Summary
Awesome Games Done Quick’s event in early 2024 will feature a dog performing a speedrun for everyone to see and enjoy. The dog will showcase its intelligence and gaming skills by speedrunning a retro gamewith the help of its owner during the event.
Awesome Games Done Quickis a semi-annual charity speedrunning event from Games Done Quick. It involves a series of gamers showcasing their speedrunning skills in person or online by streaming their playthrough. However, next year’s event will be unique as it will be the first time in AGDQ’s history that a dog will participate and even do a speedrun.
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In a YouTube teaser video from video game streamer and speedrunner JSR_, their Shiba Inu dog, Peanut Butter, will do a speedrun of the retro gameGyromite,a puzzle gamefor the NES, in AGDQ’s event in 2024. While both dog and fur parent will appear online to playGyromiteduring the event, JSR_ will appear in person to speedrunCastlevania 3: Dracula’s Cursebefore their appearance with their dog.
While it is surprising that a dog will participate in AGDQ, there is a good explanation of how it could do so. JSR_ and Peanut Butter have been lifelong buddies - they have been together since the latter was a puppy. However, the former realized early on when he was training the dog to do something special that they were “much smarter than most other dogs” he’d seen. Since JSR_ was an avid gamer, it made sense to him that they’d train their dog to play video games, too. To do so, however, they had tobuild a custom controllerwith four color-coded buttons for their dog to use. These buttons were mapped to the A, B, and Select buttons of an NES controller, with the fourth one being the button that can help their dog press A and B simultaneously.
People can find this controller, along with JSR_ and Peanut Butter, in action in aGyromitespeedrun video the formeruploaded to YouTube onJuly 13. During the video, people can see the former directing the latter while they’re playing the game, with the latter pressing buttons on their own and the former providing direction and treats as a reward.
JSR_ and Peanut Butter’s performance in the video shows that dogs can play video games and evendo speed runs just like humansgiven enough time, training, and the proper motivation. Whether Peanut Butter is actually playing the game or just following their fur parent’s directions is a discussion for another time.
AGDQ 2024will run from January 14 - 21.
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