Tool-assisted movies (52)

Filter
Published on 11/12/2007
Similar to the NES game of the same name, Rad Spencer must defeat evil using only his grappling hook hand and various big guns. The author abuses the grappling hook to move very quickly and through seemingly solid floor.
Game:
Bionic Commando

Genres:
Platformer
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
VBA-rr v19

Published on 8/20/2007
Metroid II: Return of Samus is the second game in the Metroid series, taking place immediately after the events of the NES Metroid. Samus arrives at the planet SR388 to exterminate all metroids and eventually succeeds.
This movie by Cardboard puts the Spring Ball and Spider Ball to great use to compensate for the lack of items, and achieves victory in the shortest time possible.
This is a 69 second improvement over the author's previous movie. The in-game time is 43 minutes.
Note: This movie does not use secret worlds, also known as "the select glitch".

Published on 10/8/2007
This is Metroid II: Return of Samus completed with all the items collected. Being truthful to the original Metroid values, the game holds many items cleverly hidden, so finding all of them is not an easy task.
That being said, Metroid II doesn't keep track of the collected items' percentage. Moreover, the game has two excessive Energy tanks and an additional copy of each beam. It's been agreed that the author should take all the E-tanks, and at least one copy of each beam. However, due to the apparent linearity of this game, collecting so many additional items doesn't make the movie dramatically slower.
This movie is nearly 6 minutes faster than Alter's previous movie due to better precision, faster Metroid fights, and missile planning.
Note: This movie does not use secret worlds, also known as "select glitch".

Published on 8/5/2007
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is a well known stealth action game where agent Sam Fisher tries to rescue CIA agents from the bad guys.
However, in this run the author doesn't care about stealth at all and runs through the levels as fast as possible.
FractalFusion has also created a TAS for the game's GBA sequel.

Published on 1/25/2007
Blaster Master: Enemy Below looks, sounds, and feels like a fan-made version of the top-notch NES platformer, Blaster Master, but it is actually a bona fide legitimate sequel on the Game Boy Color put forth by Sunsoft.
In this movie the author abuses many glitches to take massive shortcuts in the game (including skipping an entire level). He also intentionally kills off the character several times in order to avoid backtracking.

Published on 11/26/2007
Jason and his magical jumping tank, "S.O.P.H.I.A.", are back, this time in glorious 16-bit graphics (and not so glorious sound). Much like its predecessor, the player must alternate between sidescrolling and overhead views to collect parts for the tank and vanquish evil.
This movie abuses death to a large degree to obliterate the game in record time.

Published on 10/6/2007
El Viento done 39.15 seconds faster than the previous run by the same author. The improvements come mainly from using frame advance.
Note: The movie file works also with El Viento (U) [!].gen rom.
Game:
El Viento

Genres:
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
Gens 9.5b

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 6/2/2007
An overhead shooter with a one man versus an army theme. A lot of time was put into optimizing walking paths, vehicle use and M-bomb use.
This is a 26.5 second improvement over the previous movie. Details can be found in the author's comments.

Published on 7/7/2007
Midnight Resistance (1990) was a rather lackluster attempt at making a Contra-esque game, ported later to Sega Genesis. Still, it manages to preserve some of the genre's core values, and therefore is well suited for a TAS.
Selected quotes from the author:
Story: an evil enemy kidnaps the hero's family. The hero is pleased, as this gives him a reason to wear a tight sleeveless shirt and blow up stuff with big guns.
Emulator Replay:
Gens 9z

Published on 5/18/2007
This is a run of Pulseman that aims for fastest time without using the motion bug. This adds many minutes to the run but makes it easier to follow and allows the author to show off the game's rich variety of levels and optimization strategies.
For a movie that aims for the fastest time with no restrictions, see the any% run.
Game:
Pulseman

Genres:
Action
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
Gens 9z

Published on 5/17/2007
Ristar is a large, colorful game with good music. It also has water-themed levels that aren't slow and boring, which is a true rarity.
The author of this TAS chose to get maximum height bonuses instead of using the end pole for a small, boring speed boost.
As Bag_of_Magic_Food so excellently put it, "Starface has stretchy arms and wastes time spinning on poles."
This is a 1 minute 33 second improvement over the author's previous movie. Details about the improvements can be found in the authors comments.

