[BurritoBeans]

Woah, how can he play that fast?

Speedrunning, an age-old method of playing games as fast as possible, has been around since timers existed in games. Instead of playing it slow, enjoying the story and scenery, you’re trying to go as fast as humanly possible (with methods determined by the category) to beat the game and hopefully be faster than anyone else.

So why does this thread exist? Well, it’s not an explanation as much as it is documenting the process of myself attempting to do a serious run for the first time in over four years.

The Method:
I will be picking a game - selected at random by means of a random number generator with the numbers relating to games in my collection which I have the means to record - and devote at least one month of gameplay with the purpose of going as fast as possible to it.

Requirements that I have set for myself include:

• The game must be played for at least an hour a day to make and be able to show some sort of progression
  
• If able to compete on leaderboards times will be posted online and verified by those in the scene to show that they’re legitimate - this will involve video proof which will be put on Youtube
  
• Even if the first week of gameplay is me getting Game Over after Game Over I will still post my failures to show that I am making some sort of progress
  
• If I go for more than two days without a valid excuse as to why I couldn’t play I will consider this project a failure and either reset with a new game or end it
  

The Purpose:
I’ve always loved speedrunning - I remember watching things like Lockwood hitting Streets 1:12, andrewg1990 setting record on top of record in Super Mario Bros, the early Games Done Quick events when it was just a room of people from the community, and heck even I was fairly active in Goldeneye from 2006 to 2014 trying to compete in the rankings. I ended up quitting speedrunning to go pursue other hobbies and kicked it to the side - sure I worked on a TAS here or there and kept my skills up for GE/PD, but I felt like I left a big part of what kept me playing games behind.

So, like stated above, this is a way for me to document my process - I figure that if I say “oh I’ll do it” to one person on Discord that I’ll just give up in two days like most of what I say I’ll try to get done. Being that this is going on a forum and I'm making a commitment to posting this will give me some more incentive to try and do well instead of giving up and going back to just watching runs on youtube.

The Issues:
As with everything I try to dedicate time to in life, issues arise. Currently there is school, work, D&D sessions, and other projects like finishing up my guitar amp builds and starting on my Dekatron-based devices.

The Restrictions:
Due to TASing and old runs I will not be allowing myself to play any game which I already know inside and out. I am going to allow myself to watch other runs to get a general sense of tricks, but I’m not going to allow breakdowns of specific tricks - if I want to figure it out I’ll either do it myself or I won't do it at all.

The Start:
I’ll be tallying up the number of games which I can play on real hardware over the course of Saturday and either by the end of Saturday or 10:00PM on Sunday I will have a game picked out and start on either Sunday or Monday.

The Documentation:
Every week of results will include at the very least:

• Video proof of my gameplay
  
• Detail on how the gameplay went
  
• Detail on plans for the next week of gameplay
  

More content will be added as seen fit, but for now I think that what I have listed is enough.

The Excuses:
If I am unable to play due to jeopardizing my grades, work issues, and/or other life-based events I will skip a day - I’d love to commit more time to this but I don’t want to ruin my life while doing it.

The End:
I don’t have any plans but the ultimate goal would be to pick a game with which I could go for the world record and continue to play until I can claim that spot for myself - depending on the popularity of whatever game is picked this may be impossible as optimization can be nuts (go watch Goldeneye, it takes me and just about everyone else hundreds of hours just to cut one second on times nowadays) - if I can’t then I would like to be at a decent spot to say the least.

Conclusions:
Forcing myself to play a game which I don’t even know may sound crazy but I feel that if I get this out and either succeed at improving or show my failure that I should be able to give myself some sort of kick back into the scene.

If you want to be crazy alongside me, feel free to join in - you don’t need to make similar commitments but I’d love to see what other people in the community can do be it challenging me to the game I’m playing or starting your own.

As-mentioned, I will have a game picked out by Sunday at 10:00PM - expect to see weekly updates and if people enjoy watching me struggle enough I may take this farther than I already am.

Thanks for reading,
BurritoBeans

[Skullmeat]

Paper Mario. For 300+ frame perfect inputs.

