Getting Started

Welcome to the A Link to the Past speedrunning community! Here are some suggestions for how to get started, based on what most people are interested in and find valuable.

We recommend that you ⁠join our Discord server where there are plenty of knowledgeable people available and a wealth of information and resources.

Which category do I start with?

You can start with any category if you already have an idea of what interests you! The most common starting points are:

1. Any% No Major Glitches (No Save & Quit) (frequently shortened to Any% NMG or even just NMG): This is the most popular category by far, with the most active players and the best resources. Your first run of it will likely be around 2 hours long. Some resources:
   • ⁠Beginner tutorial by Fruitbats
   • ⁠1st video in FMG tutorial series covering basic movement
   • ⁠The full FMG tutorial series for advanced players
2. Master Sword NMG: This is a partial category covering about 1/4th of the full Any% NMG run. It follows the same ruleset as Any% NMG, but with Save & Quit allowed. This is a good way to test the waters and see if running this game is for you. You can expect your first run to be around 30 minutes long. You can use the same resources for the Any% NMG run and just stop at the point where Link gets the Master Sword.
3. Any% Major Glitches (aka "True Any%"): This is a very short category, around 3 minutes or less, with several routes available. Resources:
   • ⁠Beginner route tutorial

Which version and platform should I play on?

All official Nintendo platforms that run this game are allowed (SNES/SFC, the various virtual console releases, SNES classic). We also allow use of some modern emulators: BSNES (including higan/byuu) and snes9x (v1.5 or later). Notably zsnes and versions of snes9x before v1.5 are not allowed due to inaccurate emulation. Front-ends running a valid snes9x or BSNES emulator core are allowed (Retroarch, BizHawk, etc.). For a full and up-to-date list of the community's rules regarding emulators, check the ⁠rules page on speedrun.com. A couple of accurate FPGA clone consoles are allowed: SuperNT and MiSTer.

The fastest version to play the game on for nearly every category is Japanese 1.0. This is due to fast text and the inclusion of some glitches not present in other releases of the game. It doesn't save a ton of time though, and most routes, especially in NMG categories, are still perfectly doable on any other version. So you can and should feel free to start playing on whatever version of the game is most convenient for you.

Tools

• ⁠ALttP Practice Hack: This is an ALttP ROMhack that has numerous features enabling a better speedrun practice experience (savestates, easily warping to various places throughout the game, full control of Link's inventory, control of various RNG patterns, watches on important addresses in the game's memory, etc.). It's important to read the documentation to learn all the capabilities. It's also important to know here on the wiki and on any of the community discords: no one will provide you with a Japanese 1.0 ROM of A Link to the Past. You will have to figure this out for yourself.
• ⁠helpasaur: Helpasaur is a bot that works on discord and in Twitch chats. You can add it to your Twitch chat or discord if you wish. It offers numerous commands for learning about the game and its speedrun terminology.

Going Deeper

If you want more information, feel free to look around on this wiki or ⁠join our Discord server to ask questions you may have. You may also want to explore the practice hack, which is an extremely useful tool for ALttP speedrunners. Happy gaming!