Tool-assisted movies (100)

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Published on 5/30/2008
John Romero's Daikatana is set in 2455 AD, in a dystopian future brought on by the actions of a man named Kage Mishima, who now rules the earth. However, this future is actually an alternate timeline created by the mystical Daikatana sword, which allows the one who wields it to travel through time. A martial arts teacher, Hiro Miyamoto (no relation to Shigeru), journeys to recover the Daikatana and return the universe to its natural timeline.

Published on 1/22/2018
Keitai Denjū Telefang (携帯電獣テレファング) is a series of video games produced by Natsume and published by Smilesoft. The games are monster-battling games, where the player contacts various creatures using a cell phone-like device called a D-Shot in order to get them to battle the foes he or she will encounter. The name of the series derives from Keitai, which is Japanese for "cell phone," since phoning creatures is an integral part of the game, and "fang," to symbolize the various beasts involved.
Passwords (phone numbers) can be used to obtain very strong Denjuu, but are not used in this run. There's also a way to beat this game insanely fast with the use of major glitches, like this other movie we have for this game does, but those aren't used in this run either.

Published on 4/18/2021
Keitai Denjū Telefang (携帯電獣テレファング) is a series of video games produced by Natsume and published by Smilesoft. The games are monster-battling games, where the player contacts various creatures using a cell phone-like device called a D-Shot in order to get them to battle the foes he or she will encounter. The name of the series derives from Keitai, which is Japanese for "cell phone," since phoning creatures is an integral part of the game, and "fang," to symbolize the various beasts involved.
jlun2, MisterChess and CasualPokePlayer improve the previous movie by 1 minute and 56.52 seconds, thanks to a game breaking glitch that triggers the credits really early. Please read the authors' comments for more details. Of note the previous publication relied on an emulator bug for it to work, whereas this one has been console-verified and a video of it can be viewed right here.

Published on 3/4/2020
Pokémon Card GB2: GR-dan Sanjou! is the Japan-only sequel to Pokémon Trading Card Game. Team Great Rocket has stolen TCG Island's Pokémon cards and kidnapped the Club Masters, and you must travel to GR Island to put an end to their evil plans, by defeating them in Pokémon card duels.

You can watch the complete run being played back on a console.

Published on 7/7/2023
Pokémon: Yellow Version is part of the first generation of games within its famous series, whereas Pokémon: Silver and Crystal Version are part of the second generation of the Pokémon franchise. They were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in North America in 1999, 2000 and 2001 respectively. In this journey, the player encounters various monsters, which they can catch to use for battles, or just to fill up their Pokédex.
In this run, gabraltar fills the Pokédex without resorting to any glitches and obtains the diploma in all three games in less than seven hours. Note that Mew and Celebi aren't caught here; this is because they can only be obtained through either an event or glitches.

The downloadable encode features additional audio tracks: The first (default) track features audio from the three titles, while the second, third and fourth tracks feature audio from Crystal, Silver and Yellow, respectively.
There's also an alternate encode provided by the author which features commentary and a detailed overlay.

Published on 8/10/2019
MrWint's Pokémon Crystal glitchless TAS completes the Johto League including 8 badges and the Elite Four, then obtains the 8 Kanto badges before defeating Blue and Red for the final credits roll. This is done without any use of the typical memory corrupting glitches seen in Pokémon Gen 1 and 2 TASes.

The TAS instead uses luck manipulation to avoid encounters and spinning trainers, breeze through battles, and obtain Raikou as early as possible with optimal stats. Despite the run's length and complexity, console verification of the TAS was possible due to MrWint's own work emulating Crystal's Real Time Clock.

Published on 6/5/2021
Pokémon: Gold, Silver and Crystal from the second generation of Pokémon, after Red Version and Blue Version. New features include full color, a new region called Johto, and 100 all new Pokémon.
In this run, CasualPokePlayer improves on the previous movie by exploiting a point in Gold. For more information, see the author's comments.
Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 8/3/2021
Pokémon Gold and Silver form the second generation of Pokémon, after Pokémon Red and Blue. The main differences between the generations is that the game is now in full color, and that there are 251 Pokémon instead of 151.
CasualPokePlayer employs a staggering amount of luck manipulation and extremely careful routing (accomplished using the RouteTwo program) in order to improve upon the previous movie by 00:35.50 seconds. Only a few Pokémon are collected in this run, but all gym badges are acquired before defeating the protagonist of the previous generation of Pokémon games.

You can watch the complete run played back on console.

Published on 4/1/2017
The current Pokémon: Yellow Version speed record uses heavy glitches that allow the player to catalog every Pokémon in slightly over a minute. Is there any way to get more ridiculous than that? Yes! In this run, using nothing but the Game Boy buttons and tool-assisted precision, the game is made to run an arbitrary program which greatly expands the game and shows off cool stuff from elsewhere too. For details on how this was achieved, see the author's comments.
This movie improves upon the predecessor by using a payload which builds upon the environment in the game highlighting new areas, new Pokémon, and shows off a lot more that can be done with arbitrary code execution than displaying the digits of Pi and some minor animation. For more runs that involve arbitrary code execution, see our published list of movies which execute arbitrary code as well as discussion in our forum.
This video includes segments from some terrific games, including Pokémon Yellow, Gold, and Crystal, as well as from Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Tetris, and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. Please check those games out.
This video includes music samples from The Orange Box soundtrack. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, you can purchase The Orange Box soundtrack from Amazon or Apple Music.
This video includes a clip from SpongeBob SquarePants (season two), which can be purchased in its entirety from Amazon or iTunes.


Published on 1/21/2021
Pokémon: Yellow Version is part of the first generation of games within its famous series, known for having a very large number of beneficial glitches. In fact, the games can be completed in less than one minute of in-game time by save data corruption as shown by this run, and completed in around 10 minutes using a more "conventional" glitch, as shown by this run. These runs break the game, and avoid much of the gameplay intended by the developers.
In contrast, this run by TiKevin83 refrains from using any memory corrupting glitches and beats the game in a little over an hour and half. The Pokédoll trick is used to skip a dungeon in the game, but that is considered a minor developer oversight and does not corrupt the memory.

The author provided video commentary for this movie being played back on console that can be viewed here.

Published on 5/21/2020

Published on 6/26/2020
Pokémon Trading Card Game is the video game incarnation of the popular Pokémon Trading Card Game (Pokémon TCG). It features digital versions of the first three sets of real-life trading cards, along with exclusive cards that are not available outside of the game. Normal gameplay involves finding and battling other trainers and Masters, eventually becoming the Champion and earning the Legendary Cards.
However, the author instead decided to glitch out the first battle and confuse the game into reading deck contents as code. This allows the author to reach the game's credits in just under 3 minutes. For more information, see the authors' comments.
We also have a similarly short run of the sequel, Pokémon TCG2.

You can watch the complete run being played back on a console.

Published on 11/5/2022
Wizardry II: Llylgamyn no Isan, known originally as Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn, is a role-playing game in the Wizardry series. Llylgamyn is a kingdom that's being ravaged by various natural disasters, and the only way to stop it is with the Orb of Scrying, guarded by the dragon L'kbreth. It is up to you to reach the dragon and and win the orb from L'kbreth in order to save the world.
As with the NES version, it was released second on the Game Boy Color due to the actual second game, The Knight of Diamonds, being too hard for more casual gamers and only in Japan. Unlike the NES version, the maps are smaller and the party starts out at level 3 instead of 1, making you stronger right off the bat. ShesChardcore takes this into account and does copious amounts of RNG manipulation in order to beat the game in record time.

