Tox  0:09  
This week on MXPB we've got a special guest to talk speedrunning, plus we cover the exciting news from Nintendo. Stay tuned, MXPB starts now.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the morning xp boost. We're your hosts tox and glitch, and we're here to give you the experience points you need to get through your week. What do you think about that glitch. 

Glitch  0:49  
I am super excited. We've put out a great show today so I cannot wait to jump into it.

Tox  0:56  
Yes, really big shoe really big shoe I think we have some exciting news that we have some other news and then something happened this morning and we'll talk about it, and we've got our usual daily dose weekly dose of history, and then we've got a special feature with a special guest, bring speed running. So, let's get to it. So, the big news. We were going to talk about how Nintendo switch is in IKEA in China, but instead when I woke up this morning glitch told me that the Nintendo Switch OLED edition had been announced. Glitch. Tell me more.

Glitch  1:39  
So the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo actually about 30 minutes before we were going live here, decided to go ahead and announce the Nintendo Switch OLED, they're going to be increasing that screen size, from 6.2 to seven. Now while that's impressive. Tox, is there something that people really wanted what's the most important new spec on this system.

Tox  2:05  
Well I don't know about you but for me, every time I tried to play my switch. Outside the dock with that flimsy little kickstand, it would always fall over. 

Glitch  2:16  
So they've increased the kickstand, that is the most. Yes, what everyone was asking for. We have a larger kickstand now on the Nintendo Switch, what are some other, what are some other new specs that we, we can expect to see on this new OLED switch.

Tox  2:33  
They announced the seven inch OLED, the awesome kickstand, some enhanced audio, whatever that means, which is mostly a these are all pretty much handheld features one addition in the dock is a dedicated Ethernet port as well as 64 gigabytes of internal storage. So, this is an update that really targets handheld players, the dock has the Ethernet port, but you could get a $20 USB dongle to Ethernet from Amazon, if you really wanted that before, on the existing switch models. And then 64 gigabytes of internal storage is plus whether you're handheld or docked, but of course you can also get a 512 gigabyte SD card. So that's extra 32 gigabytes of internal storage is maybe get to a couple more games, if for some reason that 512 card is not enough for you. And then, The colors, colors are beautiful.

Glitch  3:37  
Yes, I would strongly agree. Is it is it two new colors or one new color that we're getting,

Tox  3:44  
getting new white Joi cons, and a white Nintendo Switch doc, and then there's a model as well. For the OLED version that has the classic red and blue icons.

Glitch  3:57  
I say that new, the new white version, super clean, looks, it looks really nice. And I think, to the, the new Oh led going from the 6.2 to the seven. It's very noticeable. They've decreased the size of the bezels. I always kind of thought with the where technology is right now that the bezels on the current switch, were kind of on the larger side, and I think this really brings it into the where we're at, basically in the technology world kind of with other things that you see like tablets and stuff going with the smaller bezels. So I think this brings the Nintendo Switch to, to a current technological spec.

Tox  4:41  
The latest in bezel technology. Yeah, so obviously this is not the Nintendo Switch Pro, that we were talking about in earlier episodes and others were sort of wishing and hoping for, you know, we did not get any, we didn't really get specifics on the internal hardware, if it's using a new chip, if it has any upgraded CPU or GPU processing power, and we didn't get any info on 4k output, it's still 10 AVP output from the dock. And of course, we don't have any native bluetooth headphones support, which would have been a nice little incremental upgrade that a lot of people wanted, but it is not uncommon for console manufacturers, Nintendo Sony Xbox to release a refresh of their systems, particularly for the Switch such a wildly popular system to begin with, it makes a lot of sense from that standpoint, and it's just not, it's just not the Pro, that we were all so hoping for.

Glitch  5:41  
Unfortunately, But I would still say you know if, if you purchased an original Nintendo Switch or even if you purchase the upgraded nintendo switch that came out I think about two years ago I think with the upgraded battery and improve specs. This is, you know, while it's incremental. If your switch. A lot of people were playing their switch hard last year for some reason, you know, those Nintendo switches got some use. And if they're, you know maybe they're not doing so hot now. I think the old led switch is, is a nice little bump and a great replacement for your switch. If it's kind of on its way out. It's only a $50 I think $50 more than the standard switch. So if you're looking to buy one, why not spend the extra $50 You get that nice clean white color. And, I mean the seven inch ol OLED which that's going to improve battery life to I think right talks.

Tox  6:40  
Yeah I think so it's a little more power efficient and like you said, it's a great it's a great device if you're buying a switch, fresh is definitely something that to look into.

Glitch  6:50  
Do we have any. Do we have any history does that wrap it up for news today.

