Somewhat amazingly, we haven't had a single individual level published all year thus far. Today that all changes in a big way, with individual-levels runs for two new games.

The first of these is Prince of Persia. I know just leaving it at that would be ambiguous, as Ubisoft seems determined on milking this cow dry, so I'll have to add that this is the SNES version. "Sweet! Does this mean that we finally have a run on the original Prince of Persia?" Well, yes and no. The SNES port is indeed based off the original Apple II release, but it's souped up, with twenty stages to go along with updated sound and graphics. This run in a combined time of 0:35:36 is the first publication for Benjamin 'UraniumAnchor' Cutler, a man who is quickly making a name for himself. Come and relive the classic with us.

Our other new game is the westernized Capcom game Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. You know it's westernized when it features space marines and giant insectoid aliens. Laszlo Seta decided that this would be a good target for his second run on SDA. So he fired up his trusty PC, set the difficulty to Easy, and churned out these eleven missions in a total of 0:41:27. I hope you like ice! Laszlo goes to camp and brings along his faithful grapple hook. Capcom has announced that they are working with Warner Bros. on a film adaptation of Lost Planet, but you can see more action and less talking if you watch this speedrun.

Both of the runs in this update are from new runners, so congratulations and good work, guys!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare gets a new run. Last year, Andrew Mills completed an individual-levels run of the Xbox 360 version all by himself, with a final combined time of 1:55:53. As with many FPS games, PC runners want to try speedrunning using fancy keyboard-and-mouse arcane technology that console runners cannot hope to comprehend. Sami 'nego' Reinikainen is one such person, and the product of his precision is this Regular difficulty 1:38:59 in 48 segments. Join one man as he revels in his triumph over the wicked autosave system, fighting the good fight for speedrunners everywhere.

One of the lesser known PC games by the famed Westwood Studios is Nox, a game that enters a tie with Ico and Gun as the shortest game titles on SDA: a meaningless record that will likely stand until one day someone decides to run D. Anders 'Pjoxt' Örndahl plays as the Wizard and thus gets an ending where the evil super-busty sorceress/supervillainess/final boss actually turns out to be an amnesiac but grateful ingenue. That's not bad at all for only 0:43:21 of work and 12 segments. I guess parallel universes also have the concept of continuously reloading. Who knew?

Survey says...

That's right. Today we have the first speedrun for an immensely popular title: The Elder Scrolls V — err, Fallout 3! Those of you who thirst for blood and violence would probably do well to look somewhere else, but if you enjoy quiet walks on the beach and scenic vistas, this may be just the run for you. Isaac 'error1' Wehmanen wanted to watch a Fallout 3 run, so the only viable solution was to create one himself, resulting in this 24-segment 0:30:09. Although this speedrun doesn't have much in the way of combat, it does feature some nifty sequence breaks, as well as useful audio commentary. We'll be looking forward to whatever Isaac decides he absolutely must watch next.

We might as well start calling Giel 'ZaibirQuild' Goertz the Duck King. Last month, he cannonballed onto SDA with a European-version Duck Tales run on Difficult mode in 0:08:44. To contrast, Giel completes Duck Tales 2 in 0:19:16, as it is both longer and less breakable. But don't fret; this run contains your 100% recommended daily allowance of the cane-bouncing action we know you depend on. This time, Freddy 'Frezy_man' Andersson is safe from Giel's fury, as the old European-version Easy 0:11:40 is still up on the page. Giel has written a lovely narrative of Scrooge McDuck and his adventures, so be sure to read it at your pleasure.

Phew, we've had quite a stream of updates recently, so this update is: 1) big, 2) late, and 3) the first in the series we'll have soon. You're not here to read my rambling, so let's get to the videos.

There was yet another contest on SDAQuake, this time e3m6 the Long Way. And not just long, but also slow. Or, at the very least, slower than usual. Why is that? Because the Easy Run category had a true plot twist - keyboard only demos, just like people were speedrunning back in the ice age. The contested categories (Nightmare run and the already mentioned Easy Run) were swiped by Jaakko 'NahkahiiR' Alakopsa. Vids: Easy Run in 00:00:52 - MQ, HQ; Nightmare Run in 00:00:48 - MQ, HQ.

