Simon speedruns Jazz Jackrabbit 1

[Simon]

31:59.86. Video with full commentary! 350 MB, the commentary explains basic game rules, and strategy too. You can understand it even if you have never played the game.

<SimonNa> must see A++ would watch 10 times
<SimonNa> where is Akseli to spam :DD:::DDD:D:D:

-- Simon

[Simon]

31:31, new personal best. Twitch excerpt with live commentary. Akseli, möbius and Proxima have watched this stream live already.

I submitted the video to speedrun.com's JJ1 ranking list, my time got accepted as second place.

-- Simon

[NaOH]

Congratulations on getting second place!

I just watched your first run while doing homework and then skimmed your second run. Very entertaining! I can see how the game physics looks fun to run and jump around in. To be honest, it wasn't at all clear how effective damage-boosting looked as an outside observer; it looked like you were already going top speed when you hit the enemies?

I like your commentary style. The (few) let's plays I've seen, they tend to talk about unrelated to the game. The way you gave your commentary it was like getting the secret low-down. Makes me feel like I should do one of these.

[mobius]

Congratulations on getting second place!

I just watched your first run while doing homework and then skimmed your second run. Very entertaining! I can see how the game physics looks fun to run and jump around in. To be honest, it wasn't at all clear how effective damage-boosting looked as an outside observer; it looked like you were already going top speed when you hit the enemies?

I like your commentary style. The (few) let's plays I've seen, they tend to talk about unrelated to the game. The way you gave your commentary it was like getting the secret low-down. Makes me feel like I should do one of these.

////////random rant

I agree and nothing irritates me more than LPer's who ramble on endlessly about topics wholly unrelated to the game. It's okay to chat randomly once and a while but if I came to see a video LP of Lemmings I don't want a dissertation on the Presidential election system.

[Simon]

it wasn't at all clear how effective damage-boosting looked as an outside observer; it looked like you were already going top speed when you hit the enemies?

I use "damage boost" to describe three related phenomena, and don't disambiguate. Often it's clear from context which apply, but without prior knowledge it's confusing. The meanings are:

• Running into or through enemies, that saves the time from evading or shooting them. Enemies above and below are hard to hit at all.
• Bouncing off an enemy because it has damaged you. The game knocks you into either left or right, depending on where you didn't face before. I can turn around to trick the game into bouncing me into the right direction. The worms in Orbitus take too long to shoot, but they can't be avoided easily, therefore I boost off them. I don't get any speed over regular running speed from this, the section would be faster if there were no enemies at all.
• Using the mercy invincibiliy after a hit to go through enemies. This happens with the mines in Crysilis.

TASVideos JJ resources says that regular running speed is 6, and hitting enemies knocks you somewhere at speed 4, from which you can accelerate back to 6 later.

I like your commentary style. The (few) let's plays I've seen, they tend to talk about unrelated to the game. The way you gave your commentary it was like getting the secret low-down. Makes me feel like I should do one of these.

Thanks! :-)

-- Simon

[Simon]

World record get, with 30:23. Video: speedrun.com 1st place.

I knew that I'd cut 20 seconds of glaring mistakes from the PB, and then 5 to 10 more seconds due to faster DOSBox settings: I run at 40,000 fixed cycles now, not at 20,000, because 40,000 is the average speed of a 486 machine according to TASVideos.org.

But cutting 25 to 30 seconds wouldn't have made a WR. I have no idea how I cut 35 more seconds by technique.
The game allows a ton of little mistakes everywhere, and I've played solidly throughout episodes 2, 3, 4, 5. In practice earlier this week, I've never managed such solid play. And I'm mashing more rapidly than last month!

<Akseli> "If I save 12 more seconds, it's a world record. But I don't believe it's possible in this run." ~ SimonN 2016
<Akseli> Congratulations Simon!!!!!!!!! :----------------------)

<mobius_> wow, gg SimonN
<mobius_> now that you've fullfilled your dream, what will you do with the rest of your life? :P



I'm still on a high. :-]

-- Simon

[NaOH]

Congratulations! This emoticon has never been put to better use!

[Colorful Arty]

That's really impressive Simon. Congratulations!

[Simon]

Thanks thanks!

-- Simon

[IchoTolot]

World record! That's impressive! Congrats!

But I still got a better score in the first stage!

[Akseli]

Congratulations Simon !

Even though I knew you had the world record, it was super exciting to watch the whole run. The best thing in these kinds of runs now and in general is that when you get more and more nearer to the end, you realize that you have the chances to make a great performance, and then even the viewers can feel the tension and adrenaline increasing! Moreover, due to your talking on the stream, we could hear your thoughts and feelings during the whole run, from laid-back attitude in the first levels, getting more and more exciting for all the time saves, then not making tricky Technoir spring jumps or so, then just pondering that you really want to take this already solid run to the end no matter what will happen, trying to get your own personal best and, a little by little, realizing that you're actually fighting for the world record itself.

Diamondus 1 and Tubelectric 1 seemed flawless. But I'd think that there's something to improve in every other main level.
After Letni you get first time excited for your split time: "Oh fast, Letni, awesome, perfect! That's the biggest save I've ever had in Letni. Aaah, I should just finish this run, because these split times are so awesome. Even if I die."
Megairbase 2: The first time there's really a threat for dying. And you're still saying that you should just finish the run for your personal best.

Turtemple 1: Also exciting to watch, knowing that this run will end up being WR.
Turtemple 2: "Aah, this run, this run."
Jungrock 2: "I get the fast music."
Bosses 3 & 4 went swiftly in my opinion!

That ecstatic growl after Marbelaras, for saving over 1 second.
Dreempipes 1: "It's an awesome run, right? He he."
Dreempipes 2: "I'm excited, heh. It's an awesome run."
Dreempipes boss: "Pfff. That save. Well if I save, eheheheh huhuhu aaah if I save 12 more seconds it's a world record, hehehehe. He he he. But that's impossible I believe in this run."

And then the formidable episode 6. Pezrock 1 had already suspense. Pezrock 2, great damage boosts.
Crysilis: The excitement is increasing, Simon is getting vivid. Crysilis 2 is a marvelous rollercoaster, from super performances to a serious threat to die.

Battleship 1: "Pfffff. This is so close, it is damn close." And the very end of the level, holy crap, ruining your entire run was within a freaking frame or so.
Battleship 2: So excited that you go down instead of going up. And first try alignment with the bird, which gives you all the keys for taking the WR in the last boss.

Final boss: And you get the damage boost correctly and that's it. "Hmmng come on die di-di-di-die, pff, hnghh perfect perfect perfect, auwhooaa! This is gonna be world record, this is world record, this is it, this is it. Watch out, watch out watch out watch out! There we go. Aaaah."

And you're so full of joy after this.

"Here's the cutscene. Let's save Eva Earlong one more time."

[ccexplore]

Wow, not expecting your rather newfound hobby to have gotten so far so quickly as breaking the world record!  Congratulations!

I guess now I really do need to watch the video.

Interesting that your DOSBox settings is making an impact, I guess it is somewhat to be expected with older DOS games.  I assume you've checked/researched that your current 40000 fixed cycles is indeed optimal for the game?

[Simon]

even the viewers can feel the tension and adrenaline increasing!
realizing that you're actually fighting for the world record itself.
And you're so full of joy after this.

So happy that you enjoyed the vid, you even watched this several times. And made this post.

The performance was scarily good. A rare stroke of awareness and concentration.

But I've only noticed this the day after. I had two runs with average performance, both lost 20 to 30 seconds from the WR during episodes 3, 4, 5.

Wow, not expecting your rather newfound hobby to have gotten so far so quickly as breaking the world record!  Congratulations!
I assume you've checked/researched that your current 40000 fixed cycles is indeed optimal for the game?

Thanks thanks!

Performance during play isn't affected. Anything from 16,000 or so plays the same. But load times are affected. The faster I set the cycles, the faster the levels load, and we can get arbitrarily fast load times here. I have to choose something.

I have several reasons for 40,000:

• DOSBox at max-cycles runs differently for different people, I don't want to rely on that.
  
• Levels load a tiny tad slower than on Vortale's 30:32 video, this makes the times comparable. I wanted to be slightly slower or equally fast, but never slightly faster. I think main menu to first level is within 0.1 seconds between Vortale's 30:32 and my 30:23.
  
• The JJ manual recommends a 486, and TASVideos.com says: If in doubt, use 40,000 cycles in DOSBox, that's an average 486 computer.
  
• I can agree that arbitrary cycle settings are OK for runs, then this video will still be a legal entry.
  

I got confidence that the 30:23 wasn't a fluke.

Image: 30:24 today

-- Simon

[grams88]

Welldone Simon on getting that record. That's impressive. I might give you a gold talisman as well. Those speedruns can be mighty hard to beat at the best of times even if you feel like a master of a certain game you be surprised at how good people are at certain games.

I've never played played the Jazz Jackrabbit games myself but I do hear that they are top games.

[ccexplore]

Performance during play isn't affected. Anything from 16,000 or so plays the same. But load times are affected. The faster I set the cycles, the faster the levels load, and we can get arbitrarily fast load times here. I have to choose something.

I have several reasons for 40,000:

• DOSBox at max-cycles runs differently for different people, I don't want to rely on that.
  
• Levels load a tiny tad slower than on Vortale's 30:32 video, this makes the times comparable. I wanted to be slightly slower or equally fast, but never slightly faster. I think main menu to first level is within 0.1 seconds between Vortale's 30:32 and my 30:23.
  
• The JJ manual recommends a 486, and TASVideos.com says: If in doubt, use 40,000 cycles in DOSBox, that's an average 486 computer.
  
• I can agree that arbitrary cycle settings are OK for runs, then this video will still be a legal entry.
  

Interesting.  I can see the comparable-time argument at the point when Vortale's video was still the gold standard; however now that yours is the new world record, I sure wouldn't want someone else to beat the record with worse gameplay performance merely by tweaking the cycles settings (and/or any other DOSBox or game settings that can impact load times) to offset.  It would at least be good to get a sense of how many seconds might be further gained purely from reducing the load times just to verify that it's small enough not to matter much.