Submission Text Full Submission Page
Top Gear 2 is an arcade racing game made and developed by the company Kemco for the Super Nintendo and was released on September 15th, 1993. Here you sit in the year 1993 and this is it, the race of your life... However! We'll make this quick. You're watching the new, super-accelerated #1 world leader in racing games. this TAS will be screaming through 1 country and 4 races. This car will not be twisting, (sometimes jumping), not spinning, or flipping, At speeds of over 260 MPH. With Top Gear 2 's new and improved weather system you'll be driving through conditions such as Night or Shine, Snow or Fog. If you win all the races you will be claimed as the best racer in the world. Get your rear in gear because there's no half-fast about it.

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk Developer Build 2.0.0
  • Uses Same Color Car
  • Manipulates Frame Perfect Luck
  • Uses Best Upgrades
  • Uses a Password Glitch
  • Skips Name Entry to Save Time

About the Run

This run is done on the USA version of Top Gear 2 and uses English Text. The goal of this run is to get to the credits as quickly as possible (USA%) using the fastest known methods currently possible. This TAS was started in April of 2018. Many improvements came and went. The previous TAS that was created which had a final (RTA) time of 9:10.210. The original TAS that I made was decent but had many flaws in a nearly perfect run. All of the inputs you see here, where recorded by me. However, as time went on I did have a little bit of help from the Top Gear community about theorizing the perfect run.

About the Category

USA% is the shortest category for Top Gear 2. Here an in-game password is used to skip directly to the final country with a fully stocked vehicle substantially faster than the competition it faces - conditions in which any human player would find it possible to win, yet obstacles, cars, and frame perfect skips allows for perfect reflexes and a great deal of luck. Back in 2013, this category was recognized as Any%. RallyFTW and I changed the name, the reason the name was changed is that Any% wouldn't make sense since, Any% is what this category is, but is renamed to USA% because I am only playing the last country in the game, which is the United States, hence the name USA% was created. I started this category back in 2013 and have used the same upgrades since then, with some minor upgrade changes here and there.

Console Differences

Top Gear 2 was the only Top Gear game to be released on multiple consoles at a time. Top Gear 2 was released on SNES, Genesis & Amiga CD 32. Top Gear 2 is the most optimal on the SNES version and this TAS will be using the SNES version for the most optimal gameplay and performance.

Regional Differences

Top Gear 2 and all of the other Top Gear games, all have different regions in which the game can be played. Top Gear 2, and all of the regions don't have any major updates that limit the current categories of the game, and all regions kind of play exactly the same. The only thing that changes from region to region is the aesthetics & Password inputs this includes: Brighter HUD & CPU 2nd place is noticeable, JPN version and EU version passwords differ from the USA game. Some characters on the password screen will include, Left & Right arrows for moving the cursor to a certain position to change a letter or number.

TAS from 2007 Vs. TAS in 2018

There was another TAS of this game back in 2007 by Dooty, which showcases the same things, but without any upgrades applied. I originally got my inspiration from that video to start running this category. My TAS in today's standards is a lot different, in fact, almost has no correlation to the original TAS by Dooty. In my TAS I use the best upgrades to finish the races quicker and frame perfect skips to make the run a little more entertaining to some extent.

My TAS Vs. RallyFTW's TAS Differences

Although our TAS's for this game and category may look similar, I do have the upper hand on this one. RallyFTW's TAS has everything that is needed for the fastest completion time but was bested by me, by looking a little deeper on some route changes in New York, & Los Angeles.

No Name Entry

You may see me skip over inputting a name. The reason I do this is that I would have lost frames and time around 2 seconds, which is very important to have if I want the perfect run for now.

RTA Vs. IGT in Top Gear Speedrunning

All of the Top Gear games besides Top Gear 2 uses IGT. The reason this run uses RTA timing is that the IGT is very inaccurate, sometimes at the start of races you will lose between 1 and 20 milliseconds each time before you are able to start driving. I'm not really sure why the game does this, but my general idea, would be loading in the level, however, for now, we still don't know the reason. Another funny factor about the IGT in Top Gear 2 that I don't use in this run, is being able to shave off 1 millisecond for every race you go through. If your car manages to get behind another car after crossing the finish line, the game will get confused and make the IGT count backward and make you save more time then the initial processing time calculated.

