Let's start things off today with one of the more popular XBLA games to date. When Shadow Complex was released in 2009, it had the most successful week of any XBLA title ever to that point. Today Jordan 'Greenalink' Greener has brought this game to its knees. Using all the advanced weaponry and technology that this game has to offer, Jordan blazed through this game in a very impressive 0:14:14.

Next we have the return of everybody's favorite archaeologist/adventurer. Well, possibly second favorite if you want to put Indiana Jones into that category. Regardless, we've got Lara Croft in Tomb Raider III. Today we have the efforts of Ryan 'RadxxRyan' Lawless. Instead of working with the existing segmented category, Ryan has blazed a new trail and given us our first run for this game with glitches. Ryan sprints through this game in 1:27:10, using 31 segments appended to 19 files.

Next up we've got a run of a PS3 exclusive title known for its difficulty- Demon's Souls. From the looks of this video, however, it seems that somebody forgot to tell that to Fred 'Thanatos' Vasquez. Fred collects souls, defeats demons and generally tears through this game in 1:04. Oh yeah, did I mention it's all done in a single segment? Not so tough now, are you?

This next run goes completely outside my realm of comprehension. When I played Trauma Center: New Blood, I was happy to receive an XS ranking on a few of the levels. Our next runner, 'szsk' would surely scoff at my efforts. He not only rips through this game and the extra missions in 2:47:09, but he also earned an XS rank on every level. Again, this incredible feat is made even more amazing by the fact that he did it in a single segment!

Rolling right along, we have a new run to add to the Donkey Kong 64 page, which hasn't been touched in quite some time. Many of you who read the forums will know that in the last year this game has received "the OoT treatment" and has been thoroughly broken and defeated. Today Lloyd 'Manocheese' Palmer gives us his effort in a new category- New Game + with major skips and deaths. Lloyd traverses from Donkey Kong's start to K. Rool's finish in 0:54. This sub-hour run stands beside the 4:26 any% and 9:02 100% runs from 2006. Feel free to watch them side by side and see just how much this game has been picked apart.

We're not done with the Kongs yet, though. We've got new runs to add to the Donkey Kong Country 3 page as well. Austin 'Davis' Hallman has given the page a complete facelift, providing us with three new runs. First he's beaten his own time in the Hard single segment category, bringing the time down from 0:51 to 0:45. He's also brought down his Hard 100% time, from 1:36 to 1:29, using 52 segments. Finally, he's bested the previous Riverside Race time from Brad 'Cyberwrath' Cutler. Austin has brought the time down from 0:00:54.70 to 0:00:52.40.

Keep in mind that our charity marathon, Awesome Games Done Quick, is just 18 days away! We hope you all will join us back on this page then to support the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Be sure to drop by the marathon web page as well!

I find myself writing a paragraph for these updates fairly often recently saying I'm going to keep them short, but in the end they wind up being a similar length to those I've posted in the past. Today I'm going to yet again make this assertion, but this time I will make good on it out of necessity. I have much to do, and less time to do it.

What's got me so busy you ask? I'm sure most of you remember a little charity marathon we threw last year called Classic Games Done Quick. Well, we're doing another one, and all involved are working hard to make sure this one will be bigger and better than the last. We've entitled this year's event Awesome Games Done Quick, and as the name suggests we'll be playing loads of great titles from the 8-bit era all the way up to the current console generation. We've got about one hundred games in our line up this year, and we'll be playing through them non stop for a little over four days straight. All the while we'll be taking donations for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, and we have a wide array prizes we'll be giving out to donors over the course of the event. Click the link above for more details and a full schedule, but the most important thing to know is this: on Thursday, January 6th at 4 PM EST we'll be kicking this thing off and the streams will be right here on the SDA front page. Be sure to check it out, at the risk of sounding redundant, it's going to be awesome!

But in the meantime, I'm sure you'd all like some new runs. We've got those. We've got a bunch of them in fact.

It seems fitting to follow up the marathon announcement with a game that was heavily requested during last year's event (and will be featured this year by popular demand). None of us would have guessed it last year, but there is a very solid and vocal fan base for Rocket Knight Adventures, and today that fan base will be receiving a gift from Christopher 'SHADOW JACKY' Chism. Christopher charges to the end of this underappreciated gem of a game in a very impressive 0:28:44 on the game's Easy difficulty setting. Also included is an audio commentary to help clear up the finer points.

