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First Person Shooters (Games) Entertainment Games

Videogame Speed Running Speeds Up A Notch 60

Posted by simoniker from the roadrunner dept.
Radix37 writes "The PlanetQuake-hosted Speed Demos Archive, dedicated to 'trying to complete a videogame in the fastest time possible', has been updated with an improved speedrun of Half-Life in 0:45:45, over 5 minutes faster than the previous run - some more crazy level-skipping shortcuts were added to cut the time by so much, and there's very detailed commentary from the creator. The Metroid Prime record was recently dropped to 1 hour 4 minutes from 1:17 by a lot of new tricks and exploits, too. Also of note, recent improvements on Super Metroid, on Metroid Zero Mission, and, interestingly, on Super Mario 64 (including a glitch collecting 'only 16 stars' instead of 70) have been impressive."
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Videogame Speed Running Speeds Up A Notch More

Videogame Speed Running Speeds Up A Notch

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  • Impressive? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by I_Love_Pocky! ( 751171 )
    I don't want to be a jerk, but this kind of seems sad to me. I can't imagine playing a game so much that I could beat it so quickly.

    On the other hand, if I had a spacecraft capable of traveling near the speed of light, I could easily beat all of these times.
    • On the other hand, if I had a spacecraft capable of traveling near the speed of light, I could easily beat all of these times.
      Only if you were able to fit the entire universe besides you on that spacecraft...
      • Actually no, it would only work if the time keeper stayed on earth. Time in the spacecraft would appear to move as normal.

        • Re:Impressive? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @04:39PM (#9647319) Journal
          The time on both Earth and the spaceship would appear normal from each point of view; that's relativity.

          But compared to each other in terms of a round trip by the spacecraft eventually returning to Earth's reference frame (the only way to compare them, really), the spaceship will be arbitrarily slower. So hiking off in a spaceship is indeed the wrong thing to do if you want to break time records. Remember, in the twin paradox, it is the twin who goes into space that comes back young; that can't happen unless he's the one experiencing slow time.

          (Actually, it suffices to jush put Earth in the spaceship.)

          You can get the opposite effect if the spaceship exceeds the speed of light; the equations say that then time will indeed "speed up" relative to the rest of the universe, ironically eating the "advantage" of going FTL in the first place. There is no evidence this is anything more than an amusing mathematical diversion, though. (Note, this does not refer to "warp drives", where the ship is techncally stationary and space moves, this is refering to an actual tachyonic space ship. It may be written in a sci-fi context but this article [theforce.net] from a PhD in cosmology might help.)
          • No the grandparent is right. If the timekeeper is on earth, and you're traveling at 99% light speed, you can play the game through in a fraction of a second according to the guy on earth.

            • Re:Impressive? (Score:4, Interesting)

              by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @05:06PM (#9647530) Journal
              Think about it for a second, seriously, instead of replying off the cuff. 50 years of science fiction ought to give you a clue. If you can travel to a star 20 light-years away in a month your time, but it takes 20 years (and change) to the guy on earth, the guy on earth sees the guy it the spaceship going slower and slower, not faster and faster. Otherwise, to the guy in the spaceship, it would take longer than 20 years and even slower-than-light travel would be impossible.

              Think, McFly, think. It is the guy on Earth living at a hummingbirds pace. The guy on the spaceship has the distinction of playing the slowest ever video game.

              I don't get to say this often on this site, but I am unequivicably correct and if you disagree, you are simply wrong.
              • You are right, I had it mixed up.
              • but it takes 20 years (and change) to the guy on earth, the guy on earth sees the guy it the spaceship going slower and slower, not faster and faster.

                Well, this is true.

                Think, McFly, think. It is the guy on Earth living at a hummingbirds pace.

                But this is not. To the person on the spaceship, the person on Earth is living extremely extremely slowly as well.

                The hummingbird's pace doesn't happen until the person on the spacecraft slows down, turns around, and returns to Earth, or just until he slows dow
              • Think about it for a second, seriously, instead of replying off the cuff. 50 years of science fiction ought to give you a clue.

                You've been here too long.

  • The site listing the differences is down, anyone have the list handy?
    • No mirror except the google cache that I know of, but I can assure you that metroid2002.com will be back by the weekend.

    • Re:Metroid Prime PAL differences. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Spleener12 ( 587422 ) * on Thursday July 08, 2004 @09:50PM (#9649227)
      Basically, Retro changed some things to make it harder for people to sequence break (what the fuck Retro has against them I don't know,) by adding a few more walls that require Power Bombs to get through and not allowing you to dash when locked onto something with the scan visor (which makes a trick that gets you the space jump boots right after you land on Tallon IV MUCH harder.) This was also done to the Japanese and NTSC Player's Choice versions.

