Speed Run: Difference between revisions

A playthrough of a game with the intent of completing it as fast as possible for the purposes of entertainment and competition.

 

* '''Regular''' aka '''Realtime''' - Consists of a player sitting down with an actual copy of the game and playing it normally, using only whatever features are available on the original hardware.

** Some regular runs are '''Segmented'''. Each segment consists of a level or group of levels. Instead of playing the entire game in one sitting, the player is tasked to get the best time possible for each segment, retrying each segment as much as desired.

 

In both versions, [[Sequence Breaking]], route planning, and tight play are the key.

 

 

Speedruns are usually created as an attempt to show off one's skills, while still providing an entertaining video. (Most speedrun compilation sites have a requirement that the run must be reasonably entertaining, and under a certain length [usually 7-8 hours, with many being just a few minutes], to be accepted.) They are ''not'' for people who want to enjoy the plot or explore the world. Due to the many methods used in speedruns, and overall design of different games, It is not a good judge of how long a game is for the average player at all; for instance, there could be [[Good Bad Bugs|exploitable bugs]] that are only possible to pull off in a Tool Assisted run, and others that can be done in realtime with only a great deal of dedication, skill, and luck. A specific example of this: some Tool Assisted runs use glitches that require hitting left and right at the same time, or up and down at the same time; those ones are basically impossible on any standard unmodified controller. The optimal path can be radically changed at every step based on whether or not these bugs are used.

** Even better, a run a few years back smashing that to pieces with a Nightmare run in [http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?qdq/qdqdivx.avi 12:23]. The run is a segmented run, however, and while still talented, is far better than could be expected of a straight playthrough.

** That version too has been updated to 11:30, but it hasn't been published yet (except in raw demo form). [http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/projects/qdqwavp2/ http://speeddemosarchive.com/quake/projects/qdqwavp2/]

** The above is just one product of the very active ''[[Metroid]]'' speedrunning community. Among other things, every 2D game has now been beaten in less than an hour (''Metroid II: Return of Samus'' was the last to fall). Here are a couple of the all-time classic runs:

** Red Scarlet's 100% ''Super Metroid'' run in fifty-five minutes, a work of art that stood proudly on Speed Demos Archive for seven years, has been replaced by [http://speeddemosarchive.com/SuperMetroid.html#100PAL Christopher Hill's time of forty-eight minutes].

* The ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series is also notable for speedrunning. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lnogpRPvY4& As seen here], assisting with tools can make ''1'' unrecognizable from its former self.

** There seems to be a small trend where people try to see how fast they can beat more than one game at the same time using the same controller. [http://tasvideos.org/380M.html Here's a TAS] that features a guy beating ''[[Mega Man X]] 1'' and ''X2'' in about 40 minutes and [http://tasvideos.org/871M.html another] where two guys beat ''''[[Mega Man 3]] through 6'' in about the same amount of time.

** Time attacks on ''9'' are pretty impressive too [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JMneYgaUGg as seen here]. Due to weapon balancing, every weapon comes in handy even outside the boss fights, some of which are used more often and others less.

** ''Mega Man 10'' features time attack leaderboards and the ability to view the replays of any of the top ten times from any stage (or the whole game) from inside the game itself.