The Gold Split - Week #11: Basic Math
Week #11 (September 12th): Basic Math; PACE Updates; Wukong Updates; Astro Bot; Marathon News; New World Records: Super Mario Odyssey, Dark Souls, Banjo-Tooie, GTA: Vice City
Welcome to Week #11! Summer has come to an abrupt stop this week here in Berlin, with temperatures dropping by 15 degrees Celsius in the span of two days, after two weeks of moderate heat. I’m looking forward to autumn, but not to winter.
This week we’re doing something slightly different again. It’s a format I wanted to try for a while, and will likely do more of in the future: talking to interesting people about interesting things! I hope you’ll find it just as interesting as I did. Additionally, there will be a quick poll on what you’d like to see more of, just to help me prioritise in case I have too many optionsin the future. Please participate!
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! 📨
Spotlight: Basic Math & Miri
📊 When looking for the oldest game on speedrun.com a few weeks back, I came across Basic Math (a.k.a. Fun with Numbers).
Released in 1977 for the Atari 2600, the game features the four basic arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. A basic math problem consisting of two numbers and the operator is displayed on the screen. The player then uses the joystick to dial in the solution. There are two modes for each operation:
Set: the player decides the first number of the operation
Random: the computer decides both numbers of the operation
While it wasn’t the oldest game by a decent margin, it caught my eye because it was the oldest game with 20 or more players on the leaderboard. And it stood out for one more reason: the record holder for the main category (Addition, Set) is somebody I know: Miri
Here is his record-breaking run, blazing through the set of additions faster than anybody else:
I reached out to Miri and asked him if he wants to share some words about what got him into speedrunning this particular game. Here’s what he said:
I had just started streaming pretty casually. I was still working at Twitch so it was difficult to commit too much time to streaming so I was looking for small projects. My first speedgame was Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers on the NES. I managed a sub 10:3x which is a pretty respectable time for a newcomer to the game.
I started looking for shorter projects, games maybe I'd played as a kid. I found myself playing Backyard Football, attempting to play a single game as quickly as possible. I grinded this for a few days until I had a near perfect game- and set a near theoretical low for the category. I loved that it was something I was able to pick up quickly and grind out a lot of quick progress.
I had frequently watched ShesChardcore streams. They had a knack for picking up smaller games and improving really quickly. While looking through some of their times / records I saw there was an Atari game: Basic Math. I've always liked math, so a fun little minigame where I just did basic addition seemed like a great next little project.
You might notice that the controller input visualisation looks a bit more modern than the joystick of the Atari 2600. That’s because the game is generally played on an emulator, using a modern controller.
But even a game as short and simple as Basic Math has its own set of optimisations. Here’s what Miri had to said about speedrunning the game:
What I hadn't expected was that while the math was easy, mashing to the correct answer was actually pretty difficult. Basic Math (the Set category) basically gives you a handful of really simple addition problems. Then you use the up and down buttons to select the correct digits in each decimal place. The category uses the
1set because this makes almost all the numbers a single digit. There will be maybe one to two two digit numbers towards the end. The skill came from being able to quickly translate the answer, say7, into the correct and accurate number of button presses. From 0, 7 is down three: 9 → 8 → 7 and then submitting the answer. 1 and 9 were the best answers because they're just one digit to move one place. 5 is the worst because it's "far" from both ends.There is also a "set" of RNG that only comes after the first few numbers. You can scum for a specific start which will give you 5-6 set answers. From here you just memorize the inputs for the first few. The last few you have to figure out where you're moving the digits to on the fly. I put all this together for a few hours and was finally able to get the record. It's by no means perfect- you could definitely react and mash faster, but it was a really fun experience to learn the ins and outs of such a small, simple game and grind out the record over a few hours/days.
One of the things that’s so captivating about speedrunning is how even the simplest concepts can be optimised and dissected to the smallest detail. And this one is all about speed and precision.