[hy6rid]

speed running has never been really interesting for me tbh. I just like the adventure aspect of a game, not the high scores part.

[Skullmeat]

speed running has never been really interesting for me tbh. I just like the adventure aspect of a game, not the high scores part.

Speedrunning isn't about scores, its about completing the game as quickly as possible.

[hy6rid]

speed running has never been really interesting for me tbh. I just like the adventure aspect of a game, not the high scores part.

Speedrunning isn't about scores, its about completing the game as quickly as possible.

ye.. that's what I mean... like you're trying to get the lowest time, which is what I meant by score

[ZOM_BIES]

looking forward to this, I personally never spedran (that's how u write it?) any games

[BurritoBeans]

After a few hours of documenting 1,197 eligible games, the one which was picked to be ran is...

Update: 2/11/18:
After talking with three different people from the community who I have some sort of connection to on Lufia being the run to get me back into running I was told that I'm a complete idiot - that makes sense. I know that  I said I'd stick with what I've got but being that runners who usually play JRPGs are telling me that it's a mistake makes me quite worried - because of this, I'll be switching my game. Expect a new post with the game to be ran and some sort of start by the end of today.

Lufia & The Fortress of Doom
Platform: SNES
Year Released - 1993
Genre - RPG
Developer - Neverland
Publisher - Taito

What do I know about this title?
Well, I know that I got this when I was five at a local EB Games (before they were Gamestop anyways) which had it sitting on a shelf - the box looked neat and I wanted to have more than Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo which I used when I wasn't on the 3DO, so I convinced my parents to get it for me as it was only $10 or so. I vaguely remember beating it but I had to be in elementary school, maybe eight or nine years old at most - the most I can remember off the top of my head is that it was fun but took a while to get through.

The Issues
Well, for starters, I know that it took a ton of time when I first played it - if I can clear it without knowing anything in the first week then I'll be absolutely amazed. Alongside that, usually I don't like to speed through RPGs - I'm going to have to teach myself to work with less grinding/over-leveling and hope for the best.

A Possible Adjustment
Due to this being the game which was picked I may have to increase time for practice to a few hours at least per session - this isn't a short RPG by any means. If this becomes an issue (Which I'd imagine it may depending on my work schedule) I may only play every other day for a full session but I'd like to keep playtime as a daily thing even if only to make small bits of progress.

The Setup
Since as-mentioned earlier I can't stream on my connection, the very best I can do is record my time and come up with some split system that can then be uploaded to somewhere like youtube. I will only be playing on real hardware - a NTSC-U SNES - with the video going out to whatever capture card I can get and the video being displayed on a seperate monitor.

The (Current) Plan
My goal is to have at least one full playthrough of this, probably segmented, within two weeks from now - one week would be amazing, the less time the better, but it'll depend on how fast I can figure the game out. Once that is done, alongside practicing, I would optimally have a basic route plotted out by the end of the month.

Due to it being just about midnight at the time of posting this, I'm going to hold back playtime until after I get some sleep - expect to see the first progress update at the end of next week with the chance of updates during the week depending on what I get done.

[BurritoBeans]

Paper Mario. For 300+ frame perfect inputs.

In my dreams. For anyone who doesn't get this reference and has interest in possibly the most complex trick in a Nintendo 64 game, please take the seven minutes to watch this video:

speed running has never been really interesting for me tbh. I just like the adventure aspect of a game, not the high scores part.

Yeah, it's all really personal preference. I love it myself - I spent a ton of time playing games like Goldeneye/Perfect Dark/Timesplitters which encourage quick play and made me love the concept - but hey, at least you know what you like.

looking forward to this, I personally never spedran (that's how u write it?) any games

Well, you could always give it a try xD

Really though, thanks for showing interest - I'm never exactly that sure if I should write threads since I feel that topics will just be bumped out and die in three replies so I like knowing that someone may at least follow it for a little while.

[BurritoBeans]

So after hearing from now nine different people saying that Lufia is a complete mistake and to switch to a simpler and non-standard RPG, I've done just as such.



