It’s getting close to my favorite time of the year: AGDQ Eve! But we’re not there yet so in lieu of a calendar stuffed with chocolates I present to you bundles of speedy joy to happily distract you!

Hark! Hear that screaming? Getting ever closer?! IT’S LIKELY A PERSON SEEKING A DOSE OF THIS END OF YEAR CHEER!!!!

No wait it’s a headless man with bombs. Must’ve gotten out of bounds in Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, a common occurrence I assure you. 'Freezard' & Daniel 'rayvex' Babik deliver a master class in grunting while propelling through most of the game by riding the opposition like a rented mule and being punched through walls like an inverted Kool Aid Man. The improved stage times total up to 0:23:05. This is on the Tourist difficulty, but I think Tourist better describes how the runners make a mockery of programmed boundaries. Kind of like that time I infiltrated a state park at midnight with a camera…probably shouldn’t have put that on the Internet…ANYWAY.

::Stands imperiously on the face of a buffalo, facing backwards, tromping towards the next run.::

Whoooooooa, Stampy! We’re here at lovely Raccoon City for this episode of Resident Evil: HD Remaster, and boy it’s a mess! Thankfully 'Pessimism' has brought a good friend named Jill Valentine, and she’s brought her bottomless rocket launcher to take care of business. Even Barry looks sadly at his beloved magnum, dainty in comparison to the force on display during this New Game+ 1:16:07 on Normal. For a good laugh, watch at the end of the run as the Tyrant does his best Genji impersonation.

::Laments the loss of the old, non-HD blocky graphics. BUT IS SUDDENLY REWARDED WITH MORE BLOCKS THAN HE EVER DREAMED POSSIBLE!!!!!!::

After facing the horror of Kurushi (aka Intelligent Qube), you’ll beg for a non-Euclidean geometry to blast your fragile sanity apart into blissful madness. 'adeyblue' is a much braver soul who not only does the “come get some” emote with his hand at the oncoming horde of crushing blocks, he holds down the button to accelerate them at maximum speed. Kurushi is krushed in 0:18:56. It is an impressive watch to be certain, I dare say a Her-cube-lean effort. I’ll leave this gem from his commentary:

“Stage 7 is home to the least slack space, the hardest / longest puzzle, the hardest puzzle group, and the game's black sense of humour. Due to the size of the puzzles it's entirely possible for the game to start you off on a wave with a puzzle which is impossible to solve in the space you have behind you, even if you have collected a few extra rows.”

::We interrupt the march of the cubes for an announcement from our staff!::

As requested by my commanding officer, I present http://tasvideos.org/3264M.html as the “compulsory TAS viewing of this year.” I warned you about keys, bro! I told ya dog!

     Theseawolf1 began the last update by listing the things he may be remembered for. My memory of theseawolf1 begins with his submission of The Partyin', er, Guardian Legend years ago. Today's runs also have memories attached to them, some directly by their game, and others by proxy. With Thanksgiving coming up soon, it is good for us to be thankful for our family, friends, abilities, and video games.

     Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the first Sonic game I ever played. It probably was the first Sega Genesis game I ever played, and it was the first Sega Genesis game I ever owned. I have spent a lot of time casually playing this game and I am thankful that the cart and the Genesis I play it on still works almost 22 years later. Today we have an update to the IL table. 'AlecK47' has taken Casino Night Zone Act 1 from 27 seconds to 25 and utilized a zip that puts new meaning to walking on the ceiling. 0:14:34 is the new table time.

     'ktwo' took a break from Solomon's Key to hit some digital slopes in Amped 2. I had no idea this was a snowboarding game when I chose it for posting but I'm glad I did. It is nice to see something different from time to time. Ktwo has segmented his digital snowboarding career and goes for it all in this 100% run of the European version in 2:44:35. A game of this length certainly requires memorization and a good snowboard. Bundle up and ride down the hills.

     Sometimes we cannot remember things as well as we want to, and if we do remember, we may not be able to make sense of things. Did the event happen? Was it just a dream? Was it in reality, the Matrix, the afterlife, or elsewhere? Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy starts with some questionable memory and goes from "Did I just do that?" to "I did do that!" pretty quickly and things get messy from there. 'gelato' watches and plays through this interactive movie (the game calls itself a movie), playing on Easy mode and attaining the Neutral Ending. There's a lot going on here and I suggest reading the runner's notes. This run clocks in at 3:22:20, putting it around the same running time as Seven Samurai and the 1959 version of Ben-Hur.

Hey kiddies, theseawolf1 here. Depending on how long you’ve been with SDA, you’ve probably seen me on a meme with TJP about sweaters, literally wearing C-3P0 on a Katamari hat, arguing over chikin sammiches, asking for 80 tacos, ruining a Romscout puzzle race (and paying dearly for it), commenting on games I am bad at, hitting opponents from across a map with a shotgun, quoting about Spencer’s proficiency in wai-fu, losing a race somewhere or generally engaging in word play and puns. Ah, happy days…

Unfortunately for you all, I think they are letting me work on some updates. This means you all get my brand of infotainment! I’ll do my best to take in the breadth of game types and runs coming in to SDA, been around awhile and I intend to hang for at least as much again. Don’t be self-typecast into only watching certain genres; you’ll be surprised how entertaining a randomly presented run can be!

