Let’s begin with the definition of a speedrun first.

A speedrun is a play-through, or recording thereof, of a video game performed with the intent of completing it as quickly as possible, optionally under certain prerequisites, mainly for the purposes of entertainment and competition.

Wikipedia

Throughout my 25+ years of gaming I have tried a number of speedruns, but have succeeded in exactly zero of them. To accomplish a speedrun not only do you need patience and a thorough understanding of the game’s mechanics, but you also need a bit of memorization and actually be GOOD at video games. Now we are all good at games, but this kind of good is taking things to a whole new level as you will soon see.

The NES era of games is a great test area for speedruns because many of the games were short platformers. Okay they weren’t short when I played them, but these players make quick work of each game. While you may be taking a ten minute break to plant your crops in Farmville, some person is zipping through Batman with ease.

Many of these runs are done with emulators so that they could be recorded. In no way should this take away the achievements that each of these players have accomplished.

1. Contra

There are a number of reasons why I wouldn’t be able to pull this one off and of course the first revolves around not being able to use the Konami code. The second means I would have to beat the game in single player mode. I don’t think I ever tried, but I am pretty sure I never even came close in beating the game without the aid of a partner.

I tend to think that the game was easy only because I had 30 lives and another person had 30 also, but I definitely died more than three times during my runs so the game wasn’t as easy as I remember it to be. I’m not sure if this run is done on memorization or instinct, but the player in it is good. Damn good.

2. Batman

One of my favorite NES games of all time. It was challenging, but not to the point you wanted to throw the controller at the screen. I actually beat this game and I remember feeling like the greatest video game pimp in the whole wide world. Unfortunately this player makes me feel like I should go back to lincoln logs and leave the real gaming to the pros. I didn’t even know you could hit an enemy and just run right through them while they were flashing. I probably took at least 5x as long to beat the game as this guy.

As I mentioned, the game was challenging so I could never pull this off because I was guaranteed a couple of deaths from time to time. My jumping wasn’t as accurate as I would have liked it to be. He must’ve been the true Batman.

3. X-Men

This game was crap. It was easily one of the worst games on the NES and if you know the NES games catalog you know that means a lot. It hurt even more that the X-Men were my favorite superheroes and there was a time where I would do anything to make enough money to buy the new comic book editions that came out each month.

The fact that this person was able to even get through the game without smashing his head through the TV is nothing short of amazing and reason #1 why I would never have been able to finish the game. The fact the this person doesn’t even switch toons in midlevel is another amazing feat.

If you watch the video you will see that it’s almost impossible to even tell what is going on and you aren’t even playing it. Man this game blew.

4. Marble Madness

This game was hard enough to control with a trackball, it was even more difficult to control with the rigid NES gamepad. The run shown above unfortunately isn’t the NES run, which doesn’t let you embed, but it is the exact same game.

I first played this game on my Grandmother’s Amiga computer and don’t remember how far I got, but I definitely never beat it. Each level took me forever because I felt you had to be super precise when apparently you could just fly through corners if you wanted to. I’ll have to keep this in mind next time I decide to give the game a shot. Of course I will need to put down Plants vs. Zombies first. Hm, maybe Marble Madness would be a good iPhone game. Someone get on it.

5. Mega Man 2

My second favorite NES game of all time. It might be weird calling this a speedrun considering the video is over 39 minutes long, but if you played the game then you know there are just delays in it that you can’t speed through. There are definitely two specific parts in this game that would trip me up. I did beat the game, however these two parts always took me a couple tries. The first one is the Quick Man stage, the second level the player in the video runs through. The second one is the Dragon in Dr. Wily’s castle. Of course I would die many more times in other parts, but I know if I had a perfect run going, those two parts would be my downfall.

Instead of Marble Madness give me Mega Man on my iPod Touch.

6. Super Mario Bros. 2

Of course I am referring to the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2. The only reason I wouldn’t be able to accomplish the speed run as this player has done is because he uses Luigi and makes him look godly. Seriously, has Luigi ever looked so good before? Then he moves to Toad and you would think he was Arnie in Predator. Excuse me while I just run through everyone to the end of the board.

Although this game was fun it was my least favorite of the trilogy. Super Mario Bros. 3 being my all-time favorite and the original just being a classic. I guess I didn’t like stopping to pick up some radish to throw at some weird looking bird hopping my way. Stupid enough we had to kill Bowser each level in the original, now you give us Birdo to throw eggs at every 30 seconds? I pass.

7. Super Mario Bros.

This run just leaves me speechless. The amount of close calls and exploits performed by this player go to show I would never even come close to perfecting a run like this. Every jump is well-timed and executed to perfection. Rarely do you see the player do a full jump and apparently there is no need when you can just hop and skip over every bad guy. Some claim that this was run using cheats, but I can see it happening like this due to it being one of the first Nintendo games around so glitches are bound to be part of it.

