General term for the technology that allows games to be replayed?

Question

Apparently there is some way to store play (i.e. inputs, timing etc) of a Doom level (Ultimate Doom and Doom II) as text file, so that the precise replay can be replayed on anther person's computer without needing the screen capture. This is said to be particularly useful for speedrunners.

It also gives auxiliary advantages over screen capture since it can be easily read by computer programs which may attempt to catch cheating, or do other interesting things, like game analysis.

Chess also uses this capability, since a whole game can be stored as a Portable Game Notation file.

Is there a general terminology that describes this reproducibility of play in a game?

Answer 1

The most common term used for this is simply replay.

Game replays are commonly used in the prevention and detection of cheating, especially when used in electronic sports. Game replays are often watched to develop skill at a game, by watching better players and their techniques and build orders. Replays are also used to raise stature in a particular game's community, and entire websites are dedicated to the replays.

Some games (primarily the Counter-Strike series) also use the term demo.

One of the most convenient features of the entire Counter Strike franchise is the demo viewer. This is no different in the first-person shooter’s latest edition, CS:GO. The demo viewer is handy for beginners and professionals alike by allowing them to examine their performance.

And how a replay is stored depends on the game in question. Often they're just plain or encrypted text files with a unique file extension.