# Is Atari Making a Comeback

# Short Answer: Yes! 

Atari has been a cornerstone of SRC for many years. The Atari speedrunning scene has been growing exponentially over the recent months after user @VyPr announced the community-based speedrunning tournament Project Retro Season #1 in the Farmington Discord server. Project Retro Season #1 was announced to be 4 weeks long consisting of multiple games being speedrun on the Atari 2600. Dozens of speedrunners flocked to Speedrun.com to solidify their places on the Project Retro Leaderboards. Runners like @Captninja6, @DoritoBreath, and @Zir0nic crushed the competition.

# Community

Atari speedrunning history on SRC begins in 2015 with the game, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.

# [E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial](https://www.speedrun.com/et)

![](/static/blob/7n6652nq.jpg)

After Atari made its SRC debut many other Atari games began to appear all over Speedrun.com, some games like [Dragster](https://www.speedrun.com/dragster) and [Adventure](https://www.speedrun.com/advt) blew up with hundreds of runs in those 2 games alone. Some Atari runs can be dated back to 2006 even predating Speedrun.com itself.

Example: Adventure Difficulty 1 in 33.60 by @SadisticMystic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE6MSXqouSk

More games continued to appear on SRC over the course of the following years and the community came to life.

In 2017 the SRC Atari community was left abandoned and deemed obsolete compared to the newer games like [Super Mario Odyssey](https://www.speedrun.com/smo) at the time.

# Project Retro 

Project Retro was announced in August of 2023 by user @VyPr. Project Retro consisted of 4 weeks of gameplay, containing the following titles.

## Project Retro Game List & Highlights

### Week 1

- [Dragster](https://www.speedrun.com/dragster)
- [Tron: Deadly Discs](https://www.speedrun.com/trondeadlydiscs)
- [Enduro](https://www.speedrun.com/enduro)
- [Halo 2600](https://www.speedrun.com/halo_2600)
- [Tennis (Atari 2600)](https://www.speedrun.com/tennis_atari2600)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t9M9OXaxew

### Week 2

- [Grand Prix](https://www.speedrun.com/grand_prix)
- [Juno First](https://www.speedrun.com/juno_first)
- [Sky Jinks](https://www.speedrun.com/sky_jinks)
- [Q*bert](https://www.speedrun.com/qbert_atari_2600)
- [Commando](https://www.speedrun.com/commando_)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_upNRtIvH8?t=3

### Week 3

- [Defender II](https://www.speedrun.com/Defender_II_Atari_2600)
- [Centipede](https://www.speedrun.com/ctp)
- [Donkey Kong](https://www.speedrun.com/donkey_kong_atari)
- [RealSports Boxing](https://www.speedrun.com/RealSports_Boxing)
- [Midnight Magic](https://www.speedrun.com/midnight_magic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG_rQL2W9Qs?t=1

### Week 4 (Final Week)

- [Mario Bros. Arcade](https://www.speedrun.com/mario_bros_arcade)
- [Joust (Atari)](https://www.speedrun.com/Joust_Atari_2600)
- [Pressure Cooker](https://www.speedrun.com/Pressure_Cooker)
- [Pole Position](https://www.speedrun.com/pole_position)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULnVLC7ywd8

# What's next?

After the end of Project Retro Season #1, the SRC Atari community has continued to regrow - a new chapter of Atari speedrunning has begun and the Atari community is asking for you to help us grow and thrive. Help us rewrite the history of Atari speedrunning and become a part of something bigger than we had ever thought possible.

Special Thanks To @VyPr,  @Captninja6, @DoritoBreath, @Act_, @Akuretaki and so many more for reviving this AWESOME community!

Congratulations to @Zir0nic the champion of Project Retro Season #1

[Atari Speedrunners Discord](https://discord.gg/3NJAx2yyjK)

[Official Project Retro Leaderboard](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AMp8UcrIEn84kSPVJsenT31HBaZUyZB05sgZovGZ-Dg/edit#gid=0)

After years of dormancy, the Atari community Is back and all is looking good!

Atari Community Celebrates Successful Event - Project Retro Season 1

In the world of speedrunning, it's common for dedicated runners to remain loyal to a single game or series, with the occasional dabble into fresh games as they are announced at game conferences. Some are dedicated to a genre, such as racing or first-person shooters, but rarely do we see runners that have the broad skill set to conquer a variety of genres, game engines, and platforms. There is a small subset of speedrunners whose goal is to obtain world records from the widest variety of games (world record grinders), and [Akuretaki](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Akuretaki) is one of them.

This community focuses on high profile games within different game groups and attempts to battle out full game and individual level records. These games range from old Atari hits, such as [Sky Jinks](https://www.speedrun.com/sky_jinks), to IL intensive web games, such as [Seterra](https://www.speedrun.com/seterra).

![](/static/blob/1n87dxeq.png)

*Seterra Individual Levels are largely dominated by World Record Grinders and Run Farmers*

# Notable World Records:

To commemorate the achievement, let's take a look at some of the most notable world records out of the 10K achieved:

### 1. [Nox - Wizard Any% in 34:32](https://www.speedrun.com/nox_pc/runs/mrl0vp8m)

Akuretaki's main speedgame, he continues to dominate the leaderboard with his large skill gap over the competition. He is currently working on a route for the hardcore difficulty.

