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Pokémon Red and Blue, simultaneously released in December 1997, follow the story of a young Pokémon trainer. He wishes to become a Pokémon master before his rival and also tries to put an end to the dastardly deeds of Team Rocket. The differences between the two games, which launched the Pokémon craze, are minimal — each version differs in its selection of rare and uncatchable Pokémon.

 

Categorization note: Glitches that separate a glitched run from a non-glitched run are as follows: walking through walls; Cinnabar beach/Missingno. glitch; Pewter Gym skip; trainer-fly/Mew glitch; and save abuse glitches.

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Red version: 1:59 by Ben Goldberg in 34 segments.

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Author's comments:

Ah yes, sub two hours. Feels good. Looks good also. I felt this was my cleanest run of Pokemon Red so far, and not surprisingly it's also my fastest. In this run, I go back to the tried and tested Squirtle as my starter Pokemon. E4 is very quick thanks to fissure. There's not much else to talk about that hasn't been talked about before in my last three runs. If anyone wants to talk to me about the run, don't hesitate to drop me an email at platinum.cygnus AT gmail DOT com or talk to me on AIM (s/n Platinum Cygnus).

Well this should be my last Pokemon Red run. Unless some good time savers appear, there's nothing left to do to shave time off except luck manipulation. Enjoy the run!

Red version single-segment: 2:39 by Jacob McMillin.

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Auhor's comments:

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Quality Note(s): There is a small distortion in the video at the very beginning. This only distorts the Gamecube logo for about 2 seconds, then, quality returns to normal. This happens again at about 6 minutes in.
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I'll start with thanking some of the people who made this possible.


This run was conceived in late September, 2007. Almost a year later, I finally finished. What took so long? Pokemon games are very, very inconvenient to single segment. Anything, no matter how easy, has a chance of going wrong, making a run actually follow to completion without major mistakes pretty unlikely. I hadn't acquired means of recording this until 2008, so up until then, practice was all I could do. Initially, I had planned to do a run using the missigno glitch to get a mewtwo, making the end of the run easier. In the end, I decided to get Zapdos for a non-glitched run that would be much more difficult to obsolete (Hey, nobody can use glitches that I don't use) and would appeal to a larger audience.

Now that you're here, I bet there's two reasons that you're reading this right now.

1. You are just looking around SDA and reading random run commentaries that interest you.

2. You found a link to this from my relative accomplishments blog that I shamelessly advertise on my myspace page.

The former, I don't expect you to really know me, so I don't care if people who are impersonal in nature assume I have no life. The latter, may be surprised to read this. Yes, it's me. The kid from Moore High who is ubiquitous, questionable, and suggestive. "Stigmatize" me, as I'm sure you already know I have no life.

Now that most of the necessary introductions have been laid down, it's time to cut to the meat.

The final time is 2:39, 2:41 if the final time is the save after pallet town. (Yes, this single segment has a save after the ending, I'm pretty sure that's not against any rules)

2:39 is quite a big difference from the 2:09 Segmented run on the site already. Where could 30 minutes go?

Saving takes no time at all. The game is defined by random events.

That, very articulately said, is all the reason I need. I disregarded riskier strategies, and the run is overall clean (Average for me), and the strategy actually followed through. The only REAL mistake is quite obvious in Surge's Gym, where I have absolutely no influence over the pseudo-random trash cans that seal my fate, and lose 4 or 5 minutes. Regardless, I am satisfied. Watching that part is sure to utter a wow, as my luck up until that point was top notch and the placement of the locks in his gym is SO UNBELIEVABLE UNLIKELY.

I don't feel like watching the run and doing an in-depth, part by part commentary over the whole thing. Overall, I was very lucky with the battles with a few exceptions (Mount Moon Rocket) I don't enjoy being nitpicky, but I made some dumb mistakes throughout that cost me a few seconds (Menu Hesitation, Talking to people twice), I got a bit sloppy, but I don't think it cost me more than a few minutes in the end. I think that without extreme luck, optimal menu speed, and some serious concentration, sub 2:30 will not happen. Playing around with conservative segmentation (2,3 or 4 Segments) Shows me that with this strategy an absolute perfect time would be 2:25. However, this is outside the realm of possibility for a Single Segment because it implies that every battle goes perfect.

