Though Great Games Gone Too Soon going on for the rest of the week, the charity speedrunning event may have already reached its peak with a run by Peanut Butter … a Shiba Inu.
Using a custom-made controller and encouraged by commands and treats, Peanut Butter made his way into our hearts and into the history books at the press of a button. Gyromit in the first sprint made by a dog. Gyromit is a game where the player guides a sleepwalking scientist by pressing buttons to raise or lower colored columns along the scientist’s path. To successfully complete the level, players must not get crushed by letting go of a pole too quickly and avoid monsters called “laughter” that can kill the player in one hit.
For the run, Peanut Butter pressed either a red, yellow, or blue button to control the columns, and was rewarded with treats of ham, kibble, and cheese. JSR, the Peanut Butter man He is also a fast runnersaid she has been working with Peanut Butter for over a year, teaching him commands as well as the patience and focus needed to complete a run.
For the first half of the run, Peanut Butter was on pace for the world record, despite some human error where JSR mistakenly gave Peanut Butter (also known as PB, which stands for “personal best” in fast-paced) the wrong commands.
In the chaotic environment of a live sprint, runners often fail to consider that the game’s randomness (known in digital parlance as RNG or “random number generator”) will throw them a curveball with enemy spawns, paths, or attack patterns. This happens so often at GDQ events that “This has never happened before” has become a meme for all the little ways to run. Although the PB was indeed world record pace, his run was thwarted at the last second by a hostile laugh waiting for him at the finish line, prompting JSR to say the old phrase, “This has never happened before.” His PB’s lost WR (world record) didn’t matter to his 70,000 followers on Twitch, who were cheering him on for a successful run anyway.
With four more days left in the one-week marathon, we still have a lot to look forward to. That is Hell run late today. There is a relay race on Friday The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Maskand of course I’m looking forward to it Baldur’s Gate 3 run late on a saturday. Part of the fun of GDQ is just running a marathon in the background and watching the odd hours of the day to see people in alien sunglasses controlling a vague platformer from a Sega 32X. I encourage followers to check the schedule and go beyond the big games to see games you’ve never heard of before. It’s where the hidden gems are.
Watch Quick Ended Games on Twitch hereand if you miss any run, Check YouTube for VOD. Also, The Verge He’ll be on site this weekend to cover the event live, so stay tuned for some intrepid scene reporting from yours truly.