I haven't played a video game in a long damn time.

[luciazephyr]

I just spent a few minutes teary-eyed and wanting my old N64 so bad, my chest hurt (in a very good way). Why? I've discovered the beauty of TASes.

A TAS is a Tool-Assisted Speedrun. It's a recording of a video game being played on an emulator (video games ripped to be played on computer) that strive to be entertaining by pushing the game to its limits to achieve the smallest time.

I've been watching a lot lately on Video Google and wanted to share some of these with you. Some are truly spectacular.

• Two major sites that keep track of TASes are TASvideos and Speed Demos Archive. More info on these subjects can be found on the Wiki here and here.



• The best of the best: Mario is secretly a ninja in blue overalls in this video. (Super Mario 64 done in 15:08, notes here.)



• Guaranteed to make you yell, "but you can't do that!", LoZ:OoT is played completely out of order here. (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 2:33:24.72, notes here)
  
  I watched in it three sittings, but it was so worth it. This guy uses every single glitch in the game, including going to the Spirit Temple as a kid before Hyrule Castle and only one completing the Shadow and Spirit Temples. Amazing stuff.



• Speaking of glitches, here's one that cuts down playtime to less than four minutes. (Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past in 3:45.35, notes here.)



• This is just skill, minimal glitches used: SNES Mario done really quick here. (Super Mario World in 10:28.7, notes here.)

Now, I'm gonna go play Super Mario Sunshine or finally finish LOZ:WW.

-Luce

Comments

[zooniverse.livejournal.com]

I just had a craving for Super Mario world on my old snes. I was just about to get my mum to DHL my old system when i remembered i had an emulator on my pc... and i still may have to hit DHL cause it's just. not. the. same!

I kept dying on the first island cause i can't handle keyboard control. I suck, i need my joypad!