Speed Demos Archive

Infobox Website
url = http://speeddemosarchive.com/
name = Speed Demos Archive


commercial = No
type = Speedrun Recordkeeper / Video Archive
owner = Nolan "Radix" Pflug
author = Nolan "Radix" Pflug
launch date = April 1998
current status = Active

Speed Demos Archive (abbreviated SDA) is a site dedicated to speedruns done on many computer and video games.

History

The site originally began as a demo archive of "Quake" play throughs. SDA was formed initially by Nolan "Radix" Pflug of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by merging with a site created by Gunnar and Jesse in April of 1998. In 2004 after the success of his own famous 100% "Metroid Prime" run, Radix expanded SDA to include demos of other games.

Modern SDA

As of 2006, SDA is now home to numerous videos of gamers completing various video games as quickly as they can. Players may do the runs in a single segment (single sitting) or in multiple segments using the game's built-in saving system. Runs saved in multiple segments are usually downloaded part by part, which is helpful when one does not have time to watch or download an entire run. Almost every speedrun on SDA can be downloaded in low, normal, or high quality to suit differing bandwidths. In some cases there is also an "insane" video quality available. Runs must be performed on their native consoles or on certain PC/Mac configurations. Runs done on emulators are not accepted, since it cannot be proven that a user did not use any tools to assist them. Runs of an alternate mode within the game (such as Devil May Cry's Super Dante mode) can be accepted, but for the first runs of a game to be uploaded, it is preferred they be "out-of-the-box" runs (playing the game the first time).

The site includes videos of such popular games as "Mega Man", "Metroid", "The Legend of Zelda", "Super Mario Bros." and "Sonic the Hedgehog". The site has been featured numerous times in publications such as "Electronic Gaming Monthly" and G4tv's "Attack of the Show!". Some of the runs also appear in an episode of "Pure Pwnage". Runs are captured from a console using a DVD recorder or a TV input card setup on a PC/Mac. Runs from PC/Mac are captured with recording tools built into the game, or using special video capture programs, such as Fraps. Runs were previously accepted on VCRs, but these were obsoleted in 2008.

In July 2008 a newcomer designed a new site for SDA and parsed the entire website into a database. However, due to social conflicts, the entire project was destroyed and the user banned. This alternate site now exists on a secondary domain: speeddemosarchive.info.

See also

*speedrun
*Notable games for speedrunning — an extensively documented list of noteworthy games for speedrunning purposes.
*Sequence breaking — the act of performing actions or obtaining items in a video game out of the intended order, or of skipping said actions or items entirely while still successfully completing the game.

External links

* [http://speeddemosarchive.com/ Speed Demos Archive]
* [http://speeddemosarchive.com/kb/index.php/Main_Page SDA knowledgebase] --an SDA wiki
* [http://speeddemosarchive.info/ Database Driven SDA]