I get why speedrunners wouldn’t like it, but as a kid, I really thought the way the new screen would draw the lines and fill them in with color was cool. Like a fairy tale/coloring book magically writing itself as you flipped the pages. Sometimes people come up with really innovative and entertaining ways to solve technical limitations 😬
I remember playing King's Quest II at my uncle's house, and I was mesmerized by the screen redraw. It's not that we don't like it, it's just slower. :)
I would _love_ to see modern video game engineers/artists try to construct that same sort of an effect in a modern 3D game with fancy custom shaders or something.
@@timothymclean Some games have done this for like openings, but yeah this is a thing that just isn't needed anymore and probably be a pain for modern systems
That was not uncommon with early adventure games (and probably some other genres) in the 80s. Sierra did that a lot; Maniac Mansion (Lucasfilm) had some unwinnable states as well. There were games where if you destroyed an important object, you'd be screwed (and sometimes not find out about it until the very end) and have to start the game over. It was total anarchy. The "rules" of good gameplay hadn't been well established yet, so dead-ends were not a strict no-no back then. And Sierra was always good for finding random stupid ways to kill you off for no good logical reason an attentive game player could anticipate. Save early. Save often. (Which doesn't help when the game lets you forget to pick up something at the very beginning of the game that you need to use at the very end of the game.) Good times. Good times.
Back then they thought pissing the player off for no reason was good game design. It's the same mentality that gave us the worst DND dungeon: the tomb of horrors
As a forty year-old dude who grew up playing Sierra Quest games, I can confirm that even on machines from the mid-eighties to early nineties the "fastest" setting would often result in zipping.
As a 42-year-old who played these games in the early 90s, I think it's hilarious that there are kids speed running these games, who weren't even born when they were created. Also, it's hilarious that speed running even happens in this particular genre.
@@edsanville as 30 year old guy I can be middle man and pass sign of peace for both generations. Let's peace be among us, between boomers, milenials and zoomers. We all speedrunning game called life...
I know nobody climbs the beanstalk when speedrunning, but just in case this helps someone out: keep Graham's feet on the beanstalk and you won't fall. The hand animation tricks everyone (including me) into thinking his hand position matters, but just as on other screens it's all about his feet. These videos are works of art. I am floored at how interesting Sierra speedrunning is, when told by someone with narrative flair and tremendous video effects skills. I hope you'll finish the King's Quest series, and maybe even take a look at the Space Quest games.
I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but I'd like to do at least one of the Space Quest games this year. I might not get to the other King's Quest games for a while. I don't think their stories are as interesting, frankly. But there are plenty of other adventure games out there!
@@42Fossy Ha! Well, keep in mind, I made that comment 11 months ago. By that point, the only King's Quest videos I hadn't made were 2, 4, and 7. I was only half-right about 7. The run is only mildly interesting, but the memes are great. 2 has basically the same story outline as 1. Same people, similar strats, at least until SantaClaus joined recently. King's Quest 4 is a great game, and a great run, but there isn't terribly much to talk about. The route is basically the same as it was from the beginning. Runners just got better, did it faster.
Imagine you're a king and you send out this random guy named after a cracker to retrieve three mystical ancient artifacts from all around the world. You expect it to take him weeks to complete at least, maybe months. He bursts through the door at light speed in just over a minute and a half, spooking you so hard you have a fatal heart attack. Gotta Go Fast.
I played that game when I was 4. My Mum helped me with the typing and reading as I am german and the game was in english. I remember it took us years to finish the game. There was no internet and we lived on the countryside so we had not PC shops close to buy any walkthrough books. The riddle with Rumpelstiltskin was pretty hard and some other bits so difficult to find out. We did it in the end. We also finished II and III. My Mum is 66 now and started playing it again. I love it. It will always be something that connects us as we didnt give up and laughed so much and screamed every time when the witch appeared. :)
I remember my brothers not wanting me to play this game as a kid. Whenever it was my turn, they'd set the game to fast and I'd immediately die in the water. Then they'd tell me I lost my turn.
Theme song is Greensleeves, the oldest English pop song in history. It predates the letters V, and J. The oldest transcription "love" is spelled "loue" and "joy" is spelled "ioy."
You mention two things here that instantly brought me back to my days poring over the King's Quest Companion 4E. The book is split into narrative walkthroughs, which includes prose and more vivid written descriptions of the setting. The second half contains the straightforward guides through the games. In both the narrative and guide sections for KQ1 (which attempts to cover the SCI/VGA version simultaneously, pointing out the differences when necessary), the bird is referred to as a condor. Page 22: "Above him, condors were soaring, sweeping steeply up and down, seemingly weightless. One unusually large condor made a few low passes at Graham in what seemed a friendly manner, as if inviting him to climb aboard and fly too." Page 417: "This is where you hitch a ride on a condor later, so remember this place." The second thing is the mention of not knowing that the shield protects against the giant. This is mentioned in passing as well: Page 419: "Rub the ring and become invisible; if you have the shield, don't worry. In either case, the giant will leave you alone and not kill you." The walkthrough also seems to say the shield protects against the dwarf, too. It blows my mind that this video could jog memories from 25 years ago, but the moment you said those things I knew I had seen them both in there. I've binged most of your videos at this point. You're doing amazing work!
