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Last updated: 2004-02-16 15:48:00
 | Rockman
as played as fast as possible by Morimoto (50 MB, video length 22:24 - real playing length 21:53) Loses no energy. Uses all the weapons, tools and glitches creatively. Very nice. (This video has still room for a few seconds of improvement - Morimoto apparently didn't know one glitch in the Fireman level.) fmv here (date: Apr 28 2003). What is fmv? Btw, Rockman is known as Mega Man in the rest of world. It sometimes happens that names change when things are imported to USA. The video file was resampled, giving a better fps now. |
 | Rockman 2
as played as fast as possible by Morimoto (77 MB, video length 30:10 - real playing length 28:26) Only loses energy when it saves time. Doesn't use passwords. Uses all the weapons, tools and glitches creatively. Very nice. fmv here (date: Jul 9 2003). The video file was resampled, giving a better fps now. |
 | Super Mario Bros 3
(japanese) as played as fast as possible by Michael Fried. (31 MB, video length 12:56 - real playing length 10:59) This is 5 seconds shorter (thus faster) than the famous Morimoto's version (fmv here), but not so hardly worked. No 99 extra lifes and skillful play with enemies here, just plain accurate action... fmv here (date: Feb 10 2004).
Also, this is the first 60 fps video on my page. |
 | Youkai Douchuuki
as played as fast as possible by Morimoto (39 MB, video length 14:41 - real playing length 14:31) This is a very Japanese game - with its praying and all - but it isn't hard to follow even if you don't know the language. Just how many games have you seen that measure the piousness of your character? Youkai douchuuki = demon travel journal fmv here (date: Apr 28 2003). External sound channel was disabled because of an irritating emulation bug in Famtasia. For this reason there are no sound effects in this video. |
 | Solomon's Key as played as fast as possible by
Bisqwit. (62 MB, video length 23:38 - real playing length 23:25) Uses warps and difficult tricks. I'll probably try to make a warpless version someday. fmv here (date: Feb 16 2004). In case you're wondering... the monster and the flame it breaths are two different objects. It's possible to jump between them. This video could probably be improved by ~10 seconds by better planning and ~1.5 minutes by finetuning Dana's jumps. The game is quite hard, and I'm happy I got this done anyway :) There are many more goals in this game than to just pass all levels... Including some secret levels. Many levels are much more difficult when you try to collect the items required for those quests. This speedrun ignores all those goals. |
 | Legend of Zelda
as played as fast as possible by Josh L. (100 MB, video length 37:31 - real playing length 36:01) Quote from the author: "A game that originally took everyone days to beat, finished in 36 minutes". Features lots of secrets. This video has been very well prepared on bigger scale, but it seems like smaller scale events like battles could have been optimized better. Nevertheless, this video might be quite a surprise to anyone who has used hours and hours exploring the Hyrule world. :) fmv here (date: Jan 26 2004). |
 | Ghosts and Goblins
(known as Makaimura in Japan)
as played as fast as possible by Jeff C. (33 MB, video length 10:22 - real playing length 10:10) This is Jeff C's result of hard work with this hard game. Looks good. (Better than Morimoto's run, which was here earlier.) fmv here (date: Jan 20 2004). |
 | 
Super Mario Bros 2 (the real one which was later ported to SNES
and released as "Lost Levels") as played as fast as possible by
Michael Fried(24 MB, video length 9:43 - real playing length 8:25) fmv here (date: Feb 6 2004). (Yes, this game is real. It just wasn't released in the USA.) |
 | Super Mario Bros
as played as fast as possible by Michael Fried (15 MB, video length 5:27 - real playing length 5:08) This is total six timeunits faster than Bisqwit's previous video. This video features really precise timing to cut the times on some levels and two tricks in level 8-4 that most people don't know and some who know still can't do. Uses warps. fmv here. Coming soon: Michael Fried's SMB speedrun version 2 (click to download the fmv file) - improves this record yet by one more timeunit (and just generally looks a little bit cooler than this)! |
 | Super Mario Bros 2
(aka. Super Mario USA, the game which was crafted from the
Japanese game "Doki Doki Panic")
as played as fast as possible by Bisqwit (30 MB, video length 10:57 - real playing length 10:13) My fourth attempt on SMB2, which is about 60 seconds faster than the second version and about 30 seconds faster than the third version. Uses warps. fmv here (date: Feb 3 2004). Btw, the warp from 4-2 goes to 6-1, not to 7-1. (Several people have asked me why I didn't use it.) |
 | Contra
(which was released as Probotector
in Europe with slightly modified graphics;
also known as GryZor on some other systems)
as played as fast as possible by Mathieu Pronovost. (34 MB, video length 12:15 - real playing length 11:38) The game is much more difficult than how it looks like when you watch this video. fmv here. |
 | Castlevania