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

*Wizard% is his most optimized category*

### 2. [Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear - Pandora Trigger (Recruit) in 0:14.567](https://www.speedrun.com/tom_clancys_rainbow_six_rogue_spear/runs/z0nd6nom)

Many fans of the Tom Clancy series will quickly recognize rogue spear for its gameplay being very similar to other first-person shooters released in 1998. Akuretaki beat this world record by a single frame.

![](/static/blob/rz2mp8n0.png)

### 3. [Phasmophobia - 200% (Launch Maps) in 1:53:45](https://www.speedrun.com/phasmophobia/runs/z1rrx1rm)

Akuretaki was the first person to pull off a full 200% run in the game, and the only person to complete the category successfully. Why? An extreme level of luck required to complete a run, and Akuretaki spent hours in this category for a completed run.

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

*Phasmophobia is a popular horror game released in 2020*

# Interview:

**1. What was your first speedrun, and what made you choose that game?**

> I used to record Mario Kart Double Dash attempts back in 2005; however, my first speedrun with the intent of submitting to a site was World of Tanks. I played this game since 2012 and had hundreds of hours in the game, so it seemed like an easy choice. I ran the Soviet Union Boot Camp category, where I was minutes behind first place. The heavy RNG component made me take a break from the game, and I never submit to the site for this category. My first submission to SRC was Phasmophobia.

**2. What made you decide to start your world record journey?**

> After running Phasmophobia for quite some time, I ran a game called [Carmageddon II](https://www.speedrun.com/carmageddon_two/levels). I didn't like the RNG part of the full game run, so I decided to run only Individual Levels (IL's) for the game, taking almost all of the world records. Once I completed this game, I started to search the **Newest Added** tab on the games page for the site, where I found a game with a lot of IL's. A moderator of one of the games, [Darrel69](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Darrel69), invited me to a Discord server with statistics about anything you could think about on the site. One of these stats was **Most World Records by a User**, and I wanted to be on the top of that list.

**3. What have you learned from your world record journey, and have you been exposed to other genres you otherwise would have not played?**

> The overall take-away from my journey is that there is no such thing as a best speedrunner in any sense. Each game has its top player that creates a gap between themselves and the rest of the play field. It's impossible for one runner to master every genre, platform, and game engine, so make the most of your skills and play the games that are most fun to you. 

> I would say having a variety of games really reduces burnout and I always feel motivated to grind a game. Changing games creates a fresh start, and there is no better way to reduce burnout than to start from the bottom of a leaderboard and work your way up the rankings. Also, after playing hundreds of games, it's much more relaxing to run glitchless than to constantly learn new out-of-bounds and weird mechanic glitches.

**4. What tips would you give to new runners wanting to go down your path?**

> The biggest barrier of entry for any game is the resources provided by the community. When you are searching for games to run, try and find a commentary run to follow along with, it makes the learning process much more seamless. **ALWAYS CHECK THE NEWEST ADDED GAMES!** There is no better way to find a hidden gem of the game than this page, so check it frequently to make sure you don't miss anything that may interest you.

> For following world records that you may want to take, follow games in a genre you like and make a list of what world records interest you. Follow users from genres you are interested in as well, as they usually spot high quality games quickly and go for early world records.

Thanks to Akuretaki for the interview, and congratulations on world record milestone! For those interested in keeping up-to-date with your own standings on many site leaderboards (World Records, Verifications, Total Runs, Etc.), make sure to join [Farmington](https://discord.gg/BYrpjwkteA) on Discord.

Akuretaki becomes the first runner to obtain 10k world records across 761 games, including 1,110 Full Game records and 9,279 IL records.

Akuretaki Becomes First Runner to Obtain 10,000 World Records

# What is it?

*Nintendo Blast: Metroid Blast* is a shooter based on Nintendo's popular *Metroid* series. In *Nintendo Land*, 12 Nintendo Games are showcased as "attractions"; mini-games based on their Nintendo series that range from 5 minutes of content to months of jam-packed action. Represented series include *Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, Metroid, Mario, Luigi's Haunted Mansion, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, Game & Watch, Balloon Fight, F-Zero, Yoshi, and The Mysterious Murasame Castle*. *Metroid Blast* is the representative of *Metroid*. This Sci-Fi adventure has 30 levels, progressively getting more difficult. Player 1 will always play as Samus' gunship on the gamepad, and up to 4 others will play as regular Samus using the remotes. The game is quite simple, with each player having 3 lives before the mission fails. 

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaK7q8xVLA4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaK7q8xVLA4)is

Metroid Blast has many different types of levels. The most common is "Defeat All Enemies" where the goal is to kill all Cyclons, Geemers, Zebesians, and Metroids (and their variants) in a given level. "Boss Fights" are battles fought against large bosses where the smaller enemies can be ignored. Bosses include Ridley, Ice Ridley, and Kraid. The final type of level are token levels. These levels require all players to get each of their tokens in a (usually 5 minute) time limit. These levels require less skill and more strategy and memorization to speedrun. From now on these levels will be known as "Kill", "Boss", and "Token". (The game also includes two other game modes - however they are Co-op only and are not runnable anyway.)