8. Double Dragon 1, 2 & 3

You read that right. This is a speed run of all three games run back to back. Solo. No restarts. Under an hour including endings. I shouldn’t even have to explain why I wouldn’t be able to pull this one off, but I know I never beat any of these games without a partner. Maybe I just like playing video games with others or maybe I wasn’t as skilled a gamer as I thought as a 10 year old.

There you have it, my top 8(+2) speedruns of games from the NES era. Did you ever try a speedrun and succeed?

Sorry about that.

I had fun. I am sure you will see me again soon.

Merrill Lynch Japan predicts Sony will lose more than $1 billion on hardware during its next-gen console’s first year on the market–a sum it may not be able to recoup.

According to the latest issue of Japanese magazine Toyo Keizai, Merrill Lynch Japan Securities has recently calculated an analysis that the production of a single PlayStation 3 console will cost Sony approximately 54,000 yen to make ($494), as of its initial release in 2006.

Merrill Lynch Japan estimates that the machine’s main components–namely its Cell chip, RSX, and BD-ROM drive–will cost about 11,000 yen ($101) each. After adding the other electronics that will be used in the PS3, the machine’s production cost goes up to 54,000 yen.

Amazing what Microsoft can make you do. If it was just Nintendo in the arena I have no doubts that Sony wouldn’t have a problem selling their console for $499 or up.

Instead of trying to fight these types of people they should be embracing them. Hell, if I had the money I would do it.

Jon Lech Johansen, also known as DVD Jon, posted software on his “So Sue Me” Web site that he says modifies the viewer so that it plays videos hosted on any server. The company’s Google Video Viewer, in turn, was modified from the free VLC media player to restrict it to playing video hosted on Google’s own servers.

The simplified lineup features a new 20GB color screen model for $299 (the same price as the older monochrome version), a 60GB model for $399 ($50 cheaper), and an updated iPod U2 Special Edition with a color screen for $329 ($20 cheaper). The company has apparently dropped the 30GB iPod photo model, which sold for $349.

They also made a video of it using stop motion technology and I must admit it is pretty cool. Can’t see myself ever doing something like that, but to each his own.

My first impressions of Kong based on this trailer are strong. Jack Black seems to be a perfect choice, even though I can’t get any of his Tenacious D songs out of my head. However, after watching the original 1933 version of King Kong, I see that the role he is playing is definitely a weird fellow. Jack fits perfectly, from what I see in the trailer.

Kong looks incredible. There are limited shots, and not much motion shown in this first trailer, but from what was shown Kong is definitely the best looking CG character to-date.

TUG

We are looking for all types of content-based websites and if your site is different from what we currently offer our readers then even better.

There have been a couple of great discussions concerning the 9rules Network, but the best one to date was started by Matthew Pennell. The entry and the comments go into great detail as to what the network is about and how everyone is starting to view it. If you would like an inside perspective on how things are going for members then you might be interested in Darice’s perspective.

Unforuntately, after the last round was over I missed emailing some of the people who submitted their sites to explain why their site was not accepted into the Network. If you are one of those people do not hesitate to email me at scrivs{AT}9rules.com to let me know of my oversight. I have no excuses for this happening and would like to correct it as soon as possible.

UPDATE: The submission page.

Microsoft is planning to extend the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) standard to better support the publishing of ordered lists of information, a company spokesperson says.

Gary Schare, director of strategic product management in the Windows division of Microsoft, says that while RSS is a reliable standard for updating information in message form, it currently has no logical way to organize that information in a way that could help subscribers keep track of what is being fed to them.

Didn’t they “extend” HTML back in the day along with Netscape? It only took a couple of years and new sets of standards to fix that fiasco. Why not do it again I suppose is their thinking?

Harvard is offering free tuition for students that have a family
income below $40,000. If you are a mentor or have nieces and nephews
who might be interested, please give them this information. If you
know any one/family earning less than $40K with a brilliant child near
ready for college, please pass this along.

Harvard’s Tuition Announcement Highlights Failure of Prestigious
Universities to Enroll Low-Income Students March 1, 2004, Harvard
University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate
students from low-income families will pay no tuition. In making the
announcement, Harvard’s president Lawrence H. Summers said, “When only
10 percent of the students in Elite higher education come from
families in lower half the income distribution, we are not doing
enough. We are not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to
the lower half of the income distribution.”

If you know of a family earning less than $40,000 a year with an honor
student graduating from high school soon, Harvard University wants to
pay the tuition. The prestigious university recently announced that
from now on undergraduate students from low-income families can go to
Harvard for free…no tuition and no student loans! To find out more
about Harvard offering free tuition for families making less than
$40,000 a year visit Harvard’s financial aid web site at:
http://adm-is.fas.harvard.edu/FAO/index.htm or call the school’s financial aid office at (617) 495- 1581. EEO Office, Richmond, VA

It could be a scene from the “Da Vinci Code:” A high-tech art sleuth finds a hollow space behind an Italian palazzo’s murals, and believes he may have discovered a Da Vinci masterpiece not seen since 1563.