Next up we have a run that's not only the first for its game, but the first for its console as well. The TurboGrafx-16, the also ran of the 16-bit console race, has received no attention from SDA members to this point, but that all changes today thanks to Jeremy 'DK28' Doll. The game in question is the TG-16 exclusive The Legendary Axe, and Jeremy hacks and slashes his way through it in a very quick 0:17:55. And seeing as how this is a DK28 run, the fact that there's an audio commentary to go along with this one should be a given.

Keeping with the trend of games getting their inaugural run is the work of Tiago Teixeira. For his first full game SDA run he chose to do the Neo Geo pack in title, Magician Lord. For those familiar with the title the idea of getting through the game quickly and deathless might seem a bit unbelievable, but the proof is now available for download with this 0:15:59 run on the PAL version.

And we've got one last new game hitting the game page today in the N64's Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. Runner Alec 'aleckermit' Aster stepped away from his work on the 3-D Zelda games to try and bring some glitchy goodness to another franchise. Now, this game has yet to broken quite as wide open as Ocarina of Time, but there's bound to be a few head scratching moments for fans of the title in the 10 segments of this 0:51:59 run on Easy difficulty.

While it isn't a new game for out list, I can think of few ways finer to wrap up an update than with a Sattik 'Tiki' Ghosh run of a Mega Man game. Today Tiki adds one more game from the franchise to his resume with the SNES's Mega Man X3. Taking on the any% single segment category, Tiki chops over 2 minutes off of the previous run, finishing with a time of 0:42:23. Also included is an audio commentary, and while it does focus on the run at times, you can be sure to also learn what the different Mavericks are more like than what their names suggest.

Looking this over it seems I failed at brevity yet again. Oh well, maybe next time.

Seeing as I've already given you much too long to wait for this update, let me just say, in order: sorry, 6 runs to make up for it just a little bit, let's get started.

And what better way to start than with a run of the sequel-slash-reboot-slash-spiritual successor to Wolfenstein 3D, namely Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Dmitry 'KhanFusion' K. takes a lot of advantage of a feature not present in earlier games from the series - aiming vertically - to frag a lot of unsuspecting Nazis using a variety of weapons I would call not entirely historically accurate. He does not faff around on some puny, easy difficulties, and goes straight for I Am Death Incarnate (I hope I don't need to mention this is the hard difficulty) - a fitting description for someone so efficient at firing lead and other materials at enemies. Go grab the 26 segments of the resulting 0:36:58. Be prepared to see another newly added 'feature' - strafejumping - applied in liberal amounts.

For the next game, some of you might possibly remember seeing a little freeware game called Spelunky on this very page in the past. Obviously, since this is a new game, it can't have been here before. And did I mention I never mistakenly posted a run I shouldn't have posted? *ahem* Anyway, Mark 'ExplodingCabbage' Amery decided to run through this wonderful little game, and in fact liked it so much he re-ran it after another runner shaved two seconds off his time. The result of this competition is the single-segment run as the Spelunker in 0:02:53, a time which surely will be appreciated by anyone who remembers that Spelunky has levels randomly generated, no saves, and is peppered with overall brutality towards the player. And if you don't remember, you can download the game and see it for yourself!

Speaking of brutal freeware games, next up we have a run of Nikujin, a game which does NOT give you any room for error. The very fact of beating it relatively quickly and without deaths is in a huge feat in this game - and according to our runner, Taneli 'Daiz' Vatanen, he was the first one to do so back in the day. But that was not challenging enough for him, so after finding some new speedrunning techniques, he managed to get a single-segment time of 0:03:38. I've played this game a bunch of time ago, and I'm telling you, that is one impressive time.

Still more from Land of the FreeWare, and still leaning towards the no lee-way, brutal side of the platforming genre, we have a run of Jumper: Redux. Charles 'Arcanod' Nannan squeezes extraordinarily much from the one ability Ogmo possesses in this game and jumps his way through the entire game in 0:11:08, single-segment style. This being freeware, if you want to gain extra respect towards this run, I recommend you play the game to see how difficult it can be at normal pace.

