The pausing trick has been known for years. It's done by repeatedly pausing and unpausing to affect the in-game timer and give reduced level-end times. Until recently it was believed to only save a small amount of time on any level that isn't Cold Reception, however Henrik Norgren of the-elite.net has dug into the memory values of the game to discover exactly how the pausing trick works.
Shortly after unpausing the game, there is a window of 4 frames in which the game can still receive inputs, but will not update the timer. This allows the game to be paused and unpaused indefinitely, without ever updating the timer. On top of that, Bond's positional values DO update within that 4 frame window, meaning that Bond can traverse any level, in its entirety, without the timer ever updating, as long as the pausing trick is used consistently.
This video demonstrates the pausing trick and how it can be used to acheive very good times with ease, turning this mediocre 0:10 into the WR 0:09. Of course this run isn't worth anything, and doesn't count as WR or PR, since anyone can acheive 0:09 (and even lower) with this trick.
Full credit goes to Henrik Norgren, for uncovering the exact details of the pausing trick (as well as a number of other things), sharing them with the community and being an all-round cool guy.
