Dragon Quest Speedrunners are Literally Heating Up Consoles to Set New Records

In the world of speedrunning, players will do anything they can to set a new record, and Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation players in Japan are taking that to whole new degree. A glitch in the game allows players to max out the stats of all the party members, and speedrunners are finding that the temperature of the Nintendo Famicom console might have an impact on the glitch's success. This has inspired speedrunners to use hot plates to heat the consoles, and ice packs to cool them down. While using this method, speedrunner Pirohiko set a new record of 22:07 in a Twitch stream of the game over the weekend. The stream can be found right here.

During the stream, Pirohiko competed against Lime, baku_zero, and Hitshee. Following the stream, the latter speedrunner discussed the method on Twitter, and the safety checks he has in place to make sure that the Famicom doesn't break, as a result.

Don't worry. I'm playing with a safety check. I've never broken an NES console, and it's not as dangerous as you might think. If the unit does break, I'm quick to repair it. Even if you don't think it's worth it, it's important research and presentation for us. https://t.co/MkiK03nYbM pic.twitter.com/V61YNzKCME

— Hitsheegame＠ホットプレート使い RTAinJapan (@Hitsheegame) December 28, 2020

As far as methods to increase speed go, this is certainly an intriguing concept! It should be noted that these speedrunners are clearly attempting to do this in the safest way possible, and readers might not want to try this at home. As Hitshee notes in the Tweet above, this is all for research purposes, and the actual impact that temperature has on the glitch's success remains unproven, at this time. On Twitter, Pirohiko has similarly showcased their experiments with the system's temperature, where the console can be seen at just over 107 degrees Fahrenheit.

ファミコンの中、あったかいなりぃ......。 pic.twitter.com/doJjRJB01E

— ピロ彦 (@pirohiko) December 26, 2020

While this whole thing seems quite unusual, it's not all that surprising in the world of speedrunning! Speedrunners have always made use of every possible exploit in order to set new records. It remains to be seen whether or not this method will become a new standard, but the results of these experiments will likely go a long way towards deciding just that!

Have you ever attempted to set a speedrun record? What do you think of this method for Dragon Quest III? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!