# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #39 - Mario's Next ACE

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about the discovery of a new glitch in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as event news and this week's top times. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-39)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

**Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels** (TLL) is a sequel to Super Mario Bros. It was released as Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan in 1986 and initially deemed too difficult for the North American market. Only seven years later, it made its debut in the West as part of the Super Mario All-Stars compilation on the SNES.

The best players are already able to complete the game in less than eight minutes, but for the past month, speedrunners and TAS creators of the game have been musing about a new way of crashing the game that was discovered in March 2025, almost 39 years later. The end result is a method of performing a glitch called **Arbitrary Code Execution (ACE)** that yields a 17-second saving during the final level of the game. For a speedrun as optimised as this, that’s huge.

### Arbitrary Code Execution

Broadly speaking, ACE implies a way to inject custom code into the game, often through regular controller inputs, and then execute it. This can be done by manipulating the game’s memory and *writing* code through a complicated and precise series of movements. Executing the code can have almost any desired effect, including warping the player straight to the credits.

Some players call it the Holy Grail of speedrunning, but for others it’s a curse they’d rather not see on the leaderboards at all. On one hand, more often than not it becomes the fastest way to *complete* the game. On the other hand, the gameplay that players originally fell in love with, the main reason they enjoy replaying the game over and over again, may feel barely recognisable. Thankfully, at the time of writing, the possibilities of its application in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels are still a lot more limited.

For the most impressive display of what ACE can do, look no further than TASBot’s showcase at SGDQ 2022, put together by **[Sauraen](https://www.youtube.com/c/Sauraen)**, @Savestate, **[dwangoAC](https://www.youtube.com/@dwangoAC)**, and countless members of the community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x_pqyrf9lA

### Discovery

On March 13, 2025, Twitter user **[LuigiSidekick](https://x.com/LuigiSidekick)** posted a **[clip](https://x.com/LuigiSidekick/status/1900072261555458205)** of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels crashing while playing on Nintendo Switch. It’s worth noting that this person is not involved in the speedrunning scene, and so the clip took a few weeks to be noticed. Quite frankly, it’s a miracle that it was at all. Anybody (me included) not extremely well versed with Super Mario Bros. speedrunning would just disregard it and shrug it off. Games crash all the time for a variety of reasons.

However, some people are built different. On March 28, @Simplistic6502 was the first to replicate the crash with an emulator, research its cause and recognise its potential. On the Super Mario Bros. speedrunning Discord, this gained traction quickly and led to extremely technical and daily discussions about the possibilities: using inputs to skip to the end of a level.

Many members of the community collaborated and iterated quickly after each new discovery. They realised that the only level that makes ACE possible is the final one, 8-4, and quickly went from artificial recreations into proof-of-concept demos and a [tool-assisted speedrun](https://tasvideos.org/6503M) incorporating the glitch. The final frontier was always an RTA-viable setup that is possible to be executed by a human during a full game speedrun.

@threecreepio, @LeKukie and @Niftski were the first to come up with one, and @Niftski was the first to pull it off; not in a full run, but in 8-4 exclusively.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKovuVj4N0A

### How it works

In this explanation, I won’t go beneath what I truly understand, but there are several levels of complexity, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, it relates to the setup at the time of writing. Over time, the way it is executed is going to change.

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels stores objects in six memory slots. These include things like enemies, but also spawned coins, power-ups, firebars and fireballs. Immediately after those six slots is a two-byte value the game later uses to decide where to jump at the end of the room. Through the introduction of a seventh entity, the player can overwrite that value. In order to even spawn a seventh entity, it’s important that a second controller is also connected, continuously holding down the B and Select buttons. This stops the game from clearing the slots.

It’s relatively easy to cause a crash this way, but through a series of frame-perfect inputs and precisely positioned fireballs, players can write the two bytes which equal the address of the code that shows the credits. When the room ends (in this case through Mario’s death in the lava), the game skips the rest of 8-4 and jumps to the end.

Just today, @Niftski was the first person to successfully pull off ACE in a real run, saving more than 12 seconds over his previous world record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WgAnlrdGu0

### Knock-On Effects

In the grand scheme of things, and as far as other ACE discoveries are concerned, this one is a relatively small timesave. However, it is now the fastest way to beat the game using the general definition of speedrunning: reaching the end of the game, usually the credits, as fast as possible and by any means necessary.

These are still early days for the glitch and it’s unclear how much the setup will improve in the weeks and months to come. If it becomes easy enough to learn and execute, it might be adopted by the majority of the community and not much would change. Any% would still remain the main category on the official leaderboards.

However, it’s much more likely that the community will ultimately opt to split the categories. Whether ACE would remains a part of Any% and a new category without ACE is created or if skipping to the credits becomes its own category and banned from Any% will be the result of longer discussions.

Considering other Super Mario Bros. games, it’s unlikely that this particular way of achieving Arbitrary Code Execution and skipping to the end will spread to more of them. It’s hyper-specific to TLL and relies on its memory organisation and level layout. However, given what I’ve already seen and how little I truly understand of the subject matter, I hesitate to make a definite judgement.

### Further Reading

For more technical explanations, I highly recommend checking out the **[author notes](https://tasvideos.org/9613S)** for the latest tool-assisted run on TASVideos.org as well as @Niftski 's **[explanation video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTxi4_RmjE)** about the setup used and all its frame-perfect tricks.

If you’d like to join the fun yourself and have questions, there’s no better place than **[Super Mario Bros. Speedrunning Discord Server](https://discord.gg/KjAV9Xa).**

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-39)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or on the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about the discovery of a new glitch in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

Mario's Next ACE - The Gold Split - Week #39

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #36 - Consoles Can Go Faster, Too?

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about consoles that might appear to become faster with increasing age. and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as a fun fact and this week's top times. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-36)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

There are several factors outside of player skill that can make a difference in a speedrun, but that are usually accounted for in order to level the playing field: different emulators, console generations, storage mediums… the list goes on. But usually, console hardware between identical consoles of the same generation is assumed to perform perfectly consistently. This assumption of consistency is necessary in order to make runs comparable.

### Tool-Assisted Woes

In the world of tool-assisted speedruns, **the humble SNES** has troubled the community for a long time. Attempting to play back a tool-assisted speedrun on a real console rather than an emulator would more often than not lead to desynchronisation issues. When inputs are scheduled to happen down to the individual frame, consistency is key.

![A picture of an SNES console](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd99a4d8e-1643-49cf-a348-d828e5e55d75_1200x850.jpeg)*Image credit: JCD1981NL via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)*

As reported by [ArsTechnica](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/03/this-small-snes-timing-issue-is-causing-big-speedrun-problems/), [404media](https://www.404media.co/super-nintendo-hardware-is-running-faster-as-it-ages/), and [IGN](https://www.ign.com/articles/speedrunners-left-scratching-their-heads-after-new-discovery-suggests-the-snes-works-faster-as-it-ages), Allan Cecil, better known as **[dwangoAC](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkij8hgkomFCsXGAFtv1sgg)**, keeper of TASBot, has recently launched a large-scale investigation into the underlying issues. On [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/tas.bot/post/3lj47u3fga22n), he asked community members with an SNES and a flash cart to run a software test on their console and report the outcome.

More than 100 people responded, and the results were consistent. One specific frequency measurement seems higher on average than it was more than 20 years ago, implying that this part of the console may be becoming faster as it ages.

### Technical Details

The aforementioned articles do a much better job at explaining the technical details, so I’ll keep this short. The SNES uses an audio processing unit (APU) with a digital signal processing rate of 32,000 Hz, at least according to the documentation. This sample rate is set by a ceramic resonator, and these types of resonators are known to be affected by external factors like heat.

