Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Tool-assisted superplay (TAS) of Solar Fox (Arcade) 1,000,000 in 112 racks

Goals:
-Reach 1,000,000 points
-Reach rack 100
-Find out how many different Challenge racks there are

-This is not really a speedrun — I'm sure there are faster ways to clear the racks.

Notes:
-The game consists of 20 different racks (levels) that loop indefinitely
-To complete a rack, you need to pass over or shoot all the fuzors
-Racks 1 to 9: you need to pass over each fuzor once
-Racks 10 to 20: you need to pass over each fuzor twice
-If you clear a rack fast enough (see the timer at the top of the screen), you skip the next rack
-After every 4 racks, the game gives you a Challenge rack
-In a Challenge rack, you simply have to pass over (or shoot) all the fuzors before time runs out to earn a bonus
-Since the TAS skips a rack every two racks, a Challenge rack appears every 2 played racks
-There are 16 different Challenge racks
-After the 16th, the game loops back to the first Challenge rack (and the bonus points reset to 1,000)
-Each Challenge rack awards 600 more points than the previous one (starting at 1,000)
-Except for the 16th, which awards only 400 more points than the 15th (so the 16th gives 9,800 points, not 10,000) (15:41)
-You must complete a Challenge rack to get a different one next time — if you keep missing it, you'll face the same one repeatedly

-You can view a map of all racks here: vgmaps.com/Atlas/Arcade/index.htm#SolarFox

-Note that this game run at 30 fps.

-At high speed, you only have a window of 3 or 4 frames to change direction to the lane you want; at slower speed, you have 8 frames

-The points awarded by the "round thing" appear to be random — in the TAS, waiting just 1 extra frame to collect it resulted in a different value.
-On rack 73, I waited a few frames to collect the 800-point bonus (17:52)

-When you shoot, the bullet travels for 9 frames, and you can fire every 11 frames
-A bullet can hit up to 4 fuzors if fired at the right moment — normally it hits 3
-For racks 10 to 20, shooting a fuzor eliminates it completely, with no need to pass over it at all

-The fastest way to clear fuzors (without shooting) on racks 10 to 20 is to back up for 1 frame after touching a fuzor
-This is what the TAS does constantly. Watch the video frame by frame and you'll see the player jiggle at every corner

-You earn an extra life every 10 racks, but the game does not award one when you reach rack 100 (24:25)
-The game only displays 9 ships at the bottom of the screen, but it internally keeps track of the actual number of lives.
-However, it's amusing to note that when you get the 10th wave bonus, the ship is placed where it should be if the game had displayed more than 9.

-Rack 71 (17:23) shows a bug I encountered frequently while making the TAS. I'm not sure if it occurs in real gameplay.
-I pass over a fuzor once, but the graphic showing its second state never appears.

-Rack 111 (26:50) demonstrates that you won't beat the timer if you pass over all the fuzors once and then go back over them a second time (it would have worked if I had fired a few shots)
-Rack 112 (27:11): there is more than enough time to pass over all the fuzors twice

-The game fires at you from all 4 directions
-Stay too long on the same row or column and you will get hit.
-The TAS has no issue with this since it changes row or column continuously.
-You may notice that the collision hitbox between enemy bullets and the player appears to be quite small (13:01)


What is a TAS? youtube.com/c/Prog61/about
For a good introduction to TASing: youtube.com/watch?v=Ietk1-Wb7oY
For more information visit https://tasvideos.org.


0:00 Intro
0:40 Rack 1 - 9
2:20 Rack 10 - 19
4:53 Rack 20 - 29
7:01 Rack 30 - 39
9:42 Rack 40 - 49
12:06 Rack 50 - 59
14:51 Rack 60 - 69
17:07 Rack 70 - 79
19:39 Rack 80 - 89
21:47 Rack 90 - 99
24:27 Rack 100 - 109
26:42 Rack 110 - 114