Speed Runs of the Week 9

Yep after over a month hiatus it's back.

Tools Assisted Speed Run (TAS)

Mega Man and Bass (SNES) "100 CDs" parrot14green, woabclf, sparky in 38:07.6

Interestingly the SNES games were fading away after 1995 when Sony's Playstation finally came out, but this game was as out as late as 1998! But just because the game is 1998 doesn't mean the game is glitch free. This game is probably the most glitchy non-8Bit game for the entire Megaman Franchise. More interestingly the run collects all 100 CDs with only 1 character, which is impossible without the aid of Zip glitches.
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Real Time Run (Not Tools Assisted)

Metroid Prime 2 100% Single Segment Speed Run in 1:56 (In-game time) by MilesSMB



This beats a ~5 year old run that was segmented by ~ 30 minutes which shows how much you can improve on games like this years later. The runner has some very high quality runs on the first 2 Metroid Prime games, he recently cleared a Segmented Any% on Prime 1 with the in-game time of 1:00. The first game came out in Nov 2002 so I am hoping he can produce a 0:59 on Prime 1 before Nov 2012.

DS Capture Device

A lot of people are asking me how my DS can directly capture footage now:

It uses a USB Connection via pass through and it's very easy to use:

* Not only you can make snapshots of the game but you can also record footage directly. This is a huge bonus as players can record touch screen based games without having a giant hand/stylus blocking in the way.

However you do need a pretty fast PC to be able to handle it.
For the best performance, you need at least 2 USB 3.0 slots, one for the capture device and one for a USB 3.0 External Hard drive. A usb 2.0 external hard drive into a USB 2.0 slot works ok but it does drop frames from 1-10 at unexpected times if you were recording at 60fps. Do not plug a USB 2.0 external hard drive into a USB 3.0, it 'overclocks' it in my opinion.

I would mention the name of who did this mod for me but the worse case scenario is that people would request this so badly to the point that not everyone can get the DS modded by the same guy. Also he is trying to get some more pieces sometime in mid-December so in the meantime he is looking up on modding the 3DS.

The playback from the flash player is heavily compressed, so some of the text on the top right might be hard to read.

Hype month

November is the month of hype, loads of triple A titles coming out this month.

The DS and PSP are a bit left out this month thanks to the successors of the 3DS and the PSVita (out February 22nd but over a month in Japan).

On the console branch, the Wii does have a few good exclusive titles including:
The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword,
Kirby's Adventure Wii &
Mario and Sonic at the London Olympic games

Xbox 360 Kinect has 2 notable games including:
Kinect Sports: Season 2 &
Dance Central 2
The console also has 1 remake coming out to celebrate 10 years of the franchise:
Halo Combat Evolved: Anniversary.

Not only the single player campaign is visually enhanced but it contains a DLC code to unlock the newest multiplayer map pack based on the early Halo maps but it also includes a new Firefight map to be played on Halo Reach.

There isn't a lot of exclusive PS3 games other than:
Uncharted 3 &
Little Big Planet Special edition.
Uncharted 3 is already out and is receiving critical acclaim.

The 3DS has some big games that are coming out and no, they are not 'cheap' remakes/ports from the HD/N64 console including:
Super Mario 3D Land,
Cave Story 3D (first retail appearance)
Shinobi &
Sonic Generations (different to the HD consoles)

I would also include Mario Kart 7 but that game isn't out until early December!

On the third party games, there is an impressive amount including:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Will CoD reach 1 million in the UK in less than 24 hours for the 3rd time running? Very likely, especially the trade-in deal at GAME that if you trade in Battlefield 3 you can get CoD MW3 for only 99p

Not everyone loves First Person Shooters, some people think there are too many of them. Here are a bunch of good games that does not involve guns in a first person view that takes place in a military war.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3,
Rayman: Origins,
Metal Gear Solid HD collection &
Sonic Generations (Best Sonic game in a decade)

With the exception of Rayman: Origins, these games are out on HD consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3) and not on the Wii.

Speed Runs of the Week 8

Tools Assisted Speed Run (TAS)

TAS: SNES Super Mario World (USA) in 10:22.17 by ISM & Mister

This run uses the Star Road warp route, reaching Bowser's Castle in less than 10 minutes. You get to see some very interesting glitches along alway including a block duplication glitch that can create 'Yoshi Wing's when duplicating a block near a Yoshi Coin and Smashola used to zip down the spin blocks very quickly.

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Real Time Run (Not Tools Assisted)

Super Monkey Ball in 18:54 by Cosmo

It's Super Monkey Ball done hardcore, quick and deathless. Can't say anything else really.

