So, most of you out there that know of me recognize me as a Zelda speedrunner. I held the Real Time Attack record for Ocarina of Time (1:13 SDA timing) for a short while and I have worked on some Individual Level runs as well as found new tricks/glitches for the game. I decided to start a Shadows of the Empire run because it was a game I really felt nostalgic about. I have always loved Star Wars and I remember Shadows being one of the first N64 games I played. In fact Shadows was released in the opening year of the N64's life, and it's a pretty early 3D Lucasarts project. Like all early experiments, it has its flaws. The controls are quite loose, Dash seems to be skating over the ground when you try to turn and aiming is very much like Goldeneye 007's in that the aimer centers itself automatically when you aren't holding the control stick in place. Did I mention there is no aiming reticule in this game whatsoever? Another huge issue is the lag, this game lags A LOT in many areas. The lag even directly affects the way the weapons shoot. If the game is running smooth you can shoot rapidly, but if the game starts to lag then the N64 limits how many shots you can fire. Another issue with this game is the switches/doors that have to be activated, they're very picky and will randomly not activate on the first try (the work-around is to mash the switches/doors rapidly until they decide to activate). One last issue is the enemies; they appear in slightly different spots each time you play through a level. Despite these annoyances, this really is a great game. It's challenging, fun, and the environments are interesting. Oh and it has epic boss fights.
On to the speedrunning side of things: The first huge exploit is movement speed. Using the N64's L+R+START stick calibration, you can increase Dash's running speed by quite a bit. This is one of the few N64 games that benefits from creating a new center-position for the control stick. There's also an amazing jetpack glitch that allows you to climb up walls, and clip through many of the game's ceilings. Aside from those two tricks, the rest is platforming exploits and manipulating damage and deaths.
I really didn't have any help with this run aside from some video references and a few trick videos. This game hasn't been given much love by the speedrunning community, and that's one of the main reasons I decided to work on it. There are some people I must thank though:
ShadowOfMyles: He's not really an active speedrunner anymore from what I can tell, but his few Shadows of the Empire IL's on Youtube really helped me out.
Katsukawasojuro: He did some level TAS's and found a few really great jetpack-clip skips.
9teen9t9: He made a great 100% playthrough of Shadows on Youtube that re-sparked my interest in the game and helped me learn the levels fully.
Silliconian: Did some level IL's, revealed some good strats.
Xenos: Knows a lot about the game in general and found some speed tricks.
Others that assisted me in some way during this run: Cyberwrath, ZenicReverie, Arrow, Elminster.

OK on with the segment notes:

Battle of Hoth - This level requires great accuracy and fast mashing. I kamikaze myself twice in order to save time.

Escape from Echo Base - I collect 10 Seekers total, jump across some gaps, and cut corners on the catwalks. Shooting the AT-ST in its eyes with Seekers kills it quickly.

The Asteroid Field - The goal is to defeat all the fighters as fast as possible. Proper use of the missiles is really important because the Tie Bombers are tough to take down with blasters, especially from a distance.

Ord Mantell Junkyard - The trains move a lot slower on easy mode unfortunately so it's a boring, nearly 10 minute ride to IG-88. I look upwards to avoid a lot of lag. The IG-88 fight went well; he really is the most random enemy in the entire game. He'll run away from you at random times and can do devastating damage at close range. Getting him to follow me down the catwalk and then NOT pulse me to death was a rare feat. I got really lucky at the end where he decided to jump to the ground instead of continuing to shoot me.

Gall Spaceport - This is most people's favorite level, and one that usually takes 20+ minutes the first couple of times through. I collect 5 Seekers from the ship then head out. Once I get to the top of the first elevator, I let the troopers kill me (choosing where to die is very important, you want to be killed near a spawn point). I skip the AT-ST fight using a jetpack clip. Once again I do a controlled death after getting back outside. Outside the second hangar bay, I jetpack wall-climb into the Boba Fett arena and collect more ammo. The fight begins after I move over the elevator shaft and it reaches the top, it doesn't matter where I am on the map when the elevator reaches the top. Boba Fett and his ship got owned, really flawless fight.

Mos Eisley and Beggar's Canyon - This level is a mess. The swoop bike is very fast in contrast to the narrow streets you must drive on. Also running into anything usually equals a dead stop. In order to be able to pass all of the bikers, you need to kill the first biker. Flooring the gas and minimizing collisions is the best strategy here.

Imperial Freighter Suprosa - Managing health in this level is REALLY hard, and the platforming is also quite tricky. First I grab 5 Seekers and 30 Flame ammo from the compartments. I jump across the railing to the door switch and full health. Then I do a controlled death via droids. I skip a good portion of the rotating-conveyors room with some precision jumping. In the cargo room I avoid having to destroy 2 additional boxes to reach the second floor. On the second floor I use a risky jump to avoid the blocked catwalk completely. The Loader-Droid boss fight went great, just gotta flame him in the head.

Sewers of Imperial City - Everyone remembers this as the scary level. The Dianoga creatures roar furiously and do lots of damage. I move really quickly in order to get into the opening/closing hole just in time to where I don't have to wait. I do a jetpack wall-clip and get the key early. I grab 2 Disrupter ammo from under the water before grabbing the shield deactivator, and I grab 5 Seekers from one of the mechanical switch rooms. I completely skip the Dianoga boss fight using a very difficult jetpack clip. What makes it difficult is that you have a strict time limit in which to pull it off due to the rising water, and since it's a mid-air clip it's much less likely to break through the ceiling. Skipping the boss saves about 30 seconds, plus it prevents me from having to use any of my special ammo.

Xizor's Palace - This is a very fast-pace and fun level. It wasn't nearly as hard as some of the earlier segments because I have a good supply of special ammo to use. The first trick is in the first elevator where I just fly up the shaft instead of hitting the elevator button and riding it up. I grab some disrupter ammo from an elevator shaft's secret compartment in the second stage. I kill myself in the second gear room to get full health. I grab the last bit of Disrupter ammo from the bridge's secret compartment and head into the boss room. The boss fight went nearly perfect, 8 Disrupters = GG Gladiator Droid. My death in the fight didn't waste any time whatsoever.

Skyhook Battle - The final level isn't too difficult which is nice. The entire flight time up to the Skyhook Station itself is about 4 minutes 50 seconds and can't be speed up in any way, you just have to go with the flow. I just kill some fighters for fun and to prevent from racking up too much damage. Once you arrive at the station the goal is to destroy the 4 turrets outside, and then destroy the 4 walls of the core on the inside with missiles. I use some sharp U-turns to destroy the core without having to fly out of the station and come back in. You must hit the core walls nearly dead center or no damage is done.

So in all, I shaved-off a total of nearly 10 minutes 15 seconds off of the game developer's best level times (the challenge times for all the levels can be seen in the game's credits). Pretty amazing I think. I hope that this run puts Shadows of the Empire on the speedrunning radar and influences people to start searching for new speed tricks and glitches. I've run into some random glitches and clips while simply playing the game normally so I know with a little effort some new time savers can be found. Thank you for watching my speedrun, and please check out my Youtube channel (youtube.com/aleckermit) for more speedrun goodness.

Thanks to SDA and its moderators/members for making a place for all these great speedruns to be brought together and seen.