Speedrunners require different methods for each of the level variants. One thing that stays the same, however, is dashing. Pressing down the left joystick allows the runner to get a small boost. However, if used at the wrong time, it can cause the runner to hit a wall, considerably slowing down their time. For "Kill" runs, runners focus on hitting the "I-Frames" of every enemy as quickly and carefully as possible. Boss Runners must manage attacking, dodging, and dashing effectively to get a fast time *and* survive. Token runners must use memorization and dashing effectively to score a low time.

One of the most risk/reward traits of "Kill" runs is Cyclons. Cyclons take a long time to open there I-Frame. Before a Cyclon begins its attack phase, (where it's very easy to kill due to its spinning nature) the Cyclon does expose a small portion of their I-Frame. However, if the player's shot hits the side shells of the Cyclon, it will close again before attacking. Taking the shot can save or lose precious seconds.

![](https://www.speedrun.com/static/blob/kzwvk8nq.jpg)

"Token" runners are mainly focused on memorization, speed, and precision. Most "Token" runners memorize and plan their routes for each level. To have a good time on a token level, runners also need to use their boosts precisely at the correct places to ensure a top speed. "Token" Runners must communicate the most to share new routes and boost spots.

"Boss" Runners have the most difficult levels to run, balancing speed with survival. These runs are ones with many deaths and resets. The three bosses are Kraid, Ridley, and Ice Ridley. These beasts are usually quite easy to take down, but when working together can be quite difficult. Kraid requires the use of the bomb; a more powerful attack that can take out multiple enemies. To defeat Kraid, runners must destroy I-Frames all over his body before he opens his mouth. A small crevice in his mouth allows the player to shoot bombs inside, which explodes after entering his throat. Meanwhile Kraid shoots lava, bombs, and fire beams at you. Ridley and Ice Ridley are quite similar to each other. For both flying dragons, you must hit I-Frames on their Hands, Tails, Chest's, and Mouth's thrice. They will shoot lasers, try to grab you with their hands, and will drop bombs.![](/static/blob/7n617mzq.jpg)

Mastery runs are a different kind of run. Mastery runs often have weird differences with obscure solutions. Some levels require the player to only use bombs or to not dash. This will often drastically slow down runs and require players to invent new, out-of-the-box strategies.

Thank you so much for reading! If this does become a series I will continue to find new, medium-sized, forgotten communities to revive with new energy! I will link the main category, 10 Missions, best time below. 

Happy Running!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp35YCLPpFg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp35YCLPpFg)

A new idea where we dissect a medium sized speedrunning community from the bottom up, increasing excitement and injecting a new passion for a game otherwise unexplored.

Wolfhowl's Game of the Week: Metroid Blast

Ghostrunner speedrunners came together to form the community now known as GRSR (simply just Ghostrunner Speedrunning). Since 2020 GRSR has submitted a whopping 4500+ runs between the demo and the full game. Even today, Ghostrunner has around 45 active runners - a respectable number for a game coming up on 4 years old.

![](/static/blob/5ngx24eq.jpg)

So when One More Level released a demo on September 14th for the upcoming sequel Ghostrunner 2 (GR2), dozens of hungry runners hopped in to start running and hunting for strats and new tech (including myself.)

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3uYctGx6rigQQzmn1NEgfXHssGTzWcKuUzIgYU2CsAJvjEuq6ptFvgaxmzKF-Q3yiTEjQs8idkj-LBsCZW3QMb095TDWPqFD51BKKuOid9g_XqGnFX9V8Kled7cjdmh_MQBS-sNPAyCEZMB7BSkni58)

GR1 had a decent range of movement tech to choose from, including Slidehops, Dash Slide Jumps (DSJ’s), Ledgeboosts, Super DSJ’s, Wavedashes, Updog (yes, it's actually called that), and more. Thankfully, GR2 managed to keep all of the mentioned techniques intact, if with some small changes in timing in particular with the DSJ. Since the movement felt quite similar, demo speedrun times were able to drop *fast*.

# Day 1

After the demo was released around 6pm EDT, most people did a casual playthrough and then immediately hopped into testing all known techniques from GR1, and searching for optimal routes and new strats. The first attempted speedrun was completed and posted by [Ekorn](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Ekorn), around 7 pm - coming in with a time of 8:05.370. This was already a decent bit shorter than the average 20-minute completion time for the demo, but with lots of room for optimization - especially with strats left to be discovered.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/nGBrJ9P8iGUuNLAR56fP5UoyKU3jO5adlQ0HvQgb6l9FHbmKEAVjHpooUj38rOL1mCvA_RR0vOVJ2tgjaS6ns-i9EIT9jpO2Yxkjy37pPNV9_hl1jAYBk9A3H2zVUW-SWP9vSK6bZYKS6zDDDvDtJZ8)

Around the same time as Ekorn posted his run, runner [EzBaek](https://www.speedrun.com/users/EzBaek) found new tech specific to GR2 which has since been dubbed Wall Launching/Wallboosting/WEC (pronounced “weak”, standing for Wall E. Coyote) At the end of a wallrun, the game will force you off. After the game forces you off, you have a little less than half a second to stack jump inputs which will send you away from the wall at an angle with increased speed based on the number of jump inputs you were able to get off. So far, wallboosting has no *concrete* uses in the route, but it does provide an opportunity for some alternate strategies in certain places.

