I just checked the credits again and the programmer is listed as Lance Groody! Jordan Mechner is listed as "director", so presumably had some sort of supervising role. Nevertheless, we also have to thank Lance for caring about it enough to actually make it decent. The Apple II version really is... uncanny - it has a bit of slowdown when more than one object is moving on the screen, but it feels so much more responsive than you would expect from a machine of that age, especially when compared to the previously mentioned awful ports to much more powerful consoles of the time.
This run uses only the techniques that I knew about at the time, but I looked up the current state of speedrunning the game in between doing the run and commenting on it, so there are a couple of places where I knew that I could have done better. As far as I remember, the last time I played I was two seconds off the world record, but that's been smashed now - and I never managed it all the way through in one continuous run, I'd always do it in multiple segments, saving and retrying each level until I got the fastest time I possibly could in each one.
The mouse section confused me so much when I first played this, I remember - it's the only point in the game in which you're in an impossible situation and have to wait for something to happen, so it's very easy to assume that something's gone wrong and to restart without seeing the mouse. You can always make a level unwinnable by falling off a loose tile at the wrong time, but at least then you know that you've done something wrong - the use of the tiles is usually very obvious. No actual glitches are used to bypass the mouse section - it's just that the amount of time needed to get to the exit switch and back isn't quite as long as Jordan Mechner thought if you really scream back and forth (the biting gates are meant to dissuade you from this) and it's just, just possible to get out. Some other console ports - probably the SNES one - actually extended that section so that you really couldn't get back in time.
At 11:32... if you go down the left hand side, you can't get to your feet quickly enough to escape the guard, and a sword swipe when you don't have your own sword out is instant death. There is some workaround to that where if you jump into the left wall at the right angle, you'll bump against it on the way down and will be on your feet when you land, and therefore safe. I don't think I ever successfully did it!
The bug I'm really interested in is the teleport on level 12, because I've never really heard a satisfactory explanation for it - http://www.popot.org/documentation/images/Integer_overflow_bug.png shows a diagram, but it doesn't explain why it happens in only this location - perhaps it's about clinging on to a platform that's just on the edge of a new screen?
The cutscene is usually the princess standing at the hourglass - but if you've got very little time left, she's standing away from it at the right hand side, you hear the sound of a door opening, and she turns around...! I hadn't seen this before as I'm used to reaching level 12 with about 45 minutes left - it's a nice touch, very much in character for this game :)
Perhaps I'll do another run soon with what I've learned since this video! And I'll keep the obscenity track just in case ;)
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This run uses only the techniques that I knew about at the time, but I looked up the current state of speedrunning the game in between doing the run and commenting on it, so there are a couple of places where I knew that I could have done better. As far as I remember, the last time I played I was two seconds off the world record, but that's been smashed now - and I never managed it all the way through in one continuous run, I'd always do it in multiple segments, saving and retrying each level until I got the fastest time I possibly could in each one.
The mouse section confused me so much when I first played this, I remember - it's the only point in the game in which you're in an impossible situation and have to wait for something to happen, so it's very easy to assume that something's gone wrong and to restart without seeing the mouse. You can always make a level unwinnable by falling off a loose tile at the wrong time, but at least then you know that you've done something wrong - the use of the tiles is usually very obvious. No actual glitches are used to bypass the mouse section - it's just that the amount of time needed to get to the exit switch and back isn't quite as long as Jordan Mechner thought if you really scream back and forth (the biting gates are meant to dissuade you from this) and it's just, just possible to get out. Some other console ports - probably the SNES one - actually extended that section so that you really couldn't get back in time.
At 11:32... if you go down the left hand side, you can't get to your feet quickly enough to escape the guard, and a sword swipe when you don't have your own sword out is instant death. There is some workaround to that where if you jump into the left wall at the right angle, you'll bump against it on the way down and will be on your feet when you land, and therefore safe. I don't think I ever successfully did it!
The bug I'm really interested in is the teleport on level 12, because I've never really heard a satisfactory explanation for it - http://www.popot.org/documentation/images/Integer_overflow_bug.png shows a diagram, but it doesn't explain why it happens in only this location - perhaps it's about clinging on to a platform that's just on the edge of a new screen?
The cutscene is usually the princess standing at the hourglass - but if you've got very little time left, she's standing away from it at the right hand side, you hear the sound of a door opening, and she turns around...! I hadn't seen this before as I'm used to reaching level 12 with about 45 minutes left - it's a nice touch, very much in character for this game :)
Perhaps I'll do another run soon with what I've learned since this video! And I'll keep the obscenity track just in case ;)