Life is good, I've got popcorn and there are several days of the stream left. Sadly only caught Enviro-Bear 2000 from the Awful Games Block today, but that was bad and wonderful at the same time.

Yesterday I witnessed one of the greatest showcases I've ever seen I think, when darkman taught jimmypoopins the Strider run live. Really makes me wanna try that myself. Also, I now know that Umihara Kawase exists, a charming platformer with a seemingly quite complex grappling hook mechanic.

EDIT: Just realized that, much like a barbarian, I spoiled the runs I mentioned above a bit if you haven't watched them. Sorry, I'll try to remember to not post again when dead tired...

Here's a reminder for anyone like me who's fallen way behind. The Reddit link thread is going strong again this year. For those who haven't run across it, it's essential for catching those runs you've missed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/speedrun/comments/7oljmp/agdq_vod_thread_2018/

The plus sign after the game links to the speedrun leaderboard for that game.
The runner's name links to their twitch site.
The time stamp links to the AGDQ video at the beginning of that run.

Saves a lot of hassle trying to find those runs in the VoDs yourself.
Happy watching!

The schedule doesn't mention it was blindfolded. Thanks, goes on my list to watch later :)

Watching this right now on YouTube, it's here. I'm laughing so hard. Voted too now, this game belongs on GOG.

Well done mentioning the excellent VoD index on Reddit, beats YouTube uploads for sure.

Sorry, I wasn't clear, the blindfold run on the Turbo Tunnel was an incentive that was met. TMR completed the game "regularly" too. :)

Ah, I see. Thanks for letting me know :)

Super Monkey Ball TASBot was exciting today, and I just watched the archived Castlevania: Symphony of the Night zero bosses run (love the big toss trick). Anyone got more recommendations out of what they've seen?

As for the two runs I mentioned earlier:

Ultima 6, unfortunately, was marred by a technical issue; every time the runner would open the inventory (which happens a lot, as a lot of items need to be used to complete the run), the video signal would be lost. My understanding was that the video capture hardware takes a moment to catch up to a change in resolution, which normally wouldn't be a problem except that the game's inventory uses the SNES's high resolution mode, while the main screen does not (or ar least that's my understanding).

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap went well; there was even a developer on the couch. Also, there's a short interview with the runner afterwords. There's even a bit or RNG manipulation, as well as a rather interesting glitch.

They had a resolution change mishap during Arabian Nights as well, perhaps the capture hardware is indeed digesting these changes badly.

The Legend of Zelda 3-way race is about to start :)

There are too many to list, so I'll pick my favourite from every ~12 hours of the marathon.
Full disclosure, I have some very thick nostalgia glasses, a strong interest in RNG manipulation and I'm not a fan of races.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - I didn't have a huge interest in the games run for the first 12 hours, so this is a bit of a default win.

Contra - great co-op run, pretty much as close to a Contra WR as you'll get in a marathon.

Metal Gear Solid - I didn't even know there was a (buggy as all hell) PC version of this game.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - zero bosses is a very entertaining run.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - this is likely my nostalgia/RNG bias, but it has loads of both for me (RE 7 gets an honourable mention)

Holy Diver - the game itself is so absurd that it's almost an auto win. (Kid Icarus gets an honourable mention)

Battletoads - stick around after for the blindfolded turbo tunnel! (Dragon Warrior gets an honourable mention)

Superman 64 - this has more glitches than game. (everything else in the awful block gets an honourable mention)

Umihara Kawase - very interesting grapple game and some good commentary too. (Star Fox 2 gets an honourable mention)

Densha de D: Lightning Stage - this game is just absurd and the runners even went through the trouble to translate it for you! (halfcoordinated's runs get an honourable mention)

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! + Super Punch-Out!! - playing two games with the same inputs, nuff said.

Kirby: Canvas Curse - very unique control scheme, made for an interesting run.

For the runs that are comming up, it'll probably be a toss up between Warcraft III, Baldur's Gate 2, or Final Fantasy IV.

Edit: Can't decide between Baldur's Gate 2 and Final Fantasy IV... Go with BG2 if you don't have much time and FFIV when you have a couple hrs.

Caught a couple you mentioned, hm, Holy Diver sounds like it should be weird awful fun - cheers :) Umihara Kawase, that's one I wanna start playing sometime for sure. I was disappointed to learn that the PC port of Metal Gear Solid is quite weak, but I enjoyed what I got to see of the run. I will have a lot of stuff to watch after AGDQ has ended, looking forward to catching up.

Did you get to watch the run? One of the great ones this year, in my opinion. Very positive runner, fun commentary also from the couch, interesting tricks shown: archived version.

I think they may have put Holy Diver in an awful block in previous AGDQ as well. I don't blame them if they did (it's a weird game full of an odd mix of religous imagery and heavy metal references), but it's actually a pretty decent game. Unfortunately it's not just NES hard, it's mind numbingly hard and that puts it out of my league.

Thanks for the link. I tried to watch... but I didn't have the patience for all of that farming. I got past 5 minutes and he's still at the opening town farming for certain items. If he still beats 35 minutes the run itself must only be 15 minutes. lol