I have not followed the speedrun community for quite some years and thought it might be a good idea to get up-to-date again. Because if speedruns teach you something, it’s that no world record is really save forever. It’s still amazing what people discover in breaking games.
I came across the youtube videos from Summoning Salt, himself a speedrunner for Nintendo’s Punch Out. He made a series called World Record Progression which I can just describe as beautiful.
In each video, he meticulously researches how a specific game was beaten in mostly ridiculous times. His pacing, voice and choice of music are just perfect. You can feel how he’s somebody really in love with what this community has achieved and wants it to be preserved for the future. It’s also a great way to understand how the scene works or how different tricks are done. Even if you just want to know what speedruns actually are, his videos might be a great introduction but someone who’s heart beats for it – even though sometimes a rather technical one.
And of course, for all game developers, it’s the best way to watch in awe, how people break your games.
The playlist can be found here (Note that there are updates when new world records are broken further down the line). Or check it out here (I’ll start at Episode 8, because that’s where I got the feeling that Summoning Salt started to produce really professional videos):