immediately after its release, radix's run was slashdotted, appearing on the front page of slashdot.org, and becoming an internet sensation. publications in numerous languages ran stories on the run, and there was a topic on practically every gaming message board on the internet about it. at the peak of the craze, the first segment of his run was being downloaded over five thousand times a day. 

 [mockup of radix's 1:37 page at speed demos archive circa november 2003] 

 people streamed into #metroid on irc, heavily altering the demographics of the channel. my friends and i were now a minority, with random people who had heard about the run and wanted to get in on the action the new majority. the forum saw its memberlist more or less double in size during the period in november and december immediately following the release of radix's run, and the personal attention of retro studios even came into play. sequence breaking had gone mainstream, and metroid 2002 was in the limelight.  
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