Wall Glitches Vs. No Wall Glitches

This category does not allow Wall Glitches and requires the player to play as "intended". The proper definition of a Wall Glitch is: A wall glitch is a glitch that allows the runner to make the game think he/she has finished the race by hitting the wall. An object needs to be in contact with the hitbox of the car in order for the glitch to work, however, not all walls are the same.

Automatic Vs. Manual

There are two types of transmissions in Top Gear 2. One is Automatic, which increases your speed automatically (go figure), and the other one is Manual, which you can tune yourself. Before Manual transmission was used, we used Automatic. The switch from Automatic to Manual was faster, so much faster than it saved around 10 seconds.

Car Colors

You will notice that I am only using one car color for the majority of this run. The reason this is is that if I were to switch to a different color every time, I would lose roughly around 0.5 - 1 second for every track. The game offers a much different variety of colors to choose from that be: Black, Green, White, Red, Blue, Grey, Yellow, & Purple.

Tracks

  • United States: Las Vegas: Las Vegas is interesting because it's one of the only tracks in the game that will allow the player to hold A and Left on the controller to get a starting boost from a nitro. The only other track in the game at the moment that has a same starting boost is San Francisco. I framed advanced the nitro boost's here to get the best possible time, without losing speed.
  • United States: Los Angeles: This track is also really interesting. Starting off, you can boost past the 2 sets of cars in front of you (which is frame perfect), and it saves roughly 1 1/2 seconds over normal play. Los Angeles is one of the tracks I also spent the most time on and checked each frame to see when the appropriate time to boost was. There is a small hill that leads into a tunnel, you are able to use all of your nitro's on each lap when the MPH hits 228, doing this is also frame perfect and closest it's come RTA would be 226 MPH.
  • United States: New York: New York is the last snow stage in the game, and features a new technique called "turn throttling". Turn throttling was discovered by RallyFTW and is used in RTA runs today. Before this discovery we were sliding every which way possible, however, the way this works is quite unique. If you are going around a corner (which depends on the sharpness of the turn), you can tap the direction your car will go, and it will cancel out the sliding animation. I used earlier nitro's here on 2nd lap near the end because I wanted to go fast because waiting loses time overall.
  • United States: San Francisco: San Francisco is the final track in the game. Unfortunately, you won't be seeing San Francisco all that much, since the entire stage is fog based. Just like Las Vegas, you are able to hold an A press and a Left press on the controller and steer off the track to get in front of the cars ahead. This little time saving was found by another runner "RallyFTW". Later on in the track, you will notice I held off from gearing up, unlike the previous 3 tracks. The reason this is, is because I wanted a lot of speed and maintaining that speed is very important, because you are then able to keep your speed down a hill which increases your speed to 234, then 228 after the uphill than to 230, before leveling back off below 230 then a nitro is used a little later to maintain the kept speed from earlier. This track also features a half a nitro pick up or known as "Speed Up". Right before my nitro runs out, I pick this up to maintain speed for a little longer than intended.

Upgrades:

  • The Screaming V12 = Best Engine will allow me to keep the speed needed throughout the track.
  • Kemco Rain Slicks = Best Wet Tires is only used once during this run and is for New York.
  • No Generic Radials = Believe it or not, you actually don't need Dry Tires in this run, I didn't purchase any to save some inputs.
  • 6 Speed Race Tranny = Alongside the Engine, this too will help me keep my speed.
  • Super Boost 400 =(Until San Francisco, where Total Boost 600-R is purchased)
Here Technickle uses tools to show off just how crazy a race car can be. Focusing on winning rather than losing and achieving the fastest time currently possible.
I want to personally thank all of the Top Gear speedrunning community that has supported me on this TAS. I also want to thank RallyFTW for helping me along the way with this route in particular.