Emulator developers had already noticed a trend toward a faster sample rate in the 2000s. In order to compensate and to make the emulator work for all games, the emulated sample rate is set slightly higher than the documented one, at 32,040 Hz.

dwangoAC’s collected test results from the community suggest that it might now be even higher with an average of 32,076 Hz, while heat fluctuations had a much more minor impact than expected.

In practice, a faster sample rate means that audio data is being delivered slightly faster. This often happens during room transitions or between levels. During regular gameplay the game still runs identically, but loading times will be sped up ever so slightly, not noticeable to a human.

### Real-Time Speedrunning

We all want to know: what does this mean for real-time speedrunning on SNES hardware? Well… it’s complicated. The consensus so far seems to be that the difference in loading times between consoles is not big enough to impact RTA speedrunning, and that even on longer runs we’re far away from deviating by even a single second. Secondly, the true impact also depends a lot on the individual game, the audio driver and the interactions between them.

There are however plenty of games played at a very high level on real SNES consoles that measure their leaderboard times down to the millisecond. Hypothetically, if two runners in a longer run like Super Metroid (Any%) or The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (No Major Glitches) finish less than a second apart, could the difference in sample rates be enough to matter? I can’t say.

Ultimately, there is not enough reliable historical data to confirm the trend that the speed of the SNES consoles has increased with time. The only other sources are Nintendo’s documentation and single measurements on a smaller scale. It might very well be that the speed is consistent over time, but varies more widely than expected between consoles. It’s an important reminder that perfect consistency is difficult to achieve.

### Further Reading

Besides the already mentioned articles by [ArsTechnica](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/03/this-small-snes-timing-issue-is-causing-big-speedrun-problems/) and [404media](https://www.404media.co/super-nintendo-hardware-is-running-faster-as-it-ages/), I recommend the much more technical [blog post by undisbeliever](https://undisbeliever.net/blog/20250313-smpspeed.html#what-does-this-mean-for-speedrunners).

You’ll find the data from the community’s test results on [Grist](https://docs.getgrist.com/fpwWkqDcnxXR/SNES-SMP-speed) and can stay up to date with the most recent developments or join the discussion on the [TASBot Discord](https://docs.getgrist.com/fpwWkqDcnxXR/SNES-SMP-speed).

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-32)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or on the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about consoles that might appear to become faster with increasing age.

Consoles Can Go Faster, Too? - The Gold Split - Week #36

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #32 - Twitch's Time Trials

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about Twitch's recent announcement of limiting the storage of highlights and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-32)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

Yesterday, on February 19th 2025, **Twitch** decided to be an ass and announced that they would limit the storage capacity for *Highlights*. Let’s go over the details and effects of the new policy, what to do now and even discuss some potential alternatives. Even though it affects every streamer, the speedrunning community is disproportionately targeted by this announcement.

## Twitch’s New Policy

The main and crucial part of the announcement is the future storage limit for *Highlights* of 100 hours. This will come into effect retroactively and everybody above the limit right now will see their content deleted on April 19th 2025 until it reaches a total duration below the threshold.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3123770b-207c-44e8-a467-135f6d5a6e38_1600x900.jpeg)

Additionally, it is already affecting people right now: if you are above the limit, you will not be able to save any more *Highlights*.

Because *Past Broadcasts* only get saved for a few weeks at most depending on your Twitch status level and *Clips* have a maximum duration of 60 seconds, *Highlights* used to be the main way to preserve past speedruns indefinitely and provide a living record. And for many people they still are. These days, YouTube has taken over a large part of this and most speedruns submitted to speedrun.com include a link to a YouTube video, but a large part of the history is still found in Twitch *Highlights*.

## What it causes

Now, at least a decade of speedrunning history is in peril. A speedrunner’s *Highlights* on Twitch are documenting their personal journey as well as how routes and techniques evolved. They’re a living record of a community’s progress and it’s an educational resource for newcomers. Additionally, leaderboards are set to lose countless runs that were submitted as Twitch *Highlights*.

Even if everything was miraculously saved and exported to other platforms, Twitch’s discovery features with the ability to look for content for a specific game only works great as a library for this type of content. Streaming on Twitch is now many people's livelihood, and it’s unreasonable to expect them to go through hundreds or even thousands of hours of videos to preserve their *Highlights*.

And the effects don’t stop at the individual streamers. Marathon organisations like Games Done Quick likely already have a different platform for their past events, but will be forced to stop offering them on Twitch. YouTube creators will have a much harder time to find clips and information for their long-form video essays that showcase a game’s unique speedrunning history. And for viewers, the ability to read chat messages sent during the livestream alongside the VoDs gives Twitch *Highlights* an edge over other platforms.

Ultimately, I expect that a lot of people, both streamers and viewers but especially speedrunners, are going to consider alternatives and that this new policy will do more harm than good in the long run.

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F241cfc90-f1bc-41fb-ae35-e748b3868316_898x521.jpeg)[Joshimuz](https://www.twitch.tv/joshimuz)’ overfilled *Highlight* storage

## Arguments

Twitch claims that *Highlights* don't drive discovery or engagement like *Clips* or the mobile feed and are therefore considered ineffective. But for speedrunners it’s not all about the numbers. It’s about keeping a historical record. Low view counts don’t equate to low importance.

Twitch tries to soften the blow by arguing that only 0.5% of active streamers would be affected. But this makes it even more baffling that a drastic step like this is necessary. Besides, the announcement overgeneralises and treats all content alike. I bet that the percentage is much higher among our community. A one-size-fits-all policy is incredibly blunt and not the solution. It erodes trust in the close relationship between Twitch and the speedrunning community yet again, and some people will leave.

We’re all aware that storage and maintenance isn’t free. But other platforms have also figured this out long ago, maintaining vast libraries of rarely viewed content. In addition, Twitch is owned by Amazon, which also runs AWS, one of the largest cloud service providers with access to highly scalable, cost-effective storage.

## Alternative Solutions

Let’s entertain their arguments for a bit and assume that some form of action is absolutely necessary. At the heart of it all it’s still a money issue and there are many better potential solutions that don’t cripple the speedrunning history of the entire community.

- For content that sees little traffic, Twitch could migrate these videos to a lower-cost archival storage solution while still being retrievable. It reduces costs significantly while still preserving these libraries.
- Similarly, another option might be to automatically downscale the resolution of videos stored long term with a low amount of views. This reduces their file size and the costs of storing them.

## The Path Forward

We need to move forward under the assumption that Twitch is not going to back-pedal on this policy. Many leaderboards are already considering rejecting times submitted with a Twitch *Highlight* as the video.

If you are a moderating one or more leaderboards: help preserve the legacy of the game(s) you oversee. Launch a community effort to check the speedruns on your leaderboards and verify whether the videos are hosted on Twitch or elsewhere. Inform the runners that use Twitch *Highlights* about the issue. Ideally, no action is necessary if their *Highlights* don’t add up to 100 hours. But if they exceed the limit, advise them to export the videos and provide a new link.

Many runners have already left the scene and won’t hear about this, but their times still remain relevant or even competitive. If you don’t receive a response shortly before the deadline on April 19th 2025, please take the initiative to download those videos yourself, re-upload them as private videos to a shared community channel on a different platform and update the links.

For all speedrunners, here are some options you might consider:

- Check whether or not you’ve reached the 100-hour limit through your Twitch Dashboard. You’ll find the *Video Producer* under *Content.*
- If you are, start working on exporting and/or backing up everything that might be valuable.
- Create a plan about which *Highlights* to manually delete before April 19th. Don’t leave it up to Twitch to select them automatically.
- Stream your progress! Take a trip down memory lane together with your community!
- Raise awareness! Share this article and re-post content regarding the issue on your favourite social media platform.