Speed Runs of the Week 7

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS)

NES Excitebike (JPN/USA) in 05:29.44 by Lord Tom

Times for each track are:

• 0 = 36.19
• 1 = 37.84
  
• 2 = 38.67
• 3 = 41.96
• 4 = 41.00
• 5 = 31.34

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Real time run (Not Tools Assisted)

Super Meat Boy Speed Run Light World Ending in 20:10 by Exo



Super Meat Boy originally came out late last year as a suprise hit on Xbox Live Arcade and Steam. A new speed run was posted onto the Speed Demos Archive forums that shows very good execution and deathless too. It recently got featured on Team Meat's Twitter page.

Speed Runs of the Week 6

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS)

NES Rockman by Shinryuu & FinalFighter in 12:23.34



Rockman is the Japanese name of Mega Man.

When "perfection" is defined as "as fast as possible", it requires some sacrifices. Indeed, this movie sacrifices a lot in the playability of the game. Full of tricks to pass through walls, tricks to avoid mandatory battles, tricks to pass through enemies relatively unharmed, tricks to acquire weapon refills in little time — there is very little in this movie left that resembles normal playing. Even death is used as a viable playing strategy that saves time. All of the tricks are still performed by the means of mere controller input, even though significant portions of the input were calculated by a computer program.

This movie is a considerable improvement of 3:04.39 to the previous run; this is mainly due to a new technique which tricks the game into calling an 'end of level' object.

Of course, upon watching this movie, one does have to question something... is it Mega Man saving the world? Or Dr. Wily trying to save it from absolute destruction?

This run has won three awards in 2010 on the TASvideos site including:
Glitchy TAS of 2010
NES TAS of 2010
Best overall TAS of 2010

Highlight: The credits, it's a mess.
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Real time run (Not Tools Assisted)

Metroid Fusion - SS 1% Speedrun in 0:49 (In-game time of 49 minutes) by BioSpark



Metroid Fusion came out in November 2002, for those who have played through the game will probably remember how deadly the enemies were part way through the game. The runner picks up the lowest amount of expansions (which is only 1 Missle expansion, 0 on both Energy Tanks and Power Bomb expansions). With only 99 units of life, most of the enemies and later bosses have enough power to kill you in less than 3 hits!! That alone is pretty impressive and the runner had the guts to say that the boss fights were the easiest parts.

Highlight: Ridley X boss fight!

Early Nintendo Conference reaction.

While most of us in the UK were pretty much asleep, in Japan there was a pre-TGS conference revealing more information about the future of the Nintendo 3DS.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the system, from the price cut back in August to the secondary circle pad add-on that was revealed last week.
During the event they revealed a bit more information about the add on including:

*It's priced 1,500 yen (roughly £12)
*It uses x1 AAA Battery
*Out December 10th in Japan

My only concern is how long it will last before replacing it with a new one, it feels like the 90s again where most of the portable gamers had to save up money or ask mum to buy a new pair of AA batteries. It would be decent if this AAA battery can last as long as a TV remote or a Wireless Keyboard.

The add on itself looks like Nintendo's way of making the portable future proof, except that it looks half done. I can imagine a redesigned model will support up to date features built in and not like the ill fated Megadrive/Genesis add ons. Look at the Wii remote for example, the Motion Plus accessory was only an add-on in 2009 but in late 2010 technology became so advanced that Motion Plus features were built inside newer Wii remotes calling it the Wii Remote Plus.



This isn't an official image but look at how much neater it looks! Now that is a good example of how a potential redesigned 3DS could look like.






Compared to the official image (Original 3DS model with the secondary circle pad add on).

Enough of dissing the model. Some of the games that were meant to be out this year got delayed until 2012 thanks to the support of this add on. The most notable example of this is Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D.

The system also has the upper hand now when it comes to play dual stick first person shooters in speckless 3D! Some of the 3D Action/platformer/adventure games will benefit with better camera controls. I also forgot to mention that it will have more shoulder buttons, all of these inputs are nearly as much as a PS2 controller but without the 'pushing sticks', and with a touch screen instead.


But more importantly, it enables the 3DS gamers who had the system since March 2011 to buy a simple add on and not be forced to buy a newer, up to date model to enable them to play the newest games that uses or requires add-on control support.



The games:

There has been a good amount of announcements including 2 Monster Hunter Games coming out on the 3DS, that's right 2. Monster Hunter is pretty big in Japan so I can imagine the 3DS selling pretty well during the Christmas holidays. Monster Hunter 3G is out December 10th 2011 in Japan while Monster Hunter 4 is in development.

