If there's anything more popular than installing DOOM on strange platforms, it's practicing extreme speedruns in its levels. Depending on the situation, players must collect weapons and kill enemies before they can continue, but others seek pure speed despite the difficulties. A level known for its absolute lack of mercy among speedruns is The Chasm, map 24 of DOOM 2. Its evolution was so complex and demanded so many years of study that it even received its own mini documentary. If you consider yourself a DOOM fan, you can't miss it.
When a casual player of DOOM 2 surpasses the 20-level mark, they can't help but wonder when the game ends. Of course, that player ignores that the worst is yet to come, not so much because of the number of enemies or their characteristics, but also because of the general design of the maps they'll have to cross. One of those levels is The Chasm.
That's right: a normal human being with blood in their veins can take between six and twenty minutes to beat The Chasm, depending on their prior knowledge of the level, and whether they seek a perfect percentage or not. The level even seems boring in some sections, but the game proposes a 'par' of two and a half minutes. A difficult time, unless… you're an expert at speedruns.
What you just saw is a speedrun of The Chasm under the UV Speed category by Marijo 'Sedlo' Sedlic in June 2002. Taking just 36 seconds to beat The Chasm is truly crazy… but it's not the best record. To reach that speed, the player community had to struggle for almost two decades with The Chasm, developing new techniques and discovering unique features of the graphics engine that allowed shaving one or two extra seconds each time.
The mini documentary published by Karl Jobst does an excellent job analyzing the evolution of the world record for speedrunning The Chasm. It takes us back to February 1996, when player DemonLord recorded the first record at 1 minute 58 seconds, 32 seconds below the 'par'. Three weeks later he lowered it to 1:47, on April 10 he cut another 30 seconds, and on the 18th of that month he reached 1:08.
However, everything changed in June 1996, when player Anthe essentially did a pacifist speedrun (that is, without killing enemies) and brought the record down to 58 seconds. DemonLord came back with 56 seconds, and in May, Anthe returned to the top with 48 seconds, but it didn't last long. Two months later, DemonLord nailed 0:45 in the record. Here you can already appreciate more advanced techniques, like gaining speed before a door opens, and strafe-running, fundamental on narrow platforms.
All subsequent marks were more refined repetitions, but in November 1999, Sedlo established a new minimum with just 37 seconds on The Chasm. Going below 36 seemed impossible… until wall-running emerged. In relaxed terms, if you run along a wall at the correct angle, you'll be much faster than normal. The documentary demonstrates it at 19:41.
Wall-running broke everything in its path, and Sedlo set a new record of 0:33 in January 2004, but that wasn't the end. Seven years later, the speedrunner Looper combined all the techniques and strategies developed for The Chasm, claiming the world record with a total of 0:32. Almost eight years have passed since then (August 2011), and no one has been able to beat it...