Published on 9/15/2007
This game has a lot of bosses, to say the least. Because the author speeds through levels so quickly, the amount of time spent fighting bosses is actually greater than the amount of time completing the level in order to reach them.
This is a 7 minute 38 second improvement over the previous movie. Much of this improvement is simply due to defeating bosses more quickly. The author has left detailed comments about these improvements.

Published on 12/18/2007
Sub-Terrania is a very different game with a fresh (unforgiving) physics engine. As the pilot of a small ship, you explore areas to collect items and rescue miners, fighting against momentum and gravity.
This movie has an Atlas Map encode of Mission 6, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.
Game:
Sub-Terrania

Genres:
Shooter
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
Gens 9.5

Published on 7/20/2007
Taz, that crazy tasmanian devil, has been imprisoned on Mars and needs to spin his way to freedom.
Taz's main form of movement is his signature tornado, which is quite fast (and easily abused in a TAS for extra speed). If you like the other Taz run for Genesis, you'll probably enjoy this one too.

Published on 5/31/2007
Humans (1992) is a kind of a crossbreed between Lemmings and The Lost Vikings. Its gameplay contains both puzzle solving and action sequences.
This movie by Aqfaq features all 80 levels solved in fast and unexpected ways. The strategies used to attain this result rely on several interesting tricks and glitches described in the submission comments.

Published on 10/3/2007
After beating 006 in GoldenEye 007, Bond returns to fight Renard, another evil genius attempting to take over the world in a plot similar to the movie this first-person shooter is based on. Armed with various new weapons, Bond skis down the Caucasus Mountains, infiltrates a nuclear bunker, and even makes his way into a sub, all within half an hour.
Various glitches are abused here, particularly some that allow Bond to skip some of his objectives and even some entire levels. For more information, see the author's comments.

Published on 8/18/2007
Annoyed with the success of the Mario Kart series, a bunch of Rare characters got together and held a racing competition of their own. Along with the availability of several types of vehicles, this game has something of a storyline to it and full completion requires reloading a saved game after the credits run for the first time. More races occur after the initial credit roll, so don't stop watching once the ending plays.
Note: There are encodes of higher resolution in the discussion thread.
Game:
Diddy Kong Racing

Genres:
Racing
Emulator Replay:
mupen64-rr 8

Published on 9/14/2007
Duke Nukem 64 (1997) is a classic PC shooter ported to Nintendo 64 — unfortunately, in a heavily censored state, and without much concern for the game's performance.
As such, the movie is played on the easiest level in an attempt to reduce the framerate drop issues arising from big amounts of enemies shooting at Duke. However, the sheer speed the player is blasting through levels will likely confuse you regardless — we recommend reading the author's comments to understand all the tricks he used.

The author of this TAS has been known to make statements and/or take actions that do not reflect the values of TASVideos as a community.
TASVideos does not in any way condone the statements and/or actions made by this author.
This video is presented not to support or glorify this author, but to archive and showcase this tool-assisted superplay.

Published on 3/2/2007
This game is the story of Gex the gecko, a former secret agent. His enemy, Rez, has taken over the media dimension (TV) and Gex is the only one who can save the day.
Note: There are encodes of higher resolution in the discussion thread.
Emulator Replay:
mupen64-rr 8

Published on 9/21/2007
Glover is an animated cartoon-like glove (go figure), complete with only 4 digits. With a ball he can transform into several different forms, and he must complete puzzles and navigate dangerous terrain.
The author takes many shortcuts, specifically the kind that were not intended to be used. Read the author's submission for more information about the bugs used.
This movie is over 4 minutes faster than the author's previous movie.

Published on 1/2/2007
A Nintendo 64 installment to the Mortal Kombat series. This run aims for a fast and entertaining completion of the Master II destiny match.
Note: This movie is unofficially rated "PG-13" for having lots of blood and gibs. Viewer discretion is advised.

Published on 12/17/2007
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 is the third entry in the Tony Hawk series of video games.
In this playaround, emu shows off by performing crazy stunts, executing large combos and achieving a really high score.
If you want to see more skating action, be sure to check the runs of the first two games in the series.

Note: Due to copyright, some of the music had to be edited out and replaced with a different track from the game for the YouTube encode so the video doesn't end up blocked everywhere.

Published on 6/8/2007
Wetrix is a strange Tetris-style game in which you place blocks onto a large playing field and score loads of points by making lakes and surviving another second (every drop of water that leaks off the field counts against you). This run aims to get the highest score possible in the 1 minute challenge.
The final score is 2,613,944 points. There are huge bonus multipliers which stack together to produce the massive score.

