Introduction:

Ok, so this actually started quite a while back when there was a discussion about the state of SDA as well as leaderboards and stuff. I kept hearing about how SDA times are "old" and how the strats are "obsolete" is. There's just one thing about that argument...

If runs are outdated...then perhaps you should update them.

Seriously, why would you complain about something being old and then not do anything about it? I dunno, I guess I'm getting off track here. The point is I set out to start updating these so called "obsolete" runs and what better to start than with Sonic Adventure, one of the first speed games I've ever done!

At this point in time, there are still runs from 2005-2006 up on the site, and since then the community has found many improvements as well as gotten a lot more support over the past few years, I guess I felt it was about time more of these runs got updated to reflect that. I decided to go with Gamma's story because most of the tricks seem to be the most straightforward out of all the stories, at least for me.

With that out of the way, let's get started!

Stages:

Final Egg

I could maybe save half a second from optimized movement. Other than that, this was pretty much spot on. Getting a 2:56:XX on the E-101 fight requires that I shoot almost all my shots frame-perfectly, So I'm amazed that I got a 2:56:03 in a single-segment run though.

Emerald Coast

I can probably save a second by jumping off the poles faster. The only problem is that the poles are not necessarily all flat. This can cause you to have your jump eaten. The stage itself went fine; nothing here to really talk about.

Hot Shelter

The clip into Hot Shelter was a little slow because I jumped too high onto the ledge. You're supposed to do a low jump onto the platform in order to do a mode change. The mode change makes your hitbox smaller, allowing you to fit into the little corner and jump OOB into the stage. This is probably where you can save the most time since I had to readjust. The stage itself went great though. I got the first clip instantly and the second clip up the ceiling was not too bad either. When on the ceiling, you can go to the right instead of the left to save some time, but it is much riskier and overall not very consistent because there is a chance the game can soft lock and kill your run. So I don't go for it.

Red Mountain

This stage was practically perfect. The clip was fast and E-104 didn't decide to jump or get out of my line of sight. Overall, I got no qualms here.

Windy Valley

So you can actually jump off the little ledge before hovering to the spring. The only thing is that the same problem with the poles in Emerald Coast in that the ledge can eat your inputs due to the uneven geometry of the grass patch. So I try to avoid it altogether. After that, it's just as simple as hitting the spring and flying to E-103.

Beta mk.ii

The shot that you see me do at the beginning of the fight is a trick that can happen because Gamma falls onto the area facing the boss. By shooting on a specific frame, you can skip the first hit of the fight and save around 11 seconds. Usually, you just mash though and hope for the best. :P

I got a decent pattern here. I could possibly save time with better RNG, but the boss shooting another round of missiles doesn't cost much time. I also don't jump over the boss to shoot him on the final hit as sometimes you can get hit by the oncoming missiles and not even shoot him, killing the run.

Final Thoughts & Special Thanks:

I'll just say this right now. I was not expecting to get a run that's like this for a long time. I've been running SADX for around 4 years and seeing all that has happened; I never thought I could get a run that would at the very least be decent. My original goal was around 13:30, but that was completely demolished when I got the early shot on Beta mk.ii. The final time should be around 13:18 SDA Timing.

I want to first give special thanks to the entire SADX Community. Over the past few years they have pushed this game to absolutely insane limits and it's always great to see more people tackle this game. Big shout outs to cjbqulix for his WR run of the game on PC. His run showed me a lot of new tricks that I've never seen before in Gamma's story. However, since this is GameCube were talking about here, I couldn't really compare my times to his due to loading differences and different framerates. Still, it was a great resource and my time definitely wouldn't have gone down without it

I'd like to give a big shoutout to itsPersonnal for his 14:27 and theultimategamer95 for his 13:35. Unlike cjb's time, these were times off the GameCube version that I used as reference for a good time. They helped me push my time further and further down and really inspired me to optimize my playing.

I'd also like to give a shoutout to all my stream viewers, especially Drakodan and electra13x7777, for continuously showing your support throughout all my attempts. You guys were awesome and it was great to finally be able to record attempts and stream without having my laptop lag.

And of course, I can't thank enough all of the folks at SDA for giving me the drive to become a better player. If there's one thing this run has taught me, it's patience...and a whole lot of "OH NO".

This run is improvable, but I don't expect to be getting another run like this in a long time.

¡Gracias por viendo y espero que disfrutas!