The Gold Split - Week #10: An Anniversary
Week #10 (September 5th): Anniversary; GDQ News; Super Metroid RBO; Windows Update Breaks Glitch; Marathon News; New World Records: Spongebob, Deltarune, Breath of the Wild, Sonic Heroes
It’s an anniversary!
We’ve made it to Week #10 of the newsletter, and because there’s no other major story this week, I suppose it’s worth talking about one of the things I least enjoy talking about: myself and things I do. We’ll do a brief overview on past, present, and future of The Gold Split. Please hold my hand.
But first, a quick follow-up on last week’s Black Myth: Wukong preview:
The community has opted to allow previous game versions on the leaderboards, so all the glitches mentioned are fair game (at least in the Unrestricted category). True Ending exists as the second major category next to Any%, and both include progressively more restrictive subcategories Restricted and Glitchless. So far, only Any% (Unrestricted) has any submissions on the leaderboard. At the time of writing, the quickest time is 57 minutes and 33 seconds.
Contents
I’d like to cover much more, but many great stories stay confined to the communities for a specific game or series and rarely get out. I encourage you to think about what happened recently in the communities you are a part of. If there are any stories, articles, glitches, events, or other topics I should cover, go ahead and submit them here or in the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Story of the Week
Ten weeks, ten publications, and about six of them slightly past the deadline I set for myself. This week has approached both faster and slower than expected. Ten is not a large number, but every week still requires the same diligence and discipline.
When I started this project, I had little to no expectations. All I knew was that I had the free time available and that I wanted to do it, for two main reasons:
I recently rediscovered the value of regular updates on a topic in the form of newsletters and realised that nobody else was doing it for the speedrunning niche
I wanted to learn new things
And I absolutely did. I didn’t know anything about Python or APIs in the beginning, but a few weeks of locking myself in a room with ChatGPT during my free time made it possible for me to create a series of scripts fetching the This Week’s Top Times 🏆 section every week. By now, I feel confident enough to make tweaks on my own and have a much better approach when creating code from scratch using generative AI.
I don’t know if my writing is particularly good or has improved at all, but I’ve certainly become more comfortable and confident. I’ve identified a few pitfalls, stopped repeating certain phrases, and have come up with alternatives.
However, my ability to market and promote this project remains… rather abysmal. I’ve only recently started posting about each week’s publications on Twitter, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Discord. I posted about it once on the /r/speedrun subreddit (which was well-received), but feel bad about spamming it in other places, let alone every week. And so I’ve mostly relied on word of mouth to get the word out.
So far, we have gathered a small group of almost 100 people and the last few weeks’ publications consistently saw about 110 - 150 views each. Since my expectations weren’t focused on gaining any number of followers in the first place, there’s nothing to evaluate. I’m just happy to see each number go up, one bit at a time.
The biggest challenge so far has been coming up with a Story of the Week each week, and then trying to distill it into a small enough form factor, making sure it fits inside a newsletter. I have a feeling that they have become more involved in the last few weeks, and I want to try to dial that back a little. It still takes me about eight hours (give or take) to complete each week’s publication and the majority of that is spent on this section.
One thing that would make this easier would be expanding the Up to Speed section, but there are only so many speedrunning news visible on the surface. Chances are, if you're aware of any news within your speedrunning circle, others will likely find it engaging too. This could be:
A glitch discovery
A leaderboard split
A tournament
A community event
New category rules
Video essays on that one very specific way to glitch through a wall in a section that’s not even part of the speedrun
I would love it if you could submit them here or on the Gold Split Discord! 📨
Likewise, it would mean a lot to me if you shared The Gold Split with a friend or your community, expanding the opportunities for more things I can report on.
I’m still very much enjoying my time working on The Gold Split, and I am committing to doing this for at least a year. After Week #52, let’s reevaluate and see if my priorities have shifted. And we might as well do another check-in at the half-way mark. But for now, back to regularly scheduled programming.
Whether you’re subscribed or not, read the entire thing or only a paragraph, thank you so much for being part of this! 💛
Up to Speed
📅 GamesDoneQuick announces more dates for AGDQ 2025
First Submission Period: September 26 – October 6
Attendee Registration: September 7 – December 2
On-Site Volunteer Applications: September 26 – October 6
The event will take place between January 5th and January 12th, 2025, in Pittsburgh.