Sometime within the next hour, three new skips would be discovered.It was discovered by multiple people that you could skip the introduction to the Slammer enemy type by simply [going around the arena](https://youtu.be/57FKD2W7Vew?si=k1aZG9HHQO2-Q3U7&t=28) with a couple simple DSJ’s. Conveniently, this same skip also skips a decent amount of platforming - overall saving about 10-15s.

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/UInadOv2qpFhaqKBox-FAHDtSzTN8onGozfQcCnKynlLJPhh345GEV0VpkcoHrJuuKXpru9-fRV-lFgIgK5xAfleHEci-fybp3Ommc5H3ZUwDDvDY0hAQFK16jJDIB2DLU4e4MUSakXz6BmJg_hKyx4)

Ekorn also found two new [puzzle skips](https://youtu.be/C-zQWSnbcUs?si=njUgQKiMHTYsufPV&t=155), which added up to an additional ~20s timesave

By 10 pm, top GR1 runner (and well-versed movement speedrunner) [Blaidan](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Blaidan) had lowered the record down to 5:50.110, and then even further down to [5:27.930](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/y9k767kz) by 10:30 pm. This would stand as the final WR at the end of Day 1.

![](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/1JWrIY69nY1cPXkuFqQEbq86WcPLXebsvti8Ac8dzhrT69n-k0EbiMlwkPuuovAWxtw4b6V1H9Bc9TBk7jw4l9COEV_XFI6wrxb47smbeSXlZEouO68c6ACtTyD1IsIoKYdrX8iz7klZzI623Phtj1A)

# Day 2

While Day 1 had technically ended, there was absolutely no slowdown of activity in the GRSR Discord server. There was still constant iteration on optimal routes through every area, as well as working on faster and more efficient combat routes for the arenas.

Around 1 am EDT, runner [BladeLMAO](https://www.speedrun.com/users/BladeLMAO) managed to squeak in the first sub 5 minute run with a [4:58.970](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/y9k769ez). Runners [Taartin](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Taartin) and [Pasiflora](https://www.speedrun.com/users/pasiflora) would both follow up with their own sub 5 minute runs just a few hours later.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/oBdTMzifb1thF57m0y8cuwHeGlDVPTEUEyxwPn0VctGLihXEGg1Sp7d4UITMNXyn1QPkA57HrKc_Zjc2HzjxnIpaCyZc23TY-ZROOmx5jyZZ9kuXPcxxZ8I0wF-NCKdDLnr-e2iZrLuiyq8uvWRAps8)

Around lunchtime, runner [Leoninrus](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Leoninrus_Emligan) discovered [the first shortcut](https://clips.twitch.tv/BitterTentativeEagleSSSsss-wWbcf6xoElzOn1ng) in the motorbike section (IWBBT) of the demo. There are a few possible shortcuts in IWBBT, but even [the current WR](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/mr28402y) at the time of writing only uses one, presumably due to difficulty/inconsistency.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/W_JtwvmUQ2BQIVUse5NqCpVWuD_Vyso4jG8Ss3CY3QB0ZOqz7TyCsjBLLovIR6IHMHev95g6vEzBGSDyo9vcha87hFGRTD_NJjgTbSJPMQpLBPfIBxLNT3tZgE9Vsf9JiwANezsR8E9TVrj6oGX3ML8)

By the time dinnertime hit the East Coast, runner [JanisSG](https://www.speedrun.com/users/JanisSG) had discovered that spacing out boosts increases your average speed by around 20 kph, shaving off some additional seconds in IWBBT.At this point, the run was getting quite optimized for the known route - so much so that by the end of September 15th (Day 2) the WR still stood at [4:57.590](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/zqd6e28m) by [Taartin](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/zqd6e28m)

# Catching Up To Today

Between Days 3 - 6, just about **20 seconds** was taken off the world record. This is in part due to multiple factors, including [faster arena strats,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWMlFyHT1PA) the discovery that the motorbike goes faster at 60FPS compared to higher framerates, as well as general movement optimizations. At the moment, the world record sits at a shocking [4:37.440](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo/runs/mr28402y) by runner [E1uM4y](https://www.speedrun.com/users/E1uM4y).

