The world's most insane retro-gaming speedrunners, streaming all week for charity.

In the world of classic video games, bragging rights (and unforgettable documentaries) used to go to world-record high-score battles. That has shifted somewhat in recent years due to the world of speedrunning, in which gamers combine incredible skills and glitch trickery to squeeze short completion times out of their favorite old games.

While anybody new to the speedrunning world can pick through gaming-video archives on Twitch and YouTube to learn more, I personally recommend something with more excitement and fanfare: Awesome Games Done Quick. The annual, live-streamed gaming marathon launched on Sunday, and this seventh iteration will operate at pretty much all hours for the next six days, complete with a live studio audience in Herndon, Virginia, watching along the whole time.

That means you could be watching an amazing speedrun right now. Your work day may have just begun, but if AGDQ is running on time when this article publishes, a game streamer with the handle DevilSquirrel should have just begun playing a clever, little-known puzzle game from late 2014 called Kalimba. This game is a particularly good candidate for speedrunning, since it requires that its solo players manage two characters (and their very precise jumps and maneuvers) simultaneously.

https://youtu.be/-zHhOJbVVnU

Highlights from the show's first day included a nail-biting Super Mario Kart time-trial race, in which two amazing players could be seen racing neck-and-neck until the final few tracks, and a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D run in which the player had a self-imposed rule of clearing each of the game's dungeons (which isn't technically required, if you want to glitch and shortcut your way through). Today's schedule, meanwhile, starts with a few less popular games (what, you've never heard of the aforementioned Kalimba?!), with the day's highlight probably being a back-to-back "pacifist" run of the first two Ninja Gaiden NES games (meaning, the players must avoid killing enemies whenever humanly possible).

That Ninja Gaiden run doesn't start until around midnight Eastern time, but don't worry if you have an early bedtime. Games Done Quick usually archives its content hours after each game's completion. (That YouTube channel also includes archives of its sister event, Summer Games Done Quick, which runs every July.) If you must watch your favorite game's speedrun live this week, check the full schedule, whose listings should automatically adjust for your time zone. Most gaming systems, and many PC gaming eras, are represented in the full schedule, but if you only tune in for one segment, make it the TASBot run on Saturday afternoon. Every year, we've seen some amazing TASBot hackery, and we expect this year's to be no exception.
The marathon includes an ongoing charity drive, with all proceeds going to the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Many of the games have variables chosen by donors, with votes for specific gameplay tweaks being decided by which voting option is backed by the most specifically allocated donor dollars. (If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber, you can go to GDQ's Twitch channel, then apply a "free subscription" toggle via your Twitch Prime status, which gives $5 to the charity drive.)

If you're wondering why Ars' productivity might be reduced the next few days, or why most of the gaming journalists at this week's Nintendo Switch reveal events appear to be staring intently at their phones and laptop screens during downtime, now you know why. To all of our weekday warriors who might tune in throughout their workdays, a quick reminder: command+W closes tabs in OS X; control+W does the same in Windows and Linux; and control+shift+tab switches between tabs on all three OSes.

These are pretty fun to watch, especially for nostalgia factor. Games that were impossible for me as a kid are just destroyed by these amazingly talented players. Of course the runs are just as entertaining time shifted, so I'll plan to catch up over the weekend.