I first encountered KQ1 in 1996 running on my HP200LX palmtop computer. Back then, it was already quite dated and I didn't bother finishing it. Fast forward to 2021 and I decided to revisit the game after watching this phenomenal video. So after 25 years, I finally finished King's Quest 1
and then the myth, the legend, the absolute mad lad santa claus just goes to have a run *under a minute*. this really shows even with the things we see as "well optimized" sometimes can be crushed in the blink of a eye.
Now that this blew up, I noticed I never left a comment^^ Anyway, one of the best progression videos I've ever seen! Also thanks for the kind words on my "speed"runs! :D
I don't play video games and have never heard of King's Quest before today, but I am now a subscriber intent on learning more. Thank you for making your content accessible!
When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I had an Apple IIGS in the kitchen. When I was being babysat I would play games like KQ1. The thing about being a kid (which my kids today demonstrate) is that you have seemingly infinite patience. I probably died hundreds of times just trying to run past the wolfman or whatever it was on screen 4 rather than turning around. But by 6 or 7 I was able to do most of the game. I recall that the "get fiddle" area (spent forever thinking it was a violin or guitar) and the well, were super tedious to get Graham to move properly.
@CallOfDrewthulhu Wonder if it has something to do with the emulation or just how old the games are, like typing too fast might lead to missed inputs since the game isn't fast enough to register it.
The later SCI-era Sierra games do cap typing speed, so even a TAS run can only type so fast; but AGI games like King's Quest 1 allow essentially arbitrary typing speeds in theory. (In practice, KQ1 *doesn't* allow arbitrarily fast RTA mashing-out of *zips*; the need to keep the well zip from 28:50 viable means players have to limit the game's speed a little bit, so zips take a small but non-zero time to complete.) It would be interesting to see what a top speed typist would do in a game like this. Typing in an adventure game is very different from taking a typing test, though; the player must press Enter after every command and also juggle a bunch of other things like movement, textboxes, game speed changes, and random elements that disrupt the planned flow. Runners are slowed by the need to bring their fingers over from doing something else on the other side of the keyboard. Chuck types at >100 WPM in more ideal conditions. Emulators can affect typing performance, but it isn't really seen here.
Y'know Roberta Williams is still kicking. In fact, she's only 69 years old. You could probably contact her and see what she thinks about the speed running scene for her games in general!
I am 43, and remember when this came out. MIND. BLOWING. Something no one ever talks about is that in the manual there was a 1-900 tip line that charged something like 4 dollars a minute to call and get a tip on what the next think you should do is. I expect that the vast majority of you won't have heard of 1-900 numbers, but they were at the time known as "premium" phone numbers that you knew just by the 1-900 code that they would cost money per minute. A 1-900 number was generally considered to be kinda sleazy because most of them were designed for those people who, feeling amorous, might with to call and...uh...carry on a dialogue with a new friend for a time.....about whatever they might want to discuss... Or it could be a phone number ripping parents off because the they bought for their kid game was pre-internet and sometime you just couldn't figure things out. Seriously it's impossible I think. So you had to call the tip line.
I've been watching and rewatching your videos. I'm not a speedrunner but speedrunning fascinates me so I'm glad your channel showed up in my recommendations. The King's Quest VI video might be my favorite but all of these are so well put together and it's clear how much love goes into all of them!
I was very pleased and surprised to see my blog entry about the KQ1 Easter eggs was mentioned. Glad to contribute to finding weird little glitches in this game! Note: the walk on water bug does not seem to work in the IBM PCjr version of King’s Quest.
Thanks for finding it in the first place! And actually, a new runner has found that the water walking also works going north and south if you get Graham's shoulder/arm to the right or left edge of the screen. the time has dropped a LOT now.
Clicked on this video expecting it to be about King's Bounty (because I forgot the actual name), but instead I found a thrilling video about an (unknown to me) adventure game ad a quality that would make Karl Jobst and Summoning Salt proud. Great Job.
@@OneShortEye I agreed with Ace, your video is of the highest caliber and is neck and neck with Karl and Summoning Salt. Keep up the great work and I'll keep watching, thank you!!!!!
@@OneShortEye +1 from me too, long time Karl viewer, learned about Summoning Salt in these comments(great, immediately subscribed) and your videos are as much great.. I first got proposed by youtube about my beloved Quest for Glory 1 / Hero's Quest and now I watched the KQ1, as a looooooooooong time (40yo) adventure and rpg fan back from the day endless respect!! I got transported back to those magic times! God bless you man!