Theoretically, a very low 4:3X should be possible within the next few days - or perhaps even a sub 4:30 with a new strat or two. Here are the current known fastest times for each level

**Licking The Wounds** [2:02.XXX](https://youtu.be/hnJhX2ELzcc?si=uULTpEsG6AV-iQSf) by [Blaidan](https://www.speedrun.com/users/Blaidan)

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lx48htdfXTLqnxY60UMgmRw4MTef5a9sjZYIlPnL1ctUilCVSOmHo-k0v367SU7yBkrAvQtsUEVKuLr7lZKppmycGL5qNnaQMX1HwKdnyWJwoWiGG_H9t5QYFGmy3-pM72z2mVLVMLmfs-8MLwc_LzA)

**I Won’t Be Back Today** [2:29.670](https://youtu.be/LGQt1lfGsoc?si=zgg24ohXWufBFvkJ) by [probablyToph](https://www.speedrun.com/users/probablyToph)

![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TmNM6XTA9zZIwwovpfQ2Ioc7n5pOYCMZ78vl9ux0p4t6sxWQUe_S_UQWC2GX15Lw8GvcdZL0Ue_mSNasGFj6o89zd245vAvT9zQYXHRm4sCTWktDDWIQyEUW3I4sSDi4jNQ432OOeiVsS3A1zIuqGv4)

# Conclusion

GRSR is by far one of the most passionate speedrunning communities out there, and I certainly am not biased as a member of it ;) I would like to thank Ekorn, Blaidan, Taartin, EzBaek, probablyToph, and the rest of the GRSR community for helping me out with this article - you guys are the best!

![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/JWjboeHllo8y_bdVaCJY0ejgDPQWsUPsuR0FRvd2UjtcO1exORjZvFdTG7USNKP2EMY8ToGL-Sf5Zzt4uzQhD6islSdUXLuqzUXDuWHkFDtt6Sdc15bTZC4YFDD_d71v2PR-LO9MS9FjoCz0vfHvlxo)

With the amount of activity, we’ve seen in just the first week of the GR2 demo, between just *two levels* - I can’t understate my excitement for the full release of Ghostrunner 2. The dopamine I get from the early routing days of a fresh speedgame is nearly unmatched.

![](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/4_yFcmdWpezxnKK_eILApAQbEOHphIDLRKZBpwa4G7zVnRqHCMzlJ6f7jNYZ1J0gVZ0yHK20WxK8flRPICfN-ices7NkQ0YPW-EHJaxAroXNQXmbuftZTX_c0EcPa0n-CypIAJyPN5jSHyNkv9tN6YE)

If you’re interested in trying out the speedrun for the Ghostrunner 2 demo, you can learn the majority of what you need from the world record video - but I also recommend you check out [Blaidan’s Ghostrunner Basic Movement Tutorial](https://youtu.be/1vfsX8hg4ig?si=7L-GUtK2rINkvp99). This tutorial was made for GR1, but all of the advice applies to GR2 as well :) Just keep in mind that some of the timings may be slightly different, and for that, you can reference the [GR2 demo world record run](https://www.speedrun.com/Ghostrunner_2_Demo?h=leaderboards-will-open-soon-restricted&x=z27eemgk-dlo9jvrl.le233z6l).

The first Ghostrunner game (GR1) was a big hit with the speedrunning community when it launched in 2020, especially with movement enthusiasts.

Ghostrunner Community Tackles New Demo

Thanks to a fellow runner @LeonSReckon we now have an autosplitter for PC version of Gears of War. This autosplitter will cut out load times and help keep an even playing field for all PC runners, regardless of hardware. We hope more players will get on the game and try it out!

![](/static/blob/rz2mwln0.png)

Everything you need to pick up the run is in resource and guides section on the leaderboard. We are always looking for more runners to join the community - it's quite small for the franchise.

Runner @LeonSReckon has made an autosplitter for the game. Helping players to cut out the cutscene loads and parts for a more accurate time.

Autosplitter for Gears of War

Today MoistCritikal announced his fourth $10,000 speedrunning challenge, this time featuring [Escape From Lavender Island (2023)](/efli). Fitting with the theme of featuring obscure games with a limited speedrunning history, the game previously had [only one run](/efli/runs/y9ko81kz) on Speedrun.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc04EBhH7D4

In the [announcement video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc04EBhH7D4), MoistCritikal also discusses the challenge of keeping up with the previously planned schedule of one game per month. In addition to the new game and challenge, he also announced a format change: the glitch bounty is gone and has been replaced by an end-of-challenge race!

There's also an important change to the prize structure, increasing the number of runs that will be eligible for prize money (and adjusting the amount of money that each place wins). If you're interested in participating, be sure to watch the linked tutorial video.

Additional resources:

- [Announcement video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc04EBhH7D4)
- [Tutorial video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbY2SGUvfqU)
- [Escape From Lavender Island game page on Speedrun.com](/efli)
- [Escape From Lavender Island game page on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2164310/Escape_From_Lavender_Island/)
- [MoistCritikal Speedrunning Challenge Discord](https://discord.gg/35SjawXXEZ)
- [Escape from Lavender Island Speedrunning Discord](https://discord.gg/tcFVUB8ZYg)

Good luck everyone!

The latest $10,000 speedrun challenge game is a 3rd person exploration game released this year. There are also changes to the format, replacing the glitch bounty with a race and expanding the number of prize-winning runs.

MoistCr1tikal announces new $10K challenge

Today we're excited to launch **Community News**, an update to the Speedrun.com news system that allows everyone to contribute important announcements and news stories, and to help speedrunners and spectators learn about new games, marathons, or other important community events.

Here's how it works:

- Anyone can now submit news stories to Speedrun.com (including you!)
- After you submit a story, the site moderation team will either approve or reject your story. We'll also do some light copy-editing to make sure it's clear, concise, and free of major spelling or grammar mistakes.
- If approved, your story will appear on the homepage, news page, and other areas of the site. You'll be credited by name, with a link to your Speedrun.com account.