 

Oh yeah, the actual job.

 

First up, we have a series of poor arcade programmers who have given Sean 'MURPHAGATOR!' Murphy access to things like buckets, hit scan weaponry and foes who wear chaps of questionable coverage and fashion taste. In Vendetta, a kidnapping of one Kate Kutie leads to the ultimate test of quality vs. quantity as 4 knock-off heroes lay into masses of slime balls. In this world, everyone walks right, as to go back left leads to INSTANT DEATH! Boomer tosses out a 0:14:32, Blood knuckles up for a 0:15:18, Sledge pities fools for a duration of 0:15:21 and Hawk applies his forehead directly to the forehead in 0:16:13. All four runs have audio commentary where MURPHAGATOR details abuses in programming, hit detection, character differences, and just how Rude, Kruel, and…uh…whatever the heck Faust is the game can be. Also, it’s got a kickin soundtrack, and a final boss rush to really eat your quarters.

::leaves the town alive, just to annoy the bad guys::

Next up is…oh wait its Sean 'MURPHAGATOR!' Murphy again playing a rousing game of “Hrrrrk…..HNAH!!,” better known as Mutation Nation, a beat ‘em up of unique design choices in artwork, no superjoy/safety move to get baddies off of you and a super move that requires immobility to charge. The result is a battle requiring expertly timed charges, abuse of the basic attack combo and COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE of what spawns where/when to not be erased instantly. By abusing the few mercies the game offers and utilizing quirks in enemy AI, our red-haired hero pummels all manners of mutant, alien and robot to a suitable boomy/gooey end in 0:21:45. Again, Murph’s got the juicy details in his audio commentary.

::cracks knuckles and points to the final run::

Paul 'The Reverend' Miller seeks fame and fortune in Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (AGDI remake). A caffeinated yet narcoleptic fellow runs wild, gathers elements and oddities and gets caught up in a war to retake a (seemingly) Arabian city. A mash-up of point and click plus keyboard controls keeps Paul on his toes (fingers?), while running the game at full speed keeps things at a frantic pace for an adventure game. By dint of magic, manipulation, masterful UI work and that CHARMING smile, our hero foils the wannabe Jafar in 0:11:33. No seriously, red cloak, long twirly stache, magic, a forbidden cave, if he had a bird there’d have been a lawsuit.

::looks over his first post, puts hands on hips and smiles::

     Hello friends. Some of you know me as Worn_Traveler. Some of you know me as Skullboy. I'm a longtime fan of speedrunning and I'm now giving back to the community by contributing to the front page. Three is a great number for an update and these three runs that will help you get ready for Halloween. From the gory to the goofy (but still gory) and to the peak of isolation, these three runs will make you think twice before opening that door...

    First we have an improvement to the Any% segmented category for F.E.A.R.. 'Freezard' has taken his old 46:29 on Low difficulty and dropped it down to 0:45:06. The segments are appended to one file so you won't have to download or click a myriad of segments, a scary thought in and of itself. The game alternates between violent and creepy and will have you wondering just what is really going on, if you haven’t played it at least.

    There was a sci-fi film that was released in 1976 called Logan's Run and thanks to 'Miryafa' we can watch Sarah's Run: Escape from Capital Evil in 0:06:40, which has nothing to do with Logan's Run, save for running, though perhaps both are trying to find sanctuary. As of this writing, the game has not been updated from the preview version since 2010 but don't let that stop you from watching or playing this quirky and eerie physics game. If solving puzzles and making walls rotate (or is it Sarah who is rotating?) are of interest to you, check it out.

    Finally, we have a massive undertaking in terms of multiplayer action. Why fight evil alone like in the other games in this update when you can do it with friends? One's chances of survival are increased greatly, right? Years ago 'Kibbo', Karol 'dex' Urbanski, 'moooh', 'Ewil', 'Aphox', Mirko Brown, 'KlVis', 'BoltR', 'finalboss', 'Arran', Bart 'TheVoid' de Waal & 'BoltRClone' joined forces and traveled through time in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter. This exciting multiplayer IL table on Tourist difficulty in 0:48:05 is the result. Watching the runs from multiple viewpoints is highly suggested if you are not familiar with the game but isn’t necessary to enjoy the battle across the ages to gain the Holy Grail and maybe make it back to space.

    Remember, we do like to receive news tips so if you know of anything speedrun related that's going on, please make sure to let us know at https://queue.speeddemosarchive.com/submit_news_tip/. Here's what's coming up:

    If you’re into RPG’s, there’s a Breath of Fire relay coming up on the RPGLimitbreak Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/rpglimitbreak) on November 19-20. There’s also a big Final Fantasy IV 25th anniversary event being planned for as well which is slated for November 26.

    Want to run a game in a low key online marathon? Sign ups for Scrubathon VI are currently up on our forums:https://forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/scrubathon_vi__submissions_open_dates_december_910__december_171819.html