|
Welcome, friends, to the third iteration of the speedrunning thread on SomethingAwful! (previous thread here) Maybe you found speedrunning through one of the many marathons, such as Games Done Quick or European Speedrunner Assembly. Maybe you just found a random video on the internet of someone playing a game faster than you thought was ever possible. Or maybe you've been into speedrunning and the like for two decades and want to talk to others sharing the same interest in the hobby, viewers and runners alike. You're all welcome here! ********** Speedrunning is the practice of trying to beat a video game as fast as possible. The first games that got especially popular to speedrun were id Software's Doom and Quake, and one of the first dedicated speedrunning sites on the internet, the Speed Demos Archive, started out as a Quake speedrunning site (hence the name, given that Quake videos were called "demos"). In 2003, SDA owner Nolan "Radix" Pflug released his 1:37 100% run of Metroid Prime on his website, and since then speedrunning has grown immensely and occurs in pretty much every genre of gaming you can think of. The rise of livestreaming has been an especially important factor in its popularity. There are many different types of speedruns. The three most common categories are called any%, which simply means to beat the game as fast as possible, 100%, where you complete the game as fast as possible while collecting all items, and low%, where you complete the game as fast as possible collecting only what is absolutely necessary to beat the game. any% can often be the same as low%, and there's a few cases where any% is the same as 100%. These categories sometimes appear under different names, any% is sometimes just called "Beat the game". There is no central speedrunning authority, or the like - what categories exist for a game and the rules for said categories are decided upon by the communities of the people running those games. There are two different ways to do a speedrun - single-segment (sometimes also called RTA - but see the glossary), where you complete the game in one sitting, and segmented, where saves are used to split the run up into multiple segments, so you can retry segments until you are pleased with it. In general, segmented runs tend to be faster than single-segment, but in these days of livestreaming, single-segment is by far the most common. The main websites for speedrunning these days are: Speed Demos Archive (SDA) - Where it all pretty much began, SDA hosts high-quality recordings of speedruns of over a thousand games. SDA makes no claims to be a site for records, and while many consider the site to be somewhat out of date in the age of livestreaming, it's still got a decently active forum, it's still a good archive of runs and it is where Games Done Quick got started (and the GDQ planning forum is still part of the SDA forums, so, y'know) - and above all, a very historically important site in the history of speedrunning. Speedrun.com - A site for leaderboards for just about any game you can think of. Several marathons are also planned on the speedrun.com forums. SpeedRunsLive - Collects livestreams from mostly Twitch. Other than that, communities for speedrunning specific games are spread out a bit over the web. Some are mostly confined to Speedrun.com, where each game has its own forum, and there's a lot of wikis, IRC channels and Discord servers dedicated to a single game or game series. You can often find links to these on the specific game pages on Speedrun.com, so if you're wondering anything about a certain game, that tends to be a good place to start. Speaking of, you are also very welcome to come chat with us speedrun-interested goons! If you use IRC, then come swing by #speedruns on irc.synirc.net (synIRC webchat), and if you use Discord, you can drop in to Goons Go Fast, administrated by SuccinctAndPunchy - if you want a channel for a specific game you can ask him, if you don't feel it's worth to create an entire separate Discord server for it. If you're still unsure about this whole thing, what better way to get started than watching a few runs? Here's a small list of example runs, intended to provide a good introduction to the whole idea of playing video games fast. As of the time of this posting, some of these are world record runs - some aren't because they were better showings of the games. That mostly applied to the runs in this list that are from marathons. Most of these have some kind of commentary as well.
