This run was done on a Playstation 2, with use of its Fast Disc Speed option (faster load times and dragons are quicker as well, will be referred to as FDS from now on). This is my first submitted run, so I'm hoping I don't botch these comments too much lol. Something to note is that this is on the NTSC version, which plays a lot differently than PAL. The required amount of things to acquire for any% (to continue on to each world) are as follows:
6,000 Gems
5 Dragon Eggs
50 Dragons (+ the Dragon in final hub world for 51 total)

On Fast Disc Speed: On top of the faster load times with having this enabled, it also affects how quickly dragons disappear after their cutscene, and thus how soon you regain control. It also reduces some lag in this game (though there isn't much). In terms of Any%, the time saved from this is approximately at least 46.55 seconds. Now I say "at least" because there's actually an inconsistency. When dragons are breaking open, this game decides to have the statue shards that fly out completely random, both in how much flies out and what directions they fly in. Depending on how much flies out, it can add random lag frames, and some dragons can have more lag depending on their area. Since the amount of shards that comes out is random, FDS tends to save more time due to being less laggy, however dragons can also have little enough shards to come out that the dragon would take just as long to break out as it would on FDS, meaning at best they could be the same speed in that regard, but realistically FDS will more consistently save some time due to less lag, though a random amount each game. An estimated time saved with FDS for any% NTSC would be around 46.55-60 seconds.

On NTSC vs PAL: Due to PAL running at 25fps vs NTSC's 30 for this game, load times are slower and dragons take a little longer to disappear after their cutscene. Enemies also move at a slower speed, which affects a couple tricks, and how flight levels are played. However, Insomniac decided to speed up Spyro's movement speeds in PAL to try and make it seemingly equally fast compared to NTSC, to disguise its lower frame rate if you will. However they actually overtweaked it, and Spyro actually moves a lot faster in PAL, both with charging and gliding (as well as flying in flight levels, which further changes how their done). For any%, the slower load times and dragons negate this extra speed boost and make PAL slightly slower for any% (probably 1-2 minutes), however I am sure that for 120% PAL is actually the faster version, due to a lot more running around, and only a few more load screens and dragons. There is much more time for PAL's speed boost to catch up and get ahead of NTSC in that category.

This game has very few glitches, but it does offer a few tricks that I'll make note of:

Wall-Gliding: For any sloped wall, if you glide into them from the right angle (it's different for each wall, some require very slightly gliding into it, while some require gliding almost straight into the wall), you'll be able to descend at a slower pace, or if done well, actually gain height instead of lose it. This allows you to be able to reach some areas you weren't intended to, or (in the case of Gnorc Cove) skip sections of the level.

Flame Charging: When you flame, it stretches out regardless of what else you're doing after you started it, so you can flame and then charge while it still stretches out in front of you, and sort of have this moving, stretching hitbox in front of you. This makes egg thieves much quicker and easier to hit.

Gem-Homing: For anything you can charge in this game (as well as spyro 2 and 3), the gem will automatically home in on you, regardless if you have Sparx. For some reason if you flame these things and start your charge right as the flame is hitting whatever it does, the gem will home into you as if you charged it, even though you hit it with the flame. This can also be done on certain larger enemies, allowing me to have their gem home into me without slowing down much. It's also situationally useful on chests or smaller enemies, as you can essentially kill them from further away and get their gem. Perhaps the game is thinking since you're charging when the enemy or chest got hit, you must've charged them, and thus homes the gem to you. I'm not really sure why it works.

Spin Jumping: Not used very often in this game, but if you spin in place from a jump you'll gain a tiny bit of height, which makes some jumps possible.

Air Charging: When you charge in midair, while gliding or otherwise, you'll get a very slight boost in height at the start, which helps makes some jumps possible. Since charging in midair moves quicker than gliding, I naturally do it everywhere anyways, but if you see me charging at ledges right next to me, it's to get that height boost.

Cutscene skips: When you hit egg thieves and Gnasty Gnorc, you will lose control while the little cutscene plays. However if you are already in movement when they get hit, whatever you were doing will carry out, such as glides or charge jumps. This allows me to gain a little bit of distance during times where you're normally stopped on the ground.

Dragon Cutscene Skip: I'll cover this in the level notes.

