Here’s one for the history books: the world’s fastest HL: Blue Shift speedrun. And another one for the history books: this thing was released almost 3 months ago. So the only logical conclusion here is… quadrazid is fast, Vic is slow. It’s funny, you see, because I can’t strafejump for s**t. Hell, I can barely tell the difference between strafejumping and bhopping. But I still manage to dominate Portal 2′s Challenge Mode on my Friends list.
But enough about me, and my… anti-skills or something. Let’s talk about quadrazid. Yeah, he’s done it again. Back in July, he did a pretty monumental single-segment Half-Life 1 run that was pretty damn close to the established HL1 world record. This time, he’s moved on to bigger things. Like a world-record segmented Blue Shift speedrun. Performed together with rayvex (formerly known as Dark Devil) on Blue Shift 1.0.0.1 (the 2001 unpatched retail release) using the classic “Low Definition” models and sounds, this thing clocks in at just 25 minutes and 3 seconds. It’s done with scripts, but all the best speedruns use a script or two.
Enough talk!
You can find more info on the run at SourceRuns, where Quadrazid has made a forum thread all about it. There’s also some info in this forum thread at the SDA. The previous Blue Shift world record was held by Maciej “groobo” Maselewski, with a time of 27:39. This run took 3 months to plan, although the actual performance was done from the 5th of August to the 20th of September. Work on the run was split 50-50 between Quadrazid and Rayvex.
That’s not all Quadrazid has been up to. He performed a phenomenal Opposing Force single-segment, scriptless speedrun back in November, which is actually the world’s first-ever Opposing Force single-segment speedrun. Like… literally. He’s the only one who’s ever done it. In case you’re not familiar with a single-segment run, it’s a continuous speedrun performed entirely in one sitting. There are no pauses, there is no saving, and there is no room for error. Sneezing once can cost you an entire run. There can be no distractions. Single-segment runners are like Buddhists, for christ’s sake. This OF run clocks in at 29 minutes and 6 seconds, and again, it was done using no scripts. It’s not the world’s fastest OF run overall (that belongs to an older segmented speedrun that did use scripts), but it’s still an exceptional achievement. Check it out!
Hot damn! Now that is the way you do it. Notice how Quadrazid leaves a message for us at the end. It’s simply “:>”. Yes, there’s nothing like teasing the Gene Worm in its death throes. That’s swag.
But that’s not actually the last notable speedrun Quadrazid has done in the past year since his HL SS run. He also did a world-record segmented (but not scriptless) Tool-Assisted speedrun of the HL1 Hazard Course (which is infamous for being extremely tough to master and establish a world record on) back in late July. Clocking in at 2 minutes and 18 seconds, this is a “TAS” run, which means he used special tools that are not available within the boundaries of the game itself, and its rules, such as slowmotion, pausing and the frame-advance. He also uses some scripts, but trust me, it’s all worth it, because this thing is a spectacle:
He’s got some info on the run inside a SourceRuns forum thread, as well as a forum thread on the TASVideos forum, so check both of those out as well.
The last Quadrazid run we’re going to talk about today is an oldie, but a goldie. A late-2009 segmented speedrun of Half-Life: Decay: “Half-Life Decay Done Double Quick”, or “HLDDDQ”, using the fan-made PC mod port. Clocking in at 26 minutes and 28 seconds, it is a world record Decay speedrun, and a RTS performance (as in Real-Time Speedrun, so no tools were used and it is not a TAS run, unlike the Hazard Course run). Uses a few scripts, but makes excellent use of tricks and bugs that were newly-found at the time the speedrun was being performed. Let’s take a look:
And here is its SDA forum thread with some info. There’s also a forum thread on the official Decay PC mod port about the speedrun.
The last speed run we’re going to talk about today is a much more recent run. A world-record, single-segment (but again, not scriptless) run of Half-Life: Uplink, clocking in at 1 minute and 39 seconds. Performed by new runner, Thomas “Pineapple” Demkowski, this thing is… well, just go on and take a look.
Holy jesus. Now that is amazing. He even gave us some info on the run via a SourceRuns forum thread. You know, I think we’re just going to end the article here before anyone gets a cerebrovascular stroke. We’re just holding out for Quadrazid’s Half-Life 3 speedrun. Knowing how slowly Valve is developing it, the speedrun will almost surely be amazingly fast.
