Top 10 Speedruns From Awesome Games Done Quick 2014

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10. TAS Block (Mario Kart 64, Super Mario 64, Super Mario World)

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Let’s start off by looking at some of the more intriguing speedruns. “TAS” stands for Tool-Assisted Speedrun, meaning that fans emulate the game and develop frame-perfect runs that exploit glitches in the programming to beat the game much quicker than a human can. When I first heard about TAS’, I thought that it wasn’t much to marvel at; why am I cheering for a program to beat itself?

However, after hearing that these speedrunners work on their runs for up to years at a time, shaving frames and half-seconds to beat a game like Super Mario 64, getting 0 stars and doing it under 5 minutes, the technical aspects were the allure. Plus, you can hear the commentators talk about how runners manipulate the camera angles to make them more visually appealing. The TAS block is anything but a write-off.