## Helpful Links

- **[TwitchDownloader](https://github.com/lay295/TwitchDownloader)** can help you to download videos in bulk and save chat messages in a separate file.
- Matse007’s **[SpeedrunRescueScript](https://github.com/Matse007/SpeedrunRescueScript)** checks your own runs on speedrun.com and lets you download the videos hosted on Twitch.
- **[Jonga’s Step-by-Step Process](https://bsky.app/profile/jongamebeer.bsky.social/post/3lim2ygbvuk26)** on Bluesky is about setting up a separate YouTube channel and exporting Twitch *Highlights* there.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-32)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or on the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about Twitch's recent announcement of limiting the storage of highlights.

Twitch's Time Trials - The Gold Split #32

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #30 - The Duality of Speed

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about the recent RTA and IGT records in Super Metroid and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-30)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

Out of the most iconic speedrunning games, **Super Metroid** might be the one I’m least familiar with. I didn’t grow up with consoles in general and was never curious enough to learn more beyond what the classic saving / killing the animals bid war at Games Done Quick events was about. But times have changed. I’m now writing a newsletter about speedrunning. Let’s dive in!

This week’s news is what prompted my newfound interest: in the Any% category, a new **RTA** record had been set and (independently) a new barrier in **IGT** had also been broken. Let’s learn together about the differences between the two, what constitutes them and why both are outstanding achievements.

## The different ways to achieve Any%

Any% is generally known to be the fastest way to beat a game. No restrictions* apply. But while Any% is a category, RTA and IGT are different ways of timing the playthrough and segmented runs also fall into this section.

**RTA** stands for real time attack, is the most common timing method and refers to the real-world time measured from start to finish, unwaveringly, regardless of loading screens, room transitions, dialogues, menus, lag or anything else that doesn’t mess with the natural flow of time.

**IGT** on the other hand stands for in-game time and is a game-specific timing method. This timer is only running when certain conditions that the developers set are met. Many games simply don’t measure this metric or don’t ever tell the player, so it doesn’t apply there. In the case of Super Metroid, the timer is stopped during the pause menu, room transitions, item fanfares and others.

Importantly, Super Metroid’s timer rounds up to the next full minute and doesn’t deal with seconds. The new RTA record set on January 31st clocks in at **40:22.010**, with an in-game time of **27:00**. Less than 24 hours after, the first run ever with an IGT of **26:00** was achieved. However, that run took **over 42 minutes** in real time - much longer than the new RTA record. Intuitively, one would expect that a faster run in RTA would also mean a faster IGT, but this isn’t always the case. Let’s have a brief look at both runs.

## RTA Timing

In [The Gold Split #26](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-26#%C2%A7story-of-the-week), @Kosmic predicted a new RTA Any% record for 2025 by somebody who has never held it before. In the last ten years, only three people have been at the top: @zoast, @Behemoth87 and @Oatsngoats.

On January 31st, @ShinyZeni set a new world record with a time of **40:22.010**, surpassing @Oatsngoats August 2023 record by almost 14 seconds - just as @Kosmic had predicted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGgzxe-MZWw

The current RTA route uses the fastest known path through the game: **PRKD**. This acronym describes the order in which four bosses are defeated: Phantoon → Ridley → Kraid → Draygon

The route prioritises minimising real-world time loss over almost anything else. This means:

- Skipping unnecessary items: this may result in riskier boss fights and more tricky movement.
- Minimising lag: particle effects can slow the game down. Conversely, strategically taking damage can cause a reduction in lag since then the game only renders Samus every other frame. Over the years many more micro-optimisations have been developed to combat lag.
- Fewer and faster room transitions: after entering a door, the game aligns them with the center of the screen before the next room is revealed. While not an issue for IGT timing, it’s possible to lose a lot of real time throughout the run if this isn’t done properly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFdbW_UBB_Y

But even within these boundaries there is some room for nuanced decisions. Technically, at a minimum 15 missiles and 10 super missiles are necessary to finish the game. But if you choose that path and lose one or get unlucky with item drops, the run is basically lost. @ShinyZeni opts for a more conservative approach: 20 missiles and 10 super missiles. This loses a few seconds due to an additional item fanfare when picking up the missile pack, but makes up for it with more consistency and allows a more aggressive approach in the fight against Ridley.

@ShinyZeni now holds not only the Any% world record, but also stands at the top of the 100% and Reverse Boss Order categories. Improving on such a well-optimized record by such a significant margin has firmly cemented his place at the top of the game.

## IGT Timing

Back in January of 2019, @zoast became the first person to achieve a run with an in-game time of 27 minutes. In the years since, many others have matched this milestone. But on February 1st 2025, he broke the next barrier and achieved a run with an in-game time of **26 minutes** for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1HRc-zpoKQ

We’ve already learned about optimisations for the RTA timing. But the in-game timer doesn’t always run and stops during room transitions, item pickup fanfares and slows down while the game is experiencing lag. Therefore, many of the techniques used to reduce real-world time losses just don’t apply for the IGT timing and additional Items may be picked up without a time penalty.

Instead of following the PRKD boss order, the IGT route uses **KPDR** (Kraid → Phantoon → Draygon → Ridley). Getting the Plasma Beam before the fight against Ridley saves around 30 seconds in IGT during the fight alone, but because of additional transitions and use of the menu it’s unfavourable for RTA runs. This trade-off is a recurring theme throughout the run. Both the route as well as the way the game is played end up significantly different.

Technically it’s possible to precisely measure IGT down to the exact frame by reading RAM values. This would avoid ties on the leaderboard, but is completely impractical for runners on original hardware.

## Conclusion

Super Metroid Any% is a perfect example of how speedruns with the same goal can evolve differently depending on the timing method used. The differences come down to route choices, risk management, and how each run optimises movement, item pickups, and lag reduction.

Want to get involved and learn more or try a run yourself? Check out:

- 📖** [Super Metroid Speedrunning Wiki](https://wiki.supermetroid.run/Main_Page)**
- 🎮** [Leaderboards & Runs](https://www.speedrun.com/supermetroid)**

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-30)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

*| It depends on the game. Some might still impose rules on Any% in order to level the playing field and ensure a fair competition. Also, cheating generally isn’t allowed. Don’t cheat.

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about the recent RTA and IGT records in Super Metroid.

The Duality of Speed - The Gold Split #30

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #26

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about people's speedrunning-related goals and predictions for 2025 and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, AGDQ content, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-26)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Story of the Week ✨

2025 has just begun, and while I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions, I am a fan of trying to predict what might happen. My own 2025 predictions of @Suigi being dethroned in at least one Super Mario 64 category and @Summoningsalt releasing the 8-hour director’s cut of the Subway Surfers world record history documentary are destined to come true anyways, so I reached out to a few folks to get a broader spectrum of goals and what to look forward to in the new year.

And as a bonus, if we’re all still here at the end of 2025, we get to look back, reflect and gauge how well they did at setting these goals and predicting those outcomes.

Three predictions reached me for the Any% category of **[Super Mario Bros](https://www.speedrun.com/smb1)**. The current record of 04:54.631 by @Niftski has been set in September of 2023, but recent streams have shown that a new one might be just around the corner. Going into the final level, that run was tied with the tool-assisted speedrun (TAS). This is possible due to something called the frame rule. In short: outside of the final level, time can only be gained or lost in 21-frame intervals, because that is the rate at which the level completion is checked. Therefore, on some levels, a runner might lose a few frames but can still end up tied with the TAS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khu9BB2g4Ks

@Niftski themselves predict a 04:54.5xx or even 04:54.4xx by the end of the year, and SMB legend @Kosmic also considers that a safe bet. But content creator @Abyssoft goes a few steps further: their prediction is a complete tie with the TAS in 2025, which would be a 04:54.265. At that point and until new strategies are found, the best any other player could do is to break even.

