Any speedrunners here?

[Luke]

He does hit enemies, he just makes sure to not kill any.

Ah. That makes a lot more sense.

[3DSStrider]

After watching AGDQ runs I thought maybe I should speedrun something someday. Then I started trying to get the invincibility cheat in Goldeneye. Realizing how frustrating it was, I decided that I was content just watching Ryan White and Cosmo suffer through this kind of stuff.
Maybe I should run a game that no one else would. Then I'll become the Razor Freestyle Scooter world champion!

[Dylan]

The first and only serious game I speedran was Mario 64 a few years back on official hardware. My time is 19:36, which is actually pretty bad. I wasn't aware of some things like cannonless that people had found, so I didn't use some of the optimal tricks and glitches like that. My execution was also kind of so-so, definitely not optimized.

I've always like speedrunning because it offers a lot of opportunities for really sick execution in games. Mario 64 has all kinds of stuff where you use the game's open control scheme and cramped world to blow through obstacles by taking all kinds of alternate routes and shortcuts. Other games like OoT let you execute really insane tricks to circumvent massive sections of the game. Really I think the enjoyment just comes form pushing a game to its limits, being either its gameplay or even its engine and programming.

I really wish that I could get more into speedrunning but I've always enjoyed other things like challenge runs more. That coupled with the time commitment that speedrunning is just makes it too intimidating to tackle with a busy life.

[Omerta]

Achievements/Trophies tempt me to look up how to speed run something occasionally.

Beat New Vegas on hardcore mode? No thanks.

That one was actually fun enough to prompt me to try it a few of more times to see if I could shave off a few minutes. I can definitely see the allure in joining the speed run cult.

[Xeogred]

Silent Hill 3

PlayStation 2

I was playing through it a lot to unlock everything and just kept going. Eventually I could beat the game in about an hour on normal. The current record on console is 45 minutes, but it was set on easy difficulty.

I kind of stopped trying for speed runs after that. I didn't like just dedicating myself to a single game over and over again, especially as my income improved and I was able to start purchasing more games.

This sounds awesome, wouldn't mind watching this.

For me, I can't say I'm really into it all that much, but I've had a lot of fun doing it with Super Metroid over the years. The funniest part is how I was doing it way back before I had controller adapters for the PC, so I somehow mastered keyboard controls and could even do it then (the morph ball tricks seemed a bit more precise and easier with the keyboard actually). My records were around 50 minutes, it's pretty impressive to imagine the main records are literal minutes better, I couldn't imagine perfecting much more of my runs.

I remember doing some runs of Super Mario World too for the heck of it.

I am generally a completionist and get OCD about things in games, so speedrunning is kind of against my nature. But I'm definitely a fan of watching them. I'll let the others do the work and enjoy the view... lol.

[J T]

Never decided to speedrun, just happened.

Ninja Gaiden.

Always original hardware.

I enjoy it because I have little time to play games.

The game chooses me.

Same story here. Back in the day I could regularly beat this game in under 30 minutes. I never got out a stop watch for an exact time though.

I think the most amazing speedruns are for Metroid games, where (back in the day before easily accessible internet porn) young boys chased after the myth that you could get Samus to take all her clothes off. They got that game down to a science!