Games Done Quick is a twice-yearly (or sometimes, more often) week-long charity marathon that features speedrunners showcasing runs of video games from the 20th century through today. Speedrunning is a competitive activity where players attempt to complete video games as quickly as possible. It is awesome, and here’s a video explaining why it’s so cool. The winter session, known as Awesome Games Done Quick, coincides with Jamuary (usually starting around MLK weekend). GDQ weeks are an awesome opportunity to feel like you’re part of a community, see some very talented people breaking video games wide open, and make a difference giving to charity (AGDQ supports the Prevent Cancer Foundation). Over the past few years, I’ve found that AGDQ has helped me to deal with my post-holiday blues, due to the sense of community and positivity that pervades the proceedings. This song is my love letter to GDQ.

I imagined the “final” version of this song would be either a pop-punk track, or potentially even a ska-punk tune (imagine horns playing the intro lead line). Musically, this is fairly diatonic, although the bridge veers off into the territory of the key’s parallel minor (Db major to C# minor). The most straightforward thing to do is to say the song is in Db as opposed to C# (5 flats vs. 7 sharps), but for some reason I found it easier to notate it in C# (although I just included F# major and F minor as chords, when they’d really be F# major and E# minor). The very end also includes the “Mario cadence” (flat-VI to flat-VII to I).

This song is multitracked, with the Zoom recorder capturing the acoustic guitar part and the SM-58 on the vocals.

Lyrics

I’ve been waiting six whole months for this

I’ve marked down all the runs that I can’t miss

I love the purpose and the sense of community

It’s a place for everyone, it’s a place for you and me

 

Games done quick, games done quick

As we watch the timer tick

Let’s see if the runner can pull off

This frame-perfect trick

Games done quick, Games done quick

As they’re racing through their splits

Let’s take on cancer one donation at a time

Let’s push that total as high as it will climb

So many runs, so many games, from 8 to 64 bits

Let’s catch them all this year at Games Done Quick

 

I’ll give a little bit if I can

If I can’t then that’s okay, I’ll just lend a hand

Together we’re all doing good and everyone belongs

We’re making space for all of us ‘cause that’s what makes us strong

 

Now let’s pray to R.N. Jesus

Got your backup strats to lean on?

Maybe if you’re focused and the stars are aligned

You could earn a world record right in a marathon