Published on 8/12/2021
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is an action role playing game developed by The Game Designers Studio and published by Square Enix in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube. This was the first Final Fantasy game to include real-time fighting, which has since become a staple of Final Fantasy games.
You control a caravan and its members, and travel in a hostile world with dungeons and monsters. You collect drops of Myrrh to protect your village, and go on a quest to find and destroy the source of the miasma that corrupts the world.
Wobmiar further improves on their previous movie's record by by opting not to craft the Master's weapon early on and instead go for the Valiant Weapon, which saves some item farming time and allows the first trip to Marr's Pass to be completely skipped.

Note that this movie was done on a newer version of Dolphin (than the previous run) that has longer and more accurate load times. As a result, this movie's time appears to be slower than the previous run, but is actually faster when load times are discounted.

Published on 10/26/2020
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an RPG made by Nintendo and is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. It incorporates a world made of paper and turn-based battles, much like its predecessor. In it, Peach asks Mario to help find a treasure hidden in Rogueport. When he arrives, she is missing as usual, and he must collect 7 Crystal Stars and open the Thousand-Year Door to save her and collect the treasure.
This latest TAS by Malleoz features a never-before-seen strategy for Teleporter Room Early, as well as a couple more glitches exclusive to the US version of the game. This necessitated the change from the Japanese version used in the previous run. In the end, nearly fourteen minutes were saved.
Author's vocal commentary during the run's video can be watched on YouTube with a detailed overlay or on Twitch.

Published on 2/13/2023
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an RPG made by Nintendo and is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. It incorporates a world made of paper and turn-based battles, much like its predecessor. In it, Peach asks Mario to help find a treasure hidden in Rogueport. When he arrives, she is missing as usual, and he must collect 7 Crystal Stars and open the Thousand-Year Door to save her and collect the treasure.
In this TAS, Reya gathers all Crystal Stars and defeats the final boss in record time, while abusing glitches that are detailed in the author's comments.

Published on 7/25/2018
Cadash is a sword and sorcery video game which combines elements of both the role-playing video game genre and the platform genre. The game was originally released for Arcade machines by Taito in 1989, later ported to home video game consoles such as the TurboGrafx-16 in 1991, and the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1992.
It isn't the most straightforward of platformers, seeing how you can actually gain levels and buy items in this one. There are also mandatory items to fetch and quests to complete in order to advance.
In this run, Challenger beats the predecessor movie from nifboy by 06:22.28 minutes. The improvement is so huge thanks to using 2 players, new tricks and glitches, better boss fights, and greater movement precision.

Published on 9/6/2014
During the prolonged campaign known as the Goblin Wars, the Goblin Army gathered one night to amass a final assault upon Duke Hector Barrik's Castle. In the middle of this decisive battle, however, both armies were suddenly interrupted by a great earthquake as a vortex violently manifested itself in the midnight sky. Friend and foes alike were sucked up and taken into this void. On the other side, the Duke's Castle and its inhabitants mysteriously found themselves deposited within a hollow valley, securely guarded by impossibly high cliffs illuminated by a flaring red sun overhead. Per the Duke's urgent request, four adventurers are summoned and commissioned with the task of exploring this strange new land, in hopes of finding allies to establish trade with.
In ars4326's run, the ground work laid by the previous TASer, A Jesus Fan, is improved upon in this 7+ minute improvement. Most notably, only a single Thief is used throughout due to a programming exploit which allows him to inflict waves of constant critical damage while fighting in dungeons. In addition, a newly discovered reloading trick is used to skip the game's only required overworld fight in the Azcan Jungle. Also, new route strategies and movement optimizations are featured.
Finally, the ending input has been corrected to showcase the game's entire ending upon completing the final dungeon.

Published on 12/2/2007
Fatal Labyrinth is an early Genesis turn-based dungeon crawler. It consists of 30 floors/levels and a final battle.
The object of each floor is to reach the stairs that take you up to the next floor. Normally this involves lots of exploring, collecting equipment, and fighting with numerous monsters; but, this being a TAS, you don't see so much of that.

Published on 7/20/2008
At TASVideos, even 10 second long movies are improved, and game characters become so powerful they don't even have to move in order to complete the game.
This improvement is a result of the previous movie's author joining forces with the author of a VBA bot used in a glitched-out Pokémon TAS. Together they've managed to shorten the solution by 14 frames with the help of a similarly-designed bot for Gens.
Note that, while input length is 10 seconds long, less than 0.3 seconds of it is actual gameplay!
Game:
King's Bounty

Genres:
RPG
Strategy
Emulator Replay:
GENS

Published on 5/7/2015
Landstalker is a challenging adventure RPG developed by Climax Entertainment (who also helped develop the Sega Shining series). You play as an adventure-seeking treasure hunter named Nigel, an elf who's remarkably young-looking for his age (88!). After completing his latest bounty, he runs into a wood nymph named Friday who's being pursued over her alleged knowledge of the whereabouts of King Nole's treasures. After helping her evade her pursuers, the two team up as they set off for Mercator Island in search of the fabled fortune.
Are King Nole's treasures truly close by? Are they ripe for the taking, or still jealously guarded to this day...?
In ars4326's run, 100% completion is based on RTA strats and is defined as follows:
  • Collect all Life Stock (minus the shop in Kazalt)
  • Obtain all equipment
  • Collect all unique/key items
  • Complete all side quests
  • Activate all teleport trees

Published on 11/27/2014
Langrisser II (ラングリッサー2) is the acclaimed sequel to Langrisser, also known as Warsong. The original game was released only in Japan, never finding its way to an official release in English as of this writing.
You are placed into the role of Elwin (descendent of Garrett/Redin), a wandering Swordsman who stops to rest from his journey at a small, obscure village. He soon finds himself, however, in a sudden conflict between an elite detachment of the Rayguard Empire and a peculiar young woman whom they are attempting to abduct. In desperation, her childhood friend Hein rushes toward Elwin and urgently pleads him to help fight off and thwart the Empire's plans. So much for rest...
Who is this young woman? Why is a major military power intent on capturing her? And what's this have to do with a legendary holy blade?
In ars4326's run, cunning strategy combines with heavy luck manipulation to produce a speedrun that completes all of the game's accessible stages (27 normal and 3 'hidden') in just under 2 hours. Virtually no level-grinding is found in this action-packed playthrough as Elwin & Co. seek to stop an Emperor's plans of uniting the continent with the power of an ancient demon sword!

The movie file and the YouTube and primary downloadable (HQ) encodes have the author's commentary as subtitles.

Published on 7/3/2009
Madou Monogatari (魔導物語) is an RPG best described as 'strange' (and probably more known for its spinoff series, Puyo Puyo). The game has overly cute design and the battles are probably a little different than you would expect. The story revolves around a girl who is on a quest to pass her final exam in a magic school.
A defining moment is one of the cutscenes, where a slime is encountered and suddenly defeated by a strange girl bursting through a brick wall. Then, an equally strange armored knight drops in from the ceiling and the two of them proceed to ignore you and chase each other away.
The fast completion time is achieved mostly by using a random-effect spell, which has a small chance of producing a devastating elephant stomp (yeah, really). Naturally, in a TAS, the "small chance" gets a new meaning.