@@workingclass5605 Glad you liked it! These games hold a special place for me too, as you can probably tell. Many hours as a kid trying to look and interact with everything I could. If you like Summoning Salt, you might also like some of these speedrun UA-camrs: Tharixer, tomatoanus, Abyssoft, Lowest Percent
@@OneShortEye Wow great, I'll check them all out, thanx a lot for the recommendations!! Same story btw for me here as others back in the day, learning english with adventures and rpgs, dictionary at hand .. Great era... Still love the PC speaker sound of QFG1 on CGA, 10 360 back then.. Or 2 disks for KQ1, Larry 1... Please keep us with more content!!
Ok... That was an awesome analysis. Very cool. Never played or saw anything on King's Quest. I never knew how good of a game it was. This video made me believe that it really is a very important game for gaming history... This is basically a Witcher game from the 80s! Hope to see more videos from you, my dude. Keep on going
King Edward - "Sir Graham, I have a righteous quest for you to prove your worthiness as my successor. Retrieve the three lost magical treasures of the kingdom. It will not be easy, many have tried, all have failed. But if you succeed, my throne, and the kingdom shall be yours. Do you accept this daunting task?" Graham - "Yeah, alright. Gimme a minute."
I'm usually a lurker but I'll drop a comment to engage with the algorithm cuz I'm really impressed with the quality of your vids vs your subs. keep it up! You deserve lots of success
Found this channel not too long ago. Great videos! Would you ever consider doing an update for this? I notice the current WR stands at 0:40, which is a pretty astonishing improvement over what's in this video. I'm curious about how that happened.
Got here after watching Summoning Salt videos. Subbed for support as this is good stuff and you deserve some higher numbers. BTW, never done any speed running myself but strangely into watching the histories play out!
Just saying, you keep watching this stuff long enough and you might just find yourself hooked on trying to speedblitz small portions of favorite games, if not attempt full runs.
when I heard about this video, I just assumed it WAS Summoning Salt haha. Very curious now to watch this video later and see how it holds up against the gold standard of speed running progression videos.
I just discovered your channel a day ago and have been binge watching all your videos! They're all so well made and entertaining. I'm not a speedrunner myself but I spend a lot of time sewing, and when a lot of the video essay scene leans political/intense/overly negative there's nothing that does the trick like these videos to enjoy listening to while I work. I love that at this point I recognize half the names on these leaderboards!
Fantastic video. As someone who has never seen this game before I found this really interesting! Wish I had the skill and patience levels you guys have!!
Thank you for the kind words! And yes, I absolutely have plans to do more. They just take a while to research and edit. This one took about four months.
I am not really into speedruns, but I enjoyed this video. Seeing how much work everybody put into speedrunning; changing speeds, optimizing zipping routes, and even turning off the sound. Heh. It's all very amazing! Thanks for the video!
Great video really well made and explained! I have no experience or knowledge of Sierra adventure games outside of PushingUpRoses retrospectives on them and I really appreciate the explanation of how the game actually plays. That's something that is often left out of history of speedrun videos, I think it makes the explanation of the speedrun's tricks a lot easier to understand and appreciate the gravity of improvements made. Amazing stuff!
0:31 I totally remember this rock being my first realization how 3D this was, but then and still now I don't get out a flat-bottom muffin shaped rock and roll over you, the very source that is pulling it. Is it on wheels? How does Graham get under it? lol
Sure, worrying about losing your entire run because you skipped saving SOUNDS scary, until you realize that with the length of the run, you're only actually losing a minute of progress.
Wow. Amazing. It took me about 5 years to complete KQ1 on my trusty old CGA Clone. I played it diligently for about a month, and then gave up in despair. A few months later I plucked up the courage to keep going, only to give up again after a few days. Rinse and repeat, until one day my sister came over and said "You haven't finished that game yet. Let me show you how to do it." And she proceeded to finish the game in about an hour. Moral of the story: Sometimes it's better to have a sister than a walkthrough :-)
no one knew about the shield protecting you against the giant? I figured that out in the 80's. Just.. wait around with the shield on you and the giant just falls asleep.
Another great video. I think I recall it being a Condor as well. When you *look bird* I feel like I remember it being called a Condor. We had the PCjr version which was our first play through (I was too young to play then but my sister, brother and I would watch my dad play the first couple KQ games until I was old enough to play 3 on my own but not get very far) but also the later versions as well. My dad figured out the Rumplestiltskin puzzle on his own after a couple weeks of being stuck on it 😂
9:15 “>get nut” Me too, man. Me too. Also, it just occurred to me that this is where 4chan meme arrows came from; they’re command prompts. I should have figured that out much sooner.
>Also, it just occurred to me that this is where 4chan meme arrows came from; they’re command prompts. I should have figured that out much sooner. They are not. '>' is a standard, albeit obsolete, way of quoting, typically found in email software. When 4chan was founded they used the same imageboard software as 2chan, called GazouBBS, which implemented '>' to quote, because at the time it was normal.
@@AlphaCarinae actually, I was thinking that it was just how you write commands in old fashioned DOS operating systems. Apparently that’s incorrect too though…?
