Long-standing Spelunky speedrun record revealed as fraudulent
The player used a mod to create static, replayable levels.
In 2012, a player named BarryMode completed Spelunky Classic in two minutes and 30 seconds. Since then, this time has stood as the world record, and no other speedrunner has come close. Now, BarryMode's speedrun has been revealed as fraudulent.
In a report on Vice, BarryMode apologised "for that deception". The speedrun has since been removed from his YouTube channel.
YouTube creator XanaGear explains how the deception was discovered in the video below:
In brief, BarryMode appears to have used a mod for Spelunky which allows you to repeatedly play the same levels over and over again. Normally Spelunky worlds are randomly generated after every death, and dealing with that unpredictability is part of the challenge for speedrunners of the series. Being able to replay a level allows you to plot the shortest route to each exit and to more easily avoid traps and enemies.
The deception was detected in part because of a single block that appeared missing from one of the between-level score screens, which are not levels that normally change. The block is an object added via the mod.
As a result, the real world record holder for much of the past eight years should have been speedrunner ExplodingCabbage, who posted a two minute and 53 second Spelunky speedrun in July 2010. Last month, another speedrunner called Groomp beat that time and is now the current world record holder, with a time of two minutes and 40 seconds.