Published on 12/12/2012
Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World is an RPG with some amazingly grand scope. Levels up to 255, hp to 65535, +63 weapons, battles with 255 opponents, time travel, and characters dying of old age.
This run takes care of money problems by finding a nameless, glitched party member and taking all his stuff. Teleportation is used in some places it normally can't be by resting to reset the forbidden flag. Walking backwards is employed when it reduces screen draw time. Temple blessings are used rather than a cleric, and items are used instead of a sorcerer.

Published on 9/23/2020
Phantasy Star II, released in 1989, introduces us to the anti-utopian world of Mota, now dominated by the Mother Brain computer. Rolf, a government agent, is assigned the task of finding out why Mother Brain is malfunctioning, and yet his role in the destiny of Algo is far, far greater than anyone could imagine. Anyone, save one lone Esper. As the genetic construct Nei, the soldier Rudo, and others join him, can he topple the tyranny of Mother Brain and free Algo from an unholy evil?
Rolf and his friends, tired of all the violence they've seen, decide to take a pacifist route to save the Algol system with zero bloodshed. This run improves the author's previous run by 00:13.32 seconds by saving a trip to the armor shop and instead injecting the Carbonsuit (the item that triggers the ending) into inventory at the storage building. For more details, see the author's notes. For more details on the main ideas behind the glitches in this run, read the older run's submission notes.

Published on 11/11/2006
Phantasy Star III is often considered to be the black sheep of the series, but is still a unique RPG on its own, featuring 3 generations and multiple paths through the game. However, this run breaks the plot halfway through by glitching past the second generation quickly.
Like in other RPG runs, luck has been manipulated for many things. Although random encounters can't be completely avoided, no damage is ever taken except from bosses, and most of the leveling is done in a final rush.
Read the author's comments for more details on luck manipulation and the path taken through the game.

Published on 12/24/2018
Phantasy Star IV, released in Japan as Phantasy Star: The End of the Millennium, is a role-playing video game released for the Mega Drive/Genesis in Japan in 1993 and Europe and North America in 1995. It is the fourth and final game in the original Phantasy Star series, concluding the story of the Algol Star System. Phantasy Star IV kept many of the gameplay elements of the previous game, including turn-based battles, overhead exploration, and magic spells. It received mixed reviews upon its release, but has been subject to positive critical retrospectives.
In this movie, Jiseed exploits recently discovered complex glitches such as save warping, spawning a non-existent extra character, macro corruption, and others. Severe memory corruption allows to finish the game in record time by skipping several crucial parts of the plot. See the author's notes and the discussion thread for more information on the glitches.

Published on 5/15/2020
In this final installment of the famous Phantasy Star series, the protagonist, while out on a routine assignment, uncovers evidence pointing to a sinister threat to the entire solar system. One thing leads to another and he and the rest of his party eventually find themselves fighting the root of all evil. Such a quest would normally take at least ten hours, but with copious amounts of luck manipulation, it can be reduced to just under an hour and a half.
This is an improvement of 01:04.9 minutes over the previous version by the same author.

Published on 5/30/2020
In this final installment of the famous Phantasy Star series, the protagonist, while out on a routine assignment, uncovers evidence pointing to a sinister threat to the entire solar system. One thing leads to another and he and the rest of his party eventually find themselves fighting the root of all evil.
No reason to rush things though, right? In addition to completing all sidequests, the author also uncovers every single reference to Phantasy Star Universe.
This run is 2:28.42 minutes faster than the previous record.

Published on 3/28/2024
Shadowrun is an action RPG game based on the tabletop RPG game of the same name. It has a cyberpunk fantasy setting where cybernetics, megacorporations, and the ability to jack into the Matrix coexist with magic, elves, and orks. The plot involves a man named Joshua, who spends most of the game figuring out who killed his brother Michael so he can avenge him, but not without a few obstacles along the way.
For this run, TascoDLX saves 11 minutes over the previous run thanks to the usage of faster routes and even more rigorous RNG manipulation, usually of the randomly-spawning shaman guides that can transport you to other places at at lower prices than the intended route, skipping many sequences in the process. For more information on what was manipulated to happen and other route details, you can read the author's notes.

Published on 6/23/2009
Shining Force is just under two hours of luck manipulation action. The random number generator is abused to the highest degree. The author used MATLAB, a math scripting language, to optimize the battle speeds.
This is a 4 minute 27 second improvement over the previous movie by the same author.
Game:
Shining Force

Genres:
RPG
Strategy
Video Downloads:
High Quality MKV
Emulator Replay:
GENS

Published on 12/14/2023
Shining Force II is a tactical role-playing game that's not a direct sequel to the first title. You follow the story of Bowie, a squire who is set out on a journey to fight against the invading armies of a resurrected Zeon, and to recover the Holy Sword and the stolen jewels to reseal the Devil King.
Watch as Degreezy completes this journey and deals with new exploits to improve on the previous movie by just over an hour.

Published on 8/15/2009
Shining in the Darkness is the first in the Shining series, which includes Shining Force. Unlike the later games, it is a first person dungeon crawler.
The author dissected the game with the help of Lua scripts to find optimal battles and avoid random encounters.

Published on 4/26/2014
Sorcerer's Kingdom is a turn-based RPG published by Treco in 1992. In addition to an exceptional soundtrack, the game features a leveling system similar to Final Fantasy II (NES), in that your characters gain stats based on the actions they perform in combat. The plot places you in the role of a young man whose renowned father turns up missing after seeking to rid the Kingdom of an ultimate evil power. Desiring to follow in his footsteps, the lad seeks an audience with the King to set out as an adventurer, himself.
Normally, this game requires ample amounts of grinding up your OFFENSE stat in order to damage bosses. ars4326's run minimizes this aspect down to its bare requirements, by using heavy luck manipulation and exploiting the game's leveling system. In doing so, the final boss is slain in just under one hour. Not bad for a day's work!

Published on 3/7/2023
Super Hydlide is the Sega Genesis remake of Hydlide 3: The Space Memories (ハイドライド3 異次元の思い出), which was originally released only in Japan for the MSX, PC-88, Famicom, and other systems. It has a simple plot of a hero trying to find the source of an ominous evil after the main fairy of his land disappears and a mysterious fissure opens up in the middle of the land. It has a number of features that were novel for RPGs at the time such as hunger, sleep, and weight meters, and it even makes the genre transition from traditional European fantasy to space sci-fi for a brief moment.
TheAxeMan, having studied the mechanics of the game, manages to bullrush through the game at a low level and beat it in record time. For details on those mechanics and how the run was performed, you can read the author notes.

