Tool-Assisted Speedrun (thing) by andycyca

Some people see Tool-assisted speedruns (TASs) as a cheap way of cheating. I can't blame them, though; the "purpose" of TASing is often poorly explained and most of the work is done behind the scenes. The greatest difference between regular and Tool-assisted speedruns is that:

Speedruns are a test on the player's skills (how fast can a player do it?)
TASs are a test on the game and its capabilities (how fast can it be done, given perfect play, without human error and hardware limitations?)

So, TASers' main task is to create the quickest path towards completion (with several definitions of "completion"). Thanks to emulators, frame-step advances and state-saving, a TASer is able to "see" many things normally hidden from the player including but not limited to RNGs, hidden stats and AI behavior. This also means that a great TASer must be intimately familiar not only with the mechanics of a particular game, but its inner workings and even the console's processes as well. If a speedrunner is a racer, a TASer is a theoretical mechanic (Note that none of these are "better" than the other)

Despite what many people think, the Speedrunning and TAS community are not enemies and often help each other. See Awesome Games Done Quick

Some personal favorites:

What happens when you let a dog be your soccer referee
Family Feud host is a racist pig
Gradius becomes trivial.
Tetris also becomes trivial

More available at http://tasvideos.org

BQ14: 291words

I don't agree with what you say, but I will defend your other, less ludicrous opinion that glitch speed runs are pointless.	Kaizo Mario World	THE IRON NODER CHALLENGE 5: THE FERROUS FRONTIER	Item Abuse
Awesome Games Done Quick	Games Done Quick	speedrun	BrevityQuest14
She reads Eliot at the bus stop	Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People	Family Feud	Tas
God Mode	Super Mario World	Gradius	dog
Tetris