gaming Speedruns: Making game physics programmers the world over cry in agony.

[Katana 298]

Ever since watching Half-Life 2's speed run way back when, I've had a mild interest in speedrunners. There are huge archives out there of people who race to see who can finish games the fastest, and even sets of rules, including time penalties for the use of save points, and what constitutes the start of your time (usually, when you first gain control of your character)

 

There are two types: Regular old speedruns, where somebody sat down, and played the game from start to finish after lots of practice. There are also "Tool Assisted Speedruns", or "TAS". These are generally purely for entertainment, as they are created using game emulators, with all sorts of tools allowed, like save-states, slow-motion, all sorts of input macros. The idea is that "theoretically", a bionic super-human could beat the game that way.

 

The main sites:

http://speeddemosarchive.com/

http://tasvideos.org/

 

 

 

Mirror's Edge

 

 

 

Contra 3 - Pacifist:

 

 

 

Family Feud for SNES (more entertaining than you would expect)

 

 

 

Quake

 

 

[Swordfishtrombone 384]

I love these things. I was considering going for the speed run on the original Silent Hill game a few years ago. Maybe one day, I'll do it.

[Storn 11]

I used to speedrun Portal with a friend of mine, just for the lulz. We would hang on a skype call, have a timer on and just race through Portal. Again. And again. And again. If I remember correctly, I could beat the game in less than 18 minutes in a single segment at my best.

[Scootalove 10,692]

When someone does speedrun in game, it is so much fun. I did speedrun Batman: Arkham City, with only about 15 minutes to spare in beating the game.

[Leavinh 313]

I've tried speedrunning (terribly), specifically Mega Man games, and I think it is amazing how much skill it takes. The only types of speedruns I don't really enjoy watching are the ones that take advantage of a game breaking glitch. I think it's cool and it still takes a lot of skill to beat Ocarina of Time in 12 minutes, but I get more enjoyment watching people play through the whole game. This is only my opinion though.

[Katana 298]

Oh, in reference to Quake: This one might be more entertaining. While the one I posted does the game quickest, this one kills all enemies and gets all secrets.

 

[Galen 1,354]

 

 

 

This was the very first speed run I ever saw, and I attempted it myself later. I didn't manage to go as fast but iirc, I did do it in less than 40 minutes. I will make another attempt in the near future.