Tox  6:55  
Yeah, that's, that's it for news we've got a lot to talk about in our feature segment, so let's move on to the history in 2016 July 6 2016 We had Pokemon Go, come out for the mobile devices iOS and Android. I have played this game. Have you have you played it glitch.

Glitch  7:16  
oh, I played this game.

Tox  7:19  
Yeah, tell me more. What was your experience playing this game because I know mine is just so much fun.

Glitch  7:25  
it really is so fun. There was so much buzz around Pokemon Go when it first launched, and I I was luckily I was one of the first ones to be able to download it, I was living in Virginia Beach, at the time. And, you know, I have to tell you going to town square or going to the beach and playing this game with hundreds of other people, was absolutely incredible. I have a story that I want to share here in just a couple moments but I want to find out you know what, what was your experience with it.

Tox  8:00  
So I was so hyped for this game to come out and when it first came out, There was some limitation on new accounts, because it was so much more popular than Niantic expected. It was kind of weird too because it's coming from this company, not really affiliated with Pokemon Niantic, who made the actual app, a very similar sort of location based game, prior to this. And so I think it would have been familiar so familiar with the popularity of Pokemon and so their servers being overwhelmed it took me a solid couple months before I could actually get on and play, but once I did, it was one of those things that is just so accessible I can play it with my girlfriend at the time now my wife, I could play it with my co workers, which, you know, it can be hard to connect with those co workers sometimes and so it's really nice to have something that you know it's just super popular super simple for you to play, that's a big plus. And has those cute little Pokemon. What could go wrong. So I have a great time playing it. I've walking around the neighborhood walking with the dog walking with my friends. And, you know, walking is a good, it's, it's good, it's good to get some exercise, release those endorphins and play some Pokemon.

Glitch  9:20  
I mean, it was so much fun when it first came out and it still is, it's a game that has continued to live on, I know, I have a lot of people at work that still play it. They love, you know, it's, it's also like a routine thing you've got to go in, you've got to spin your stops, you've got to get your poker balls, and your other consumables and stuff that they've added to the game now. And, one, one thing that I remember that sticks out in this will like this is like a gaming history moment for me, and it's something I'll never forget, I was at the beach playing. Shortly after I want to say this was maybe several weeks, maybe a month after it came out, and a Charizard has appeared. And I remember it was either a charge card or it was a Snorlax, and everyone that's playing on this boardwalk starts to just run towards that direction and like, we're like, hey, you know, what do you guys running for and they're like, there's a Snorlax or it was Snorlax or Charles or whatever, they're like, it's appeared on you know whatever it was block 35 or, you know the 35th block. Let's go. We've got to get down there. So, we get down there and talks there were hundreds of people, hundreds, no joke, not exaggerating, hundreds of people, and we're all there we're trying to cram into the spot to try to catch this Pokemon, and we're having a blast we're talking to these other people around us, we're trying to catch this pokemon and a lot of us do we managed to get it before it kind of leaves there and disappears. And I remember this moment after, after it had left, we're all kind of lingering around the area more people are still pouring in. They had heard the news from blocks away, and we're hoping to get a chance to catch this Pokemon, and somebody in the, in the crowd, I mean at this point we're all packed in there. There's a crowd, hundreds of us, and we start singing, I want to be the very best, like no one ever was. We all start singing this popup Pokemon theme so I I've got cold chills actually right now thinking about it. Hundreds of us singing the Pokemon theme song. I don't know what it must have looked like to the outsiders who are watching, but it's one of it's, it's one of those surreal moments in my life that I will never forget. And that's all thanks to Pokemon Go. I made a ton of friends that evening that I still talk to to this day, we were trading numbers we were going out and, you know, hey, I'm going to go to, there was a park there. That was, it was an old landfill, hey I'm going to this landfill Park. Next week on Saturday, do you guys want to go. Sure, so it was such a great experience,

Tox  12:04  
getting the friends together to go the landfill.

Glitch  12:07  
That's right. There's nothing quite like it. Yeah,

Tox  12:10  
that's the beauty of this game that's the magic of this game I think that ability to bring people together in large crowds which I, You know, right now, is a little bit hard to fathom, but someday in the past that was a desirable thing, believe it or not. Right, yeah, an amazing game. And one quick thing I saw on Nintendo life.com Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario bigwig at Nintendo, super fun, gaming, Khan says he's still playing Pokemon Go, he's playing Pokemon Go in Japan. He loves how he can play it with his neighbors, friends and family. And he says to the average age of the person playing Pokemon Go in Japan. Going down is 60 years old. So, it just speaks to the wide appeal of this. Plus it's got me a moto stamp of approval, which, I mean, doesn't get any better than that. Alright so for our feature presentation today, we are so excited to welcome H lock to the show to talk speedrunning H lock is a three time retro Olympics champion gaming enthusiast and friend of the pod. Ah slog, welcome to MSPB. How you doing, doing great. We're doing great. We are so excited to have you. Good. I'm happy to be awesome. So we're gonna talk speed running and I thought, you know, you could just sort of set the scene for us, you know, tell us what is speed running what's it all about.

