I think each person has their own tolerance level for how much "glitching" they can handle in a run before it becomes too much. Despite the fact that your natural (casual-based) instincts say that glitches are "cheating", they are very much a part of what makes speedrunning so awesome. As long as I am improving and coming up with new ideas/techniques, then speedrunning remains an engaging activity. Being able to compare your time against other's is nice, but for me personally, beating my own time is what's most important. Of course, that doesn't guarantee that anyone else will actually be interested in your new category and start running it, but you're perfectly free to do it anyway. Each category for a game has its own rules, so even if the most popular categories for a game don't agree with your sensibilities regarding glitches, you're always free to start running a different category that does. In fact, even the idea of glitches being "allowed/not allowed" is flexible. Although, whether or not the Pokedoll trick is actually a "glitch" is somewhat debatable.) Another interesting thing to note is that even the so-called "glitchless" category allows certain things such as using Escape Ropes inside buildings, as well as using the Pokedoll "glitch" in order to skip the Rocket Hideout in the Game Corner. (Pokemon does have glitched runs as well, but the "glitchless" runs are much more popular, so most people will typically go for that category. Some communities (such that of Pokemon Red/Blue) prefer to do "glitchless" runs, whereas in other communities, pretty much anything goes. Because of this, determining whether certain game behavior constitutes a "glitch" or not is completely subjective.Īs a result, it is up to the community for each individual game to decide which game behaviors constitute "glitches", and whether or not they are allowed. But ultimately, we have no way of knowing for sure without talking to the original programmer(s). Personally, I believe the game was intentionally programmed this way to make the code simpler (due to hardware limitations at the time). Also, if Mario is in the air and moving downward when he touches an enemy, then the enemy is the one who will take damage, even if the enemy is above Mario (despite the idea that Mario is "stomping" on the enemies). for the NES, Mario can actually touch the piranha plants (among other enemies) without getting hurt, depending on where he touches them. This may seem very strange or theoretical if you've never thought about it before, but there are countless examples of game "features" that may or may not have been intended (and we have no way of knowing unless the original programmer tells us). it only does ¤exactly¤ what the game code says, not whatever the programmer was hoping the game code said.) The word "glitch" does not have any meaning unless the programmer provides you with documentation describing exactly what the game is supposed to do, in which case a "glitch" refers to any behavior that does not agree with the documentation. " But how are we supposed to know what the programmer's original intent was? (The game certainly doesn't know. You say that "Glitches are errors, who make the game. □Īnother thing to consider is that a game is just a bunch of computer code. Then people will have to practice specific techniques to pull it off, and if they're successful, they're rewarded with a run that is 5 minutes faster. And that's what makes speedrunning interesting and competitive! Say you have a glitch that you can only pull off 1% of the time, but it allows you to save 5 minutes. However, a large portion of the glitches that speedrunners use are actually difficult to perform in the first place, which typically makes it ¤more¤ difficult to pull off the "perfect" run. From a casual perspective, performing a glitch that allows you to skip part of the game makes it easier, because then you don't have to play that part of the game. If you're not very familiar with speedrunning, this may seem extremely counter-intuitive. One thing you may not have realized is the fact that most glitches actually make the speedrun ¤harder¤, not easier. (I've since come back to Keen 1 and improved my time.) I managed to beat the game in 5 minutes flat after about a week of practice, but my time could have been better if I had simply been willing to learn a challenging trick. I found a speed run of Commander Keen 1 on YouTube that used a ceiling clip in one of the levels, but I decided not to use it in my own runs (which were relatively casual at the time, and not even streamed). Smakkohooves The first time I saw a speedrun, my thinking wasn't too different from yours.
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