🛠️ Windows 11 update patches glitch in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (3 minute read)
Nothing in the changelog points to what caused the glitch to no longer work, so this accidental fix raises multiple questions:
What exactly caused it?
Were other games affected?
Could there be positive side effects, enabling new glitches?
Windows 10 will stop receiving updates after October 14th, 2025. Are runners going to have to resort to an awkward solution to achieve competitive times after that point?
Investigations are still at the beginning, but I’m so very curious about the results.
🔙 How Speedrunners Beat Super Metroid "Backwards" (37 minute video)
I love speedrun categories with a completely unexpected premise compared to your regular “Any%” and “100%”. “Reverse Boss Order” (“RBO”) is one of the best ones, because it’s self-explanatory and immediately piques people’s interest. In this video, content creator Dr4gonBlitz teams up with legends of Super Metroid ShinyZeni and Zoast to explain the ins and outs of the category.
🔄 GamesDoneQuick completes change of ownership and leadership (7 minute read)
In this interview with GamesRadar+, GDQ’s new director of operations, Matt Merkle, talks about the company’s change of ownership and leadership. Merkle had already effectively been in charge at various points in the past and the change was planned a long time ago, so the company is expected to head in the same direction with only minor adjustments.
Marathon News
Finished:
SpeedDocsAThon 2024 raised $5,392 for Save the Children
Running:
Until September 8th: Josh Done Quick Six, raising money for Joshimuz (Schedule)
Upcoming:
Starts September 6th: Kaizo Colosseum 2024, raising money for Direct Relief (Schedule)
Starts September 6th: NoReset5, raising money for the Virtual Guardians Foundation (Schedule)
Starts September 6th: Hidden Gem Rally (Schedule)
Starts September 7th: Dreamcast 25th Anniversary (Schedule)
Starts September 7th: Golfs Done Quick in Japan 2024 (Schedule)
This Week’s Top Times
🥇 First Place:
SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom (Any%) in 00:41:16.000 by SHiFT
Video • Twitch • YouTubeDeltarune (Chapter 1: Any%) in 00:25:47.599 by NERS
Video • Twitch • YouTubeRed Ball 4 Vol.1 (Any%) in 00:01:55.500 by Starline (She/Her)
Video • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (All Dungeons: Original) in 01:25:15.000 by Player5
Video • Twitch • YouTubeTony Hawk's Underground (Any%: Beginner) in 00:32:05.000 by shnazz
Video • Twitch • YouTubeMetal Gear Solid (Any%: PC (2000), Easy) in 00:33:34.000 by iLL_Pazzo (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSonic Heroes (Team Rose: Limited Tech Selection) in 00:32:11.000 by Katie4 (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTubePokémon Diamond/Pearl (Any%: ENG, DS/3DS) in 00:56:32.000 by Yaksooo (He/Him)
Video
🥈 Second Place:
Cuphead (Version 1.1+: Any%, Regular) in 00:27:40.700 by Quincely_0 (He/Him)
Video) • Twitch • YouTubeKingdom Hearts Final Mix (Any%: PS4/PS5, Beginner) in 02:08:52.000 by Uthat
Video • TwitchWii Sports Resort (Cycling: Solo, 6-Stage) in 00:14:28.639 by RayndX210 (They/Them)
VideoPokémon Platinum (Any% Glitchless: ENG, DS/3DS) in 03:36:52.000 by uwsellan
Video • YouTube
🥉 Third Place:
Portal 2 (Single Player: No SLA) in 00:56:47.300 by hero622
VideoDark Souls Remastered (Any%: No Dropmod) in 00:20:09.000 by aeiouSoT (It/Its)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeZelda II: The Adventure of Link (100% All Keys, 1CC) in 01:13:56.649 by jay_cee
Video • TwitchSonic Heroes (Team Rose: Limited Tech Selection) in 00:33:32.000 by auraace
Video • Twitch
Reddit Choice
🔝 The r/speedrun choice of the week is… this thread about games that had game-breaking glitches found long after they were released and were initially considered unbreakable or only had minor discoveries at most.
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, September 12th 2024. 👋🏻
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