Pitfall 2 Speed Run - Atari 2600 - Best time: 0:05:02 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | Released in 1984, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns broke new ground by being one of the first games to feature an in-game soundtrack and a vertically scrolling screen. Pitfall II helped define the platforming genre with a huge game world not thought possible for the aging 2600. Pitfall II also added infinite lives (dying sent you back to a checkpoint but cost you points), something real men did not need, but was probably added for the girly men in the gaming world.Author's comments:You are about to see me rescue some guy (or woman?), a huge diamond ring, and a weird cat-kangaroo-thing, then waste all my energy celebrating rather than actually finding a way to escape the cave.Pitfall II is a fun, not too hard platformer (not too hard because it moves slowly and offers restart points and infinite lives) with a lot of randomness. Enemies besides scorpions begin at a random point in their animation. That is, unless you manipulate them. The bats, the birds, the frogs, and the occasional ability to move left or right during a fall all cycle at a regular rate. I begin each attempt by resetting right when a frog is about to jump right. It's not perfect, but it times everything right to make the first 2:30 of the game run pretty smoothly (though there might be a better plan possible). With manipulation, I think luck literally is not a factor in this run.2600 veterans (which I'm not) will already know that it is possible to jump over both the first frog and the hole next to him in one jump. Sorry to say, I do not do that in this run. Instead I take the easy way out; I just fall down and swim to the next room. I can sometimes pull off the frog jump, but I have found no way to save any time with it, because strangely it throws off the timing of moving left onto a platform out of a big fall a little later, due to that cycle thing I mentioned. That's a little hard to explain, and of course I don't totally understand it.Thanks to stanski for suggesting falling rather than climbing down after rescuing the human. It's hard to time but it saves 5 seconds! I am extremely fortunate that I can move left out of it into the proper corridor on the timing I was already using.I can manipulate the birds, albeit not perfectly (stanski calls them gooses), and sometimes the bats. That's why I keep stopping momentarily as I climb toward the end, so that the enemy in the next room won't slow me down as much. I did well this time, except had I waited a fourth of a second less against the last scorpions I probably could have run right under the last bat and climbed the final stairs one frog-flip earlier (almost 3 seconds).I'm somewhat proud to say that I personally found the big jump that carries me left through two screens all by myself. True had I not found it vdub_bobby would have told me exactly what to do where, but I found it, so yay, I get to pat myself on the back a little; same goes for falling a long way and then moving a pixel left just at the right time just before.Major thanks go to vdub_bobby and stanski for their help and critique. And I must thank the four people I know of that make the SDA world go around -- mikwuyma, nate, DJGrenola and Radix.Hoping I get to see someone's improvement of this run some time! Hopefully not TOO soon though :P(This was played on Activision Anthology for Game Boy Advance. I have never had an Atari 2600.)
Super Mario Bros. Speed Run - NES - Best time: 0:04:58 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | Here is an updated FAQ:Q1: Isn't it faster to jump at the bottom of the flagpole?A1: Recently, I was told that it DOES actually matter.... BUT it's faster to jump at the TOP of the flagpoles, yes the top! When Mario drops off of the flagpole, he accelerates quicker to the castle, thus activating the timer earlier.Q2: You went right through the piranha plants, why didn't you die?A2: Super Mario Bros. has many problems with hit detection, making it possible to jump through the piranha plants with accurate timing.Q3: What exactly did you do in level 4-2? Doesn't a vine usually take you to the warp zone area?A3: I did a glitch. By jumping backwards into any object (As seen in 4-2 - I did three of these.) Mario gets pushed to the right side of the screen. The game is tricked because Mario is normally always supposed to be in the center of the screen. Depending on Mario's position on the screen, the game decides which vine or pipe Mario is using. In 4-2, the pipe and vine are close enough for the game to be tricked. This saves time because I don't have to sit through the vine "cutscene".If you still don't get what I mean by all this, here's my suggestion: In level 4-2, look at Mario's position when compared to the "W" in "WORLD". Now after I do these three jumps... look at Mario's position when compared to the "W" in "WORLD". Notice the change. Mario is moved forward on the screen and isn't in the direct center as he usually is. The vine and pipe warp locations confuse the game as Mario is not where he should be. After doing this glitch if you make a complete stop (Ie: speed = 0) on the pipe and go down, it will bring you to the warp zone.Q4: You went through the firebar in level 8-4 and did not die, why?A4: Same as piranha plants. it just works. Poor hitbox detection.Q5: The first pipe in 8-4 you ran into the piranha plant and did not die, why?A5: The piranha plant for some reason disappears as you approach it. Try to kill yourself on that piranha plant in the original game, you cant. It just disappears. I know it sounds like some sort of trick or something, but really the game is just crazy.Q6: Why did you do this run?A6: To push the game to it's limits. Speedrunning is fun. I wanted to see what time is the fastest I could manage.Q7: What did you do in the middle of level 8-4 to get up to the floating pipe.A7: I did a walljump. What you have to do is catch Mario's foot in the 16th pixel of a block and then jump on the exact frame Mario catches his foot.Q8: Didn't you take the wrong pipe to get to the water area in level 8-4?A8: Going a certain distance past that pipe and then turning back tricks the game in a similar way that the game is tricked in level 4-2, pipe warp location confusion. That pipe is quicker to go down as well, very slightly.Q9: Why didn't you fall into the gaps when you ran over them?A9: You can run over the gaps, I think it's an intended feature. You can even walk over them occasionally.*Note The hitboxes in this game are weird. List of things you can get hit by in certain spots and not die:- Tops of piranha plants- Ends of firebars- Bowser's/Hammer Bros axes
Excitebike Speed Run - Track 2 - NES - 00:48.17 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | Released in October 1985 as an NES launch title, Excitebike brought the dangerous and dirty sport of motocross to your mom's living room. It features two racing modes and a very innovative design mode. Just like real life racing, your engine overheats in 10 seconds and can be cooled off instantaneously by passing over turbo strips.