H_Lock  13:45  
In simple terms, it's just, can you game, and finishing a section of it as fast as you can, so that could be the entire game, or just a certain level or just a certain chunk of levels or whatever it may be just the goal is to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible in a certain kind of rule set.

Tox  14:08  
Yeah, yeah. So talk to me a little bit more about, you know, an example of that, what are some of the games that are popular to speed run, and what are their goals.

H_Lock  14:20  
Well, a lot of games that get run are kind of games that are already popular, so you'll see a lot of Mario games you'll see Zelda you'll see, Kobe you'll see Sonic you'll see Pokemon whatever the ruleset, they use is just get to the end of the game because that's the rules that people are most familiar with the kind of the most recognizable way of playing a game is just

Glitch  14:46  
what what type of games have you specifically done the speed runs with.

H_Lock  14:53  
Well I personally like to run. Super Mario Brothers like a while ago, like a few years ago, because it's kind of the most popular game kind of ever. So I try that. And then I tried Banjo Kazooie and Kirby's Dreamland which were both quite fun, I kind of lost touch on that once kind of new stuff, put into the run. And then very recently, aka like yesterday. I tried Astros playroom on the PS five, and this one, this might be good speedrun try that in the future. S,

Tox  15:32  
and game like Astro is, you know, very different than a game like Super Mario Brothers, or a Super Mario World. What are some of the goals that you're going for in Astro and how would they be different from the goals that you go for in Super Mario World or Banjo Kazooie.

H_Lock  15:51  
Well it kind of varies on the genre so 2d platformers and 3d platformers that are kind of the most popular ones you'll see the goal varies on it's very like dependent on what the actual game is so in Super Mario Brothers it'll just be finished all the levels or finished a certain amount of like a quickest set of levels. I think it's like there's like levels you do in the current Mario Brothers three run, but in something like Banjo Kazooie is a lot of it's a lot more open, it's a lot bigger. So there's a lot kind of longer and there's more to do. The like to get the 1010 G's in each world, all the notes or whatever. So it's a lot, it leaves a lot more room for kind of experimentation in the run. Oh,

Glitch  16:34  
so I know with some of the games that, that are a little lengthier. I know that I think Zelda is a pretty popular one, to also do a speed run with. Now with my, my name's sake glitch. I've heard that these speed runners can utilize glitches, to, to kind of boost the time is that, is that something that you're familiar with,

H_Lock  17:00  
that's a that's a massive kind of part of a lot of games, again it's any strategy will kind of say in the future, obviously depends on the game, but in most games there are glitches or kind of sequence breaks that can allow you to just completely cut parts of the game. So like in Zelda, like you say, in Ocarina of Time. The basically skip most of the game by just like it's a big sequence break and kind of big skips like that. But part of the kind of charm of speed running because it is taking games that people know or think that they know and then completely kind of Boston the motto. Wow, that's incredible. That's awesome.

Tox  17:43  
Earlier we were talking and you mentioned a few different modes like you mentioned already the sort of get to the end, as fast as possible any mean pass any by any means. And then there are also sort of completion level goals like I guess that might fall into the any percent category. And then there's 100% Where you tried to do everything or if the game keeps count of what percentage you are trying to get to 100 and then there was another interesting one you mentioned, low percent. Tell me a little bit more about 100% and low percent.

H_Lock  18:17  
So Any % As you said, is just kind of get to the end, what however you can. Doesn't matter how much or how little you do 100% Kind of like how much the game tracks. So, so there might be some stuff in a game that you can collect but it's not actually required for 100%. There is obviously a lot of stuff that would be required, they kind of, you have to kind of plan the route around what you need to collect and where or what you need to do or who you need to try or whatever, and then low percent is open, it's kind of hard to explain. It's where you obviously still try and go as fast as you can, but you try and complete as little of the game as you possibly can. So, in a way of explaining that is like game tracks your percentage, if one player, beat the game in an hour 25% Completion, then that would obviously just say that went to the top, but then if someone else did it in one hour and five minutes, but they did it in 24% completion that Iran would then go to the top, because there's less stuff done.

