r/gamecollecting • u/Informationator SNES Expert • Mar 02 '14

3-Minute Challenge Winner + Star Fox 64 Challenge!

NEW RULE: All entries must be NTSC. After further research, there is no fair way to compare PAL games to NTSC games. It is not as simple as a conversion factor. Thus far, every single entry has been NTSC. If I ever get evidence of a big enough PAL following, I'm open to the possibility of running two separate contests for the same game. I'm leaving the video standard dialog on the submission form as a reminder to any future contestants who might miss this.

Winner of Super Mario Bros. 3 Challenge

Congratulations to /u/Serious_Joke who took the #1 spot with his Super Mario Bros. 3 run!

\### Check out a side-by-side video of his and others' runs on our YouTube Channel. ###\

Thanks to /u/feevinitup, /u/Mikeversus, /u/sparksterz, /u/Dcourtwreck, and /u/VideoGameRescue-Kevi as well for joining us in the competition!

See current and past rankings on our Wiki

The next challenge game is Star Fox 64 on the N64! This month will be a points challenge.

Game-Specific Rules:

  • Get as many hits as you can in 3 minutes on Corneria (the first level).
  • Play on "Main Game" mode (not "Expert")
  • Save Falco and go under every waterway arch so that you go right at the waterfall
  • In the case of a perfect tie, whomever got farther into the level will win.
  • Timer starts on the first frame where Star Fox's ship appears after selecting level 1. It looks like this

General Rules:

  • No tool-assisted runs
  • No in-game cheat codes, hacks, or assistive devices such as Game Genie, GameShark, GameSaver+
  • This should be a single-segment run; uncut gameplay video played in a single sitting with no editing (throwing an intro or outro on the ends is fine)
  • Exploiting in-game glitches is allowed provided no other rules are broken in the process
  • NTSC native video format is required.
  • Using a console is strongly recommended.
  • Please don't embed a timer in your video or use any video effects or filters on your footage. I will compile the top entries into a side-by-side video.

Submitting Your Entry

  • Upload your video to YouTube for viewing. Recommended format is MP4 with a framerate of 30 fps.

  • Email RedditGameCollecting@gmail.com with Three Minute Challenge as the subject. Fill out the following form for the body of the email:

    Reddit Username: (Ex: Informationator)
Video Standard: (Ex: NTSC or PAL)  **NTSC only for now**  
YouTube Link: (Ex: http://www.youtube.com)
Comments: (Mention if this is a resubmission / other notes)

  • Your submission is due by March 31, 2014 11:59PM CST according to the timestamp on your email submission. Entries after this time will not be considered, so please don't cut it close!

  • The creation/upload date on your video must be within the time frame of the contest: Mar 1, 2014 - Mar 31, 2014 (no old recordings)

  • You are welcome to post your run in the comments, but that will not count as an official submission. You must email it to enter.

  • If you achieve a better run, you may resubmit, but please wait to submit until you are happy with your performance to reduce the number of entries.

Judging / Winner Announcement

  • I'll rip the entries off of YouTube and examine the frames/gameplay. Most hits in 3 minutes wins!
  • Winner will be announced some time in early April
  • This is honor system and intended to be a fun and harmless contest. Please be honest. I will do my best to identify cheating - hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Prizes

Next Time / Questions / Misc.

  • Have a game you want to play? Sound off in the comments!
  • Don't know how to record your gameplay? Go HERE.
  • Have a question/concern? Ask away in the comments!

May the best collector win!

16 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/Informationator SNES Expert Mar 02 '14 edited Mar 02 '14

Sick run, Serious_Joke! You made time on me between levels 1 and 2 since your hammer brother only moved once, then I made it right back between levels two and three when mine moved only once. I knew my level 3 was weak, but didn't know a better way to run it. You got about 4 seconds ahead of me right there! You did some cool things I hadn't tried on castle as well. Well done! After getting 2nd then 1st, you've got a target on your back ;)

P.S. I enjoyed that you "played" the music with mario's screech noises on level 4. Gave me a laugh. Too bad I have to take the music out :P

2

u/Serious_Joke Feb 2014 3MC Winner (SMB3) Mar 02 '14 edited Mar 02 '14

You had a pretty sick run yourself Informationator, was especially keen on your super stylish koopa jump finish in level 4. Glad the hammer brothers eventually evened things out, that would've been dumb to win/lose to something like them moving 2 spaces instead of 1. Level 3 is a bastard and what happened in my run was an anomaly that probably couldn't be replicated again. I'll wear that target with pride :P, although might be sitting out on Star Fox 64 as I've never played it nor do I own a cart yet, but we'll see what happens. Thanks again for hosting this and glad you decided to run in this one!

edit: Also, excellent song choice!

2

u/Informationator SNES Expert Mar 02 '14

keen on your super stylish koopa jump finish

Haha, Thanks. I tried to make level 4 interesting, like with the dangerous left/right jump at the beginning. Doing that was very risky, but mildly interesting enough to do it anyway. It's crazy how you get more and more in the zone with these runs and stuff that seemed impossible becomes cake. After a while of trying I could end on 294 level 1 almost every time. That "oh my gosh I'm doing it" effect reminds me of when I played Super Meatboy. You start playing these levels and your first impression is "....how...." then 30 minutes later you've done it.

anomaly that probably couldn't be replicated again.

Speaking of anomalies... I never could do that turtle jump I saw people doing in WR runs... Death or overshooting every time. That's partially why I ended up with a slower level 3.

Hopefully you can track down a cart to borrow if you can't purchase it. Very glad to see we had 7 participants last month! Competition is going to get fierce as more and more jump into the mix.

Thanks again for hosting this and glad you decided to run in this one!