There is author's commentary embedded in the movie file and in the YouTube encode in the form of captions.
Game:
Super Hydlide

Genres:
RPG
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.1

Published on 11/12/2020
Sword of Vermilion is an action role-playing game developed and published by Sega for the Mega Drive console in 1989.
The game is about the son of Erik, king of Excalabria, who takes on a quest of revenge to defeat Tsarkon and free the world of Vermilion from evil. Gameplay consists of traveling to towns and villages, battling creatures to gain experience and finding items such as swords, shields and armour, as well as many other items such as Herbs and Candles.
Game:
Sword of Vermilion

Genres:
Action
RPG
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3

Published on 3/3/2013
The Faery Tale Adventure is an action RPG released for Amiga in 1986 and ported to the Genesis in 1991. The plot revolves around three brothers who go on a quest to defeat an evil Necromancer and retrieve a Talisman from him.
The game world is gigantic and normally requires hours of adventuring around to collect five Golden Statues to access a hidden city to find a magical flower, which allows the brothers to walk across the lava protecting the Necromancer and defeat him.
However, Aqfaq just skips all of this, using health potions and incredibly precise luck manipulation to walk straight across the lava and recover the Talisman in a little over 20 minutes.

Published on 5/22/2014
Originally known as Minato no Traysia (港のトレイジア) in Japan, this turn-based RPG adventure doesn’t involve the typical ‘save the world’ or ‘vanquish the ultimate evil’ plotline. Not this time around. It’s actually themed around a young man’s sweetheart named Traysia, as he sets out from his hometown to fulfill his dream of exploring the world (vanquishing evil is involved, however).
ars4326’s run showcases two noteworthy features in this TAS. Not a single random encounter is fought, and all boss battles are blitzed through by abusing a party member’s rapid attack animation. At times, the game may remind you of a pseudo-shooter instead of a traditional RPG.
Game:
Traysia

Genres:
RPG
Emulator Replay:
Gens 11b

Published on 1/5/2016
In this traditional strategy RPG, every stage normally has to be approached carefully and with a full stock of troops. All of that was cast aside in ars4326's run, where extreme luck manipulation became the driving force in obtaining victory after unlikely victory. Garett's team operated as a virtual skeleton crew as only the bare minimum of resources were deployed in his struggle against the Dalsis Empire and a foreboding, ancient evil.
Game:
Warsong

Genres:
RPG
Strategy
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 1.11.0

Published on 12/5/2015
Ys III - Wanderers from Ys is the third installment in the Ys series, taking place three years after the events of the first two. Unlike the previous two's top-down perspective, this game is a sidescroller.
In this run, The8bitbeast beats the game in record time via the use of a glitch to give the player maxed out stats. For more information, see the submission comments.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 1.10.0

Published on 3/31/2020
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin was the second licensed AD&D videogame on the Intellivision. The gameplay involves exploring a series of randomly generated mazes searching for weapons, armor, treasures, and magical items to battle a wide variety of monsters RPG-style. The game was released in 1982, meaning the 3D dungeon crawler perspective was very innovative for its time.
In this run, Winslinator uses an absurd amount of luck manipulation to breeze through the 12 chambers, defeat the Minotaur, and collect the Tarmin Treasure in under a minute. It improves upon the previous run by 00:07.63 seconds, thanks to a completely reworked route that features better movement optimization, collects the Teleport book earlier, and forgoes collecting the Midas book!
If you're itching for more Advanced Dungeons & Dragons we also have a run for the first title, Cloudy Mountain.

Published on 5/16/2022
Explore winding corridors! Collect magical treasures! Battle vile monsters! Escape perilous traps! You are about to face the greatest challenge any mortal has ever known -- the Tower of Doom. a roguelike featuring 10 selectable characters and 14 adventures. Surviving the Tower of Doom requires quick reflexes and quicker wits. You must learn for yourself how to use many of the items you will find. You must decide when to fight a monster, and when to trade treasure for your life. You must maintain your strength, increase your stamina, and develop your diplomatic skills.
Winslinator saves 1:32.22 over their previous run by using a more optimal seed that requires less rooms to be entered and through even more extensive RNG manipulation.

Published on 9/16/2022
Explore winding corridors! Collect magical treasures! Battle vile monsters! Escape perilous traps! You are about to face the greatest challenge any mortal has ever known -- the Tower of Doom. a roguelike featuring 10 selectable characters and 14 adventures. Surviving the Tower of Doom requires quick reflexes and quicker wits. You must learn for yourself how to use many of the items you will find. You must decide when to fight a monster, and when to trade treasure for your life. You must maintain your strength, increase your stamina, and develop your diplomatic skills.
Winslinator decides use the most optimal character and scenario that can be used for this run, the Warlock and "The Fortress", in order to beat the game as fast as possible. For further details, you can read the author's notes.
Game:
Tower of Doom

Genres:
RPG
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 1/5/2023
Explore winding corridors! Collect magical treasures! Battle vile monsters! Escape perilous traps! You are about to face the greatest challenge any mortal has ever known -- the Tower of Doom. Surviving the Tower of Doom requires quick reflexes and quicker wits. You must learn for yourself how to use many of the items you will find. You must decide when to fight a monster, and when to trade treasure for your life. You must maintain your strength, increase your stamina, and develop your diplomatic skills.
Winslinator beats the game on the Novice adventure quest with the Novice character in record time, throwing lots of axes in the process to get lucky.
Game:
Tower of Doom

Genres:
RPG
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 3/26/2024
Dreamed Away is an action-based role-playing game for various PC operating systems and home consoles that is, as of this writing, currently in development. It appears to take influence from old games such the Earthbound series and more recent games such as Deltarune and Omori. You follow Théo, a young boy who one day decides to play with his sister Louise in the woods. However, something doesn't seem to be right, and Théo soon finds himself in a mysterious and surreal world filled with darkness, monsters, and other settings that look similar to the real world. Journey with Théo as he tries to figure out what's haunting him and messing with his mind.
In this run, Tegron plays the demo of Dreamed Away, which only has the first two chapters of the full game, and completes it as fast as possible.
Game:
Dreamed Away

Genres:
RPG
Prerelease
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
libTAS 1.4.5

Published on 9/23/2019
Undertale is an RPG video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox in 2015.
The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface. Some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
There are 3 main endings: Neutral, True Pacifist, and Genocide. This movie attempts to reach the True Pacifist ending in the shortest amount of time possible. This route showcases almost all of what Undertale has to offer as a speed-game.

Published on 3/28/2020
Undertale is an RPG video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox in 2015.
The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface. Some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
There are 3 main endings: Neutral, True Pacifist, and Genocide. This TAS achieves the Genocide ending, which is known for being the most RNG-intensive category in the game due to the heavy emphasis on combat; the player must kill a specific amount of enemies in each area in order to not lock themselves out of this ending.

Published on 10/25/2021
Undertale is an RPG video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox in 2015.
The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface. Some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
There are 3 main endings: Neutral, True Pacifist, and Genocide. This movie attempts to reach the fastest Neutral ending in the shortest amount of time possible.

Published on 12/17/2022
Undertale is an RPG video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox in 2015.
The player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The player meets various monsters during the journey back to the surface. Some monsters might engage the player in a fight. The combat system involves the player navigating through mini-bullet hell attacks by the opponent. They can opt to pacify or subdue monsters in order to spare them instead of killing them. These choices affect the game, with the dialogue, characters, and story changing based on outcomes.
This game has a sort of newgame+ mode where, depending on when the player resets a play-through, certain story events will appear different. This TAS uses the fastest combination of those differences while also completing the neutral ending.

