Speed runs: Boggling minds since 2004

[Aetheri]

No video/computer game- related forum would be complete without at least a cursory discussion of the wonders of speed runs, and since I didn't find a thread using the search function...

Quick intro: Speed runs are videos of video games being completed as fast as humanly possible by use of planning, skill, and possibly in-game glitches. Note the "humanly" there. Videos of games beaten using emulators, save states, and frame-perfect timing are time attacks.

You might think "This'll probably be only for short games like FPSs and platformers, I'm not interested", but people also do speed runs of RPGs. Many games that you might have taken dozens of hours to complete normally have been finished in surprisingly, and sometimes ridiculously, short times. Here's a few you might not know about:

Chrono Trigger: Finished in 3:34
Final Fantasy Tactics: Finished in 5:19
Final Fntasy IV: Finished in 3:56
Final Fntasy XII: Finished in 9:25

I found most of this stuff here, but there's some runs on youtube as well. There's a lot of other crazy stuff out there (Twilight Princess in 5:39, Half-life in 45 minutes, Morrowind in seven and a half minutes), so take a look around- maybe you'll find out something about your favorite game you never knew. At the very least, watching some of these videos makes me think "Wow, I suck at this game..."

[Js2756]

Originally Posted by Aetheri

No video/computer game- related forum would be complete without at least a cursory discussion of the wonders of speed runs, and since I didn't find a thread using the search function...

Quick intro: Speed runs are videos of video games being completed as fast as humanly possible by use of planning, skill, and possibly in-game glitches. Note the "humanly" there. Videos of games beaten using emulators, save states, and frame-perfect timing are time attacks.

You might think "This'll probably be only for short games like FPSs and platformers, I'm not interested", but people also do speed runs of RPGs. Many games that you might have taken dozens of hours to complete normally have been finished in surprisingly, and sometimes ridiculously, short times. Here's a few you might not know about:

Chrono Trigger: Finished in 3:34
Final Fantasy Tactics: Finished in 5:19
Final Fntasy IV: Finished in 3:56
Final Fntasy XII: Finished in 9:25

I found most of this stuff here, but there's some runs on youtube as well. There's a lot of other crazy stuff out there (Twilight Princess in 5:39, Half-life in 45 minutes, Morrowind in seven and a half minutes), so take a look around- maybe you'll find out something about your favorite game you never knew. At the very least, watching some of these videos makes me think "Wow, I suck at this game..."

I don't have a site offhand, but the Megaman 2 speedrun is pretty insane. The ones of Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3 in about 10 minutes are pretty nutty as well.

Some of them are cool, but some are really stupid, like a Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past speed run that uses the glitch that if you input up and down at the same time, you can cross pits without falling in them. This is impossible on a normal game, because it is not physically possibly to input both up and down at the same time, so it looks really cheesy and is exploiting something that is just plain impossible to do, so there isn't any illusion that it is at all possible by anybody.

[Morganchan]

Originally Posted by Js2756

Some of them are cool, but some are really stupid, like a Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past speed run that uses the glitch that if you input up and down at the same time, you can cross pits without falling in them. This is impossible on a normal game, because it is not physically possibly to input both up and down at the same time, so it looks really cheesy and is exploiting something that is just plain impossible to do, so there isn't any illusion that it is at all possible by anybody.

Perhaps you're thinking of a tool-assisted run in this case? Because the ones on SDA are all played only on the console, without the use of an emulator, turbo-controller or other types of potentially ability-enhancing devices. I know there's a Tool Assisted Run archive out there, but the site name is evading me (it's probably something really obvious, though XD)

That said, I love checking out SDA runs for games I've already completed several times, especially platformers such as Super Mario 64 or Donkey Kong Country 2. I've picked up some nifty techniques and time-saving tricks thanks to them! Heck, with all that extra knowledge, I'd love to attempt a run of something myself, but I lack the patience to do so

[Js2756]

Originally Posted by Morganchan

Perhaps you're thinking of a tool-assisted run in this case? Because the ones on SDA are all played only on the console, without the use of an emulator, turbo-controller or other types of potentially ability-enhancing devices. I know there's a Tool Assisted Run archive out there, but the site name is evading me (it's probably something really obvious, though XD)

That said, I love checking out SDA runs for games I've already completed several times, especially platformers such as Super Mario 64 or Donkey Kong Country 2. I've picked up some nifty techniques and time-saving tricks thanks to them! Heck, with all that extra knowledge, I'd love to attempt a run of something myself, but I lack the patience to do so

I really don't have much of a problem with tool assisted runs as long as it works in the confines of the game. A lot of the early runs were done on emulators with save states and frame slow down just to get that perfect run, and I'm cool with that. I don't mind seeing people push the game to its limits, as long as it is theoretically possible in the real world. This isn't the best example because it's not a speed run, but a guy by the pseudo Magnetro, made a combo video for Magneto from Marvel vs Capcom 2 and used a programmable pad to do it. All the combos are theoretically possible, but are incredibly hard (borderline impossible) to do because of human limitations. He just wanted to push the game engine to its limits. The Zelda BS I described earlier is just not possible given the nature of the game.

[Kaioshin Sama]

I love watching these. Especially when they come up with exploits to do them. I just watched a Super Mario Bros. 3 one today,where the guy had the timing of everything down to the split second. He managed to rack up 99 lives in the run by bouncing around on enemies in the Dark World Army stages.

[khajiit]

Your right, some of those are really insane, I remember watching the morrowind speedrun, my mouth was open and drool running out :P

As for me, I don't see the necessity to run through games as quickly as possible, i like to sit back and enjoy them, and that's why I'll never get an A rank on resi ^_^ well that and all the saves and FAS...