darkSpyro

I have been a Spyro fan for as long as I could remember. When I first played Spyro the Dragon, I was young and never finished it to see what the game holds towards the end, but as years progressed, I eventually figured out exactly what to do. I now know the game to the point where I can speed run it for 120% in world record time.

While browsing the net, I came across Speed Demos Archive and saw that someone had a record for completing Spyro the Dragon 120% in an amazing 2:19. After watching this, I noticed how many mistakes and deaths he had made so I thought to myself, I can do this easy. Within a week, I had cut down on his time to 2:04 using his pathway with a couple of tweeks I made along the way to make collection more efficient. While I was heading over to my friend's house to show him what I was working on, the game had snapped, right down the middle.

When my friend saw this he instantly went online to look for a replacement for me since he knew how much this game meant to me, I still feel like there is no way I could ever thank him for that. It was about 2 weeks later that I had gotten my fresh new copy of Spyro and right away went to practicing speed running again. On the second day of having my game back, I had invited a friend to take control of the stopwatch while I was playing. My friend is the luckiest person for witnessing what he saw, his first time seeing a Spyro game ever was me breaking the record time with an outstanding 1:58:02. He was witness to me achieving my goal of a sub 2 hour run of Spyro to full game completion, something that before my first copy had snapped, had been something I had dreamt of for months. This moment made him want to play Spyro and see what all of his PS1 glory was about.

I am currently still attempting scheduled practice speed runs waiting for the day I can get it recorded and show the world all of my hard work. I know that I'm ready for the real deal, but I'm waiting for my opportunity.

Btw, if you couldn't guess, yes, I am that much of a Spyro fan.

Awesome! It takes me three days to complete Spyro the Dragon, lol.

Lol keep trying, you'll get there eventually >.<

Speed running isn't really my kind of thing, maybe I'll try it out one day, I'm gonna do an PT of this game on YouTube soon.

Can't wait to see it, I love watching other people do Let's Plays of Spyro games. I plan on getting one done once I can get my 360 controller to work with my emulator, since I don't have a dazzle.

I don't have a dazzle aswell, and I don't use an emulator, I'm going to use an easycap, it's quite cheap and it works fine, just when I finally get back to my Dad's house, I'll just need to make a few more test videos and then I think I will be ready to do PlayThroughs. By the way, have you seen my account on YouTube? I can send you the link on your channel if you want? The link is also on my Guestbook.

amazing! absolutely amazing!

Quote: SuperSpyroFan

I don't have a dazzle aswell, and I don't use an emulator, I'm going to use an easycap, it's quite cheap and it works fine, just when I finally get back to my Dad's house, I'll just need to make a few more test videos and then I think I will be ready to do PlayThroughs. By the way, have you seen my account on YouTube? I can send you the link on your channel if you want? The link is also on my Guestbook.

Sure thing, I'll be glad more than glad to check it out.

Quote: torok

amazing! absolutely amazing!

Thanks torok, I hope one day people can see my time and effort for themselves instead of the select few I know.

Nice.

Thank you, still trying very hard for this record.

You need help friend...nah jk.

That is realy impressive! I hope you do get your chance someday to show off your skills.

Lol thank you, but on a serious note...
I think I'm a mad Spyro fan because I can play this game in my head almost as if I'm a playstation reading the disc. =P
I might take a break for the weekend, it gets kind of stressful sometimes.
Besides that who knows, maybe I'll be able to do a live run on UStream with a chat or something like that one day. >.<

You need to make a video of you beating it. Then you could send it to a Records place and get interviewed.

Actually, I looked into trying to send my speed run to Guiness World Record Gamer Edition. It requires that before you can make an official attempt, you have to have a pre-recorded run done with an audience of 5 or more people and 2 adults over the age of 18 to testify that I have attempted to set a world record. For now the only thing standing in my way for me to do an actual attempt on an emulator would be getting my xbox360 controller to be mapped out. >.> If I can get that done, I'll be able to use an emulator and upload a run, but it's not official if you use emulators since you can edit out save states and also they cut down on loading time by a few seconds. So for an official run I need to have all of the above stated before. >.<
It's a pain but it will happen someday.

Someday friend, someday.

Someday soon I hope.
Until then it's nothing but practice, but that never hurts right? =D

Only untill you get bored.

*gasp* Bored of a Spyro game? The day I get bored of playing Spyro is the day I die. I have been a Spyro fan nearly my whole life and this one game alone is what got me addicted to the series. Before I started speed running the game, I had already done about 20 something regular playthroughs. This number nearly quadrupled ever since I started speed running. So if I'm not bored by it the first 80 times, I doubt a few hundred more will hurt. =)

Good lord!

