Rally-X Arrangement is one of 6 games included in Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 which is a compilation that was released in 1996 for Arcades. For this volume, the games are Pac-Man, Rally-X, and Dig Dug. Both volumes are notable for introducing the "Arrangement" series which serve as new takes (or "Remakes") of the game named after. These often introduce power-ups, new enemies & variants, a variety of level themes, boss fights, and simultaneous co-op.
Rally-X Arrangement doesn't have co-op or boss fights but otherwise this game introduces everything else mentioned above. The main goal of the game is to collect all the flags in the maze while avoiding the dreaded red cars. There's a total of 15 rounds with 3 of them being "Challenging Stages" where the player has to get to the goal before time runs out.
This TAS aims for fastest in-game time which shows up upon completion.
You don't necessarily have to hold the direction you're going in for this game but it helps predict when the turns can be made and there isn't any noticeable difference in speed anyway. The Flags and power-ups are RNG and the most optimal flag placement being that almost all of the flags are near each other. For the items, (in-game as blue flags, as green dots on the minimap) they can give any item that's displayed on the Item panel on the bottom of the screen with the most desired being Speed Up and Attack which speeds the Player up but for Attack only lasts for a few seconds and can also stun enemies. For the Challenging Stages, the Flags are consistent and will speed up the car upon collecting them so getting all of them is important.
Optimization for this is interesting in the sense that I'll bring it up in case there's anymore improvements to be made, you can shorten the transition to the next round by draining the fuel by spamming smoke clouds so that less time is spent on tallying up the fuel for points but that comes at the cost of the flags to spawn in different places and are usually for the worse because it'll take more time due to how spread apart they can be. For the most part the smoke clouds are used for stunning the red cars if they get in the way but for certain rounds, this tactic is used to get more favorable flag placements for the next round.
feos: Claiming for judging.