In **[Super Mario 64](https://www.speedrun.com/sm64)**, the predictions concern new records in the shorter categories. The momentum in 120 Star seems to have slowed and we might not see any progress there in 2025, but content creator @Bismuth does anticipate new best times in 0 Star, 1 Star and 16 Star. Blindfolded speedrunner @Bubzia agrees with the 16 Star prediction, despite or maybe because of the mystique around that record. Currently, @Suigi is working on the 0 Star category, while @Weegee and @Slipperynip are targetting 16 Star.

Speaking of @Bubzia, his personal goal for the new year does involve the 120 Star category. In May of 2022 he became the first person to finish it blindfolded with a time of 11:22:43. And in 2025, he wants to improve that time significantly and end the run in under ten hours. I was curious about what it will take to get there, and this is what he had to say:

> It’s mostly going to be optimizing the longer and harder stars for consistency and speed. Mostly all the 100 coins stars and some of the really tricky ones like Wingcap Red Coins etc. I have improved as a player a ton over the last year with my 16 and 70 star grind, so lots of new optimizations might now be possible that I simply lacked skill before or even simply did not consider during routing and stuff. It will be lots of work, but it can definitely happen. 😄

@Bismuth on the other hand has plans and predictions for **[Donkey Kong 64](https://www.speedrun.com/dk64?h=101-N64&x=7kj153k3-onvv1yrn.jqzz8d2q)**, specifically in the 101% category on Nintendo 64. In the second half of the year, he’ll aim to improve his time by at least 15 minutes to below 05:40:00. Just above on the leaderboard however he forecasts a potential three-way battle for the crown between @Znernicus, @Awhitmore and @Auphonium, with @Znernicus ultimately coming out on top with a time of at least 05:19:xx at the end of the year.

In the world of tool-assisted speedruns, TAS legend @Tompa is modest and simply wants to continue TASing for as long as he’s motivated. His current project is Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament, a platformer for the Game Boy Advance. Future projects are also already on the horizon, and potentially include The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords for the Nintendo DSi, Super Princess Peach on Nintendo DS, and Wario Land: Shake It! on the Wii.

@EBen has been speedrunning ***[Grand Theft Auto: Vice City](https://www.speedrun.com/gtavc?h=Any_No_SSU&x=nxd1rk8q)*** since 2017, but has fallen behind in his favourite category due to other projects and commitments. In 2025, he pledges to improve his time in Any% (No SSU) to avoid being relegated to the 2nd page of the leaderboards and at the very least remain firmly in the top 100. He also predicts more Chinese runners entering the game’s scene and challenging the top times. In 2024, three have already broken into the top 10 and quickly improved.

A very concrete goal comes from Sonic speedrunner and fast-talking scotsman @Argick. He aims to get at least one new top 10 time in a different Sonic game every month. Hopefully we’ll see twelve of them on the scoresheet at the end of the year. It’s a good thing there are 116 different Sonic games on this website to choose from.

@laura and @Dayoman both want to work on their times in **[Spyro the Dragon](https://www.speedrun.com/spyro1?h=120&x=7wkp1gkr)** 120%. While the former’s goal is to reach at least a 1:25:xx before they branch out into other speedgames, Dayoman is locking in and embracing the grind to finish the year with a time below 1:20:00. I’m rooting for both of you!

In **[Super Metroid](https://www.speedrun.com/supermetroid)** Any%, @Kosmic is certain that there will be a new record, and possibly by somebody who has never held it before. In the last ten years, only three people have been at the top: @zoast, @Behemoth87 and @Oatsngoats, the current record holder. Now, at the beginning of 2025, @Drewski_i and @ShinyZeni are equally close to reaching for the crown. It’ll be an exciting leaderboard to follow!

![A screenshot of the Super Metroid Any% leaderboard with Oatsngoats at the top followed by Drewski_i, ShinyZeni, zoast and Behemoth87.](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff8d43a9c-3e4a-425f-bc87-a637b2658eb6_449x229.jpeg)

***@***Anorakkis can see the three hour barrier in **[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess](https://www.speedrun.com/tp?h=Any-wii&x=z275l4k0-kn0zjg78.rqvrd76l)** Any% on the Wii fall in 2025, even if it might take a mighty run to reach it. And with three tool-assisted speedruns for the game in the works and one for The Wind Waker just released, it might be a really good year for 3D Zelda TASing.

Beyond the games, joey, who runs **[therun.gg](https://therun.gg/)**, is working on the website becoming a front page for all of speedrunning. His aim is to turn it into a hub and a place where one goes to watch streams, get the news, find out about new records or personal bests, see upcoming events, participate in races and tournaments and much more. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll pick up a speedrun again after nine years.

And last but certainly not least, @NaomiiiPlays predicts that charity marathons within the speedrunning scene will manage to raise more for a good cause than in previous years. She noticed a downturn in recent years and hopes that this year will mark a positive change. Currently, AGDQ 2025 is on a good trajectory to improve on last year’s donation total.

### What are yours?

Did these inspire you? Do **you** have any goals or predictions for 2025?

It might be fun to gather as many as we can now and then look back at them at the end of they year. For this purpose, I created a **[quick and basic form](https://forms.gle/7NMWGQpH2P6H4mcj6)** to gather your speedrunning-related goals and predictions for 2025.

Feel free to submit as many as you like, you may remain anonymous. We'll put all of them into a vault at the end of January 2025 and open it at the end of the year. Have a good one!

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-26)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about people's speedrunning-related goals and predictions for 2025.

The Gold Split #26 - Goals & Predictions

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #21

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about @Suigi 's sweep of all five main Super Mario 64 categories and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-19)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

# Story of the Week ✨

@Suigi is the first person to hold the records of ***[Super Mario 64](https://www.speedrun.com/sm64)***’s five major speedrun categories at the same time. How did we get here? Why did nobody stop him? Is the game truly dead? I’ll give a short overview of the game in general and each category in particular. Let’s dive in!

## Overview / History

*Super Mario 64* is a game that needs no introduction. Because its 3D movement offers such a wealth of options to traverse incredibly diverse levels, it is objectively one of the best games for speedrunning, both as a player and a viewer. Because it has attracted such a big crowd, the competition is fierce, and it takes years of practice to become one of the best.

*0 Star*, *1 Star*, *16 Star*, *70 Star*, and *120 Star* are the five major speedrun categories. They mainly differ in the number of power stars collected before defeating *Bowser in the Sky*, the final level of the game. But the methods *Mario* uses to get there and the glitches allowed along the way vary greatly. Four doors requiring 8, 30, 50, and 70 power stars, respectively, block Mario’s progress until he has collected enough.

In the past, the story of *Super Mario 64* speedrunning has been one of specialists: whether it’s @cheese and @puncayshun in *120 Star* and *70 Star*, @Xiah and @akki in *16 Star*, or @MANNO and @Dowsky in *1 Star* and *0 Star*: dominating performances were always limited to at most two categories. Until @Suigi entered the scene. By June 2023, he already held the record in four of the five categories. Only the most prestigious one was left to claim: *120 Star*.

For each category, I’ll give a short overview and then cover @Suigi 's road to the record. Categories are ordered chronologically by the time his most recent record was set.

