Topic: Anyone up for organizing a bingo event?

[Da Dood]

So I've been watching some game streams at SpeedDemosArchive.com in my boredom time. Lots of speed run practice and also casual play, which made me interested in streaming my own gameplay. No idea how to even start, though.

Anyway, some players there do this race challenge thing that I thought was just brilliant: a bingo. I've only seen it done in Zelda games so far, but they basically create a 5x5 table with 25 achievements (that they come up with), start a new game and then see who can complete a row or a column first.

The guy who won tonight (in Ocarina of Time) ended up running a column that required 4 Skulltulas in Jabu-Jabu, 7 full Hearts, 6 Keys at the Gerudo Training Ground, a bullet bag upgrade, and the Fire Medallion. The whole route planning is just awesome to watch (must be even better to play).

I was thinking maybe we could organize something like that one day. We don't need anything fancy like a stream party, we all have PSN and the board to keep track of each other. We pick a game that is relatively open (Zelda, Metroid, Arkham City), create some fun achievements of our own and then race just for the fun of it. Could even be done with Mega Man games if we're creative enough with the little achievements.

Anyway, just an idea.

(Also, apologies if there's a proper board for this kind of stuff.)

[Satoryu]

I'm not sure what goes into creating a Bingo card, but it could be difficult depending on the game. OoT has a lot of tricky stuff to keep track of, and putting everything together in the run itself requires extensive knowledge of the game. But Mario 64's bingo cards are easier to understand (get this star, this many coins, Capless, Cannonless).

OoT, Majora's Mask, Mario 64, Symphony of the Night, and Super Metroid are the games I know that have bingo cards on speedrunslive. Of those, I only play Sotn, and even then I haven't done too many bingos myself, mostly cause I'm never on when everyone else is.

And if you think regular old Bingos are fun, wait until you see a double Bingo race. Or an anti-bingo, where one of your competitors picks which row/column you do. Or even a double-anti Bingo.

Even if you don't want to do crazy things like that, just racing games by themselves is pretty fun. SRL is a great invention that I really should take advantage of more than I have.

[Da Dood]

True, I understand it could be hard keeping track of stuff and all. I was thinking something less fancy, though, since I'm sure most players aren't professional speed runners like you guys. If we pick a game that most people know enough about (like a Mega Man), it could be fun even posting suggestions for achievements.

By the way, I watched pretty much the entire AGDQ this year. Great X6 run!

EDIT: Now that you mention SRL, I didn't consider the possibility that the bingo races might be their thing. I wouldn't want to cause any trouble there, it's just a really great idea that I think could be fun for the more casual runners as well.

[Satoryu]

You wouldn't be causing trouble. SRL is a very nice community. You don't have to be a pro at games to race. It just so happens 80% of SDA runners participate as well, so you might have some stiff competition.

If there were to be a Bingo card for a Mega Man game, what kind of stuff would you put on there? There aren't many collectibles in these games except for the later X games, so would there be tasks like fighting a boss buster only or with a random weapon?

And good to hear someone liked the X6 run. I never really read the chat during AGDQ, but I've heard everyone was bitching about that game. Still, thanks a lot Dood.

[Da Dood]

I was thinking stuff that could take advantage of the stage select, mainly, that people would have to figure out the route on the fly. Things like collecting 5 extra lives/E-Tanks that are inside stages, mobility stuff (drain all of Super Arrow's ammo with one shot), exploits (kill MM3 Yellow Devil in one round), no Buster allowed after the first cleared stage, clearing a particular stage with specific weapons or limitations. There could also be some one-try only achievements that people could fail, like beating a boss without taking damage, which would force them to choose another row or column.

Anyway, I'm sure we could think of many possibilities. X games would be easier since there's a ton of collectables and optional bosses. Games like X2 allow us to collect armor parts in any order we want, so it could be very interesting coming up with tasks and seeing how people plan them.

About the X6 run, I thought it was quite entertaining and you did a lot of cool tricks. X6 isn't exactly the most loved game, so I guess people will always complain. I was happy to see a relatively obscure Mega Man game there. And not on Awful Games Done Quick, even. Haha.