Hydlide 3: Yami Kara no Houmonsha
Also Known As: Hydlide 3: The Space Memories
Year - 1989
Genre - Action RPG
Developer - T&E Soft
Publisher - Namcot

So why the change to another RPG?
Well, I stuck with the same method of picking a game which goes a little something like this:

1. Put the amount of games into a random number generator
   
2. Have it pick a number
   
3. Go find that number in relation to the spreadsheet of games that I can play
   
4. Go get that game off the shelf
   

This may be a complete mistake, but I know for a fact based on the first third of Super Hydlide that this should be a lot more tolerable - it plays more like Zelda and has a funky plot.

The (New) Issues
Well, to start, it's in Japanese - it's nothing complex, the Famicom never does anything more than standard kana characters due to graphical and memory limitations, but this means that I have to figure out menu options and make some sort of guide for myself. I could run from an emulator and use a patch for English but I'd much rather not as any patched ROM could be deemed cheating and invalidated by mods on speedrunning sites.

Are you going to change again?
Nope - I told myself that the first game would be the one I stuck with and broke it because people called me crazy for wanting to use Lufia, but at this point I feel that swapping again would be a mistake as I'd never actually get on with the concept.

Are glitches allowed?
Well, the category is going to be any% for this so the quicker the better - if I could find some ways to do things like make my stats crazy and be able to breeze through then that'd be amazing, but I guess I'll just have to see.

What if this game gets boring?
I'm sticking through until I feel I have a good run - if it gets that boring then I'll find a stopping place to leave the run and go start a new one.

The Goals
These are the same as I said they'd be in the Lufia post before I went back on it - I want to have a full run of the game by hopefully the end of the week, a route by the end of the month, and be able to submit times by the end of the month.

Expect some sort of video soon, possibly by the end of the day if I can figure out anything.

[BurritoBeans]

Week One

If you can't guess based on the title, holy hell do I suck at this game. Due to this and other issues with recording, I won't have a video as you don't want to sit through nine hours of me walking into NPCs and then stabbing some dude in the kneecaps - it would have to be segmented (read under "The Bad) which invalidates the whole run - so maybe at a later date after this is said and done I'll put it up, until then it's going to sit in the pile of shame.

The Good:

1. I did clear the game with a time of 9h34min58sec. It's a bad time but it is a win.
   
2. I've got a basic idea on strategies for enemies
   
3. There is a list of splits to base my times off of.
   

The Bad:

1. My Japanese sucks so I have a hard time figuring out which items I do and don't want to get at stores. I've found the basics - weapons, armor, rations, the lamp and oil, etc. - but past that I've got as much of a clue as a seal.
   
2. My time is notably worse on this version of the game than Super Hydlide when I went and played it after my first clear - this is probably because Super Hydlide is somewhat easier gameplay-wise for what I can tell but most of it is probably just me being bad at the game.
   
3. I'm having constant issues with OBS stopping and starting or locking up when saving the video file once it goes for so long - I'm assuming this is my computer and due to needing an unedited video file for the run to be accepted I'll be switching to a different computer or finding out an alternative.
   

So yeah, a bit of good and a bit of bad. The recording-related issues should be worked out soon - I have an older mITX computer which I can use as a dedicated machine for recording and should play a bit nicer with the software. The one issue with this is that I'm using an RF-out Famicom, not an A/V Famicom, but the video quality is good enough that you can clearly see what's happening. For the issue of Japanese I'll be making myself some sort of sheet that lists out items and their translations to English which should help me out.

On the topic of OBS I would like to know what people usually like for setups - currently it looks like this

I may adjust splits but I'm sure there would still be blank space in the corner so I'd like to know if people think a camera of my hands on the controller logos and whatnot would be better to fill that blank space.

For Next Week
The goals are somewhat stated above, but for clarity I would like to:

1. Lower my time (Now that I have a general idea of the game, an hour or more would be nice)
   
2. Get a proper setup with which I can record and a somewhat better layout
   
3. Start on maps, lists, and routes
   
4. Put some sort of video online as a starting point