feos: Judging...
feos: This run uses a route that can be considered a valid any% branch here, because the password glitch is legitimate: it's not a cheat, since regular passwords are already doing the same thing, so there's no point for the developers in implementing such a feature in addition to them.
But this run uses a few restrictions that I consider arbitrary. Avoiding the Reset that can be used to speed up the movie is not a speed/entertainment trade-off, and even if it was, it's not really adding any entertainment. The same can be said about avoiding the wall glitches. Both of these things are maybe considered optional by the RTA rules, but our rules are stricter, because we're not just a site that documents who is speedrunning what. We aim for the highest possible quality for our movies, and we only showcase the current records for each category.
In addition, this run loses a little bit of time to an existing track-wise record. While this is not a major flaw, it should have also been avoided in the first place, because that record was known.
Rejecting, and looking forward for a proper any% run that uses all the existing tricks.
This game might have a movie that uses a fully upgraded car and only plays through the USA tracks to reduce the repetitive content, but there's no guarantee it'd be entertaining enough for Moons. And if it isn't, we can't accept it either.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6006: Technickle's SNES Top Gear 2 "USA%" in 11:35.47
Spikestuff
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>Single Cup (or whatever it is) Oh boi. Issue with this is you should've been aiming to complete the entire game not a single cup? Good first attempt with maybe questionable menuing input. Light Spike of 3500 frames. Also per to the encode to your YouTube account. Which one is it? Cause looking at your account and the corrected input I can't match it.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
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Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Challenger
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I haven't posted before (on the topic of this game), but if you can soft-reset (starting from frame 33 - power-on), you can skip the copyright screen and entering title screen earlier. The tracks looks well played for me, but actually I prefer that way to start the last cup with no-upgrades (the strategy used on the published run of this game). Meh vote, sorry.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Technickle
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Spikestuff wrote:
>Single Cup (or whatever it is) Oh boi. Issue with this is you should've been aiming to complete the entire game not a single cup? Good first attempt with maybe questionable menuing input. Light Spike of 3500 frames. Also per to the encode to your YouTube account. Which one is it? Cause looking at your account and the corrected input I can't match it.
Q. Single Cup? A. Top Gear 2 has two main categories: USA% (which is the shortest) and 100% (which is the longest) - roughly 3 hrs of driving. Since I am more familiar with the shorter category USA% I decided to make a TAS showing off what is possible. USA% will make you play One country and 4 sub races within that country. I chose the best upgrades, so dodging cars would look a little more interesting, instead of being hit from behind and taking damage. Q. Questionable Menuing Input A. Since TAS is from console on, the first menu input is selecting Options. From Options I selected Championship difficulty. Afterwords I selected Continue Country, which then I selected United States. (If you are not seeing the cursor move from options to continue country, is because the game has different frames at which you can press the same input to create a "ghost input"). I get an invalid password to then create what's called a "password select glitch" This password allows you to continue to United States without any money, but since I wanted upgrades I quit out of the race and re-selected United States, so it would give me the appropriate amount of money for the upgrades I need.
Spikestuff
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Cool you answered 2 of my points with a hitch as the second point was confirmed by Challenger that it is questionable since you can get to the menu faster. You have it quoted but you didn't answer it. So I'm just going to ask it again:
Spikestuff wrote:
Also per to the encode to your YouTube account. Which one is it? Cause looking at your account and the corrected input I can't match it.
Thanks. Also you wrote more information here in the forums than in your submission text which desperately needs it. You need a lot more information than just copying what we have as our Movie Publication text.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
Technickle
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Challenger wrote:
I haven't posted before (on the topic of this game), but if you can soft-reset (starting from frame 33 - power-on), you can skip the copyright screen and entering title screen earlier. The tracks looks well played for me, but actually I prefer that way to start the last cup with no-upgrades (the strategy used on the published run of this game). Meh vote, sorry.
I agree with your post here, on the 33 frames where I can soft reset. Another runner RallyFTW found that out, I just didn't do that here, because I wanted the traditional power on screen. :)
Post subject: Spikestuff Encode Question
Technickle
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Not sure if this is what you mean: I used OBS's (Use stream encoder) to record the video, then I uploaded it to my YouTube account. My Youtube Account: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpNXRBNXfOM8QX5YewN2Z2g
Spikestuff
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Nowhere close what I meant. I was asking you to point out which one on your YouTube account is the encode. Since the Spiked Input (nor your submitted file) doesn't match any of your encodes you have on your account. Actually, talking about that input. You can slim off more. Since you continue to hold the accelerator even after crossing the line. And then there's the issue of not using all your fuel. I did it for you anyways cause I checked alongside the movie and latest full video you have provided.
