A group of Japanese speedrunners have discovered that the key to getting faster times in all-time RPG classic Dragon Quest III is to literally control the temperature of their Famicom systems with hot plates and ice packs.

Dragon Quest III, like many role-playing games, is long. Playing through the game regularly can take dozens of hours, and even the fastest speedruns typically took over an hour before a major bug was found in August 2020. By following a series of steps that includes saving the game and quickly toggling the Famicom’s power switch while holding its reset button, the game will restart in a glitched state that, if exploited correctly, will max out the party’s stats.

Since the glitch’s discovery, Dragon Quest III speedrunners have used it to complete the lengthy game faster than ever. Japanese player Hitshee posted a time of 22:48 in November before pushing his time down to 22:22 earlier this month. His secret? Cranking up his Famicom’s temperature, usually in the 50° C (or 122° F) range but sometimes as high as 80° C (or 176° F), to improve his chances of getting the glitch to work properly.

https://kotaku.com/dragon-quest-spee...-co-1845958614