********** Speedrunning marathons is something that has popularized the hobby a lot in recent years. It's brought in many new runners and even more viewers. By far the biggest organizer of speedrunning marathons is Games Done Quick, which started with Classic Games Done Quick from Mike Uyama's basement and now host two huge marathons for charity each year - Awesome Games Done Quick in January, benefiting the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and Summer Games Done Quick in mid-summer, benefiting Doctors Without Borders. You can find the runs from these marathons on the splendid site GDQ VODs, run by fellow goon Steve Holt!. On the other side of the pond, there is the European Speedrunner Assembly, which while originally modeled after the GDQ events have evolved in a slightly different direction as to what the focus of the event is, but they too collect money for charity, their primary one being Save the Children. Before 2018, ESA organized one marathon in Sweden annually, usually at the end of July, and from 2018 onwards has also organized ESA Winter in February. Another by now well-established live marathon is RPG Limit Break, which is unique when it comes to the annual live marathons in that it focuses on one genre exclusively, in their case RPGs. RPG Limit Break benefits the Utah chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI. In addition to the large live marathons, many smaller marathons have popped up. Many of them are online only, with a handful of small-scale live ones. Not all of the marathons are for charity, some are simply for fun. To find information about these, many are being planned on either the Community Marathons forum at SDA, or the Speedrun.com forums. ********** So, at some point, you might have come across a video of a video game being played at what seems to be extremely superhuman levels. Like, say, a certain Super Mario Bros. 3 video from circa 2003. While there are many speedrunners that can pull off feats you didn't actually think were humanly possible, what you have found is most likely a tool-assisted superplay, or TAS. A TAS is made by using tools provided by an emulator, such as slowdown and savestates, to produce a demonstration of what is technically, even if not humanly, possible to do with the game. While there might have been some friction between speedrunners and TASers in the early days of both communities, these days they are quite friendly with each other, and help each other out a lot - many tricks that were originally thought to be TAS-only have found their way into realtime runs, and often speedrunners find things that the TASers then take to their logical conclusion, often finding new applications of the thing in the process that the speedrunners can then make use of. TASes aren't "cheating", or made with the intent to deceive anyone - it's extremely frowned upon in both the speedrunning and TASing communities to try to pass of a TAS as a realtime run. TASVideos is the one big site and forum for everything relating to TASing. And while the title of this topic says speedrunning, TASing and speedrunning are so intimately linked these days that this should be considered the TAS discussion thread also. And just like with the speedruns above, here's a couple of example TASes, meant to show you just what is possible to do with TASing.
If this all has made you want to get into speedrunning yourself, great! First of all, you obviously want a game to run. When starting out, pick a game that you already enjoy playing - if you want to get a good run, you'll be playing it a lot. Even more than you first think you are going to. Don't pick up a new game with the intention to run it when you're just starting out - that's something you'll see some experienced runners do, but not a good idea when you're new to the hobby. Again, Speedrun.com is a good place to start looking for resources on the game, see if there are other runners and find runs to watch to learn about tricks you can do. If there are no resources - well, then you get to route it out yourself! But even then, it can be good to watch runs of similar kinds of games, to see what kind of stuff you want to be on the lookout for to save time. The most popular program for recording and streaming gameplay these days is the very wonderful Open Broadcaster Software Studio which is completely free and an extremely powerful tool for showcasing gameplay. You might also want a timer program - the most popular one is LiveSplit. You can use it just as a stopwatch, but you can also customize your own "splits", which are basically checkpoints in the run to allow you to see how you're doing compared to your prior runs before you've actually finished the run. Common split points are the end of stages, dungeons and/or worlds, or in things like RPGs, major plot secquences or bosses. It's recommended to make your split button something you can hit without having to take any focus off your playing. Other resources, including tools for OSX, are listed at the Speedrun.com resources page. Stream Big and the SDA Knowledge Database also contain a lot of useful information. And finally, if you want to stream your runs, you'll need a channel to do it on. You have several options here - Twitch is by far the biggest one, but two others that have been gaining ground lately are Smashcast (formerly Hitbox) and Mixer (formerly Beam). If you get a channel to stream your runs, do share it with us! You may also post here and/or in any of the goon speedrunning chat channels when you are about to stream something. ********** And the posting timer starts... now! KennyMan666 fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Feb 4, 2020 |
