How to make a TAS using DeSmuME

Site by RFGuy

You may have seen my TAS video of making my Mii on Tomodachi Collection, but if you haven't, you can watch it to your right, or go to my YouTube Channel to find it there. Some people want to know how to do it, so in this website, I will explain each step to making your first TAS using the DS Emulator, DeSmuME. I will show you what do to, what settings to toggle, how to use it, and how to record it!

Table Of Contents

Checkup & Instructions

Useful Controls/Tools

Conclusion

Checkup & Instructions

Before we begin, make sure you actually have DeSmuME, and the ROM file to your desired DS game. For this tutorial, I will be using Tomodachi Collection. Firstly, open DeSmuME from your File Explorer, or your taskbar. Now, below this, follow these image instructions in order. (Step numbers listed above each image)

Step 1 (first step)

When you launch it, go to Config-Hotkey Config.

Step 2

In the Hotkey Configuration menu, set "Pause" to "\", and "Frame Advance" to the Space key. After you set those up, click "OK" at the bottom of the window.

Step 3

Now, go to File-Open ROM... or, if you have opened the ROM before and it is in the same file path, then go to File-Recent ROM, then click on the ROM you want to TAS.

Step 4

Now, after you load your ROM, instantly pause the emulation by clicking the blue pause button, or by clicking "\", like we configured earlier.

Step 5 (last step)

After that, go to File-Record AVI. Then, a File Explorer pop-up will show up asking where to save it. Make sure that you put it in a place that has lots of free space, because some TASes are long and large.

Useful Controls/Tools

After you complete those steps, then you are now recording your TAS! But don't worry, the TAS won't start until you unpause the emulation. Now, how do you actually make a TAS? Well, I will teach you the controls, and trust me, it's simple! Here are the tools:

If you want to slow down or speed up the gameplay, use the + and/or = key to speed up gameplay, or the - key to slow down the gameplay.

This is really useful if you want to do things spot-on in a frame. Pause the emulation using "\", or the blue pause button, then click Space to advance a frame. As soon as you let go of the Space key, the game will automatically pause again. So, if you hold Space, then the game resumes until you let go of Space. But don't worry, if you want to continue the game again without the Space key, just unpause the game again.

You can Save and Load Savestates for if you made a mistake and want to go back. Either go to File-Save State, then choose a slot from 0 to 9, or press Shift, then F1 through F10 to save a slot from 0-9. You can load a savestate by either going to File-Load State, then load a slot from whichever slot you saved from, or use the keys F1 through F10 to load from savestate 0-9. (Quick note that F10 is savestate 0)

Conclusion

When you are finished recording a TAS, go to File-Stop AVI. Then, the file will automatically save to the location you chose before recording the TAS. Then voila! You have recorded a TAS! AVI files are fine for media files, so you can upload them to YouTube. If you don't like the AVI file, you can use a converter to turn it to a different media file, like an MP4. Thanks for reading the whole way, and have fun making a TAS!