User:Duozmo/Time attack

Many computer and video games contain a special mode of play called time attack (or time trial), in which the main goal is to complete the game or levels within as quickly as possible. This mode prioritizes completion time ahead of points or other metrics of success. The term "time attack" has sometimes been used to refer what is now called a speedrun, which is a similar concept but only refers to games where trying for a fast completion time was never an original goal of the game (e.g. Quake).

Time attack modes most frequently occur in racing games, where the game often presents the user with a ghost car or ghost path which lets the user see an exact path for his previous record. Usually the results from time attack modes are stored in long-term memory by the game (on a hard disk or non-volatile memory), so they can be shared with friends or improved upon at a later date.

While speedrunning has an active community and several websites dedicated to the topic, time attacking is comparatively less popular. Usually, recordings of time attacks can be found within the larger speedrunning sites, although the two are considered separate phenomena. An example of a time attack recording can be found in the F-Zero section of the Internet Archive.