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 11:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 13:10 |
|
|
A tl;dr glossary of terms 100% - A category of run where every item is collected. What this specifically means depends on the game. Any% - A category of run where the game is completed in the fastest time possible. Clip - Moving through what's meant to be solid terrain. Often specifying what is being clipped through, such as "wall clip" or "floor clip". Deathwarp - Taking an intentional death to move to another location in the game. ESA - European Speedrunner Assembly, an annual live speedrunning marathon in Sweden. Frame perfect - Something that can only be done in a window of a single frame, which usually means 1/30th or 1/60th of a second. GDQ - Games Done Quick, organizers of the two huge annual live speedrunning marathons Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick. Glitch - Also called bug. A programming error in the game, in the context of speedrunning usually something that is exploited to save time. IGT - Ingame time, when the game displays its own timer that can be used to time runs with. Not all games with a timer uses ingame time to time runs. Input lag - Latency between executing an input and it actually happening on the screen. Different TVs have different amounts of input lag, with certain HDTVs having a very noticeable amount. Lag - Slowdown in the game, often caused by too many objects being loaded in the game's memory at the same time. Inducing lag can be beneficial for some tricks. Runners will often attempt to reduce lag as much as possible. LiveSplit - A timer program. Low% - A category of run where only the bare minimum of items are completed. What this specifically means depends on the game. OBS - Open Broadcaster Software. The most popular streaming software these days. 100% free forever. PB - Personal best, the fastest time a certain person has been able to achieve in a game. Rando - Randomizer. If used without specifying a game, most likely talking about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer. RNG - Random number generator, the function in the game that makes things happen randomly. RPGLB - RPG Limit Break, an annual live RPG speedrunning marathon. RTA - Real Time Attack, a term that's gotten several meanings. Sometimes it can be a synonym for any%, sometimes a synonym for single segment, sometimes refers to that the run is not a TAS, sometimes it indicates that the run has been timed in real time as opposed to ingame time (often called "RTA timing"), and sometimes used interchangeably with the second definition of time attack. Savewarp - Saving and reloading to move to another location in the game. SDA - Speed Demos Archive, one of the earliest and biggest speedrunning websites. Segmented - A run done in multiple parts, or segments. Sequence break - Doing things in the game out of order. Spawn - Either the location where an object in the game is meant to appear, or the actual action of said object appearing. Split - A sort of "checkpoint" when timing runs with a timer like LiveSplit or wsplit. SRC or sr.c - Speedrun.com, the most popular leaderboard site. SRL - SpeedRunsLive, website that collects speedrun streams. Single-segment - A run done in a single sitting. Also abbreviated SS. TA - Time Attack. A built-in speedrun mode in some games (in racing games, often called Time Trial). Also the common Japanese term for speedrun. TAS - Tool-Assisted Superplay, a gameplay demonstration made with tools on an emulator. TG - Twin Galaxies, a game record site which nobody takes seriously any more. Twitch - Twitch.tv, the most used game streaming website. WR - World record, the fastest recorded time for a certain category. wsplit - A timer program. XSplit - Formerly the most commonly used streaming software. Sold on a subscription model and has no real advantages over OBS Studio. Zip - Using a glitch to make a character move much faster than should be possible. Most often refers to getting the character stuck in solid terrain, causing the game to eject it at high speed. If there's any terms you believe should be in this glossary, let me know! ********** Speedrunning goons index halfcoordinated Speedrun.com | Twitch KariOhki Speedrun.com | Twitch | Smashcast | SpeedRunsLive | Youtube KennyMan666 Speedrun.com | Twitch | Mixer | Youtube Oyster Speedrun.com | Twitch | Youtube SeXReX Speedrun.com | Twitch | Smashcast | SpeedRunsLive Studio Speedrun.com | Twitch SuccinctAndPunchy Speedrun.com | Twitch | SpeedRunsLive | Youtube UraniumAnchor Speedrun.com | Twitch | Youtube If you want to get added to this index, simply post your info in the thread. ********** Speedrunning marathon threads (in chronological order) AGDQ 2012 | AGDQ 2013 | SGDQ 2013 | AGDQ 2014 | SGDQ 2014 | ESA 2014 | AGDQ 2015 | ESA 2015 | SGDQ 2015 | AGDQ 2016 | SGDQ 2016 | ESA 2016 | AGDQ 2017 (Chat) | SGDQ 2017 (Chat) | ESA 2017 | HRDQ | AGDQ 2018 (Chat) | SGDQ 2018 (Chat) | ESA 2018 (Chat) | GDQx 2018 (Chat) | AGDQ 2019 (Chat) | ESAW 2019 | SGDQ 2019 | ESA 2019 | GDQx 2019 | AGDQ 2020 | ESAW 2020 & FF 2020 | CRDQ | SGDQ 2020 | AGDQ 2021 | SGDQ 2021 | AGDQ 2022 | SGDQ 2022 | AGDQ 2023 | SGDQ 2023 | AGDQ 2024 KennyMan666 fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Jan 21, 2024 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 11:19
|
|
|
I'm speedrunning posting in the new thread e: my pb is 14 minutes
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 11:33
|
|
|
That really is a nice OP kenny, good job. Playing (ideally awful) games fast is  .
