wise fwom yo gwave
My name is Joe Stanski, I'm 22 and a professional poker player. I originally found SDA by compiling all of the old games my mom garage sale'd off around my senior year of high school and playing them to death again, playing SMB over and over again... I looked up "SMB1 fastest completion" or something and found a video of the fastest completion here, even linking it to my brother, and was absolutely amazed at what I saw. I watched some of the other runs on the site and immediately wanted to beat one of them.
I didn't actually own Sonic 2 as a child, i owned sonic 1 and my grandmother who owned a genesis for the grandkids had sonic 2. I was never able to beat the game, but it was one of my favorite games that she owned besides toy story and i knew there was a run on the site. At the time i am not sure i realized i could create a run for a new game, but i think i just wanted to make sure it would pass verification so i started working on speedrunning various levels.
Somewhere along there i also watched vectorman and realized the run was pretty poor, I put a fair amount of time into practicing but eventually realized my methods for practicing sucked (I hadn't discovered emulators with savestates so i was never practicing the later levels). Sonic 2 was my chance to get my name on the site though, and i knew death egg would be the level i would do it on. I spent an entire weekend, my roomate at the time advising closely, trying to beat the death egg time on the site (I believe it was 50 at the time, and there was a 48 listed at the sonic center so i knew it was possible), and eventually i got a 49! I was so ecstatic and quickly sent off the tape.
From there i kept working on more and more levels. I couldn't even come close to the times in the single segment (was around 24 minutes at the time), much less the individual levels, so everything was super impressive to me at the time. I was still playing SSBM at a very highly competitive level, was learning/losing at poker, and was on the bowling team/going to college at the time, so i would only spend a couple hours a week on speedrunning, but would pick one level and just aim to beat it (not even to get my personal best time, i just wanted to beat someone else).
I started to beat more and more levels, and then it got to the point where i realized i could definitely improve the sonic 2 run by a minute or so. I started skipping classes to do attempts (this was my freshman year, it didn't take me long to realize i didn't have to actually go to class to pass college), and never got a completed run but i realized if i ever did, i would destroy the run on the site.
Then on october 31st, my father had a head injury. I frantically talked to nate, since at the time he sent me a dvd recorder to record my run (i still use this dvd recorder 5 years later... thanks nate!). He told me to just take my time and focus on my family, and was very supportive of me at the time. He by far encouraged me the most to stay positive while my father was in a coma. I would go to the hospital all day, and then i would stay up all night playing sonic 2 because i felt obligated to make a run with all the work i had put in. 1 week into my fathers coma i did it: 20:02. I was ecstatic to say the least, and it was such an amazing feeling when the rest of my day was just complete depression/anger (I was extremely close to my father, i didn't have a lot of friends in school/had depression issues and such and my father really did a lot for me. I can't even begin to say what he meant to me, he let me drop out of school my sophomore year of high school and go to community college since i had such social problems at the time, he was an extremely good bowler and taught me everything i know about the sport which took me to the collegiate/semi professional level).
I knew my run was good at the time, really good compared to the other run and much better than any other sonic speedruns that were on the site. But I knew i could still improve it. Over the next year, as my father went through various phases in the hospital, then coming home to continue therapy, I decided I would drop out of college and be his primary caretaker. I spent the next year basically interacting with my father (who's mental state was and still is a bit shaky, he has lots of logic/reasoning problems and really was not the same person, and had a ton of physical issues as well, could barely even stand up even with assistance from me, etc.) and his therapists. I would wake up at 8, take my father to therapists/do activities with him to try to stimulate his brain, and would be exhausted by the time my mom got home from work at 5. To take my mind off of going from living the awesome life of a college freshman, where I was meeting tons of people, going to parties, meeting girls, bowling, to a life of interacting with no one my age and my father most of the day, I sat in the basement and played sonic 2. And played sonic 2. And played it some more.
