This page describes the rules for acceptable movie submissions. Failure to abide by these rules will result in rejection.
Table of contents

Acceptable Movie Files

We accept key-input movies (and emulators) of these formats:

For NES

Famtasia movie files (FMV) and VirtuaNES movie (VMV) files are deprecated and not accepted anymore.

For Super NES

For Nintendo 64

For Game Boy & variants, and Game Boy Advance

TODO: Do we require new GBx movies to be recorded with VBA v21 or later versions in favour of overall slightly better GBx emulation?

For Nintendo DS

For Sega Master System

For Sega Game Gear

For Sega Genesis/Megadrive

For Sega Saturn

For PlayStation

For Arcade / Neo Geo

For TurboGrafx 16(PC Engine), Neo Geo Pocket (Color), WonderSwan, Atari Lynx

For PC (DOS)

There has been a DOS submission that was created using modified DOSBox emulator. However, DOSBox isn't yet made into an universal TAS-capable application, so it's likely impossible to create TASes for other games with it yet. Until then, submitting PC TAS movies isn't permitted. If you are willing to help with TAS-oriented DOSBox development or have created a TAS with it that satisfies our goals and conditions, please visit the DOSBox discussion thread or contact adelikat otherwise.

For other systems

Movies for any other systems are not accepted.
There have been several working emulators of other systems, but some of them don't produce movies that meet all required features for us to accept, while some simply don't support recording movies at all. If you are willing to help with the developments of rerecording emulators, please visit the Emulator Development and Potential Emulators pages for more information.
See EmulatorResources/Homepages for more information about emulators and their versions.

Multimedia files (AVI, WMV and so on) aren't accepted no matter what the system is.[1]

The movie must begin from console power-on

The movie must begin from the game power-on state (no loading of saves). That is to say, you must choose ‘record from power-on/start’, not ‘record from reset/sram’ or ‘record from now/savestate’.
We do not allow save-anchored movies.[2]
Exceptions for verified saves (or for a demonstration of something fancy) can only be allowed under special permission.

The games must be real

The movie should look like it could have been played with an authentic hardware. This makes it more familiar to the audience.
This details to the following points:

Hacked and homebrew games

Hacked games are allowed for submission. However, they go through more scrutiny than other games. This is because the hack itself is under judgment. It must be a quality hack and have an audience following. It must be a quality TAS on its own merit but also must show something interesting compared to other games of the same game engine.
Do not use fan-translations for your movies ― see below for more on this. This rule is strict.

Codes that manipulate ROM or RAM directly (e.g. Game genie codes) are not allowed

The ROM must be good

Use the correct version

The PAL/NTSC settings must be correct

If you are running a NTSC game (U or J), you must set your emulator to record in NTSC mode. Likewise, if you are running a PAL game (E), you must record your movie in PAL mode. Any other setting will get your movie promptly rejected. Note that such settings are enabled automatically in most emulators, but it's better to check before you start recording.
If you are obsoleting a movie that was recorded with the wrong settings, that movie's completion time will be increased 20% when comparing them to adjust for the fact that PAL games run at 50 Hz and NTSC at 60 Hz.
This rule only comes into effect on NES games and possibly Genesis games that have badly programmed region lock-out.

The BIOS must be real

If the system you are using makes use of system BIOSes, only use real BIOSes, not hacked ones.

Match the BIOS region to the game's region.

Do not use a Japanese BIOS for a USA ROM image / CD, or vica versa. See above for details in general about using non US region games.

The movie must be good

In particular:

A speed-oriented movie must beat all existing records

If your movie is going to beat something, be sure it beats it.
If your tool-assisted movie is slower than the non-tool-assisted world record of the game you play, your movie will be rejected.
This only matters if the goals are directly comparable between the TAS and unassisted record, though.
Do your research! Look for the existing unassisted speedrun records. Look for previous TAS movies in the submission queue or on the forums.
Check places such as youtube or nicovideo for TAS movies (or speedruns).
Failure to beat existing movies will result in a quick rejection.

The movie must be of an acceptable technical quality

See the Guidelines on how to make a movie that meets site standards.