Here are some examples of what makes for a good story:

- New world record was set in a popular game.
- Popular streamer is hosting a charity event.
- Speedrunning an obscure game takes off in popularity.
- Marathon event is announced or shares new details.
- Famous personality mentions or promotes speedrunning.
- Announcement of charity event or fundraiser.
- Leaderboards open for a major new release.
- Notable bug, glitch, or skip discovered in major game.

Of course, we'll consider any compelling news story, even if it doesn't fit neatly into the list above.

All news stories also have a comments section to provide a place for discussion. We're excited to read and share your stories!

You can [submit community news here](/news/new).

Now everyone can submit news stories to Speedrun.com!

Introducing community news!

Hey everybody! First of all we would like to thank every one of you who took the time to report bugs and give us feedback on the new site rewrite, we really appreciate it! Let's take a look into some of the changes our developers have implemented over the last week, shall we?

## Bug Fixes

**General**

- General: OG/SEO image URL fixed
- Reduced cache TTL on comments
- Fixed various missing translations
- Fixed OG/Twitter metadata to be a full URL instead of a relative path
- Fixed user account deletion not working correctly
- Validate username regex for all services during edit and display
- Fixed overflow issue in run views on the Home page, User page, and the "Recent Runs" widget.
- Fixed content type of uploaded images

**Games**

- Fixed milliseconds not always showing properly
- Archiving a subcategory value now properly removes it from game leaderboards.
- Fixed a bug that caused runs to not be properly obsoleted if they were associated with an archived value.
- Properly orphan runs that are associated with an archived level, category, or subcategory value.
- Fix timer bug with WR chart on stats page
- Games: leaderboards now show the correct timers
- Games: leaderboards now properly updated when submitting a run with autoverify

**Runs**

- Fixed broken Bilibili video embeds
- Fixed rounding of milliseconds in run submission form

**Profiles**

- Fixed username component sometimes showing extra suffix

**Forums**

- Hide unread indicator for forums with no threads
- Fix pagination links in thread list
- Properly detect mentions to all valid usernames

**Permissions**

- Verifiers can now edit runs
- Series Super Mods can now create new games in the series
- Various other permissions related issues

**Notifications**

- Notifications: fix redirect paths of some notifications
- Notifications: fix duplicate notifications bug

## Improvements

**General**

- Various Performance Improvements
- Various backend improvements
- Added pagination to comments
- Improve detection of many service usernames
- Highlight archived values in run views on the Run page, and on the Mod Hub.
- Properly redirect old paths to reasonable places
- Improve latest runs view on Home page
- Added tooltips for everything without a label
- Loading bar improvements

**Games**

- Increase max length of text in guides and news posts
- Edit comment and Delete comment are now separate permissions
- Added Recent Runs widget
- Allow changing permissions for guides and resources (now defaults to "allow all")
- Allow pan and zoom on WR chart on stats page
- Don't show level stats if there are no level runs
- Improved variable settings related to category and level scope
- Made misc button on leaderboards stand out a bit more
- Added new "Game Stats" widget in sidebar

**Forums**

- Added "new forum thread" page (formerly a bad modal)
- Renamed sticky to "pin" to go with the new icon
- Added permalink icon to thread comments
- Layout improvements

**Profiles**

- Added About tab
- Added multiplayer details to runs view
- Improved runs view
- Improved threads and comments tabs
- Improved display of grouped usernames

**Notifications**

- Added notifications for comment and forum mentions
- Improve performance of notifications

That’s it for now! This is a list of fixes and improvements that have already been updated on the new site. Thank you for your patience as we continue to work through a list of known issues. Even now we are still working our way through feedback/bug reports from various platforms. Additional updates are coming soon!

We are committed to improving the user experience on Speedrun through bug fixes, improvements to current features as well as developing new features. If you’d like to help with this process, please submit your bug reports and feedback to the [Support Hub](https://www.speedrun.com/support) to ensure it gets seen!

Bug fixes and improvements from July 16-26, 2023

New Speedrun Bug Fixes & Improvements

Today is a major milestone for us, both in our efforts to deliver on long-held promises to the community, and to enable major new updates due later this year and beyond.

In this post we're going to cover what's new with today's launch, the recent history of the site, detail some work left to do, and preview what's coming later this year.

# Major changes

We had two main objectives with the new site:

1. Better serve the communities and users on Speedrun
2. Make it easier and faster for us to continue delivering on goal 1.

In order to meet these objectives, we rebuilt the whole site, back-end and front. Our release date was "when it's ready", which... just so happens to be today!