## 16 Star

When @Suigi created his account on *[speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/)* on March 8th, 2020, he also submitted his first time to the leaderboards: 30 minutes flat in the *16 Star* category.

*16 Star* is the most popular category for beginners. It’s short and there are a limited number of techniques to learn, providing a solid base of experience to step into more technical or longer categories. The goal is to beat the game as fast as possible with the following restrictions:

- A complicated technique called *[Side Backwards Long Jump](https://ukikipedia.net/wiki/SBLJ)* is not allowed
- The door blocked by the 30 power stars requirement may only be skipped using a technique called *[MIPS Clip](https://youtu.be/TMUuBZ7lOVI)*

16 Star Progression:

![](/static/blob/3ekd0v3z.png)

A few months after his initial time, @Suigi submitted a 00:20:07 in August 2020 and never stopped improving until achieving his first record on November 10th, 2021. He was only dethroned once more by @Weegee shortly after, but then started his quest of domination that ended in March of 2023 with a record that speedrunning content creator *Bismuth* called [the perfect Mario run](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMp0VwztcNw): **00:14:35.500**.

This time remains on top of that category’s leaderboard today and is the foundation of @Suigi 's streak.

## 1 Star

This category is the next most technical, the second shortest and uses the *[Side Backwards Long Jump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_Rh63aMJro)* to skip the door requiring 30 power stars. Players still collect one star in *Dire Dire Docks*, the stage blocking access to the second *Bowser* level. This avoids the much more difficult setup needed for the *0 Star* category.

1 Star Progression:

![](/static/blob/xz0d8ome.png)

@Suigi started running this in October of 2021, but it wasn’t until December of 2022 when he began seriously improving and aiming for a better time. The first record of 00:07:04.270 followed two months later in February of 2023, but he managed to shave nearly seven more seconds off that time.

On April 9th, 2023, he set the record that also still stands today: **00:06:57.580**. This marks the beginning of a pattern: when setting a record, @Suigi simply didn’t stop. He continued until he was happy with his performance. And by that time, he’s put himself such an impressive distance away from all the other ranks that it discouraged the competition, leaving them with a significant gap to close. Today, this gap is still over six seconds large.

## 0 Star

This category is basically the *Any%* category of *Super Mario 64*. Everything is allowed, except collecting power stars. It’s similar to *1 Star*, but requires a much more complicated setup for the *[Side Backwards Long Jump](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnTU96zwPJc)* in order to skip *Dire Dire Docks* and go straight to *Bowser in the Fire Sea*.

0 Star Progression:

![](/static/blob/kzwo1k2e.png)

@Suigi picked up this category in June of 2022 and seriously started trying to improve soon after his first *1 Star* record in February of 2023. Two months later, he set his first record, but once again he did not stop there. He kept improving, eventually securing a comfortable lead of over ten seconds ahead of the second place. This is a huge gap for a run that is just over six minutes long. The final record before moving on was set on October 25th, 2023: **00:06:16.600.**

## 120 Star

*120 Star* is without a doubt the most prestigious category. Over the course of more than 90 minutes, every single star in the game is collected. The way in which that is done has been refined unlike any other category in any other game, and there are many different routes for players of different skill levels. *120 Star* demands constant focus, stamina, precision, and especially consistency. If @Suigi could prove here that he’s not just the best in the shorter categories, nobody would be able to doubt his status as a legend.

120 Star Progression:

![](/static/blob/xzdp1v5z.png)

@Suigi made his first tentative steps in November of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. But only after his times in 16 Star, 1 Star, and 0 Star were secured, he began to put a lot of effort into practice.

And the results spoke for themselves: by June of 2024, after just over six months, he achieved a time of 01:37:38, putting him in reach of the record at the time. But it still took four months of more and more promising attempts until it finally happened: on October 26th, 2024, @Suigi set a new record at 01:35:33. Not only was he the first to achieve a time below 01:36:00, he also improved his previous time by almost one and a half minutes.

More than that, he also proved that it was not a fluke by again persevering and setting another record, just eight days later. It’s the record that still stands today: **01:35:28**.

## 70 Star

70 power stars is the amount necessary to get past all of *Bowser’s* obstacles without the use of glitches. The major sequence breaks through the power star doors and the endless staircase are banned, and thus this category is the closest of the five major ones that could be considered glitchless-ish.

Throughout the years, players meticulously identified those 70 stars that can be collected the fastest. Many route variations for various skill levels exist that collect certain power stars at different points in the game, or opt for entirely different ones.

70 Star Progression:

![](/static/blob/1n5345qz.png)

@Suigi played *70 Star* at various points throughout his journey, most notably after he started practising the category in February of 2022 and in June of 2023, when he broke the record for the first time.

At this point in time, @Suigi already held four out of the five records. However, he had not yet mastered *120 Star*, and doing so would take a while. Others were also close to beating his *70 Star* record, and Japanese runner @ikori_o eventually did twice in December of 2023 by a decent margin.

It wasn’t until @Suigi secured his *120 Star* victory that he could return to *70 Star* and complete the full sweep of all major categories in *Super Mario 64*, an achievement almost 20 months in the making. On November 17th, 2024, he beat @ikori_o 's time by two seconds and became the greatest of all time: **00:46:26 🐐**

## Conclusion & Outlook

If you’ve read all of this but are still in search of answers that will explain how @Suigi managed this legendary accomplishment, consider these points:

- His attitude to practice: in the past, many runners would practice the majority of the run by doing full game runs. This made them experts in the more casual sections, but made it harder to consistently pull off the more difficult techniques. @Suigi specifically practised these harder skips until he was able to confidently do them five times or even ten or more times in a row within a certain timeframe.
- The times he had set in *16 Star*, *1 Star*, and *0 Star* were so dominant that there was very little competition to challenge them. That is still true even over a year after they had been achieved.
- Breaking the record in *120 Star* was only a matter of time given his talent. And afterwards it took him just 22 days to also sit on top of the *70 Star* leaderboard. There simply was not enough time for anybody to respond.
- He’s just that good.

After the dust had settled, some said that *Super Mario 64* speedrunning is dead. That everything has been achieved. That there’s no drive to push for more. But I don’t think that’s the case.

While @Suigi 's records in the shorter categories will be incredibly tough to beat, the *70 Star* time is well within reach. And *120 Star* is so complex and long and has so many people consistently at the top that it would be a huge surprise to not see others motivated by his achievement. *Super Mario 64* will remain a shining beacon within speedrunning and will always attract new runners to the scene. @Suigi is incredibly young and likely only the beginning of a new generation of runners, and instead of mourning the past and being pessimistic about the future, let’s focus on making them feel as welcome as possible. If we manage this, we’ll be able to witness many more achievements just like this one.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-19)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about Suigi's sweep of all five main Super Mario 64 categories.

The Gold Split Week #21: Five out of Five Marios

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #19

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This **Story of the Week** is all about the recently released games list for AGDQ 2025 and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-19)**.

## ![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)Story of the Week

***Awesome Games Done Quick*** needs no introduction. The next annual pinnacle of speedrunning events will take place in Pittsburgh, PA, as well as online from January 5th to January 12th, 2025.

Recently the official committee released the **[list of accepted games](https://gamesdonequick.com/games)**. It’s been distilled from over 2000 individual public submissions down to less than 10%. This ratio is the unfortunate end result of the team still not having figured out how to bend time to their will. A week still only has seven days.

The tl;dr that **you** get exclusively ahead of the story is: it’s great. Amazing even. Not only does it include many of the most popular speedgames, a lot of diversity and showcases you might never see elsewhere again, but there are also so many cool nuances and themes ready to take you beyond the usual and showcase other kinds of gaming excellence.

While I don’t want to take away from the experience of seeing these live, I do want to point out some of the guaranteed hits as well as things you might be interested in but have never heard of. The list will include some videos, so if you want to preserve the wonder that only seeing something for the first time can give you, just ignore them.

### The obvious hits

- **Every single music-themed showcase**
There’s so much entertainment value and creativity on display here. *Crazy Taxi* with a live backing band, *Elden Ring* played with an electric saxophone and completed without being hit, *New Super Mario Bros Wii* controlled by *Joy-Cons* strapped to the runner’s head and foot while they play the game’s soundtrack on a piano. I’ll simply let those descriptions speak for themselves. I’ll also add showcases of rhythm games *Jubeat* and *CHUNITHM LUMINOUS PLUS* here. Do not miss *CHUNITHM*.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1sjLtAk3EU

- **Awful Games Done Quick**
At GDQ events, the awful block showcasing games that are a little… rough around the edges has a long tradition and rich history. There’s a seemingly endless pit from which these games are being dragged onto the big stage. All of them will be relatively short, so I do suggest you stick around for the entire block. Who wouldn’t enjoy a nice and relaxing outing in *Golf With Your Grandmother* or going backwards at uncapped speeds in *Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing*? Once the schedule is released, simply look for these and you’ll find the block.
- ***The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time* (No Logic Randomizer) by** @zfg
Randomizers randomize the location of items, shops, dungeon entrances, and more. They’ve long been a great way to add variety to older games and provide a fresh experience. Settings can change how hard it may potentially be to get to certain items and places, and in this No Logic run by @zfg the difficulty has been set extremely high. You’ll be able to take a glimpse into the mind of a genius who has played this game actively for well over 12 years.
- ***Fallout: New Vegas (All Romances) by*** @Tomatoanus
@tomatoanus is incredibly good at providing engaging commentary, so this thirty-minute long breeze where he romances all twelve possible NPCs in a really, really broken game will be such a dense showcase of exactly that ability.

### The solid choices

Too many! Here’s a few things I’ll personally be looking out for:

- ***Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (Any%, Original Mode) by*** @spikevegeta
DKC is one of the games @spikevegeta is most known for. He has been around for as long as GDQ itself, and for good reason.
- ***Alan Wake 2: Night Springs (All Episodes) by*** @sweetpeebs
- ***F-Zero GX* (All Tracks, Max Speed) by** @Fifa
This is about as fast as racing games go. The level of control is impressive, even if you’ve never played the game(s). But if you have, it’s mind-boggling.
- ***Spyro: Reignited Trilogy (Spyro 1: Any%, NBS) by*** @toastedkat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe33hMO2uS0

- ***Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Tightened Vice) by*** @EBen
Ben is a good friend and prolific runner of *Vice City*. He’s been with the game for a very long time and watched the run evolve many times. *Tightened Vice* is a mod that redesigns every mission and adds a lot of custom content to make the game significantly harder. Typical speedrun strategies are removed from the equation, making this a challenge even for veterans like him.
- ***Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Legendary Trial), a race between*** @GTAce, @EpicCrossover, @authorblues and @Skybilz
- ***Portal 2 (Single Player, No SLA) by*** @Msushi
@Msushi is one of those people that combines intimate knowledge of a specific game and a great ability to bring that knowledge across through commentary. They’ve created in-depth videos for the *Portal* games for well over four years.

### The hidden gems

There are always a few runs that I’d expect to fly under the radar for most people. Don’t sleep on these!

- ***Fresh Hops (100%) by*** @frozenflygone
I can’t think of a single Kaizo romhack that I didn’t find impressive and interesting. In addition to those attributes, this one also has a really unique theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8dUtk2n3kw

- ***G-Saviour (Any%) by*** @pmcTRILOGY
I might be wrong, but I believe this is the first Gundam game at the big GDQ stage. @pmcTRILOGY is a strong advocate of the franchise and has tried for many years and it’s great to see it finally happen.

- ***Rocket League (Workshop Map Speedrun Showcase) by*** @ThundaSurge
Movement is *Rocket League* is an art form and such a great example for something that’s easy to beat and impossible to master. For a long time the community has created custom maps that are more about traversing and less about scoring goals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPz54Qjb9Ow

- ***Super Mario Bros. (Any% STA), a race between*** @JeremyMKW, @GTAce, @SuperSonic, and @scalpel
This is not your run-of-the-mill race. Don’t get me wrong, any close SMB race would already be great, but here all four Marios are combined on a single screen, with a minimap and timing tower. However, this is not a romhack. All contestants play on augmented NES consoles that pass the signals to a computer, which in turn makes the magic happen.
- **Online runs from all over the world!**
Last, but not least: it’s always very wholesome to see people from all over the world come together. And enabling communities and people to participate that would have a difficult time travelling to the US is a great thing. I already mentioned *CHUNITHM*, which will be one of the online showcases. A few more I wanted to shout out are three speedruns done by people from Japan: ***Crypt Custodian by*** @inari, **ane-san by** @irukan **and** **Castlevania: Dracula X by** @Hensachi_60.

### Final Thoughts & What's Next

There’s obviously loads of other good content that I have not mentioned. That does not mean anything can be safely skipped or isn’t worth watching. The quality of the whole list is incredibly high across the board, and my top picks are of course subjective and might differ from yours. I encourage you to comb through the **[full list](https://gamesdonequick.com/games)** yourself and mark your own favourites. Or maybe wait until just a bit later today (November 8th), when the first draft of the schedule will be released, enabling you to already start filling your calendar.

The best thing about this stacked list is that it’s not even complete! Up next are the mentioned publication of the first schedule draft today, followed by a second public submission phase between November 15th and November 22nd. This phase is exclusive to games that hadn’t been released yet at the time of the first submission phase. I’m hoping for showcases of the *Silent Hill 2* remake as well as *The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom*. The latter was submitted during the first phase and rejected, but I have a hunch that the committee is simply hedging their bets about more submissions of the same game, considering it technically was released after the first submission phase closed.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-19)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about the recently released games list for AGDQ 2025.

The Gold Split #19 - The Games List is Kind

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #18

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This ***Story of the Week*** is all about an introduction to the world of tool assisted speedruns and superplays and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-18)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Story of the Week

**[Two weeks ago](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-16)** I teased the introduction of a new section reserved for TAS movies, and today you’re getting at least the first part of that: a simple introduction to the world of tool-assisted speedruns (or superplays).

As we learn, I’ll adopt as much of the common ***[TASVideos](https://tasvideos.org/)*** nomenclature and conventions as possible. *TASVideos* is the #1 resource and gathering point for creating and watching tool-assisted speedruns and superplays. First off, “movie” is simply the term for any one speedrun or superplay on the website. You’ll pretty much never hear the term used to describe Real Time Attack (RTA) speedruns, so it helps in telling the two apart. Movies are first submitted to the website, and then verified and published if they meet certain criteria.

### What’s a TAS anyway?

I’m glad you asked. TAS is short for tool-assisted speedrun or superplay. And the use of tools is not just allowed, it’s necessary. While creating a real time speedrun takes exactly as long as the run itself, creating a TAS can take weeks, months or even years of meticulous planning and careful execution. The one tool that’s used for all movies is the emulator, but there’s no limit to how many one might use. Emulators can pause the game at any time and come with other handy features such as save states, frame advance, memory watch, and the ability to record the TAS file.