As evident by the high participation of our forum members in the last Shooting Game Tournament, there are probably a lot of you out there who have heard of the Touhou series of shoot 'em ups. Yes, the next game is a Touhou game. Kinda. It's actually Koumajou Densetsu, a Castlevania-ish game featuring Touhou characters. You didn't think this was going to be a shmup speedrun, did you? Daniel 'Axel Ryman' Fitzgerald navigates all the stages single-segment style in 0:15:55. He included a bunch of background info on the game in his comments, so no use repeating that here. Go watch the run, it's definitely worth seeing.

Still staying within the platformer genre (but with a twist - this one is a puzzle game!), our final run today is a Trine run. Eirik 'clux' Albrigtsen filled up the New Game Plus easy difficulty IL table, and guides the logical extreme of the classic Wizard + Rogue + Fighter RPG trio on the quest for artifacts. The total time of all the runs in the table is 0:23:31. As with any puzzle game, the solutions get much more awesome when you have speed of execution in mind, so go check it out. Oh, and there are bloopers for this one!

One more thing to note in this update, all fighting game fans will no doubt be interested in the Northeast Championships XI (NEC), a fighting game tournament that will be happening tomorrow and on Sunday. Tune in to http://www.justin.tv/teamsp00ky for coverage. Check out when they will be streaming here.

Once more, sorry for the huge inconvenience.

Getting things started today are a few very fast Castlevania runs by "Aftermath." First, we have an addition to the Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow page, as Aftermath has provided us with a very speedy, menu-laden effort on the Boss Rush mode. Aftermath cruises past all of the game's bosses as Soma in 0:01:17.95. But wait, that's not it for the Dawn of Sorrow page; we've got an improvement to Aftermath's 0:04:09 hard new game + time as well! Although the previous run utilized two segments, the new run clocks in at 0:02:32, using a single segment. If you're expecting to watch Soma navigate the castle and collect abilities the old fashioned way, well, maybe you should think again.

Of course, Aftermath didn't stop there. Why break one DS Castlevania title to pieces when you can break two? I can only assume Aftermath has that very same mindset, because now we have his new game + effort of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin to add to the mix. As you may have suspected, Aftermath rips through this game in a way that haunts the developers' worst nightmares. Using two segments, he reduces this game to rubble in 0:01:57. So, in the time it took you to microwave that TV dinner, Aftermath has terrorized two games and done the boss battles, to boot!

What are you going to watch while you eat that TV dinner, you ask? Well, I recommend some of the wacky warfare provided by Worms 3D. Today, Marius "-M2-" Welle (brother of Michael "Tigger77" Welle, for those interested) gives us his Individual Level table of all 35 missions in Worms 3D. Those of you who have played a Worms game will know what to expect. If you haven't, get ready to watch a lot of explosions and drowning worms as you watch Marius's IL's, totaling an aesthetically pleasing 1:01:01.

Of course, if invertebrate warfare doesn't suit you, you could always try the (slightly) less violent option of observing some puzzle battles. What happens when Capcom decides it's time to cash in on the puzzle game craze? Well we get Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. Yeah, that's actually the title. Jeremy "DK28" Doll isn't content to just speedrun this game. He has to go above and beyond and run with three different characters. Jeremy throws punches and drops blocks (that's a good thing in this fighting game) with Ryu, Akuma and Dan just to prove that he dominates this game. Be sure to give the included audio commentary on all three videos a listen as you watch Jeremy's 0:04:40 as Ryu, 0:06:10 as Akuma and 0:04:57 as Dan.

I guess I'm just already in the giving mood of Christmas, because I'm going to tack one more set of runs into this update. The game in question is the wildly popular PSP title Half-Minute Hero. Much like Aftermath and Mr. Doll, Kevin 'xarugas' Areopagita is not content to display his skills by providing us with just one run. Instead, he went and ran the 3 second, 30 second, and the 300 second versions of this game. Watch as Kevin burns through these game modes in 0:00:13.03, 0:23:46*** and 0:03:28.50, respectively. Also note that the 3 and 300 runs are single segment, while the 30 run is broken into 26 segments. Don't have time to watch it all tonight? Talk to the time goddess and start things over!