Back in the day most people I knew played this game at "zip speed" and had mastered the art of quickly tapping the arrow key to zip across the screen and stop immediately after entering the new one.
I’m 46, I used to play this game with friends on the Tandy 5.25 disks. This was a ton of fun. Any kid today though wouldn’t care without you giving this kind of context. And these guys who grind out for the best times probably think it’s a lot of times wasted. Your videos show that there is an appreciation for what they do.
Really entertaining video packed full of information, great story telling, and your passion for the game is easy conveyed. It was really a pleasure to watch and learn about a game I have not heard of before.
I have the Roberta Williams Collection, and even though it's been a long time since I played KQ1, I'm pretty sure that edition also interprets "fast" in the same way as Steam and GOG.
It makes sense. If you don't understand the mechanics or aren't familiar with the game, you don't even know what you're looking at. Also, unless you're really into it, watching speedrun after speedrun can be very boring, like watching a musician practice their instrument instead of going to the concert.
I used to love playing these games, Space Quest 2 was my favorite. But looking back at it, I never really got all that far in the games. But the memories are so fond.
Fascinating recollection of impressive speedruns. I'm baffled by the fact you could complete this game less than 2 minutes... I never even played a King's Quest game other than the 6th and I never got past the beginning...
2:00 Will those other versions ever have their own videos? I'm sure they have some interesting nuances, kinda like the French Floppy did, right? Anyway, neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
I should really get into these. This is my childhood and early teens right here. I can run most of the old adventure titles by heart from start to finish. I even remember IFNKOVHGROGHPRM to this day.
Imagine telling your dad, who spent hours upon hours playing this game, and never even saw the ending, that you beat the game in under 2 minutes.
I just checked the current leaderboard: 'Santa Claus' now did it in under 1 minute... :D :D
@@andyony2 no way, santa came through huh, crazy
"It's not about reaching the destination, it's about the journey to get there" xD
@@ZioStalin "It's not about reaching the destination, it's about Santa delivering presents as fast as possible"
hours? make that months
I get why speedrunners wouldn’t like it, but as a kid, I really thought the way the new screen would draw the lines and fill them in with color was cool. Like a fairy tale/coloring book magically writing itself as you flipped the pages. Sometimes people come up with really innovative and entertaining ways to solve technical limitations 😬
I remember playing King's Quest II at my uncle's house, and I was mesmerized by the screen redraw. It's not that we don't like it, it's just slower. :)
I would _love_ to see modern video game engineers/artists try to construct that same sort of an effect in a modern 3D game with fancy custom shaders or something.
@@timothymclean Some games have done this for like openings, but yeah this is a thing that just isn't needed anymore and probably be a pain for modern systems
It’s so funny that with how hard most games try to prevent softlocks, KQ has a character who pretty much only exists to softlock you
That was not uncommon with early adventure games (and probably some other genres) in the 80s. Sierra did that a lot; Maniac Mansion (Lucasfilm) had some unwinnable states as well. There were games where if you destroyed an important object, you'd be screwed (and sometimes not find out about it until the very end) and have to start the game over. It was total anarchy. The "rules" of good gameplay hadn't been well established yet, so dead-ends were not a strict no-no back then. And Sierra was always good for finding random stupid ways to kill you off for no good logical reason an attentive game player could anticipate. Save early. Save often. (Which doesn't help when the game lets you forget to pick up something at the very beginning of the game that you need to use at the very end of the game.) Good times. Good times.
@@pulykamell The Zarfian Cruelty Scale exists because of games like these.
Sierra adventure games were always consciously evil. Good, but evil.
Back then they thought pissing the player off for no reason was good game design. It's the same mentality that gave us the worst DND dungeon: the tomb of horrors
@@ENCHANTMEN_ I dunno about worst. It's generally pretty well received.
As a forty year-old dude who grew up playing Sierra Quest games, I can confirm that even on machines from the mid-eighties to early nineties the "fastest" setting would often result in zipping.
Scared the shit out of me as like a 7 year old when Hagatha would come flying at me on the faster settings. Bitch could really move.
As a 42-year-old who played these games in the early 90s, I think it's hilarious that there are kids speed running these games, who weren't even born when they were created. Also, it's hilarious that speed running even happens in this particular genre.
Apologize for calling 20-somethings "kids."
@@edsanville i mean 20 year olds are kids to 40 year olds, figuratively AND literally
@@edsanville as 30 year old guy I can be middle man and pass sign of peace for both generations. Let's peace be among us, between boomers, milenials and zoomers. We all speedrunning game called life...
I know nobody climbs the beanstalk when speedrunning, but just in case this helps someone out: keep Graham's feet on the beanstalk and you won't fall. The hand animation tricks everyone (including me) into thinking his hand position matters, but just as on other screens it's all about his feet.
These videos are works of art. I am floored at how interesting Sierra speedrunning is, when told by someone with narrative flair and tremendous video effects skills. I hope you'll finish the King's Quest series, and maybe even take a look at the Space Quest games.