- **Save States**: At any point, a game can be saved or loaded again from a previous save state. This can be used to right mistakes or minimise the randomness of certain outcomes.
- **Frame Advance**: By advancing the game one frame at a time, TAS authors are able to choose exactly which buttons should be pressed and which direction the analogue stick(s) should be pointing at for every single frame. Games may run at 60 frames per second. That’s a lot of possibilties!
- **Memory Watch**: Watching the game’s memory provides a closer look into the effect an action might have. It’s very common for TAS authors to program actions that modify the game’s memory in ways that don’t affect what you would see on the screen at all.
- **Recording**: The result of a recording in the world of real time speedrunning is usually a video file, because the output is recorded. But for a TAS, it’s the input that’s more relevant: the dataset of which buttons are pressed at every frame until the end. The result is an input file that others can download and replay in an emulator. If they get the same result as the person who created the input file, the TAS is called sync-verified, an important step.

### A Culture Shift

Leaderboards don’t exist on *TASVideos*. When a faster movie for any combination of game and category gets submitted and becomes verified and published, the older and slower version will become obsolete. That doesn’t mean that its page is deleted, it’s just no longer being featured the same way as before.

Each TAS movie on the website comes with its own page, where anybody can read up on the history and detailed explanations, download video and emulator replay files or access links to the movie’s forum thread, similar movies and more. Especially the author’s notes help the judges tremendously when deciding whether or not a movie should be published.

Every movie submitted to *TASVideos* has to undergo a verification process. It begins with checking whether or not the provided input file can be sync-verified and ends in a possible publication on the website. As TAS tools have become more sophisticated, lowering the barrier to entry and allowing the creation of movies for games that were previously impossible to TAS, the amount of submissions have increased. But the manual process is still the best way to maintain the impressive quality standards of the site.

Movies can be categorised in many different ways. In the following section, I’ll try to boil it down to three somewhat arbitrary classes and give you some examples.

### The Tool-Assisted Speedrun

Exactly what you might expect: tool-assisted speedruns achieve superhuman speed due to every single input being frame-perfect. They reach times and use strategies that are impossible to pull off in real time. They mark the theoretical limit of how fast a game can be completed… at least until new discoveries are made. Besides simply completing the games as fast as possible, categories like 100% or All Bosses exist here just as in real time speedrunning.

A good first example for a superhuman TAS that still preserves the original gameplay is the movie for ***[Celeste](https://tasvideos.org/3899M)***.

Others use so many glitches that very little of the intended gameplay remains. In this movie, beating ***[Super Mario 64](https://tasvideos.org/4490M)*** with only one key, some of it is at least still recognisable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXT7Wyt94Ek

There’s something for everyone, between movies without many glitches, and those that rely heavily on them. Few movies simply fall into either category.

### The Tool-Assisted Superplay

I would categorise movies that don’t conform to the more standard speedrunning categories but still have a clear goal as superplays. The goals may just be arbitrary and chosen to only showcase a certain part of the game. For example, in a movie of ***[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time](https://tasvideos.org/3537M)***, the author completes all dungeon with the restriction of never opening a door.

High score attacks also fall under this category, and ***[Star Fox 64](https://tasvideos.org/5169M)*** is a great example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3yx3gj6CVs

### The Art Form

I won’t say that the movies for the other categories are not also expressing the author’s creativity through controller inputs, but some do go further. They’ll go as far as the game’s engine and the system its played on will allow. These showcases often have no clear goal and aim mostly to entertain. Arbitrary code execution in ***[Pokémon: Yellow](https://tasvideos.org/3358M)*** is a great example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZCqoHHtovQ

It’s difficult to comprehend, but everything you see would be possible on a GameBoy Colour. Every frame is crafted through button inputs. This is my favourite category and includes many of the ***[TASBot](https://tasvideos.org/TASBot)*** showcases we saw at various speedrunning marathons over the years, so I will recommend a few more:

- ***[Family Feud](https://tasvideos.org/1248M)*[ "playaround"](https://tasvideos.org/1248M)**** by *Heisanevilgenius*
- ***[International Superstar Soccer Deluxe](https://tasvideos.org/1438M)*[ "playaround"](https://tasvideos.org/1438M)** by *Markokarty*
- ***[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time "Triforce% ACE Showcase”](https://tasvideos.org/7726S)*** by *Sauraen, dwangoAC, Savestate* & more

### Go forth and immerse yourself

Now you should be equipped to head over to ***[TASVideos.org](https://tasvideos.org/7726S)***. There’s an incredible amount of good content, with a comprehensive search function, tags and filters that help you find what you’re looking for. There is a rating system and each year, the team gives out awards to the best movies and authors in many different categories.

Good places to start are their **[Welcome page](https://tasvideos.org/WelcomeToTASVideos)**, significantly expanding on my short article,**** and the **[Newcomer Corner](https://tasvideos.org/NewcomerCorner)**. Alternatively, jump straight to the **[Movies page](https://tasvideos.org/Movies)**, use the filters and find something that inspires you. Enjoy!
![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-18)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about an introduction to the world of tool assisted speedruns and superplays.

The Gold Split #18 - TAS 101

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #15

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This ***Story of the Week*** is all about *The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-15)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Story of the Week

The *Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom* has only been out for two weeks, but it already looks too good to ignore. Let’s take a look at what the speedruns for this game might shape up to be. One major spoiler will be indicated as such, and I did my best to avoid them wherever possible.

### Basic Game Mechanics

In *Echoes of Wisdom,* you’re playing as *Zelda*, finally. But instead of using a sword, shield, bombs and other weapons, *Zelda* wields the *Tri Rod*. This rod allows you to pick up “Echoes” of items or enemies and conjure them again. You may summon a bed to rest and heal, fight your enemies with an army of *Keese*, use floating platforms to fly high in the air or warp to wherever you please by using signs... but we’ll get to that.

Often, the first instinct will have players stack as many objects as possible in order to try to get on top of things which present insurmountable boundaries in other top-down *Zelda* games, like treetops or rocky cliffs. And instead of using invisible walls to prevent you, the game will simply let you do that, which is genius. It creates the illusion of outsmarting the game, when in reality, you’re still playing within its rules. You’re granted plenty of freedom, but no sequence breaks… or are you?

### Tech & Glitches

Speedrunners are infamously persistent and regularly find optimisations and new strategies for games that are decades old. For *Echoes of Wisdom*, it really only took a few days to blow the game wide open. Players very quickly found ways to gain more vertical height than intended and discovered ways to speed up their movement through the world. For example, holding a piece of meat, conjuring a bird and locking the bird with your companion will have the bird push you sideways and slightly upwards through the air, as in some impossible carrot-and-donkey situation.

Better techniques also soon emerged. For example, placing a bed, getting onto it and summoning a specific enemy echo on the opposite side will catapult both Zelda and the bed at high speed. You can trigger this again in mid-air, chaining multiple boosts together and travelling very quickly.

But the major one I want to focus on today, the splitter of categories, is of course: the **W̵̢̋r̴̮̩͝o̵̳̓̽n̶͙̯̓͝g̷̞̒͠ ̴͉̟̾̓W̷̺͝ḁ̷̩͌͠r̸̻̍̔p̵͎̜̏̐**. Wrong warping in general describes teleporting to a different point than normally possible. And often, the system that allows wrong warps in the first place can be tinkered with to get a desired result. And that’s exactly the case in *Echoes of Wisdom*.

All this is enabled through a glitch called ***Pause Storage***. It enables playing the game while the pause menu, map menu or inventory menu is opened. The terms *Map Storage* or *Inventory Storage* are used as well, but I’m going to stick to *Pause Storage* as I believe it includes all variations.

