102
votes
Accepted
Why do speed-runners usually use the Japanese version of a game?
There's a few reasons why a given release of a game (Japanese vs International, NTSC vs PAL) is used for any given run, and they change depending on the game. That said, there's a few common reasons:
...
- 2,673
69
votes
How was it calculated that Dream cheated on his Minecraft v1.16 glitchless speedrun?
The Short Summarized Answer
These are the relevant facts.
These were drop rates for two items important to the speedrun attempts over the course of six livestreams.
Ender pearls are obtained 4.7% of ...
- 71.2k
58
votes
Accepted
On San Andreas Speedruns, why do players blow up the Picador in the mission Ryder?
This video shows it pretty good:
At some point during that mission, a cut scene plays. If you don't blow up the car, you can't skip that scene and you need to wait ...
- 3,196
55
votes
Accepted
Why are there no DOOM 2 Nightmare 100% kill speedruns?
So one of the quirks of the Nightmare difficulty is that monsters respawn.
This means you can actually achieve more than 100% kills for a given level, making the distinction of 100% kills pretty ...
- 1,342
54
votes
Accepted
What is arbitrary code execution (ACE) and how does it affect speedrunning?
Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE) is a glitch that allows the player to cause the instruction pointer to jump to a section of memory that can be written to by the player (such as the filename, the angle ...
- 32.8k
39
votes
Accepted
In Super Metroid, is jumping after running not just as fast as running on the ground?
No, running on the ground is faster because of a tech called Arm Pumping or Shoulder Pumping. While you are running, if you move Samus's arm cannon up and down it advances her forward by 1 pixel.
...
- 29.6k
36
votes
What's the longest speedrun world record?
As @Diehe posted, the longest one for a 100% run is definitely this submission for Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon with 528h 16m 44s.
(It's worth noting that Snowfats is the only submitter of that ...
- 26.2k
34
votes
What's the longest speedrun world record?
There are also a special type of speed run where lower % (less items) takes precedent over time.
Twilight princess has a glitch where it involves looking at a rupee for 17 hours to bypass significant ...
- 14.3k
31
votes
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What is an any % speed run in Diablo 2?
While I haven't played Diablo 2, I can tell you any% speedruns are speedruns with the goal of finishing the game as fast as possible, while allowing the player to ignore side content. The percent ...
- 12.8k
29
votes
Why do speed-runners usually use the Japanese version of a game?
Since you asked about Legend of Zelda specifically: Cosmo, the former (non-tool-assisted) speedrun world record holder for Ocarina of Time, released a very cool annotated video explaining the glitches ...
24
votes
What is an any % speed run in Diablo 2?
You can see the rules and descriptions specifically for diablo 2 here https://www.speedrun.com/d2lod (press 'view rules' button)
Any% in d2 means that the timer starts on character creation of a lvl 1 ...
- 349
20
votes
Accepted
In Mario 64 speedruns, why are the keys necessary?
The reason why is because the castle is split into multiple zones (ground floor, basement, and upper castle), which are not loaded at the same time. Like the outside of the castle is a separate zone, ...
- 349
19
votes
What is arbitrary code execution (ACE) and how does it affect speedrunning?
I'm not 100% sure about the inner workings of various assemblers and processors, but I'm attempting as best as I can to explain, how I understand it
Let's say the machine instructions to perform a ...
- 291
16
votes
How does "wrong-warping" happen, and how can I do it myself?
To fully understand why this works (because it's not simple), I have to talk about programming briefly.
Most of the time nowadays, programmers don't worry about hardware when they code business ...
- 2,025
15
votes
What's the longest speedrun world record?
Slightly different type of game, but a strong mention for Runescape, specifically old school runescape as it takes longer to max.
A mod tweeted the record for fastest "Maxing" (highest level ...
- 151
14
votes
How does "wrong-warping" happen, and how can I do it myself?
This Zelda: Ocarina of Time Speedrun in 18:10 by Cosmo YouTube video explains all the details.
From 12:34 to 13:44:
With Goma dead, the insanity is really about ...
- 10.4k
11
votes
In Mario 64 speedruns, why are the keys necessary?
There are different categories of speed runs. They are split up based on how many stars are required before finishing the game.
The relevant categories are:
0 stars
1 star
16 stars
70 stars
120 ...
- 62k
11
votes
What is an any % speed run in Diablo 2?
Generally, as @PausePause has said, Any% (without any qualifiers) involves using "any means necessary" to "complete the game" as quickly as possible - the quotations are there ...
- 219
11
votes
Can you speedrun Bomberman with an emulator?
There is nothing much that could stop you speedrunning on emulator if you would like to. Not like the game would simply self destruct to prevent you speedrunning, lol.
But that means the question is ...
- 37.8k
10
votes
Looking for more detailed explanation concerning SMB flagpole glitch
I've found a pretty good explanation of how to pull off this glitch in this thread:
Okay so, to start off with, you need to have as close as possible to a perfect room 1 and room 2, you can still get ...
- 63k
9
votes
Accepted
Why do speed runners use different languages
If a game has a lot of text to scroll through, there is a chance that in another language you have to scroll though fewer text to save some seconds for your run. Or the voice acting goes a little bit ...
- 355
9
votes
What is the fewest cycles to clear Majora's Mask, without exploiting glitches?
This is the glitchless speedrun, which appears to use 2 cycles (counting the prologue cycle):
Less cycles should not be possible since you have to get the Ocarina on ...
- 1,819
8
votes
Why do speed-runners usually use the Japanese version of a game?
Sometimes they use Japanese or American versions as they run in 60hz which way more faster than European/Australian (PAL versions) ones which run in 50hz.
It's 17% faster. This ratio is computed like ...
- 401
8
votes
Accepted
Fastest route to 99 lives in Super Mario World
Assuming you want to get 99 lives as fast as possible from a fresh start, I believe the optimal solution is not to race to later levels but to spam Yoshi's Island 2, where you can quickly get several ...
- 592
8
votes
Accepted
Diablo 2 Andariel in 30 seconds
There is no trick to it. On single player (non-battle.net play) the map is consistent. He simply reads the map and teleports to the icons on the map.
If you leave the game and start a new one on the ...
- 29.6k
7
votes
What's the longest speedrun world record?
Honorable mention to this 100% run of Animal Crossing with the added challenge that no Nook codes are used. There's no category for this specific restriction on speedrun.com, but the run itself comes ...
- 221
6
votes
Accepted
Can Chell die in the credit sequence?
Massive Spoiler Warning
TL;DR: There is no way to die without using console commands. The line in speedrun.com seems to come from theories, people theorize that Chell dies at the end of Portal 2, ...
- 497
6
votes
Accepted
Why does frame rate matter for speedruns in games with in-game timers?
I would think if the frame rate dipped, it would slow the timer down just as much.
That's where you're mistaken. The in-game timer isn't a frame counter, it's a timer. Either it's driven by a timer ...
- 902
6
votes
Accepted
Does a Super Mario Galaxy 100% Speedrun Count if I don't get a star with Luigi?
According to speedrun.com, there's a category for 120 stars and another for 242 stars.
120 category rules:
Start timing when selecting "Play This File," and end timing when touching the ...
- 13k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the fewest cycles to clear Majora's Mask, without exploiting glitches?
Using the guide you linked to, it looks like the amount of time you need to the mandatory parts of the game is as follows. Note that this is all with time slowed by the Song of Inverted Time.
Get ...
- 17.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible