Let Him Solo: Dr. Doot’s Elden Ring Saxophone Run Was AGDQ’s Big Moment
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Let Him Solo: Dr. Doot’s Elden Ring Saxophone Run Was AGDQ’s Big Moment

When Dr. Doot took the stage on the ultimate day of AGDQ 2025, the strain was on. The speedrunner, whose nickname is surprisingly descriptive–he has a doctorate in music composition–was making an attempt a reside run of Elden Ring utilizing a digital saxophone as a controller. Beating Elden Ring’s hardest bosses by way of conventional strategies is troublesome sufficient, however Dr. Doot put that PhD to good use and rapidly slayed the ultimate boss, in addition to the maddingly troublesome elective boss Malenia.

GameSpot had the possibility to talk with Dr. Doot (who wished to solely use his deal with slightly than his actual title), and we have been stunned to learn the way the saxophone speedruns got here to be. Somewhat than coming about merely as one other approach to beat Elden Ring or Darkish Souls, they have been an extension of Dr. Doot’s observe on his digital instrument, the Roland Aerophone.

“The Aerophone truly grew to become a sport controller initially as a joke,” he defined. “I truly obtained the Aerophone to assist me with my music composition, as a result of I play saxophone. After which I discovered this system that you need to use to translate MIDI enter, which is what the saxophone sends to the pc, to [computer] keyboard enter. Then I noticed, ‘Oh, you’ll be able to play video games that manner then!'”

The setup is comparatively intuitive and undeniably hilarious. The keys of the Aerophone are mapped to totally different features in no matter sport Dr. Doot is taking part in. Within the case of Elden Ring, solely his character’s motion is dealt with by way of an analog nub on the again of the gadget. All the things else, together with shifting the digicam, is completed by urgent down the corresponding keys and blowing into the mouthpiece. This produces a “doot” noise, which is humorous by itself, however hilarious when it is accompanying violent sword assaults ending off a lethal boss. This, naturally, elicited loads of laughs from the packed Wyndham Grand in Pittsburgh, and there have been some events when he is by accident composed a brand new melody on the fly.

“Each infrequently, one thing wacky will occur, the place I am going to have a really particular script, and I am going to play a jazz lick out of nowhere–it’s actually humorous. And it at all times catches me off guard, like, ‘Wait, that really feels like music!'”

Different video games have allowed for extra literal functions of the Aerophone, comparable to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, through which Dr. Doot matched the button inputs for the ocarina songs to the keys of the Aerophone. Nonetheless, it feels like utilizing the instrument for… unintended gaming functions appears to be a precedence now, and he has a really lofty purpose.

“There are solely a handful of people that have performed a full hitless run of the Darkish Souls trilogy again to again. So, taking part in via all three video games again to again with out taking a single hit in any of the video games.”

Let Him Solo: Dr. Doot’s Elden Ring Saxophone Run Was AGDQ’s Big Moment
Unimaginable picture by no means doctored by Darryn Bonthuys

However that is not his Mt. Everest: Dr. Doot’s final purpose is to finish what the group calls “God Run 3.” This consists of beating not solely the three Darkish Souls video games, but additionally Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring–all with out taking a single hit. Only some folks have been in a position to do that utilizing conventional means, which might make a saxophone run probably the most legendary gaming accomplishments in historical past.

Nonetheless, one style proves almost inconceivable to play utilizing this methodology for Dr. Doot: the shooter. Controlling the digicam and weapons utilizing the Aerophone proved to be maddening with taking part in Doom 2016, as did the third-person taking pictures within the Resident Evil 2 remake. Maybe somebody will create the primary true FPS (first-person saxophone) sport and permit him to lastly cross the style off his record. For now, nevertheless, beating a number of the hardest video games on this planet in one of many funniest methods attainable is lots spectacular. Doing so with 1000’s of individuals watching, each in-person and on-line, is much more mind-blowing.

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