In the land of the normal demos, we've had quite a few good ones, so they're coming right up in no particular order:

• d7 Nightmare Run in 00:00:42 by Jaakko Alakopsa: MQ, HQ
• dragon Easy Run in 00:00:20 by Flavio Quadros: MQ, HQ
• hdn Easy Run in 00:00:17 by Dmitry Dementjev: MQ, HQ
• tchak Easy Run in 00:00:56 by Flavio Quadros: MQ, HQ
• pit 2-player Nightmare 100% in 00:01:53 by Jaakko Alakopsa and Basil de Vries: MQ, HQ

And finally, the Oldie of the Update. Since there's already a lot of material for you to watch, this one's short but contains a super-sweet trick. The Grizzly Grotto (e1m4) Nightmare Run in 00:00:18 by Jozsef Szalontai (yes, the maker of JoeQuake): MQ, HQ, IQ.

Like I said, more updates coming reasonably soon, since we still have a backlog of 2 updates to capture videos from. If you don't want to wait, check out the Quake part of the site.

Some thought this day would never come, yet others knew and felt a twinge of sadness. Scott 'sdkess' Kessler has a well-earned reputation as one of the best gamers around, but today he is obsoleted off SDA completely — the knockout punch thrown by newcomer Jeff Feasel. Bionic Commando is coming, so get your grapple hooks ready! Scott's run from 2004 finished in 0:18:20, while Jeff's is in just 0:17:37. Neither one used the A+B+Start level exit, so maybe the next run will address this omission. I would like to add that Jeff Feasel owes me a new pair of pants since I soiled mine while watching this run.

Years ago, we used to host Halo speedruns here on SDA. Our table soon became horribly outdated, so we started linking to High Speed Halo for a while before eventually removing the page altogether. Since then, some have professed surprise upon learning we don't have any Halo on SDA. Be surprised no more. The Halo 2 Done Segmented team has joined forces and compiled this Legendary difficulty run in 1:30:29 with audio commentary. We would like to thank Bungie for treating the speedrunning community with a great deal of respect, something that cannot be said for certain other developers. Now, let's see about getting runs for those other games.

I'm comin' with the U-Haul.

Be on the lookout for Marko 'Master-88' Vanhanen. His first publication arrives today with a run of Probotector 2, the European version of Super C. His time is 0:16:58, which is six seconds faster than his previous submission that didn't make it to SDA. I'm not entirely sure how this compares with the existing runs: 0:14:06 by Jim 'vgmrsepitome' Hanson and 0:16:32 low% by Ray 'Croc-Doc' Cullen. Suffice it to say, though, all three runs are amazing and well worth your time. Let's hear it for perfect spread rhythm. Everyone loves the spread rhythm.

I hope you like cutscenes! Today's other run is also from a new runner. Say hello to Tyler 'Thiradell' Wishall. His 1:52:35 of Super Mario Sunshine in nine segments replaces Peter 'Dragorn' Branam-Lefkove's 1:59:49 from 2004. Tyler is on his own throne, the boss like King Koopa. In his comments, Peter said "Well, this is the only speed run of this movie available, so it should, hopefully, provide some entertainment until something better comes along." It took over four years, but I guess good things come to those who wait. Like mmm... leftovers.

I know the traffic statistics. I know how these things work. Please don't just ignore these speedruns or any others simply because you've never heard of the games in question. Try watching these videos, or better yet, try playing the games themselves. Mike and I were discussing what we each personally thought was the "run of the year" so far, and we narrowed it down to the two runs in this update. This was before 0:03:12 Diablo, so I might have to rethink this topic, but trust me, these runs are top notch.

Cobra Triangle is similar to last update's Snake Rattle 'n' Roll in that both were products of vintage Rare's unapologetic stance towards spanking little kids. As our blurb for the game will tell you, it can be described somewhat as a cross between R.C. Pro-Am and Gradius. It sounds tough to manage, and it is, but 'ktwo' has succeeded wildly with this 0:12:18 on the European version. ktwo submitted an earlier version but obsoleted it before it was even published. This iteration mainly has better luck on the crab boss. Yes, as gamers we have always had giant enemy crabs.

