Trivia Browser

Platformsarrow_right
Yearsarrow_right
Genresarrow_right
Collectionsarrow_right
Franchisesarrow_right
Companiesarrow_right
Tagsarrow_right
EarthBound
EarthBound (1994)
▲
1
▼
Attachment If the player enters Threed's circus tent and repeatedly uses the Check command on the rightmost corner, the game will glitch in a variety of unpredictable ways. The most minor of these outcomes involves a short delay in when the "No problem here." text box is thrown up, while more major results can escalate into full-scale corruptions; most results involve the text box spewing garbage data. The reason for these phenomena is because of a programming oversight: the game stores every map in a single file that players are transported around via warps. However, the corner where the glitch occurs contains a gap in the room's boundaries, enabling the player to use the Check command on out-of-bounds areas that the game was not programmed to read.

Following its discovery, the bug, popularly known as the "Threed Tent Glitch" and the "Check Area Glitch," became a key asset for speedrunners, as one possible effect gives players access to a debug menu, from which they can warp directly to the game's epilogue. Its utility only further increased after players discovered that it can be triggered very early in the game by using additional glitches to reach the top-right corner in Onett's map, which similarly gives access to an out-of-bounds area.
sell
Cheat, Debug, Glitch, Level Design, Mistake, Speedrun
person VinchVolt calendar_month November 13, 2024
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
YouTube videos showing the glitch in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPCFmr3Itog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu6G_QTg9zY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htkuzxxTV24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRWAvpeYgwY

TAS Videos page explaining the glitch:
https://tasvideos.org/GameResources/SNES/Earthbound#CheckAreaGlitch

The Cutting Room Floor article about the in-game debug menu which mentions the glitch's ability to open it:
https://tcrf.net/EarthBound/In-Game_Debug_Menu

YouTube videos showing how the glitch can be used to speedrun the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tliMUZG1QY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am3A3kQE2U8
Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine
Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine (2020)
▲
2
▼
Upon the release of the SpongeBob SquarePants parody fan game Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine, it proved to be a popular title for speedrunning, garnering over 160 submissions to the website Speedrun.com. However, it was rejected from the site under the logic of it being "short/trivial", fearing that people would either create short, low-effort fangames in a similar style to it for the sole purpose of claiming they have a world record, or locate obscure amateur non-commercial games for the sole purpose of owning a page on the website, potentially gatekeeping anyone who legitimately wants to play the game from submitting actual runs should they forget about the page. SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom world record holder and one of the website's SpongeBob SquarePants series admins, SHiFT, provided a contradictory story, as he claimed to have been informed that Speedrun.com's admins were concerned about legal issues arising from the depiction of SpongeBob characters consuming drugs.

This proved to be a controversial decision for several reasons, among those being Mr. Krabs Overdoses on Ketamine was a viral game at the time, multiple other "trivial" categories (some taking mere seconds) already existed on Speedrun.com, and it was argued that a short game like this could serve as a gateway into speedrunning as a whole. The game would eventually be allowed on the site.
sell
Complaint, Fan Works, Speedrun, Website
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month May 26, 2024
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Pizza Tower
Pizza Tower (2023)
▲
1
▼
Pizza Tower shifted from a puzzle/exploration-based game to a fast-paced game during development in response to videos of people speedrunning the SAGE 2019 demo.
sell
Demo, Development, Early Idea, Speedrun
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month January 21, 2024
comment Comment (0) | link Source
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
▲
1
▼
There is a character-specific skip that can only be performed by Faramir in the level "Shelobs Lair". Normally, defeating Shelob would take 3-4 cycles, but Faramir can defeat her in two cycles if the player hits her with the correct sequence of attacks:

• First cycle: three swift attacks in a row
• Second cycle: shoot an arrow at Shelob to make her jump down, activate Faramir's special ability (which helps perfect mode activate earlier), then hit Shelob with the 4 hit combo, "Swift Justice", making sure that the last hit is done while in perfect mode.

When executed properly, the remaining cycles will be skipped and the end level cutscene will activate, but it will be from an overhead camera angle with the character model standing in the middle of the scene.
sell
General, Speedrun
person Wolfen50 calendar_month December 30, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Microsoft Minesweeper
Microsoft Minesweeper (1990)
▲
1
▼
Bill Gates became so addicted to Minesweeper that he had to delete it off of his PC to focus on work. He would then go to then-Microsoft president Mike Hallman and borrow his PC when he wanted to play the game, and eventually got a record of 5 seconds. Following this, Microsoft development manager Tom Reeves would cheat at beating Gates' time by building a macro to automatically complete the game. Gates would respond in an email:

"My critical skills are being displaced by a computer. This technology thing is going too far. How can one retain human dignity when computers do the important stuff better than people?"
sell
General, Real Life, Record, Speedrun, Technology
person Rocko & Heffer calendar_month November 20, 2023
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime (2002)
▲
1
▼
When you are locked onto a target in Metroid Prime, pressing the jump button does a sideways dash. This lets the player easily strafe around a target and dodge incoming fire. This sideways strafe jump sets a horizontal velocity on the player that continues to circle around the target while locked on, but if you unlock the target just as the strafe jump starts, Samus keeps the horizontal momentum without the lock-on pull. This trick, which the game's speedrunning community called the Scan Dash, allows for a larger horizontal distance traversal than a normal jump. Using this momentum can let Samus catch the edge of the cliff beside her ship in the Landing Site and get the Space Jump Boots early upon landing.