*** This time was erroneously listed as 0:01:42 on the front page earlier but has now been fixed.

Apologies for the long delay between updates. I have excuses I could make, but I doubt any of you good people are interested in hearing them, especially considering the time you'd spend reading them would only serve to keep you from downloading some fine new speedruns we're about to unveil that much longer. So let's get to them, shall we?

Double Dragon is one of those series that I feel has been surprisingly underrepresented on the site. Back in the day it was popular enough to spawn a pretty atrocious Saturday morning cartoon and an equally, if not more so awful movie, but to this point it's only produced published runs for two of the games in the franchise, and one of those is a Battletoads crossover. However, there's been a push lately to get more representation for this series on the site, and spearheading that charge today is David Heidman Jr. with the inaugural run for Super Double Dragon. David charges his way through the hordes of bad guys the game throws at him in a very impressive 0:42:03. Also included is an audio commentary, just in case you were curious about the finer points of how to kick and punch your way to victory.

Keeping it rolling with another beat em up run is the efforts of Jeff Feasel on a title we've seen from him before: River City Ransom. While this is his first submitted improvement to his original run, this is actually the second time we've seen a faster time out of Mr. Feasel. Back in January during our charity marathon he had the distinction of being one of the few players to beat a posted run with his live attempt. This was largely due to improved strategies, but due to the nature of the event and only having one shot at it, the amount of risks taken weren't as high as they could've been. While he was encouraged to submit the marathon run despite this fact, Jeff decided instead to put some more time into the title. The result of that time is this truly stellar 0:08:00 on Novice difficulty, a run that definitely doesn't pull any punches (or dash kicks as the case may be).

For our next run we depart from the beat em up genre to a game where the main character is built to be beat up. A crash test dummy doesn't seem like a likely video game hero, but that's exactly what you get in Incredible Crash Dummies. Taking control of the game's fragile protagonist is runner Chris 'Pootrain' Ferguson, and while Chris doesn't get him through the game in one piece, he does keep the core intact on his way to a final time of 0:19:23 on the SNES PAL version.

Rounding out the update today we have a couple games getting individual level runs. First up is the N64 racing game Extreme-G. Runner Wouter M. 'WMJ' Jansen has taken an atypical approach to getting this game on the site. Rather than compiling a set of complete race times for each track he's instead decided to focus on individual lap times. Conventional or not, it's a legitimate approach, and the final time for the table of 0:07:47.26 serves to showcase what's possible for the title, and makes for an entertaining watch to boot.

Wrapping things up today we have several improvements to the IL table for the SNES version of Prince of Persia. Benjamin 'UraniumAnchor' Cutler turned his attentions back to this title and improved three of his existing IL times. The improvements are as follows: Level 2 down from 0:01:28 to 0:01:24, Level 4 down from 0:01:13 to 0:01:08, and Level 17 down from 0:00:59 to 0:00:57. This brings the total time for the table down to 0:35:25, fast enough to beat the game three times over with room to spare.

One of the most common characteristics of the first-person shooter games made sometime after 2000AD, besides shooting things, is that they often take place during the second World War. Evidently, this dark time of the world's history is ripe for recreation in the video game medium. And these recreations are ripe for some speed-based gameplay, as proven by runs of games like RtCW, or today's first game, Call Of Duty. Fittingly nicknamed James 'Kubelwagon' Gray decided to run the game on the Greenhorn difficulty - the easiest one, though as I'm sure you know, no difficulty is easy if speed is your primary goal. Mister Gray mows down a lot of Nazis (most of them with their own sub-machine gun) across 31 segments, achieving a total time of 1:43:36. Very nice work, soldier.

To say the next game is inspired by Mega Man would be a gross understatement. Rosenkreuzstilette IS Mega Man. Dash? Check. 8 bosses to choose from? Check. Fighting Bospider? Check. Tons of other things? Check. That being said, it's a very competent and playable clone of Mega Man. I also believe Mega Man had a much lower percentage of little girls being the characters of the game. But I digress. Patrik 'Cremator' Salonen decided to run through it single-segment style. He chose to play as Grolla (a character based on Zero), and managed to get a time of 0:32:59.06, which is actually shorter than a segmented run by 'Preddy'; however, since it's made using a different character, the older run stays on the page. If you like Mega Man game runs, you won't be disappointed watching this gem.

