My feelings on The Demon Rush
Game Page: Doesn't exist yet
Verifier Responses
Decision: Reject
Reason: Bad planning and a failure to memorize passwords (or at least write them down). If the second verifier has a 27 minute run, why doesn't he submit it?
The run is available upon request until June 29th, PM me.
Verifier Responses
Quote:
REJECT
Really bad planning. The runner goes on huge, unnecessary detours which kills the run. Along with the detours, there were a lot small things that also added up to lost time.
In general, the runner was pretty good at the controls of the game, but gameplay started to deteriorate in the latter half of the run. The runner has a few good tricks, like falling down elevator shafts instead of taking the elevator and jumping on room lifts to avoid getting hung up on them at the bottom.
It should probably be its own category, but using the invincibility glitch would also make this run much, much faster. If there's no glitched vs. unglitched separation though, then that can be considered a very costly mistake in the run.
Detours
First is the secret room at Row 2, Room 1. There is a levelup in there, but it's not necessary to get, as if you skip a later detour, you don't need such high jumping power. It's debatable whether the increase in running speed makes up for this detour. Overall, this one is minor and not a deal breaker.
After the first warp (from Row 1, Room 6 to the elevator at Row 2, Room 7), the runner does two unnecessary rooms to get the scope. The scope lets you see security sensors, but the runner should be familiar enough with his run not to need it.
The biggest detour starts at Row 6, Room 7, where the runner goes down into the lower red levels instead of to the left. This adds eight extra rooms to the run. From entering the room code at Row 6, Room 7 to finally getting up to Row 5, Room 2, it took the runner 3:38. I timed myself going to the left, which is across three rooms, one of which is a hallway you just run through, and I got 1:32. Hopefully the runner can do better than my first try, but even if he can't, that still saves 2:06. And that's just the first time. After getting the floppy disk in Row 9, Room 2, the runner makes a couple warps to get back to the level three canister at Row 6, Room 5, but goes back to the right and through that series of rooms AGAIN.
Nothing major after that, except the runner chooses to do the lower right corner of the map after going up higher and coming back down, instead of while he was already down there. I'm pretty sure it's faster to warp from the room with the last floppy disk (Row 10, Room 4) down to the bottom left elevator and continue from there.
Items
The runner spends way too much time breaking canisters and getting items. The main problem is the ID cards. The runner gets 41 cards and only uses 11 of them. That's 30 canisters that didn't need to be shot at and in many cases gone out of the way for. This is another planning issue. Along with ID cards are the powerups and levelups. It's not always necessary to spend time getting these, especially when your health is nearly full or there will be a levelup later that will completely replenish your health. For instance, at the end of the run, the player's final life meter is at 660 (out of 840), but he stopped twice at nearly full before finishing to get a powerup and a levelup.
Room codes
This all comes down to practice, but it's important to always remember the codes. The runner inputs the codes wrong a couple times and even forgets them completely at one point and has to go back over the canisters in the room. The code stuff isn't that big of a deal, but it all adds up. Also, codes should be input from left to right in the computer console. There is a small delay before you can start entering codes, and this time should be spent traversing the console to the leftmost code. That way you'll end up with the shortest distance to the execute command every time. The best way to remember the codes is with a mnemonic device, and once you see the codes are mirrored numbers, it's easy to put them in order, since they go from 1 to 0 in the computer console.
Overall
Even without intimate knowledge of the game, I think the average viewer of this run might not think it was that great just due to it looking a bit sloppy when compared to other, more popular platformer runs on the site. I don't think it's that bad, because I know how hard it is to control the characters in Zillion, but the gameplay could be cleaned up a bit as far as missing jumps, getting hit by drones and turrets, etc.
The detours are the biggest offenders and all the other stuff adds up as well. This run could be much faster by making simple, easy changes, so I'd say it doesn't meet SDA standards.
Really bad planning. The runner goes on huge, unnecessary detours which kills the run. Along with the detours, there were a lot small things that also added up to lost time.
In general, the runner was pretty good at the controls of the game, but gameplay started to deteriorate in the latter half of the run. The runner has a few good tricks, like falling down elevator shafts instead of taking the elevator and jumping on room lifts to avoid getting hung up on them at the bottom.
It should probably be its own category, but using the invincibility glitch would also make this run much, much faster. If there's no glitched vs. unglitched separation though, then that can be considered a very costly mistake in the run.