Two of the must have 3DS games has release dates worldwide now!

Super Mario 3D Land
Japan: November 3rd
USA: November 13th
Europe: November 18th

Mario Kart 7
Europe: December 2nd
USA: December 4th
Japan: December 7th

To make things awkward for the European fans, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is out on the same day as Super Mario 3D Land! Ahh

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords freebie has a release date and a new name:

Out Sepember 28th and renamed as: The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition. In this version you can play the original Four Swords solo, and it contains 2 new areas (6 levels) exclusive to the DSiware freebie.

That's it for now. Expect a new post later on this week!

Speed runs of the week 5 and other news.

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS)

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past TAS by Tompa (1:16:11.05)



The third produced game in the series, released back in 1991-1992 on the Super Nintendo.
This run use a wobbling trick in order to make Link walk a bit faster. The execution of this maneuver requires the usage of a controller that allows the player to press Up+Down simultaneously (such as, in this case, a modified Snes9x's controller). The traveling-through-walls trick that is seen in the out of bounds glitch run is not used.
Fun fact: If you have ever seen the film Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, you'll probably notice some similar tunes where you see Young Neil playing A Link to the Past on his Nintendo DS or GBA SP... I couldn't remember what system he played it on.

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Real Time Speedrun (Not Tools Assisted)

Awesome Games Done Quick - Altered Beast Co-op Run (07:42)
By Mikwuyama and Stanski



Now for a special run, recorded during Awesome Games Done Quick 2011 marathon that took place earlier this year. Containing Manly muscle men, and an epic script read out by Flicky and Breakdown. If you want to read the entire script
Click here and scroll down to find the big, bold text!
From there, it contains references that is backed up with links to either:
The comments in the forums or videos on Youtube.


In other news I've managed to best my personal record on Streets of Rage yet again. Finishing with an impressive time of 26:05, I think I know a good target to submit the run now!

New personal record: Streets of Rage 1 in under 26:30!

Today on September 7th 2011, I've managed to beat my 1 year old personal record. Now 15 seconds faster, even though I've managed to hit my target of 26:30 and under, I still want to improve it. Round 4 sections 1 & 3 were terribad and looks SDA reject worthy alone, and there were a few mishaps on Round 8 sections 3 & 5. Mr.X fight was actually pretty good, not perfect but still good none of the less. I actually forgot the usual strat when recording it :o

Old time 26:42
New time 26:27!

Speed Runs of the Week 4 & Special mention

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS)
Megadrive Golden Axe (JPN/USA,r1) in 07:01.95 by Mukki



The first notable console port of a classic arcade game. Although it lacks the 'Golden Axe' that Gilius Thunderhead wields, it makes up for it by having 2 extra stages and a survival/vs mode.

Highlight: The dumbest artifical intelligence you'll ever see on a Sega Game and how the credits is longer than the actual gameplay.

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Real Time Speedrun (Not Tools Assisted)

Clue: Speed Run on SNES by Molotov



It's a board game, nuff said.
Highlight: Blink and you miss it.


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Special mention

First ever TAS submission of a Gamecube game



Yep TASvideos.org now accepts Gamecube games, the only unfortunate part is that the emulator isn't stable and doesn't run on every PC/MAC... the emulator doesn't work on my PC yet. This run aims for entertainment only which the term TAS also stands for Tools Assisted Superplay. The author of the run did say that he is planning to redo/update the run by TASing the credits sequence and hopefully better fights. I hope the author chooses a different character (other than Fox) because when using Fox, despite being Top Tier in human play tournaments, the TAS runs mostly abuses his Shine attack and infinites, other characters I've only seen briefly uses a bit more variety.

New notable glitch discovery 29/8/11

Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike Online edition Exploit: How to clear Arcade mode on a demo version



It's more of a exploit rather than a glitch, it doesn't affect the characters/balance at all. But it enables players to experience more of the demo version of the game.

On the demo version, I've found a way to carry on playing the Arcade Mode after clearing the first bonus stage by starting up a 'here comes a new rival' local match. This will only work after destroying the SUV. For Parry the Ball! you need to press start on the second controller as soon as you see the Bonus Points displayed.

While it might be cool being able to clear Arcade mode on the Demo version, you are still restricted to 3 characters:
Ryu,
Ibuki and
Dudley

Speed Runs of the Week 3

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS)

N64 Goldeneye007 in 30:42.48 by Wyster & Scaredsim



Rather than taking the usual stealthy strategy, secret agent 007 treats this first person shooter like any other and runs around shooting things with a complete disregard for human life, including his own. The name is S....TAS.

