100% speed run of Metroid Prime in 15 segments, completed on November 8 2003.

Author's comments: I've always had a heart for Nintendo games and did casual speed runs of a few. I think the first was Super Metroid. Nine years later the sequel, Metroid Prime for the Nintendo Gamecube was released and I got it the first day it was out. I took over 14 hours the first time I finished it, but I planned on a real speed run eventually.

It wasn't until almost six months later that I heard of a speed run done in 1:46 by CALFoolio, which inspired me to finally run it. After many attempts I got a time of 1:34... of course the record was by then already 1:28 by kip, and he soon got 1:23. I decided after that to focus on a 100% speed run: one that gets all 100 items in the game. At the end of June I finished my first one and got a time of 2:10. I was pretty impressed with myself, I beat CALFoolio's 100% time by 9 minutes.

I started to hang out in #metroid on irc.esper.net (since moved to irc.metroid2002.com), the chat room arranged for on the GameFAQs Metroid Prime message board. I received the videos of the 1:46 run from CAL, and then the 1:23 from kip when he did it. I learned things from both, but both of them only sent their vids to other "sequence breakers" who asked for them. I decided if I'd do a run I'd release it for all to see since GameSpy gives me as much space as I need. :-)

Everyone in #metroid wanted to see < 2:00 done for 100% but I said, "no way it would be me". After I tried a 100% on hard mode and ended up with 2:12, I knew my 2:10 on normal sucked: hard mode takes about 15 minutes more because all enemies have twice the health! I made a major change to the route, changed some other small things, and acquired a capture card to record a real attempt at a new 100% on normal.

I started on August 9th 2003, and figured I'd take at least a month. I didn't imagine it would be three whole months though! I finally finished, vastly exceeding my original expectation of 1:49 and ending up with the amazing time of 1:37. I hope my imperfect run will inspire others to try, and I wish good luck to anyone crazy enough to do so. :-)

Detailed room by room commentary available for each of 15 parts in commentary.zip.

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