Speed runs...Are you game?
 

I am! I thought I would post a few clips of my recent speedruns.

Featured clips:

Super Ghouls and Ghosts and Contra III: The Alien Wars, both for the SNES.


Super Ghouls and Ghosts - (Snow level) - This level design of this stage is eerily awesome, with some kickass music to boot. Its a very intense run and there are a lot of near misses. However, I completed the stage unscathed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c0-hEYIOMc

Contra III: Alien Wars - (Stages I - III, respectively) - Contra III. Perhaps this game has been forgotten. I remember a time when this game use to rip out my entrails. I think I have come pretty close to mastering this game. It only took about 15 years in order to do so. (Gawd.)

Stage 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j8E7oRT9mc

Stage 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H433BBVIEq0

Stage 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6a12b2s7rk


If this thread does well, I will continue to post. Post your red hot speed runs hea!

It's unfortunate. I have never ever finished Super Ghouls and Ghosts. Too hard for me ;_;

I have only started playing the game consistently of late. I probably got lucky with my run. :D It is indeed one of the hardest games I have ever played but such an amazing game. Games are so damn easy these days.

You see, I could I could probably beat it now being older. But I'd have to find my SNES and the game itself, which is buried away in someones room.

I'll go get the rom... maybe.

A word of warning, you have to beat the game twice in order to 'complete' it.
Yes, its annoying as hell to go through that long scorching stretch of gaming desert only to have to do it again! (barbaric) I admit I don't have the patience for it. Getting through Hell is enough for me, thank you very much.

Hopefully not an ex-girlfriends room?

Okay, I'll stop prodding you into playing it.

Yeh that game was a bit tough for me too. If you want to watch a lot of awesome speed runs check out

http://www.speeddemosarchive.com/

Don't see the point in speedrunning games myself. Even if it's of your favorite game that you've played into the ground, running through it just to add challenge just doesn't sound fun at all.

It isn't always for challenge. Sometimes it is fun to just jet through a game. I speed run SOTN and Metroid Prime alot and I can safely say neither is very hard, speed running or not. I just like to break them out and rush through in a few short hours when I feel like gaming but don't feel like dedicating a whole lot of time into it at the same time.

Just to clarify something, in case you guys don't know it, but a speedrun isn't done in one go - it's doing a few frames, reload, do a few frames, reload up to thousands and thousands of times.

Technically not "speed runs" but I've made some near perfect videos of Metal Slug awhile ago.
http://evilboris.sonic-cult.net/ms4/
There are a few places I fucked up in the Metal Slug 1 video but I got some other parts so impressively done that I don't want to try redoing the whole thing, it can't get that much better.

Those are tool-assisted speedruns. You can do speedruns without them, just with sheer skill alone.

Ummm...I think you are referring to 'tool assisted' speed runs, which are for tools. :D Its like using game genie, its a cop out. It takes absolutely no challenge to use hacks.

I think speed runs are extremely fun but there are few games in which I feel confident enough to partake in. I think its a true test that decides whether or not a game has been mastered, though there are other reasons as well. I generally like to enjoy my time with a game, and if speed runs offered me nothing, then I wouldn't do them.

I wouldn't say it has absolutely no challenge, as those runs normally need a lot of forethought and understanding of a game's mechanics. Tool-assisted runs certainly do remove the reflex aspect of things, and being able to go back removes the chance to fail.

Super Ghouls N Ghosts is quite a tricky game. I wrote a couple chocojournal entries detailing my frustrations with that game. Also, what happened to that one avalanche in your video?

Tool Assisted speedruns are their own beast, and it takes just as much dedication in many cases to perfect them as it does skill speed runs. People don't necessarily watch TAS runs for a display of skill, but rather to see the game taken to it's limit. They are certainly not a "cop-out" by any means.

Impressive skill in those vids, though.

Not necessarily. Maybe if you really suck at the game, you'd need to start over a jillion times. But if you're that bad at the game, you shouldn't be doing a speed run. :/

The only game I've managed to do a speed run for is Super Metroid. I followed a guide and got 59 minutes at 100% completion. I may have played the game like 20 times in 3 weeks to re-learn, memorize and get it all just right. I also didn't use any emulator abilities, just the in-game save points.

With a tool run and within reason, the mechanics of the game do not need to be known at all. The point of tools are to create new mechanics which better benefit the players's specs and not the original intent of the gamedesign as it naturally occurs in its environment.

I understand what you are saying, but most tool runs that I see (with the exception of a few by Genisto) can be done ordinarily by normal gameplay means. Invincibility is not a normal gameplay means. That is not called stretching a game to its limit but abusing it to make oneself appear more proficient.

Dunno, but its happened before! As you can see, I/ Arthur was definitely surprised when it didn't show up during gameplay. :D I expected it to just magically/ironically appear out of thin air after jumping off of the platform, but alas, it did not.

I am! I thought I would post a few clips of my recent speedruns.

Featured clips:

Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (SNES) - (Second level) - Otherwise known as the 'waterfall stage'. This speedrun isn't perfect but its fine for what it is. The collision detection in this game is very off which makes it difficult to simply breeze through it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAxLDdfToTI


Undercover Cops! - I love these obscure beat em ups that never made it to America. This one came out about the same time as Street Fighter 2, and was overshadowed because of it. Its got good play control, cool music and some decent enemy and level design. This isn't a very good speedrun but as this was the second time I played the game, so I don't expect much.

Stage 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnGiSvd_Cj4

Stage 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmk6pxDKqcw

Stage 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irRFCTBS3CE

Stage 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPnlYZysY7w



Brawl Brothers: Fun Beat'em'up for the SNES. This is the game that got me started into this genre and is a classic in my eyes.

Stage 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkWTlqHC8u4


S.O.S. - Another speedrun of a fairly obscure game for the SNES that features a sinking ship. This game was fairly innovative for the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsaw-w3dB0M


Thats all for now! Enjoy.