  • "N" - A Platformer made for speed runs (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BlueCup ( 753410 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @03:23PM (#9646574) Homepage Journal
    If you enjoy speed runs you should check out the game N [harveycartel.org]. It's free, and it was practically made for awesome speed demos. Your replay is recorded for every best run through every level, and the top 20 runs of every level (and episode, which is a collection of 5 levels) are saved online and downloadable in game. Trust me, its worth checking out.

  • What's the point? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by th1ckasabr1ck ( 752151 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @03:24PM (#9646587)
    I never understood the point of making speed runs through games... When you're trying to run through as fast as you can, aren't you kind of missing the point of actually playing the game?

    John Carmack had a quote I liked when talking about how they slowed down the pace of DOOM3 because, "It would be a shame to just have you running past all of this hard work at a hundred miles per hour..."

    • Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by KDR_11k ( 778916 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @03:27PM (#9646612)
      Actually it's another chllenge. Many games have goals, right? So why not make it your goal to, e.g., complete the game as fast as possible or only with the basic pistol/knife or without killing any enemies or some other challenge? It's for those people who think hard isn't hard enough.
      • In my mind the best of those was the guy who finished Fallout (or was it 2?) without killing a single enemy, but killing every single child in the game.

      • Re:What's the point? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by ksiddique ( 749168 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @06:27PM (#9648189) Homepage
        The other day I felt like re-playing Half-Life but didn't *really* feel like going through the entire game from beginning to end. I think I felt more like watching it rather than playing it. So when I saw a HL speed run on the SDA I grabbed it right away. It was fun to see it again and check out the crazy tricks used. And it only took an hour or so.

        So I guess another point of speed runs is to let lazy guys like me re-live old games without wasting too much time. :)
        • Hell, even with some of the newer games i can't be bothered to finish it, and would rather just watch it to the end. I wonder when they'll implement such a feature (and don't say the movie has been invented ;)
      • Precisely. This reminds me of a thing I read on GameFAQs listing all sorts of challenges for Final Fantasy Tactics- only using one or two classes, only using story characters (no generics), staying below a certain level, etc. Other RPGs have other challenges- I've almost managed to do a run of Valkyrie Profile using only Valkyrie, and there are guides on playing FFX without ever touching the sphere grid at all. It's a sign that the developers made a good game that there are so many ways to play it.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • There's a similar thing with the Thief games, and i assume MGS / Pandora Tomorrow too. The idea is to play through the levels without alerting anyone of your presence or any physical violence whatsoever. Sometimes you just have to kill or disable someone or something, but usually there's a way past with some patience.

    • Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Snowmit ( 704081 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @03:31PM (#9646657) Homepage
      I never understood the point of making speed runs through games... When you're trying to run through as fast as you can, aren't you kind of missing the point of actually playing the game?

      If you're making speed runs, you've played the game so many times that you already know the way the levels look and the beautiful graphics in intimate detail. For example, the guy with the 1:37 Metroid Prime run says that it took 3 months to reach that point.

      Speed run people know the game so well that they can exploit all kinds of insane tricks and glitches and other things about the game to play it in a completely different way than the way that the designers intended.

      Personally, I think that's prety cool. Someday I hope to work on a game that's so robust and open-ended that people are able to find crazy tricks that I had no idea existed and fun enough that they're willing to spend months finding and exploiting them.
    • To beat the game that fast, it generally takes intimate knowledge of the game... so yes, people are running past the hard work at 100 MPH, but only on their 20th or 30th playthrough.
    • I never understood the point of speed runs in driving games. Why can't we just gently coast and admire the scenary?

    • I never understood the point of making speed runs through games... When you're trying to run through as fast as you can, aren't you kind of missing the point of actually playing the game

      Why would anyone make a speed run through a game? Why would anyone try to make it through Metal Gear Solid without killing anyone? Why would anyone spend months collecting 99 of every non-unique item in Final Fantasy? Why would anyone set up a parking lot of stolen cars in the middle of the street in GTA3? Why woul

  • I always wondered how fast Metroid prime could be finished in. I wish I had broadband so I could download the files before I'm eighty.

    As usual the biggest failing of these First person adventures is that they end. Though in the case of Metroid, there was a lot of extra stuff to do.

  • > I recommend you use one shot from the glock, just because it's funnier

    Heh, nothing to do with speedrunning, but I remember once trying to kill Nihilanth by ladning in his brain and using the crowbar, just because I could. Worked, too.
  • I always found it more interesting to watch the people trying to complete Metroid Prime with the lowest possible percentage by skipping certain key items (not just the upgrades). Granted, they do speed runs on that too, but it's more interesting than just rushing through the game (although some of the former techniques have been applied to the latter).

