Equipment and setup

This page aims to document the various tools I use for streaming and recording speedruns and other gameplay footage. A lot of my hardware is not the best quality (or directly suited for my purposes), but upgrading usually takes time as there are several elements involved in the "signal flow" of any given setup. As I test out more hardware and software, this page inconsistently gets updated. At the end of 2025, upon getting a new PC to replace my Macbook from 2021, I tried to pare down the page a little by removing unnecessary details for things I don't use.

PC

Parts:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
• Motherboard: ASRock X870 Pro RS WiFi
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB 32GB (2 x 16GB)
• GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 5060 Ti
• Storage: Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD 1TB

Peripherals:

• Logitech G600, wired MMO mouse
• Logitech G815 Linear, wired mechanical keyboard
• LG 27GS95QE, 1440p 240 Hz OLED monitor
• Acer Nitro XV275K P3, 2160p 160 Hz mini LCD monitor
• Samsung T7 Shield, 4TB external SSD
• Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro, open headphones
• other miscellaneous devices that I don't always have plugged in, including raphnet classic controller adapter, DS/3DS capture, and a 3rd gen Xbox One controller (micro-USB, with wireless that I don't use).

Consoles

These are the consoles that I own, and relevant accessories/mods:

• Nintendo GameCube (DOL-001, Platinum Silver)
  • DOL-003 Controller, Platinum Silver
  • Official 251 block memory card
  • Modded with PicoBoot by Aero (we did a trade). PicoBoot launches GBI/Swiss from a generic GC memory SD card adapter, with cheap 2GB SD card
  • Gameboy Player attachment, Platinum Silver
  • Retrobit component cable (I know it's not the best and I think that after a couple years of use I'm accepting that it's probably why my video isn't perfectly crisp, but I can't be bothered to drop $100+ on the official ones). I also have a Carby that I used a couple times but not recently.
• New Nintendo 3DS LL (overseas equivalent of XL; mine is Japanese)
  • Optimize capture board, installed by Delfino Customs
  • 64GB microSDXC (the console was shipped with a 16GB microSDHC)
  • Typical modern homebrew apps (the ones that 3ds.hacks.guide recommends you install)
  • Generic 1/8" audio cable splitter (not in use)
  • Generic 1/8" stereo to two 1/4" mono converter
• Nintendo DS ("phat" model) with Loopy capture board installed by Aero (we did a trade). I use the same generic audio cables to capture audio as with the New 3DS.
• Super Famicom (whichever model has slightly worse video)
  • 2 OEM controllers (they don't feel as nice as the SNES Classic controllers, and of course since it's SFC the cables are like a foot long and I don't feel like modifying them)
  • Insurrection Industries SCART cable
  • OEM power supply (causes noise that I can filter out)
  • Triad power supply (causes noise that I can't filter out)
• Nintendo Wii (Japanese model), don't currently use
  • 2 Wii Remotes with Motion+ attachments
  • Generic Wii2HDMI, given to me along with a bunch of other random Wii stuff
• SNES Classic (a.k.a. SNES Mini, SFC Mini), don't currently use
• Two Gameboy Advance SP consoles (AGS-101), don't currently use
• New Nintendo 2DS XL (US), don't currently use

Video solutions

These are the methods I use to capture/process video footage from consoles:

• GameCube: component → RetroTINK-5x → HDMI (also have a Carby)
• SFC: SCART → RetroTINK-5x → HDMI
• HDMI: AVerMedia Live Gamer Extreme 3
• DS/3DS: see above

Audio

• Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 (first gen, old): main audio interface for microphone and speakers/headphones. I also use the "MixControl" app to load hardware presets (i.e. switching my headphones and speakers without moving any cables, since I have my 3DS and computer going into each).
• Deity W.Lav Pro with YPA knockoff microdot adapter: Lavalier (lapel/clip) microphone, to overhaul my mic setup.
• Sennheiser MD431 II microphone (meant for music studio use, too expensive to use only for streaming. It wasn't originally mine): backup dynamic microphone.