Published on 11/12/2007
A rare instance of a Japanese-made NES game based on a U.S.-originated comic book, Bucky O'Hare (1992) provides a player with a good combination of platforming action similar to Mega Man, an interesting plot, and convincing production values. You can play as one of the five unique characters, which you are free to select at any time, after saving them from the clutches of the Toad Empire. Each character has special abilities required to take advantage of in order to pass through the game's numerous variably designed stages, ranging from single-screen puzzle rooms to autoscrolling shoot-'em-ups.
Interesting fact about this game is that Konami used to implement unconventional ways of piracy protection, in this particular case by making each hit or an otherwise harmful collision in the game result in an instant death if you play it illegitimately. Apparently, this was how a large amount of people were used to playing it in pre-emulation era, without ever finding out Konami's little sabotage.
This movie by AnS is set up in a fashion that imitates this handicap by playing the game in hard mode (accessing it through a password), where every hit results in death. Other than that, it also improves the previous movie by 2 minutes 48.7 seconds, using several major glitches and a lot of small tricks explained in great detail in the author's comments.

Published on 7/21/2007
Continuing the trend of NES games based on popular Japanese TV shows, Jetman is apparently about multi-colored heroes and robots duking it out. No, it's not Power Rangers.
This movie probably qualifies for "Quickest Giant Robot Fights."

Published on 6/30/2007
The Dizzy series of computer games was one of the most successful computer game brands of the late eighties. They were all based around a central figure, an intelligent egg-like creature called Dizzy.
Dizzy the Adventurer is an enhanced NES port of the sixth game in the series, Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk, completed fast by the use of creative routes and of course, maximum speed.
There is also a run of the second game in the series, Treasure Island Dizzy.

Watch this run being played back on a real 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 11/21/2007
The Cobra Command threatens the world and the G.I. Joe team is needed to stop it!
G.I. Joe (1991) is a difficult platformer because of its intricate routes and bosses, but the author makes short work of both. In particular, this movie sports some of the shortest boss fights of any game. It also provides entertainment through varied character and vehicle use (thankfully, the game still manages not to lag immensely even with all the action thrown in).
This is an improvement of 107 seconds to the previous movie by Ferret_Warlord.
Game:
G.I. Joe

Genres:
Platformer
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
FCEU 0.98.15

Published on 3/25/2007
Despite the fact that this is a Konami game, this game is not well-known in western countries.
This game is really quite difficult.
火の鳥 = bird of fire (Japanese name for phoenix).
This is a 15.5-second improvement to the previous author's movie, through a route change and extensive luck manipulation.

Published on 9/2/2007
This is the fourth TAS movie of 快傑ヤンチャ丸 2 - からくりランド (Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 2 - Karakuriland).
This is a pretty straightforward and simple game, but the author was still able to improve the old movie by 15 seconds primarily by getting more speed shoes.

Published on 5/23/2007
The games Mega Man 3, 4, 5 and 6 are all the same. Eight robot masters are defeated and Mega Man steals their weapons. After some kind of distraction, Mega Man attacks Wily's fortress and it typically gets blown up. If you don't believe that's true, we offer this movie.
While driving home the point in honor of our first multi-game movie, Baxter and AngerFist prove that Capcom really has been making the same game over and over again by playing Mega Man 3, 4, 5 and 6 using the same input.
No attempt is made to synchronize the endings of these games. Mega Man 6 finishes first and Mega Man 4 finishes last.
Encoder's note: There are more encodes (labeled multitrack) available in the Archive collection. Track 1 contains the audio of all four games arranged in such a way that Mega Man 3 and Mega Man 5's audio are on the left audio channel and Mega Man 4 and Mega Man 6's audio are on the right audio channel. Tracks 2 to 5 contain the sole audio of Mega Man 3 to Mega Man 6 respectively.
We recommend sitting back as far as possible and looking (staring?) at the center of the screen when watching the encode.
If you like this movie, you may like to check out some other movies in which multiple games are played simultaneously with one controller.

Published on 7/23/2007
Mighty Bomb Jack is a game where Jack goes to rescue his family from a pyramid. Along the way, he meets many enemies who start as mummies and change forms when they hit the ground. He also finds bomb-filled rooms at the end of each round, which work like warp rooms with a twist: you can warp ahead to the bomb room of the next round if the first lit bomb is the last bomb collected. Using this, the author warps past many rounds.
However, this movie aims for the best ending, which is obtained by freeing all the family members in Round 12. This means that the author avoids warping past some rounds in order to collect items. For more details, read the submission comments.