Highlight: Train mission.


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Real Time Speedrun (Not Tools Assisted)

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle Hero Side Story Single Segment Speed Run
in 29:09.01 (No Deaths) by son1cgu1tar



Sonic Adventure 2 was originally out on the Dreamcast in June 2001 to celebrate 10 years of the Sonic franchise. It also got ported onto the Nintendo Gamecube in less than a year later. This speed run starts off a fresh file (no powerups, new skills from start) and shows some advance execution even when the game gives you the worse camera angles in existence. Although the real time video is roughly 40 minutes, the run aims for the fastest in-game time you get per stage and boss fight. To make the run a bit more challenging, on Knuckle's stages, you have to find 3 Pieces of the Master Emerald (or Keys in Death Chamber) but they are not always at the exact same spots meaning the locations of each piece is random. This also means that some attempts are better than others all because of the locations alone.

Highlight: Crazy Gadget, enough said.

Speed Runs of the Week 2

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS):
TAS: Genesis Sonic 3 & Knuckles in 29:51.2 by Nitsuja & Upthorn & marzojr



Sonic 3 & Knuckles is one of the few games that becomes very entertaining whenever a new run gets submitted.

This run takes everything you know about Sonic 3 and Knuckles and turns it upside-down. It extensively uses the "scroll objects offscreen to pass through them" trick to zip and warp to places that shouldn't be reached, break bosses, and effectively skip entire stages.
The run aims for the fastest In-game time rather than real time.
Example: clearing the stage with 31(+) in-game time seconds is much faster in real time than clearing the stage in 25-30 in-game time seconds. It looks silly for players aiming towards the fastest possible real time run.

Grand total In-game time: 19:44::57

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Real time speedrun (Non TAS)

World Of Goo Speed Run by ridd3r (0:53:41)



World of Goo is one of the highest rated games on both Wiiware and Steam, it recently came out on Apple's iPad. This run never uses the 'skip a level' option and it shows a good amount of exploits in the game/physics engine.

Low budget redesigns.

This week announced two gaming systems to have an unexpected redesign, the first one is a new PSP model called PSP E-1000, it lacks Wi-fi, costs 99 Euros and it's only out in Europe. I’ve never seen more than one person playing the same PSP game so the impact on this loss is not going to be huge, but the lack of internet and probably the inability to recieve DLC may hurt gamers. This isn't a problem for games that are only suited for single player, which are most of the games in the PSP library.

*If the PSP E-1000 was going to be out in Japan*
The impact in Japan will be much more notable since the best selling game is Monster Hunter and as usual, Japan has been huge on using the local multiplayer features from titles like Pokémon, Dragon Quest IX, New Super Mario Bros Wii and the local arcades like Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is supposed to be a great Japanese game (Famitsu 40/40) but a flawed Western Game (Videogamer.com 7/10), flawed enough that it didn't get enough sales outside Japan due to the unfortunate nature of the PSP being less popular than the DS at that time.

The PSP was above average in Japan, competing against both the Wii and 3DS. On the plus side of things the best PSP games are roughly £15 and less here in the UK compared to the current (3)DS games at ~£30.
Would I get a PSP E-1000? It depends on my taste and the PSP library, I would like to use the full features from the PSP , such as Wi-fi for local multiplayer, DLC and the internet. So it's a no for now, but for users that do not have any interest in the wireless features, then it's more likely the E-1000 could prove suitable.


The second game system to have an unexpected redesign is the Nintendo Wii.
I was a bit surprised to hear that this system is getting a redesign, and unlike the PSP, the notable cut is the lack of backwards compatability/Gamecube Support, including:
GC Controllers,
GC Memory Cards and
GC Games.
This also means no 5 player support on the Tubrografx games!

To make things more shocking, the redesign forces the system to be laid horizontally and the original Wii models will be discontinued. I dislike this idea because you could release a bundle with GC support for the hardcore gamer audience just like the 250GB Xbox 360 Slim bundles.

This is huge indication that the Gamecube support is going to be gone for good. Just like how the DS/Game Boy Micro ditched the Gameboy Classic support. This low budget version cuts only affects a few Wii games like Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Sonic Unleashed, Mario Kart Wii and a few others, so it doesn't sound as bad as you think, unlike the PSP sacrificing Wifi = no multiplayer and DLC extras on a PSP game

The Wii has been largely successful with local/party games like Wii Sports (Resort), Rayman Rabbids, Mario & Sonic series, Just Dance series, Mario Kart Wii and the redesign cuts will not affect these games.

