Summer Games Done Quick 2022 - KQ5

[DeadPoolX]

There's a charity event/organization called "Summer Games Done Quick" and they raise money by speedrunning. Apparently, one of the games they're speedrunning this year is King's Quest V. While that seems a little odd to me to speedrun a Sierra game, I like the fact that a classic point-and-click adventure game is getting some coverage 32 years after its initial release.

[Tawmis]

Odd to speedrun a Sierra game, as ye said because there's required items to get and such...

Like a FPS sounds like a better idea - where ye just try to blast your way and survive as quick as ye can.

[JasefWisener]

The point-and-click speedrunning scene is pretty big actually. There have been a lot of notable runs of Sierra games over the past 2-3 years for sure.

[DeadPoolX]

I remember my brother and I probably could've speedrun SQ1 (VGA) because we'd played it so many times. Plus, the VGA point-and-click remake was a lot easier to manage than the AGI original's parser interface.

Yeah, it was sometimes neat to type in whatever you wanted, but often the game didn't understand and the older AGI games didn't pause while typing.

While not pausing when typing may have been good for learning how to type quickly, it didn't make for an enjoyable experience because you had to know what was going to happen before it happened (or in other words, die, load your game, and go from there, but that's bad game design for the only way to learn is to die).

That said... the point-and-click interface didn't do away with no-win/deadend scenarios. KQ5 is a fantastic example of that as that game in particular had many ways to wreck your game long before you know you did (or didn't do) something.

[Tawmis]

I remember my brother and I probably could've speedrun SQ1 (VGA) because we'd played it so many times. Plus, the VGA point-and-click remake was a lot easier to manage than the AGI original's parser interface.

Yeah, it was sometimes neat to type in whatever you wanted, but often the game didn't understand and the older AGI games didn't pause while typing.

While not pausing when typing may have been good for learning how to type quickly, it didn't make for an enjoyable experience because you had to know what was going to happen before it happened (or in other words, die, load your game, and go from there, but that's bad game design for the only way to learn is to die).

That said... the point-and-click interface didn't do away with no-win/deadend scenarios. KQ5 is a fantastic example of that as that game in particular had many ways to wreck your game long before you know you did (or didn't do) something.

Yeah I think LSL5 is the only Sierra game, I can think of, that you can't really dead end.
It's also the worse "adventure" game Sierra ever made.

It's almost a contest as to which is worse... LSL5 or Mask of Eternity, for me.

[DeadPoolX]

It's also the worse "adventure" game Sierra ever made.

It's almost a contest as to which is worse... LSL5 or Mask of Eternity, for me.

Well, what counts as the "worst adventure game Sierra ever made" is entirely subjective.

To me, the worst Sierra adventure was easily Codename: Iceman. Forget about the aggravating submarine sections for a moment and you'll see it has a paper-thin storyline and the overall gameplay just isn't fun. It's like they did the bare bones minimum to have it count as an adventure game, but nothing beyond that.

Do I think it's the worst adventure game ever made? No, there were some unbelievably awful (first-person and third-person) adventure games made during the 90s, but as far as Sierra is concerned, I definitely think Codename: Iceman was the weakest and least enjoyable.

That said, I'm sure there are people who liked or even loved that game, so "worst" is difficult to pin down because it relies on subjective criteria.

[goatmeal]

I know not all of these are "King's Quest," but here are a few I came across during the last month from YouTuber OneShortEye. These are not just simply the speedruns, but rather an overview of how they were accomplished and times improved and/or beaten:
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King's Quest V Speedrun History .
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King's Quest VI World Record Speedrun History .
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Quest for Glory World Record Speedrun History .
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How Speedrunners Skip the WORST Part of Space Quest IV

[Tawmis]

To me, the worst Sierra adventure was easily Codename: Iceman. Forget about the aggravating submarine sections for a moment and you'll see it has a paper-thin storyline and the overall gameplay just isn't fun. It's like they did the bare bones minimum to have it count as an adventure game, but nothing beyond that.
Do I think it's the worst adventure game ever made? No, there were some unbelievably awful (first-person and third-person) adventure games made during the 90s, but as far as Sierra is concerned, I definitely think Codename: Iceman was the weakest and least enjoyable.
That said, I'm sure there are people who liked or even loved that game, so "worst" is difficult to pin down because it relies on subjective criteria.