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
+fsvgm777 never censoring anything.
Disables Comments and Ratings for the YouTube account. Something better for yourself and also others.
NhatNM
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nice glitch get money and turn technique at corners look very good, other actions look good optimal. I'll vote YES btw, I see sometimes you have run out of road, of course maybe it was speed tested. But at New York and San Francisco start race, I think I see have some space can help you run to midle road. I'm not sure, maybe you was tested it very carefully. And I have a slly question (because I didn't tested). Is possible change player car position at start race by RNG? (input time at somewhere)
A man come from Vietnam My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NhatNM/playlists
Post subject: Answering Questions for xxNKxx
Technickle
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Running Off Road The reason I run off the road on New York is because otherwise I would either crash or have to slow down with B. That trick that I am doing there is called Barrier Skip (not wind waker) which was found by RallyFTW. On San Francisco, I run off the road at the start of the race because the 4 cars in front of me will block me if I used a nitro. I could however wait, but that would lose a lot of time, so going around them like that is more optimal. Changing Car Positioning Unfortunately there is no way to change the current positioning of where you can end up since, if you get first, you will be sent back to 20th place, and if you get 10th place you will be sent back I think 6th place, not really sure on this however. This is actually really funny how this works, because there are 20 racers, but you can't get 11th place or lower which is interesting.
Post subject: Re: Answering Questions for xxNKxx
NhatNM
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Technickle wrote:
Changing Car Positioning Unfortunately there is no way to change the current positioning of where you can end up since, if you get first, you will be sent back to 20th place, and if you get 10th place you will be sent back I think 6th place, not really sure on this however. This is actually really funny how this works, because there are 20 racers, but you can't get 11th place or lower which is interesting.
Nah, I mean RNG only. I have do quick test, and here's some results I found (try compare with your current run), possible change AI cars mean maybe can change how AI cars will run https://imgur.com/a/lKlpZ0j This RNG is depend how you finish at previous race I haven't complaining your current run, just want try help you find ways possible can improve more than
A man come from Vietnam My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NhatNM/playlists
Post subject: Answering Question for xxNKxx - RNG
Technickle
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I noticed Purple car now takes the place of the Yellow car and the Yellow car moves up past the purple car. If you found anything new with this I would like to know, because I think the current setup is fine with the nitro pass of the two cars up front. :)
NhatNM
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I'm only do quick test, you need test more than for find best way by yourself. My examples showed change more than 2 cars (compare with your run please) If possible can change AI run, then will help you don't need run out of road anymore
A man come from Vietnam My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NhatNM/playlists
ViGadeomes
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I know you didn't use the wall glitch to show an epic "normal race" but I would prefer you to use it since for me, it increases the entertainment value. It's a subcategory of a subcategory, it's risky here ! Anyway, meh vote. please obsolete the "no branch" movie next time !
Post subject: Response to ViGadeomes
Technickle
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Yeah, I have messed around with the wall glitch here for Los Angeles, but in this run, I can't do it since the rules don't allow a wall glitch here. I did have a TAS with the wall glitch which was 7: 54, but it didn't feel right for the moment to upload it here. I do however have another TAS video that I made which is 100% Super Car with Wall Glitches, which is on my YouTube channel (under the same username).
Post subject: Response to Technickle
rayitdude
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I'm to new speed-runs and i must say this game is broken lol every time I see Tech play this game it get even more broken lol yes vote
jmosx36
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Technickle Welcome to my world YES vote
Currently making a route for Super Bomberman 5 200% TASes i'm planning: aero fighters, tg3000 (again), gradius 3, bust a move, bust a move plus, gradius rebirth, smg, smg2, mp9, gh3 (wii)
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I run this game from time to time and seeing this category ran so quickly is mind blowing. The cut through the barriers on New York is difficult in person but doable. Definitely worth obsoleting the previous USA% run. Yes from me.
Post subject: Rewstarr HeyGuys
Technickle
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This game is very broken, I mean you would know since you run this game, I run this game, everybody should run this game ... Okay I wouldn't invest your time into running this game seriously ᵉᵛᵉʳʸᵇᵒᵈʸ, ʳᵘn ᵗʰᶦˢ ᵍᵃᵐᵉ ᵒʳ ᵉˡˢᵉ :)
Technickle
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Thanks :)
Samtastic
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Wow - you beat Dooty's run by a few seconds - so it deserves a yes vote. Here's Dooty's run for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5spWwHjL960