as played as fast as possible by Bisqwit (36 MB, video length 13:18 - real playing length 12:42) My sixth attempt on Castlevania. I'm quite satisfied with this video, although it isn't exactly as fast as the fifth version which was damaged. It's faster than the fourth version, however. The two most useful tricks in this game are definitely 1) using monsters to throw you around and 2) using bottles to walk safely past enemies. fmv here. |
 | Hi no Tori - Houou Hen - Gaou no Bouken
as played as fast as possible by Morimoto (51 MB, video length 16:51 - real playing length 14:33) Despite the fact that this is a Konami game, I guess this game is not much known in western countries. This game is really quite difficult. It has nice Engrish in the end credits. (audio and video in desync, lots of problems in recording) Hinotori = bird of fire (think of phoenix) fmv here (date: 22 May 2003). |
 | Atlantis no Nazo
as played as fast as possible by Morimoto (10 MB, video length 3:08 - real playing length 2:46) In western countries I guess nobody knows this game. This game seems to have obscure secrets similar to Zelda. (audio and video in desync, lots of problems in recording) Nazo = riddle, puzzle. fmv here (date: May 8 2003). |
 | Gradius
playaround - Morimoto has fun with perfect reflexes
while completing the game with only the regular weapon (40 MB, video length 14:42 - real playing length 14:12) See what happens when the only upgrades you pick are "Speed". (audio and video in desync) fmv here (date: May 7 2003). Please refer to the reality check section if you are wondering how this has been played. |
 | Megaman 3
is a really long game. It took 10 hours non-stop for me
(Bisqwit) to create
a done-quick video for it, in comparison to the 2 hours it takes
to create a SMB1 video. Unfortunately, this 38 minutes
long recording got out of sync before the half way. However the first 17 minutes are intact, so you can see me playing the first 7 levels here. (32 MB, video length 17:56) Note that this is my first try. There are almost certainly things that can be played better... Uses no passwords, no glitches. fmv here. |
Here are some links though:
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I'm sorry for the bad video quality. These videos seem to require a lot bigger bitrate than the NES videos...
 | This video
is from the
Doom 2 Done Quick
project - playing Doom 2 at "Ultra-Violence" level as fast as possible
without using tools that modify the game's behavior. (91 MB, length 21:53) Camera movements aren't included, because I don't have the source code for their custom DOS Doom binary which doesn't run in Linux. This video unfortunately has only the first 25 maps because prboom (which I have used to playback the demos) goes out of sync in the 26th map, "Barrels'n'fun". All of the maps have been played separately, but without using quicksaves or slowing the game down. See the official site for interesting information about how these have been done. There are lots of tricks that are not quite obvious even when you watch the video. Coming soon: Doom2 in 14:41 (tool-assisted). It also seems to completely work. |
My e-mail address is: zbiXsqiwiRt@wikTjIi.dfiBut please 1) install a virus scanner, 2) get rid of Outlook (the favourite virus nest) and 3) practice care with email attachents before adding that address to your address book.
Btw, you can find comments on all speedruns Morimoto (or yarukinasu? I don't even know the name for certain) has published, at his emu movie page (japanese only).
If you are looking for a video not on this page and not in the above list, be sure to check the sites listed in the links section.
Short answer 1: They are entertainment.
Short answer 2: They are art.
The long answer:
These videos have been made solely for the reason that they
should be entertaining to watch.
Entertainment comes when the video is:
Myths:
The authors are boasting how they can beat difficult games.
- Nobody is boasting. These are entertainment. Keep it so, don't spoil the fun!
These videos are hoax - they haven't been played honestly.
- That's not the point. We're not demonstrating talents here.
We're making cool videos. See explanation.
It's a competition between who makes the fastest video.
- This is not a speed competition.
Speed is only a catalyzer for entertainment.
Facts:
This is not a skill competition.
- And this is why quicksaves and slowdowns are used.
Nobody is as perfect as the videos are.
The method how the movies are created is insignificant.
- the result is all that matters.
- But they have to be honest real games (not video edits).
If you don't know which laws to expect, you can't be
surprised when you see them broken.
If the feeling that these videos aren't "real" enough is bothering you
so much that you can't enjoy them, don't watch them!
But please keep your bothers to yourself and don't spoil
the fun for others.
Guidelines for players:
Be quick.
- Never wait for anything unless it's absolutely necessary.
Even if you have to wait, look like you don't.
- Hide your delays by averaging them in a larger time scale.
- Make it look like you wait for much better reason.
Keep an eye for low probabilities.
- If something most likely doesn't happen,
make it happen. The game is only as random
as you are.
- If you drool over a route that seems blocked
but would speed up your play significantly,
find out how to go through it.
- Drool.
Be interesting.