Published on 12/29/2023
Undertale is a 2015 2D role-playing video game created by American indie developer Toby Fox. Undertale is notable for its use of multiple endings that change depending on the player’s actions. The goal of this TAS is to achieve each of the major variations in the endings, 10 of them in total. This allows for a diverse mix in the gameplay, as a lot of aspects that are normally skipped become required. For example, one of the main branching qualifications in the Neutral endings is which of the main bosses are left alive (besides Asgore who dies in all Neutral endings). Normally in Neutral speedruns, all four main bosses are left alive, but in All Major Endings, boss kills are part of the route.
The multiple branching endings also create opportunities for clever routing to save time. For example, one could save before Mettaton, kill Mettaton, and get an ending, then reload, skip Mettaton, and get a different ending. The unique route resulting from optimizing these routing decisions is what makes this an attractive and interesting way to speedrun the game.
Game:
Undertale

Genres:
RPG
Game Version:
game.unx (v1.001)
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
libTAS 1.4.4

Published on 11/11/2010
In this first-published MSX TAS, Rambo decides to skip rescuing the VIP and just make a leeway to the helicopter himself.
Reality is not all it seems, with spiders being as difficult to kill with a knife as a human, and foodlike substances adopting an alternate name.

To play the OMR file, make sure you have the Panasonic FS-A1WSX bios installed.
Game:
Rambo

Genres:
Adventure
RPG
Emulator Replay:
openMSX 0.8.0-dev11728

Published on 3/29/2015
Paper Mario, first released in Japan in August of 2000, is a role-playing game for the Nintendo 64. Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and stolen the Star Rod, which allows him to grant himself any wish. To counteract the power of the Star Rod, Mario must locate the seven Star Spirits, who can combine their power to stop Bowser's evil plans.
Numerous tricks and glitches allow a tool-assisted speedrun to skip large portions of the game and beat it impressively quickly. See the author's comments for more on this.
For more tool-assisted Paper Mario action, check out the run of The Thousand-Year Door by the same author.

Downloadable encodes include the author's commentary as soft subtitles and also an additional audio commentary with the encodes. There is also a live commentary (dead link) by the author and iateyourpie. A second YouTube stream is available with an informative overlay.

Published on 8/29/2017
Paper Mario, first released in Japan in August of 2000, is a role-playing game for the Nintendo 64. Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and stolen the Star Rod, which allows him to grant himself any wish. To counteract the power of the Star Rod, Mario must locate the seven Star Spirits, who can combine their power to stop Bowser's evil plans.
Malleoz aims to collect all the star spirit cards by heavily manipulating luck and impressively abusing programming errors and loading zones, making this run a whirlwind of entertainment and speed. For a detailed explanation of the tricks used in this run, see the author's submission notes.
You can also see this game beaten by the same author in the fastest time possible here.
Note: There are encodes of higher resolution in the discussion thread.

There is also live commentary (dead link) by the author and Stryder7x available, and a second YouTube stream with an informative overlay.

Published on 10/8/2020
Dragons of Flame is the sequel that was promised in the credits of the infamous AD&D: Heroes of the Lance. While the game was better received than its predecessor, it was still limited to a Famicom release on Nintendo systems.
The game follows the party from Heroes of the Lance after they recovered the discs of Mishakal, until they slay the 'Dragon Highlord of the North', Lord Verminaard. The gameplay can best be described as a poor man's version of Zelda II for the NES.

Published on 8/1/2020
Heroes of the Lance is based on the first Dragonlance campaign and novel. The party journeys through the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth, face the ancient dragon Khisanth and retrieve the Disks of Mishakal. The interface is setup as a side scroller and only one member of the party is controlled at once.
Arc and ktwo improve the previous movie by 16.33 seconds, thanks to a newly found trick, where jumping into an exit can save up to 35 frames per screen.

Published on 5/23/2017
If science fiction is to be believed, the ultimate evolution for biological beings is to discard the physical body and become an entity of pure energy. For video game characters, it seems to be the ability to zip through walls. In this latest TAS by zggzdydp, Simon Belmont joins the league of characters possessing this ability.
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest is the story of Simon's horrible weekend without sleep. Two years after defeating Dracula, the hero is physically weakened by Dracula's curse. He must gather Dracula's remains and incinerate them at the ruins of Castlevania in order to end the curse.
This movie is 85 seconds faster than the previous effort by the same author. We recommend to read his comments for explanations on how this improvement was achieved.

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 3/20/2012
Crystalis is an awesome action RPG by SNK. What little plot there is involves the world ending on October 1, 1997. Naturally, after that the world became full of mutants and monsters. Technology regresses and people can use magic. There is an evil empire trying to revive the ancient technology, specifically the obligatory tower floating in the sky. The hero pops out of some sort of stasis chamber and proceeds to topple the empire and take down the tower with the help of some wise men and a friendly dolphin. There's a heroine named Mesia, but she only shows up a few times, most of which are skipped in this run.
This beats the previous run by almost 12 minutes. As with that run, the second-controller cheats are off-limits (the fm2 only has data for controller 1). Other than that, no holds are barred. Many new glitches are used. For a complete list, see the Game Resources page. Movement is faster by abusing the no-subpixel engine. Much effort went into lag reduction, especially in certain areas. However, the vast majority of the time savings is due to better experience management.

We recommend watching the movie on an emulator and using the author's LUA script. There's quite a bit of useful information.

Published on 6/12/2020
Destiny of an Emperor was Capcom’s first RPG, released in 1989-90, and is based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
The battling style of this game can be described like Final Fantasy meets Pokémon; your team of warriors versus the opposing team of warriors, and any opponents freed from their posts can be later picked up in the wilds and converted to your side!
Acmlm bests his previous movie by 05:07.11 minutes thanks to new tricks and better luck manipulation.
Game:
Destiny of an Emperor

Genres:
RPG
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.2.3

Published on 3/22/2012
Double Moon Densetsu (ダブルムーン伝説 Legend of the Double Moon) is a 1992 turn-based NES RPG. The author uses a complex memory corruption glitch to skip many events, slimming this normally long RPG down to under 20 minutes. Technical details about the glitches used are in the author's comments.

Published on 11/7/2019
Dragon Warrior is a seemingly complex but ultimately fairly simple NES RPG. The character completes his quest at Level 7.
In this eighth published movie of the game, RationalMonkey saves 00:13.39 seconds over the previous run, mostly by using wings in Rimuldar rather than a deathwarp. See the author's comments for details. There are several things about this movie that might seem odd if one is not aware of them beforehand:
  • All unnecessary random encounters have been manipulated into not happening.
  • The player dies several times in order to get transported back to the beginning.
  • Action commands are often delayed intentionally in order to manipulate critical hits and such.

Published on 5/15/2023
Dragon Quest, also known as Dragon Warrior in its initial North American localization, is the first game in the Dragon Quest franchise and one of the first JRPG video games ever created, setting in stone many of the tropes that would define the genre. The story in the game is very simple: an unnamed hero is tasked by the king of Alefgard to rescue his daughter and defeat the Dragonlord, who is threatening the kingdom and has stolen the legendary Sphere of Light.
TaoTao in this run completes the game in less than seven minutes by utilizing a significant glitch in the Japanese version that corrupts the RAM, making the game think the Dragonlord was already defeated and the kingdom saved. For further details on how this was achieved, you can read the author's notes.

