Alleviate Episode 3 of 6

Finally, after a bit of a hiatus, here is the third episode in my Alleviate series. This episode covers the speed running subculture of video games (a subculture of a subculture?). The delay in the release of this episode had to do with the inability of an external hard drive to endure a three inch drop onto its side. Suddenly, everything is unreadable and I have a $180 paperweight!

I digress.

Speed Running has a long history among video game enthusiasts. It began as a way to extend the life of favorite games by challenging yourself and others to finish the games as quickly as possible. Before the console days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, games were typically only found in arcades and had no endings. Famous examples like Pac-man and Space Invaders were made to eat your money and the only real test of valor lay in attaining high scores.

With the NES, though, games could be played without a limit on continues (even the most brutally hard games could be bested through perseverance and a high tolerance for pain). So the goal of high scores was replaced by simply beating the game. What followed naturally was being able to beat the game quickly. The Speed Demos Archive is a great place to find all of your favorite games being beaten on their original consoles very quickly and efficiently.

In this modern computer age, we also have the ability to emulate the old consoles on computers. This led to a type of speed run that used computer tools to assist in their development, hence the Tool-assisted speed run was born. TASvideos has the most complete and interesting array of this variety of runs available for download.

A less than compelling thumbnail...

Remember, legitimate console runs are demonstrations of pure human skill and TAS runs are exercises in mathematical precision. Both are fascinating in their own right. Here are a list of some of my favorite runs in both categories:

From the Speed Demos Archive:

Blaster Master, NES, in 0:36:59 - Blaster Master is one of my favorite games, just beating the game is quite an accomplishment.

Contra: Shattered Soldier, PS2 S-Rank in 0:38:01 - Shattered Soldier is a hard game. Earning an S rank means beating the entire game, start to finish, without getting hit once.

Doom 2, PC, Nightmare in 0:29:56 - Doom 2 needs no introduction, it is the seminal first person shooter for the PC. This beats the entire game on Nightmare (which means the enemies are twice as fast and respawn after they die). I could write a novel on my love of Doom, but I won't. Suffice to say, it is a great game with prolific and still-active community.

Mega Man 9, Wii, in 0:21:37 - Mega Man 9 was released on the Xbox360, PS3 and Wii but retains the look of the classic Mega Man titles from the NES. Here the game is destroyed in less than half of an hour.

From TASVideos:

Rockman 2, NES, in 23:54.75 - This is a work of tool assisted art. It completely destroys the game and remakes it in the authors' image. Note: Rockman is the Japanese name for Mega Man, but the game is the same.

Super Metroid, SNES, All items in 1:08:10.87 - Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time. Here's how to collect all of the game's items in just over an hour.

Megaman X and X2, SNES, in 41:41.43 - This is the single best Tool assisted run I've ever seen. The concept is brilliant and simple: Play and beat Megaman X and X2 simultaneously. A feat only possible using emulator tools, both games use the same input (read: controller) and are beaten nearly at the same time. Truly, a marvel.

As an aside, you may wonder if people in this age of fancy 3D games and massively multiplayer extravaganzas still compete for high scores. Of course they do! And not just in a King of Kong kind of way either. A game run that tries for the highest score is called a Superplay. I cover superplays in an upcoming episode of Alleviate.