And here’s some closing words to anybody who’s even considered picking up a game to speedrun:
I don't do a lot of streaming or speedrunning anymore, but I'm still heavily involved in the community itself. I love the speedrunning community and I think little challenges and games like this really highlight that it can be done by literally anyone. You don't have to dedicate thousands of hours to improve your own PBs and have a good time. If you've considered but never tried it, I strongly suggest you find an old game you liked and give it a shot! It's a blast.
Miri doesn’t have anything to promote at the moment, but you might be able to catch his semi-annual streams on his Twitch channel.
Quick Poll: What would you like to read more about?
Up to Speed
📣 Here are a few updates about GSA’s PACE Fall event in early November
Super Mario 64 120 Star Tournament runners decided after multiple rounds of qualifiers
Minecraft gets a 1v1 double elimination tournament, players are included in the announcement
🐒 Wukong leaderboards update their rules. The main takeaways:
PC runners will be required to use a load remover in order to remove loading times. On PlayStation 5, RTA remains the timing method.
Leaderboards for “All Bosses“ and “All Yaoguai Kings” will soon be set up.
🤖 Astro Bot to receive free DLC including speedrun levels and leaderboards (3 minute read)
Astro Bot released recently as a PlayStation 5 exclusive and received rave reviews. Presumably before the end of the year, the team intends to release free DLC that features speedrun levels as well as leaderboards. Speaking of, the speedrun.com leaderboards for the game are opening the floodgates tomorrow, September 13th. From what I’ve seen so far, at the start we can expect times around the three-hour mark in the Any% category.
Marathon News
Finished:
Kaizo Colosseum 2024 raised $92,571 for Direct Relief
NoReset5 raised $13,016+ for the Virtual Guardians Foundation
Upcoming:
Starts September 13th: Long Speedrun Summit 2024 (Schedule)
Starts September 20th: NSG Fall 2024 (Schedule), raising money for the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted
This Week’s Top Times
🥇 First Place:
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (48 Tracks: 150cc, No Items) in 01:46:47.130 by PandaMK8
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Mario Odyssey (Dark Side: 1P) in 01:38:27.000 by BusterDoggy (He/Him)
Video • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Any%) in 01:26:57.000 by ToadsWoot
Video • Twitch • YouTubeDark Souls (Any% No Wrong Warp) in 00:37:25.000 by xmonkeh (He/Him)
Video • TwitchMafia: The City of Lost Heaven (Any%: PC) in 02:25:05.000 by st4nzzz
Video • Twitch • YouTubeMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Any% (NG+): Hard) in 00:49:38.000 by Kirizaki_Akira (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeBanjo-Tooie (Any% No Bitclips: N64) in 00:41:53.000 by Falcon
Video • Twitch • YouTubeGrand Theft Auto: Vice City (100%) in 04:20:57.000 by Redopter (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeBaldur's Gate 3 (Any%) in 00:03:23.659 by maeeeeee (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥈 Second Place:
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Any%: No Major Glitches) in 01:13:35.000 by EnNopp112
Video • Twitch • YouTubeZelda II: The Adventure of Link (100% All Keys, 1CC) in 01:13:43.565 by jay_cee
Video • TwitchDevil May Cry (Any%: Normal, Dante) in 00:34:51.000 by Flennils (He/Him)
Video • TwitchSuper Mario Bros. (Any%: PAL) in 00:05:06.877 by Aryll (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥉 Third Place:
Super Mario 64 (120 Star: N64) in 01:36:37.000 by ikori_o (He/Him)
VideoCELESTE Classic (100%) in 00:02:04.000 by LordSNEK (Any/All)
VideoStar Wars: Battlefront II (RotE Any%: Bonus) in 00:45:14.000 by Starfy_99 (She/Her)
VideoGrand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned (Any%) in 01:04:58.000 by timonIV (He/Him)
Video • YouTube
Reddit Choice
🔝 The r/speedrun choice of the week is… this thread about how glitches get discovered, with many experienced glitch hunters sharing their insights and knowledge.
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, September 19th 2024. 👋🏻
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