Tool-Assisted Speedrun of Lemmings on SNES

[DragonsLover]

Wow! This guy completes the "Mayhem" difficulty level in 63 minutes and 4 seconds on the SNES by using a tool-assisted program. Simply, the guy uses a tool that allows things that aren't possible to perform normally with a normal SNES joystick. The result is somewhat impressive on some levels. I just wanted to share it with you for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le0RU6zfbTc#" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">TAS Lemmings SNES

[EricLang]

This guy sure knows how to play http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />
Nice to see. Thanks.

[Adam]

Thanks for that, DragonsLover - I wonder though, could one of us beat that time?

[finlay]

Heh, cool. Those sunsoft levels still make me shudder...  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/shocked.gif" alt=":o" title="Shocked" class="smiley" />

[EricLang]

I never new what SNES is. What is it?

[finlay]

super nintendo entertainment system

[Mr. K]

Wow, Lemmings wasn't a game I really thought I'd see a TAS for.

This guy sure knows how to play http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />
Nice to see. Thanks.

He's not "really" playing the game... a TAS is made by taking the game literally one frame at a time in an emulator in order to press the buttons at the EXACT frame they are needed.  It really looks cool when they're played back at full speed, but it would likely be impossible for a human to legitimately play it like this, accounting for the slight delays in human reaction time.

[Adam]

This guy sure knows how to play http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />
Nice to see. Thanks.

He's not "really" playing the game... a TAS is made by taking the game literally one frame at a time in an emulator in order to press the buttons at the EXACT frame they are needed.  It really looks cool when they're played back at full speed, but it would likely be impossible for a human to legitimately play it like this, accounting for the slight delays in human reaction time.

Yup, I agree there. The rerecord count is nearly 20,000 too - one of the beauties of TAS-ing is the option to re-record so easily.. he's rerecorded each level an average of 650 times, so doing this 'normally' would take several years.

It's a good video, and I think we could possibly beat the time if we had a LOT of free time, but there's definitely no way a normal playthrough could beat that time.

[Clam]

Haha, I mentioned this TAS a while ago, in the "least time" challenge thread, but I never actually watched the video until now. http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/laugh.gif" alt=":D" title="Laugh" class="smiley" />
I noticed a few things ("mistakes", if you will) that mean the time can be improved:

- On "Just a minute (part two)", he digs a pit with diggers and bashers to hold the lemmings, and then releases them at the right time. (My own experimentation with this level suggests that this is the best method.) But, on "Just a minute", he uses the free pit instead, and ends up taking 6 seconds (by the in-game timer) longer, when the same solution from part two would work equally well.
- For much of the video, I thought he was totally unaware of the sliding trick (a known timesaver on many levels), or maybe the glitch just doesn't work on the SNES version. But, on "Steel mines of Kessel", he uses it! This means there are huge chunks of time to be saved on some levels.
- On "Time to get up!" he could have turned around and started building to the top much sooner by placing two bridges on top of each other (unless the mechanics forbid this, which I very much doubt) and then building into those.

[nobody]

Yeah, my Just A Minute solution is a few seconds faster than his. The replay should still be up on the Lemmings File Portal. Basically you just have to make a lemming dig to the right of the first basher, so that the basher sinks a few pixels when he gets to the digger, which lets the digger dig down far enough to prevent the lemmings from escaping to the left but still lets him turn back into a walker when he bashes to the right. You can do this a few times to trap the lemmings further and further into the wall.

[ccexplore]

He's not "really" playing the game... a TAS is made by taking the game literally one frame at a time in an emulator in order to press the buttons at the EXACT frame they are needed.  It really looks cool when they're played back at full speed, but it would likely be impossible for a human to legitimately play it like this, accounting for the slight delays in human reaction time.

Lemming is an interesting case though, since you can legitimately pause, which is usually enough to make up for the human reaction time issue.  Moreover, unlike faster-paced games, in Lemmings for the most part it's not a matter of reflexes, but just very precise timing every now and then.  Rarely* if ever are you forced to execute a rapid, extended sequence of button presses (pause or no pause), compared with TAS for many other games.

Of course, the pause equivalent would be less fun to watch as a video (and there's still the issue of human errors that would've necessiated retries or savestates).  My point is that while a TAS playing of Lemmings is still more perfectly executed than is humanly feasible, I see it as in a different class of superhuman execution compared to TAS for most other games.

*SMS Lemmings TAS run could potentially be one glaring known exception, due to Pooty's recent discovery of the basher sliding glitch, which most definitely requires superhuman button-pressing speeds to achieve.  And even in that version it's usage would still be relatively uncommon (I think).