Players can enter this glitched state by interacting with a signboard near a void-out area and quickly opening the *Echo* menu during the void-out. Void-out triggers are placed around areas or at heights that the developers considered too far away from where the player should be. The screen will go black briefly and place them a short distance away from the forbidden area.

Once the glitch is active, selecting a waypoint but not confirming the warp, opening a second map instance, and then confirming, the game will send *Zelda* to a different waypoint than the one originally selected, potentially even one that was previously undiscovered. Then, using an additional manipulation and entering a dungeon (which also has waypoints) in the glitched state before teleporting, players can teleport to a waypoint inside a dungeon with the same index as the waypoint they initially chose on the world map. In the current *Any%* route, this allows a *Wrong Warp* straight into the final dungeon of the game. Here’s a great video by @loohhoo explaining it, and this is where I’ll need to put the big fat

# **SPOILER WARNING**

# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfP65w0gq54

### Leaderboards & Durations

[The leaderboards](https://www.speedrun.com/eow) will open **TODAY**. There are still a few open questions about category names, which ones will be present and some rules, but most of them are set and this is what we can expect:

- **Any%**: No-holds-barred and wrong warping to your heart’s content. As of now, runs are already clocking in at under 40 minutes.
- ***Any% (No Wrong Warp)***: The name might change, but the category won’t allow wrong warping, and might even be mostly glitchless, focusing on playing the game as intended. With the rules still up in the air, it’s hard to estimate a solid time for this category just yet, but around four hours might be a good guess.
- **All Dungeons**: Completing all dungeons. This category might be split into a restricted and an unrestricted variant, but it’s still to be decided what *completing* a dungeon actually means. Unrestricted runs will probably soon be faster than two hours.
- **100%**: Do and collect all the things! It’ll be a long one.
- A category that will end at a rough half-way point of the game

One more thing that needs to be decided is whether or not the use of amiibos will be allowed. Amiibos can grant smoothie ingredients as well as outfits. It’s likely that the leaderboards are open by the time you read this and you’ll find the final categories as well as the rules right there.

### Conclusion

#### With how fast speedruns are changing in the early days of a game’s lifecycle, everything I have written might already be outdated tomorrow. I still think it was worth exploring, learning about it, and giving an early overview of the situation. I expect *Pause Storage* and wrong warping to still be relevant in the future, so this also makes it easier to come back to it at a later point.

#### 

If you’re looking for people attempting speedruns of *Echoes of Wisdom* RIGHT NOW, look no further than **[HERE](https://www.speedrun.com/eow/streams)** on the game’s Speedrun.com page.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-15)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

The Gold Split #15 - Signs of Wrong Warps

# The Gold Split Newsletter - Week #14

The Gold Split offers a free, weekly digest of news from the world of speedrunning and beyond.

This ***Spotlight*** is all about speedrunning Microsoft Excel and was featured in this week's issue. The full post includes **more news**, briefly, as well as this week's top times and a fun fact. Check it out **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-14)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/wzxxw3qz.png)

## Spotlight: ExcelObstacleCourse

This week we’re taking a break from console differences, glitches, and even categories. It’s all about raw numbers, accuracy, and execution. If you frequent the r/speedrun subreddit, you will probably have come across a post by the person in the spotlight today: ***[ExcelObstacleCourse](https://linktr.ee/excelobstaclecourse)***

As the name might suggest, they’re all about spreadsheets in general, and *Excel* especially, and have found a unique niche in speedrunning puzzles and obstacles created in the beloved spreadsheet software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kts6EPR97HE

***ExcelObstacleCourse*** is a data scientist, self-proclaimed *Excel* junkie, and old-school gamer, who started their gaming journey with the first Nintendo consoles, playing games like *F-Zero*, *Mario Kart*, *Super Punch Out* and *Blast Corps*, always trying to beat their previous records.

They combined their job with the hobby of going fast and pushing boundaries for the first time 15 years ago:

> The idea to speedrun *Excel* came from a training "*Excel* obstacle course" I came up with about 15 years ago to teach people *Excel* shortcuts at work. We had everyone practice and compete in a conference room at the end of 30 days with gift cards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd spot. Everyone got faster at *Excel* and had a great time at the competition.

Quite different from older games, *Excel* is constantly evolving and has received many changes over the years. But any necessary adjustments were always a welcome challenge, and by now, *ExcelObstacleCourse* feels like they have mastered all the basic keyboard commands and practice them regularly to solve the challenges they create. Just like 15 years ago, their main motivation is still for more people to pick up the craft and potentially even beat their records.

Currently, they keep track of basic leaderboards and a library of videos on their *Discord*, and anybody wanting to join can simply message them (there will be some links below). Despite all efforts, *[Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com/)* has so far rejected implementing leaderboards for *Excel*, with the reason being that it’s “not a game”. But in my opinion, this would only hold up if the site didn’t also host IRL activities like [reading](https://www.speedrun.com/IRL_Reading) and [baking](https://www.speedrun.com/IRL_Baking). There’s an insane number of games without a single run on their leaderboards, and if there’s space for those there should also be space for an active yet small community around standardized *Excel* puzzles.

Some of you might be familiar with competitive *Excel* in the form of the *[Financial Modelling World Cup](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2QC6VQXo8U)*. I asked *ExcelObstacleCourse* how the necessary skillset differs from speedrunning the puzzles and whether or not they ever considered competing:

> This differs from the Financial Modeling competition because it involves no financial knowledge, no formula writing, just basic hotkeys and Alt-commands to 'clean' or 'transform' data. I would say it benefits data analysts of all types, as well as 'processors' who grind spreadsheets and small data daily. I have no plans to compete in the *FMWC*, but I haven't researched too much into it.

By now, I’m certain that many of you can’t wait to launch *Excel* and improve your skills or even pick up the obstacle course speedruns. You’re in luck because *ExcelObstacleCourse* has a few great videos on their *[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelObstacleCourse)*[ channel](https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelObstacleCourse) to help with just that. If you do give it a shot, tag them, and you’ll likely get a shoutout back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-PeVdBXjsA

Thank you again to *ExcelObstacleCourse* for readily answering my questions! You can find them on **[TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@excelobstaclecourse)**, where most of their livestreams take place, as well as on **[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@ExcelObstacleCourse)** and **[other platforms](https://linktr.ee/excelobstaclecourse)**.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/rz251jdz.png)

Thank you for reading! If you're curious about more of this week's news or would even consider subscribing to the newsletter, you'll find the full post over **[HERE](https://goldsplit.substack.com/p/week-14)**.

Finding new stories to cover can be challenging. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should be taking a look at, go ahead and **[submit them here](https://forms.gle/F1VJ4PG68FTZKqn49)** or in the **[Gold Split Discord](https://discord.gg/SpbFCgsYkU)**! 📨

The Gold Split is a free weekly newsletter focused on speedrunning. This week's main story is all about... Microsoft Excel.

The Gold Split #14 - Spreadsheets

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Super Mario 64

Super Metroid

The leaderboard is under an embargo period for 2 weeks after release. This is to allow players to enjoy the full experience of the game casually without feeling like they have to rush into developing the speedrun right away. Please take your time and enjoy the game!

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Fatzke

The moderation team has decided to halt submissions until leaderboards are properly set up. Thank you all for your patience! Please join the Discord server or use the forums to help discuss and share findings!

ENA: Dream BBQ

Welcome to the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Speedrun Page!

Unfortuntely due to a recent patch, a debate around downpatching has appeared causing ongoing conversation around whether to allow it or not.

So I ask for a few more days for the boards to go live 

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

mo.co

Leaderboard will be available 1 day after release to allow everyone to play the game and explore, and to allow the community and moderators to discuss what categories we should implement. Please share your thoughts in the forums!