Published on 12/4/2007
River City Ransom is a goofy game that deserves a goofy TAS. This movie showcases cool tricks and some glitches that don't necessarily result in the fastest completion. We also have a movie which aims for speed.
Selected Quote from the authors:
We looked at previous submissions and demonstrations of this game and tried to include the most entertaining parts of what was available, and add in a few ideas of our own along the way. Hopefully you'll get a kick out of it.
This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 10/8/2007
This game is a little similar to Bubble Bobble. Two players defeat hordes of enemies in fifty stages, only progressing when all enemies are gone. Enemies can either be turned into snowballs or can be killed by rolling a snowball on them. Unlike Bubble Bobble, though, there are boss fights every ten stages.
This is a 2 minute 48 second improvement over the previous movie. Like the previous movie it uses 2 players and does not take warps.
This movie is slower than the one-player version primarily because the slot machine bonus game after bosses takes longer with two players.
Game:
Snow Bros.

Genres:
Action
Platformer
Video Downloads:
AVI
Emulator Replay:
FCEU 0.98.12

Published on 12/23/2007
This is a long RPG-like adventure game with lots of witty dialog and the hero equipped with a yoyo.
This is a ~4 minute improvement to the previous movie by Sami O..
A major part of this shortening comes from a glitch that skips the last chapter of the game, ignoring certain plot details. If you want to see the actual ending, watch the previous movie.

Published on 6/11/2007
An extremely short game based on the movie The Karate Kid. Had the kid been this strong in the movie, it would certainly have been... interesting.
This movie is about 10 seconds faster than the previous publication due to some surprising fighting strategies.
Emulator Replay:
FCEU 0.98.12

Published on 9/30/2007
This movie of Track and Field plays with two players: one of them aims for a maximum score, and the other aims to demonstrate clumsiness, quirks and other humor.
Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 7/29/2007
Wizards & Warriors is a famous platform game with quirky physics where a mere bird can make a heavy iron-clad knight bounce several feet into the air.
This is a full completion of the game. We also have a run that beats the game as fast as possible using the "reuse levels" glitch.
This TAS is around 92 seconds faster than the previous version by Walker_Boh due to better luck manipulation and new minor glitches.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.
This movie has a full Atlas Map encode, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 9/10/2007
In this game, you're an armor-clad knight with a big sword. You collect gems to bribe a red knight, kill evil beasts and rescue several "distressed damsels".
This movie, an improvement of 76 seconds over the previous, takes advantage of a glitch that allows you to re-enter the first map and substitute the last few levels with the first levels. There is also a slightly longer movie that does not use this trick.

Do you want to see more adventures of the iron-clad hero of this game, Kuros?
Read the Knights of the Old Coding online comic. It's hilarious.

Watch this run being played back on a real console.

Published on 6/19/2007
Literally translated, the name of this game means "demon travel journal".
It tells a story about a boy, Tarosuke, who seeks to meet Buddha, who will decide about Tarosuke's next life. In order to meet Buddha, Tarosuke has to do lots of good deeds which earn him "piousness".
This movie is ~80 seconds faster than the previous movie by Morimoto, which was the oldest non-obsoleted movie on this site at the time, being almost 4 years old.

Because there is a lot of interesting dialog in this movie, but all in Japanese, the YouTube and downloadable encodes have English subtitles for all in-game dialog text, as well as some explanations. It should help understanding the game events as well as enjoying its weird sense of fun.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
FCEU 0.98.16

Published on 12/8/2007
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Master System completed with all emeralds. Unlike many Sonic games, acquiring emeralds is done within normal stages rather than bonus levels, and getting all of them allows you to play the true final level.
Trivia: This game slightly predates the Mega Drive/Genesis version, so it features the official first appearance of Sonic's flying mutant fox friend, Tails.

Published on 2/24/2007
A high speed racing game featuring rodents from another (nearby) planet. Although the author doesn't classify the velocity potential of the motorcycle as a programming error in the game, the speed at which he rips through the courses may make you wonder.
A password is used to skip to the final round at Super Hard difficulty with fully upgraded Engine and Shot parts. We do not usually accept movies using passwords. Please read the rules to see our reasons.
This movie has an Atlas Map encode of the Sunset City track, which shows the standard encode overlaid on a zoomed out map.

