I take it to mean they paused the VM, allowing them to complete the game in sections when they had the time.

Actually there is a trick with ingame pause that can be used to bypass the blade traps. If you walk as close to the blade trap as possible, pause the game constantly until the blades are completely shut, then press the movement arrow, the game will unpause and you will perfectly go past the blades trap.

The game is timed, normally.