This article first appeared on Xfire.com on January 21, 2021. Substantial edits have been made for its republication here.
Speedrunning can either be a sprint or a marathon, depending on the game. It essentially involves finishing a game in the shortest time possible, whether it takes minutes or multiple days. This is the complete opposite of a completionist run, where players aim to acquire everything and achieve top ratings in each level, regardless of time spent. Today, completionist runs are highly encouraged by the Achievements system, where players strive to acquire Platinum trophies. Interestingly, completionist runs are also a category of speedrunning, where the goal is to complete everything as quickly as possible.
Speedrunning has grown significantly and is now bigger than ever. eSports has expanded exponentially in recent years, and in many ways, competitive gaming evolved from speedrunning. The various forms of eSports competition today can be seen as the natural evolution of single-player competitive activities.
This guide will introduce you to the world of speedrunning, its history, and game/platform recommendations.
Brief History of Speedrunning
Speedrunning’s roots can be traced to the late 1970s when arcade cabinets recorded high scores, and people competed to beat the highest score. In 1977, Kee Games released Drag Race, a two-player arcade game with an in-game timer that recorded how fast players performed. This game was later ported by Activision as Dragster to the Atari 2600. While gamers competed in high-score games like Tetris, Drag Race/Dragster emphasized speed, making it the first game to incorporate a core mechanic of speedrunning.
Early Positive Reinforcement of Speedrunning in Video Game Design
The original Super Mario Bros. was the first game to positively reinforce speedrunning by adding the remaining time to the player’s score at the end of each level. This subtly suggested that finishing the game quickly was part of the intended gameplay.
Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog also encouraged players to complete levels as fast as possible, linking speed to player skill. Players began repeating games to master them, improving their performance for high scores, not just to finish the game.
In the 90s, speedrunning competitions were improvised due to limited internet access. DOOM players recorded their gameplay footage and sent photographic evidence to gaming magazines, which would publish the records. Others would send in their runs through snail mail to compete. DOOM and Quake were popular among speedrunners because they allowed players to record demo files, capturing all button presses to serve as run recordings.
Speedrunning in Mainstream Media
The subculture of speedrunning caught the attention of mainstream media. From 1991 to 2006, YTV’s Video & Arcade Top 10, hosted by Nicholas Picholas, had children compete in video games to win prizes. In Japan, Famitsu magazine began hosting weekly gaming challenges in 1992, where players sent in VHS recordings of their speedruns. RPGs, once unthinkable for speedrunning, became popular in the 90s, exemplified by a featured speedrun of Parasite Eve in 1998.
Real Time Attack Versus Time Attack
Speedrunning became serious business by the late 90s. Time attack speedruns relied on in-game timers, which could be manipulated by replaying sections without losing overall time. Real Time Attack (RTA) speedruns, using external timers, became more popular. Modern timer software can detect loading screens and pauses, providing accurate timing.
In 1999, the Extreme Game Research Group at the University of Tokyo coined the term “real-time attack” for their live speedruns at events like the May Festival. They documented their strategies in comic books and performed speedruns with real-time tracking.
Speedrunning in the West
Speedrunning communities in the West flourished in the early 2000s. The site the-elite.net hosted rankings for GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on the Nintendo 64, where players competed for the fastest completion times. Members had times pages to record their best times, which were assigned points and summed up for an overall score.
Modern Forms of Speedrunning
Today, streaming sites and in-game data collection have made sharing speedruns easier than ever. Video documentation has popularized speedrunning, which remains highly competitive due to the need for near-perfect execution.
Tool Assisted Speedruns (TAS) is a newer category where players use emulator tools like slow motion, rewind, and save states to find the optimal way to complete a game. Though considered controversial by purists, TAS represents the community’s drive to explore new heights in speedrunning.
New Speedrun Communities
In 2010, the Speed Demos Archive, a website dedicated to video game speedruns, decided to come together and stream a charity marathon for the CARE organization. Classic Games Done Quick raised over $10,000 and gave the streamers their first taste of internet fame. A decision was made to host two charity marathons annually, one in the summer and one in the winter. Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick grew in popularity with each iteration. In the winter of 2014, Awesome Games Done Quick raised over a million dollars, making speedrunning officially mainstream.