9 Responses to “Incredible Blue Shift World Record Speedrun Performed by Quadrazid and Rayvex, And More Breathtaking Valve Speedruns”
Using any scripts invalidates speedruns, it’s considered cheating in the community, i’m sorry but if they guys can’t bunnyhop/strafjump without scripts and or hacks they are nothing but noobs, i’d even suggest he’s using more then 100fps and at times using more then default settings ie:air acceleration and side-speed/fowardspeed/back-speed
No, he uses default server settings for every single run he’s done. As for scripting being seen as cheating… well, that’s just your opinion, isn’t it?
@hl1fan
I’m just gonna go ahead and call you an idiot for several reasons:
1. You make it sound like you would know something about the speedrunning community when in reality you dont know shit.
Scripts are NOT considered cheating in the community, but there is a clear distinction being made between script and scriptless runs. They are seperated in different categories. Of course you can’t compare a scripless run to a run that uses scripts; thats not the intention, that wouldnt be fair and thats why there is a clear seperation being made.
There’s even a third, more extreme category of speedruns called TAS (tool-assisted-speedrun) which even relies on the use of external third-party software to slowdown or frame advance the game in order to achieve the fastest time that would theoretically be possible if humans weren’t bound to limitations (reflexes, skill etc.).
2. Most of these runs were done with the intention of achieving the best possible time while still using our skill and reflexes. Thats why we went for the script run since 90% of input/action is still done by the player itself while the scripts basically act as an assistance for certain things. (If you think otherwise, then you’re wrong)
Now, what makes you think that we can’t strafejump/bunnyhop at all and call us noobs just because of the fact we did a run utilizing scripts?
You know, there’s a difference between bunnyhopping and bunnyhopping with PERFECT timing and without any friction which drastically improves speed and acceleration.
A human (yes, that includes you too) will not be able to perform the latter, its outright impossible.
In fact, not even scripts can do that. There will always be a frame that will create friction on the ground losing some potential speed, but it’s definately faster.
3. Nice try at guessing the ingame settings that have been used. Sadly, you fail entirely.
All runs were done on default settings, no altering.
The funny part is that in terms of the Blue-Shift run, the fps was NOT EVEN 100, it was actually 72 due to a very early WON version of the game that we used which capped the fps at 72.
Also, Sidespeed/forwardspeed/backspeed cannot be altered unless you change sv_maxspeed in the first place.
Don’t try to look smart about things that in reality, you know shit about.
After all, it turned out you were wrong on every single point you made, its kinda funny.
If you think you can do better, do so and prove it.
If you still think we are noobs because we cant bunnyhop, I challenge you to play a scriptless match vs me in HL.
I’ll run a stopwatch to see how long it will take for you to leave.
Hey rayvex, you should probably do your research before calling someone an idiot for something they are correct about.
1) Even if he knows nothing of the community, he got one part correct: the speedrunning community DOES NOT approve of script usage whatsoever. Source: Google search “SpeedDemosArchive scripts” and click the first result. It explains that scripts are deemed illegitimate.
2) This point is laughable because you say that the runs are done with the intention of attain the best possible time with human skills and reflexes… yet scripts enable tricks that CANNOT be attained with human skills and reflexes.
3) I cant argue this point because the op was wrong abut this.
Well said rayvex.
@hl1fan
If you even read the article. You would know that the OF run was entirely scriptless.
I don’t know what you are comparing to if you call that run a noobie.
HL2 speedruns aren’t as damndedly fast as HL, since you can’t bunny-hop or tau-jump. I think the world record is somewhere around 2 hours 30 minutes, and that was with that “standing on physprops” bug that has now been removed.
That’s from when HL2 did have bhopping, actually. The WR in question belongs to the HL2DQ team, I believe. As eXeC mentioned, the Source Runs folks have established a new team for a “Half-Life 2 Done Quicker”, which I assume can be abbreviated to “HL2DQR”. They’ll be doing it on the Source 2009 version of HL2.
Nice article! Looks like HL1 runs are getting much more attention in HL speedrunning. Btw, too bad you didn’t mentioned about Half-Life 2 Re-Run that we (SourceRuns) are doing this time
There’s nothing really solid on that at the moment. Evidently, when you folks are done with it, there will be an article for it.