Marathon Speed Runs

[Idkbutlike2]

A couple of days ago, I started a thread on Speed Demos Archive (SDA), a speed running website for speed runs of the Marathon trilogy. I am looking for people willing to contribute some .avis or Aleph One recordings for the website. You will be credited for the run as long as you contact SDA by email or post the run on the thread I created by getting an account there. Before you post, here's some links to the info you need before starting your speed runs.

Here's SDA's rules page

Here's the submission rules

My SDA forum thread for the runs

[Packard20]

Sounds like a very cool thread But, I don't think very many people do speed-runs of marathon here because the like to "Enjoy the game longer".

[Idkbutlike2]

Sounds like a very cool thread But, I don't think very many people do speed-runs of marathon here because the like to "Enjoy the game longer".

Trust me, someone will do it, there's some games on there that really aren't worth speed running that people have endured through. I have faith in that thread (p.s METROID PWNS!)

[Idkbutlike2]

Okay, I want to dedicate this post to some tricks that I found are capable in Marathon, which will be useful in speed running it:

1. Diagonal walk- this is a very simple trick, however, it allows faster motion while walking. I highly recommend having always run ON during this. Simply press forward and a strafe key at the same time and walk in the direction you want. Your speed will be slightly faster than usual.

2. Float jump- Since Marathon doesn't have jumping, the physics engine involves the player simply floating over open space as the jump. This is of course highly abusable, allowing access to areas of the map you would not expect to reach. Combining this with a diagonal walk will increase the length of the jump.

3. Grenade jump- No explanation necessary, hopefully.

4. Sucker punch- make sure you are running at full speed. Go up to a weak level enemy and punch right before making contact with them. This is stronger than a normal punch. It can KO green speared Pfhor, Drones, and rarely, Flit'cka (sorry if I misspelled this).

I am seriously hoping to receive some runs soon, keep up the work!

[megabyte]

I tried to do some speed runs but the films wouldn't save properly.

[screamingfool]

regarding the thread you linked to; the saved films only contain keystrokes and refer to the map and physics file it was played with, so if someone changed anything, it would ask for a different file than the original game files.

personallyi might post films, but marathon is not on the list of accepted games, will this change?

[Idkbutlike2]

regarding the thread you linked to; the saved films only contain keystrokes and refer to the map and physics file it was played with, so if someone changed anything, it would ask for a different file than the original game files.

personallyi might post films, but marathon is not on the list of accepted games, will this change?

You may be on to something. The main glitches my films get is that they cut off at teleport terminals, and or skip some actions I took and end up messing up the recording, like just before the room with a terminal, it skips that action and begins replaying the actions of the next level. Is there anyway I could fix this?

[Pfhorsome]

When I used to record, this happened alot - stand at the terminal for a while or click through the message slowly - it works, but idk why, maybe its catching up to you, but it works. I may be doing this - is it level by level, or a total, oneshot runthrough of the game?

[logan]

How about you just get something like Hypercam.
It's freeware. the videos are watermarked until you register. But it is only a small gray sign in about size 12 font that reads "unregistered hypercam2" in upper-lefthand corner of screen

[Khnud]

Hypercam doesn't work on MacOS, or does it?

Is there a (freeware) OSX alternative?

[logan]

I'll check. If there isn't there are still a few other cams just like it.
turns out there isn't but never fear here is a cam extremely similiar to it for mac.
Screen Record

[Idkbutlike2]

When I used to record, this happened alot - stand at the terminal for a while or click through the message slowly - it works, but idk why, maybe its catching up to you, but it works. I may be doing this - is it level by level, or a total, oneshot runthrough of the game?

You could do it either level by level or through save terminal segments. Either way would be fine. Also, to do level by level, simply start recording near the ending of the level just before the one you are about to run. Then run, cut off the extra recording, and make your run.

[Homocidal Ham]

I haven't done it in a long time and it may take a bit to get around to it, but I suppose might be able to do marathon 1. The major problem with a marathon speed run when I first attempted is that extermination\exploration levels take so long, thus it took me a total of 6 hours to beat the game, not very fast by speed run standards, until someone finds a way to "trick" an extermination or exploration level, it kind of kills the awe factor of the whole thing.

Maybe I'll run through a level or two just to see how well it works.

[Idkbutlike2]

Here's my first speed run film !!!!!

It is a run of Durandal's first level, Waterloo Waterpark. I checked the film a few times over, so I don't think there will be many glitches. Please post some suggestions on how to improve the run, and/or post a better run of the same level here. Enjoy!

[Crater Creator]

I wouldn't want to speed run the whole game. Take If I Had a Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Somebody Pay, for example. Most of the film would just be you waiting for the doors to open.

Anyway, I decided to speed run All Roads Lead to Sol, one of the most popular M2 maps. Although I play on normal, the 5th film I saved turned out pretty spiffy:
[attachment=1643:ARLtS_speedrun_5.zip]

• none of my shots miss the target
• I only get hit 3 times, not including lava of course
• I only use the fusion pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle
• I get down to 10-20% shields, twice
• I had 0 (unloaded) shotgun shells at the end
• You can hear the Pfhor frying after I trigger the lava flow
• I only use the recharger three times, and the first two are 2x rechargers
• and a lot of nifty little things that just worked out right

Plus, it makes this weird noise at the very end I've never heard before, and crashes Aleph One after that, so...I guess it's a crash report too . The only wussy parts are that I played on normal, and that I tripped up trying to jump out of the lava smoothly a couple of times.

Total time: 2:07

P.S. it seems really silly to have to zip an 8K file. How about allowing marathon films as a valid filetype for upload?

UPDATE

I thought of a much cooler way to get across the first lava lake which, combined with getting hit less and getting out of the lava faster those other 4 times when I still have to dive in, made for a better film: [attachment=1644:ARLtS_speedrun_8.zip]

Total time: 2:02

I could probably do it in under 2 minutes if I put my nose to the grindstone.

[The Man]

You may be on to something. The main glitches my films get is that they cut off at teleport terminals, and or skip some actions I took and end up messing up the recording, like just before the room with a terminal, it skips that action and begins replaying the actions of the next level. Is there anyway I could fix this?

It's a bug in Aleph One's recording of solo films; it's shown up every time I've attempted to record myself playing multiple levels in succession. Clearly the solution is to do some old-school Vidding, but sadly I'm not yet competent enough a player to do that for most of the most difficult levels.