Introduction
This is a TAS of Hyperchase for the Vectrex, the only vector-based console ever released! In this game, you play as a formula one racecar driver, and your goal is to make it to the finish line as fast as possible.
Version
This is played on BizHawk 2.9.0, and it uses the USA release of Hyperchase.
Controls
Vectrex controllers consist of a joystick and 4 buttons which are numbered 1-4. Left and Right on the joystick move your car to the left and right around obstacles. Up and Down on the joystick do nothing. Pressing the 1 button makes your car shift to a higher gear. Pressing the 2 button makes your car shift to a lower gear. Pressing the 3 button makes your car brake. Lastly, pressing the 4 button makes your car speed up.
Based on all of this, the only buttons that we press in this TAS are Left + Right on the joystick, the 1 button to shift to a higher gear, and the 4 button to speed up.
Strategy
We start in 1st gear, and there are a maximum of 4 gears for the car. Basically, you want to press 1 to shift to a higher gear at the perfect time. Too early, and it will take you a longer amount of time to reach the same speed. If you wait too late, then you will also lose time from having waited. In this case, I just used trial and error to find the fastest 3 places to shift gears. (from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, and from 3 to 4).
Note that the screen-scroll speed is stored at address 0X9D (this is the same as your car's speed). This value starts at 0, and goes up to a maximum of 15 when you reach the highest speed in gear 4.
Once we reach top speed (which happens in the first 5 seconds of the race), we just need to dodge cars and complete all turns until we reach the finish line.
End Goal
My goal for this TAS was to finish with the fastest in-game time. In the end, my final time was 96.6 seconds (the fastest claimed human time for this game is 100.1 seconds). This is also why I end input early - since holding the 4 button for the final 1/2 second of the race doesn't get you to the finish-line any faster (it takes like 1/2 a second before you go from 15 speed to 14 speed, which is why this works). This also resulted in the same (fastest) real-time ending to the game, as well.
Final Thoughts
There's a lot of cool Vectrex games out there, and there's only 29 total Vectrex games that were officially released - which makes me surprised that 2 years later only one has been TASed. People should look into TASing more of the remaining games!
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this quick TAS!
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Well, this is a straight forward game. The TAS just needs to stay alive and fast as possible to be the fastest. Ending input is a plus, in this case. Great job.
Accepting to "Standard" for publication.
nymx: Missed an update for a faster movie, by ending input earlier by 12 frames. Movie sync and submission is still ready for publication.