The new redesign is mostly aimed for the casual audience to showcase the most important features, and remove the rarely used features like Gamecube support. It might be a dirty tactic, but possibly an effective way for new (most likely casual) customers to try out and buy the redesigned Wii this Christmas 2011, before the Wii U is out 2012.

Speed Runs of the week 1

Tools Assisted Speedrun (TAS):

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask TAS in 1:29:32 by MrGrunz



Majora's Mask is often considered one of the more entertaining speed runs of a 3D Zelda game, the action starts off pretty slow but once he learns the Song of Healing that is when the action starts to really shine.

This TAS of the game is the result of three years of hard work and many restarts due to new discoveries. It features many never-before-seen tricks and glitches, and completes every dungeon without getting a single boss key. Everything is done out of order, in ways that will amaze the viewer and keep them on the edge of their seat the entire way through, including a whole new way of warping between the areas in the game's over-world, and a new method of traveling that makes even the longest stretches in the game seem tiny.

Because of this, it beats a nearly 4 year old TAS run by just under 45 minutes!! It is also currently rated with a SPECIAL STAR meaning it's an incredibly high quality run in both technical and entertainment.

Funny thing is that one of the new tricks is not discovered by me but someone I don't know personally who lives pretty nearby :o

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Real time (not Tools Assisted) speed run:

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind Speedrun in 4:19 by Jānis 'Pendrokar' Lukss




It's pretty suprising how an open world W-RPG can be cleared in less than 5 minutes. I personally love older game engines too because the flaws are usually abusable and useful too. One of the early spells you get in the game enables the player to jump across the map for 7 seconds. Jump as soon as possible and hopefully land before the 7th second otherwise you'll take major fall damage. Raise the brightness up on your PC monitor if you find it hard to watch the dungeon segments because of the dark colours.

Loads of tricks like 'constant item attribute bug' and using the 'harmful weapons' safely are explained in this page: http://speeddemosarchive.com/Morrowind.html

Streets of Rage 1 Speed Run: Axel on Easy Difficulty in 26:42

This run was recorded back in May 2010, I didn't feel like submitting this run to SDA because it is still improvable. I want to aim for 26:30 and lower at the very least to make it submittable.

Game: Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection
Console: Xbox 360
Recorded: By HDD DVD Recorder.




Downloadable Mp4 video: Should be playable on your iPod (Touch), iPhone, etc.
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20639236/SoR1axel2642_mp4

Dreamcast with S-video

This a video I recorded a week ago, and used it as a Video Quality Test on Speed Demos Archive, Nate said it looks great. What is interesting about S-video is that:
* It looks better than the basic composite cables (Yellow, White and Red)
* It's a very uncommon type of video cable here in the UK, most of the accessories you find in retail stores are SCART, Component and/or HDMI.
* While S-video works on my PAL Dreamcast, it does not work on my PAL Wii system, not only it gives out a black and white picture but there is a huge black line across the screen making it pretty much unwatchable.



Direct download of the video if the Flash player is laggy and slow:
http://www.gamefront.com/files/20589139/OuttriggerSvideo_HQ_mp4

My first post

Hey it's me Greenalink, you may remember me from speed runs such as:

Super Mario 64 DS,
New Super Mario Bros [DS]
and Shadow Complex.

Not to forget my published Tools Assisted Speed run (TAS for short)
Wario Land Super Mario Land 3 in 21:49.15 by me

I am also a great glitch hunter, finding bugs that are either game breaking, useful, or useless. Including:

*Own evidence (found this myself)*
GTA Chinatown Wars: How to complete the DS version in less than 5 minutes

Lara Croft GoL: How to perform infinite jumps (co-op) and Lara Croft having a psychic shield.

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time: How to Skip Basement floor 1 inside the Deku Tree with a simple jump (no glitchy techniques like Hovering and Megaflip/Mega sidehop).

Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass: Boomerang tricks through walls to get unreachable keys, Hammer over Doors to hit unreachable foot switches.

Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past GBA: How to corrupt the file and become 'cursed' Link.

Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks: 1 major timesaver in the Marine/Ocean temple.

Wario Land Super Mario Land 3: Wario's Fake Death glitch


*Supported evidence (already discovered just recently but I posted them to show that it is legit)*
Super Smash Brothers Melee: Playing as Master Hand without cheat devices

Ocarina of Time 3D: Starting a new game with ANY item on B.

Stay tuned to this blog as I will post some interesting updates such as opinions on old/new games and other cool stuff along the way.

In case you haven't seen my youtube channel it's
www.Youtube.com/Greenalink