Dink Smallwood speedrun record?
It's by me, I think, 35 mins 32 seconds. Video quality is crap, should have known better to EDIT: not use Camtasia when I didn't know how to use it. Route can still be improved if anybody is up to a challenge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoMUCHiegI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXoMUCHiegI
What the hell you cheated in part 4 you didnt even defeat the dragons on the deserted island you glithced yourself all over the dam place.
No cheating was involved 
It's a hardness error there that's in the original game, and from there on it was possible to run to almost any place in the game. It's how the game works. IMO getting to the ending is what counts as beating the game... and as far as speedrunning goes you are of course obliged to play the game's rules & limits to their max potential, else why call it a speedrun if you're just limping through it?
I'd also have skipped straight through that hardness bug to fight Seth, but I found out you couldn't start the boss fight until you went there normally through the entrance in Darklands.
It's a hardness error there that's in the original game, and from there on it was possible to run to almost any place in the game. It's how the game works. IMO getting to the ending is what counts as beating the game... and as far as speedrunning goes you are of course obliged to play the game's rules & limits to their max potential, else why call it a speedrun if you're just limping through it?I'd also have skipped straight through that hardness bug to fight Seth, but I found out you couldn't start the boss fight until you went there normally through the entrance in Darklands.
Im trying to beat you but you are pretty good
I think I've ran the game through in like 40-45 mins before, by going through it properly. It's hard to beat Synbi's time unless you play it through like he did.
Wouldn't Seth or the team hold the record since they can just hey to the ending if they want.
It's hard to beat Synbi's time unless you play it through like he did.
Pretty sure its impossible to beat him unless you did what he did.
Pretty sure its impossible to beat him unless you did what he did.
Don't think it's impossible. Dink has a lot of random things in it that will effect how fast you can play it through. I think it'd actually be rather easy to get an extra 5-10 minutes if you're having good luck with monsters dropping more gold and such things.
Don't think it's impossible. Dink has a lot of random things in it that will effect how fast you can play it through. I think it'd actually be rather easy to get an extra 5-10 minutes if you're having good luck with monsters dropping more gold and such things.
Unless you did what he did by glitching himself over the map Its impossible to beat him by playing properly(by using no glitches)
Unless you did what he did by glitching himself over the map Its impossible to beat him by playing properly(by using no glitches)
As I said, don't think it's impossible. But all the stars would sure have to align for it to happen.
If you don't exploit bugs, I don't think you really need to beat synbi's time, though. You get different bragging rights for beating the game fair & square. 
As I said, don't think it's impossible. But all the stars would sure have to align for it to happen.
From a pure logical standpoint it pretty much is.
From a pure logical standpoint it pretty much is.
Well, I just tried it. I played properly with no herb boots, and ended up at the Joppa Isle dragon part when I reached Synbi's time, which is the point at which I stopped playing. I had some bad luck (walking into wrong screens, not getting best amounts of gold, and getting stuck in the map), so I spent around 2 to 3 extra minutes, probably. Then again, I did find Quackers on my first try, which can save a lot of time. Had not those mistakes happened and had I got herb boots, I'd say it's possible to get to Seth in Synbi's time. Maybe even beat the game if you really squeeze it.
You can try but you will found out that you cant
I think it all boils down to your strategy for beating Seth. I planned my run in advance with the goal of gettin over 30 strength by the end & herb boots then just rush through it, thinking Seth would be piece o cake after I could get my hits pass his 30 defense. Boy was it not that simple... the fight in the 4th part is dang hilarious to watch... I can't believe I made it through after sucking like that.
I'm pretty sure there are better ways to go about it. Hellfire is deadly but slow recharging and expensive to get, so I didn't care to aim for that. Heavy bow might work, but bow lore is also expensive to get, and there aren't many fast ways to get gold in the game. It's probably plausible to just buy the claw sword (light sword if ya can afford it), miss some of the harder to reach powerups to save time, and go wreck Seth's head off in record time.
The glitch is just simply a small gap in hardness, as long as an official patch doesn't fix it (there's a few more hardness errors like it in other places), it's part of the game and of course you can take advantage of it - and you should, it's a speedrun after all. And yea I made pretty bad mistakes all over, but like Skull said luck is involved in many many ways in this game so it's easy for simple things to end up taking you much longer in repeat attempts.
I'm pretty sure there are better ways to go about it. Hellfire is deadly but slow recharging and expensive to get, so I didn't care to aim for that. Heavy bow might work, but bow lore is also expensive to get, and there aren't many fast ways to get gold in the game. It's probably plausible to just buy the claw sword (light sword if ya can afford it), miss some of the harder to reach powerups to save time, and go wreck Seth's head off in record time.
The glitch is just simply a small gap in hardness, as long as an official patch doesn't fix it (there's a few more hardness errors like it in other places), it's part of the game and of course you can take advantage of it - and you should, it's a speedrun after all. And yea I made pretty bad mistakes all over, but like Skull said luck is involved in many many ways in this game so it's easy for simple things to end up taking you much longer in repeat attempts.
@Dack:
Speaking from the perspective of a game designer, albeit an amateur one, testing the game to make sure it works doesn't really count as a speedrun. especially when you can just set things up to take you there.
Speaking from the perspective of a game designer, albeit an amateur one, testing the game to make sure it works doesn't really count as a speedrun. especially when you can just set things up to take you there.
