Games Done Quick Hosts Charity Speedrun Marathon on Twitch

Twitch channel Games Done Quick has started a seven-day summer marathon in which gamers try to beat their favorite games as fast as they can.

Starting today, the so-called Summer Games Done Quick Marathon, which will last through the end of the week, will bring in many notorious speedrunners on YouTube. If you haven’t been in touch with this part of the technological sphere, speedrunners are people who try to finish a game in the least amount of time possible without using cheats, but open to exploiting game quirks and glitches.

A vast assortment of games both modern and classic is included in the event’s schedule. The first day will kick off with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island done by Trihex, continuing with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric by mieDax. Among the gamers to be rushed through in the following week count Donkey Kong Country, Resident Evil 3&4, Bioshock Infinite, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Shadow of the Colossus or Doom 64.

The marathon is also directed towards donations, as a popular feature on Twitch channels is for viewers to donate to their favorite game streamers. All donations during the event will be redirected towards Doctors Without Borders, with the channel’s goal being set at one million dollars.

The channel has also prepared a list of special donation types which will require speedrunners to do additional challenges in their games, while still trying to do them as quick as possible, or just modify aspects of it. For example, a bidding “war” will decided what character will be played during the Mario Kart Wii speedrun, with the highest bidder getting to decide between Funky Kong or Rosalina.

“Bid wars are a donation competition. Some games have been pre-arranged with runners to be decided by donation, while certain run categories, character names, colors, or a wide aspect of game qualities are decided by bid war” is said on the event’s FAQ page.

Speedrunning games is not really a recent affair, with some gamers boasting about finishing certain games as quickly as possible since, well, forever. However, the phenomenon became more popular with the rise of YouTube, as players could now make videos of their runs available to a large audience, and compete with solid proof against fellow speedrunner. Their goal is to get from the beginning to the ending credits in the least amount of time possible, using only what the game lets you do. This has resulted in some exceptional cases such as the 60-hour long 2002 classic Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind being beaten in just about 4 minutes by a combination of glitches and in-game exploits.

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