Avalon speedrunning/ rzxfiles

t0nedude

Hi all,

I have many favourite games on the Speccy, far too many to list but two in particular are Legend of Avalon and Dragontorc of Avalon. Of those the first one will always hold a special place in my heart.

I remember Avalon holding my attention for months until I had completed it, and trying to perfect my route/technique even after. I notice there is no map of either games on the 'Speccy Screenshot Maps Archive' probably due to the difficulty of the perpective changing from room to room. There is a non english version of the map on WOS but I find it hard (ish) to dicipher the symbols/legend.

I did make a start on one myself ages ago but gave up. Well I intend to persevere this time and I am trying to think of the best way forward with this project...

Anyway while I give that some thought, on to the main reason I post here...due to the months I used to play Avalon in '84 and '85 I used to be S**T hot at the game IMHO. (excuse the trumpet blowing :))

Without any maps or cheats I could complete the game in 20 minutes or under and I am thinking of creating a rzx of me doing just that and maybe submit it to RZX Archive, although I will have to practice for a while to get me ole skills back and relearn the 'lay of the land' :)

I was thinking of a possibility of maybe having a Speed Run section on the RZX Archive site (just like Speed Demos Archive) for Speed running Speccy games without rollback/cheats etc so we can showcase OUR (the forums) skillz?

Just some thoughts to ponder, sorry for wandering on a bit... :)

Would anyone have anything interesting to add to any of the topics above?

Regards,

Tony.

Zaph0dd

I mapped Avalon back in 84/85, by video recording a play through and wearing out the pause button and hand drawing each room.

I couldn't fully get my head around the perspective on some levels, so it ended up looking similar to the dragontorc maps that are in the archive - lots of looping lines between each set of rooms.

Looking back at it, I think a proper perspective map is much harder to use than a how you see it one, perhaps we need to ask Pavero really nice sometime, he seems to be pretty much the best mapper of hard games. (he did do a valhalla one at my request a while back, and its spectacular).


To your speedrun question, im sure your aware there are simular sites dedicated to this for other platforms, aka halflife / doom / etc. - and on Darens rzx pages are a couple of speed runs for bugaboo,
I dont see any reason why there cannot be a seperate entry for speedruns, a lot of games doing a speedrun wouldnt be much different than a standard complete but faster, but something like avalon, you can miss out so much of it.

t0nedude

Zaph0dd wrote: »

I mapped Avalon back in 84/85, by video recording a play through and wearing out the pause button and hand drawing each room.

I couldn't fully get my head around the perspective on some levels, so it ended up looking similar to the dragontorc maps that are in the archive - lots of looping lines between each set of rooms.

Looking back at it, I think a proper perspective map is much harder to use than a how you see it one, perhaps we need to ask Pavero really nice sometime, he seems to be pretty much the best mapper of hard games. (he did do a valhalla one at my request a while back, and its spectacular).


To your speedrun question, im sure your aware there are simular sites dedicated to this for other platforms, aka halflife / doom / etc. - and on Darens rzx pages are a couple of speed runs for bugaboo,
I dont see any reason why there cannot be a seperate entry for speedruns, a lot of games doing a speedrun wouldnt be much different than a standard complete but faster, but something like avalon, you can miss out so much of it.

WOW, videoing and hand-drawing the map is hardcore...kudos. Yes I know of alot of the other sites dedicated to Speed Running, Speed Demos Archive and Archive.org are just two of the best. I frequently like watching their new material. I'll have to check out that Valhalla map...I haven't played that game in ages....

Long live the Speccy.

Regards,

Tony.

Alarm

The only speedrunning I have seen on the Speccy are the aforementioned Bugaboo the Flea and an informal contest several years ago to complete Central Cavern in Manic Miner in the fastest time (from memory, this may have been at the Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group and not the WoS forum).

GeeKay

Completing the game in 20 mins is impressive t0nedude. Avalon still remains my most favourite Speccy game to date. I most certainly did complete it, but I never tried timing myself or doing it any faster.

I have watched a completion recording of it on whatever emulator it was (I can't remember) and you were able to speed it up. So I suppose a speed completion being recorded isn't as important as a decent time being recorded with the ability to play at x2, x4 etc.

t0nedude

GeeKay wrote: »

Completing the game in 20 mins is impressive t0nedude. Avalon still remains my most favourite Speccy game to date. I most certainly did complete it, but I never tried timing myself or doing it any faster.

I have watched a completion recording of it on whatever emulator it was (I can't remember) and you were able to speed it up. So I suppose a speed completion being recorded isn't as important as a decent time being recorded with the ability to play at x2, x4 etc.

Thanks Geekay, I completed it in 20 mins (aprox) on an original rubber keyed speccy years ago. For a laugh back then I also tried completing it as fast as possible with an infinite energy poke (ignoring the denizens) and did it in about 12 minutes to see how fast it could be done.

I am currently mapping/route planning to optimize the route and optimize spell acquisition, so a final time of between 12-20 mins at normal speed (obviously) should be the target. I will have to use the Freeze spell only when I have too, to not waste time.

I will be playing without pokes, without rollback and without maps at my side for the RZX (obviously).

Should be a challenge!

Cheers,

Tony.

GeeKay

Cheating on Avalon didn't really kill the game imo - it allowed the player to really explore every single room and be completely immersed in the world.

Now I'm a mood to play it :D It's been about a year since I last fired it up.