Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is the first game in a now extensive series of 10+ games that are still being created and released to this day. It was first released for the Playstation on September 30, 1999, and later ported to the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast. "Primitive" by today's Tony Hawk control standards, this game utilizes flip tricks, grab tricks, grinds, and special tricks, which can be done on street ramps, vert ramps, rails, and all sorts of other objects.

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: Mupen64 0.5 rerecording v8
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Genre: Sport
  • Brings back 2000's memories
  • Rips your childhood apart
Here are the three main tricks used in this run:

Grinding

Grinding usually adds to your speed. This is why I jump many times on the same rail to reach optimal speed. Upward rails give speed faster than downward rails for some reason.

Wallriding

While wallriding, you can jump a second time to reach higher areas.

Jumping

Jumping keeps most of your speed. I abuse this technique a lot in this run.

Comments

Finally, this run is done! I'm glad I can add a new title to the list of N64 TASes. I put a lot of effort into this, despite the fact that this is the first completed TAS of the game; it came out just as good as I expected. I chose to skip 4 tapes to reach the ending credits as fast as possible, instead of going for 100% requirements. But remember, pro skaters get all golds...

Character Choice

I used Tony Hawk for great justice! After some investigation, it turns out that all characters behave exactly the same. Also, loose, medium or tight trucks don't change anything in the N64 version of the game. I don't know if this is true for the Playstation version of the game as of yet.

Stage by Stage Comments

Warehouse Woodland Hills

I re-did this stage about 40 times, always finding improvements here and there. In the end, because of some weird jump trick [dead link removed] I found, a whole new strategy was created, which ended up saving a second.

School Miami

Here is where Spider-Waffle's help came in handy. By wallriding on the left wall, I was able to land directly on the awning where the secret tape is, and barely obtain the pro score tape. It saved a lot of time compared to the SDA run.

Mall New York

Again, Spider-Waffle gave me a lot of tricks and ideas to try. I was able to obtain the secret tape, the "A" letter, and break the directory without wasting time or backtracking.

Skate Park Chicago

Grinding on the ramps to the right is way faster (thanks Spider-Waffle!). Performing a "Madonna" gave me enough points to get 3rd place in each round. Only the first two rounds are necessary to obtain a medal (this is also true for the other two competitions).

Downtown Minneapolis

There were four main strategies for Downtown Minneapolis. It was pretty close, but the one present in the run is the fastest.

Downhill Jam Phoenix

The big time-saver here is the "Fastplant" to the secret tape. Using this TAS-only strategy saved a lot of time. Also, landing in the water to respawn in front of the valve after getting the "E" letter (like in the SDA run) was 2 seconds slower.

Burnside Portland

Doing grinds with quick tricks for big multipliers went well here.

Streets San Francisco

Spider-Waffle's strategy was greatly used here once again. Not much to say. I obviously did a "900°" to make girls wet, with style.

Roswell New Mexico

Grinds, grinds, grinds, fun, bronze medal, etc.

Comparison Table

Here I compare the times I got in each stage with Discombobulator's (author of the SDA run) times. Since there weren't any better/TASed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater run, those were my goals to beat.
LevelsNahoc's in-game timeDiscombobulator's in-game timeTime saved
Warehouse Woodland Hills18 seconds26 seconds8 seconds
School Miami9 seconds22 seconds13 seconds
Mall New York33 seconds53 seconds20 seconds
Skate Park Chicago3 and 3 seconds8 and 5 seconds7 seconds
Downtown Minneapolis32 seconds54 seconds22 seconds
Downhill Jam Phoenix37 seconds1 minute 2 seconds25 seconds
Burnside Portland4 and 4 seconds12 and 12 seconds16 seconds
Streets San Francisco21 seconds44 seconds23 seconds
Roswell New Mexico5 and 6 seconds9 and 9 seconds7 seconds

Special Thanks

  • Spider-Waffle: He gave me many, many tips and a lot of advice. He kept giving me new ideas to try and luckily, they worked quite often! Huge thanks to him.
  • sonicpacker: He encouraged me and gave me feedback throughout the run.
  • Discombobulator: His SDA run gave me a nice goal to beat.

Suggested screenshots

[dead links removed]

mmbossman: Claimed! And accepted! I spent so much time on this game as a kid, it's awesome to see it absolutely shreded.
Nahoc: Processing!