Detours
First is the secret room at Row 2, Room 1. There is a levelup in there, but it's not necessary to get, as if you skip a later detour, you don't need such high jumping power. It's debatable whether the increase in running speed makes up for this detour. Overall, this one is minor and not a deal breaker.
After the first warp (from Row 1, Room 6 to the elevator at Row 2, Room 7), the runner does two unnecessary rooms to get the scope. The scope lets you see security sensors, but the runner should be familiar enough with his run not to need it.
The biggest detour starts at Row 6, Room 7, where the runner goes down into the lower red levels instead of to the left. This adds eight extra rooms to the run. From entering the room code at Row 6, Room 7 to finally getting up to Row 5, Room 2, it took the runner 3:38. I timed myself going to the left, which is across three rooms, one of which is a hallway you just run through, and I got 1:32. Hopefully the runner can do better than my first try, but even if he can't, that still saves 2:06. And that's just the first time. After getting the floppy disk in Row 9, Room 2, the runner makes a couple warps to get back to the level three canister at Row 6, Room 5, but goes back to the right and through that series of rooms AGAIN.
Nothing major after that, except the runner chooses to do the lower right corner of the map after going up higher and coming back down, instead of while he was already down there. I'm pretty sure it's faster to warp from the room with the last floppy disk (Row 10, Room 4) down to the bottom left elevator and continue from there.
Items
The runner spends way too much time breaking canisters and getting items. The main problem is the ID cards. The runner gets 41 cards and only uses 11 of them. That's 30 canisters that didn't need to be shot at and in many cases gone out of the way for. This is another planning issue. Along with ID cards are the powerups and levelups. It's not always necessary to spend time getting these, especially when your health is nearly full or there will be a levelup later that will completely replenish your health. For instance, at the end of the run, the player's final life meter is at 660 (out of 840), but he stopped twice at nearly full before finishing to get a powerup and a levelup.
Room codes
This all comes down to practice, but it's important to always remember the codes. The runner inputs the codes wrong a couple times and even forgets them completely at one point and has to go back over the canisters in the room. The code stuff isn't that big of a deal, but it all adds up. Also, codes should be input from left to right in the computer console. There is a small delay before you can start entering codes, and this time should be spent traversing the console to the leftmost code. That way you'll end up with the shortest distance to the execute command every time. The best way to remember the codes is with a mnemonic device, and once you see the codes are mirrored numbers, it's easy to put them in order, since they go from 1 to 0 in the computer console.
Overall
Even without intimate knowledge of the game, I think the average viewer of this run might not think it was that great just due to it looking a bit sloppy when compared to other, more popular platformer runs on the site. I don't think it's that bad, because I know how hard it is to control the characters in Zillion, but the gameplay could be cleaned up a bit as far as missing jumps, getting hit by drones and turrets, etc.
The detours are the biggest offenders and all the other stuff adds up as well. This run could be much faster by making simple, easy changes, so I'd say it doesn't meet SDA standards.
Quote:
Mike:
Here are my comments on 33:44 Zillion speed run:
Overall, a good run. The sound and video are fine. There is a definite need for improvement in the areas of computer code entry and the route through the maze. Also, in my opinion, the runner picks up way too many level ups, power ups, and extra blue ID cards (see detailed comments below).
Detailed comments (timestamp is out of the 34:43 that the video runs)
(00:45) – I know I always have trouble jumping over these silly mines without hitting at least one of them.
(01:28) – Personally, I would have restarted if I entered a code wrong, especially this early in the run.
(02:05) – I had wondered for the longest time how to get to that level up, and I found the answer through a video someone posted on YouTube a few months ago. Glad to see the runner knows about that too.
(02:15) – Here’s the first route problem. Taking this diversion to get the scope goggles (to see where the sensors are) is completely unnecessary and should be skipped.
(03:38) – Here’s another issue I find perplexing. Sometimes the runner enters the codes from left to right on the horizontal list (which should be done, since it is faster and the codes do not have to be entered in any particular order) and sometimes the runner enters them randomly, taking more time? I don’t understand this.
(04:49) – Accidentally exiting the computer instead of confirming the code is even worse than entering the code incorrectly.
(06:15) – In my trial runs, I hadn’t considered backtracking to get this level up, since the last level up gives JJ enough jump to get to this one. This gets JJ to level 8 faster and drastically reduces damage taken, so this is a good diversion.
(08:35) – Another computer entry error. Also, it should be noted that you don’t need to collect many blue cards, since blue cards are only used up if a non-door opening code is entered (such as 4 hearts to stop the damage barriers). The runner still insists on collecting every blue card in every room, which wastes time.
