"In the name of loli..."
Nice title for the game I must say; I don't have the time to run it AND be a perfectionist.
Titanic: Adventure out of Time was made by developer Cyberflix in 1996 and, for it's age, still stands as a intriguing and beautiful point-and-click adventure game. You play as Frank Carlson, an former British agent who failed a mission of great political importance on the Titanic in 1912. Contemplating the failure 30 years later in 1942, (Doctor) Carlson is propelled back in time to April 14th, 1912 by an air raid on his apartment in London.
He awakes in his cabin on-board the ill-fated ship to the knock at the door. His steward brings him a message from his contact, and the mission begins.
Right, enough backstory. Speedrunning time!
The overall objective of the game is to acquire 4 items- the Rubaiyat, a painting, a notebook, and necklace- which, if successfully taken off the ship, would prevent World War 1, the Russian Revolution, and World War II. If the player finds all four items, peace develops in the years following; if the player fails to find one or more of the items, alternate, war-torn histories await the player each leading again to his death in 1942. These outcomes are the (my) basis of the game's speedrun categories:
Worst Ending - No items obtained. (Avoid all but Painting, give it away during sinking and leave.)
Any Ending - Any mix of items obtained. (Most efficient run would be retrieving the Rubaiyat and the Painting.)
Best Ending - All items obtained. (Get Rubaiyat and Painting, give Zeitel the Notebook. Retrieve Notebook and Necklace during sinking.)
Perfect Ending - All items obtained and all life or death sub-plots during the sinking are completed:
- Trade Zeitel the Painting and save Georgia. Trade Zeitel the Boat Pass- from blackjack- for the Painting. (So both survive.)
- Help Vlad flee the ship. (So he survives; makes the ending consistent.)
- Return Shailagh Hacker's child and allow them onto the Boat Deck. (Saves three more lives.)
Death Runs - Die through the various means possible:
- Vlad in the boiler rooms (Rubaiyat).
- Sasha in his cabin (Necklace).
- Zeitel's bomb (Notebook, during sinking).
- Go down with the ship.
The game is fairly short, so most runs should just be single segment. The only segmented runs I can see as being necessary is for the smokestack puzzle (see below) or the Perfect Ending run. The game of blackjack to win the Boat Pass is a matter of luck which the player risks losing one of the more valuable items in the game (though, losing the Rubaiyat or Necklace to Riviera still gives you a better ending since Vlad does not have them), so saving right before the game could prove useful.
If anyone cares to try this game with me- I only lack time to do so- let me know. I'll give you all the tricks I know. ;3
The Smokestack Puzzle and "Debugger" Window: When I was looking around for some more information as I tried speed running the game myself, I came across a blog post which gave some insight to the "random" smokestack puzzle. It gave some general information, such as there's 4 variants of ladders and boxes and (inefficient) paths through each one, as well as a time-saver: a debugger window.
Essentially, it's just a simple window showing certain values for background variables. These range from your progress in certain plots to which maze is currently loaded. In the runs I tried to submit to SDA (see below), I used this window to take the guess work out of the smokestack maze, but in retrospect, I'm questioning its legality. Its not really cheating, but it's not a glitch...I don't know. These are my first speedruns ever.
So, what is the legality of this window? If legal, would it need a separate category? While I can't answer the first, given that its gains are small (risky even if someone just runs up the ladders and get a lucky pattern), I don't see the need to separate them into different categories. If illegal, MS runs could prove an alternative. What is your opinion (or, what is the rule)? Feel free to watch my runs for an example of their use.
My Runs
Best Ending Speedrun [10:48.88]
Worst Ending Speedrun [9:17.42]
Both runs are fairly good, but by no means perfect. Both were done in the week leading up to college over 6 months ago and I've had no time to take it up again. I'm hoping to this summer (though my computer is dead in the hands of my brother for a year), but I'm not sure I can. (私の日本語のクラスがあります。) Here's to hoping someone else would like to give this game a go. As before, contact me if you want to run it or post here; I'm all ready to help people with what I know.
(More specific notes can be found in the descriptions on youtube.)