I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but I'd like to do at least one of the Space Quest games this year. I might not get to the other King's Quest games for a while. I don't think their stories are as interesting, frankly. But there are plenty of other adventure games out there!
@@OneShortEye This is so wild to read in hindsight, haha.
@@42Fossy Ha! Well, keep in mind, I made that comment 11 months ago. By that point, the only King's Quest videos I hadn't made were 2, 4, and 7. I was only half-right about 7. The run is only mildly interesting, but the memes are great. 2 has basically the same story outline as 1. Same people, similar strats, at least until SantaClaus joined recently. King's Quest 4 is a great game, and a great run, but there isn't terribly much to talk about. The route is basically the same as it was from the beginning. Runners just got better, did it faster.
I still have fond memories of yelling "QUICK! HOW DO YOU SPELL SWIM!?" as a kid while trying to play this game. Good times
Would it upset you to learn that you can also swim by pressing the equals key? ;)
@@OneShortEye maybe 30 odd years ago it would haha
Imagine you're a king and you send out this random guy named after a cracker to retrieve three mystical ancient artifacts from all around the world. You expect it to take him weeks to complete at least, maybe months.
He bursts through the door at light speed in just over a minute and a half, spooking you so hard you have a fatal heart attack.
Gotta Go Fast.
I like to think that's the canon reason the king died.
Also, with the current WR, that time estimate is now literally less than a minute.
@@MDLuffy1234YT
Wow.
I played that game when I was 4. My Mum helped me with the typing and reading as I am german and the game was in english. I remember it took us years to finish the game. There was no internet and we lived on the countryside so we had not PC shops close to buy any walkthrough books. The riddle with Rumpelstiltskin was pretty hard and some other bits so difficult to find out. We did it in the end. We also finished II and III. My Mum is 66 now and started playing it again. I love it. It will always be something that connects us as we didnt give up and laughed so much and screamed every time when the witch appeared. :)
I remember my brothers not wanting me to play this game as a kid. Whenever it was my turn, they'd set the game to fast and I'd immediately die in the water. Then they'd tell me I lost my turn.
Now that's just cruel :(
Lol, that's hilarious. Good times hehe
Theme song is Greensleeves, the oldest English pop song in history. It predates the letters V, and J. The oldest transcription "love" is spelled "loue" and "joy" is spelled "ioy."
You mention two things here that instantly brought me back to my days poring over the King's Quest Companion 4E. The book is split into narrative walkthroughs, which includes prose and more vivid written descriptions of the setting. The second half contains the straightforward guides through the games.
In both the narrative and guide sections for KQ1 (which attempts to cover the SCI/VGA version simultaneously, pointing out the differences when necessary), the bird is referred to as a condor.
Page 22: "Above him, condors were soaring, sweeping steeply up and down, seemingly weightless. One unusually large condor made a few low passes at Graham in what seemed a friendly manner, as if inviting him to climb aboard and fly too."
Page 417: "This is where you hitch a ride on a condor later, so remember this place."
The second thing is the mention of not knowing that the shield protects against the giant. This is mentioned in passing as well:
Page 419: "Rub the ring and become invisible; if you have the shield, don't worry. In either case, the giant will leave you alone and not kill you."
The walkthrough also seems to say the shield protects against the dwarf, too.
It blows my mind that this video could jog memories from 25 years ago, but the moment you said those things I knew I had seen them both in there.
I've binged most of your videos at this point. You're doing amazing work!
FYI: As of 9/12/21, Santa Claus has gotten this run down to *under a minute.* These runners are insane!!
And not just because they name themselves things like Santa Claus.
As of 9/29/2022 (when I checked the leaderboard), UtmRobb has the world record at 52 seconds, 100 milliseconds
Sometimes I sit down and decide I wanna try speedrunning. Then I see records like that and reconsider
@@GlitchedRedIt's so true
As of 9 September, 2023, the record is now 42.2 by polygon586
Hey, it's that guy from the Minecraft painting.
Yes
youre aware all the minecraft painting except the wither one are just cutouts fro. actual paintings by kristofer zetterstrand and artist from sweden
@@coobk yeah
?
I first encountered KQ1 in 1996 running on my HP200LX palmtop computer. Back then, it was already quite dated and I didn't bother finishing it. Fast forward to 2021 and I decided to revisit the game after watching this phenomenal video. So after 25 years, I finally finished King's Quest 1
Longest slow run in history
You know a game is pretty well optimized when you're talking about saving keystrokes!
and then the myth, the legend, the absolute mad lad santa claus just goes to have a run *under a minute*. this really shows even with the things we see as "well optimized" sometimes can be crushed in the blink of a eye.
Crazy that this is a 200 sub channel, quality feels above some of the major progression channels.
its grown a wee bit since then.
Now that this blew up, I noticed I never left a comment^^ Anyway, one of the best progression videos I've ever seen! Also thanks for the kind words on my "speed"runs! :D
We know the bird is a Condor because that was the bird was called in the official hint book.