Published on 10/4/2020
Dragon Warrior is an epic RPG series which now spans 11 games across many systems. The second game greatly expands on the first to include a party of three heroes (all descendents of Erdrick and the hero of DW1) and battles that may include many enemies.
The world is much bigger and there are many big dungeons to explore as well. Luckily there are new abilities and items to make this easier. Enemies can randomly drop items when defeated and there is a lottery which is the precursor to the casinos which appear in each later DW game.
TheAxeMan improves the previous TAS by 1 minute and 52.5 seconds, thanks to new glitches and better optimisation. Please read the author's comments and the commentary subtitles in the encodes for more details.

You can watch the complete run played back on console

Published on 7/31/2007
This is a non-glitched run of Dragon Warrior 3, now under 2 hours long.
This game is known in the TAS world as being a pain to play due to the RNG being much harder to manipulate than most other games. As a result, seemingly random actions throughout the game are actually intentional manipulation of the RNG to ensure favorable outcomes, such as avoiding monsters or good battle outcomes.
To give you an idea of how surprising this time is to most players, the previous run is about 24 minutes longer than this one. Even before that, any run that was under 3 hours long was deemed to be very difficult to perform.

Published on 3/6/2016
The last in the original Dragon Warrior storyline, this one follows "the Hero", who is tasked with saving the world from the archfiend Baramos. After cobbling together a group of people to take with him, the Hero must travel the world to find a way to Baramos's lair.
Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen. Thanks to a glitch involving a party of dead characters, vaxherd manages to manipulate his inventory and warp list to not only have extremely rare pieces of equipment from nothing, but also warps directly to where Baramos is located in a fraction of the time it would take normally.
In addition to this, vaxherd also uses a glitch involving resets and character names to manipulate the RNG and encounter formula at certain points, thereby beating the previous run by over seven minutes.

The encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.

Published on 5/23/2023
Dragon Warrior IV was the last of the Dragon Quest games to be released on the NES. It features an epic, five chapter spanning story.
This run by adelikat is an improvement of 5829 frames to his prior run thanks to better luck manipulation and routing.

Published on 10/13/2008
After hearing about how the dark overlord Darces has returned, our hero goes on a quest to unite all five one elements in order to defeat Darces and save the kingdom.
In this storybook-view RPG, the author zooms around the game world, entering the most dangerous of dungeons, killing two powerful monsters, and collecting the bare minimum needed to beat the game in incredible fashion. Despite the player being unable to survive one hit, the author subverts certain death with the handy pause system. Despite the player supposedly being unable to damage the monsters, an underflow glitch allows for massive damage. Despite the final boss standing right there to kill him, the viewer sees all of 3 frames of the dark overlord. It's an RPG done in just over one minute, without warping or save glitching.
The author had spent much effort in understanding the game, and all that work has finally paid off. We recommend reading the author's comments.

Published on 6/17/2009
EarthBound Beginnings is the first game in the Mother/EarthBound series, known simply as Mother in Japan. It was localized for a 1990 US release, but wasn't released outside Japan until 2015. During that time, the original localized title, "EarthBound", was used for the English release of Mother 2.
Long referred to as "EarthBound Zero" by fans, the game was finally given an official title for its Wii U eShop release.
This movie is done on the US prototype, which does not have the "bread crumbs" glitch used in our other movie of the game. It does, however, have a run button, which means this movie may seem faster at times, even though it's a lot longer.

You can watch the complete run being played back on a console.

Published on 7/8/2019
This is the Japanese version of EarthBound Beginnings (also known as Mother). As the first version of the game, it has a number of useful glitches. This run abuses the way the game handles the "Bread crumbs" item to warp off the edge of reality and casually walk straight into the final boss's lair 00:07.94 seconds faster than the previous run.
We also have a more normal run of the localized version, which doesn't include this glitch.

You can watch the complete run played back on console

Published on 12/29/2016
In comparison to the usual run-through platform games, this is one of the games that requires more planning to play efficiently.
The game features an inventory and equipment and a spells system, all of which were rare to see in NES games when this game came out.
This is the 4th published version of the TAS, now 00:16.71 seconds faster than the previous version.
The author has written comments describing all the planning and tricks that went into this movie.

This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 2/4/2024
Feng Shen Bang (封神榜, Investiture of the Gods) is an unlicensed Chinese role-playing game that was released in 1995 by C&E Inc for NES consoles. It is a loose adaptation of the 16th century Chinese epic novel of the same name. Large chunks of the plot were left out and the ones there were kept in were simplified to fit the constraints and style of a classic NES RPG. Set during the end of the Shang dynasty, instead of following the rise and fall of King Zhou, the last ruler of the dynasty, and the gods and spirits involved, the game focuses the adventures of a group of ordinary humans as they unite to take down the tyranny of King Zhou and the spirits let loose across China.
Fitterspace in this run takes on the task of tackling this RPG and makes good use of RNG and AI manipulation and beneficial glitches to complete the game as fast as possible. For full details on the story and how the run was achieved, it is highly recommended to see the author's commentary that's included in both the YouTube and downloadable encodes.

Published on 4/13/2012
Final Fantasy is a well known RPG about saving the world with the usual assortment of characters.
Here, the author defies all common sense and takes a team composed entirely of White Mages, the token "weak healing caster" class. What's worse, three of them meet their untimely demise at the hands of pirates not very far into their journey. Not to worry, because this survivor has a few tricks up her sleeve.

Published on 7/20/2012
The original Final Fantasy follows four heroes who are trying to restore the four orbs which have been contaminated and ultimately defeat Chaos.
Unfortunately only one of the warriors is actually a hero; the rest are sissies who die early on during the quests. Strange as this may sound, much time is saved by doing so since fewer commands need to be entered every time the player runs from a random encounter.
On TASVideos, perfect runs are continually improved, often through very unexpected changes. This run by TheAxeMan improves the old TAS by 00:09.10 seconds by getting lower stats and spending more time at inns and item shops.
For those who think they have a better sense of humor than the author, he has provided Python scripts which allow you to recreate the entire run with your own choices for character names substituted for his. Available as a Windows standalone program or as source.

The downloadable videos and the YouTube stream contain soft subtitles with commentary from TheAxeMan.

Published on 6/8/2021
The world is veiled in darkness. Winds don't blow, the seas are stormy, and the earth rots. All people can hope for is that the ancient prophecy will be finally fulfilled. "When the world is veiled in darkness, four warriors will come..." And indeed, they come - the four characters you have previously chosen. Their first quest is to free a princess from the evil knight Garland, and then the real journey begins.
...or that was the intention, anyway. Instead, the heroes walk up and down a castle staircase 32 times in a row and the universe, mysteriously satisfied with their short journey, ends the game. The authors of this TAS improve on the predecessor movie by a whopping 05:21.77 minutes by avoiding the need for a boss fight entirely.

You can watch the complete run played back on console.

Published on 9/23/2021
Final Fantasy II is the original Japanese sequel to Final Fantasy. It is not to be confused with Final Fantasy IV for the SNES, which was renamed "Final Fantasy II" in North America.
The game introduces Chocobos and an activity-based progression system, in which the characters' statistics increase depending on how they are used or acquired.
This movie by naruko improves the previous movie by 02:53.50 minutes thanks to new routing. For more details, we recommend reading the author's comments.