If you have never played Ristar, play it immediately, then repent and supplicate yourself before Sega Corporation. Your weakness in their time of dire need, overlooking gems such as Ristar in favor of inferior games, has contributed to the current state of sorry affairs. And once you're done with all of this, please watch this fantastic 0:28:47. The man who produced this work of art is one of the most awesome people I know, and his name is Chip 'Breakdown' Vogel. Chip runs superb games such as Faxanadu, looks like a roadie, and is highly adept at swinging: all great news for the ladies in the audience.

Marc J. 'Emptyeye' Dziezynski has seen many of his runs fall under assault in recent times, and it's true, Rygar really is the most famous game left. Mr. Dziezynski's 0:30:30 from 2005 has the oldest-produced audio commentary of any run on the site, although it wasn't on SDA itself until much later. Kristian 'Arctic_Eagle' Emanuelsen is rapidly expanding his roost, and today he comes through with a much speedier 0:25:59, exhibiting faster leveling, a new route, and better execution. Nevertheless, some verifiers thought that perhaps there was a bit too much leveling, so Marc is eyeing this run to see if he can take it back. In the meantime, watch your back, Willow!

We'll be revisiting this topic soon, but it's worth emphasizing for you whippersnappers: back in the day, Rare wasn't focused on making accessible, friendly games. No, their goal was to give you a virtual kick in the gonads with each fiendish creation. Such is the case with Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, an isometric torture machine of doom. Giel 'ZaibirQuild' Goertz, the mastermind behind last month's Duck Tales run, is the man brave enough to engineer this 0:07:12 on the European version. Watch as Mr. Goertz warps from stage to stage, climbs the Stairway to Hell, and sets the table for Snakes in Space, the sequel that never was.

It's the 5th of March, which means that Resident Evil 5 was released in Japan today. What better way to celebrate than by looking back with a couple of Resident Evil 4 speedruns?

It seems appropriate, then, to start off with a run on Biohazard 4, the Japanese version of Resident Evil 4. The runner is You-Hei "Cab" Muro, who is Japanese. MT and Catz recently finished translating all of our documents into Japanese; hopefully in the future we will only increase the number of runs we receive from all parts of the world. This run is on The Another Order, also known as Separate Ways, and finishes in 0:27:53 using five segments. You can read the comments translated into English or in the original Japanese if you know how.

The other run is on the normal game, without special weapons. Derek Taylor has run the European version on Normal mode in 1:50:53. This replaces the previous run in 2:06:24 by Tim Bright. Derek's run cuts the number of segments down from 19 to 17 and scores one for the Europeans. Read up for details on new glitches and skips, perhaps after watching the video. I don't really want to be the one to spoil some of these for you. Now, who's ready for some African zombies? Maybe at SDA our goal should be to expand global reach faster than Resident Evil does.

Not just hidden, not just dangerous, but hidden and dangerous. That's Pete 'Thinkshooter' Howard. Fresh off his Knights of the Old Republic speedrun, Pete next decided to aim for a different type of run with a tactical shooter. The game in question is Illusion Softworks' Hidden & Dangerous 2: a game so hidden and so dangerous that you aren't even allowed to co-op with friends in campaign mode. Fortunately, Mr. Howard has no need for teammates, whether controlled by humans or computer. This fact is made clear with his Lone Wolf time in 1:19:28, done in 72 segments on Hard mode.

Do you know what else is hidden and dangerous? Why, that would be ninjas, of course! And there is no ninja more hidden or dangerous than Ryu Hayabusa. This is his (side) story. For quite a while, Kristian 'Arctic_Eagle' Emanuelsen has held the record on SDA for Shadow Warriors, the European version of Ninja Gaiden. After growing bored with simply improving his own time, Kristian obtained an NTSC system and set about conquering Josh 'LigerOfFortune' Styger's time of 0:12:53. As you can see with this 0:12:44, he succeeded handily. Don't worry, 6-2 damage boost, you will live on in our hearts and minds.

