SGDQ 2017: Better Know a Runner Part 1: Garrison
The Renaissance runner speaks on Bucky O'Hare, Metroid, and the taboo against self-imposed limits
If you haven't heard, Summer Games Done Quick, the annual speed running marathon, is underway once again. All this week, well over a hundred participants are performing around the clock, blazing through games old and new, good and bad, for your entertainment and to raise donations for Doctors Without Borders (a.k.a. Médecins Sans Frontières). Including the Awesome Games Done Quick drive held every January, the GDQ events have become a major cultural event for runners and spectators alike, with tens of thousands of people collectively pledging millions of dollars for charity.
As the GDQs continue to grow in scope and relevance, I thought it would be enlightening to get in close and speak with some of the individual people who help make them happen. So I reached out to a couple of runners who were gracious enough to discuss how they got into the game and what moves them, as well as give the inside scoop on what they'll be running this week. The first is Garrison, a longtime Super Metroid runner who has since branched out to master an eclectic portfolio of platformers. He'll be running Bucky O'Hare for the NES around noontime GMT on Wednesday, so be sure to pencil him on your schedule. And remember, if you can't tune in during any given run, it won't be long before archival links show up on the Games Done Quick YouTube channel and at GDQ VODs. A record of all Garrison's past GDQ runs can also be found on his GDQ VODs page.
Retronauts: Could you tell us a bit about your history as a speed runner?
Garrison: I started speedrunning back in 2009 after quitting a job I hated. I played Super Metroid after seeing Let's Plays that talked about low percentage runs. I played on my modded PSP back in the day and kept going for fewer items and faster game time completions. I learned about AGDQ from watching a friend run Super Metroid at AGDQ 2010, and I was inspired to stick with it. I ended up finding SpeedRunsLive and raced Super Metroid a ton and eventually rose to be the world record holder in the any% category off and on for a couple years. I hit my goals with that game and picked up Donkey Kong Country and held the records in that game for a couple years as well. Aside from that, I've run about forty games at varying skill levels, and I've done runs in six live marathons.
Note: "Game time" refers to the readout of in-game timers, which tend to be less precise than an external stopwatch. Depending on the way a given game calculates play time, it's even possible to get a lower game time while playing for longer in real time. "Any%" is a catch-all speed run category, simply focusing on completing a game as quickly as possible without the special qualifications found in categories such as "100%" or "low%."
Retronauts: You're scheduled to run Bucky O'Hare on Hard at SGDQ next week. Without spoiling too much, what can you tell us about that run? And aside from "It's harder," what are the major differences between the Hard category and a run on Normal?
Garrison: Bucky O'Hare is a relatively obscure Mega Man clone made by Konami. Hard mode itself is kind of unique in that the devs designed it to punish folks who bootlegged the game and make it "impossible" to complete. If an illegitimate copy of the game was detected, a trigger would flip that enables one-hit kills compared to the usual health bar with sixteen or so ticks of health similar to Mega Man. The design of the game is somewhat unique for its time in that the stages are split into acts that are essentially set piece gimmicks that build off of each other. The bosses are a good mix of pixel precision kills as well as heavy button mashing required for success. The music is jammin'.
Retronauts: This will be your first time performing at a GDQ event since SGDQ 2015. After two years, what made you ready to get back on the couch?
Note: I had this a bit wrong. He was actually last at AGDQ 2016, where he raced Rockman 4 Burst Chaser X Air Sliding, a Mega Man ROM hack.
Garrison: Yeah, it's been about a year and a half since I've done a live run at a marathon. I originally had set out to move on in life and pursue relationships and job opportunities, and neither ended up working out. In an attempt to rediscover myself, I thought it would be a good opportunity to retread old paths and get back to speedrunning. I ran Bucky O'Hare as a favor to fill time at SGDQ 2014, but I had less than twenty-four hours to prepare, and it wasn't to the best of my ability considering the short notice. Three years later, I'm ready to give it another crack.
Retronauts: I recall you were planning to run the original Metroid at SGDQ in addition to Bucky. Was it cut from the schedule?
Garrison: Kind of the opposite of the situation that happened at SGDQ 2014 happened. I was asked if I would mind giving up one of my runs to free up more time at the marathon, and I agreed to drop Metroid in favor of Bucky because at the time I had been more practiced in the latter. Metroid is also marathon ready at this point, and I'll be trying to play that at AGDQ this winter.
Retronauts: Sounds like we already have something to look forward to for next time. Could you tell us a bit about that run? It's a pretty unusual category, right?
Garrison: Yeah, so Metroid used to have a horrible reputation at marathons because the run used to involve a lot of farming for missiles to succeed. It was incredibly based on luck, and the game itself is really tough. Metroid got rerouted a couple months ago, and now almost all the luck has been cut out in favor of using out-of-bounds glitches to fight Kraid immediately with nothing but the Morph Ball. Beyond that, the run skips Ridley entirely and glitches into Tourian early to beat Mother Brain. The run itself can be done in eleven minutes now compared to the twenty or so at previous marathons. It has been kind of a passion project of mine and a few other runners, so I'm excited to see it at future events.
Retronauts: In general, do you prefer the process of planning out the ideal route for a speed run, or do you have more fun when you know what to do and "just" have to execute it as efficiently as possible?
Garrison: I fall more into the latter category of runner. In general, I find speedrunning to be at its most enjoyable when I have the full toolset of knowledge at my disposal. The best part of running for me personally is executing well and reacting to failure and luck without wasting too much time. Being able to apply game knowledge in real time to adapt on the fly is incredibly rewarding. I'm not much of a router, but I do enjoy theorycrafting and strategy development for individual segments.
Retronauts: You've run games like Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country that focus on complex movement tech, as well as shorter, relatively simpler games like Bucky O'Hare and Donald Land. Is there a certain type of game you prefer for running, if not casually?
Garrison: I personally enjoy games with higher skill caps a bit more than the simple ones. For me, though, it becomes a case where I go through moods where I want to run something to challenge myself, and sometimes it's just a form of escapism to blow off steam. A lot of the more simple games I pick up tend to stem from my love of learning how games work and learning about obscure games. My tastes for obscure games to run span stuff like Bio Force Ape, Streemerz, and Super Contra 7.
Retronauts: You've been running for some years now. Is there any sage advice you'd like to offer to anyone just getting into it?
Garrison: The best advice I can give anyone is to get in touch with the community of your game of choice. Right now there are so many great resources for new runners such as Speedrun.com, SpeedRunsLive IRC, community Discord servers, and all the Twitch chats out there. There are a ton of smaller games that don't have communities, and if you want to go with something more obscure, don't be afraid to check out TASVideos.org for ideas or various Let's Plays or longplays on YouTube for ideas. The best actual advice I've ever given is this: People set a lot of bars for themselves with what is possible, and that only an "idiot" would try to do the impossible against better judgment. If you really want to succeed and break minds, you can't do that without being that idiot. Be the idiot.
Retronauts: Wow. Words to live by. Finally, where should people go if they want to watch your runs?
Garrison: I stream regularly at https://www.twitch.tv/0garrison. Right now my main focus is Bucky O'Hare and Metroid, but after SGDQ I'll be running EarthBound and potentially returning to Super Metroid.