I think that if somebody beat my run, I won't be too disappointed. I'm not satisfied yet, I'll need to sub 2:30 before I'm absolutely satisfied. The 100 Dollar bounty and the fact that this has taken nearly a year has caused me to settle for a run that is satisfactory and not excellent.

Anyways, I've queued up about 50 little projects in the time it took to finish this, and it's about time to get around to them. Look forward to my future runs! I promise that they will look better and more refined than this nightmare-of-a-single-segment.

Blue version single-segment: 2:04 by Mark McKenzie.

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Auhor's comments:

NOTE WELL: Make very sure your speakers are down before watching this run. Like, 2% volume. The sound reset itself to 100% just before recording this run so it's very very loud.

Thanks to:

As mentioned I became interested in Pokémon speed running when people started racing it at SRL, and a few days later mike came to me with the idea of speed running the whole game. I’ve always loved playing through the games, so I don’t understand why I hadn’t thought of it before, and by the next day I was starting attempts.

The huge issue with Pokémon single segments runs as you should know is how luck dependant they are. I enjoyed the planning and testing that went into things like item management, but when it’s time to do the run it all comes down to luck really. But now let’s move onto the run. Just about every run is thrown out in the first 10 minutes. There are 3 points at which this can happen.

1) Your very first fight is terrible. His Bulbasaur is amazing at not attacking, this battle can take up to like 14 turns. I got 5 which is absolutely lovely and the best I’ve ever gotten.

2) At level 6 I check my Squirtle’s stats. If it does not have both 12 attack and special, I toss it out and try again.

3) At level 11 I check the stats again. If I don’t get 18+ on both attack and special, I toss it again. I got 19 on both, which is absolutely amazing and the main reason I am not attempting for a better run.

The biggest mistake of the run happens early on before the run even really starts, not having a clear save file made the in game timer start before Oak’s speech and not after, which I only learnt after doing the run. Prolly about 35 seconds lost. I check my Squirtle’s stats at level 6 and see 12 attack and special and keep playing.

Route 1: I have to fight a level 2 or 3 wild Pokémon here to have Bubble before Brock. About average luck with encounters here.

Viridian Forest: Argh poison :\

Pewter City: Brock went well, saw 19 attack and 19 special on my Squirtle. That’s insane, and one of the main reasons I’m content with this run. Bought my items in the right order and moved on.

Route 3: This route has the most testing for attacks with Tail Whip vs Tackle vs Bubble. Everything went really well here though. Pidgey and Spearow combined have a 95% encounter rate here, so I pick up my flier here.

Mt Moon: Encounter luck was pretty bad here actually, about 10 is average. I can not believe that Paras died in one hit, that is ridiculous.

Cerulean City: Misty is a giant dick her Starmie is an evil piece of shit that crits you every single turn and you’re using inaccurate Mega Punch argh. Luckily I was good enough through the early battles to have tons of potions still at this point.

Nugget Bridge: This is where all those good stats make a difference, I OHKO a lot of things here you don’t with inferior stats. Rival fight was a bit annoying, everything else was nice.

Route 6: Good battles here, got a nice few seconds save when picking up the Full Restore to avoid the jingle. Caught Bellsprout for Cut, can’t believe those high encounters.

Vermillion City: SS Anne went well, trash cans were meeeeh, Surge was really good. That Raichu knows Thunderbolt and can destroy you, but the AI is pretty damn dumb.

Route 5: Oddish…..!!!

Rock Tunnel: Went alright, but there’s not exactly much that can go wrong here barring Oddish paralysing you

Route 9: Easy trainer, pick up an elixir and max ether for later.

Celadon City: The Pokémon centre here is really just to set my warp point to Celadon, it’s a hub for Silph Co, Sabrina, Koga, and Erika. Bought a whole load of stuff at the mart for later on.