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:27
|
|
|
Due to life stuff, I kinda fell off of following speedrunning since sgdq 2017. Anything super incredible or world-shattering happen in the speedrunning community between then and now? edit: I'm gonna shill for a team of four notorious(ly wonderful) speedrunners, Team Poor Life Choices, formed up of Klaige, Murphagator, Mecharichter, and PJ Dicesare. They're a buncha goofy goobers, and speedrun and break all sorts of games. Any GDQ run by PJ is a must-watch. Or any run he does on his own, especially with an audience, really. Like his Drakkhen run where he further breaks a broken game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_RM2R8BHE&hd=1 or his Robotrek run at RPG Limit Break 2016, which is a joy to see and has some amazing good/bad luck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdjjrMa3VvU&hd=1 I will also take every opportunity to advertise their Duck Game and Ultimate Chicken Horse sessions, they're incredibly fun to see, just the goofballs being goofballs in goofy-rear end games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfZTeszrzpY&hd=1 There's something like 100 hours of Duck Game/UCH archives, and they're all worth it. They even incorporate some speedrun tech into Duck Game(mostly zipping to get into each other's lobby rooms to kill each other before the game even starts). Duck Game playlist Ultimate Chicken Horse playlist Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Jan 19, 2018 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:29
|
|
|
I feel welcomed in this new thread.Captain Invictus posted:Due to life stuff, I kinda fell off of following speedrunning since sgdq 2017. Anything super incredible or world-shattering happen in the speedrunning community between then and now? Rando got huge. Made some people mad.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:29
|
|
|
Captain Invictus posted:Due to life stuff, I kinda fell off of following speedrunning since sgdq 2017. Anything super incredible or world-shattering happen in the speedrunning community between then and now? odyssey has like eight bajillion runners, I guess? I mean nothing's changed really the hobby is just experiencing a crazy level of growth.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:35
|
|
|
Dog’s life any% is the only run that matters at this point
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:51
|
|
|
tote up a bags posted:Dog’s life any% is the only run that matters at this point Dog's Life 100% run at SGDQ, starting at 3am and running till it's done!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:56
|
|
|
tote up a bags posted:Dog’s life any% is the only run that matters at this point Speaking of, I'm watching that one at the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnH8MLlreu0 It's an experience.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 12:59
|
|
|
Racing in to a new thread
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 14:31
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 14:46
|
|
|
Saint Freak posted:Racing in to a new thread THE POSTING ELEMENT
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 14:54
|
|
|
yeah!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 14:59
|
|
|
Me, posting
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 15:25
|
|
|
me, going into every speedrun on youtube and accusing the player of cheating for using glitches
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 15:52
|
|
L
|
Footage of me going fast
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 16:07
|
|
|
Me when I watch a 6 hour speed run of a JRPG because it was 2 minutes faster than the previous record.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 16:09
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 16:46
|
|
|
I occassionally run Odyssey any%. Twitch is https://www.twitch.tv/redlinessb
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 16:47
|
|
|
DoctorWhat posted:I occassionally run Odyssey any%. Twitch is https://www.twitch.tv/redlinessb I wonder how many submissions SQDG will get for Odyssey, they are going to be legion.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:40
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:41
|
|
|
Saint Freak posted:Racing in to a new thread
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:46
|
|
|
Saint Freak posted:Racing in to a new thread emptyquote
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:46
|
|
|
New year new thread new games to run Think I'm gunna finally run Oracle of Seasons
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:46
|
|
|
Maybe I'll try to find a game to actually run this year, even if I don't record/submit anything for it, if not just to get myself running games again.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:48
|
|
|
Ravus posted:I wonder how many submissions SQDG will get for Odyssey, they are going to be legion. First ever 32-person race
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 17:58
|
|
|
i didn't realize celeste is comin out on switch drat hell ya it's probably gonna be way easier to control on PC tho hmm
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 18:36
|
|
|
heeheex2 posted:i didn't realize celeste is comin out on switch drat hell ya Keyboard is how I rock, others prefer controller. They've said they are interested in a level editor some time down the road and I imagine that will be pc only.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 18:38
|
|
|
Speedruns? Yuck!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 19:45
|
|
|
what the gently caress is speedrun?
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 19:50
|
|
|
Kennel posted:what the gently caress is speedrun? a miserable pile of frames
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 19:52
|
|
|
UberJew posted:a miserable pile of frames But enough talk. Greetings from Germany!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:07
|
|
|
My favorite speedrun was when someone faked a Tyson fight WR in which the edited video was clearly shot from their living room, then when caught tried to say someone hacked their account, carrying the implication that this person also broke into their house and filmed footage of Punch-Out.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:09
|
|
|
grand theft grotto posted:My favorite speedrun was when someone faked a Tyson fight WR in which the edited video was clearly shot from their living room, then when caught tried to say someone hacked their account, carrying the implication that this person also broke into their house and filmed footage of Punch-Out. People getting caught cheating at speedrunning is probably one of the most hilarious things because of the excuses they come up with.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:11
|
|
|
Xenothral posted:People getting caught cheating at speedrunning is probably one of the most hilarious things because of the excuses they come up with. im sorry you just don't understand THE HUMAN ELEMENT
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:13
|
|
|
speedrun? I hardly KNEW her!!
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:22
|
|
|
Ephphatha posted:Speaking of, I'm watching that one at the moment. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:31
|
|
|
I need to get around to watching awful block. Was going to be up for it at gdq but drank too much and got food poisoning the night before. It was my first gdq. Had a great time. Definitely go if you have the means.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 2, 2024 13:10 |
|
|
Boogalo posted:I need to get around to watching awful block. Was going to be up for it at gdq but drank too much and got food poisoning the night before. Oof, yeah that would definitely do it. I highly recommend it, one of the best awful blocks they've had, imo.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2018 20:42
|
|