The Basics of Speedrunning
Speedrunning can involve any game, even those without scoring systems reflecting the player’s traversal time. A player just needs goals and rules. While games with online players can be speedrun, it’s challenging to implement speedrun rules in games like DOTA 2 or Fortnite due to the unpredictable behavior of human competitors.
Speedrunning is essentially about finishing a game as quickly as possible through practice and meticulous planning. Bugs and glitches are often exploited to help the player complete the game faster. Once a speedrun is completed, the video and time are posted on an online leaderboard if the game itself doesn’t have one. Completion times and scores are then compared with others.
Bugs and Glitches Are Not “Cheating”
Exploiting software bugs and glitches is not considered cheating by the speedrunning community. However, using tools like Gameshark or Cheat Engine is considered cheating. Glitches do not require extra hardware or software and are seen as part of the game, even if unintentional. Glitches and bugs are often harder to exploit than playing the game “normally.”
Typically, games must be played with the official controller and not with “turbo” versions, as turbo controllers provide unintended advantages.
Games That Can Be Speedrun
All games can be speedrun, with the exception of certain multiplayer games where it’s difficult to impose rules and goals. Some argue that games like The Sims or Civilization VI cannot be speedrun, but it can be done with imposed rules and goals. MMORPGs can also be speedrun if players aim to reach the end game quickly, provided the game does not require specific party compositions for quests.
For example, in The Sims 4, challenges can be made more interesting by completing them in a limited time. For instance, completing a challenge in 30 Sims sleeps.
Speedrunning on Emulators
Most communities mandate using the actual hardware for speedrunning, but practicing on emulators is not prohibited and is encouraged for practice, thanks to Save States. Some communities officially sanction the use of emulators, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
Speedrun Categories
While exploiting bugs and glitches is allowed, it’s usually specific to certain speedrun categories. The two main sets of categories in speedrunning are single-segment and segmented runs, often with a completion percentage.
Single-Segment vs. Segmented Speedruns:
- Single-Segment: Completing a game in one session without loading save files or quitting.
- Segmented: The player saves and retries multiple parts of the game. Segmented runs are usually faster as they allow for retries of difficult sections.
Loading a save file is only permitted in single-segment runs for games or categories that require it, like NG+. Segmented runs are expected to be faster due to the ability to retry parts of the run multiple times. For level or track-based games, segmented runs may be replaced by an Individual Level table.
Any% vs. Low% vs. 100%
Any%: Completing the game as quickly as possible by any means.
Low%: Collecting the minimum number of items and upgrades necessary to complete the game.
100%: A completionist run where everything in the game is collected.
Any% is the default category for most games. Low% categories are subjective and defined by the community, determining what is considered the “minimum” necessary. The 100% category forces players to collect everything in the game, following the game’s percentage tracking if available. Overlapping categories in some games, like Link to the Past with major game-breaking glitches, may result in new categories like “skip glitches” or warp.
Speedrunning remains a highly competitive subculture, requiring near-perfect execution and a deep understanding of game mechanics.
General Tips on Speedrunning
Speedrunning requires significant skill, which can only be honed through practice. Here are our tips to help you on your speedrunning journey:
- Choose a game you like: It’s hard to replay a game repeatedly if you don’t enjoy it. Start with a game you love, as you may gradually grow to dislike it with repeated playthroughs.
- Learn from your mistakes: Don’t restart the game if you make a mistake early in your run. Finish the entire run to familiarize yourself with the entire level, not just the part where you failed.
- Watch other players: There are many communities and personalities on YouTube and Twitch who stream their games. You can learn a lot by watching their videos or streams.
- Practice: If you have a bad split, practice until you reach your goal. While one bad split can ruin an entire run in some games, others allow you to make up lost seconds.
- Take a break: Your mental health is more important than your records. Take a break if you experience failed runs and gather yourself. Remember, games are made for enjoyment, not punishment.