Good work on the speed run, synbi. It was fun watching you navigate the map after going through the hardness error. It was also a lot of fun watching you punch Seth to death, complete with "Watch Conan O'Brien!"
Here's something I noticed near the start: It's faster to punch Quackers than talk to him. If you do that, you don't have to go to Ethel's anymore. You can walk straight home and the game will continue.
I know it's not a big time savings, but it's an easy one.
Here's something I noticed near the start: It's faster to punch Quackers than talk to him. If you do that, you don't have to go to Ethel's anymore. You can walk straight home and the game will continue.
I know it's not a big time savings, but it's an easy one.
The glitch is just simply a small gap in hardness, as long as an official patch doesn't fix it (there's a few more hardness errors like it in other places), it's part of the game and of course you can take advantage of it - and you should, it's a speedrun after all.
Exploiting obvious bugs is a bit icky, IMO. Sure, they're part of the game, but so are built-in cheats; either way you're breaking the game, in a way you wouldn't do on an "honourable" playthrough.
There's nothing but "honour" stopping you from playing on an old version, either. A speedrun on v1.05 might have some interesting opportunities. It's just a matter of what kind of ruleset the speedrunner wants to impose on themself - there's no one true way you're obliged to do it.
On the topic of beating the half hour mark, it would be pretty neat to see a speedrun on Dink HD. Game over in 15 minutes?
Exploiting obvious bugs is a bit icky, IMO. Sure, they're part of the game, but so are built-in cheats; either way you're breaking the game, in a way you wouldn't do on an "honourable" playthrough.
There's nothing but "honour" stopping you from playing on an old version, either. A speedrun on v1.05 might have some interesting opportunities. It's just a matter of what kind of ruleset the speedrunner wants to impose on themself - there's no one true way you're obliged to do it.
On the topic of beating the half hour mark, it would be pretty neat to see a speedrun on Dink HD.
Game over in 15 minutes?Personally, I don't think "honor" has anything to do with speedruns. Different goalsets, on the other hand - say, a "no hardness glitch run" or a "no herb boots run" make sense.
I can't really respect a speedrun where glitches are taken advantage of. I'm sure I could beat the original Dink in 30 seconds by finding some mistake left in by RTSoft. I doubt anyone would think that's fair or consider it an actual speedrun.
I'd be impressed if you could do that. I don't think there's any mistake that egregious, but hey, I could be wrong. A run like that would impress me, although it would make an ironclad case for a "no (whatever glitch that was) run" to be maintained as a separate record as well.
If you look around at video game speedruns, taking advantage of glitches is extremely common. It's the norm, in fact. If you're trying to win as fast as possible, you do whatever it takes to do that (short of, say, cheat codes). Finding such things is one of the challenges in speed running.
This one doesn't actually skip THAT much of the game. A lot of speedruns feature much bigger skip glitches, like the shorter runs of Mario 64 here. Or the skip-glitch run of Ocarina of Time. Of course, as you can see, they also feature regular runs, so I can't see any reason not to live and let live on this.
If you look around at video game speedruns, taking advantage of glitches is extremely common. It's the norm, in fact. If you're trying to win as fast as possible, you do whatever it takes to do that (short of, say, cheat codes). Finding such things is one of the challenges in speed running.
This one doesn't actually skip THAT much of the game. A lot of speedruns feature much bigger skip glitches, like the shorter runs of Mario 64 here. Or the skip-glitch run of Ocarina of Time. Of course, as you can see, they also feature regular runs, so I can't see any reason not to live and let live on this.
Personally, I don't think "honor" has anything to do with speedruns.
Yeah yeah, I do know I should have thought up some considerably less lofty sounding word. I just mean that, you have to draw the line on what's allowed somewhere. Whether it is to choose the buggiest version of a game available, and using every cheap trick imaginable in-game, OR playing honourably in the sense that you choose to not take advantage such things... Both are valid approaches to do a speedrun, in my mind.
Yeah yeah, I do know I should have thought up some considerably less lofty sounding word.
I just mean that, you have to draw the line on what's allowed somewhere. Whether it is to choose the buggiest version of a game available, and using every cheap trick imaginable in-game, OR playing honourably in the sense that you choose to not take advantage such things... Both are valid approaches to do a speedrun, in my mind.I'm on board with you both on this, there's many categories of speedruns out there it's a question of respecting the rules of the category in question. If I'd found a 30 second glitch I'd have used that in the future I don't see why somebody wouldn't wanna make a run that didn't take advantage of hardness errors like I did and I'd respect the player's decision to go with that style of play... would be fun to watch one too I'm sure 
in the future I don't see why somebody wouldn't wanna make a run that didn't take advantage of hardness errors like I did and I'd respect the player's decision to go with that style of play... would be fun to watch one too I'm sure 
As far as I'm concerned, even abusing bugs like this counts as a legitimate speed run, because it's part of what the game is. Plus, it takes a lot of cleverness to find bugs like this, or like the one in the 20 minute (or however short it was) Ocarina speed run. As long as no cheating of any sort that's not naturally part of the base game (cheat codes, tool assists, etc) occurs, I view it as legitimate.
While I enjoy watching some of those tool-assisted speed runs of games like Sonic, they aren't legitimate speed runs. That's where the line is drawn for me.
While I enjoy watching some of those tool-assisted speed runs of games like Sonic, they aren't legitimate speed runs. That's where the line is drawn for me.
