The other day, I was messing around with Appel’s replay system and graphing random runs in Appel when I came across something odd. All of the Level 5 runs looked similar except for Sir Farcelot’s. His inputs were very robotic and unnecessarily precise, with every sidejump being identical down to the frame. This level of precision is not necessary to tie the TAS on the human route for Level 5. This oddity led me to investigate his runs further, resulting in the following findings.
Findings:
- On his Level 5 personal best (PB), he presses and releases the right key while sidejumping, despite it being optimal to hold the key down. This is not definitive proof, but it is an odd deviation from standard techniques.
- I graphed the time intervals between keypress changes and observed a perfectly repeating pattern throughout the sidejumping sequence. Other top players (except Michael Chan) exhibited natural variations in their inputs. This strongly suggests a scripted TAS loop.
- In nearly all his runs, the replay releases all keys after completing the level. This is not possible without modifying the replay system. Normally, the keys that you were pressing when you finished the level are the last recorded keypress in the replay code, but Sir Farcelot’s replays let go of the keys after the end.
- While not direct evidence, Sir Farcelot has experience with TASing in the game Appel, meaning he possesses the necessary skill to create a convincing TAS run.
- He has only submitted any% runs, which may indicate that other categories are too tedious to TAS, though this is not conclusive evidence.
- He acknowledges that his sidejumping method is unusual and claims that he thought it was optimal when he TASed the level, so he implemented it. However, it isn’t faster, so this doesn’t make sense.
- He says that he used pause buffering to achieve his perfect sidejumping. However, I believe that would be just as difficult and as unnecessary, so it doesn't change much.
Based on the evidence, I remain convinced that Sir Farcelot used TAS methods in his runs. The robotic input patterns, impossible replay behavior, and lack of natural variance strongly indicate external assistance. If he wishes to clear his name, I have requested that he submit a video demonstrating his technique under controlled conditions. Until then, I believe his runs should be scrutinized further.
I feel like the minimum apples category is outdated and was properly replaced by the category extensions category. Should it be archived or removed?
Should I add a patch (under the resources tab) that instantly presses the continue button for you that could be used for full game?
I'll get straight to the point: Michael Chan cheated his full game world records and I have proof.
Proof One: He Has a History of Cheating
Michael Chan has been known for cheating runs for a while now. The first fun he cheated was his 4:07.95 in this video is this frame which pretty much sums up how this run was cheated:
Proof Two: The Real Evidence
In order to understand why I'm concerned you will have to learn about how the level transitions in Appel work. There are two types of transitions Appel can play between levels. One happens after you enter the level form the level select and one happens when you enter from the previous level by pressing "Continue."
Continue:
Level Select:
Notice how the "Level 4" text fades out in the one that comes from the level select but doesn't on the other one? Well guess what happens in Michael's 3:59 and his 3:50? Yep, they fade out meaning they were spliced. Have a look for yourself:
There should be a 50% category. You would have to get half or one more of the yellow apples if there is an odd amount.
Lukex & I made a version of Appel that has a better timer and I was wondering if it would be better to use for runs.
Here is the link: scratch.mit.edu/projects/888364503/