Random Notes:

Dragon Angles: Not really a trick, but each dragon has a spot Spyro walks to for that cutscene before they'll break open. I always aim to activate each dragon from the sides/angles that will make Spyro walk the least amount of distance, and thus have them freed quicker.

Charge jumping: When you charge jump you reach your max speed instantly. While charging uphill you go at a slightly slower pace, so I'll charge jump up the hills to gain multiple little bursts of max speed, or if possible, jump over the incline completely.

Anyways, let's get started on actually talking about the run itself, shall we?

Stone Hill- First off, we skip Nestor since he's the only dragon in the game with an unskippable cutscene, and it's quite slow at that. Most people who are familiar with older runs of this game (or have seen the TAS) may be surprised I'm not doing Sunny Flight. There's actually a trick that makes Icy Flight much quicker to get to, and it's a faster level for the gems it gives compared to Sunny Flight, so the route has been changed. There's not too much to note about Stone Hill itself, the whirlwind in the well is on a timer once you get down there, so the red gems I grab before the dragon don't cost me any time. This level went pretty well, got all the chests in the circular room, which is a nice bonus of extra gems to work with.

Town Square- Here's the first practical use of air charging to gain extra height. I reach the upper area without having to go around the normal way, which allows a faster route through the level. This level was pretty clean overall.

To Peace Keepers- The first of few wall glides done in the run, this lets me get on top of the wall and briefly go out of bounds, and over the wall to get to the dragon outside of Toasty quicker.

Dry Canyon- The fanboxes that you flame has shrapnel that flies out after you destroy it, and it flies in the direction you were flaming the fanbox when you destroyed it, so I aim the shrapnel at the start of the level to kill the fat gnorc from above to save me some time.

Cliff Town- This level is a pain to do optimally, as it has a few tricky tricks (hehehe) in it, notably the jump onto the rooftop with the two gold gems. I get it 2nd try which is acceptable, but it really sucks to get anything other than first try, as that's about 4-5 seconds per extra attempt. I also mess up the stairs before the exit portal badly, but it only costs a couple seconds. This is probably one of the hardest levels to do really well, I tend to either get bad runs with good Cliff Towns, or good runs with bad Cliff Towns. This one happened to be lucky and was good with an ok Cliff Town, so that's nice I guess.

Night Flight- The soldiers before the level could've been nicer with where they were, but they were good enough to get their gems, which is really what matters as those are nice bonus gems. The flight level itself wasn't too bad, was an average run.

Doctor Shemp- Got some distance during the egg thief cutscene, which helps since you can just as easily bump into him during the cutscene and gain no distance from it. The first hit on Dr Shemp was a little sloppy, lost about a second there, but the other two were fast as standard. You can flame him before he turns enough to be vulnerable, as the flame is a continuous constant hitbox, so when he does finally turn enough to get hit he'll be hit as soon as possible.

Ice Caverns- The snowball guy near the exit portal dragon is pretty mean and he can snipe you before you can move again after that dragon. I didn't get the spin jump before the end which lost a couple of seconds, but it's kind of tricky so I don't mind too much when I miss it.

Alpine Ridge- This is probably one of my favorite levels to do, and there's lots of optimizations you can do. I was able to get the early cycle on the ground druid and get to him before he raised it up, which saved a few seconds. However I also made a new mistake and fell back down into the pit after it due to headbutting the floor in the corner (???). Was definitely bizarre and I've never had that happen before or since then.

High Caves- I don't do the CS Skip on the egg thief before the level as I need to head left after hitting him so the distance gain wouldn't help. Not skipping it also allows me to get the green gem by the ramp. This level's pretty fun but also a pain, as super charge is probably the buggiest thing in this game. The beetles also tend to not like to have their gems home into you, which can be costly if it's the one with the 10 gem (who happens to have it happen most commonly with, but he was nice this run).

Wizard Peak- At the very start here I would usually make use of the flame charge to hit that blue wizard and get his 10 gem, but for some reason I did some sort of stutter charge jump instead of flame > charge jump, so I couldn't angle the flame upwards to hit him. That wizard is notably effortless to get in PAL as he moves much slower. After grabbing the egg here, I do a death abuse to save some time (the only intended death in any%), as I need the supercharge ramp to obtain the 25 gem in the metal chest, and gliding back to the main island is a lot slower anyways.

