Remember those afternoons spent glued to the CRT, desperately trying to finish a game before your parents called you for dinner? Or maybe you just wanted bragging rights for beating your buddy's high score or clearing a level faster than anyone else on the block? That drive to master a game, to push its limits, is the heart of what today we call speedrun games.
It's a phenomenon that takes our shared nostalgia for retro classics and elevates it to an incredible art form. While the concept of beating a game quickly isn't new, the modern world of speedrunning is a vibrant, dedicated community pushing the boundaries of what's possible in games we thought we knew inside and out.
What Exactly Is a Speedrun?
At its core, a speedrun is simply an attempt to complete a video game, or a section of one, as quickly as possible. Sounds straightforward, right? But like trying to navigate the Lost Woods without a guide, it gets complicated quickly.
Speedruns are tracked and verified on sites like Speedrun.com, with leaderboards for thousands of titles. What makes it interesting is that there isn't just one way to speedrun a game. The community typically breaks it down into categories:
- Any%: Just reach the end credits as fast as possible. This is where things get wild, as any method is usually fair game.
- 100%: Complete all objectives, collect all items, and then finish the game as fast as possible. A true test of comprehensive mastery.
- Glitchless: Finish the game as fast as possible without using programming errors or exploits. This often looks more like a perfect, intended playthrough.
- Glitched: Finish the game as fast as possible specifically by using glitches, bugs, or exploits. This category is often mind-bending, involving complex setups to break the game in fascinating ways.
For us retro fans, watching a glitched speedrun of a game you played as a kid can be genuinely shocking. Seeing someone warp from the first level of Super Mario World directly to the credits in under a minute using a bizarre code injection trick? It completely flips your understanding of the game on its head!
Why Speedrun Retro Games?
While modern games certainly get the speedrun treatment, there's a special magic when it comes to pixelated and low-poly classics. Why?
- Deep Nostalgia: These are the games many speedrunners grew up with. There's an inherent love and familiarity that drives the desire to master them.
- Understood Mechanics: While modern games have complex systems, retro games often have simpler, more predictable core mechanics. This allows runners to focus intensely on optimization and finding edge cases.
- Hidden Depths: Even simple-looking retro games often hide incredibly complex glitches or sequence breaks that weren't discovered for years, sometimes decades, after release. The community is still finding new tricks in 30-year-old games!
- Accessibility: Many classic games are easily emulated or available on platforms like GOG.com, making them accessible for practice.
It's about revisiting a beloved piece of your past and seeing it performed at a level you couldn't have possibly imagined back then.
More Than Just Mashing Buttons: The Community and Dedication
Think speedrunning is just one person sitting in a room practicing alone? Think again! The modern speedrunning scene is incredibly collaborative.
- Strategy Sharing: Runners constantly share discoveries – new routes, time-saving tricks, complex glitches. What looks like an individual achievement is often built upon the collective knowledge of the community.
- Practice, Practice, Practice: Setting a world record isn't a fluke. It requires thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of attempts to achieve the near-perfect execution needed. One small mistake can ruin a run that's been going for an hour.
- Problem Solving: Speedrunners are like digital detectives, analyzing game code, testing theories, and experimenting for hours to shave off milliseconds. It's a deep dive into game design and programming.
This dedication and teamwork are genuinely inspiring, turning a solo hobby into a global pursuit of optimization.
Watching the Masters: Where to See Speedruns
Curious to see these incredible feats for yourself? The best place to start is online:
- Twitch & YouTube: Many top speedrunners stream their practice and record attempts live on Twitch. YouTube is home to countless recorded runs and, famously, documentary-style videos (like those by Summoning Salt) detailing the history of world records for specific games, showing the evolution of strategies over time.
- Games Done Quick (GDQ): This is the premier speedrunning marathon event. Held twice a year (Awesome Games Done Quick in winter, Summer Games Done Quick in summer), runners gather to perform speedruns live for an audience, all while raising millions of dollars for charities like Doctors Without Borders and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Watching these events is a fantastic way to see a huge variety of games speedrun and experience the community's energy firsthand.
Seeing a runner finally nail a difficult trick after hours of attempts, or watching the crowd erupt when a record is broken live on stage, is incredibly exciting and heartwarming.
The Thrill of the Chase
Ultimately, the world of speedrun games is a testament to human ingenuity, dedication, and passion. It takes the simple act of playing a game and transforms it into a competitive sport, a collaborative puzzle, and a charitable force.
Whether it's revisiting a pixelated platformer, a classic RPG, or an early 3D adventure, speedrunners breathe new life into these cherished titles, reminding us of the incredible depth and challenge they offered. So next time you're feeling nostalgic, maybe look up a speedrun of a game you loved. You might just see it in a whole new light.
FAQ
Q: What's the difference between a "glitchless" and a "glitched" speedrun? A: A glitchless run completes the game using only the mechanics and routes intended by the developers. A glitched run intentionally uses programming errors or exploits to skip sections, gain advantages, or finish faster.
Q: What is Games Done Quick (GDQ)? A: Games Done Quick is a semi-annual event where speedrunners gather to perform live speedruns of various games for charity. It's a major showcase for the speedrunning community and raises millions of dollars.
Q: How do speedrunners find new strategies or glitches? A: It's a combination of deep game knowledge, experimentation, community collaboration, and sometimes even analyzing the game's code. Runners share findings on forums, Discord servers, and wikis.
Q: Can anyone try speedrunning? A: Absolutely! While world records require extreme dedication, anyone can pick a game they love, time their playthrough, and try to improve. There are resources online for beginners looking to get started.