The Gold Split - Week #40 - A round number!
Week #40 (Apr 30): Super Metroid; Oengus; Minecraft TAS; A-Button Challenge; Events News; TAS Movies; New Records: A Link to the Past, Spyro, Cuphead, Resident Evil 4, Fallout 4
Happy Week #40!
Every time the tens digit gets incremented, it feels like a big deal. As somebody who loves to start projects but has issues maintaining consistency after, I’m constantly surprised that I managed to get this far. The next one, Week #50, will be a big deal as we’ll be getting so very close to my initial goal of publishing 52 editions of The Gold Split.
That being said… there won’t be one in the coming week. I’m currently in Ireland and have already been short on time (that’s why you’re receiving this on a Wednesday), but I’ll stay in London throughout the next week and will just barely have room to breathe. We’ll be back on Thursday, May 15th!
The Event News have been expanded to include all events until then and there is definitely enough content out there to tide you over. Enjoy!
Contents
Up to Speed ⚡️
Frame by Frame (TAS Movies) 🔧
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! 📨
Up to Speed ⚡️
🏆 ShinyZeni achieves clean sweep of all No Major Glitches categories in Super Metroid (3-minute read)
🔒 Oengus had a thorough vulnerability check-up (2-minute read)
Your favourite speedrun marathon tool has been put through its paces by a professional security researcher following a security leak discovered in February 2025. They were unable to compromise the website, but still made some recommendations and wrote a detailed report, which you can find at the end of the article.
💡 The Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels ACE Discovery (14-minute video)
Last week’s Gold Split featured the story of a recent glitch discovery in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. This video by Abyssoft not only adds visuals, but also manages to explain the intricacies in much more detail than I every could here. Check it out!
🧪 Minecraft TAS achieves most difficult advancement in 10:26 (13-minute video)
The hidden Minecraft advancement How Did We Get Here? requires to player have all 33 possible status effects applied to them at the same time. VDPineapple achieves this in a really short time by using a specifically selected seed and performing the run in slow motion and multiple perfected segments. No glitches were used, but some RNG has been altered to keep the grind to a minimum.
🅰️ pannenkoek2012’s next A-Button Challenge lecture (33-minute video)
Once an arbitrary limitation, the A-Button Challenge in Super Mario 64 is now widely known thanks to pannenkoek2012’s extraordinary video essay about parallel universes. In this new video, they take a deep dive into the details of why two stars inside the Shifting Sand Land pyramids still require A-presses, despite a lot of improvement and big efforts from the community to eliminate them.
Briefly
🏃♂️ It costs $180 to speedrun Temple Run optimally (9-minute video)
Event News 📅
As we’re heading into a 2-week break, I’ve included every event up until The Gold Split returns on May 15th. This weekend brings three themed events, and the weekend after follows up with two variety marathons!
🏁 Finished
No Glitches Allowed 2025 raised $3,505 for the Go Rescue Pet Adoption Center
🔜 Upcoming
Starts May 2nd: Dragon Quest RTA Marathon 2025 (Schedule)
Starts May 2nd: The Kessel Run: A Star Wars Speedrun Marathon - Episode IX (Schedule)
Starts May 3rd: McRaeathon 2025 (Schedule), benefiting Get Well Gamers UK
Starts May 9th: Fastest Furs LIVE at FWA 2025 (Schedule), benefiting Lost-n-Found Youth
Starts May 10th: BSG Marathon 38 (Schedule), benefiting MIND
This Week’s Top Times 🏆
🥇 First Place
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Major Glitches: Any%) in 00:01:28.000 by Thunderbolt
Video • Twitch • YouTubeCuphead (Version 1.1+: Any%, Regular) in 00:27:19.170 by Grondious (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSpyro the Dragon (Any%) in 00:36:52.000 by Composer (He/Him, They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeResident Evil 4 (Steam) (New Game: Professional, Single Segment, 60 FPS) in 01:21:59.880 by JokerUY
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSpyro Reignited Trilogy (PC) (Spyro the Dragon: 120%) in 01:08:57.000 by toastedkat (Any/All)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Metroid (Low%: Ice) in 00:47:39.980 by ShinyZeni