I got extremely good at many of the il's, and put an insane amount of time into many of the levels. It got to the point where I wanted to work on other games as well, and I spent an equally insane amount of time perfecting toy story, and an insane amount of time studying/practicing castlevania bloodlines. I still knew I wanted to do more with sonic 2 though, and eventually i beat every IL, beat my own single segment again which nate wrote a huge news thing about how amazing the 20:02 run was, and started planning/working on a 100% run.
As I went back to college, I worked on sonic 2 here and there, but became more focused on bowling again since I had taken an entire year off (when before this i worked in a pro shop and bowled 6-7 days a week for 4 years or so) and still wanted to be a professional bowler. Eventually some new tricks were found in sonic 2, so I wanted to do one last, final sonic 2 single segment. It didn't take me long to get that run I wanted, and I was absolutely thrilled to be able to not only implement all my new tricks, but also to save time in some of the other levels as well.
As I continued to go through college, I got more and more into shmups and fighting games, both games I was a big fan of since they had machines at the bar/bowling alley my parents always went to (Fire shark and street fighter 2:Hyper Fighting). I gradually drew away from the community, intimidated by the fact that I had put in such an insane amount of time into my runs up until this point, constantly testing, constantly trying to break them, etc., and knowing i would never really have the free time to do this again.
At some point here I also got more into poker, as I would play online with my other bowling buddies on trips. As I graduated, I looked at my options for a summer job, and looking over the math, thought I could make $10,000 playing poker before grad school. That summer went much better than expected, and I made around $60,000, an incredible sum to me at the time, and i knew at that time that I just wasn't ready to continue my education.
Unfortunately as I've gotten more into poker, I have also moved away from the community gradually. Me and mikwuyma would still play some online games together, I would still play some shmups here and there, and I would still play some fighting games here and there, but I just was still so intimidated by the standards i had set for myself. Thats basically where I find myself now, choosing to "work" more often then not over working on speedruns, since I just don't think i can replicate that state of mind i had when i got really good at sonic 2. I really can't describe how i felt on a day to day basis, but the only thing that would take my mind off of it was the monotony of playing a 40 second stage over and over again for hours at a time. I'm not sure I will ever get to the point where I can do that again, especially now that I can play a different game and get rewarded monetarily for it. But I still have so much more potential in sonic 2, and I really don't want it to go to waste: this includes improving some of the IL's, improving my spindashing speed, improving the single segment (priority number 1 currently) and finally completing a 100% run that is satisfactory.
I am not sure if and when i do these things if anyone but myself will appreciate them, because at some point the gains you get are only visible to 5 or so people in the world. But it will make myself proud to see the runs, and will hopefully spur someone else on in the future to watch my runs and strive to beat them. I also would love to pick up other games, but its just such a time commitment that I am just not sure I will be ready to do that within the next year given other things that steal focus from speedrunning.
I am still extremely happy for the friendships i've made through the community, but I do know that i am gradually falling farther and farther away, and one day will probably just only be known for the runs that are archived away somewhere and not for the person I am. Its kind of sad to say this, but that is just the inevitability of it, but I am still glad that speedrunning got me through an extremely rough patch in my life, and honestly saved me from a very destructive depression during that part of my life. This is really long winded and unedited, but being at the marathon and being around the newer faces (I can't tell you the number of times i've had to say "what game did he run again?" when i used to know every single news update by heart), and still seeing some of the people i became close to during the time when i worked on speedrunning/gaming in general the most, I just felt like putting it down and thanking the community and all that people have done for me on this site, but most especially nate and mike uyama. You guys are great friends and I really do appreciate everything.
edit: I forgot to mention i also worked on studying/speedrunning vectorman 1, streets of rage 1, sonic 1, sonic 1GG, sonic 2GG, sonic chaos, super castlevania 4, smb1, smb3, bloodlines low%, toy story no death (I chose to abuse death once in my run on the site to avoid driving myself to insanity just trying to complete the game), contra, super c, and of course, dark castle and altered beast.
i guess this was more about who i am as a speedrunner than who i am. But yea mostly i am a single, 22 year old that pretends he's still in college and plays poker, plays disc golf, plays softball, enjoys movies a lot, and enjoys arcade type video games/2d sidescrollers (I hardly ever play modern 3d games but i do every now and again).