Yeah, just the sub sequence alone is enough to put it up there.
Having finally beat it like 20 years after having originally got it, it felt like an odd accomplishment.
As for the paper thin story... I mean... just about every Sierra game prior to KQ5 had a pretty paper thin story.

How Speedrunners Skip the WORST Part of Space Quest IV

That "click the arcade game" trick is mind blowing...
I have the Disk Version, though I played the GoG version for my channel.
I may have to try out that click the arcade game trick for the disk version...!

[notbobsmith]

The one for KQ3 is pretty interesting. A lot of random elements (the eagle feather, the teleportation stone, the cat) confound a lot of attempts. And on the pirate ship, you are required to wait for 14 minutes. But some of the things players found that you can skip are pretty amazing.

[Tawmis]

The one for KQ3 is pretty interesting. A lot of random elements (the eagle feather, the teleportation stone, the cat) confound a lot of attempts. And on the pirate ship, you are required to wait for 14 minutes. But some of the things players found that you can skip are pretty amazing.

The normal (not speed play through - never done any of those) I did of KQ3 and that Eagle Feather, was almost an hour - had to speed up the play through, because I was literally running in circles, where the eagle normally appears - and restoring sometimes because TOO much time had passed.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm ... I don't understand speed-play. *shrug* What's the point of rushing through a game? You'll miss a lot of little background stuff and interesting/funny messages from the developers.

Personally, I take my time to look around at new screens and see important things, not-important things, silly things, dangerous things, etc. I especially do that if it's my first time through.

How do you play Sierra games? Just curious.

[Tawmis]

Hmm ... I don't understand speed-play. *shrug* What's the point of rushing through a game? You'll miss a lot of little background stuff and interesting/funny messages from the developers.

This is specifically, typically done for charity events.
Similar to any other "race" - the idea is to finish as quickly as possible, without cheating.

[MusicallyInspired]

Any game is fit for speedrunning. It's not about the level of randomness thrown at you, it's just about how quickly you can finish it. It's interesting to many people regardless of the variables of the game or conditions of the run. Indeed, there are many categories of speedrunning. 100%, any-percent, glitchless, w/glitches, etc and any combination thereof. In an adventure game, it's interesting to see just how many steps you are allowed to skip that you never knew of before or alternate paths that are quicker (but yield less points) that you didn't even realize.

The "point of speedrunning" is just for the fun of it and for the skill. It's a challenge like any other. Sure, you're missing the point of the game but that doesn't make it pointless. For my part, I watch speedruns many times just to see how much people can break the game to get to the end screen the fastest. It's absolutely fascinating how much absolute respect these runners have for these games and how thoroughly they know the mechanics inside and out. They probably know these games and specifically how they behave to the most minute details better than many of the original programmers of said games. It's astonishing and very impressive. The process of refining those techniques down through careful practice to find the exact route and exploits that grind that final counter time down to the smallest number possible is just really cool to me. Not to everyone, of course. But it's got an audience so much so that there's an annual convention/charity-fundraiser dedicated to it.

It's also not to say that runners wouldn't enjoy playing a game as thoroughly as possible "properly" taking in everything the game has to offer, like an adventure game. That's pretty much a requirement anyway just so you can know the game inside and out and everything about it. It's just another way to play it. It's not the only way they play it. However, it can also be another avenue to enjoy a game when you've gotten everything else out of it that you can possibly get.

[Tawmis]

It's also not to say that runners wouldn't enjoy playing a game as thoroughly as possible "properly" taking in everything the game has to offer, like an adventure game. That's pretty much a requirement anyway just so you can know the game inside and out and everything about it. It's just another way to play it. It's not the only way they play it. However, it can also be another avenue to enjoy a game when you've gotten everything else out of it that you can possibly get.

Exactly what I was thinking. If you're going to speed run a game, you've probably played it a few times to know what to do - and how to do things quicker each time.

[Rath Darkblade]

Fair enough. I've never done a speed-run (or even considered playing that way, so I never thought of these things. Thanks