(The timings are from the first click on the "Game" button to the first fading frame after taking to the couple at the end.)
Titanic: Adventure out of Time was made by developer Cyberflix in 1996 and, for it's age, still stands as a intriguing and beautiful point-and-click adventure game. You play as Frank Carlson, an former British agent who failed a mission of great political importance on the Titanic in 1912. Contemplating the failure 30 years later in 1942, (Doctor) Carlson is propelled back in time to April 14th, 1912 by an air raid on his apartment in London.
He awakes in his cabin on-board the ill-fated ship to the knock at the door. His steward brings him a message from his contact, and the mission begins.
Right, enough backstory. Speedrunning time!
The overall objective of the game is to acquire 4 items- the Rubaiyat, a painting, a notebook, and necklace- which, if successfully taken off the ship, would prevent World War 1, the Russian Revolution, and World War II. If the player finds all four items, peace develops in the years following; if the player fails to find one or more of the items, alternate, war-torn histories await the player each leading again to his death in 1942. These outcomes are the (my) basis of the game's speedrun categories:
Worst Ending - No items obtained. (Avoid all but Painting, give it away during sinking and leave.)
Any Ending - Any mix of items obtained. (Most efficient run would be retrieving the Rubaiyat and the Painting.)
Best Ending - All items obtained. (Get Rubaiyat and Painting, give Zeitel the Notebook. Retrieve Notebook and Necklace during sinking.)
Perfect Ending - All items obtained and all life or death sub-plots during the sinking are completed:
- Trade Zeitel the Painting and save Georgia. Trade Zeitel the Boat Pass- from blackjack- for the Painting. (So both survive.)
- Help Vlad flee the ship. (So he survives; makes the ending consistent.)
- Return Shailagh Hacker's child and allow them onto the Boat Deck. (Saves three more lives.)
Death Runs - Die through the various means possible:
- Vlad in the boiler rooms (Rubaiyat).
- Sasha in his cabin (Necklace).
- Zeitel's bomb (Notebook, during sinking).
- Go down with the ship.
The game is fairly short, so most runs should just be single segment. The only segmented runs I can see as being necessary is for the smokestack puzzle (see below) or the Perfect Ending run. The game of blackjack to win the Boat Pass is a matter of luck which the player risks losing one of the more valuable items in the game (though, losing the Rubaiyat or Necklace to Riviera still gives you a better ending since Vlad does not have them), so saving right before the game could prove useful.
If anyone cares to try this game with me- I only lack time to do so- let me know. I'll give you all the tricks I know. ;3
The Smokestack Puzzle and "Debugger" Window: When I was looking around for some more information as I tried speed running the game myself, I came across a blog post which gave some insight to the "random" smokestack puzzle. It gave some general information, such as there's 4 variants of ladders and boxes and (inefficient) paths through each one, as well as a time-saver: a debugger window.
Essentially, it's just a simple window showing certain values for background variables. These range from your progress in certain plots to which maze is currently loaded. In the runs I tried to submit to SDA (see below), I used this window to take the guess work out of the smokestack maze, but in retrospect, I'm questioning its legality. Its not really cheating, but it's not a glitch...I don't know. These are my first speedruns ever.
So, what is the legality of this window? If legal, would it need a separate category? While I can't answer the first, given that its gains are small (risky even if someone just runs up the ladders and get a lucky pattern), I don't see the need to separate them into different categories. If illegal, MS runs could prove an alternative. What is your opinion (or, what is the rule)? Feel free to watch my runs for an example of their use.
My Runs
Best Ending Speedrun [10:48.88]
Worst Ending Speedrun [9:17.42]
Both runs are fairly good, but by no means perfect. Both were done in the week leading up to college over 6 months ago and I've had no time to take it up again. I'm hoping to this summer (though my computer is dead in the hands of my brother for a year), but I'm not sure I can. (私の日本語のクラスがあります。) Here's to hoping someone else would like to give this game a go. As before, contact me if you want to run it or post here; I'm all ready to help people with what I know.
(More specific notes can be found in the descriptions on youtube.)
(The timings are from the first click on the "Game" button to the first fading frame after taking to the couple at the end.)
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