Last update's 0:03:12 Diablo was an especially short speedrun, but this next run has now claimed the record for the fastest full-game completion on all of SDA. It will in fact take you more time to read the hilarious comments than it will to actually watch the video. Let's just say that this North & South run, in stark contrast to his Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts run, is not Daniel 'Kareshi' Brown's magnum opus. It is, however, a perversely entertaining run, similar to the previous shortest SDA run and cult favorite, Dark Castle. This type of speedrun should be cherished, not shunned. To call Daniel's run a-laugh-a-minute would be a gross underselling, since after all, it only lasts for 0:01:01.

Let out a rebel yell and prepare for more hot metal warfare with MechWarrior 3. Janis 'Pendrokar' Lukss was last seen hijacking a mech in MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. With this run, he travels back in time to the series' most famous episode, revisiting the terrible AI so you don't have to. What followed was his 20-segment 0:42:53 on High difficulty. Janis's setups demonstrate a mad dedication to speed that may astound you, and they allowed him to produce times much faster than previously thought feasible. Let's wait and see what he has in store for us in the future, whether MechWarrior or something else.

We've had the largest influx of runs in SDA history in recent days, so fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.

Maciej 'groobo' Maselewski is considered by many to be possibly the most flexible, dedicated, talented gamer at SDA, and his Diablo speedrun in 0:06:07 was likely his most famous achievement. Little did the world know that he was cooking up a new recipe to almost halve the time. Be sure to take out insurance on your face, because your head might explode after watching this new run in 0:03:12. Maciej plays as the sorcerer as he did in 2007, but cuts the segments from 40 down to 27. If you thought this game couldn't be broken any further, get ready for a new set of glitches, including negative health.

This next run has been in the works for quite some time now, and the teeming masses just can't take it any more. It's an obsessive-compulsive run for an obsessive-compulsive game: 100% Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Alan 'Siyko' Burnett relives his sorceress-playing days and adds this 100% to his any% run from 2005. His final result is 4:22, which means you could watch Maciej's run 81 times in the time it would take you to watch Alan's run, and you would still have some time left over at the end to pass out on the floor. Alan was kind enough to include audio commentary, so put it to good use. Think of it as a spoonful of sugar.

Today we have two speedruns in additional categories for existing games.

The first of these is for Mega Man Zero. Technically, it's Rockman Zero, as new runner 'Elpis TK31' has run the Japanese version. This runner isn't Japanese, though. He's Dutch, just like the esteemed McBAIN of bygone days. Elpis did his single-segment run on Hard, finishing in 0:11:19. This sounds like a tremendous time, and it is, but it isn't comparable to Mike Uyama's time of 0:34:03. Mike got S-ranks on every stage, whereas Elpis doesn't even play every stage; instead, he gives up (when applicable) and moves on to the next stage. He is also working on an all-missions run, but please don't let that deter you from watching this one.

Then we have the curious case of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, a game that could have stood to use a little more Voodoo instead of those other songs. Mathias 'Butt3rs' Hoiss provides us with this speedrun, which took longer to go through the system than would normally seem possible. There were many long delays such as the verifiers taking a long time to respond, Mathias himself taking a long time to respond, and so forth. Anyway, this is a single-segment 2:55:45 on Easy, and it goes up alongside Derek 'SnapDragon' Kisman's 100% single-segment on Hard in 3:19 from 2005. Hey, it's an odd-numbered year, so maybe someone else is making a run at this very moment.

Gather 'round and I will tell you young'uns a tale about Uncle Radix. Once upon a time, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and a man named Nolan 'Radix' Pflug roamed the forum, all animated avatars cowered in fear. They were peaceful creatures and wanted nothing more than to loop endlessly all day. Unfortunately, the mere sight of them sickened Radix, and as a skilled hunter bred on Quake, he shot them all down like varmints. This persecution continued until one day, a now-forgotten forum member known only as HeroPenguin arrived with his pet, an animated EarthBound avatar. They say that Radix's heart grew three sizes that day. The avatar was just so adorable that he immediately rescinded his existing policy, and these days as we all know, animated avatars can be found mingling freely with their static brethren.