Lol, you can't rush perfection when it comes to speed running. Just like with music, it takes time, patience, and many, many hours of practice. =P

Anyway I'm turning in for the night, I need to head over to my friend's house to give him his lessons early tomorr- today.... Ya I should probably get some sleep. Night everyone. =D

*Sings you a song*

Go to sleep...go to sleep..go to sleep little ClassicSpyrofan..

Thanks but I'm up now and really I should be getting ready to leave pretty soon. But I'll be back though, feel free to leave posts while I'm away, it's more fun for me when I get back.

ClassicSpyroFan, are you going to speedrun the rest of the Spyro games?

Well, even though I love all three of the classic spyro games and although I did enjoy the newer ones, but nowhere near as much as the originals, I would find Spyro 2 and 3 to be a bit of a pain to speed run especially with all the side tasks and back tracking. For Enter the Dragonfly.....pass, A Hero's Tail would be decent but my copy was stolen from me sadly, so I would have to get a new copy, replay the game and memorize it just like the first 3 games. As for the newer Spyro games, I'm not the greatest at them with their beat 'em up style. So for now I think I'll stick with the first Spyro game and should I decide to do a Spyro 2 or 3 speed run, I would either have to take months in planning out the fastest routes for collection for 100% gameplay, or a very specific direct path for defeat final boss gameplay. On that note, I would have to decide If i would want to use glitches or let it be a fully legit speed run. So possibilites are still out there, just not clear on what to do just yet.
Sadly, it's not as easy as speed runners make it look, I had to draw out maps of each stage to the point where it showed where each and every gem, enemy, chest, dragon, egg thief, key, etc... Each map I made took me at least 3 days to make. It was a very tiring and tedious process, but useful and necesary.

Wow, you're awesome.

You have dedication thats for sure!

Hey Classic,

Could you take a picture of your maps and post them on here? I'm curious to see what they look like.

Well since I don't have my maps on my computer I would have to do them over in paint from scratch. It was annoying the first time with pencil and paper, and doing them over in paint with a mouse would be even more of a pain, so if you want I could make one map of the first homeworld just so you could get an idea of what they were like. Also, I'm typing this on my friend's PS3, it's very annoying.

Quote: ClassicSpyroFan

Also, I'm typing this on my friend's PS3, it's very annoying.

I used to visit these forums on my PS3 before I became a member but it never updated weirdly enough.

Okay, finally a computer where I can decently respond to everyone.

To both of you, thanks a lot.

Also, Tibs about the PS3, I can ask my friend if you wanna know why it does that.

Quote: ClassicSpyroFan

Well since I don't have my maps on my computer I would have to do them over in paint from scratch. It was annoying the first time with pencil and paper, and doing them over in paint with a mouse would be even more of a pain, so if you want I could make one map of the first homeworld just so you could get an idea of what they were like. Also, I'm typing this on my friend's PS3, it's very annoying.

That'll be awesome, and yeah, I have a PS3 too, and the internet isn't the best thing to use on it, for some reason I can't open up my emails, sometimes links, just using the computer is much better.

Yeah I dont bother with using the ps3 to serf the internet. I just used it because my sister and her son(who are both VERY annoying) always hung out the kitchen area which my computer is right next to. Now that they seem to stay outside and visit less it is easier for me to use the computer. In fact I do most of my typing for my fan fiction in the middle of the night when it is peaceful.

Nice. The shortest it takes me is roughly 4 hours but I've never really tried to go as fast as possible. I like experimenting and seeing all the neat ways to screw with the game. That's pretty amazing though. I have to try that sometime.

SuperSpyroFan, I'll start getting to work on it when I can get the chance too. That means I'll have to do another rough draft of the map on paper then try to copy it onto MS Paint. It might take a few days but I will get to work on it.

Tibs, Well it wasn't so much surfing the net that was the problem, it was more along the lines of how confusing things got with typing using the controller. I everytime I made the slightest mistake I would groand and end up making more on top of the one I had just made. Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you can write in peace now, that is something every great writer should have, silence.

Feather Dragon, Well, if your interested go and search up James 'luigikart64' Bertolli on Speed Demos Archive, he was the original record holder for fastest Spyro speed run. If you want I could post a link to where you could download his full run in the solid two and a half hour video I saw it as. He was actually the reason why I wanted to start speed running, after watching his run I was able to make some of my final tweaks to my path and managed to improve off of his. I even asked him and he said he would be flattered if I posted my attempt to top his best time and he says the same to anyone else who tries. I would have to agree with him on that topic, anyone who wants to try speed running should give it a shot. My only warning is that you need to start off with a possible goal you yourself know you can pull off if you were to try and be ready to reset your game a lot. Good luck on your future runs. =D

My time was 72:29:472. you're fantastic!!

