Really, REALLY old PC game.

2005-07-02 12:55:42 pm

Tiberian Dawn Modder

Before I say anything, I know how to record to video in DOSBox unfortunately only I can do it, unless you use a laptop that lets you plug into your tv (s-video is preferred) and a tv recorder, one of those things that can hold 80gb, its how I filmed my ninja gaiden video (work in progress)

@robyrt - I know how to record to the file and play them, its just how OMF runs, I can easily record to a video as stated earlier, just during parts of the fight which involve many parts of scrap flying about, it slows down a little.

@dan - If there was a way to record a demo/replay of commander keen, I would gladly film it for you Smiley

Now I must go, and practise my Commander Keen 4 skills!

*dies on third level*

....this will take a while.

Robyrt

2005-07-03 08:21:34 pm

aw crikey!

Quote:

A minimalist Commander Keen 1 run should be close to 5 minutes in length. I've done plenty of speedruns through this game, but I never found a reliable way to record them. Reliable as in more than 3 frames/sec Tongue

If anyone finds a way to record movies from DOSbox or any other way to record Commander Keen 1, I'll get praticed up and go for sub-5 minutes! (sorry Radix :P)

Yeah, the few casual runs I tried were about 5 minutes. The biggest timesaver IMHO would be skill at dodging the second Vorticon, which means you don't have to get any extra blaster shots. Although you can make some really insane pogo jumps, most of them don't actually save you any time. Tongue

Hitaro

Edit history:

Hitaro: 2005-07-03 10:05:37 pm

2005-07-03 10:05:18 pm

The second vorticon can be easily avoided with the pogo stick, so that mean ou need only 2 blaster shot expansions (4 for the first and third vorticons and one for the final one) and it's easy to get just two.

I can't seem to be able to record it properly...D:

Robyrt

2005-07-04 02:30:24 am

aw crikey!

You can actually avoid the first Vorticon by pogo'ing over him (like the second) or using the platforms at the top of the level. This means you only need 4 shots for the third Vorticon + 1 for the rock, and you get 5 in the first level :-) Granted, it's easy to accidentally shoot or to miss the Vorticon, but you can definitely save the five seconds it would take to grab the blaster in the pre-teleporter city. (I think that's the easiest one to get, as it's just 2 pogo jumps - I could be wrong, going right instead of up before the first Vorticon could be a quicker way to get your 2nd blaster).

Dan

2005-07-04 09:00:23 am

Cerebral Cortex 314 is a really good site about Commander Keen. Maybe it can help you out on your run.

Robyrt

2005-07-04 09:20:49 pm

aw crikey!

After doing a few Keen 1 runs, you could easily get 4:30 or less. Maybe even 4 minutes. There's some randomness in the Vorticon area, but not too much.

Robyrt

2005-07-04 09:27:24 pm

aw crikey!

Or not. Turns out the level pack I was using allowed me to skip the Emerald City, which takes at least 30 seconds. Tongue

Dan

2005-07-16 12:01:07 am

It's unfortunate that only Morb1d can record speedruns of these games. I'm pretty sure DOSbox is open source... (hint hint).

Chunky

2005-07-16 02:08:07 am

Keen: Eyebrow Raiser.

Lag.Com

2005-07-16 12:50:39 pm

sda loyalist

DOSBox makes it run extremely slowly for me, kind of irritating.

rooster

2005-08-13 05:18:49 pm

Cute and Cuddly Lemming

What about Maniac Mension. There should be a DOS Version of it somewhere. Or the other possiblitiy would be to play it on the comp in Day of the Tentacle.

Anyone interested? I never got through Maniac Masion on my C64 ... One Disk was broken, I couldn't enter the workout room ...

Enhasa

2005-08-29 07:28:50 am

everybody wanna tell you the meaning of music

Quote:

Captain Cosmo! I remember that...I'm not even sure the disk still works...

Anyways, for now, I don't want any suggested games (I already have at least 8!), I need a way to record it...

I have no idea what Amiga or Apogee are...

It's Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure! The Amiga was a line of computers back in the day, a successor to the C64. They had more success in Europe than the US due to being cheaper than PCs/Macs. Some important games were first released on the Amiga, like Lemmings. Apogee is a game company back in the day that along with other companies like id and Epic were known for releasing high quality shareware games. They did Commander Keen, the aforementioned Cosmo, Hocus Pocus, and a lot of other stuff I forget. I'm sure you still know about id, and Epic did OMF2097, Jazz Jackrabbit, and others until now being known most for Unreal. However, Apogee must have died or something, because I haven't heard of them since the early 90s.

Sidious

2005-09-03 03:42:38 pm

Is there any possibility that any of you speedrunning Commander Keen X make a little Demo of one level or something ? There were times mentioned i never dreamed of. Gosh, soooo fast. Shocked

I like to see the skills, so i can compare it with mine and then i consider if its worth for me to try s a speedrun.

Im very sorry for my bad english. :-[

Greets,
sidious

KennyMan666

2005-09-03 03:54:49 pm

Precursor

Quote:

However, Apogee must have died or something, because I haven't heard of them since the early 90s.

Nah, they just became 3D Realms.

Robyrt

2005-09-03 05:14:12 pm

aw crikey!

I've tried recording some demos with Keen 4's built-in recording feature. Unfortunately, the demo recorder defaults you to Normal difficulty, 2-button controls, and goes much more quickly and doesn't check for inputs as often as the game itself. So while it's possible to get a really crazy demo, it's much harder than just doing the game.

mOO

2005-09-04 09:13:33 am

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!

I use SnagIt which I believe is just a watered down version of camtasia. Having no problem capturing 640X400 at 30fps from dosbox. You can't use cpu hungry codecs though if you want to capture without dropping half the frames something like huffyuv or mjpeg works the best then encode to whatever you want afterwards using virtualdub.

MetalSmasher86

2005-09-16 05:10:55 am

A Commander Keen speed run would be a welcome addition. I used to have Commander Keen 4 and 5, but my new computer doesn't have a floppy drive so now I can't play them anymore. Try recording a speed run on hard skill if you can. It's more interesting that way. Try to include any secret levels if you can (like the Pyramid of the Forbidden in Keen 4 or the Korath III Base in Keen 5).

Robyrt

2005-10-18 03:16:01 pm

aw crikey!

I just clocked my Keen Dreams run at 6:13, with a hefty dose of death abuse. I made some minor mistakes, but I don't think the time could go under 6 minutes unless somebody had absolutely perfect timing in the Rapids and got lucky at the top of the Castle.

I'm having trouble recording these runs as well, but my Keen 1 run is only slightly over 4 minutes (which could definitely be improved by grabbing fewer items) and my Keen 4 run (on Easy, and not perfected) is around 14 minutes.

Shenghi

2005-10-20 05:57:46 am

pompidom

Speaking of old... How about Supaplex?