes vote!
Posted: 2/26/2015 1:47 PM
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electricslide
Joined: 1/27/2014
Posts: 181
Modern economics? Heck - it fits the period era too. I commend Sid Meier for his historical accuracy. In the end, it matters little what you build and everything of what you can borrow...
Posted: 2/26/2015 1:51 PM
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mklip2001
He/Him
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Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
I don't know if I find this "entertaining" exactly, but it's a great dose of WTF. I'm glad I watched the run before reading comments. Also, what DrJones said. It's too short a run to go into Meh territory, so I'm voting Yes.
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.
Posted: 2/26/2015 2:21 PM
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jlun2
Skilled player (1742)
Joined: 9/17/2009
Posts: 4986
Location: ̶C̶a̶n̶a̶d̶a̶ "Kanatah"
GBA TASer of 2010
Voted yes because it was unexpected, but I don't think it would hold for moons. Also, what happened at that last couple seconds before you win? :o
LLCoolDave wrote:
This seems to be competing for the "Worst looking TAS of 2011" Award.
Posted: 2/26/2015 3:13 PM
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c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
jlun2 wrote:
Also, what happened at that last couple seconds before you win? :o
The flashing faces glitch happens whenever you play the game on Turbo speed. There's also the End of Period report which consists of a couple of screens of financial reports. Because it's on Turbo, the game automatically closes each screen as soon as it appears.
Posted: 2/26/2015 4:13 PM
Quote
hegyak
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
Was I entertained? No. Should it be Published? Yes.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Posted: 2/26/2015 5:13 PM
Quote
Derakon
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Well, I was entertained. Though if it'd gone on for another minute I probably wouldn't have been.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
Posted: 2/26/2015 6:28 PM
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andypanther
Any
Former player
Joined: 6/30/2010
Posts: 1107
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Hahaha, I love crazy ideas like this, that's why this site is so great. It maybe wasn't too interesting to watch, but it was so short that I don't care about that. This TAS is all about the concept. 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.
Posted: 2/26/2015 8:30 PM
Post subject: Re: #4593: c-square's DOS Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon in 00:39.93
Quote
Noxxa
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Joined: 8/14/2009
Posts: 4090
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Exotic platforms TASer of 2018 Exotic platforms TAS of 2018 Exotic platforms TASer of 2017 Exotic platforms TAS of 2017 Exotic platforms TAS of 2017 Exotic platforms TASer of 2016 Exotic platforms TAS of 2016 Gameboy TASer of 2013
TASVideoAgent wrote:
The whole TAS is set around the fact that money is tracked with an unsigned int. By losing money past negative 32,767,000 pounds, the value wraps around to be positive 32 million.
You mean it's a signed (16-bit) int - an unsigned int would not be able to become negative at all. (Unsigned 16-bit int has a range of 0 to 65535, whereas signed has a range of -32768 to 32767). Both signed and unsigned integers can overflow or underflow due to the limited nature of data. On the run itself: it's a fun and short TAS, while also functioning as a political/economical commentary of sorts. Yes vote.
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.
Posted: 2/26/2015 8:34 PM
Post subject: Re: #4593: c-square's DOS Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon in 00:39.93
Quote
c-square
Active player (378)
Joined: 9/25/2011
Posts: 652
Speedy TAS of 2015
Mothrayas wrote:
TASVideoAgent wrote:
The whole TAS is set around the fact that money is tracked with an unsigned int. By losing money past negative 32,767,000 pounds, the value wraps around to be positive 32 million.
You mean it's a signed (16-bit) int - an unsigned int would not be able to become negative at all. (Unsigned 16-bit int has a range of 0 to 65535, whereas signed has a range of -32768 to 32767). Both signed and unsigned integers can overflow or underflow due to the limited nature of data. On the run itself: it's a fun and short TAS, while also functioning as a political/economical commentary of sorts. Yes vote.
Nice catch, Mothrayas. Fixed!
Posted: 2/26/2015 9:02 PM
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Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
TAS of 2007 N64 TAS of 2007
No thank you, I've had enough of careerist politicians. I voted yes BTW
Posted: 2/27/2015 11:49 AM
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Bamahut
Joined: 5/8/2010
Posts: 177
Location: Entropy
I personally love the fact that even if you make your company go bankrupt you still end up with a golden parachute. This is just to close to the reality of today's world.
Posted: 2/27/2015 12:52 PM
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KusogeMan
Experienced player (753)
Joined: 2/5/2012
Posts: 1804
Location: Brasil
sim city for snes also has money glitch
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Posted: 2/27/2015 1:26 PM
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mklip2001
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Joined: 6/23/2009
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Location: Georgia, USA
Other runs on this site with a money glitch that breaks the game quickly: NES Ghostbusters (J) SNES Lamborghini: American Challenge (U)
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.
Posted: 2/28/2015 5:46 PM
Quote
Personman
Other
Joined: 4/20/2008
Posts: 465
The fact that the flashing heads turned out not to be a consequence of TASing was a great punchline to a great description of a great movie which greatly deserves my yes vote.
A warb degombs the brangy. Your gitch zanks and leils the warb.
Posted: 3/1/2015 2:30 AM
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CoolKirby
Editor, Experienced player (570)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4038
Exotic platforms TASer of 2014 NES TAS of 2013
Thanks for the helpful information, Tangent. Funny and interesting glitch, c-square. Well done! Voting Yes.
Posted: 3/1/2015 2:44 PM
Post subject: Movie published
Quote
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2799] DOS Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon by c-square in 00:39.93