Tox  19:21  
I like that a sound consulting agency and something about like, just, I love playing games in ways that they are not obviously meant to be played at low percent. Seems like taking that to an extreme. I love it

H_Lock  19:36  
that that does take it to the kind of, that's the most kind of extreme category that you'll see in most games, low percent. Excellent. So

Tox  19:45  
let's talk a little bit more about the competition aspect of speed running. So you mentioned leaderboards, where certain times and completions are bubbled up to the top and people submit their new times. Tell me a little bit more about how do you how do you go about actually timing and training for those competitions, and how do you verify that you did it correctly.

H_Lock  20:12  
Well, every, every game. There's a website called speed run.com Every game will have its own page on that, which has the leaderboards, like kind of guides, and like rules for each category. You kind of have to make sure your run follows the rules. Once you can if you want to submit it to experian.com and to kind of set it up. Hardware sense you would probably need a computer, a capture card or emulator, depending on what your game you're playing, and then a program called lie split, which is kind of the main timer that most big runners use because it's kind of the most universal recognized one which times each section of the game, to kind of track how well you're doing. And then you have to kind of make sure it follows the rules and, like, a guide for each game so you can kind of use the most optimal kind of route. And once you're done, you can submit it to the leaderboard and see if see where it is. Yes.

Tox  21:15  
So you kind of touched on emulators versus original hardware. Are there certain advantages that emulation versus hardware give or, you know, different versions of a game might give you. Yeah, that's

H_Lock  21:30  
definitely a thing emulated elation is kind of a big, it's kind of a controversy in some games because it can allow unfair advantages depending on if it's emulated or if it's the original version. And in terms of version differences, there's like, there's both like regional differences. And like update differences for kind of more modern games. So if a glitch, for example, the release version of a game, if there's a glitch that kind of save time, but then in the next update, it gets patched out there will kind of be a debate on whether that whether people move to the new version, or stick on the old version, and kind of each keep using that time safe

Glitch  22:16  
now is, yeah. Is there is there typically a specific version of these games that tends to maybe run a little bit faster that's approved.

H_Lock  22:27  
Yeah, that is a thing. There's kind of in terms of most older games, so like, SMGs and 64 PlayStation One, that kind of era, there's kind of the American version, European version and Japanese version, and in most games. The European version is the slowest, the American version is kind of in the middle ground, and the Japanese version is fastest because in most Japanese games, the text that kind of appears on screen will scroll a lot faster because Japanese is kind of a more concise language, so they don't use as much text. That's kind of an that's kind of the most universal version difference between most games

Glitch  23:08  
as speedrunning has gained in popularity. There have been some communities, I know that have kind of begun to pop up as well. What do you know about some of the communities that are beginning to garner a following. Well, there's,

H_Lock  23:23  
there's a lot of like a kind of started in the early days and like, like 2007 2008, once kind of the Internet became a wide, a big like a very widely use thing and YouTube got bigger and Twitter and Facebook and whatever else people kind of began to form groups around their own games. So like all the Mario runners would have their own group and all the Sonic and all, whatever else all the fun fantasy, but then it kind of evolved into a bigger collective group once like live streaming and Twitch, kind of, gained popularity because it lets people watch other people practice their games. And then they could become interested and then they could start running it and then that would spread out to a lot of other people.

Tox  24:09  
And, you know, so watching Twitch was one of the ways that I was introduced to speed running to begin with. I feel like so many people on Twitch who are playing those classic games, if you're just scrolling through twitch and looking for something to watch you see, oh, Super Mario World, that's cool. I played Super Mario World, Z you go into their stream and you start watching the, you know, their stream of Super Mario World, and they're doing something that I have never done or never even seen before they're doing these moves, jumping off of, you know, hitting the turtle shell against the wall and then the shell bounces back, then you jump off the shell, and you clear a thing. They're flying through the entire level really something special to see for the first time. And I think that's part of the appeal of speedrunning, and even other forms of games like no Super Mario World, especially has these Kaiser levels which are just fan made but super difficult. Yeah and you have to do all these really intense moves to just even navigate few, a few virtual feet in the game.

H_Lock  25:16  
Yeah, I think that's kind of part of the kind of the I said before the charm and kind of the magic of it is taking game that you think you know really well and then seeing someone else seeing someone who's a top top runner at it, and then they just do stuff you've never even seen or heard of or whatever before, and it kind of draws you in and kind of makes you want to keep watching it because it's so different to what you expect.

Tox  25:38  
It's like thank you so much for joining us and helping to make us smarter about speed running and all the cool things associated with it.

Glitch  25:46  
Alright folks that wraps it up for the show this week we hope you enjoyed yourselves if you liked the show please leave us a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, feel free to send us a Twitter gram of face tweet, or an instant book or just shout into your phone really loud. We are at morning xp boost. Thank you so much for listening. We can't wait to see you again in the next one.