Enjoys speedrunning, playing and TASing Oddworld games! Has TASed: Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee in 12.06.13 (with Dooty) Oddworld: Adventures II in 20.03.78 (with Dooty) Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus 100% in 2:08:28.4 (with Dooty) Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee 100% in 1:05:01.65 Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus in 37:18 Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus in 37:15 Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus 100% in 2:!5.44.12 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee any% in 13:01.3 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee any% in 12:59.95 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee 100% in 1:04:16.27 Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee 100% in 1:04:01.07 Currently working on: Waiting for Windows TAS Tools to work so I can TAS PC version of Exoddus.
Spikestuff
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Samtastic wrote:
Wow - you beat Dooty's run by a few seconds
Dooty's deliberately forgoes the use of upgrades this run that uses upgrades (and it's more than a few seconds). -- Just a quick question since you are bringing him up. RallyFTW created a full USA% TAS as well which you've mentioned in your submission text. Now you have him beat on the later levels except the first one at Las Vegas. He pulls in a 1'51"06 while you come in behind with a 1'51"11. Do we have an explanation for this?
WebNations/Sabih wrote:
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Post subject: Might have to pull Rally in here for this - Spikestuff
Technickle
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Rally would know about this more than me probably, and if he doesn't know I would say he gears up a little slower at the start than me. I am 98% sure it's not regional differences either.
Post subject: Response to pretty much everyone.
RallyFTW
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Hello, washed up Top Gear 2 speedrunner here. I have a lot of quoting to do, so let's see if I can't destroy the character limit in one post.
Challenger wrote:
I haven't posted before (on the topic of this game), but if you can soft-reset (starting from frame 33 - power-on), you can skip the copyright screen and entering title screen earlier.
This isn't wrong. On the topic of soft-resetting, you can also soft-reset after you've inputted the first password, and then just Continue Country to the United States once you're back into the main menu - instead of having to load the track and quit to the main menu from there.
Spikestuff wrote:
And then there's the issue of not using all your fuel.
From what I've been told, rimsky82 on GameHacking.org built a password generator for this game years ago. I asked him what he knew about this game, and he told me that he also found that Fuel Tank upgrades were checked in the password generator. His guess was that Fuel Tanks were originally coded to be in this game as something else to upgrade, but due to a constraint somewhere, the feature was turned off before release. While fuel is important to take note of in the first Top Gear, it doesn't matter in the second one. This explains some of the lengthier tracks in this game (London and Sheffield quickly come to mind based on the sheer brutality of those maps at the start of the game).
xxNKxx wrote:
I see sometimes you have run out of road, of course maybe it was speed tested. But at New York and San Francisco start race, I think I see have some space can help you run to midle road. I'm not sure, maybe you was tested it very carefully.
This point has already been discussed, but I'm going to use this quote to mention that the AI is very shifty. In New York and San Francisco, you can't pass the car in front of you (the 16th place car) on the right and expect to instantly nitro. With San Francisco (the last track), we can bypass this by going off the left side of the road. As far as speed differences go, they're negligible when using a nitro with low speeds. New York, on the other hand, doesn't have this luxury. Moreover, that car will sometimes not let you pass on the left either, causing a reset. If there's a way to consistently pass that car by tricking the AI at the start, I haven't found it.
Spikestuff wrote:
Now you have him beat on the later levels except the first one at Las Vegas. He pulls in a 1'51"06 while you come in behind with a 1'51"11. Do we have an explanation for this?
My money is on his last nitro. He can get over that last hill with 228 MPH+ speed if the last nitro is placed properly. This should have been fixed in the TAS. I don't think this was actually discussed in the submission - there's a weird speed property that happens at 228 MPH/276 KmH where the rate of deceleration decreases dramatically at that speed. Nitro placement is kept with this in mind. For reference, check the 3:34 mark in the YouTube encode - after his nitro ends, he keeps above 228MPH for just over 10 seconds. To my understanding of what makes an acceptable run on TASVideos (at least for a Vault acceptance), I don't think this TAS is optimized enough for it to be placed there. That's not to say a new Top Gear 2 TAS won't ever be approved - there are a lot of interesting mechanics that aren't explored in Dooty's TAS, simply because he doesn't reach a speed where they can be shown. There's also my TAS, which Technickle does improve on during the actual racing. There's a wall glitch that can occur in Los Angeles - it'd be hilarious to see a runner drive backwards for 20 seconds, just to see him clip the left wall with enough speed and instantly finish the stage. This would definitely take a lot of testing to get right, since this wall glitch is extremely inconsistent to get. If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask - I'll be paying attention to this post over the coming hours.
Washed up Top Gear 2 player, here. Message me on Discord if you have any questions related to speedrunning or TASing the game. Discord: Rally#0001.
Post subject: My b o y Rolie Polie Olie FTW
Technickle
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Thanks for writing this up for clarification purposes. I have never clicked on a discussion board post so fast IML Kappa