A
good
video
game
speedrun
is
a
marvel
to
witness.
You
watch
players
fly
through
your
favorite
games,
hitting
impossible
jumps
and
finding
shortcuts
you
never
knew
existed.
It
makes
you
see
a
familiar
game
in
a
whole
new
light.
If
you’ve
never
watched
a
speedrun,
check
out
this
world-record
run
through
the
original
Super
Mario
Bros.,
and
you’ll
see
what
I’m
talking
about.
Being,
you
know,
a
speedrun,
it’ll
take
all
of
five
minutes
of
your
time.
But
what
you
won’t
see
(unless
you
follow
speedrunners
on
Twitch)
is
the
hours
upon
hours
of
work
it
took
to
create
that
perfect
run
—
the
thousands
of
attempts
to
navigate
a
game
with
perfect
precision,
shaving
off
every
unnecessary
move,
exploiting
every
weird
glitch.
It’s
punishing
work
for
the
player
— and
for
the
controller
they
use
run
after
run,
day
after
day.
And
all
that
“grinding,”
as
speedrunners
call
it,
is
taking
an
unexpected
toll.
On
this
episode
of
The
Vergecast,
we
explore
a
looming
crisis
in
the
Nintendo
64
speedrunning
community:
players
are
grinding
their
controllers
to
plastic
dust
and
at
such
a
quick
pace
that
optimal
N64
controllers
are
growing
scarce.
We
also
speak
with
Beck
Abney
(abney317
on
Twitch),
a
Mario
Kart
64
speedrunning
legend
who
is
dealing
with
an
even
more
bizarre,
personal
form
of
controller
hell.
This
also
happens
to
be
the
first
episode
in
our
“Five
Senses
of
Gaming”
miniseries,
so
stay
tuned
every
Sunday
this
month
for
another
gaming
story
about
another
sense.
And
yes,
if
you
read
that
sentence
and
thought
Really?
Smell?
Taste!?,
well...
buckle
up.
If
you
want
an
even
deeper
dive
into
the
wild
world
of
speedrunning,
here
are
some
links
to
get
you
started:
Original author: William Poor
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