Published on 2/18/2007
Daffy Duck is at it again. In this game, he plays Duck Dodgers, a futuristic space "hero" who sets out to stop an invasion force by Marvin the Martian.
In this run, Gunty uses this game's interesting recoil and jet pack physics to fly through each of the stages at a very fast pace.
If you want to see Duck Dodgers defeat Marvin in no time flat, see our run of the SGB version.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
Snes9x 1.43

Published on 5/17/2007
A fairly straightforward adventure RPG game played in very fast pace. Lots of events are squeezed into a movie of just 2 hours.
Note: This movie is three minutes longer than the previous one, because this plays the secret "Gem Mansion" which the previous version did not. Nevertheless, it is much more optimized than the previous version.
Game:
Illusion of Gaia

Genres:
Action
RPG
Emulator Replay:
Snes9x 1.43 v9

Published on 1/15/2007
Killer Instinct is a classic fighting game ported to the SNES from an arcade machine. It features an advanced combo system, rich pre-rendered graphics and nicely arranged music. However, the latter two were somewhat toned down in this version compared to the original.
In this movie, Spinal takes down his enemies by slicing them up, hitting them with their own abilities, and (gasp!) making them dance to music!

Published on 2/7/2007
Lufia 2 is an adventure RPG prequel to Lufia 1. In this installment, Maxim and his cohorts set out to take down the evil Sinistrals.
The game sports a large amount of puzzles, yet a shockingly low amount of battles. Using RNG manipulation, this movie illustrates how to avoid many unimportant skirmishes so as to cut down on wasted time. This manipulation is also used to get more favorable item drops throughout the whole run.
Note that the (U) version of this ROM contains some graphical glitches. You can read more about these in the submission text.

Published on 8/3/2007
Like all of the Mortal Kombat games, MKII is about warriors fighting in a tournament for inspecific power and fame. Shang Tsung is chosen for his ability to transform into other characters.
This movie aims to demonstrate as many quirks and fatalities of the game as possible. Examples include two Shang Tsungs with a Raiden child, a headless Reptile eating Kitana's head and a bloody clone of Jax. The AI is also humiliated.
The author's comments page is a definitely recommended reading for this movie.
Note: The movie contains semi-realistic violence to be expected with the Mortal Kombat series.

Published on 3/5/2007
One of those hard-to-emulate games because of the hardware assistance provided on the actual cartridge, Star Fox is a well-known 3D shooter. Avoiding obstacles can be tricky on the digital directional pad, so some of the stunts seen are impressive to anyone who knows how hard this game can be.
Emulation of this game is not correct. Lag present on the SNES is not represented in this run. Expect the speed to be higher than actually seen on a real console. For this reason, the audio track lags severely behind the rest of the run. As a result, some of the bosses can be defeated before the boss music begins.

Published on 12/25/2007
Taking a break from the usual goal of pure speed, Genisto instead decides to break Super Mario Bros. 3 from the Super Mario All-Stars pack. This run demonstrates programming errors, abuse of the game engine and commits suicide in ways most people have never even considered.
Mario plays through all 8 worlds in a fashion similar to a warpless run.

Published on 6/15/2007
Another game in The Simpsons series. This one takes a bizarre trip through Bart's imagination; fighting amoeba, smashing psychotic appliances, and transforming into Bartzilla.
These bizarre situations are handled with tool-assisted precision, and finished 73 seconds faster than the author's previous attempt.
Emulator Replay:
Snes9x 1.43+ v10

Published on 11/25/2007
U.N. Squadron (1989) is a nice-looking horizontal shoot 'em up loosely based on a manga and anime series called Area 88 (which is also the name this game was released with in Japan), about a brave young pilot, Shin Kazama, and his experiences at a mercenary air force base.
Here, you see Shin mercilessly slaughtering everything in his sight and stuffing the bosses full of the heaviest artillery available—of course, not forgetting the usual suicidal dancing around the bullets in the meantime.
Game:
U.N. Squadron

Genres:
Shooter
Video Downloads:
AVI
Emulator Replay:
Snes9x


Please do not link directly to the files. Link to this page or the front page instead.
Republication of movies from this site is only allowed under the following conditions:
  1. Video and audio content must not be changed (including the pointers to this site).
  2. The movies must be prominently labeled as tool-assisted speedruns.
  3. The actual player(s) (always shown at this site) must be properly credited.
Do not label them with speculations. If unsure, ask the site staff for details.