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #3105: Nahoc's N64 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater in 05:09.63
Player (210)
Joined: 7/7/2006
Posts: 798
Location: US
This submission does not use the song Superman by Goldfinger in all levels. No vote. I already watched this on youtube. It was really good. I suppose I can give it a yes vote despite the previous horrendous oversight.
Editor, Skilled player (1438)
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 2106
This run neatly showed what you can do with TASing and felt pretty nice, fluent and fast. So, here's a yes vote.
Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
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You said, I am doing what's required. That and the credits are longer then the gameplay. Yes from me.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
Why didn't you go for golds in the competitions? Seems to me that would have been worth the extra time cost, since otherwise you aren't really "beating" the game, just completing it. Nice work otherwise, though.
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Warepire
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That was too fast, I was unable to see half of the action! Yes vote.
Editor, Experienced player (859)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
Derakon wrote:
Why didn't you go for golds in the competitions? Seems to me that would have been worth the extra time cost, since otherwise you aren't really "beating" the game, just completing it. Nice work otherwise, though.
My goal was to reach the ending credits as fast as possible. I feel like there wouldn't have been much difference between this and a 100% run anyway. Thanks for your comment!
emu
Active player (385)
Joined: 1/2/2007
Posts: 188
Location: Germany, Munich
Very nice run, fast paced and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and I'm happy to see that THPS games see some love again. I haven't posted for a long time, that should say something ;)
Active player (426)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
I nominate frame 2040/2041 for the screenshot. Try to get past the....darkness...of the plugin I used. Glide64 was being a bitch today. >_> Oh, and obvious yes vote btw.
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
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Location: Sweden
Is that the frame from just before the end of the mall level? I was thinking about recommending that one myself.
Joined: 11/29/2005
Posts: 317
Location: Sao Paulo - Brazil
Awesome fast-paced run! Did you get all the tapes on the levels? Couldn't tell by watching lol. If you didnt, I would certainly enjoy a 100% run aswell.
Editor, Experienced player (859)
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Location: Québec, Canada
SpiDeY wrote:
Awesome fast-paced run! Did you get all the tapes on the levels? Couldn't tell by watching lol. If you didnt, I would certainly enjoy a 100% run aswell.
In total, I skipped 4 tapes; 2 tapes in Miami being: Grind 5 tables Collect S-K-A-T-E and 2 tapes in San Francisco being: Break 5 cops car Collect S-K-A-T-E
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henke37 wrote:
Is that the frame from just before the end of the mall level? I was thinking about recommending that one myself.
Si Señor!
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Though I would have preferred a 100% run, this one is awesome enough as is. Yes vote.
m00
Editor, Experienced player (569)
Joined: 11/8/2010
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Very nice quick completion of the first Pro Skater game! Yes vote!
Player (146)
Joined: 7/16/2009
Posts: 686
Hah. Awesome work. Easy yes vote!
Joined: 1/30/2011
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Location: United States
Congrats, Nahoc. This run aimed to 'destroy my childhood' and it did. Definite yes vote.
Skilled player (1098)
Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1139
Location: United Kingdom
Looks good. Also...
emu wrote:
Very nice run, fast paced and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and I'm happy to see that THPS games see some love again. I haven't posted for a long time, that should say something ;)
Welcome back emu! I think that you should post more often ;)
Patashu
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Wow, you tore the game apart! I especially love the way Tony Hawk could climb up walls and land on the tops of them. Yes!
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Joined: 11/18/2006
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Ripped my childhood apart indeed, that was some wicket fast grinding going on. Easy yes.
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Editor, Player (69)
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Derakon wrote:
...since otherwise you aren't really "beating" the game, just completing it.
This site is seriously starting to look like some Sonic fanforum full of nitpickers. Really? Are we redefining "gets to credits" now? Edit: Not bad. Would've preferred the PSX version for the better music quality, more "immersive" texturing and farther draw distance (and because that's the version I played the most as a kid), but it was similar enough to bring back memories. :)
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GabCM
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Nice one dude, nice one. Voting Yes.
Joined: 7/2/2007
Posts: 3960
True wrote:
This site is seriously starting to look like some Sonic fanforum full of nitpickers.
"Starting"? This site's been full of obsessive nitpickers since the dawn of time. That's what TASing is. ;)
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mklip2001
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This was pretty neat! Unfortunately, when the levels are done so quickly, the ratio of "time actually playing" to "time waiting for cutscenes" is low. That's the same issue with the first THPS3 run that emu did. Also, the competitions are sort of disappointing. However, this submission has convinced me that these games can be interesting to play for pure speed as opposed to playarounds. Nice job!
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Joined: 12/19/2010
Posts: 126
nice going, YES for me. are you willing to do a 100% run of this game?
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