In a case of life imitating art, Maurizio Seracini, an internationally recognized expert in high-technology art analysis, has done just that – and, in an odd twist, he does indeed appear, as himself, in Dan Brown’s popular bestseller about secrets hidden in Leonardo’s work – the book’s only non-fictional character.

I might be the only person on the planet who has yet to read the Da Vinci Code, but the significance of this finding is not lost on me. This kind of stuff is just too cool. I once found an arrowhead in the forest.

List includes:

• WebDAV Server HOW-TO
• WebDAV Clients HOW-TO
• Managing Web Sites with WebDAV
• Remote Mac Access with AFP and SSH
• RSS Made Really, Really Simple
• Backing Up Your Mac … for Free
• Mac OS X Tiger Backups: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
• Building a Data-Driven Web Site
• Building a Streaming Audio Server
• Web Hosting (Is Not) For Dummies
• Hosting Multiple Web Sites and Domains
• Creating a Secure (HTTPS) Mac OS X Web Server
• Building A PureFTP Server … If You Must
• Building a Home Automation Server
• Building a Computer Telephony Server
• Turning Your Mac mini Into a DVD Player Kiosk
• HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a media center
• CenterStage – The Mac Media Center Open Source Project
• UStec Mac mini Home Media Server
• Wiki Knowledge Base: Using a Mac mini as a Home Media Center
• MacVroom – The Definitive Mac mini Car Integration Site
• iDash: Mac mini for Your Car or Land Rover or Lexus or VW GTi or BMW or 3000GT
• HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a low-cost recording studio
• Installing and Tuning Open Office on Mac OS X
• Exploring the Mac OS X Firewall

A Tokyo-based sex-video maker declared on its website that on July 8 it will release the world’s first adult UMDs, optical discs that play on a PSP. The five titles carry price tags from 2,800 yen or 3,800 yen (25 or 35 dollars).

Another Tokyo company will launch three titles on July 16.

For its part, Sony said it had no power to stop the release of the PSP porn videos.

Haha, like Sony would be stupid enough to even stop them from making porn anyways.

Maybe FG will do a podcast one day, but that sounds like it requires some type of thought. Not so sure about it now.

I said it before, but I will say it again. In my opinion what made the original Playstation and the current Xbox so popular was that they could be modded. Being able to tinker with a device and hack it adds much more appeal compared to closed systems. This is also what will make the PSP outshine the DS over time.

If you are looking to run homebrew applications on your PSP (who isn’t) then Make has a wonderful tutorial showing you how its done.

Now just give me an attachable keyboard and easy to run Linux OS on the system and I will be set.

All in all, across the regional qualifiers and world competition, King Tuur walked (staggered, etc.) off with a half-size Master Chief statue, a personalised Xbox Live Halo 2 Championship sweatshirt and Regional Champion Plaque, a Samsung camcorder, a 50″ Samsung flat-screen DLP HDTV, a Samsung DVD player/recorder, a personalised Xbox Live Halo 2 Global Champion Trophy and “the US equivalent of $1,500 in cash”. Which is presumably around $1,500 in cash.

via Joystiq

Now instead of having to even bother with the phone or dinner just hand these out to all women and you are good to go. There is simply no need for a boyfriend application because we all know the perfection that is Man.

If you want some spoilers go over to AICN and read most of the script. FOX better not mess this one up.

I am going to the 1:05 show. And this will decimate Star Wars (not financially, but quality wise). Yeah I said it.

The “complete freeware collection” is a collection of hand-chosen applications, which when combined, make the complete freeware package. In other words, all you need is the operating system and you won’t have to spend one cent on software. Nothing in this software bundle contains spyware or adware.

No surprise to me. It was bound to happen.

via Bombast

I know this one is a couple days old now, but if you haven’t already read John Gruber’s opinion piece on the new Apple and Intel partnership I suggest you do.

What interests me the most about it is his opinion on why Apple did not go with AMD, which seems to be the geek choice of CPUs.

AMD’s processors may be faster than Intel’s — that’s a race that will likely continue going back and forth — but Intel, inarguably, has greater production capabilities than any other semiconductor manufacturer. Intel makes more CPUs than the rest of the industry combined. No other CPU partner can make it less likely that Apple will ever again face a CPU shortage.

It makes since because why would Apple move from the PowerPC platform if it was constantly getting a quality supply and upgrades in speed? They wouldn’t. So your only option is to move to a company that can live up to their promises — Intel.