Crystal Flight- If the camera isn't directly behind you as you're entering a level portal, you'll actually sink through it until the camera readjusts behind you and loads the level. By manipulating it away from behind me, I enter this portal and grab the dragon, loading the level right afterwards and skipping its cutscene. This is the only dragon that this can be done with as far as I am aware. This level is also where I make my first big mistake. The gnorc's dead body that flew out of the 2nd to last plane blocked my flame (yes, dead bodies do that in this game...), and made me miss that last plane and had to go back for it. This cost me about 7s, I was really annoyed when this happened.

Blowhard- This is another favorite level of mine to play. It's very short but has a lot of room to optimize, and I did the level pretty well this run. =] The only complaint was the 10 gem from Blowhard not homing in at the end, but that's sort of random.

Wild Flight- This is probably my favorite flight level, it's very easy and there's very little luck in it, a nice break before the hard levels that cover the rest of this world. This run through of it was pretty average. The whirlwind after this comes out on a timer as well, but that timer depends on when you get close enough to it to get it to notice you and start said timer.

Misty Bog- Considered by many to be one of the worst levels in a speedrun, you never know what to expect when you enter it. There's lots of enemy RNG with how they move around, and thus how quickly I can grab their gems. I made another new mistake this run of somehow falling before going down the tree trunk, which cost me about 6-7 seconds, and worse yet, threatened losing Sparx in this level, which loses more time. Because of that I played it safe with the last frog to not lose Sparx, as their range is stupid long. Overall this level was upsettingly sloppy, but that's Misty Bog for you.

Tree Tops- Another really difficult level in a speedrun, this level is probably the one that makes me most nervous to do. Using some Supercharge exploiting, I reach the far out island early, as well as get to the last island early. The 2nd skip of going around and landing on the final strip of the super charge ramp is pretty tricky, and is costly if you miss it. I bumped into the fanbox despite supercharging, but as I said earlier supercharge is buggy. This level could've gone a little faster, but what matters is that I didn't mess up the skips.

Metalhead- I missed landing on the bridge railing, so I went with the slightly slower spinjump to get into Metalhead, losing me about a second. As for the level itself, it went pretty well overall. The first phase of the boss fight went well, the second phase went alright. The hardest section of the run is done with. You'd imagine one would be more relaxed by this point, but since I was able to have such a good run going up to this point the nerves started to get to me haha.

Icy Flight- When you are hit by certain enemy attacks that make you flip in the air, if you're rising from a jump, you'll maintain that momentum after you get hit, which I abuse here to go over the two guards,and thus skip having to go to the laser cannon. This skip also allows me to skip doing Sunny Flight, and replace it with Icy Flight. The skip itself went well. As for the level, this was another regretful part of the run. This day must have been really bad for flight levels, since I messed up in two flights in one run. I tried to over optimize the flame to hit a chest and missed it, requiring me to turn around and lose around 4s. Flight levels are a real pain to optimize really well, as the strats are really risky and punishing for the small amounts of time you can shave off.

Jacques- Here is the official "Make up any gems you missed" level. I use my own little mathematical formula to calculate before entering how many gems I need to grab before the boss (the boss gives 175), to leave the level with exactly 6k gems or as close to it as I can. I collected a nice amount of gems this run, didn't have to slow down much for gems. However the level itself was pretty sloppy in terms of movement. The nerves were really getting to me by this point. =[

Gnorc Cove- I grab the dragon in the hub world as it's required for the dragon head to open to let you into Twilight Harbor. This level has the other wall glide you will see, which lets me skip straight to the end. Unless you do a near perfect wall glide however, you will need a yellow Sparx to execute the trick. I made yet another mistake here and fell into the water before the bridge, which would've cost the run had I not grabbed the mushroom in Jacques earlier.

Twilight Harbor- This level's enemies are pretty buggy and their hitboxes are downright absurd sometimes, but this level went really well thankfully.

Gnasty Gnorc- I was able to get both key thieves really quickly which was a relief. This level also went really well. I went for a glide during the cutscene after hitting him the first time, but it didn't give me much distance. I hit Gnorc and finished at a very quick 44:08 however, and the run is finished!