(09:07) – Here is the second route choice that I don’t understand. Going to this room to get the level up and then going back up and to the left is much faster, but the runner opts to actually go right, taking the longer path to the big elevator near the end of the red section? No floppies or level ups are on this route, either. I am confused.
(14:56) – As a consequence of the previous point, the second warp “B” would be unnecessary had the runner taken a different, shorter path. All of the backtracking and running through the maze from here until 16:30 could be avoided.
(17:30, 18:16) – Stop taking blue cards and power ups! You have enough cards and are nowhere near death!
(20:10) – Also don’t take empty containers!
(21:15) – Computer mistake x2
(22:00) – The worst computer mistake of the run. Not only is the code twice entered wrong, the runner has to go back and reacquire the code to enter it properly. Not only that, the runner also goes the wrong way after opening the doors.
(25:55) – Not sure why warp “B” wasn’t used instead of manually backtracking…
(30:50) – I must say, it never occurred to me to shoot the boss more than once every time it opened its mouth. I will definitely try that. The escape was done OK (a few missed jumps here and there).
Final Decision: I am torn between accepting and rejecting. Part of me says to accept because it does complete the game very fast, and also to inspire me to get off my lazy butt and get my run together. But the other part of me can’t get over the number of errors in computer entry and the improvable route taken through the maze.
My final decision is to reject the run due to the significance of the amount of time lost.
On a personal note, as I have been trying this speed run myself and my best time without saving Apple and Champ is around 27 minutes, I guess you could say I am somewhat disappointed in this run. However, there are two or three things that the runner uses that I did not think to use, so hopefully I can improve my time even further.
Here are my comments on 33:44 Zillion speed run:
Overall, a good run. The sound and video are fine. There is a definite need for improvement in the areas of computer code entry and the route through the maze. Also, in my opinion, the runner picks up way too many level ups, power ups, and extra blue ID cards (see detailed comments below).
Detailed comments (timestamp is out of the 34:43 that the video runs)
(00:45) – I know I always have trouble jumping over these silly mines without hitting at least one of them.
(01:28) – Personally, I would have restarted if I entered a code wrong, especially this early in the run.
(02:05) – I had wondered for the longest time how to get to that level up, and I found the answer through a video someone posted on YouTube a few months ago. Glad to see the runner knows about that too.
(02:15) – Here’s the first route problem. Taking this diversion to get the scope goggles (to see where the sensors are) is completely unnecessary and should be skipped.
(03:38) – Here’s another issue I find perplexing. Sometimes the runner enters the codes from left to right on the horizontal list (which should be done, since it is faster and the codes do not have to be entered in any particular order) and sometimes the runner enters them randomly, taking more time? I don’t understand this.
(04:49) – Accidentally exiting the computer instead of confirming the code is even worse than entering the code incorrectly.
(06:15) – In my trial runs, I hadn’t considered backtracking to get this level up, since the last level up gives JJ enough jump to get to this one. This gets JJ to level 8 faster and drastically reduces damage taken, so this is a good diversion.
(08:35) – Another computer entry error. Also, it should be noted that you don’t need to collect many blue cards, since blue cards are only used up if a non-door opening code is entered (such as 4 hearts to stop the damage barriers). The runner still insists on collecting every blue card in every room, which wastes time.
(09:07) – Here is the second route choice that I don’t understand. Going to this room to get the level up and then going back up and to the left is much faster, but the runner opts to actually go right, taking the longer path to the big elevator near the end of the red section? No floppies or level ups are on this route, either. I am confused.
(14:56) – As a consequence of the previous point, the second warp “B” would be unnecessary had the runner taken a different, shorter path. All of the backtracking and running through the maze from here until 16:30 could be avoided.
(17:30, 18:16) – Stop taking blue cards and power ups! You have enough cards and are nowhere near death!
(20:10) – Also don’t take empty containers!
(21:15) – Computer mistake x2
(22:00) – The worst computer mistake of the run. Not only is the code twice entered wrong, the runner has to go back and reacquire the code to enter it properly. Not only that, the runner also goes the wrong way after opening the doors.
(25:55) – Not sure why warp “B” wasn’t used instead of manually backtracking…
(30:50) – I must say, it never occurred to me to shoot the boss more than once every time it opened its mouth. I will definitely try that. The escape was done OK (a few missed jumps here and there).