Excitebike Speed Run - Track 1 - NES - 00:43.69 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | Released in October 1985 as an NES launch title, Excitebike brought the dangerous and dirty sport of motocross to your mom's living room. It features two racing modes and a very innovative design mode. Just like real life racing, your engine overheats in 10 seconds and can be cooled off instantaneously by passing over turbo strips.Andrew Gardikis's comments:Track 1: I don't think there's much room for improvement. This is the best time I've ever gotten on this track. Most average speedrun times on this track are ~10 seconds slower. ;)
Kung Fu Speed Run - NES - Best Time: 0:03:54 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | eleased on the NES in 1985, the side-scrolling beat 'em up Kung Fu allows players to get in touch with their inner Karate Kid as well as their inner midget-puncher. As black-belt badass Thomas, you face-kick and crotch-punch your way through a five-story dojo filled with enemies such as knife throwers, dragons, and midgets who love nothing more than humping Thomas's leg while sniffing his manhood.Author's comments:Hiiiya!I have never beaten a game this fast. Kung fu could probably be beaten even faster. Probably under 3:50. But there is some more random and tight tricks to pull of. I'm so tired of randomnes in shitty old NES games actually so I wasn't motivated to try to get more luck then this.This game would have three cathegorys for runs. A mode, B mode and A+B mode. I never bothering finish runs for all three because I guess the fastest would be most intresting. B mode is a little harder though. Maybe I got the chicken stample because of this. Maybe finish one in the future. The important thing from my point of view is only to get a good legit speedrun record posted for this famous old game =) (known as Spartan X in Japan I think.)Anyhow. This is a cute run without very crappy mistakes, So I hope it give you a few minutes of entertainment.The basics are simple. Don't stop moving if you don't have too and use the fastest and most critical damage on bosses. With some luck you will finish the game without dying.Level 1:Uhm. Probably you think I screwed up the first boss fight. But jump kicks do most damage and this time I had some bad luck and my first.Level 2:The second stage where done faster then I normally do. I timed a random snake a little bit wrong. other than that a pretty smooth level.Level 3:The third level is the easiest. close to perfect this time.Level 4:The though one. Just beat the level is actually a challenge. Don't take any damage on the level itself to be able to beat the boss. The only way to hurt the boss is low punches.Level 5:The final rush =PAn easy way to beat the final boss is with use of low kicks but it takes a lot more time. This time I did jump kicks. I was very lucky that I could take him down this fast I think.
Pitfall 2 Speed Run - Atari 2600 - Best 100% time (max score): 0:12:47 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | Author's comments:In my opinion the most interesting speedrun of this game would be to play it the way it was supposed to be played -- collecting all treasures, and avoiding losing any points along the way. Welcome to my first successful run at doing that!Thanks to vdub_bobby for teaching me that Harry can jump over both a hole and a frog next to it if timed right. I didn't do this the first time I came to the first frog, but when I passed him by again I did. Jumping over him at this point is pretty easy because you know what point of his animation he'll be at when you enter the room.During the big descent fairly early on it would probably be possible to be much more agressive at passing the bats when entering the rooms to the left, but I played it safe (and lost about 5 seconds per bat 3 or 4 times).The room I enter after my second balloon ride is the most dangerous room in the whole game for me. I get hit there way more than half the time. You'll see how close I got to getting hit, which would have ended the run. Two balloon rides later I enter the last of those little rooms, and I made a big mistake. I waited for the middle scorpion when it was totally unnecessary, which in turn moved the scorpion farther right and made me have to wait longer for him when I was ready to come back down.I really don't know whether it is faster to go down 4 floors and collect gold before getting the diamond ring, or get the ring first and then climb up 4 floors. I got the ring first because that way is easier for me.The final ascent with lots of birds and bats went alright but not spectacularly. Had I manipulated the birds in the second half I would have saved 4 seconds. That final ascent is the area where the most time is gained or lost.Big thanks to stanski and vdub_bobby for their help. Big thanks to the verifiers, who I have to assume played through this game again just so they could verify my runs. Big thanks to mikwuyma for all the work he does, nate for encoding my run, DJGrenola for ... well, actually I don't know what work DJGrenola does for SDA but thanks nonetheless, and Radix for continuing to run the web's best game videos site.My guess is that this game was an evolutionary step that directly helped lead to Super Mario, Castlevania, and Metroid.Enjoy!(This was played on Activision Anthology for Game Boy Advance. I have never had an Atari 2600, sorry to say.)
Donkey Kong Jr. Speed Run - 0:01:28 Speed Walkthroughs 2012-06-06 | Donkey Kong Jr. is the sequel to Donkey Kong, but this time you play as the monkey. Help Junior rescue his father from Mario, in the only game featuring the beloved Nintendo icon in a villainous role.