It's not often that you can get an EarthBound fan to admit that the game has a "curiously devoted" cult following. It's precisely because of this status that the following run has had such a long-awaited but difficult path. Back in 2006, Evil_Ninja submitted a segmented run in 5:48. With Mike taking over the judge duties, it became one of SDA's first prominent rejections. At first, millions wailed and gnashed their teeth, but once the run was made public, consensus abruptly shifted to "yeah, actually that run really could be a lot better." Some tried to construct a revision, but in the end the victor was newcomer Greg '_sdfg' Singer and his 42-segment 4:13. As you will soon notice, Greg didn't skimp on either text or audio commentary. Turn this one up to eleven.

It seems that the runs in this update have rather long histories. The EarthBound run rose like the firebird, while this one had an extended stint in speedrun purgatory. A mere two weeks after the release of Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2006, Nicholas 'Sir VG' Hoppe submitted a speedrun. This caused a small controversy as it was seen as possibly a bit of a rush job, so Mike delayed it for a short while. The next hurdle was that most people at SDA had not played the game, so it became one of the oldest and longest-standing runs needing verification. After all of that, this 6-segment 1:05:09 stood the test of time and probably set some unfortunate record for longest time from creation to publication. Given the West-imitates-East nature of Avatar itself, it's only fitting that Nicholas decided to compose his comments in haiku form.

But SDA ain't one.

Giel 'ZaibirQuild' Goertz has accomplished a feat that nobody has ever managed before and possibly nobody will ever manage again. What exactly did he do? Thanks for asking. With his 0:08:44 of Duck Tales, Mr. Goertz has obsoleted not one, not two, but three separate runs, all by the legendary Freddy 'Frezy_man' Andersson. It's safe to say that this European version run on Difficult is top-notch. The biggest change is the exploitation of a crazy moon stage glitch, which will surely befuddle you if you've never seen it before. Remember, if you just can't get enough cane-bouncing love, stay tuned to SDA for the action-packed sequel!

Here's another gigantic improvement for you. It's from that cool and helpful dude, Bart 'TheVoid' de Waal. Last year, he helped Mirko Brown a lot with his Age of Empires III speedrun in 2:09:39. A year later, Bart takes on that Easy mode run, with the same 24 segments, and beats the game in 1:31:52. No one was as surprised at the amount of time saved as Bart himself. Apart from a higher level of optimization, he came up with some new strategies and tricks such as skipping victory speeches. If only someone could figure out how to do this in real life...

A really small update today, so small that there's no Oldie of the Update, in fact. There's been a contest on SDAQuake recently, and I took the liberty of capping the winning demos, since they are a delightful watch.

The contest, fittingly named 'Oh God my head', took place on a map called ynogA eruzA - a cunning name for what is Azure Agony (e4m7) turned upside down. All four single-player categories, here they come:

• Easy Run, won by Jaakko Alakopsa with a 0:00:45 - MQ, HQ
• Easy 100%, won by Jaakko Alakopsa with a 0:01:58 - MQ, HQ
• Nightmare Run, won by Basil de Vries with a 0:00:49 - MQ, HQ
• Nightmare 100%, won by Jaakko Alakopsa with a 0:02:37 - MQ, HQ

Like I said, short, but sweet. A bigger release is coming up in the near future, we just need to finish up some work on it, which could take a short while. I assure it is worth the wait, though, so stay tuned.

I normally wouldn't bring this up, but I'm a fan of historical humor. If you are too, look back at the update from October 9, 2007, then look at the game pages for the three new runs today and the two runs from last update. No prize if you can spot the correlation in all five.

The first of today's new games is Double Dragon II: The Revenge. For the longest time, many NES enthusiasts held that the most glaring omission from SDA's coverage of NES games was any installment from the Double Dragon beat 'em up series. This deficiency has been corrected by the hard-at-work Jeremy 'DK28' Doll. He didn't let a rejection of his almost eighteen-minute run faze him, and so his vicious improvement arrives today. Having shed almost four minutes, this Supreme Master run goes up as 0:13:51. Come watch the man known as the Supreme Master of the Flying Knee.