Marko 'Master-88' Vanhanen treats us to two runs on the game holding the title of being probably the least crazy of Hideo Kojima's creations, and one that started his most popular series - Metal Gear. The first run is a self-improvement of 49 seconds to the single-segment run with deaths. The 0:27:57 is definitely a well done and well planned run, but Marko ups the ante by also giving us a deathless run - understandably longer, since you can't use the warping ability deaths give you. This one is also single segment and finishes the game in 0:31:55.

Speaking of Metal Gear games (sorta) and Marko Vanhanen, he also submitted a run of the disowned, North American and European sequel to Metal Gear, Snake's Revenge. It might not be a canon game in the series, but that didn't stop Marko from doing his best on this game too. This, too, is a single-segment run, though the length of the game shows in the final time, which is 0:50:00, a really neat time if I've ever seen one. Go watch the lot of these, because (say it with me!) it looks like TAS!

Yes, this update is uncharacteristically close to the last one, but we're coming up on a big day for one of the most significant consoles ever produced, and I feel this event deserves some recognition here. October 18th marks the 25th anniversary of the NES's release, and this momentous day just so happens to coincide with SDA getting its 100th NES run. Power Blade in my last update was #99, and we currently have three new ones ready to go, all of which I feel are good candidates for the title of #100. So which one gets the distinction? Personally, I see it as a tie, though if you the viewer want to assign the honor to one game in particular more power to you. So let's see what we've got, shall we?

We're starting things off today with what is considered in some circles as the best RPG to ever grace an 8-bit console. Dragon Warrior 4 makes its first appearance on SDA thanks to the efforts of runner John 'chessjerk' Kearsley IV. Making use of 46 segments, John charges through the game's five chapters in a time of 6:18. This marks the second of the four NES installments of the series to have a place on the SDA game list, and if recent forum activity is any indication, we may be well on our way to seeing runs of the remaining two games. The future seems bright indeed for Dragon Warrior fans.

Now for those of you who felt a little let down by the previous paragraph after the "best RPG to ever grace an 8-bit console" lead in, there's a good chance today's next entry will put that disappointment to rest. Another massively popular NES RPG, the original Final Fantasy makes its first appearance on SDA today. Now those familiar with the game would likely expect this run to feature heavy segmentation, and this is no doubt the approach most would bring to this title, but not runner Benoit Alain. After months of attempts and tweaking his strategies, Benoit was able to get through the game in a single segment with a final time of 3:50.

Now for those of you who don't much care for RPG runs, don't worry, we have something for you too. Two player runs, while generally popular and often requested, are a bit of a rarity on this site, and this is very understandable. A lot of time and effort goes into the typical speedrun, and when you have to add to that the time to get adequate practice, planning, and recording time available around the schedules of two people instead of one it's no wonder most two player projects never see completion. But it's this fact that makes today's run of the classic Bubble Bobble all the more special. The two man team of brothers Andy 'AND4H' and Brandon 'TheFirstKnight' Shute charge through the game making use of warps and sucking up a few deaths on their way to a final "bad" ending time of 0:30:52.

Now I'm sure at least some of you are wondering why I've jumped the gun on the anniversary by two days. The answer is simple, if I had waited I'd be too late to tell you about an event being done in honor of the NES's 25th birthday (and I'm cutting it very close as it is). I'm sure many gaming sites have articles, videos, and top some number lists planned, but one game reviewer has taken a truly monumental task upon himself to mark the occasion. Pat the NES Punk is setting out to play every single NES game ever released, over 750 titles, in a row and all the while taking donations to benefit Child's Play. The event is slated to run about 25 hours, and given that timeframe obviously the focus of each game will be demonstration rather than completion, but this is still a huge undertaking for one gamer, and an excellent chance for you to truly see all of what the NES has to offer. The marathon will begin at 3 PM eastern time and can be viewed on Pat's home site thepunkeffect.com as well as sponsor sites ScrewAttack, Nintendo Age, and RetrowareTV. So swing by your viewing site of choice and watch Pat play 1942, Zombie Nation, and everything in between, and maybe donate a little money to a good cause while you're at it.

