Introduction to Speedrunning
Definition of Speedrunning
Speedruning is when an individual attempts to complete part or all of a video game as quickly as possible. This can include individual leves, specific objectives, or unique limitations as decided by the community or player.
Brief History
In the 1990s, people began to exchange ideas and share scored and techniques online. Forums and mailing lists became important platforms for this exchange of information. In 1996, the "Speed Demos Archive" was founded, a website dedicated to collecting and archivig speedruns, allowing the speedrunning community to grow and share knowledge of glitches, techniques, strategies, and to improve each other's speedruns.
Overview of the Speedrunning Community
Community is an essential aspect of Speedrunning according to speedrunners themselves, because it motivates players and helps in the development of routes and tricks used in speeruns.
Speedrunners use platforms like YouTube and Twitch to share videos and livestreams of speedruns. The speedrunning community is divided into many sub-communities focused on speedrunning specifica games. These sub-communities form their own independent leaderboards and communicate about their games in Discord or similar platforms.
Popular Games for Speedrunning
Classic games
Super Mario Bros.
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| YouTuber darbian in his speedrun record video 4:56.528 |
Super Mario 64
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| YouTuber Xoofey in his speedrun record video 47:48 |
Super Metroid
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Speedrun in 1:19:55 (100%) by zoast (SNES) in SGDQ 2013 |
Modern games
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Any% Speedrun in 45:40 by Squashua |
Super Mario Odyssey
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| Super Mario Odyssey Speedrun by Polygon in 1:03:19 |
Celeste
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| Celeste 100% Speedrun World by Chaikitty in 1:43:31.596 |
Types of Speedruns
100%
100% - Completing the entire game. This can often include completing certain objectives, collecting all key items, completing all side quests, etc. What counts as 100% is determined by the community and game moderators.
Any%
Any% - It's simply to complete the game as fast as possible. Any% is about finding the shortest way to the goal. It uses a variety of glitches and tricks in order to make other ways of completing the games.
Glitchless runs
Glitchless is a category that avoids using glitches to complete the game. It can often rely on tricks, but you won't need to learn anything considered a glitch by the community.
Tool - Assisted Speedruns (TAS)
A tool-assisted speedrun is a video game speedrun that has been optimized via TAS software, a special set of tools made to assist with speedrunning. These toools usually include TASInput, which can send precise controller, mouse, and keyboard inputs to the game, and savestates, which can be used to return to an earlier state of gameplay to further optimize.
References
What is speedrunning? - Support - Speedrun.com. (n.d.). https://www.speedrun.com/support/learn/what-is-speedrunning
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, June 13). Speedrunning. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedrunning
The history of speedrunning — Striked. (n.d.).
https://striked.gg/blog/52-the_history_of_speedrunning
The new Mario “Super Mario Odyssey” can be cleared in 1 hour, if you cut the movie part you can shorten it to just 33 minutes. (2018, April 9). GIGAZINE. https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20180409-super-mario-odyssey-speedrun/
Chaikitty. (2020, July 17). Celeste 100% speedrun in 1:43:31.596! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhimD6dE40Q
Any% in 45:40 by Squashua - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Speedrun.com. (n.d.).
SpeedDemosArchiveSDA. (2013, November 8). Super Metroid - SPEED RUN in 1:19:55 (100%) by zoast [SNES] #SGDQ 2013 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHw9I15HVrU
Xoofey. (2021, April 25). [5th place] Super Mario 64 - 70 Star Speedrun in 47:23 by Xoofey [Video]. YouTube.
darbian. (2017, October 21). (4:56.528) Super Mario Bros. any% speedrun *Former World Record* [Video]. YouTube.
Done by Samuel Arosemena
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