Final Decision: I am torn between accepting and rejecting. Part of me says to accept because it does complete the game very fast, and also to inspire me to get off my lazy butt and get my run together. But the other part of me can’t get over the number of errors in computer entry and the improvable route taken through the maze.
My final decision is to reject the run due to the significance of the amount of time lost.
On a personal note, as I have been trying this speed run myself and my best time without saving Apple and Champ is around 27 minutes, I guess you could say I am somewhat disappointed in this run. However, there are two or three things that the runner uses that I did not think to use, so hopefully I can improve my time even further.
Quote:
Verifier: i forgot how gay the guy in zillion runs lol
Verifier: its worth watching just to lol at him imo
Verifier: and sega's futile attempts to match metroid greatness
me: I heard the game is actually rpetty good though
Verifier: yea it is just kind of clunky
me: controls or?
Verifier: yea controls are
Verifier: jumping is just awkward
Verifier: and so is trying to dodge shit/everything is kind of like badly placed in corners that are annoying to get into
Verifier: i wish i played it more to remember if this is any good or not
Verifier: i'm going to have to play it more to figure it out
Verifier: because i don't think its that great
me: did you just watch the whole run?
Verifier: but i don't remember
Verifier: i can't really pick out why its not great it just kind of seemed meh to me but i think the game is just not great for speed in general because there aren't many trkcs you can do
Verifier: and i don't really know route planning at all for this game because i just followed a walkthrough when i had problems
Verifier: there are just certain parts where he wastes 5 seconds or so that seem really annoying that he lost time there
Verifier: like watching it again and 8:30 comes to mind where he forgets the password and struggles for a bit
me: okay I can tell you the other verifier responses if you want a spoiler
Verifier: ok did they not think it was good?
Verifier: because i just really don't
me: yeah they both rejected
Verifier: ok good
me: mostly due to password memorization (or the lack of it)
me: and bad planning
Verifier: yea i can't comment on planning
me: there might have been something else too
Verifier: but password memorization seems like a big thing to me
me: yeah the game is only half an hour right?
Verifier: i mean his overall play is just sloppy
Verifier: yea and i mean its not that hard of a game
me: seems like it shouldn't be hard to memorize all the passwords
me: or at least write them down
Verifier: well or write them down
me: and stare at a sheet of paper
Verifier: which he probably did and he just fucked them up i guess
Verifier: he's kind of slow with passwords too
Verifier: anyways yea ok i have no problem rejecting then lol
Verifier: its worth watching just to lol at him imo
Verifier: and sega's futile attempts to match metroid greatness
me: I heard the game is actually rpetty good though
Verifier: yea it is just kind of clunky
me: controls or?
Verifier: yea controls are
Verifier: jumping is just awkward
Verifier: and so is trying to dodge shit/everything is kind of like badly placed in corners that are annoying to get into
Verifier: i wish i played it more to remember if this is any good or not
Verifier: i'm going to have to play it more to figure it out
Verifier: because i don't think its that great
me: did you just watch the whole run?
Verifier: but i don't remember
Verifier: i can't really pick out why its not great it just kind of seemed meh to me but i think the game is just not great for speed in general because there aren't many trkcs you can do
Verifier: and i don't really know route planning at all for this game because i just followed a walkthrough when i had problems
Verifier: there are just certain parts where he wastes 5 seconds or so that seem really annoying that he lost time there
Verifier: like watching it again and 8:30 comes to mind where he forgets the password and struggles for a bit
me: okay I can tell you the other verifier responses if you want a spoiler
Verifier: ok did they not think it was good?
Verifier: because i just really don't
me: yeah they both rejected
Verifier: ok good
me: mostly due to password memorization (or the lack of it)
me: and bad planning
Verifier: yea i can't comment on planning
me: there might have been something else too
Verifier: but password memorization seems like a big thing to me
me: yeah the game is only half an hour right?
Verifier: i mean his overall play is just sloppy
Verifier: yea and i mean its not that hard of a game
me: seems like it shouldn't be hard to memorize all the passwords
me: or at least write them down
Verifier: well or write them down
me: and stare at a sheet of paper
Verifier: which he probably did and he just fucked them up i guess
Verifier: he's kind of slow with passwords too
Verifier: anyways yea ok i have no problem rejecting then lol
Decision: Reject
Reason: Bad planning and a failure to memorize passwords (or at least write them down). If the second verifier has a 27 minute run, why doesn't he submit it?
The run is available upon request until June 29th, PM me.
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