I don't play video games and have never heard of King's Quest before today, but I am now a subscriber intent on learning more. Thank you for making your content accessible!
When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I had an Apple IIGS in the kitchen. When I was being babysat I would play games like KQ1. The thing about being a kid (which my kids today demonstrate) is that you have seemingly infinite patience. I probably died hundreds of times just trying to run past the wolfman or whatever it was on screen 4 rather than turning around. But by 6 or 7 I was able to do most of the game. I recall that the "get fiddle" area (spent forever thinking it was a violin or guitar) and the well, were super tedious to get Graham to move properly.
Damn. A world record that somewhat consists of typing speed. Neat.
Typing of the dead would be another one
@CallOfDrewthulhu Wonder if it has something to do with the emulation or just how old the games are, like typing too fast might lead to missed inputs since the game isn't fast enough to register it.
The later SCI-era Sierra games do cap typing speed, so even a TAS run can only type so fast; but AGI games like King's Quest 1 allow essentially arbitrary typing speeds in theory. (In practice, KQ1 *doesn't* allow arbitrarily fast RTA mashing-out of *zips*; the need to keep the well zip from 28:50 viable means players have to limit the game's speed a little bit, so zips take a small but non-zero time to complete.)
It would be interesting to see what a top speed typist would do in a game like this. Typing in an adventure game is very different from taking a typing test, though; the player must press Enter after every command and also juggle a bunch of other things like movement, textboxes, game speed changes, and random elements that disrupt the planned flow. Runners are slowed by the need to bring their fingers over from doing something else on the other side of the keyboard. Chuck types at >100 WPM in more ideal conditions.
Emulators can affect typing performance, but it isn't really seen here.
Y'know Roberta Williams is still kicking. In fact, she's only 69 years old. You could probably contact her and see what she thinks about the speed running scene for her games in general!
She'd say it's ridiculous lol
I am 43, and remember when this came out. MIND. BLOWING.
Something no one ever talks about is that in the manual there was a 1-900 tip line that charged something like 4 dollars a minute to call and get a tip on what the next think you should do is.
I expect that the vast majority of you won't have heard of 1-900 numbers, but they were at the time known as "premium" phone numbers that you knew just by the 1-900 code that they would cost money per minute. A 1-900 number was generally considered to be kinda sleazy because most of them were designed for those people who, feeling amorous, might with to call and...uh...carry on a dialogue with a new friend for a time.....about whatever they might want to discuss...
Or it could be a phone number ripping parents off because the they bought for their kid game was pre-internet and sometime you just couldn't figure things out. Seriously it's impossible I think. So you had to call the tip line.
I've been watching and rewatching your videos. I'm not a speedrunner but speedrunning fascinates me so I'm glad your channel showed up in my recommendations. The King's Quest VI video might be my favorite but all of these are so well put together and it's clear how much love goes into all of them!
Hot damn. I JUST realized how small your channel was. This feels like top quality content I'd expect to see from larger channels! Well Done!
"Secular Route" got me.
Great overview of a childhood game's speedrunning history! :D
The devs: “No you can’t just play the game in under 1min”
Santa Claus: “Yes”
And checking the leader boards, the current WR is... 42 seconds. Might deserve an update to cover what new tech was used for that.
I was very pleased and surprised to see my blog entry about the KQ1 Easter eggs was mentioned. Glad to contribute to finding weird little glitches in this game! Note: the walk on water bug does not seem to work in the IBM PCjr version of King’s Quest.
Thanks for finding it in the first place! And actually, a new runner has found that the water walking also works going north and south if you get Graham's shoulder/arm to the right or left edge of the screen. the time has dropped a LOT now.
You are a true Chad.
Damn that screen redraw is awesome to watch.
Clicked on this video expecting it to be about King's Bounty (because I forgot the actual name), but instead I found a thrilling video about an (unknown to me) adventure game ad a quality that would make Karl Jobst and Summoning Salt proud. Great Job.
That's high praise! Glad you enjoyed it.
@@OneShortEye I agreed with Ace, your video is of the highest caliber and is neck and neck with Karl and Summoning Salt. Keep up the great work and I'll keep watching, thank you!!!!!
@@OneShortEye +1 from me too, long time Karl viewer, learned about Summoning Salt in these comments(great, immediately subscribed) and your videos are as much great.. I first got proposed by youtube about my beloved Quest for Glory 1 / Hero's Quest and now I watched the KQ1, as a looooooooooong time (40yo) adventure and rpg fan back from the day endless respect!! I got transported back to those magic times! God bless you man!
@@workingclass5605 Glad you liked it! These games hold a special place for me too, as you can probably tell. Many hours as a kid trying to look and interact with everything I could. If you like Summoning Salt, you might also like some of these speedrun UA-camrs: Tharixer, tomatoanus, Abyssoft, Lowest Percent
@@OneShortEye Wow great, I'll check them all out, thanx a lot for the recommendations!! Same story btw for me here as others back in the day, learning english with adventures and rpgs, dictionary at hand .. Great era... Still love the PC speaker sound of QFG1 on CGA, 10 360 back then.. Or 2 disks for KQ1, Larry 1... Please keep us with more content!!
