Peanut butter dog running fast Gyromite In Awesome Games Done Quick 2024.
The twice-yearly live video game event and fundraiser, Games Done Quick, has been a source of wonder and delight for years, but we still say “this has never been done before” even now, more than a decade after the first event.
Case in point: Awesome Games Done Quick 2024, which is streaming live 24 hours a day this week on Twitch, featured the first speedrun performed by a dog.
A Shiba Inu named Peanut Butter (shortened to PB, also a speedrunner’s term for a “personal best” finish time) completed a 30-minute sprint race from the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game Gyromite.
Gyromite It was originally bundled with the nostalgic but failed ROB (Robotic Operating Buddy) accessory for the NES. It’s a platformer of sorts, but not a traditional fast-paced game. Rather, it’s a relatively slow-motion game where you make inputs to raise and lower pipes to allow the character to pass through the level safely.
In the speed race, PB took charge of the robot in a category called B Game. PB didn’t set a world record or personal best (most GDQ racers didn’t do that in this event), due to some minor mistakes, but he finished underrated by sitting dutifully, pressing the buttons and holding down. Below those buttons at the appropriate moments based on the owner’s prompts JSR_. JSR_ also asked PB to periodically bark “hello” to tens of thousands of broadcast viewers. PB received many gifts throughout the trip, including pieces of cheese and ham.
The final time was 26 minutes and 24 seconds, compared to a personal best PB of 25 minutes and 29 seconds. The human record is 24 minutes and 39 seconds, by a runner named Octopuscal. His PB is currently the world record among dogs, but he is of course the only runner in that particular category.
Speedrunner JSR_ relied on PB during the height of the pandemic and spent part of each day training him to press and hold the big buttons on the controller meant to get candy in order to play the game. “This took years of training,” he said. “I wanted to train him to do something special, when I realized as a puppy that he was so much smarter than most of the other dogs I’d seen. Since I’m a fast runner (and PB is literally named after, you know, getting a ‘PB’ in a sprint) it was It just makes sense to me.”
You can watch the full video of the run above. Awesome Games Done Quick is an annual event that benefits the Cancer Prevention Foundation. There is a sister event called Summer Games Done Quick that benefits MSF later in the year. You can watch and donate on the event website.