There's too much change to go into everything, but here are some of the highlights:

- **Fresh look and feel.** You may have noticed, but things look a bit different. We tried to keep the original spirit of Speedrun, but update it to look and feel like a website should in 2023. It's faster, prettier, and more reliable. Give it a try, we think you'll like it.
- **Game pages and leaderboards.** [Leaderboards](/only_up) are now wider, faster, and have a variety of new features. You can easily see the world record history, filter by more details (including verification status), and more! Check out a game page to see it in action.
- **Individual level support.** Level navigation is now built into the main leaderboard, and game pages now have a new separate [Levels tab](/pizza_tower/levels) where you can see an interactive summary of level record holders. This view can be filtered in the same way as the main leaderboard, including by subcategory!
- **Game management.** Game management has been completely overhauled. Speedrun is a complicated platform with a lot of configuration options for game moderators. We rebuilt it all with the primary goal of making sure that moderators felt confident when making changes. The site now explains every single option, warns about dangerous changes, and exposes new options to customize your communities.
- **Moderation tools.** We released the Moderator Hub feature almost 2 years ago to mixed reactions. We've been listening and taking notes, and are happy to say that we've rebuilt it from the ground up to address major points of feedback. The pending run list is now more dense, it's easy to search, you can assign runs to moderators, and the run review interface has been much improved.
- **Search.** Search is now faster, more accurate, and finds more content across the site. There's a new dedicated search results page where you can filter results. You can also easily bring up the search box with your keyboard, just press **/**. 
- **Game Discovery.** We've improved the [Games page](/games) to show popular new games and help you discover new games on different platforms and decades. We also standardized game cover image sizes (you may need to update them for the games you moderate.)
- **User pages.** [User pages](/users/Meta) got a fresh look and new features, including the ability to embed your Twitch stream when live, and improved access to various types of content like threads, comments, followers, and pending actions.
- **User following.** You can now follow users (in addition to games), and their runs will show up in your feed on the home page. User pages have Followers and Following tabs to help you discover new friends. We hope this will help you keep tabs on old friends and discover new game communities.
- **Group messaging.** We've overhauled [direct messaging](/messages) so you can make plans with the whole squad.
- **Guides and Resources.** We've given guides and resources a minor facelift, with more improvements planned in the future. You'll be happy to know that you can now drag and drop images and videos to upload them directly into guides, resources, news posts, etc.
- **New text editor.** The old Speedrun supported a weird markdown-ish text format, but didn't have an easy way to use it. We now have a new text editor with multiple modes (rich text, markdown, preview), which should make it a bit more pleasant to contribute guides, resources, news posts, or just express yourself when submitting a run or comment.
- **Internationalization.** Accessibility is important, and there's nothing more inaccessible than a webpage that you can't read. Speedrun is now fully translated into 17 different languages. The current translations are machine-generated, and their quality can best be described as "usable". Despite this, we see this as an important step forward for speedrunners who don't speak English, and we plan to make improvements.
- **Single sign-on and verified social connections.** You can now sign in with Discord, Google, or Twitch. Additionally you can [verify your Discord and Twitch](/settings/socials) accounts, giving your visitors confidence that they're talking to the real you.
- **... and lots more!**

It really should simply be *"more, better, faster"*.

We tried to make sure that all major existing functionality of the old site has been preserved or accounted for, but please let us know if we missed anything. The best place to do so is either in [The Site](/forums/the_site) forums, or by creating a [Bug Report](/support/tickets).

# History and lessons learned

Elo (the company that owns and operates Speedrun) acquired and began operating the site in 2020. Back then the site was struggling just to stay online. You may or not remember the famous **"Under Pressure"** error message that used to appear on nearly 40% of page loads.

After we took over, the first task was stabilizing the site and solving some of the most obvious problems. Then we went and started adding features - some went over well, others most certainly did not (sorry). Through it all we experienced a lot of growth (site traffic more than doubled in a year), and learned some important lessons.

The biggest thing we learned? We needed to slow down, communicate thoughtfully, and deliver on the promise and potential of the site.

# Making big improvements

In mid-2022 we recognized that it was simply too hard to make progress on the features that users cared the most about, and we struggled to resolve complex bugs. Under the covers, Speedrun is actually an incredibly complex platform (you wouldn't believe the nuance involved in determining the place of a run!), but the software wasn't scaling in the way it needed to. The old site (PHP) was really showing its, and making improvements was both difficult and dangerous - not a good combination.

***... we had to rebuild it ...***

Rebuilding a complex piece of software is a last resort. It's especially difficult and complex when you need to do it at the same time as you keep the existing site up and running. Still, we think it was a necessary step to making the major improvements the site needed. It took a while, but we're happy with the result! Even more importantly, we now have the ability to iterate on the site (introduce features, fix bugs) much faster and more thoughtfully than before.

For the curious: the old site was written in PHP, and the new site is Go (backend) and TypeScript (frontend) - just over 300,000 lines of code. We store data in MySQL and Redis.

# We're not done yet

As with any big migration, there are bound to be limitations and loose threads. The biggest limitation with the new release is that we were not able to make any changes to the mappings between categories, levels, and variables. The reason is simple: so long as the old site was involved, it'd be nearly impossible to correctly introduce new mapping logic. We did manage to make some improvements in this area, but it's far from our true goal of arbitrary custom mapping. So, this remains on our todo list - we hope to accomplish it later this year.

Another area for improvement is internationalization. As described above, it works, but the translations are not very good. We plan to improve them in the coming weeks and months.

# Looking toward the future

We're incredibly excited to launch the new Speedrun, and are already hard at work on making more improvements. Once the dust settles, we're confident you'll enjoy using the site.