Ok... That was an awesome analysis. Very cool.
Never played or saw anything on King's Quest. I never knew how good of a game it was. This video made me believe that it really is a very important game for gaming history... This is basically a Witcher game from the 80s!
Hope to see more videos from you, my dude.
Keep on going
solid narration, strong research, excellent clarity when explaining glitches and controversies 10/10
King Edward - "Sir Graham, I have a righteous quest for you to prove your worthiness as my successor. Retrieve the three lost magical treasures of the kingdom. It will not be easy, many have tried, all have failed. But if you succeed, my throne, and the kingdom shall be yours. Do you accept this daunting task?"
Graham - "Yeah, alright. Gimme a minute."
I'm usually a lurker but I'll drop a comment to engage with the algorithm cuz I'm really impressed with the quality of your vids vs your subs. keep it up! You deserve lots of success
90 seconds.. This game took me hours.. bloody hell.. Outstanding work..
Found this channel not too long ago. Great videos! Would you ever consider doing an update for this? I notice the current WR stands at 0:40, which is a pretty astonishing improvement over what's in this video. I'm curious about how that happened.
I second that.
Hey, just wanted to thank you for having subtitles on all your videos!
I don't need them, but I'm always happy to know that they're there.
"go pail" is my new favorite phrase
Got here after watching Summoning Salt videos. Subbed for support as this is good stuff and you deserve some higher numbers. BTW, never done any speed running myself but strangely into watching the histories play out!
Just saying, you keep watching this stuff long enough and you might just find yourself hooked on trying to speedblitz small portions of favorite games, if not attempt full runs.
when I heard about this video, I just assumed it WAS Summoning Salt haha. Very curious now to watch this video later and see how it holds up against the gold standard of speed running progression videos.
I just discovered your channel a day ago and have been binge watching all your videos! They're all so well made and entertaining. I'm not a speedrunner myself but I spend a lot of time sewing, and when a lot of the video essay scene leans political/intense/overly negative there's nothing that does the trick like these videos to enjoy listening to while I work. I love that at this point I recognize half the names on these leaderboards!
Fantastic video. As someone who has never seen this game before I found this really interesting! Wish I had the skill and patience levels you guys have!!
I really wish this got more views. It is a great video! Love world progression videos! Plans to do any more?
Thank you for the kind words! And yes, I absolutely have plans to do more. They just take a while to research and edit. This one took about four months.
30 seconds in the video I decided to subscribe. Thanks for the quality content!
I loved the SCI kings quest remake as a kid. That one brings back much more nostalgia than the original
Dude great job on the vid! Narrating and editing was spot on. Keep this up and you'll have lots of subs in no time man
I love your use of music, man!
These videos are soooooo soothing, this is my ultimate nostalgia vibe 🤤
I'm glad that you like them!
I am not really into speedruns, but I enjoyed this video. Seeing how much work everybody put into speedrunning; changing speeds, optimizing zipping routes, and even turning off the sound. Heh. It's all very amazing!
Thanks for the video!
Never expected King’s Quest to have such a cool speedrunning story. Awesome video!
Found you by accident, and I love your videos. Hope to see more in the future!
You're such a great storyteller and narrator!
Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Insane video. Not sure why this video doesn't have hundreds of thousands of views.
This deserves a lot more views.
Great video really well made and explained! I have no experience or knowledge of Sierra adventure games outside of PushingUpRoses retrospectives on them and I really appreciate the explanation of how the game actually plays. That's something that is often left out of history of speedrun videos, I think it makes the explanation of the speedrun's tricks a lot easier to understand and appreciate the gravity of improvements made.
Amazing stuff!
You’re one of the best presenters I have ever seen
I love the Conquest of the Longbow music in this vid. That game has some great music.
Conquests of the Longbow might be my favorite Sierra game. They programmed so many different responses based on how you approached the puzzles.
I could never play these games myself but love the speedrun breakdowns. Great work.
0:31 I totally remember this rock being my first realization how 3D this was, but then and still now I don't get out a flat-bottom muffin shaped rock and roll over you, the very source that is pulling it. Is it on wheels? How does Graham get under it? lol
Sure, worrying about losing your entire run because you skipped saving SOUNDS scary, until you realize that with the length of the run, you're only actually losing a minute of progress.
I know nothing about King's Quest but I had the latest video about speedrunning KQIII in my recommendeds and I'm hooked
Wow. Amazing. It took me about 5 years to complete KQ1 on my trusty old CGA Clone. I played it diligently for about a month, and then gave up in despair.
A few months later I plucked up the courage to keep going, only to give up again after a few days.
Rinse and repeat, until one day my sister came over and said "You haven't finished that game yet. Let me show you how to do it." And she proceeded to finish the game in about an hour.
