community hotseat

Community Hot Seat - epicdudeguy
With Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time sand storming it's way to being the first game to be given away for free as part of our Ubi30 celebrations, we wanted to take a look back at this classic but certainly not forgotten game. More specifically we wanted to ask those who have poured their soul into playing the game over the years, and we reached out to someone who perhaps hasn't always played the game in the typical fashion you might imagine.

We got in touch with speedrunner "epicdudeguy" to ask him about his time playing the game and Prince of Persia as a speedrunning title.

For those new to the term, speedrunning is a combination of precision, agility, and perseverance. Finding that frame perfect skip and fully optimizing every moment you make is no easy task. It takes hours upon hours of practice and a single small mistake can be the end of the entire attempt. Watching the final run come together is a spectacle.

The huge community around speedrunning has come together for great causes and with Prince of Persia being one of the featured games, what better way to learn more than hearing from one of their own!

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Hi, I'm epicdudeguy and in real life I go by Robbie. I'm 22 years old from the Netherlands and I have been a speedrunner for over a year now. My main speed run games are the Prince of Persia series but I also play some other titles like Uncharted 2, Pokémon Sapphire, and a few others. What got you into speedrunning?

Before I started speedrunning I had been watching a variety of runs on Twitch from people such as Werster and Elajjaz, but I never gave it a shot myself. However, when AGDQ (Awesome Games Done Quick, the largest speedrunning charity marathon) came along I realized that you can basically speedrun any game. This is when I gave it a try myself.

How did you come across Prince of Persia?

When I first started out I was playing games that didn't really have a community that could help me out with problems that I ran into. At this point I started looking for other games that people played which is where I came across another speedrunner, Henneko_. He was playing one of my childhood favorites, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. At this time there had been a huge breakthrough for Prince of Persia speedruns because a new glitch had being found, the zipping glitch.

The zipping glitch allows you to fly through the game by overloading the rewind system. When you perform an action like a roll and then overload the memory of the rewind by doing a lot of small steps for example, your roll will be immensely accelerated when you rewind. Using this glitch you can travel huge distances in a short amount of time and it also allows you to go through walls. This is why the Any% category (the category where all glitches are allowed) can now be completed in 43 minutes!


When you skip game triggers that changes the outfit for the prince, like when he rips off his sleeve, the game will fail to load the correct sprite and will leave you with just a floating head.)

What's unique about speedrunning this game compared to others?

What I enjoy the most about speedrunning Prince of Persia is the great community around it. From the beginning we have always had each other's backs and everyone has done their part. Finding new glitches, improving the route, helping new players pick up the game, making tutorials etc. This has led to a great community of people that have fun speedrunning Prince of Persia together.

Other things I enjoy about Prince of Persia is its accessibility. I had played the Sands of Time trilogy as a kid and it allowed me to pick up the speedrun rather easily. In doing so the transition to the other games in the trilogy was also really nice. Besides all that, I also enjoy the techniques of the speedrun quite a lot. Not only does it have interesting and challenging glitches and tricks, it also comes paired with great movement and platforming. You have to be in full control if you're looking to get a competitive time. This is what I aim for.


(When Farah can't keep up with you, she will do a funny dance in an area that is no longer loaded because she is so far behind.)

What are some of your favorite Prince of Persia speed running memories?

The creation of the 'first-person glitch' is one of my favorites. At some point in the game you have to move an object away to reveal a crack in the wall for Farah to go through. You then have to wait for Farah to press a button, which takes quite some time. Having to wait in a speedrun can be boring, so Henneko_ decided to mess around with the object by grabbing it and flicking his control stick on the controller around really fast which left him with that object turned 45 degrees. This was a very rare occurrence at the time, and nobody understood what just happened.

People tried to replicate the glitch, but no one succeeded. Until Henneko_ said that he had bound 'first-person view' to pressing the control stick. This made me realize that there was more to this glitch than just messing around with the control stick. Eventually I figured out it was done by holding the box, then going into first-person view, and then gently pressing the control stick in the wanted direction. This led to one of the greatest glitches for the Zipless category (This category is where the Zipping glitch is not allowed but other glitches are). This glitch can be used to clip through thin walls and doors and it allows for airwalking in certain places.


(The Prince airwalking after using the first-person glitch.)

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to give it a shot?

There's room for everyone! When speedrunning Prince of Persia, you can choose between 3 main categories.

First there is "Any%". This category allows you to do all the glitches you want. For that reason it's probably the most difficult category as it's very fast paced and it uses techniques which are difficult to master. A top time in this category is very hard, but also very rewarding to achieve.

Secondly, there is "Zipless". This category allows all glitches except the zipping glitch. It's a very popular category because the zipping glitch overshadows all the other cool tricks that can be done in this game. You get to show them all off here! This is why it's my favorite category.

Lastly there is "NMG" or "No Major Glitches". As the name suggests this category doesn't allow major glitches, but that doesn't mean there are no tricks involved in this category! It still uses a lot of interesting techniques and focuses more on the movement and platforming, which makes it an excellent category for new runners. It's also very accessible and fun to do.

If you are starting out it can sometimes be hard to reach out to others. However that's why we, the Prince of Persia speedrunning community, are here! The community is always ready to help out. There is also a lot of footage and tutorials to learn from as well. We have a Discord server available for everyone who wants to learn any of the Prince of Persia speedruns and we are always ready to answer any questions anyone might have.

Where can people find more of you?

You can find my livestream at http://twitch.tv/epicdudeguy, where I do all my speedruns. If you want to look up my best times, you can find them here. Otherwise the best way to contact me is through my twitter @epicdudeguy_.

This summer between the 23rd of July and the 1st of August there will be held a speedrunning marathon called ESA in Växjö, Sweden. Anyone can watch the livestream at twitch.tv/esamarathon. Tocaloni1 and I will be doing a speedrunning race of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time on 25-7-2016 at 22:00. I will also be doing a speedrun of Uncharted 2 on 26-7-2016 at 20:40.