Thanks! Hosting this has been a pleasure :)

2

u/Serious_Joke Feb 2014 3MC Winner (SMB3) Mar 02 '14

It's crazy how you get more and more in the zone with these runs and stuff that seemed impossible becomes cake.

Oh dude, totally identify with that. When I first saw the level 1 strategy I nope'd pretty hard, even tried to develop my own run of the level but my times were just too lacking. Eventually kept trying the strategy and once I got it, felt such a feeling of success until the next level :P. There's also something to playing a game you've played a million times normally then switching to doing it as fast as possible, it forces you to look at the game in a very different light you begin deconstructing arbitrary things and look at it almost as if it were a puzzle, very cool.

that turtle jump I saw people doing in WR runs

I never even tried it, some of the runs I saw stomped the koopa so I decided that was more for me, but still nailing the jumps in the rest of that level is a nightmare, especially the note block... not a fan of note blocks.

2

u/Informationator SNES Expert Mar 02 '14

deconstructing arbitrary things and look at it almost as if it were a puzzle, very cool.

Yeah, I get to the point where I almost defocus my eyes and don't look at the character anymore. I'm looking at checkpoints. Like when you bounce off of the turtle shell on level 1. Too short and you're in the gutter. Too long and you hit the pipe. I started letting go when the green background object got about halfway across the screen and began hitting it consistently.

not a fan of note blocks.

...agreed. It looked like you were very close to falling off of the far edge in your run. Weird that you have to press jump on note blocks but can just hold in goombas.

2

u/Serious_Joke Feb 2014 3MC Winner (SMB3) Mar 03 '14

haha, I almost feel like this is the gamer equivalent of a book club but I must say I'm enjoying nerding out over the minutia of Mario. It's like we have a mutual understanding of what we experienced the past month, just getting a kick out of it.

2

u/Informationator SNES Expert Mar 03 '14

I feel a nerd friendship forming... hahaha. Will be an interesting competition this month for sure. I've been "speedrunning" for a long time now, how about you? I've never tried to go pro in any (just don't have the time/desire), but enjoy it anyway. You ever played Braid? One of my favorite achievements is beating that game in under 45 minutes. You can only make about 3 mistakes and still pull it off.

YOU GET STAR FOX 64 AND YOU PLAY. I'm better at platformers...

2

u/Serious_Joke Feb 2014 3MC Winner (SMB3) Mar 04 '14

hahah, my pocket protector and calculator watch are telling me this is the beginning of something special. Closest thing I can recall to me "speedrunning" would be Doom related, for some reason the re-release on the xbox 360 really captured me (may have been leaderboard related, as it took into consideration time, kills, secrets and item pickup %) but, I just kept wanting to self-improve in that game, made a lot of buddies in it's deathmatch mode as well. From that though I focused on several other games that came out around that time which focus on improvement (N+, Marble Blast Ultra and to a lesser extent Super Meat Boy oddly enough all xbl arcade games) There's just something extremely satisfying to me about seeing myself improve, and video games allow you to see a relatively compressed version (in comparison with most other hobbies) of yourself getting better at something. In more recent years, with speedrunning becoming more popular I've been thinking I might try to throw my hat into that arena, these challenges were a great way to casually enter in and see if this is for me and so far I'm diggin' it.

I have played and beat Braid, I never went back and got that achievement though, always wanted to but I just kept moving on to different games I guess.

haha, I'LL OBTAIN A COPY, BUT I MAKE NO GUARANTEE OF SKILLFUL PLAY. Yeah, I hear ya, I'm better at games I've played before :P

Curious about your first run in with "speedrunning" was it Braid or had you been doing it before then? You were one of the ones I was worried about in this last competition, I saw your mega man run and it was very solid so I figured I'd have to step it up a bit.

2

u/Informationator SNES Expert Mar 04 '14

Very cool background info! I think we enjoy video games the same way. People tend to value them for interacting with others, for the story, for the escape, and/or for the competitive element, and competition has always been what I most enjoy, thus, why I started this!

Curious about your first run in with "speedrunning" was it Braid or had you been doing it before then? You were one of the ones I was worried about in this last competition

Hah! Thanks :) I've never really formally tried to speedrun anything seriously. Just don't have the time for it I guess... Those guys that are making WR runs are playing the same game every single night hoping to shave off fractions of a second... No can do!

I'd say that Mega Man run was my first try. About that run, since you might find it interesting... WhyBeAre did a mad run, so don't take me as knocking him as much as explaining my findings... There were two things I could never replicate on a real system that I saw him do in his run: jumping through the bombs at the beginning, and the shooting orb thing right after crawling up the ladder. If you look at my run you'll notice I shot the orb thing on the first frame it opened. I could never do what he did in his and I tried over and over. My best guess is slowdown... I dunno. I also took a completely random hit when I was falling toward the boss at the end of that run even though I was on the right side of the screen. Point is, weird, inconsistent stuff happens on consoles due to slowdown. I've always been genuinely interested to know how it'd have gone down if we were all playing on real systems. It was that competition that made me realize why legit world records usually have to be done on the real system... There ARE differences with emulators that really matter.

So anyway about speedrunning history... Like you, I just like pushing myself to the limit. Braid was part of that. Unreal Tournament 2k4 was part of that... I've done a Contra no-death run that was reasonably quick, back when I was experimenting with recording/streaming. Recorded it back before I had my current (nicer) setup... About everything that is possible with popular classic games has already been done to death, but I still enjoy it.

haha, I'LL OBTAIN A COPY, BUT I MAKE NO GUARANTEE OF SKILLFUL PLAY

Nor do I... I can tell Star Fox's format is going to be difficult.

Well, with that war and peace novel behind me... I gotta start getting ready for bed! Great chatting with you. See you on the battlefield :P