Overall this is a very good time, and though there are definitely some sloppy parts, it's very clean overall, and I'm satisfied with it regardless. A lot of the tricks and optimizations in this game are risky and challenging, so there's bound to be some mistakes in every run. I've actually already come up with a new gem route since doing this run that can save up to 10 seconds, and I will be working on a future submission, probably aiming for 43:45ish. I'm also working on 120% as well, so look forward to seeing more Spyro runs from me in the future! Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed the run, and that my comments were informative enough. =]

Shoutouts and thanks to:

SDA and SRL: For simply existing lol. The two sites are pretty much what guided me to where I am today.

Nate and Puwexil: For helping me find my way out of a box and actually do what was needed to submit this run. lol

Tiki and MPZoid: Tiki's Mega Man X and MPZoid's Metroid Prime speedruns are the things that inspired me to speedrun to begin with, and Tiki helped me out a lot and taught me not just how to speedrun, but how to learn to speedrun, and improve myself. You've been a great teacher, and one of the speedrunners I look up to the most to this day.

Crash41596, and SSBMStuff: My main "rivals" and competition for this game for the past year, who also helped find tricks and develop the route to what it is today. You guys have been really helpful and it's been great running this with you guys. Who knows maybe one of them might one up me in the future and replace any of my Spyro runs to this site. :p

The rest of the Spyro and Crash community: For being great friends to chill with and enjoy our childhoods together. =]

The rest of my speedrunning friends: Who have been great sources of happiness and support, and have made me never regret joining the speedrunning community. It's been a great adventure so far. You all know who you are.

Axon: Easily the closest friend I've made from speedrunning. What do I even say? You know how much you mean to me. I'm glad we met. <3

If you'd like to contact me about help with running anything you can reach me at:
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/surreal_
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Surreal3650

Rundown:
This was the 2nd speedrun that I've ever really attempted of a game, the first being a Spyro 2 any% run which I recorded on emulator and uploaded on Youtube.
This is the 1st speedrun ive published on SDA and plan to publish more speedruns of Spyro the dragon, and its sequels.

Versions:
It is very important what version you use in Spyro the Dragon. NTSC seems to be a much quicker version because Dragons are rescued faster and the flights have quicker paths due to quicker objects (I think). Anyway, this is the PAL version and if this run was done on NTSC with me doing exactly the same things, probably another minute could have been shaved.

Anyway, lets get started

What we need for the n00bs:
- 10 Dragons to get through Artisans
- 1200 Gems to get through Peace Keepers
- 5 eggs to get through Magic Crafters
- 50 Dragons to get through Beast Makers
- 6000 Gems to get through Dream Weavers

Artisans 1:
Decided to rescue Nestor. Hes one dragon that you might want to skip, but really it takes on average about 15 seconds to get to a dragon from another dragon and Nestor speaks for about 10 seconds. Plus he's right in front of you.
Quick jump on the stones and into sunny flight

Sunny Flight:
Mistake here, Ive had worse runs. On the run before, I got 1 hour: 04 and my controller kept on making me dip for some stupid reason, glad I switched controllers to my trusty 1999 - ps1 controller (first and best controller)

Artisans 2:
Perfect

Town Square:
No Problems here, the dragon here is another people think of skipping. I get it along with the egg thief

Artisans 3:
Good

Stone Hill:
Pretty Good

Artisans 4:
Yep, Good. No Toasty or Dark Hollow because even though they have easy dragons, they have terrible amounts of gems, and this speedrun is mainly focussing on gems
Onto Peace Keepers

Peace Keepers 1:
Good, hop in to dry canyon

Dry Canyon:
Good, Skip one of the dragons here, which I believe doesn't work well with the rest of the route

Peace Keepers 2:
Fine

Cliff Town:
Always been a bit of a problem level for me considering where it is in the game. Didn't do too well on this run, but others may consider skipping some of the gems I colleted

Peace Keepers 3:
Good

Ice Cavern:
Did very well here, All 5 dragons, some people may choose to skip the last one or may choose to do the level in reverse to get the extra lives. Not me

Peace Keepers 4:
Good, made sure I killed that annoying Gnorc that controls the cannon before I tried to use the cannon

Night Flight:
Ok, bit of trouble near the end, not too bad though

Peace Keepers 5:
2nd egg thief, if I had trouble with this egg thief I had a backup in Wizard Peak

Onto Magic Crafters

Magic Crafters 1:
Perfect, 10 gem fan boxes are always worth it

Alpine Ridge:
Really good, sometimes I died from those magicians, no deaths here and a lot of gems.

