Fraps is a Windows application that can be used with games, but not limited to, using DirectX or OpenGL graphic technology. To capture real-time gameplay, screenshots and also provide some benchmarking.

I recently downloaded Fraps and while i have not used the screen capture or benchmarking options I have made very good use of the real-time video capture. All movies are recorded in outstanding quality and are saved slightly compressed in the AVI format. Fraps can capture audio and video up to 7680×4800 with custom frame rates from 1 to 120 frames per second.

Fraps in not just limited to game capture.  You can also capture your desktop, this opens up a whole world of possibilities, just use your imagination.

If you want to edit your movies with Vegas Pro, Windows Movie Maker or one of the many other video editing software titles available i recommend running the original  AVI through a converter and saving it as a WMV. Remember if you want to share the video with anyone in the original AVI format they will have to have Fraps loaded on their computer because it uses a custom codec.

I highly recommend this software, you can download the free version at www.fraps.com wich only records 30 seconds of video or pay $37 for a single user license, well worth every penny.