Lol thanks gaul2. You took over 3 days to finish the game so that means you weren't aiming for a full on speed run, it shows me that you were either doing a casual playthrough, which I myself love doing, or you're trying to memorize the layout of the game like I did. If your going to try a serious attempt then I wish you all the luck you'll need. Happy speed running.

I don't speed run, I have Mario Galaxy 2 to play now as well.

If I do play STD again though I'll speed run.

Nice, hopefully your Spyro the Dragon disc is still in a good enough condition for speed running should you decide to give it a shot. =)

Also, yay for the return of Yoshi.

Now I want to go buy STD on PSN and see how fast I can do it after one normal playthrough. Took me all day to beat YOTD when I got that on PSN a couple of weeks ago so IDK so I dont expect much.

Well, Year of the Dragon is a longer game, much more to collect and plenty of backtracking, so taking a day to finish it isn't exactly the worst thing. I suggest you just keep going through the game normally until you have memorized gem locations and have a decent understanding of your path for the speed run. It's okay to take it slow on your first few runs, just until you're comfortable with what you have to do to cut down on time. Practice before you make any serious attempts is the most crucial part to making your actual runs count. So take your time, learn the game inside and out before you try.

'Year of the Dragon' takes me two or three weeks to complete, lol, I've only ever completed it once though.
When I was a kid, I never had much patience with this game for some reason, I always use to play Spyro 2 the most, and sometimes Spyro 1, but was never bothered with 3. Don't know why.

Lol 3 weeks? I know all 3 of the games' secret locations, obscure gems, and other various things that a first time player would miss, but that's only because of how many times I've played each game. Before I started speed running, I would usually have a mini marathon through all of the ps1 spyro games, but at a casual playing speed, where when I finished Year of the Dragon, I would see how long it took to complete everything then start again. =P

I was doing this in an attempt to make all 6 save files, I have 2 memory cards, for each game to their individual 100% in game status, meaning
Spyro the Dragon = %120, Spyro: Ripto's Rage/ Gateway to Glimmer = 100%, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon = 117%.

Quote: ClassicSpyroFan

Nice, hopefully your Spyro the Dragon disc is still in a good enough condition for speed running should you decide to give it a shot. =)

Also, yay for the return of Yoshi.

It'll work, I literally have about 5 of them.

Now the only question is, which disc... is the working disc? *evil laugh*

Edit: I'm dedicating this entire day to speed running, I don't plan on topping my best time, just aiming for another sub 2 hour run, which is much easier said than done. >.<

Oh! It reminds me of this week's Hey Hey it's Saturday(Wednesday ) episode, there were 5 car keys and one of them worked, so whoever had that one won the car!

1 person goes home happy, 4 just go home. =P

Failed run only lasted 8 minutes. >.>

Quote: ClassicSpyroFan

Lol 3 weeks? I know all 3 of the games' secret locations, obscure gems, and other various things that a first time player would miss, but that's only because of how many times I've played each game. Before I started speed running, I would usually have a mini marathon through all of the ps1 spyro games, but at a casual playing speed, where when I finished Year of the Dragon, I would see how long it took to complete everything then start again. =P

I was doing this in an attempt to make all 6 save files, I have 2 memory cards, for each game to their individual 100% in game status, meaning
Spyro the Dragon = %120, Spyro: Ripto's Rage/ Gateway to Glimmer = 100%, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon = 117%.

Lol, that's a bit of a coinsidence, I have only two PS memory cards too. Oh I knew, where all the gems and eggs were because I watched a Let's Play of it on YouTube, thanks to ShadowDevil2009, I manage to find everything pretty easily, and after watching it, I was determined to beat the game because I never done so before, the only thing that is time consuming, is some of the challenges and most of the speedways, every time I keep failing at them, that is the thing that slows me down. I find the challenges harder on this game.

A lot of the challenges are harder in this game true, but I find a majority of them to have a very minor difficulty.

Also, I remembered reading in a thread somewhere, that the tank mission in Haunted Tombs was extremely annoying. I found it easy if your patient about lining up your shots.

I suggest that if you're interested in speedrunning then you can PM Ratchet5 on youtube, he owns a speedrunning channel dedicated to Spyro Speedruns (link)... This isn't spam, its just by the sounds of it you have really good potential with this kind of stuff...

Quote: ClassicSpyroFan

A lot of the challenges are harder in this game true, but I find a majority of them to have a very minor difficulty.

Also, I remembered reading in a thread somewhere, that the tank mission in Haunted Tombs was extremely annoying. I found it easy if your patient about lining up your shots.

I don't mind that challenge, it's interesting, it took me between 4 or 5 attempts to pass that one.