- If you have choice, try to do things in a more impressive
way than the easy way.
- If enemies are hard to kill, kill them.
- If an object is hard to miss, miss it.
All of this of course only if it doesn't affect the time.
Be accurate.
- Don't miss your target.
- Even with autofire, don't shoot more shots than you need to.
- Don't jump longer/higher jumps than you need to.
Be determined.
- If you choose a strategy, stick to it.
- Act like you own the world :)
Be aware.
- Be sure you know what kind of exploits you can try.
- Be sure you know what the internet knows about the game.
(So far nobody has followed all the guidelines perfectly...)
I don't understand why people are so eager to flame these videos.
It's not just about console games.
jsb, the person who has played awesome records
in Dance Dance Revolution, has also got his undeserved
share of accusations from people who think they know more than
a casual observer.
Click here
to read his message about the subject.
Facts:
The games have been played under an emulator (Famtasia)
- For practical reasons. A real NES/Famicom/FDS system doesn't
provide enough utilities for perfecting a game.
Quicksaves have been used.
- Players are not perfect, yet we try to make perfect plays.
For this reason, it's necessary that we can undo mistakes
and retry until we succeed.
- Imperfection isn't entertaining to watch.
Games have been played by slowing down the emulator
- Players are not perfect. Slowing down the emulator
helps improving the accuracy of playing, without
modifying the game physics.
The final product is always a continuous play.
- Rerecording means that all the 1000 cases your jumps
are too short to make it or you die etc do not exist
in the result, because they never happened
(you undo'ed everything until you succeeded).
You can verify this yourself by playing the fmv file
in your emulator.
The games are unpatched, unmodified ROM images of the NES games.
- You can verify this yourself by running
the fmv files in your emulator.
No game genie codes or other hacks have been used.
Games are not perfect. They have bugs which can be exploited.
- If you can't repeat a trick seen in the videos, it's
because you don't try hard enough. We try. Hundreds
of times, until we learn to do it or succeed by chance.
- Games don't do collision checks visually, but using
optimized techniques which are not perfect.
Nobody is trying to cheat you into thinking "wow this guy is really talented". Please read the section about the purpose of these videos.
Myths:
It took 2 years for Morimoto to do the SMB3j video
- The videos on this page have all been recorded in a few hours.
It's highly questionable why anyone would need two years to make
a video someone can do in 10 hours.
- I think someone has believed a crappy Babelfish translation
and recklessly spread a misinterpretation.
- Japanese is a highly contextual language.
Translating Japanese to English is not easy - let alone a machine translation.
Maybe Morimoto has had the speedrun-making hobby for 2 years.
He did it frame by frame
- Slowing the game also slows down the responsiveness of the
emulator. It might help your reactions, but it makes it pain
to play. Extremely slow speeds are untolerable.
- This is half truth anyway, because the game was indeed
slowed down. It doesn't affect the game physics, so the
video you see is real - it's exactly how the game reacts
if you press buttons like the player did.
The videos are edited with an image manipulation program
- Plain lie. You can't make emulator movie records
(the fmv files) with an
image manipulation program.
Those records consist solely of timed button presses.
You can easily reproduce all of those videos by
playing back the fmv file in your emulator.
The games are hacked or game genie codes are used to boost the
jumps and/or make the character invincible to enemy hits
- Plain lie. You can test yourself and see that the
fmv recording works very well with an unmodified rom.
No hacks are needed.
Savestates have been edited to make miracles happen during game
- Nope. The fmv replay method works as a proof here too.
fmv stores only keypad input, not game state.
Well the button sequence files have been edited then!
- The far easiest way to generate "button sequences" for the
right part of the game is to actually play the game!
Anything else involves too much work to even consider.
What is it with you guys?
Why are you so obsessed in twisting everything?
If you still don't get it, ask me in email and I'll answer. But please 1) install a virus scanner, 2) get rid of Outlook (the favourite virus nest) and 3) practice care with email attachents before adding that address to your address book.
Besides, who cares? Just enjoy!
Bittorrent works like this:
Thousands of customers download from each others.
It distributes the load.
If the number of clients grows, so
does the amount of upload capacity. Thus the server can work
even with a small cable, like I have.
But remember to return the favor - leave the download window open after your download is completed!
However, it looks like Famtasia has been hardcoded to display about 20 frames per a NES second. This has also the side effect that if you slow down the game to 10%, you have display update rate of about 2 fps. That would be ok, but it seems like it also has a REACTION rate of 2 fps then! :(
My e-mail address is: 2mbiQhgsqH3wi5Nt@Cik_i.IfiBut please 1) install a virus scanner, 2) get rid of Outlook (the favourite virus nest) and 3) practice care with email attachents before adding that address to your address book.
If the sound and video go out of sync, there's a third phase too:
