Posted: 1/15/2026 12:17 AM
Andrew
🇨🇦 Canada
Joined: 1/14/2026
Posts: 6
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Hi, I'm a speedrunner that enjoys playing obscure PC games, coming up with my own routes, and discovering new glitches in them. I haven't done any TASing yet, but at least one of the game's I've ran has potential for a pretty cool TAS that hasn't been made yet, so I hope to find time to learn how to TAS and then make one at some point this year.
Posted: 1/15/2026 1:51 AM
Sand
He/Him
Editor, Player (148)
Joined: 6/26/2018
Posts: 225
Hi Andrew! What's your game? There are forums for DOS games and PC games. There may already be a thread for your game. If not, you can create one and post information about existing speedruns, techniques, new findings, etc. For PC games, a place to start with documentation is Wiki: Platforms#Dos, Wiki: Platforms#Linux, or Wiki: Platforms#Windows, depending on the platform. You can search for published PC movies to get an idea of what tools people use. For recent PC TASes, it's usually BizHawk+DOSBox or PCem+LibTAS. You can download the movie files and open them in an emulator to see the inputs that the authors used.
Posted: 1/15/2026 2:19 AM
(Edited: 1/15/2026 10:08 PM)
Andrew
🇨🇦 Canada
Joined: 1/14/2026
Posts: 6
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
The game is called Frozen Fruits: https://blueskied.com/fruits.htm You control a bouncing ball to destroy blocks of fruit on each level. Levels can be cleared very quickly by increasing the gamespeed to 100%, and there's also some quirks in the physics engine that make it possible to bounce the ball in unintended ways and even clip out of bounds. For these reasons, I think Frozen Fruits (and other similar games by the same developer) would make for a really cool TAS. The Frozen Fruits/Bound games have been mentioned a few times, but there's no thread for them at the moment. I likely won't start TASing Frozen Fruits until later in the year, so I'll probably make the thread then, unless you think it'd be better to make it now.
Posted: 1/16/2026 1:32 AM
Sand
He/Him
Editor, Player (148)
Joined: 6/26/2018
Posts: 225
To start, just figure out the mechanics of being able to play the game inside the emulator. I haven't done a TAS of a Windows game, so I don't know which of BizHawk+DOSBox / PCem+LibTAS is better/easier, but maybe someone else can offer advice. If the game can run in Windows 95/98, then it looks like either choice will work, but for Windows XP you'll need to use PCem. Once you have the game running, you can practice recording a movie and using savestates by playing casually, or for example at 50% speed for better control. You can share work-in-progress movies at Userfiles, even if they are incomplete or unoptimized. Then begins the long process of building the TAS, learning and documenting the game's speed tricks, and using savestates to find the fastest way to do every action. See Wiki: TasingGuide for general guidance. My advice is to post updates when you've made progress and ask questions if you get stuck. Post #453276 has some links to VODs/livestreams if you want to see how people approach the process of TASing.
Posted: 1/16/2026 8:05 AM
(Edited: 1/25/2026 11:40 AM)
CoolKirby
Editor, Experienced player (659)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4200
Exotic platforms TASer of 2014 NES TAS of 2013
I confirmed Fruits 1 and 2 run in Windows 95, which I find easier as you don't need to get a license key like with W98 setup. Both tools that Sand mentioned are very good, so it depends on personal preference and how familiar you are with setting up each one. On Windows, BizHawk runs natively, and libTAS runs in WSL2. On Linux, BizHawk and libTAS both run natively. In case you prefer BizHawk, I've prepared a CD-ROM of Frozen Fruits 1 and 2. Download that first, then follow the Windows 95 installation steps Sand linked, and export the completed w95.hdd to the same folder. Load this XML file in BizHawk, and play this input file to get past the DOS prompt, Windows desktop and settings and into the game. I set gamespeed to max (100%) since you have unlimited time to react to things and rewind as necessary. Echoing what Sand said about practicing and testing things out. It can be really fun to play around with a game at that level of precision.
Posted: 1/17/2026 8:35 PM
(Edited: 1/17/2026 8:38 PM)
Andrew
🇨🇦 Canada
Joined: 1/14/2026
Posts: 6
Location: 🇨🇦 Canada
Thanks, you guys have been very helpful. I'll be sure to look at the guides linked and use the files CoolKirby has provided once I finally start working on the first Frozen Fruits game. I may also do other games by the same developer like Frozen Fruits 2, X, and some of the Bound games later on, but I'm not sure yet. It depends on how much time I end up spending per level on Frozen Fruits 1, and what the result of that game's TAS ends up looking like.