I found an archive yesterday of “speed runs” through different video games. It’s quite amazing actually, and there are different types of movies. There are people who try to beat the game in the quickest possible time, and others who try to collect all items and finish the game in the quickest time.
Some movies are by people who restrict themselves to things you can do in the game (i.e., no cheats or glitches), some take advantage of glitches but don’t use cheating devices like the Game Shark, and still others play the game on their computer using an emulator to try for frame-by-frame precision.
A few of my favorites that I’ve seen so far are:
- Super Smash Bros. Melee: Break the Targets These videos are all relatively pint-sized, so they’re neat to watch if you don’t feel like downloading for 20 minutes first.
- Super Metroid 100% items and game beaten in about 55 minutes.
- Metroid Prime 100% items and game beaten in about 1 hour 37 minutes. This was the first speed run video I’ve seen (although 1:37 is no longer the record for this game).
There are also speed runs for Half Life (which I’ve been meaning to watch) and Halo, among many others.