Magic Crafters 2:
Good. Dunno whether to rescue the dragon near high caves before or after high caves, I think before would have been better before high caves

High Caves:
A lot of routes you could take in this level. I Really just go for the places with have the most gems and take the last time. Theres the area with the faerie that I went on some runs but decided not to on this one. And the 2 areas with the thieves, which I didn't go in either. The area near the home portal should always be gone in though

Magic Crafters 3:
Skip Crystal flight for now to get not one, but 2 25 gems and enter wizard peak

Wizard Peak:
Probably worst level in this run, usually isn't a hassle. Died, wasted supercharge, got hit multiple times, missed gems.
Last egg thief here

Magic Crafters 4:
Fine

Crystal Flight:
Terrible run, at least I didn't die

Magic Crafters 5:
Fine

Blowhard:
One of the best levels for gems, I was ok here, could of saved a few seconds though

Magic Crafters 6:
Fine, onto Beast Makers

Beast Makers1:
Used a shortcut, got a few gems. It went down good

Wild Flight
Best Flight run I did, still 20 seconds off the WR though, hehe

Beast Makers 2:
That whirlwind is a pain in the ass

Misty Bog:
Quite good here compared to usual I think. Skipped that dragon, which might be a thing to think about. Bit on other runs I chose to go for that dragon

Beast Makers 3:
Fine

Tree Tops:
Dum, Dum, Dum! Even the name of this level makes me shiver. I nearly always had a death here when I tried to go for the dragon on the island. You have to be very lucky to not die on the first go. So yeah, wasted 20-30 seconds here an nearly died twice. Oh well there's about 100 gems on that island plus a dragon, you cant afford not to take that risk.
Also nearly forgot about a shortcut I only just learned about. Woops.
Rest of the level was fine compared to other runs. I think my only death warp in the speedrun.

Beast Makers 4: Little shortcut and I'm in Metalhead

Metalhead:
Wasted 10 seconds in the "secret area" and had no sparx for the majority of the level. Not my best run of this level, but oh my does this level has a lot of easy gems?

Beast Makers 5: Open the chest and get a few easy gems. Also try a "Charge double jump" and fail at it, Im better at in on an emulator

Onto Dream Weavers

Dream Weavers 1:
No More dragons, and onto Haunted Towers

Haunted Towers:
Bah, I always do some things wrong in this level, this run especially. Have to go back to the faerie. Crash on the supercharge. Forgot the chest in the "secret area" (which was technically good seeing I went over in gems).
Wasted about 30 seconds on this level

Dream Weavers 2:
Quite long part for a homeworld. Stuff up a bit on the 'evolvo-ray' and I don't know how I should wait for the fireworks near icy flight. Otherwise it was fine.

Icy Flight:
Bah, I was shitting myself when I missed that helicopter. What I was trying to do was be cocky and flame that helicopter as late as possible so I would ed up flying up into a wall and end the flight quicker. I ended up adding about 10 seconds to the flight

Dream Weavers 3:
Short as hell, onto Jacques

Jacques:
Needed 200 gems, so I killed a few enemies and stuff + Jacques who gives a stack of 25 gems. Went under by 38 which isn't too bad.

Dream Weavers 4:
Do I really need to talk about these?

Onto Gnastys World

Gnorc Gnexus:
In general, I did fine of all runs of Gnorc Gnexus, except failed a bit on searching for rats and bumping into dragon teeth.

Gnorc Cove:
Really proud of my run here, probably my best.
No deaths, pretty much no hits and really fast

Twilight harbour:
BIG death level, didn't die here with no sparx. Gosh I was happy

Gnasty Gnorc:
Very good run, and all with no sparx

My Route in general:
Many people talk about getting most gems in the early worlds. I definitely didn't do that here, but I still got quite a lot of gems in Town Square in Artisans and the peace keepers world, so I wouldn't describe my route as collecting gems in the late part of the game.

There's a few things to consider. Like Dark Hollow, Terrace Village and maybe dark passage but my route is pretty spot on in my opinion. Lets just wait for someone to beat an hour. I don't think it will be that hard, and really you could do it easily with a few mistakes fixed on my route.

