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Prince of Persia in 15 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruw81L7aXCs
In tribute to the great people at AGDQ this year, here is the only game that I've ever made an attempt at speedrunning - it's Prince of Persia on the PC. I used to play this all the time a few years ago, trying to take seconds off my time... but I hadn't played it since 2006 and a whole plethora of new techniques have been discovered since then, making my time look unimpressive in comparison. So to do something a little different, here I attempt to get to the game's end in the practice mode, which reduces your timer to 15 minutes so that - theoretically - you can't complete the game.
This is without a doubt the most exhausting video I have ever produced.
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Come to think of it..... I wonder how many games this popular were ever developed primarily for hardware that was already antiquated at the time, before being ported to the more modern platforms that everyone remembers it for? (The gameboy was virtually obsolete when Pokemon was released for it, but that never got ported anywhere, unless sequels count..) I guess Spelunky might count, if game engines count? (Given that back then, it didn't have the export-to-consoles facilities it does now...)
I almost wish you'd recorded the audio of you doing the run also -- it would be nice to occasionally crossfade to "augh, what, bollocks, no, aaaaah" XD
How weird, that they would run the timer during the ending music...! (Or rather, that they wouldn't advance it accordingly when the music is skipped..) You'd think that's a fairly simple thing to think of?
So is this run using the crazy new techniques that have cropped up, or is it basically the old classic run you used to practice? (How competitive WERE you back then?)
"This is Prince Of Persia in a day of my life that I'll never have again" -- does that mean you did multiple takes?
"You can jump wwhHOAAOAOAOOH" -- okay, that almost makes up for lacking the live audio; being surprised by a recording you yourself made is pretty great ;)
Spike shrubs! :D Can't unsee that now :)
It's funny that the "wait for the mouse" section can be skipped! Does that use glitches? If not, d'you suppose he just didn't understand it that it was possible to make certain jumps.... or did he deliberately make it just barely possible, for speedrunners to show off? :P (And even just knowing that it's that close... it's awfully cruel, to make something as unintuitive as "wait for the mouse" be the solution to something that LOOKS like it could NEARLY be solved traditionally! Especially since there are other no-win-yet-non-fatal points in the game, right? Like a few screens earlier, where you have to leap off of a falling tile? Or was that just a speedrunning trick?)
"Was it a half hour?", he says, partway through a fifteen minute time limit. ;) (I kid; that's some absolutely frantic sportscasting!)
sounds like it's innovated dubstep XD
Who designed this palace, yeah.... that's always the question, how do people get around videogame castles like this without smashing all these tiles beforehand in the process :)
Whether there's a faster way to clear the room at 11:32 -- is there a reason you couldn't have just dropped off the left side once you were over there to hit the switch? (I guess not enough time to stand up and draw your sword before the guard can approach?)
How different is the cutscene if you're nearly out of time?
"Doing that half of the level is actually faster" -- did you only realise that afterwards?
The prince bangs his head on the portcullis, dies, princess marries the mouse :D
What are you thanking the mouse for, he didn't help you ;)
Some of those bugs were super interesting! I'd love to see how else they could be applied... I assume some folks are working on that as we speak :) I can't believe there's still new things to know :D I mean Super Metroid was one thing, but this is...... only five years prior, yikes! MAN, time flies.
I wonder how many of those bugs work on the other ports, actually!
Anyway -- wonderfully entertaining video :) Congrats on a fine run :D
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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 ;)
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From what they're saying in the thread 'linked' in the image, it actually CAN be used other places -- it's just that none of those other places happen to be useful for speedruns, I guess?
And oh gosh, wow -- the door opening, that's scary even to read about! Making the race even more pulse-pounding :) (I almost feel like he shouldn't have saved it for only if you're that close... then again, I guess most folks WOULD be that close, and it being different with MORE time is the easter egg rather than the other way around!)
It feels so strange to me that he's not making games any more....! Even if he's also good at writing, and drawing, and his other passions, it's like.... there are other good writers and painters, and so few good programmers :D It's like one of the Beatles giving up music to get into gardening or something. (But, then again.... life is to be enjoyed! Here I am, so obsessing over productivity that I'm projecting it onto someone else and insisting that they should do what they're good at instead of what they love..... it's a hard mindset to shake sometimes!)
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I had no idea this game could be completed this fast - you did a spectacular job at it!