Our next new game is from a new runner, who makes an extremely impressive entrance with his speedrun today. Although we haven't had any Fire Emblem runs posted since — you guessed it — October 2007, with the release of this Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn run we yet again have more Fire Emblem games on SDA than released in North America. Thank Eric 'Vykan12' Grosse and his 3:13:38 run on Normal for that. Eric splits the run into 91 segments, and once you have a taste, you will know where they all went. Fess up: you love dissertation-length comments, so start reading!

And then we have Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues. Once upon a time, someone inexplicably made a genuinely good Jurassic Park game, and this run 'n gun just happens to be it. Amusingly, TCC has nothing to do with either The Lost World or Jurassic Park; on the contrary, it was developed by Ocean as a sequel to their first Jurassic Park game, which sucked raptor eggs. Our new contributer today is Vincent 'Captain' Russo, who completes this mission in 0:41:12. Watch out, ladies! This military man comes equipped with a tranquilizer gun, a sense of humor, and a very large PDA, and he's not afraid to use them.

Pokémon Red was one of the original pair of games that started it all, and it was also the only one not to have a color identity crisis. Ben 'Cygnus' Goldberg has been hard at work in the lab for years, and now he has concocted the final mixture, a speedrun in under two hours. The exact time is 1:59 in 34 segments, so he just barely got it in there. This is ten minutes faster than Ben's former run from 2007, which was done in 41 segments. This time, instead of Charmander as his starter, he chose Squirtle. Quite frankly, I think this joke sells itself.

The second game in this update is a remake of the first one. That would be Pokémon FireRed, not some newfangled Pokémon Red HD Remix. As before, the runner is Darren 'Ultimate Darius' Cornell, but this time he tackles a different category: Elite Four Round 2. The run is single-segment and clocks in at 5:16. Compared to the normal run, this one utilizes the same basic concepts but with different catches. Mr. Cornell had completed earlier a run in 5:46 that he attempted to submit, but unfortunately his DVD recorder had mangled the disc. Given the end result, maybe that was a blessing in disguise.

When Nicholas 'Sir VG' Hoppe's Ace Combat 04 speedrun went up on SDA, I said to watch out for an upcoming Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War run. If you followed this directive, your patience is now rewarded. Nicholas made his run single-segment on Very Easy, just like the Ace Combat 04 run, and completes the game in 1:20:38. There is no previous run to compare this with, but since the Ace Combat 04 run was in 2:29:30, I suppose you can compare the two games. This one has less cruft and also apparently mission 15 is to kill Hitler. With this speedrun, Mr. Hoppe asserts his stranglehold on the beginning of the alphabetized game list. Go watch ActRaiser!

Due to the site's origins, in the early days of modern SDA there was an incredible bias towards making GameCube and especially Nintendo 64 runs. It's time to relive those bygone days as both of the runs in this update are for N64.

Today's first speedrun has had a long and tortuous path. Nicholas 'Sir VG' Hoppe has wanted to get a Henry run of Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, the official Castlevania 64 mulligan, onto SDA for years now. Back then, main game runs had to be completed before any special mode runs could be tackled. Once that restriction was removed, Nicholas's next problem was that Persona — a man famous for combo videos and a personal friend of mine — stood in the way with his faster run from May 2004. But Nicholas persevered and now he is triumphant with this well-executed single-segment 0:17:37.

It does seem a bit strange that after all this time, the only Goemon game we have on SDA is Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. But since we're getting a new run today, we'll take it. Kyle 'NoiseCrash' Duffy, the artist formerly known as batman9502, has returned with a big improvement to a run from 2004. If the already overwhelming zaniness of Goemon, Impact, and friends wasn't enough for you, maybe Kyle's audio commentary will work nicely. This is a 100% run in 13 segments, and it finishes in 2:47:01. To compare, Wouter Jansen's run was in 9 segments and took 3:46 — perhaps that old run could be rechristened Wouter Goes Fortune Dolls.