Pokémon Tower: And this is where X items start. Behold that 100% Accuracy! Drowzee screwed with me really really bad, fuck accuracy shit, and I learnt later on that talking to those trainers at the end is slower >_>

Silph Co: This part of the run is really tricky because you’re doing it earlier than you’re supposed to, and as such you’re highly underleveled. That Machoke fight :) This is where Mega Kick really shines on the rival, I’ve had runs though where Mega Kick has critted the Venusaur allowing him to razor leaf me to death >_<

Saffron City: Sabrina is a weird fight in that you set up on two different Pokémon. This is because Kadabra is pretty damn powerful with that Psybeam whereas Mr Mime can’t do shit….. except in this run of course >_<

Fuschia City: Koga’s gym is kinda hard, just about all the Pokémon in here are right on the edge of OHKO range so sometimes they’ll die and others not. I got poisoned here which was kinda lame as I was out of antidotes, so I had to take the centre, which wasn't too bad as I had to come back to Fuschia anyway.

Cinnibar Island: Can't believe Pidgey can't learn Surf. Like wtf. Loving those super repels. Those quiz questions are painful to watch through, sooo much text. Blaine’s kinda a joke with Blastoise too, especially when he tries to heal them when they're at full health. This is also where I start avoiding text by having a full inventory, as he doesn't babble on about fire blast.

Celadon City: That’s right, we get the 4th badge 7th! This is obviously due to Blastoise’s type disadvantage, the extra few levels you get from doing the other gyms first JUST make sure Ice Beam can OHKO the Vileplume and Victrelbell.

Viridian City: WHY OH WHY DIDN’T I TEACH BLIZZARD! One of the biggest brain freezes in the run, I feel pretty bad about it honestly. The gym itself is again a joke, ground types lol Road to Indigo Plateau: And here we see why we had to teach Blizzard. As if those X Accuracys weren’t broken enough. A load more text that annoys the crap outta me, and some more fun with super repels. Then I manage to pull another retarded blunder as I deposit my Blastoise. I am so retarded… I deposit my slaves to lessen the time in the Hall of Fame cutscene btw.

Lorelei: X Speed is for Jynx, no idea why that’s so fast.

Bruno: Now this is some real shit. I am like 10 levels below him and my Surf can OHKO the hitmons. What a Beast Blastoise is.

Agatha: This fight can screw you damn hard because that Gengar knows Hypnosis and Confuse Ray. I considered setting up on Golbat until I realised it had Haze which would eliminate all my stat boosts. Went quite well considering.

Lance: That Gyarados you have no idea. I was so sure I was gonna die. So damn sure.

Champion: This fight is pretty customary after the one before. I used the Full Restore on Pidgeot due to being afraid of Gyarados which ended up being no problem at all. And yes animations come back on, that’s supposed to happen. All goes together with the music to make this the most epic fight ever!

Hope ya’ll enjoy the run. I DEFEATED U!

Blue version with large-skip glitches: 1:26 by Thomas Wennink in 28 segments.

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Author's comments:

Where to start?.. I would like to begin by thanking a few people: primorial#soup for his excellent comments on my old Youtube run that made me redo my run and shave of so much time, Chamale for the great Walk through Walls glitch that made the run as fast as it is, Samthedigital, Cygnus, hanzou and a few more I might be forgetting for helping me (without them possibly knowing, even!). And of course the staff from SDA, because without them, this wouldn't be possible.

Originally, it all started with Metroid. To be precise, M2K2, SCU and Metroid Zero Mission. I started speedrunning MZM and somehow, via M2K2 and SCU, I got on SDA (and TASvideos.org) where a world opened up before me. After trying a lot of tricks in various games, I suddenly got the idea to speedrun Pokemon Blue/Red. One of my favorite games. It started with a weak 2:02 using a glitched Gengar level 100 to beat the game and it grew out to be much more then that.

I'll just list the comments on every segment because there are quite a lot of new tricks in the run. :)

Possible improvements:

You may see me in the near future with a Single Segment glitched Yellow run. Other then that, I may redo this run if I figure out better strats and tricks so you haven't seen the last of me. ;)

You can email me at thomas_wennink AT hotmail DOT com if you have any comments about the run.

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