Additionally, we have a few areas of focus that we'll be working on this year:

- **Make it easier to improve your PB.** We plan to introduce new features that will help you understand your runs, learn from other runners in the community, and improve your times. It's going to get *fast* in here!
- **Discover new communities and friends.** The Speedrun community is social by nature, but it can be hard to find new activities. We plan to make it easier to stay connected with existing friends, meet new ones, and improve all of our game communities.
- **Encourage the spirit of competition.** Speedrunning is competitive by nature, but it's far from organized. We think we can help bring some excitement and order to the chaos. Buckle up!

Big updates aside, you can expect a fairly steady stream of minor improvements over the coming months.

# Closing thoughts

We hope that you're pleased with today's update. It's been a long time coming!

I'd like to offer a special **THANK YOU** to our [Speedrun Supporter](/supporter) subscribers. For those who aren't aware, Supporter helps you contribute directly to the development and growth of Speedrun. It offers a variety of features to improve your experience on the site, including making the site faster and more enjoyable to use by removing all advertisements.

For those who aren't subscribed to Supporter but like what you see here, please consider it! Your support means a lot to us, and it really does provide us with the resources needed to continue making major improvements.

Now, where was I in [Tears of the Kingdom](/totk)...

We're excited to launch the new Speedrun website! Read on to learn more about what's new, how we got here, and what's coming next.

Welcome to the new Speedrun

But, there's more. SRE has recently communicated that, grateful for the enormous reception, it will deliver a pin to each participant who uploads a valid run.

This unique challenge combines the world of gaming with the culinary arts, as participants race to cook an original recipe as quickly as possible within the latest Zelda release. It's an epic adventure where speed, skill, and the tantalizing aroma of fried chicken unite for a chance to win the prestigious gold trophy.

Don't miss this incredible opportunity to showcase your speedrunning prowess and savor the taste of victory with 11 herbs and spices!

Starting date: Friday, June 23th 2023.

End date: Sunday, July 2nd 2023.

Duration: 10 days.

Get ready to put your virtual chicken frying skills to the ultimate test in this upcoming meme run.Prepare for glory and the chance to win a beautifully crafted trophy made of *actual gold*,valued at over $10,000. Whether you're a seasoned (pun intended) speedrunner or a daring newcomer, this challenge beckons all who dare to take part.

Check out some of the current fastest runs on the [leaderboard](https://run.sre.todoestodo.net/en/leaderboard.php?j=1)

Here's what you need to know:

## 1. ELIGIBILITY

Any player anywhere in the world.

## 2. CATEGORY

The Recipe Run. Make your original recipe as fast as possible in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!

## 3. SUBMISSION

Through [the leaderboard](https://run.sre.todoestodo.net/en/leaderboard.php?j=1)

## 4. RULES AND REGULATIONS

Every speedrun must respect the official rules and regulations of The Recipe Run. You can learn more from [the rules page here](https://run.sre.todoestodo.net/en/reglas.php)

## 5. REWARD

A trophy depicting the fried chicken item of “The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom” made of *actual gold* and worth over 10k, rock included. It will be sent directly to the winner of the run.

Here’s the official write up directly from the organizers of The Recipe Run!

Speedrunespanol hosts the Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom speedrun with a chicken shaped trophy worth over $10.000, courtesy of KFC.

Attention Speedrunners! SRE just launched a meme run in Zelda TOTK where the winner will get a gold trophy worth over $10.000.

The run consists of gathering the ingredients to cook their original recipe fried chicken: 1 raw bird drumstick, oil and 11 different herbs/spices.

You just need to:

● Show your inventory and talk to the Goronel AKA NPC Irton, timer starts once the

conversation ends.

● Go get all the ingredients without any specific order.

● Cook the chicken with the oil and show that you have the 11 different herbs/spices in your inventory. Timer stops when the pop-up with the fried chicken appears.

● Find the rules and more info about the speedrun here: www.thereciperun.com

The fried chicken brand just launched a speedrun challenge consisting of cooking their iconic original recipe as fast as possible in the latest Zelda release for a chance to get a gold trophy valued higher than $10.000.

Good luck, speedrunners! ️

SpeedrunsEspanol have announced a new 10k challenge "The Recipe Run" inside of Tears of the Kingdom - featuring the grand prize, a chicken-shaped trophy valued at over *$10,000!* 

SpeedrunsEspanol Announce Tears Of The Kingdom $10,000 Speedrun Challenge - The Recipe Run

Gears of War

Nintendo Land: Metroid Blast

Escape From Lavender Island

Slevanas

xwpw4y0l

Camcorder

VyPr

Ultra64

SpeedrunCom

Wolfhowl20

The leaderboards will open 2 weeks from launch to allow discussion about the categories we want to start out with.

Hades 2

Indigo Park: Chapter 1

Rooftops & Alleys

An embargo is in place. Please come back when the embargo is open!

**Why?**: The embargo is in place to allow moderators and community members to properly set up the leaderboards. Don't want to rush it and make mistakes!

Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers

UEFN: Paranoid

Join the discord to to learn about the categories if you'd like to start doing runs ahead of the board opening.