Today's first new game was once strongly tied to Tomb Raider, although I hardly remember being able to ride a dragon in that series. In any case, now we have a speedrun of Drakan: Order of the Flame. Playing on Medium, David 'atomicJo' Joassard gets through the game in 0:57:07. Let's all give this new runner a welcome hand. The download is as one file, but David used 21 segments for his run. Some of these segments were caused by the game's propensity to crash at specific places. This also dictated launching in developer mode, which automatically set the difficulty as well. Truly, his hands were tied.

The other new game is our first in the interesting series, Mega Man Battle Network. Naturally, by the time we got to it, Capcom had already milked this new franchise dry. Still, this run of Mega Man Battle Network 3 is minty-fresh. Daniel 'Cromarty' Enright brings the menthol with his 3:34 on the Blue version, recorded as 93 segments fused into 8 files. This version features a robot master named Bowl Man, which would be more than enough reason to choose it. Also I promise I am not making this up and that there really is a Bowl Man in this game. I dare you to watch this run if you don't believe me.

Although Sid Meier got the lion's share of fame, Brian Reynolds was the lead designer behind some of Meier's most famous games, such as Civilization II, Colonization, and Alpha Centauri. He took this strategy game expertise and formed a company whose first product was Rise of Nations, a real-time strategy game with heavy turn-based strategy influences. One strategy for speedrunning this, which hasn't worked quite as well throughout the history of the real world, is to rely on French military successes. But that is just what Alex 'AquaTiger' Nichols has done with his single-segment run on Easiest in 0:41:40. Get your Likely Asked Questions ready, because Alex has already thought to answer them! Also get your headphones ready, well, if you like audio commentary.

Sorry for the delay! I think we were all still recovering from the SDA get-together. In other news, we've had some people express their desire for even more torrents. So from now on, I'll try to include at least one torrent for each newly posted speedrun. This means that I will stop specifying which runs have torrents, because obviously they all will.

Today we're returning with a smash. That's Super Smash Bros., the first in the series, for N64. Our inaugural run for this game is a 0:03:28 on Very Easy, achieved by the fast-rising Jeremy 'DK28' Doll. Given his nickname, it should probably come as no surprise that Jeremy used Donkey Kong. As DK is no slouch in the first Smash game, Jeremy makes a good comparison between Donkey Kong here and Zangief in the original Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. Who knows? Maybe in the next Smash installment, DK will be reborn as a top-tier character like Zangief in Street Fighter IV.

This update also marks the return of Eli 'Smilge' Chase. His latest run crowns him as a true Baldur's Gate dominator. The game this time is Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the expansion to Shadows of Amn. Eli's time is an incredible 0:36:52, done in 15 segments. For reference, Dominic 'DAMURDOC' Legault's prior run was done in 1:09:32 with 5 segments. Mr. Chase starts off as an elf sorcerer — you actually need to fight more than a couple people in this game — and ends up as the new Lord of Murder. Given the ruthless efficiency of this run, this title seems only fitting.

This update runs a little late, and I'm sure you're craving some speedrunning videos, so I'll get to them right away. A coop on an id map, a madcoop (to give you a feel of how that works), and an optimal demo.

• Ziggurat Vertigo (e1m8) 2-player Normal Gravity Nightmare 100% (phew) in 0:00:53 by Jaakko Alakopsa and Ingmar Poerner: MQ, HQ, IQ

Custom maps:

• nesp10 Easy Run in 0:00:08 by Mathias Thore: MQ, HQ, IQ - now that's short!
• bb7 4-player Nightmare 100% in 0:00:36 by Jaakko Alakopsa, Basil de Vries, Karol Urbanski and Paul Davies: HQ - only HQ since MQ didn't show anything and IQ would have to be a huge resolution.

Oldie of the Update! We're going for something different today: I present to you, an Easy 100% project through all of Quake in 0:33:33 - 'Quake done 100% Quick Lite 2' (something akin to a segmented run), featuring too many people to mention, and you can find it on archive.org. To give you a foretaste of one of the finest Quake Done Quick endeavours, I've capped the e4m8 demo by (Déja vu?) Peter Horvath. There are a lot of demos of similar quality in the project, but that one has a lot of great grenade boosts, so check it out: MQ, HQ, IQ.

Drop by the Quake part of the site for 11 demos in the latest update. And stay tuned, something cool will be coming out in the near feature...