This run Starts off by rescuing the first dragon in the game Nestor. Nestor is a waste
of time but I would rather not get into to much detail on why I hate this dragon so much.
Over all this run was a decent run, and I would love for someone to give me a challenge
and beat this record. This run was also done on a real console.

-SUNNY FLIGHT : The route I got for this speed way level was by ratchet5 a good of mine
who helped me practice for this run.I would say that I did real good on the speed way
I do not think I can make any improvements.

-DARK HOLLOW : Nothing really much to say about this stage ,but that it was a pretty
damn good run, also notice how I jump charged on the stairs at the end of the level to
go faster.

-TOASTY : Toasty is the first boss in the game that is dressed up as a scare crow type
creature but is really a sheep. I did make a few mistakes like getting hit once and banging
into a wall. It really isn't anything to be ashamed of, but I could be about 5-10 seconds
faster.

-STONE HILL : Is by far the longest stage in the artisans homeworld but yet again it is one of my favorites. I would have to say that I did a okay run but I did make a few mistakes like missing the whirl wind to get out of the well ,and almost exiting the level
which made me laugh when I was re - watching the run .

-TOWN SQUARE : This stage went real well , and I don't think I can make that much of an improvement on it considering the mistakes were minor.

-ARTISANS HOME WORLD : I did not make any mistakes when I was collecting gems to get to the levels in the home worlds.

-Dry Canyon : This stage is my favorite level by far in this game. There are so many gems to collect it is remarkable. I did very well in this level.

-Cliff Town : One phrase sums up this level " Those Damn Rockets ". I really just hate the rocket in this level ,but I am just happy that it didn't give me as much trouble as I expected .

-Ice Cavern : The first level that includes ice ,and also the first level I die in. When I was climbing up to the secret area in the level I slipped on the so called "Ice" ,and fell off the edge. How splended ,but overall it wasn't time consuming.

-Dr. Shemp : Nothing much to say about this level but that it is the second boss in the game.

-Night Flight : I got a pretty good time of 1:07 which in my eyes is a good time.

-Peace Keepers : Had no trouble collecting the gems in the home world.

-Alpine Ridge : I had a very good run for this level.

-High Caves : I was really suprized how well everything went in this level . I didn't ever screw up on the super charge.

-Wizard Peak : This had to be the worst level in the game seeing how I died twice trying to get to the secret island with the egg thief on it .I hope to improve this level in future runs

-Crystal Flight : I had a decent time on this flight but I could do better.

-Blow hard : This is the third boss in the game. I did very well on Blow Hard "the worst pun".

- Magic Crafters : I did very well getting the gems in this homeworld.

-Terrace Village : I did rather well .

- Wild Flight : Kind of a bad run seeing how I died in this flight.

- Misty Bog : Had to death abuse because of those darn attack frogs :C

- Tree Tops : My run of this stage was almost as bad as wizard peak but I guess I recovered from it.

- Metal Head : Had a decent run of this boss.

- Beast Makers : Did actually real well on this home world.

- Haunted Towers : I really love this level because of the infinite super flame that you get. I also did decent in this level.

- Dark Passage : Those little turtles , and devil Puppies are quite annoying.

- Lofty Castle : I was kinda parnoid in this stage because I kept thinking I was missing gems.

- Jacques : Did okay in this boss.

- Icy Flight : I think this was one of my best flights in this speedrun .

- Dream Weavers : I think I had kind of a bad route for this home world.

- Gnorc Gnexus : The smallest level in the game and by far the easiest

- Gnorc Cove : Should have practiced this stage more because honestly I was kind of confused on where all the gems were in this level.

-Twilight Harbour : This has to be the hardest level in the game but at least I did good in it.

-Gnasty Gnorc : The final boss in the game .As our adventure comes to an end we notice after Gnasty Gnorc is dead we still have a dragon to get in the home world "Gnorc GNexus". After we save the final dragon we have a secret level to complete because we have 100% of the game done.

- Gnasty's Loot : The final level in the game. The only problem I had with this level were those airplanes.

- Conclusion : Overall this run was great but it is not my best. Soon I hope to redo this run. For futher progress on Spyro
speedrunning visit my youtube which is Crash41596 .