  • another site (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hoferbr ( 707935 )
    another site [bisqwit.iki.fi] for speed demos. The difference (big difference) is that they seed videos from games running on emulators (most, if not all, of the Speed Demos Archive [planetquake.com] videos are recorded directly from the TV).
    Except from the site: These are movies of various console games being played extraordinarily using an emulator as a tool to get over humanly limits such as "skill" and "reaction".
    But it's interesting anyway.
    • Tool-assisted speedruns are weaker than normal ones because even though the tool-assisted ones require a lot of theory (e.g. best route to take, best method of handling various enemies and situations), the normal ones require both theory and practice. The tool-assisted speedruns replace the immense amount of skill required to play an entire game perfectly with the immense amount of patience needed to play through little parts of it over and over again until you get it right. Oh, and then there are the one
      • On the other hand- tool assisted ones let you see how good it could be done. It removes human error and lets you run on pure strategy. The no tools run is merely a tools run with reflexes added in for annoyance. To me the strategy is far more interesting.

  • Id rather play the exact opposite... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I guess this just makes no since to me, but I would much rather play slow and make sure I get to kill every monster, see every corner on every level (expecially well designed games) even tryn to make sure i take as least amount of damage as possible. Or even Finding that one special hidden place, that takes 2 weeks looking around heh.... U get the idea.

    I mean some of my most favorite games are the ones with what seems like unlimited content (like Privateer and such).

    Id much rather seem movies of some on

  • Speed runs via exploits? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Cecil ( 37810 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @04:12PM (#9647048) Homepage
    I can't really garner much respect for those sorts of people. It just doesn't seem that interesting to me. In the same way, someone who finds a place where they can't be hit by anything and then proceeds to kill a million enemies, I don't consider them a skilled player either, really.

    People who complete the game as intended, but do it in the quickest time, I might find that a little more impressive, but I guess it's hard to judge what's an "exploit" and what isn't.

    • Re:Speed runs via exploits? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday July 08, 2004 @04:26PM (#9647181) Journal
      Speed runs with exploits can actually require more skill than speed runs without. Normal speed runs require you to know everything possible within the intended rules of the game, but the exploited ones require you to know everything that's possible outside of those rules as well. Certainly it's cheating to get a faster time, but that doesn't necessarily make it less skilled.

      Of course, there is a line between using exploits to get a little more speed (Morimoto's use of wall- and ceiling-crawling bugs in Mega Man 2, for example) and using exploits to skip most of the game. I saw a speedrun for a Flash game that involved using the "Play" option in the Flash player a couple of times to skip just about everything. That's not very skilled.

      Rob
  • Sounds like these guys need to get out and try real "speed running." Walk a mile and then see if you can beat that time. Repeat.

    I love videogames and all, but I fail to see the point of speed runs (but do see the point of actual running).

  • Halo (Score:3, Informative)

    by Have Blue ( 616 ) on Thursday July 08, 2004 @04:37PM (#9647303) Homepage
    A contest for speedrunning Halo for Xbox [bungie.org] has just concluded, with a total time of 2:15:15. It's probably possible to do better, this was the first real attempt at it.
    • Well.. thats great, they didnt saved a video of the entire run, so thats all I ands just about everyone except themselves can say. Thats... great. Btw: Could you do it again? I didnt saw a thing.

      • They're posting the videos of each level on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays over the next few weeks--the contest just finished. The first level has already been posted and is an impressive piece of work.

        The BitTorrent for the Pillar of Autumn video is here. [mythica.org]


        -Geoff
    • Off-topic, but nice user number. :)

  • Quake done Quick (Score:2, Informative)

    by Swift(void) ( 655825 )
    Quake done Quick are, IMO, still the best speed runs ive watched, especially Quake done Quick with a Vengence (full run through all 4 episodes on nightmare in 12:23)

    http://www.planetquake.com/qdq/
  • Take a gander at Defrag mod [planetquake.com]... it may change your opinion of what speed runs really are about. You'll find plenty of excellent examples of people stretching the Quake 3 engine to its limits not to mention beautiful control and timing.
  • I'd like to see the HL speedruns, but the FullPlanet mirrors are /.'ed - what, no BitTorrents?

    And how come you don't see anybody do like the old Quake Done Quicker, and put a bit of humor into the demo? I just about died the first time I saw it, when the happy face sprang out at the guy, and then he turns around and berates you for laughing! As well as the running commentary during the run - why don't we see that done a bit more?

    • Re:No BitTorrent (Score:3, Informative)

      by Radix37 ( 670836 )
      the FullPlanet mirrors are /.'ed

      FilePlanet is indeed very Full these last weeks ... gamespy doesn't seem to care either. But that's why there's also an archive.org link with no lines or registration bull.

  • The coolest thing about this, to me, is Metroid Zero Mission runs, because of the really inventive design of the game.

    Metroid: Zero Mission is a remake of the original Metroid in many ways. Most of the important items are found in the same, or similar, places as they were before. The overall map of Zebes is similar (though there is a huge new area). They added some of the items from Super Metroid, and also a couple of extra items. So far, nothing unexpected.

    But the coolest thing about game, even coole

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