There is also an alternate YouTube stream featuring Japanese commentary by the author.

Published on 9/24/2021
Final Fantasy III was the second of two Final Fantasy NES games to be released only in Japan, leading to the fourth game in the series being released to the rest of the world as Final Fantasy II. The game brings back the experience point system from the first game while changing up the character jobs formula by allowing the player to change a character's class mid-game as well as acquire new and advanced classes.
In this movie, the author, naruko, abuses a bug that causes character inventory to overflow, corrupting the game's memory and triggering the credits early.
This is an improvement of 00:29.22 seconds.

Published on 11/6/2021
Hokuto no Ken 3: Shinseiki Souzou: Seiken Retsuden (北斗の拳3 新世紀創造 凄拳列伝) is the third Hokuto no Ken game released by Toei for the Famicom. Unlike previous installments, which are beat-em-ups, it is an RPG which focuses on the beginning of the manga up until the Asura arc.
AmaizumiUni, however, skips basically all of the story by exploiting a glitch.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 10/11/2014
Hydlide is an old and somewhat notorious game, mostly because it has very strange gameplay mechanics. For the first part of the game, walking consumes health, and the character must stop every now and then to regain it.
This is one of the few games (the only one?) where the level grinding sequences are actually entertaining, while the boss fights aren't. Hitting a boss decreases your own health as well as the boss's, after which there is much waiting for more health until you can hit him again.
This is an improvement of 03:54.80 over the previous TAS, due to overall better levelling strategy and route planning.
There is also a submitted TAS that uses codes and removes the need to level grind or wait for health.
Watch this run being played back on a real console.
Game:
Hydlide

Genres:
RPG
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.2.2

Published on 2/25/2024
Kouryuu Densetsu Villgust Gaiden is a RPG for the Famicom developed by Plex in 1993. It follows the story of Murobo, a kobold fighter, who, along with comrades found on the way, needs to save the world from an evil demon who is planning to wreck havoc in Villgust.
Samsara saves the world in record time.
FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING: There are flashing lights occurring at 0:03, 6:18, 10:34, 18:11, 21:17, 21:23, 24:23 and 42:55, each lasting for about 1-2 seconds, which may cause epileptic seizures to those affected.

Published on 8/20/2010
Lagrange Point (ラグランジュポイント), is a very late (as in, released in 1991) Japanese-only RPG produced for the NES. This game is notable because Konami teamed up with readers of Family Computer Magazine (ファミリーコンピュータマガジン) to form a group, called 芸夢工房 (geimukoubou, art dream workshop), in order to make this game. The readers were permitted to design the characters, monsters, events, message-texts, music, the title-screen, and such. With enhanced sound for the NES due to Konami's VRC7 sound generator Integrated Circuit, the game is considered a masterpiece to many Japanese people.
The story is about a pilot, Jin (also known as Gin), who is exploring a biohazard outbreak at a space colony, linked to the disappearance of Dr. Stolte. He arrives, only for the spaceship to be attacked. The effect of the outbreak soon becomes clear.
More information on the game can be found on the Japanese Wikipedia (machine translation). It also has a fan translation by Aeon Genesis.

This run features commentary in the form of soft subtitles created by FractalFusion and the author, neo_omegon. The downloadable encodes include both the commentary and the unofficial translation where it applies, while the YouTube encode only includes the commentary.

Published on 1/31/2012
Legend of the Ghost Lion, also known simply as Ghost Lion, is very loosely based on the obscure Japanese-made English-language direct-to-video movie Beyond the Pyramids: Legend of the White Lion. It features a young girl searching for her parents and the mystery of the White Lion, using the power of dreams to summon allies to fight for her.
Maria is seemingly a lucid dreamer, and gains the ability to control her dream and guide it to the truth of this game with the minimum of fuss. Now that's what I call a power nap!

Published on 2/2/2010
Meet Paul -- A guy who starves to death five minutes after a grand meal. He also feels experienced from doing trivial things like entering a store or delivering mail.
While many heroes would depend on hours of fighting for experience, Paul instead gets his experience from those trivial things in order to defeat Abadon in a timely manner. Best ending requires all such trivial tasks done, ensuring you see Paul gaining experience from delivering a letter or talking to a tree.
Along the way, there are vicious enemies who beat up Paul. Being in a hurry, Paul doesn't stop for them, preferring to use the UNKNOWN spell to patch himself up. Normally this has a high chance of killing Paul in some of the most gruesome or comical ways possible, but instead it is manipulated to heal him.
This beats the authors previous run by a little over 38 seconds, primarily due to a new route.
Reading the author's comments is recommended.

This movie features commentary by the author, which has been added to the encode in the form of soft subtitles. If watching embedded stream via Archive.org, you can press the nearly invisible commentary button on the top right corner to see the commentary.
Game:
Magician

Genres:
RPG
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.1.2

Published on 4/13/2013
In Metal Max, a mysterious war known as "The Havoc" has almost destroyed the human civilization. It's unknown how it broke out, and no one even dares to find out. The few who are left have to struggle to survive. Among them is our young hero, E, who just makes his decision to become a great Hunter.
Released by Data East in Japan in 1991, Metal Max was one of the more "creative" console role-playing games due to more freedom in the story. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future, in which surviving people cluster from villages to ruins, while some Hunters among them fight monsters and outlaws in the "wild".
In this run, suwei improves the previous run by 00:50.58 seconds by using "dud" shells instead of panic shells and buying the teleport item from a different place.

Published on 10/24/2023
Might and Magic, first released in 1986 for the Apple II and later receiving ports to many other systems, is the first installment in the series that would later evolve into a whole fictional universe. This universe encompasses both the actual Might and Magic games and a multitude of other subseries and spin-offs made in their own genres, including King's Bounty, Heroes of Might & Magic, and others.
This movie uses the Japanese version of the game, which doesn't have the item glitch that allows you to easily skip most of the game.
TaoTao improves on the previous run by a little over 8.6 minutes thanks to a glitch where you can bypass a certain barrier without having to complete the Soul Maze, which saves a significant amount of time. Other glitches involving forfeiting battles and unlocking doors without needing the required class are also used. You can read the author's notes for more details.

There is also an alternate encode by the author that has a map on the side that better shows what the player is doing.

Published on 10/30/2023
Might and Magic, first released in 1986 for the Apple II and later receiving ports to many other systems, is the first installment in the series that would later evolve into a whole fictional universe. This universe encompasses both the actual Might and Magic games and a multitude of other subseries and spin-offs made in their own genres, including King's Bounty, Heroes of Might & Magic, and others.
Normally, this game is rather long. This movie by TaoTao skips most of it by using a glitch that allows the player to get all the important items in a matter of minutes. It is also an improvement of 2 minutes and 18.91 seconds, thanks to abusing a glitch allowing one to ignore the Soul Maze and related events as well as better optimisation.

Published on 9/11/2015
Nobunaga's Ambition (信長の野望) is a turn-based strategy role-playing simulation video game. One of the first games in its genre, it was first released in March 1983 by the Japanese video game developer Koei.
Here CogneatoSwitch strategizes and luck manipulates around many obstacles, beating an hours long game in 12 minutes.

Downloadable encodes have the author's commentary as soft subtitles.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 1.10.0

Published on 4/12/2020
Pocket Monsters: White Jade Version is a bootleg game which backports Pokémon Gold/Silver onto the NES.

