I think that the new Pokemon Yellow submission raises the question of what exactly is a TAS wide open.
Traditionally a speedrun is a completion of a game, from start to finish, as fast as humanly possible (without the aid of any cheating devices, scripts or modifying the game.) A tool-assisted speedrun removes the human aspect from the equation, allowing the usage of any technical aids that the runner wants to use (as long as he/she doesn't actually modify the game itself or use external cheat devices, even emulated ones.)
Some runs may have additional goals besides purely completing the game as fast as possible. The most typical and common one is achieving 100% completion (whatever that may mean in the game in question) besides completing it as fast as possible.
Some time along the way the meaning was somewhat loosened, and game completions which did not complete the game as fast as possible, but instead deliberately used slowed strategies for the sake of entertainment, were included. (Most typically this is done with fighting and sport games, at least the ones where an as-fast-as-possible run would be repetitive and boring, while showcasing other things in the game makes them significantly more entertaining.)
However, even the loosened definition still requires for the game to be finished, rather than simply ending at an arbitrary point.
The new Pokemon Yellow submission is challenging this notion in a big way, as it doesn't go even near to completing the game, yet it's a no-brainer for acceptance. It showcases something quite marvelous about tool-assistance, and deserves its spot in the TASing folklore.
However, it's a very, very different TAS. It does not complete the game, and in fact it doesn't even play the game per se (other than what's absolutely necessary to hack a program into the console and make it run it.) This is something else completely. It defies any existing category.
I think that it's about time to set up the completely new and separate "demo" main category of TASing, that has been suggested several times in the past.
Of course this opens the question of what is and isn't acceptable in the "demo" category.
http://tasvideos.org/Movies.html