I didn't actually own Sonic 2 as a child, i owned sonic 1 and my grandmother who owned a genesis for the grandkids had sonic 2. I was never able to beat the game, but it was one of my favorite games that she owned besides toy story and i knew there was a run on the site. At the time i am not sure i realized i could create a run for a new game, but i think i just wanted to make sure it would pass verification so i started working on speedrunning various levels.
Somewhere along there i also watched vectorman and realized the run was pretty poor, I put a fair amount of time into practicing but eventually realized my methods for practicing sucked (I hadn't discovered emulators with savestates so i was never practicing the later levels). Sonic 2 was my chance to get my name on the site though, and i knew death egg would be the level i would do it on. I spent an entire weekend, my roomate at the time advising closely, trying to beat the death egg time on the site (I believe it was 50 at the time, and there was a 48 listed at the sonic center so i knew it was possible), and eventually i got a 49! I was so ecstatic and quickly sent off the tape.
From there i kept working on more and more levels. I couldn't even come close to the times in the single segment (was around 24 minutes at the time), much less the individual levels, so everything was super impressive to me at the time. I was still playing SSBM at a very highly competitive level, was learning/losing at poker, and was on the bowling team/going to college at the time, so i would only spend a couple hours a week on speedrunning, but would pick one level and just aim to beat it (not even to get my personal best time, i just wanted to beat someone else).
I started to beat more and more levels, and then it got to the point where i realized i could definitely improve the sonic 2 run by a minute or so. I started skipping classes to do attempts (this was my freshman year, it didn't take me long to realize i didn't have to actually go to class to pass college), and never got a completed run but i realized if i ever did, i would destroy the run on the site.
Then on october 31st, my father had a head injury. I frantically talked to nate, since at the time he sent me a dvd recorder to record my run (i still use this dvd recorder 5 years later... thanks nate!). He told me to just take my time and focus on my family, and was very supportive of me at the time. He by far encouraged me the most to stay positive while my father was in a coma. I would go to the hospital all day, and then i would stay up all night playing sonic 2 because i felt obligated to make a run with all the work i had put in. 1 week into my fathers coma i did it: 20:02. I was ecstatic to say the least, and it was such an amazing feeling when the rest of my day was just complete depression/anger (I was extremely close to my father, i didn't have a lot of friends in school/had depression issues and such and my father really did a lot for me. I can't even begin to say what he meant to me, he let me drop out of school my sophomore year of high school and go to community college since i had such social problems at the time, he was an extremely good bowler and taught me everything i know about the sport which took me to the collegiate/semi professional level).
I knew my run was good at the time, really good compared to the other run and much better than any other sonic speedruns that were on the site. But I knew i could still improve it. Over the next year, as my father went through various phases in the hospital, then coming home to continue therapy, I decided I would drop out of college and be his primary caretaker. I spent the next year basically interacting with my father (who's mental state was and still is a bit shaky, he has lots of logic/reasoning problems and really was not the same person, and had a ton of physical issues as well, could barely even stand up even with assistance from me, etc.) and his therapists. I would wake up at 8, take my father to therapists/do activities with him to try to stimulate his brain, and would be exhausted by the time my mom got home from work at 5. To take my mind off of going from living the awesome life of a college freshman, where I was meeting tons of people, going to parties, meeting girls, bowling, to a life of interacting with no one my age and my father most of the day, I sat in the basement and played sonic 2. And played sonic 2. And played it some more.
I got extremely good at many of the il's, and put an insane amount of time into many of the levels. It got to the point where I wanted to work on other games as well, and I spent an equally insane amount of time perfecting toy story, and an insane amount of time studying/practicing castlevania bloodlines. I still knew I wanted to do more with sonic 2 though, and eventually i beat every IL, beat my own single segment again which nate wrote a huge news thing about how amazing the 20:02 run was, and started planning/working on a 100% run.