Video • Twitch • YouTubeFallout 4 (Any%: Full-game) in 00:35:07.969 by tomatoanus (He/Him, They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeTony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Any%: No Major Glitches) in 00:02:23.000 by fnrakie (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥈 Second Place
Super Mario Bros. (Any%: NTSC) in 00:04:54.747 by averge11 (He/Him, They/Them)
VideoSpyro the Dragon (Any%) in 00:36:57.000 by Dayoman (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (MST) in 01:41:14.000 by Amateseru
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (Any%: Unrestricted) in 00:46:18.000 by Sabxander (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥉 Third Place
Splatoon 2 (Any%) in 01:26:37.000 by Negat (He/Him, They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSilent Hill (NG (Easy): Emulator) in 00:30:18.000 by IDSBI (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeFinal Fantasy VII (PC: Any%, No Turbo) in 01:34:23.000 by asleepyjake
VideoHalf-Life: Alyx (Any%: No Spin, FTP) in 00:14:42.072 by mug_programmer (He/Him)
Video • YouTube
Frame by Frame 🔧
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64) in 2:26:51.40 by Eumeus14
A total of 70 techniques have been banned for this Glitchless run through Majora’s Mask. Instead of the TAS recording video, I highly recommend the commentated version:
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Glitchless
Super Mario World (SNES) in 08:33.85 by oddboo
This one is very cool for many reasons. Using various ridiculous methods, oddboo is completing not a single level the way it was originally intended. As always, you’ll want to check the author notes to read up on them after the watch.
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Unintended Exits
Contra (NES) in 08:49.36 by Mars608 & aiqiyou
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Low% (2 Players)
Pokémon: Crystal Version (GBC) in 05:49.79 by CasualPokePlayer
Playing back Bad Apple when it really should seem impossible is a classic among TAS authors and also just one of the many necessary steps before reaching the credits. I highly recommend the author notes if you’re into the real technical details.
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Arbitrary Code Execution
Undertale (Linux) in 1:42:11.50 by Svool_Gsviv_, chair547 & duuuuude5
Video • Author Notes • Goal: True Pacifist Ending (Glitchless)
Snakebird (Linux) in 02:22.07 by keylie
An alternate version of the video that visibly shows all the solutions is also available!
Video • Visible Solutions • Author Notes • Goal: Beat the Game
Battle Kid 2: Mountain of Torment (NES) in 04:40.29 by McBobX
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Opposition
Reddit Choice 🔝
The r/speedrun choice of the week is… this thread about the community’s favourite moments that destroyed a game’s Any% category, either by discovering a huge timesave or by making the category a real pain in the ass to speedrun. Or both.
There’s a lot of mentions of specific glitches that caused a huge shake-up, often times with a detailed description. My favourite is probably the one for Baldur’s Gate 3’s Shadowboxing (includes minor spoilers) by u/NikoEatsPancakes:
For the uninitiated, Shadowboxing is where you recruit Shadowheart, immediately murder her, put her corpse inside of a box, light the box on fire, and then launch the box to the end of Act 1. Her dead body triggers a cutscene, which makes her revive herself, effectively teleporting the party to the end of Act 1 since she just skips through the cutscene and walks through the exit. You can then do the same thing in Act 2, except you teleport to an ending cutscene, such that your total time in Act 2 is like 25 seconds or something.
At first we only knew about the second Shadowbox, but then we found consistent strats for the first one, and the run time went wayyy down. Pre-Shadowboxing runs were about 6.5 minutes, post-Shadowboxing the record went to 3:31. It stayed there for a while and has since been optimized to 3:19, with the only changes being extremely small routing optimizations and people simply piloting their characters better.
👋🏻 And that’s it for this and next week! See you on Thursday, May 15th 2025. 👋🏻
The Gold Split is free and I have no plans to add a paywall. If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to receive the new issue each Thursday directly to your inbox.
If you are already subscribed and would like to support my work further, you may share this publication with people near to you or even pledge a paid subscription. 50% of all revenue will be donated to charity events within the speedrunning community.
Knock Knock.
Who’s there?
Thanks for reading.