The encodes of this run include the author's commentary as soft subtitles.

Published on 4/5/2008
This movie completes the PAL version of Rygar with only one item, the grappling hook. It also uses a warp glitch to skip forward in the game as well as many smaller tricks.
This is an improvement of 65.58 seconds to the previous movie by Walker_Boh – this time played by Lord_Tom.
Although the route in this movie is almost exactly the same, time was saved mostly by accumulating the tone points (for Rygar's strength) a lot faster. There were other improvements as well. We recommend reading the author's comments for more details.

Note: If you are watching the FCM, don't forget to enable PAL emulation in FCEU! It's under the Config menu.

Published on 5/17/2008
This movie is different from the other Rygar movie in that it plays all levels and doesn't use any glitch to warp from a boss battle to another.
Aside from that limitation, this movie makes full use of all the bugs and glitches in the game which can be used to speed up the run. If you are wondering what really is going on in this movie, see the Rygar Tricks page for some info about the tricks used.
This is a 4 minutes and 43.38 seconds improvement to the previous movie.
Note: If you are watching the FCM, don't forget to enable PAL emulation in FCEU! It's under the Config menu.

Published on 7/28/2010
Rygar is an action game involving a hero with a shield as a weapon. Normally, the hero must obtain items, such as a grappling hook, to be able to explore the world of Garloz, and he must also defeat five bosses to gain access to the final area. However, these requirements can be circumvented with glitches. Indeed, this run kills no bosses except the final boss and does very little leveling.
In contrast to the any% run and the warpless run, which use the European version of Rygar, this movie uses the American version. The two ROM versions have some different glitches. For more details about the ROM choice, as well as some background explaining what in the world is going on here, see the movie comments as well as our Rygar tricks page.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 1/17/2024
SWAT: Special Weapons and Tactics is a role-playing game for the Famicom that was published by Toei Animation's video game division and released only in Japan. It takes the typical terrorist hostage situation American SWAT teams are dealing with in pop culture and turns it into a turn-based RPG. Battles can done by either doing head-on gunfights or sneak attacks that supposedly deal extra damage. The building the hostages are held in becomes the overworld, where rooms can be explored for clues on how to proceed, special items, and traps that have to be disarmed. The game is also rather quite buggy, with mechanics like critical sneak attack hits not working like they should.
For this run, TaoTao effectively skips the entire game by using subframe inputs to execute a game end glitch similar to the one used for Super Mario Bros. 3. A stack overflow is caused which then allows TaoTao to directly manipulate the memory and insert values to make the game skip immediately to the final results screen. For more details, you can read the author's notes here.

Published on 4/1/2013
Sweet Home is a survival horror RPG developed by Capcom for the Famicom. It is based on the Japanese horror film of the same name. The game is sometimes perceived as the original survival horror game, and was a prototype of the Resident Evil series.
You can watch this run being played back on a real console.
Game:
Sweet Home

Genres:
RPG
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.1.5

Published on 2/14/2017
The Battle of Olympus (オリュンポスの戦い) is set in ancient Greece. A mortal man named Orpheus receives help from the gods and nymphs in his quest to save his lover Helene from Hades. People often compare this game with Zelda 2 because of its similar gameplay.
This is an improvement of 6.06 seconds over the previous movie, mainly thanks to the jump-turn technique and better olive farming. Please read the authors' comments for more details.

Published on 10/9/2016
The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players. It is a large game that normally takes days to beat, but at TASVideos, we often reduce games to the minimum time necessary in order to complete them. It's a secret to everybody.
This is the seventh iteration of this TAS, 20.6 seconds faster than the previous run. The improvements are largely due to better luck manipulation and some major route changes that lead to Link staying away from gambling. For more details, read the submission comments or the author's subtitles on the encodes.

The encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.
This run was console verified using micro500's TASLink replay device (with 1 frame per latch poll).
This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 12/24/2016
Of all the challenging ways to play Legend of Zelda that people have attempted on a NES console, one of the most famous is the "swordless" challenge. In this challenge, the player must beat all of the game, up until the final boss Ganon, without using a sword. It is not possible to damage Ganon without a sword however, so many swordless runs reach Ganon's room to die there.
In order to actually complete the game, Lord_Tom does pick up a sword and kills Ganon. However, the sword is only obtained shortly before attempting the final level, and even then, the sword is not used until absolutely necessary. In the meantime, sit back and watch a run which relies heavily on luck manipulation and effective bomb usage to beat the game very quickly. For more details, see the author's comments.
This is a 34-second improvement over the previous movie by Baxter.
View this movie played back on a real NES right here.

The official encodes feature commentary by the author as soft subtitles.

Published on 6/15/2022
The second quest of The Legend of Zelda is what you get by having completed the game once. It is more difficult than the first quest.
In this movie, the authors enter ZELDA as the player's name to start the 2nd quest without having to complete the game first.
This is a 666 frame improvement over the previous movie thanks to better optimization, be sure to read the author's submission notes for more information.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 7/14/2022
The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players.
This time, Link is not just satisfied with collecting the Triforce and saving the princess; he feels like getting through Hyrule with a lot of shiny artifacts and weapons, even if he never uses them after getting them. In this run, the player collects the best version of every object and status upgrade, including all the heart containers, every inventory item, the best sword, and both bomb upgrades. Link even buys the Bait an extra time more than required, so that the bait remains in his inventory at the end of the game.
This run is a 1497 frame improvement over the previous published run of this category, For more details about what constitutes a 100% run, see the submission comments.
We also have other runs for The Legend of Zelda: an any% run through the first quest, a 'swordless' first-quest run, and an any% run through the second quest.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 3/27/2023
The Legend of Zelda (ゼルダの伝説) is an adventure game that needs no introduction to most NES players. But for those who do want an introduction, it is the first game in The Legend of Zelda series and appears to take place in the middle of one Link's neverending quest to defeat Ganon.
Even after collecting the Triforce, saving the princess, and collecting every kind of trinket and gizmo he can find, Link is still not satisfied. The best version of every object and status upgrade, including all the heart containers, every inventory item, the best sword, both bomb upgrades. and even the bait, all of that wasn't enough. Link wants to do all of that again, but with a harder quest. The 2nd Quest.
chatterbox decides to fulfill Link's request and does the 2nd quest while collecting every unique item available. If you want to know more about the run was done, including how every glitch was executed, you can read the author's notes.

The YouTube and downloadable encodes have author's commentary in the form of captions.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 3/31/2020
The Magic of Scheherazade is an action role-playing video game for the Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System, released by Culture Brain in 1987 in Japan and 1989 in North America. The story involves the player character, who suffers from amnesia, traveling through time in an attempt to rescue Princess Scheherazade from the evil wizard Sabaron, who has summoned the demon Goragora to do his bidding.
rBarbaloot improves the predecessor movie by 02:05.56 minutes.

Published on 6/15/2012
Ultima: Exodus is a NES port of the third game in the Ultima RPG series. First released in 1983, the game set many standards for the genre.
At TASVideos, that also includes being beatable very quickly through glitching and luck manipulation.

The author has provided a running commentary, available in all of the encodes and streams as togglable subtitles, so you can tell what's going on.
You can also watch this run being played back on a real console.


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