Most of you know that Radix's 100% speedrun of Metroid Prime in 1:37 was the run that got console speedrunning started here at SDA. Today, we're getting back to our Metroid roots.

First up is another run of the game that started it all. I'm sure many have wondered if Besmir "Zoid" Sheqi's NTSC any% run of Metroid Prime would ever be bested. When Besmir's run was submitted, out of bounds glitches were not permitted per SDA rules. Now, however, that ban has been lifted and runners are free to use out of bounds glitches and secret worlds to achieve the fastest time. With use of secret worlds, a new route, and better overall execution, Paul "Bartendorsparky" Evans brings us his 1:01 any% effort, in 15 segments.

Moving along, we have the next game in the Metroid Prime series, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Again, the rule change allowing out of bounds glitches has brought us another new run. Former updater Alastair "DJGrenola" Campbell's segmented any% time of 1:38 has been improved by Charles Griffin. After merely 6 months of work, Charles was able to bring the time for this category down to 1:27 in a single segment.

Our next run is both similar and different than the previous two. The game in question is Metroid Fusion. Yes, it's another Metroid game, but this time around there are no out of bounds tricks (or really, hardly any sequence breaks at all). That's right, Kirk "BioSpark" LaBuda has to rely on pure skill and speed to finish this game with as few upgrades as possible. Kirk's 1% single segment 0:49 clocks in a whopping 17 minutes faster than the previous submission by Damien "Dragondarch" Moody.

That's it for Metroid runs for now. Actually, that's it for newer console games, as there are no more ready for update. Now let's get back to our roots with some older games!

Starting things off in my venture into the land of older consoles is an update for the Zelda: Link's Awakening page, which hasn't been touched in quite some time. Michael "Tigger77" Welle has supplied us with a new entry to the page, in the form of his 1:17:39 on the DX version, using 41 segments. Plenty of clever tricks and savewarps can be found in this run. Michael says that he'll have a single segment run finished before the next SDA marathon, so we all have that to look forward to!

Wrapping things up today are a couple of individual level improvements from a man who is no stranger to my updates. Nicholas "Sir VG" Hoppe has improved his times for Stage 1 and Stage 4 of Castlevania: Chronicles. Tighter execution on both stages allowed Nicholas to bring his times down to 0:02:16.0 for Stage 1 and 0:02:38.9 for Stage 4, bringing the total time of the table down to 0:24:12.2.

It's been a while since there's been any activity on the Bomberman Hero game page. It was way back in 2005 that David 'marshmallow' Gibbons completed his 1:07:00 run for the game, and that mark has stood unchallenged for the last five years. Today, however, we reveal a massive improvement to this run coming to you courtesy of runner Kevin 'neskamikaze' LaLonde. Upping the segment count from the previous run's five to twenty-two allowed for riskier strategies and a higher level of optimization, resulting in a final time of 0:49:29.

It is the general consensus among both attendees and viewers of our last charity marathon that runner Timothy 'tjp7154' Peters's run of the original Donkey Kong Country was one of the highlights of the event. During this run he alluded to the fact that some of the tricks and strategies on display were newly formulated since the publication of his 0:32 any% run currently on the site. Well, now some of these strategies can be seen in an official SDA run. Rather than improving his old run, Timothy has instead opted to crack into a whole new category by using a previously disallowed warp glitch to cut out a chunk of the early game. While there's less of the game to see get wrecked, you can be assured by the final time of 0:23 that what's left is truly a sight to behold.

Next up we have an inaugural run for one of the more obscure titles in the NES library. Power Blade isn't a game you'll see gracing too many "best games on the console" lists, but it's a solid platformer that, like so many others, doesn't get paid much attention by the gaming community at large. Runner 'ktwo', however, has obviously given this game much of his attention as evidenced by the run we're posting today. Played on the PAL version and on expert difficulty, ktwo cruises through this boomerang-chucking adventure in a very quick 0:23:36.