As I went back to college, I worked on sonic 2 here and there, but became more focused on bowling again since I had taken an entire year off (when before this i worked in a pro shop and bowled 6-7 days a week for 4 years or so) and still wanted to be a professional bowler. Eventually some new tricks were found in sonic 2, so I wanted to do one last, final sonic 2 single segment. It didn't take me long to get that run I wanted, and I was absolutely thrilled to be able to not only implement all my new tricks, but also to save time in some of the other levels as well.
As I continued to go through college, I got more and more into shmups and fighting games, both games I was a big fan of since they had machines at the bar/bowling alley my parents always went to (Fire shark and street fighter 2:Hyper Fighting). I gradually drew away from the community, intimidated by the fact that I had put in such an insane amount of time into my runs up until this point, constantly testing, constantly trying to break them, etc., and knowing i would never really have the free time to do this again.
At some point here I also got more into poker, as I would play online with my other bowling buddies on trips. As I graduated, I looked at my options for a summer job, and looking over the math, thought I could make $10,000 playing poker before grad school. That summer went much better than expected, and I made around $60,000, an incredible sum to me at the time, and i knew at that time that I just wasn't ready to continue my education.
Unfortunately as I've gotten more into poker, I have also moved away from the community gradually. Me and mikwuyma would still play some online games together, I would still play some shmups here and there, and I would still play some fighting games here and there, but I just was still so intimidated by the standards i had set for myself. Thats basically where I find myself now, choosing to "work" more often then not over working on speedruns, since I just don't think i can replicate that state of mind i had when i got really good at sonic 2. I really can't describe how i felt on a day to day basis, but the only thing that would take my mind off of it was the monotony of playing a 40 second stage over and over again for hours at a time. I'm not sure I will ever get to the point where I can do that again, especially now that I can play a different game and get rewarded monetarily for it. But I still have so much more potential in sonic 2, and I really don't want it to go to waste: this includes improving some of the IL's, improving my spindashing speed, improving the single segment (priority number 1 currently) and finally completing a 100% run that is satisfactory.
I am not sure if and when i do these things if anyone but myself will appreciate them, because at some point the gains you get are only visible to 5 or so people in the world. But it will make myself proud to see the runs, and will hopefully spur someone else on in the future to watch my runs and strive to beat them. I also would love to pick up other games, but its just such a time commitment that I am just not sure I will be ready to do that within the next year given other things that steal focus from speedrunning.
I am still extremely happy for the friendships i've made through the community, but I do know that i am gradually falling farther and farther away, and one day will probably just only be known for the runs that are archived away somewhere and not for the person I am. Its kind of sad to say this, but that is just the inevitability of it, but I am still glad that speedrunning got me through an extremely rough patch in my life, and honestly saved me from a very destructive depression during that part of my life. This is really long winded and unedited, but being at the marathon and being around the newer faces (I can't tell you the number of times i've had to say "what game did he run again?" when i used to know every single news update by heart), and still seeing some of the people i became close to during the time when i worked on speedrunning/gaming in general the most, I just felt like putting it down and thanking the community and all that people have done for me on this site, but most especially nate and mike uyama. You guys are great friends and I really do appreciate everything.
edit: I forgot to mention i also worked on studying/speedrunning vectorman 1, streets of rage 1, sonic 1, sonic 1GG, sonic 2GG, sonic chaos, super castlevania 4, smb1, smb3, bloodlines low%, toy story no death (I chose to abuse death once in my run on the site to avoid driving myself to insanity just trying to complete the game), contra, super c, and of course, dark castle and altered beast.
i guess this was more about who i am as a speedrunner than who i am. But yea mostly i am a single, 22 year old that pretends he's still in college and plays poker, plays disc golf, plays softball, enjoys movies a lot, and enjoys arcade type video games/2d sidescrollers (I hardly ever play modern 3d games but i do every now and again).