- Talk to the community: There are communities that will help you. Don’t be intimidated, as even the best players started as beginners.
Speedrun Communities
Every game has its own community. It is highly recommended that you seek out the community specific to the game you are speedrunning, as they will have specific knowledge and advice. Here are some of the best sites for speedrun communities:
- Speedrun.com: The most modern speedrun website, complete with leaderboards, rules, and categories.
- Speeddemosarchive.com (SDA): A dedicated speedrun website that has been running for two decades. They hosted Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick before Games Done Quick LLC started holding the events independently in 2015.
- Speedrunslive.com: Lists speedrunners who are streaming on Twitch at the moment.
Speedrun Glossary Of Terms
Below is table that lists the common terms used in speedrunning.
Term | Definition |
Autofire / Turbo | A third-party controller or emulator function that allows a button being held down to count as being pressed repeatedly as fast as possible. This is usually prohibited. |
Blind | Speedrunning the game with no knowledge of the game that the player might have utilized in his run. |
Buffering | Some games allow players to input actions while another action is being executed. An example of this game is Commander Keen IV, where when you shoot and hold jump, the character will jump on the first possible frame after the shooting animation. |
Bugs / Glitches | Unintentional mistakes on the part of the developers that appears in games and are exploited by players in speedrunning. |
Capture Card | Device used in capturing TV screens for the purpose of streaming the speedrun or recording the run as proof in the competitive settings. |
Category | While we have discussed the usual categories in speedrunning, there are other categories unique for particular games or communities like glitchless runs and 120-Star Run for Super Mario 64 |
Damage Boost | Intentionally getting hit in order to gain extra speed/height or to pass through enemies/obstacles quickly. |
Death Warp | Intentionally dying to save time, usually by avoiding backtracking. |
Frame | Fractions of seconds when it takes time for the game to update the screen and poll input. |
Frame Perfect | A technique in a game that you only have a 1 frame window to successfully pull off. |
Game Time | Time provided by the game itself. |
Input Lag | The delay between the players’ input and their execution onscreen. |
Lag | Slowdowns usually due to the game’s unoptimized coding or the system just cannot handle the game in specific parts. |
Lag Reduction | Techniques and tricks used to avoid lag from occurring. |
Luck-based | RNG-influenced results make runs wildly different from each other. The term luck-based can also be used on actions done in spite of the low success rate even if there is no RNG to influence the result. |
Luck Manipulation | A TAS technique to get good luck. This manipulates the RNG by doing things such as waiting for the right frame, attacking certain frames, or moving in certain ways. |
Non-TAS | Done in real-time without utilizing emulator-specific functions. |
Manipulation | Sanctioned actions done by players to control an outcome of the game’s events like dropping items and spawning in specific locations. |
Mash | The common usage of the word – fast repetition of an action. |
OoB / Out of Bounds | Go out of the intended playing field. This term has different usage depending on a game or community. |
Overflow & Underflow | An exploitable memory glitch. |
Pause Buffer | Pausing some games allow buffering. |
PR | Personal record |
RNG | Random Number Generator, the function in the game that is responsible for different events and results. |
Save State | An emulator function that saves the current state of everything in the game. Load State allows this Save State to be reloaded at will. This is banned in most. if not all, competitive speedrun communities. |
Save Warp | Saving and reloading to save time, typically to avoid backtracking. Similar to Death Warp. |
Sequence Break | Performing something out of order in the intended sequence of events of a game. |
Spawn | Location and time where objects or players appear. This may be random, fixed, or can be manipulated by the player. |
Sub-Pixel | When a game tracks position more accurately than down to the pixel. Sometimes relevant when attempting various sequence breaks/glitches. |
TWR / Tied World Record | A record in the game that has in-game time tracker that has been tied by two or more persons. |
Warp (or Skip Glitch) | A secret method of skipping past levels or worlds in a game. This is common in older games. |
WR | World Record |
Zip | A 2D game’s wall ejection routine sending the player character through the wall rapidly. |
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