While our next run keeps with the trend of platforming games run on their European versions, this one definitely breaks away from the obscure and underappreciated category. In fact, it's arguably the most popular platformer on its console. The PAL version of Super Mario 64 gets a new run today in the 16 star category. Chopping just shy of two minutes off the incumbent time, runner Philip Jensen make Mario run, jump, and slide backwards at a rate that seems quite unnatural for a plumber on his way to a final time of 0:21:26. This is a solid run, and really serves to bring the PAL category up to par with the current NTSC time. Check it out, it makes for a good watch.

Now I know I've thrown the phrase "highly anticipated" around before in regards to a number of runs, but in the case of today's last run I'm not sure if it's ever been more warranted in my time as an updater. One of the most popular games for speedrunning, and really one of the most popular games period gets an updated run today. I'm talking, of course, about You Have To Burn The Rope. Oh wait, that was last update. Guess my work here is done. Well, I guess after all that build up I can't leave you guys empty handed, so here's a run for some game called The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I know it's hardly a substitute, but it'll have to do. Runner Joseph 'Pokey' Looney shows just how amazingly broken this game has become over the last 12 years, finishing the title that was not too long ago thought amazing to be completed in under five hours in a fraction of that time, clocking in at 1:16:59 in a single segment. For those of you not familiar with all the tricks and glitches contained in the run (and there are a lot of them) be sure to check out the audio commentary, it's sure to shed some light on things.

One last thing of note for you good people today. Next week the guys over at Bonus Stage Marathons are going to be holding their Halloween marathon. For the occasion, they'll be running through as many games from the Resident Evil series as they can within their timeframe and all the while collecting donations for Pet Rescue of Maryland. The event will run from October 14th through the 17th, so go watch them slay a bunch of zombies and whatnot and maybe help out a good cause while you're there.

Looking at my own part of the SDA queue, I am afraid I only have rather short runs feasible for update today. Nevertheless, let's try to make the best of it - as it happens, with the 3 new games in this update, we have arrived at another SDA milestone, 600 games with official SDA records! What could be the 600th game? Let's find out!

To start things off, a new run of the classic Black Isle RPG Fallout by a fellow Polish speedrunner, Jakub 'Fex' Surma. Clearly not content with the fact this epic, vast game took a whole 9 minutes to be beaten by the single segment runner, he decided to get the time down further by segmenting and using a couple clever timesavers. This 0:06:54 in 5 segments is sure to impress any Fallout player.

On a different front, we have a run of the wonderful puzzle game, Tag: The Power of Paint. Compared to Portal by some (Valve Corporation reportedly hired the developers to work on Portal 2!), it certainly seems to fit Tristan 'Serial Gamer' Languebien's tastes. For that reason, he decided to do the possiblities the main gameplay mechanic gives to the player in order to blast through it as fast as he possibly can - the result is this 0:05:32. Single-segment, for extra measure, and definitely worth a watch.

Not leaving the freeware land yet. Bart 'TheVoid' de Waal - who you probably already know from his many appearances on this very news page - has made a quick run of the freeware game Penumbra Tech Demo. As boring as the title might sound, the game is actually a pretty competent horror... not that you will see much of it in TheVoid's run, as he uses a gamebreaking trick and then some to finish the game in just 0:00:24. Oh, it's single segment, if you were wondering (you probably weren't).

And now, the 600th game I promised under the headline. It's another really short run by TheVoid, and it's... You Have To Burn The Rope. So much has been said about this run already, even before it ended up on this page, that I feel I can only say this: single-segment, 0:00:33.

Finally, some improvements to Starcraft tables. The original Starcraft table gets an improvement of 1 minute and 35 seconds to the Terran 10 mission (0:06:16), done by Blake 'Spider-Waffle' Piepho. Besides that, Bryan Wilson decided to improve Zerg 10 by 2 whole minutes (0:07:09) and Protoss 07 by 8 seconds (0:01:03). The Starcraft: Brood War table gets almost six minutes of improvement in the form of a better Zerg 10 mission run by 'Hades', in 0:18:28. Very nice indeed.

See you all next time.