The Gold Split - Week #42: Now with more News!
Week #42 (May 22): Leaderboard News; New Competition; TAS Updates; Event News; New Records: Portal 2, Half-Life, Final Fantasy, The Minish Cap, Neon White
Happy Week #42!
In the past few days and for the first time since the launch of The Gold Split, I managed to put some work into my little set of speedrun.com API scripts. I’m baffled that everything still runs as well as it did back then, and I don’t really want to mess with it too much. They say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But I did add one new feature and am now able to scan for the latest leaderboard news published on the site. Many of them are relevant and you’ll find them as always within the Up to Speed section. Others were a little more puzzling…
I hope you survived the Twitch Highlights purge! This is the last time you’ll hear about it from me, but I just wanted to thank everybody who spread the word and worked on backing up their own and others’ speedrunning history. Thanks to your efforts the impact of the deletion won’t be immediate and hard-hitting, but there’s inevitably a large and unknown amount of recordings that were unaccounted for, and we’ll only realise that when we start looking for them.
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 ⚡️
🐵 Diddy Kong Racing’s individual level leaderboards overhauled (3-minute read)
The Diddy Kong Racing leaderboards for individual tracks received a complete overhaul. One issue that the community had identified was that not all challenges the game offers for each track were represented. But now, after a large effort on the side of the moderators, 37 new (sub-)categories like Silver Coin Challenges and Magic Key races were added and all existing runs have been moved to their correct position. A full changelog is available in the news post.
🦎 New Discovery yields huge timesave in Gex 3 on the N64 (3-minute read)
The new route makes it unnecessary to collect any bonus coins and brings down the world record for the Any% category from 13:27 minutes down to just 04:37 minutes. It’s considered the holy grail of Gex 3 speedrunning, but can currently only be performed on the Nintendo 64 version of the game. The full post includes a detailed description as well as videos to showcase the new glitch and the resulting Any% speedrun.
💰 New $500 Speedrun.com Competition (3-minute read)
Later today, speedrun.com is opening the submissions for its latest competition. The game, Shoot For The Stars, describes itself as “a rage platformer but you are a gun trying to ascend to the stars!” If you’re into that and/or could use a part of the $500 prize pool, you’ll first need to purchase the game, perform an Any% speedrun, and ultimately submit it to the challenge leaderboards. More rules and information about eligibility are available in the article.
🗡️ Ocarina of Time leaderboards promote two categories from extensions
The community of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time recently held a survey about the current state of their leaderboards and other related topics. One of the results is that two categories will be promoted from the extension leaderboard to the main leaderboard: Classic Kakariko Route (as a sub-category of Defeat Ganon) and Nocturne RTA. The latter is a neat medium-length category that requires players to learn the Nocturne of Shadow by entering Kakariko after beating the Forest, Fire, and Water Temple. At the time of writing the boards haven’t moved yet, and it’s expected to take the moderators some time to complete the shift.
💾 Beating Super Mario Bros. 3 in 5 Microseconds on Original Hardware (4-minute video)
Briefly
👹 Dropmod is now allowed for All Bosses in Dark Souls Remastered (1-minute read)
⏲️ Load Removed Time is now the default timer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (1-minute read)
Additionally, a NG+ category has been added, the timing has changed, and an auto-splitter is available within LiveSplit.🕶️ Any% (Single Segment) is the latest category addition to Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (1-minute read)
📜 New Strategy and New Rule for Scribblenauts (2-minute read)
Event News 📅
Go and tune in to RPG Limit Break, UKSG Green, or both! They’ll both be live for the next few days. If two options is not enough, just wait a little longer: each day from now until Saturday, another event will join the weekend spectacle!
⏱️ Running
Until May 25th: RPG Limit Break 2025 (Schedule), benefiting the National Alliance on Mental Illness
Until May 25th: UKSG Green 2025 (Schedule), benefiting CRISIS
🔜 Upcoming
Starts later today: Momentum 2025 at MomoCon (Schedule), benefiting the Johnson STEM Activity Center
Starts May 23rd: gorlsgoFAST 2025 (Schedule), benefiting I Support the Girls
Starts May 24th: Obscurathon 4 (Schedule)
This Week’s Top Times 🏆
🥇 First Place
Super Mario 64 (16 Star: EMU) in 00:14:57.000 by Sunnard
Video • TwitchPortal 2 (Single Player: No SLA) in 00:55:19.050 by leough
VideoHalf-Life (WON: Scriptless) in 00:25:53.733 by Muty
Video • Twitch • YouTubeEnter the Gungeon (1 Character: Any%) in 00:05:35.000 by GIANNIMOCCOLO (He/Him)
VideoThe Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Any%) in 01:26:13.000 by TGH (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeNeon White (Level Rush: White, Heaven, PC (Steam)) in 00:29:37.545 by JustAjz (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019) (Any%: Normal) in 00:56:45.000 by ta0myo
VideoGimmick! (Any% (Zipless)) in 00:06:13.000 by Aryll (She/Her)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
🥈 Second Place
Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy (Glitchless) in 00:01:00.155 by OyamaTakeshi
Video • YouTubeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Any%: Normal Mode) in 00:23:09.000 by MoldyMeatballs
Video • Twitch • YouTubeChained Together (Any%: 1 Player, Restricted, Main, v1.7.3+) in 00:39:45.000 by Ryota (He/Him)
VideoSubnautica (Any%: Survival, Glitched) in 00:28:05.000 by whotag (She/Her)
Video • YouTube
🥉 Third Place
Outlast (Any%: Main Game, PC) in 00:04:40.934 by JayV (He/Him)
Video • Twitch • YouTubeSuper Mario 64 (120 Star: N64) in 01:36:00.000 by Karin
Video • TwitchThe Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019) (Any% (Glitchless)) in 01:38:48.000 by EDL666 (She/Her, They/Them)
Video • TwitchFEZ (Any%) in 00:25:02.000 by MorganMustDie (They/Them)
Video • Twitch • YouTube
Frame by Frame 🔧
Super Mario Bros. (NES) in 18:03.62 by HappyLee, DaSmileKat, Kzwbz, Asumeh & Kosmic
Video • Goal: 000000 Points
More accurately, the goal of this TAS project was to complete the game with 000000 points within one life. And naturally, to get there you are required to max out the score until it rolls over to zero. This had never been done before and it took the authors hundreds of hours to finish the project. There are four optimal opportunities throughout the run to farm points, and the final moment when the score rolls over just after defeating Bowser couldn’t be more satisfying.
The Goonies II (NES) in 14:33.36 by McBobX
Video • Author Notes • Goal: No Super Jumps
Resident Evil 4 (GC) in 07:31.40 by Ubercapitalist
Video • Author Notes • Goal: The Mercenaries (Maximum Score)
The Mercenaries is a timed minigame unlocked after finishing Resident Evil 4.
Meat Boy (Flash) in 02:42.73 by Mikewillplays & slamo
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Beat the Game
I Wanna Be the Guy (Windows) in 16:10.54 by tokoroten-az3
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Any% (JP Ruleset)
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian — The Video Game (DS) in 17:56.49 by Walgrey
Video • Author Notes • Goal: Beat the Game
Social Choice 🔝
The r/speedrun choice of the week is… this thread about one regular’s 5-year old daughter’s discovery of a (new) skip in the adventure game Little Kitty, Big City. It’s unclear whether or not the skip is actually relevant for the speedrun, but it can’t be argued that her hand-eye coordination and ability to creatively solve problems is really really impressive for that age.
👋🏻 And that’s it for this week! See you next Thursday, May 29th 2025. 👋🏻
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