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Many video games deliver significant challenges, yet enthusiastic players repeatedly discover methods to enhance the challenge through atypical methods. In the world of video games, we've witnessed extraordinary achievements like the challenging RPG getting beaten via a guitar controller, online personalities attaining level 100 in World of Warcraft while employing a dance pad, and numerous other challenging title/atypical input combinations.

Most recently, well-known YouTube and Twitch streamer the musical gamer accomplished finishing Hollow Knight: Silksong using an digital sax.

Technical Qualifications

The content creator employs an "computer-connected saxophone with the identical button arrangement as a standard saxophone" for his streaming content, as he clarified through email. The "Dr." in his online handle is not merely for fun - he has truly earned the credential; The gamer holds multiple music degrees, among them a doctorate in music composition.

He commenced experimenting with the electric sax during COVID quarantines, when collaborating in-person with other artists became problematic. He also began getting into streaming around this era, and rapidly integrated his musical device into his streams.

Technical Setup

He uses a thumbstick-like "mod wheel" on the reverse side of the electric saxophone for player navigation, and specialized Bome MIDI Translator application that "converts the musical data sent from the instrument to the computer into standard computer controls" for remaining functions.

At the beginning, the streamer understood it "allowed you play games by playing notes on the device."

He experimented with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the famously difficult the run-and-gun platformer, "discovered it actually kind of worked, and then accomplished an complete boss run of the challenging action RPG as my inaugural genuine music-based challenge."

Gaming Accomplishments

The musician has tackled other difficult RPGs on the electric sax, like the massive open-world game, and his newest milestone is completing the platformer with 100% completion.

However, his early playthrough mirrored numerous players' journeys: "White-knuckling through Hunter's March on the first day. I spent HOURS trying to beat the difficult boss practically without enhancements — it was incredibly difficult."

Technical Obstacles

Part of the reason it was "incredibly challenging" — beyond Silksong inherently being a challenging game — is because the program Dr. Doot uses "precisely detects how imperfect my execution is" and a incorrect tone may cause defeat.

Still, he says "it's shocking how small lag there is between the electronic sax and the title, which is what allows me to do all the things that different skilled players can do with a traditional gamepad."

It's not perfect, though, as "incorrect commands" are something he must manage, and the breath detection in the device is so reactive "relatively audible disturbances (like laughing/yelling/talking) can actually trigger the mechanism and play notes without my face contacting the saxophone."

Dr. Doot says those incorrect commands have made him "accidentally fall off a precipice or strike a character by mistake."

Extra Performance Issues

Executing other applications at the concurrent period as the conversion software can cause it to get "unreliable," generating errors in inputs while streaming.

Aside from that, the streamer's biggest challenges are the identical as "any challenge runner would experience when learning a speedrun/hitless run, which is simply mastering the game on a profound level."

Future Endeavors

Dr. Doot mentions beating Lies of P on the sax was his toughest challenge so far, while "Music-driven the specific game playthroughs were incredibly draining."

He's done perfect attempts for the sequel and the final chapter and was working on a flawless attempt for the original game before Silksong was released, which he'll be going back to since he's finished the protagonist's story.

While he's dedicated countless hours into the platformer, the "remarkable creation" the strategic game is nonetheless his preferred title of the current year.

Nevertheless, don't expect him to attempt it on the sax, as its control scheme doesn't lend itself to musical input; it would be "relatively boring to doot."