ZZT Speedrun Challenge!

Jotz · Post by **Jotz** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:30 am

Hey! In the near future, I will be holding a speedrun contest. Basically, you use a video screen capture program and record some ZZT game while you're playing it. Then the person that finishes the game in the least amount of time wins.

Right now, I'm thinking that everyone should use the Camtasia Studio Screen Recorder http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp. If anyone suggests any other screen capturing program, please say so!

Anyway, for the first round I may use the game "Castle of ZZT" by HM (2 boards long). Requests are welcome, though the game should preferably be an action game with a limited amount of necessary reading.[/b]

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:35 am

I'd like to try town actually.

the other day I beat it for the first time and found out a clever trick. I was going to make a thread on it but figured it would be dumb since it's not like people speedrun zzt games.

Also I always envisioned an Aura speedrun at some point.

Edit: also are there any banned techniques?

Obviously no cheating, but like can you use the pause key and a keyboard to your advantage (but not the hold pause+mouse trick which lets you move so fast you can shoot yourself)

Jotz · Post by **Jotz** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:44 am

Oh yes, forgot about that. Keyboard only! There will be no way to cheat anyway because the video capture will show it otherwise. And sadly, the game must be played in the windowed mode since the capturing program doesn't support full-screen DOS (unless anyone knows how to get it to work). But anyway, it would be better to record it in windowed mode since you can set the screen capture program to only record the window, reducing the video file size.

Ando · Post by **Ando** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:48 am

Include Solder of Fortun.

Post by **Quantum P.** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:14 am

How come I haven't heard of the pause+mouse trick?

Also, it would be really cool if there was a DOS TSR that recorded the text on the screen at regular intervals. You would have to play it back in a special player, but you could make the movie files relatively small.

Ellypses · Post by **Ellypses** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 4:54 pm

You can run against the water current with the mouse+pawse trick in SZZT too. Also I agree with Q'man about a TSR thingamabooger that records text on screen, cause it would be cool if it also small in size in junk. But the only thing that's close for doing that is <a href="http://angband.oook.cz/cmovs.php">c-movies</a> that's builded in ToME but that too does inflat like a mofo, but it's cool if it was in the upload section beside the corresponding game so you could see how the game works before whatever. Screenshot reader too that uses zztboard format to store screenshots in a single file(That in itself can be easily acomplished).

I would like speedrunning dungeon genra games.

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 10:55 pm

Nanobot made a ZZT board viewer thing for Zeuxworld.

Also the best dungeon game to speedrun would be Sramble Dash Dungeon.

Post by **mania-[ker]** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:28 pm

i'm going to speedrun Frost

Jotz · Post by **Jotz** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 11:53 pm

----------------------
LET'S START
----------------------

The first speedrun challenge game is Battle Maze Advanced by Apple McTom. You have until Tuesday of next week to play it, master it, speedrun it, and make your eyes bleed because of it.

For video capture, use Easy Video Capture: http://www.video-capture.info/. Under "Options>Video" change the codec to DivX if possible and change the key frames/sec to 25 or so. And then under "Options>Record" select the fixed region to your ZZT window (remember you can't record it in fullscreen). Then hit record and...SPEEDRUN!

Post by **TTTPPP** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:58 am

I can only seem to be able to complete this when the speed is set to 2 slower than normal. At normal speed I can't get past the first board :-(

What exactly is allowed during the speed run in terms of speed changing, saving, etc?

Jotz · Post by **Jotz** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:34 pm

Regular speed, no saving.

Maybe you suck at ZZT, which is quite an overstatement.

wil · Post by **wil** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 7:53 am

Maybe i'm off base here, but doesn't it make sense to speedrun something more classic, like town of zzt, so that spectators have a frame of reference to your traceurism?

Jotz · Post by **Jotz** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 12:16 pm

I selected the game I chose because it is very short and can be completed in a few minutes with practice. Not to mention that beating Town of ZZT is an improbable feat.

Post by **MadTom** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:21 pm

I'm sort of surprised, I thought most people had beaten it at least once. A couple of the boards are sort of challenging, but beating it doesn't strike me as "improbable".

Post by **Dr. Dos** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 4:27 pm

I only beat it the first time the other day when Nadir said it was a lot easier than he remembered.

He was right. If you just LOOK at the rube board you can figure it out instead of giving up instantly.