Cheat-keys and debugging codes are not allowed

Such as the Konami Code.
If the key sequence is mentioned in the manual as a normal means of playing, it is (usually) allowed.
This rule is not strict, but its motive is the same as in the guideline that says you should play on the hardest difficulty. As such, you can use a code to unlock the hardest difficulty, although it's better to first ask on the forums if this is a good idea.

The movie must be complete

Your movie should begin from the console power-on and end when the last decisive action has been delivered. There are no specific rules for an exact endpoint[4] but it must adhere to the following rules:
Under special consideration we might allow movies that play a single level only or a part of the game only.

Play games that are emulated well

Emulation of several platforms such as Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and Sony Playstation are still far from perfect, and some games work better than others. This is really a vague rule, but because we aim to publish videos that look like they were played on the original video game system. Movies of games that are not emulated well (have graphical or functional glitches that do not exist on the real console) should not be submitted.
Accurate emulation is preferred over inaccurate! If you are trying to beat an existing movie and it exploits an emulator bug on an old emulator, do not do the same. The same goes for exploiting a bug in a bad ROM dump. We would prefer the slower version that represents a more accurate play through. The goal of our movies is to show what could "theoretically" be done on a real console. Exploiting Emulator and ROM bugs go against this goal.

Emulator specific rules

Do not use emulators we do not allow. See the beginning of this page again. That being said, here are the emulator-specific rules:

Visual Boy Advance: Use the best mode

Some Game Boy games work in multiple modes:
Because the game can emulate differently depending on the mode, the one you choose is saved in the movie file. This can be difficult to change later, so you should always start recording in the best mode supported by the game.
It is worth mentioning that there is at least one GBC game, Shantae, that recognizes whether it is running on a GBA, and utilizes GBA's hardware features if available. However, None of the available re-recording versions of VBA allows recording GBC movies in GBA mode.
For Game Boy Advance games, there is no choice like this to worry about.
However, it is recommended that lag reduction mode (prefetch emulation) for GBA movies be enabled.
The default options that appear when starting a recording should reflect the best choices for the currently running game, so think twice before changing them.

Obsoleting a published movie

When obsoleting a published movie (that aims for fastest time), the goal should be to minimally match its speed and impressiveness throughout the entire movie, not just in final completion time. Meaning, if you found a 30 second shortcut, that isn't an excuse to waste 10 seconds elsewhere due to sloppy play. If you found a 30 second shortcut, try your best to improve the movie by at least 30 seconds.
Site rules still apply even if the published movie breaks them. We make mistakes sometimes, that doesn't provide a green light for you to do so.

Clarifications

[1] Multimedia files (AVI, WMV and so on) are not accepted

We do not accept multimedia files (AVI, WMV and so on). The site wants a method of movie control, such as:
Multimedia files make the above points impossible.
There is zero verifiability in a multimedia file. It would be impossible to prove that a video was or was not edited.

[2] In general, movies that begin from saves are not accepted

We want a standard starting point for movies (power-on). Saves are not standard, as there are many of them, and each may cause the game to behave differently compared to starting from power-on. They can also can be hacked, allowing nearly transparent cheating.
However, there are certain games with unlockable modes that can only be accessed if a save file (or an otherwise "dirty" SRAM) is present. If you really wish to submit a movie made on such mode, you will need a verification movie first. Any input file that starts from power-on (for example, a previously submitted or published movie for that game) and creates the exact circumstances for your submission to sync will generally do. Note that you don't have to optimize the verification movie: it only serves as a save or SRAM generator that makes it possible to claim the legitimacy of your effort. A good example is this submission.

[4] Exact termination point

There are no other rules about when a movie should end. Assuming the above rules are met, the following are options:
  1. Ending the movie as soon as possible before beating the game but slowing game completion.
  2. Ending the movie before beating the game when the game cannot be completed faster.
  3. Ending the movie on the "last hit" or last character control.
  4. Ending the movie when no further input can prevent the game from reaching the ending.
Number 1 is not recommended, except as a surprise factor.
Where using number 1 results in a conflict of interest by timing, the movie is timed up to the last hit or other decisive action that is considered beating the game.
LegacyPages/MovieRules last edited by Nach on 2/4/2010 2:03 PM
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