According to programmer Zoid Kirsch, creative use of the game physics and movement that results in acquiring items out of order allows for creative exploration of the game world. While sequence breaks like this are a crucial part of the Metroid series, this trick would actually be patched out in later releases of the game.
sell
Console Difference, Development, General, Speedrun, Update Difference, Version Difference
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month September 16, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Zoid Kirsch tweet:
https://twitter.com/ZoidCTF/status/1592354759868313602

Metroid Prime speedrun wiki page on Scan Dash:
https://wiki.metroidprime.run/wiki/Scan_Dash_(Prime)
Annalynn
Annalynn (2021)
▲
2
▼
As of version 1.3, after inputting a secret code on the Practice Mode select screen, "Mike%" is activated, which adds a timer to the game which stops once Mike is defeated. This is presumably a nod to the Mike% speedrunning category found on the game's page on Speedrun.com.

If this code is active while playing the game's final level, Mike is found sleeping in the corner of the boss room.
sell
Bonus Content, Cheat, Competitive, Easter Egg, Meme, Record, Reference, Secret, Speedrun, Update Difference
person FazDude calendar_month September 7, 2023
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
Annalynn - Sleeping Mike Secret?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TIzoajSn_k

Speedrun.com Mike% speedrunning category:
https://www.speedrun.com/annalynn?h=Mike&;x=7dg03y7k
Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight (2014)
▲
1
▼
Attachment There are several zips/screen wraps and out of bounds travel spots in the game that can be performed with Shovel Knight, Plague Knight, and Specter Knight. Each Knight has the ability to perform them in different areas in different ways, with some not being intended by the developers and patched out to prevent them from happening during casual play, while others that they saw as being hard to pull off by first-time players were left in and are still used by the game's speedrunning community (as of September 2021).

Shovel Knight can perform the "Bubble Wrap" zip in the Plains of Passage by bouncing off of one of the Bubble Dragon's bubbles, causing the game's camera to try and follow Shovel Knight by pushing him through an off-screen transition into the room directly above the Bubble Dragon.

Plague Knight can perform similar harmless "Room Zips" in one area in the Iron Whale by bursting, jumping, bursting again, followed by two uses of the Staff of Surging to access a secret room with a Music Sheet, and when boarding the Flying Machine by using a combination of the Vat and Burst Jumping to skip two vertical screens and the challenges within them. In previous versions of the game, Plague Knight could preserve their momentum before entering a boss room, allowing speedrunners to set themselves up by triggering the opening dialogue to a boss fight in more advantageous spots than normal. This would be patched out later to prevent unexpected results, but still allowed a brief window for players to perform any action, including bursting forwards to bosses anyways. All characters may do any action frame perfectly after the transition, including pausing.

Specter Knight used to be able to perform a transition in the second stage of the Tower of Fate ("????" in New Game + only). Normally, Specter Knight can perform an easter egg by jumping off of a ledge in the Tower of Fate, but will not lose money and trigger a cutscene with either Dark Acolyte or Reize. However, the plane that triggers this death used to be low enough that Specter Knight could float underneath a nearby ledge precisely and use that as a screen transition to enter areas the player is not supposed to go to yet. In a later update, this plane was raised to prevent this glitch from happening, but Specter Knight does have a glitch that was intentionally left in by the developers. In the Lost City, a trick called "Lost Spaghetti can be performed in one area by having Specter Knight turn the lava into bouncy goo while he is falling in. If done right, Specter Knight should fall just below the plane where he would bounce on the goo and harmlessly phase through it into the room below, missing the death plane normally assigned to the lava.
sell
Easter Egg, General, Glitch, Hidden Message, Speedrun
person MooMooAkai calendar_month September 27, 2021
comment Comment (0) | link Source
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Crash Bandicoot: Warped (1998)
subdirectory_arrow_right Crash Bandicoot (Game), Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (Game)
▲
1
▼
Attachment In the first three Crash Bandicoot games, a glitch can be performed when bouncing on multiple enemies consecutively. Normally, by bouncing on 5 enemies in a row, you get an extra Life in addition to 3 Wumpas from the previous 3 enemies in that combo. However, the bonuses that come from bouncing combos go further beyond that into triple-digit combos as a result of there being no set combo limit. This means if performed correctly, triple-digit combos can overflow the item table to give key items that you are not intended to get through them including Tokens, Crystals, Gems, Sapphires, Relics and Powers.

This can be achieved through tool assistance or through human play by building up the bounce combo on a respawning enemy or more ideally an Iron Arrow Crate, and then continuing the combo on enemies to start reaping these items. Preserving a bounce combo can be done by spinning and crouching right before hitting the ground, as the combo count is lost when Crash enters the standing or walking animations.

The attached image features a list of items that can be earned through this glitch, as well as the requirements for glitched higher percentage runs of each game, created by speedrunners dass and ThaRixer, the latter of whom originally utilized the glitch to dramatically lower the speedrun record of Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back in 2012.
sell
Glitch, Speedrun
person MehDeletingLater calendar_month August 25, 2021
comment Comment (0) | Source
arrow_right
TASVideos page with a 2017 speedrun explaining the glitch:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210228163254/http://tasvideos.org/5383S.html

Current Any% speedrun world record as of November 2023:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzdDBqeiAn4

Former Any% speedrun world record by the same runner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCHHKuSNdPg

ThaRixer video on this glitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Z-jygMyE4&;ab_channel=ThaRixer
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. (1985)
▲
1
▼
The current world record for fastest time beating the game is 4:54.631 seconds by speed runner Niftski as of September 8, 2023. This record surpassed his previous record by ~0.167 seconds.
sell
General, Real Life, Speedrun
person gamerofgames calendar_month June 29, 2014
comment Comment (2) | link Source