At this point I kind of use whichever microphone I feel like using for a month. The Deity lavalier doesn't actually sound that good, and I don't know if it's the adapter, the microphone, or something else. The Sennheiser microphone sounds great but is way too quiet since it's meant to pick up very close signals, and nothing I've done has really fixed that, unless I apply like 24 decibels of gain in OBS.

Software

Video

The only method I have ever used for speedrun video capturing that I can recommend is OBS Studio. Now that I have a new PC I'm experimenting with streaming in 1080p, although it spreads Twitch's bitrate limit kind of thin. For a long time I streamed in 720p60 (sometimes at nonstandard aspect ratios that were roughly equivalent), and that looked pretty good already.
I have also used the streamlabs app for Android, and it does work, but it is very clunky and very focused on monetization.

Below is a list of addons I have used with OBS:

• DroidCam OBS, for using my phone as a webcam. Free with paid features
• input-overlay
• obs-asio (not necessary for my current audio interface)

Here are some other tools I have used in streams and recordings:

• Clock browser source (run from local copy)
• Mini Padder, browser-based lightweight controller overlay (run from local copy)
• NohBoard, lightweight keyboard overlay

Timer

I use LiveSplit for any live speedrun timing on PC. In addition to the large variety of included functionality, I also have expanded its capabilities with some community-developed components:

• Counter
• Focused Hotkeys
• LiveSplit Remote, an Android app that I've used to control LiveSplit when my setup doesn't allow me to be near my keyboard. Uses LiveSplit Server
• Speed Guides Live (markdown fork), a tool that allows for displaying notes in a separate window for splits. I first downloaded the main version to display information about the current game when doing runs of consecutive Wario Land games, but have since used it for Bomberman 2 and Scribblenauts/Super Scribblenauts to recall the route (this can be surprisingly hard in longer runs with little downtime). Using this means I'm also reluctant to change split names, as it then means that you need to rename them in the guide file, or just deal with that note disappearing. Additionally, something that gave me headaches for a long time and I didn't figure out until over a year of intermittently using it: the TSV format the plugin allows you to import requires Unix line breaks (LF only), as opposed to the Windows line breaks (CR LF) you'll get in many text editors with default settings, and in the TSV files Google Sheets exports. Thankfully this is easy to fix in Notepad++ etc. when you've identified the problem.
• Split Name Auto Incrementer (direct download/mirror), a tool which looks for bracketed/parenthesized numbers in your split names and increments them every time you complete that segment.
• therun.gg auto uploader, a tool that automatically syncs current split info with therun.gg (split analysis website).

For the two mobile games I have speedrun, I used "Floating Speedrun Timer" (Play Store link). I also used "FramePerfect Speedrun Timer" (website) for running a game on console without access to a computer, although it is a freemium app that locks some useful features behind a paywall and I additionally couldn't get the splits.io integration to work.

Also of note are splits.io and therun.gg, two comparable split analysis websites. splits.io has permeated the speedrunning community and is integrated into several sites and applications, with the only downside being that it locks more advanced features behind a subscription service. therun.gg seems to be a free alternative to splits.io (although there is still an option to support the service), with one advantage being that there is a LiveSplit component (listed above) that syncs your splits automatically with the site.

Emulators

Only the emulators I have used frequently for speedrunning purposes are listed here.

• BGB, well-rounded accuracy-oriented GB/GBC emulator with a "speedrun mode" setting which displays information useful for verification
• BizHawk/EmuHawk: multi-system emulator focused on accuracy for TASing, but also suitable for speedrunning in many communities (I use it mostly for GBA emulation)
• melonDS, finally a DS emulator that cares about timing accuracy. Seeing anyone use any other DS emulator, even for casual gaming, breaks my heart. (Also ported to BizHawk in recent versions)