Speed Takes Time, Time Makes Speed

Speedrunning has shown the world that a videogame can be won in an extremely satisfying manner, from your typical first-person shooter perfection to your 3 hour-long RPG marathon. The community since then has expanded widely and attracted gamers and viewers alike by storm not only because of the spectacular performances displayed but also for the ups and downs that happen during a run.

Despite its current popularity, speedrunning was barely a thing several years back which begs the question, what led speedrunning to what it is nowadays?



Dragster (First Speedrunned Game)



Records of the first game to be speedrunned were in the 1970's with a game called Dragster, a simple racing game where one car races another drag style. (Retro) The game came with the neat feature of recording your time during a race, giving rise to friendly competition for the best possible time reachable. From here on, gamers started seeing the potential of speedrunning, getting the fastest times in the coolest of ways no matter how unknown or underrated their game happened to be.

Webpages such as Speedrun.com were created in order to maintain a base of records on games speedrunned in different categories. Marathons such as Games Done Quick began streaming gamers live to see if they could beat the world record with a huge audience watching them do so. When not done live, players stream on programs such as Twitch to practice for the big day or even break the record during the session with followers and other viewers supporting them.

Super Mario Bros (Game Completed)

It may have taken time for speedrunning to reach what it currently is now but man it sure is present! Thanks to advances in technology, tool-assisted runs can be used to figure out the fastest time possible and see if it's replicable by a human being. Glitches are more common than ever since the pass of time enables the further experimentation of a game, especially the old ones.

It's true what they say about speed, it takes time to achieve it. However, speed can't exist without time meaning time is what makes speed, speed. Therefore don't let speed take away your time, let time improve your speed.

Sources

Retro, director. YouTube. YouTube, YouTube, 16 Apr. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDvF23NloxY.