Moral of the story: Sometimes it's better to have a sister than a walkthrough :-)
These Sierra games could be brutal. I didn't have an older sister, but did have a loving father who eventually broke down and bought the hintbooks.
no one knew about the shield protecting you against the giant?
I figured that out in the 80's. Just.. wait around with the shield on you and the giant just falls asleep.
Another great video. I think I recall it being a Condor as well. When you *look bird* I feel like I remember it being called a Condor. We had the PCjr version which was our first play through (I was too young to play then but my sister, brother and I would watch my dad play the first couple KQ games until I was old enough to play 3 on my own but not get very far) but also the later versions as well. My dad figured out the Rumplestiltskin puzzle on his own after a couple weeks of being stuck on it 😂
9:15 “>get nut”
Me too, man. Me too.
Also, it just occurred to me that this is where 4chan meme arrows came from; they’re command prompts. I should have figured that out much sooner.
>Also, it just occurred to me that this is where 4chan meme arrows came from; they’re command prompts. I should have figured that out much sooner.
They are not. '>' is a standard, albeit obsolete, way of quoting, typically found in email software.
When 4chan was founded they used the same imageboard software as 2chan, called GazouBBS, which implemented '>' to quote, because at the time it was normal.
@@AlphaCarinae actually, I was thinking that it was just how you write commands in old fashioned DOS operating systems. Apparently that’s incorrect too though…?
oh my god, I recognize around minute 8 one of the songs from Castle of Dr. Brain. Love those games. And as always, great video !
Speedruns of adventure games are always incredible, and this is no exception.
Why am i discovering this channel in 2021 lmao 😂 i though everybody forgot sierra games, im happy
Back in the day most people I knew played this game at "zip speed" and had mastered the art of quickly tapping the arrow key to zip across the screen and stop immediately after entering the new one.
This is awesome! I was born in 1999, so these games are well before my time, but they're fascinating to me.
I’m 46, I used to play this game with friends on the Tandy 5.25 disks. This was a ton of fun. Any kid today though wouldn’t care without you giving this kind of context. And these guys who grind out for the best times probably think it’s a lot of times wasted. Your videos show that there is an appreciation for what they do.
i love these types of videos, thanks for making this
This is really good work, better than a lot of speedrun content makers with a lot more subs. Keep them coming my man.
This was epic! I have never played this game (Space Quest and Police Quest back in the day) so thank you for making this video :)
I love channels like this. keep up the good work sir
Really entertaining video packed full of information, great story telling, and your passion for the game is easy conveyed. It was really a pleasure to watch and learn about a game I have not heard of before.
2:01 those redrawn screens were mesmerizing in 1984
12:44 "give nut"... Calm down, Graham, this isn't Leisuresuit Larry.
its funny how they removed standard and custom cycle times because there was no need but now it's back just in the form of any% and scumvm
I have the Roberta Williams Collection, and even though it's been a long time since I played KQ1, I'm pretty sure that edition also interprets "fast" in the same way as Steam and GOG.
I wish there were more videos like this. I find the history of speedruns much more interesting than the actual speedruns :D
It makes sense. If you don't understand the mechanics or aren't familiar with the game, you don't even know what you're looking at. Also, unless you're really into it, watching speedrun after speedrun can be very boring, like watching a musician practice their instrument instead of going to the concert.
@@OneShortEye Yeah. Hopefully some cool channel will keep doing detailed videos about the speedruns of more old adventure games...
Very informative and entertaining stuff!
fantastic work. did not know that there are speedruns of such games..
thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Turns out, you can speedrun almost anything.
@@OneShortEye indeed ;)
Love the effort behind this video!
Brilliant video! Am going through all your videos now...
I used to love playing these games, Space Quest 2 was my favorite. But looking back at it, I never really got all that far in the games. But the memories are so fond.
Hopefully we can see an addendum to this one day considering how far the time's come down!
Fascinating recollection of impressive speedruns. I'm baffled by the fact you could complete this game less than 2 minutes... I never even played a King's Quest game other than the 6th and I never got past the beginning...
the recrd is now 59 sec
Great Video. I hope you get more views and subscribers.
2:00 Will those other versions ever have their own videos? I'm sure they have some interesting nuances, kinda like the French Floppy did, right?
Anyway, neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
This is a great video, definitely deserves more attention
This was really great. Thank you ❤
I should really get into these. This is my childhood and early teens right here. I can run most of the old adventure titles by heart from start to finish. I even remember IFNKOVHGROGHPRM to this day.
discord.gg/kAPTPTR if you're interested.
This video is criminally under-viewed.
@2:00 let's get to that 100% category!
this was soooo entertaining to watch, thank you!
This was an extremely well made "history of [x] speedrun" video. Subbed.
You did a really fantastic job on this video and I learned alot. I hope to see more of your work soon 👍
Really excellent video! There are a lot of speedrun histories made, very few done this well.
38:25 "An experience less than 2 minutes long" Don't say it, Dylan...don't say it...