Star Control II speedrun in 35 minutes - part 1/5

[Poodleinacan]

@Bisqwit I did it... And went to a near star, in the Ur'Quan territory, inside Zoqpot territory... Now I have 2 Ur'Quan armada waiting for me outside the system...and more comming... But hopefully, I have a not to early save game...

[Poodleinacan]

Shit... I must restart from a previous save, because I can't beat 4 Ur'Quan that intercepted me... I wish I could cheat a bit, because the Ur'Quan are abusive...

[Bisqwit]

@Poodleinacan Can you not escape from the battle?

[OktoberStorm]

I remember the first time I went into Quasispace and heard the music, haunting.

[PinkyWontWork]

How were you able to get over 4k RUs before starting to upgrade ship? Did I miss something? Is there a way to slow down the game's timer so that I can try and explore every planet?

[Bisqwit]

@PinkyWontWork Most important part of the good start was the radioactives from Io and Mercury. As listed by mr. Commander: 85 kton of base metals from Luna and Mercury (3 RU each); 6 of precious from Io / Mercyry (6 each); 179 of radioactives from Io & Mercury (8 each); 5 of exotic from Pluto (25 each). And the 2500 given initially; total = 4328. The cruiser and Fwiffo's ship were for 2900 total (+ their crew for 51). Game cannot be slowed down, but some plot events give you little extra time.

[PinkyWontWork]

@Bisqwit Ah, I missed the selling of the ships. I didn't remember that you could sell them. I played this many years ago and I just found it again..I'm playing UQM. Thanks.

[crazedthoughts]

Feb 17, 2155-Sept 27, 2155. Less then a year. Ye gods, the Ur-Quan have been introduced to BLITZKRIEG!

[bluestreek004]

google "star control 2 petition" give support for a remake!!!

[SweynFork]

That Hyperspace music is much better than the remixes.

[oEQjet]

Hey, at 7:40, you went into the star map, the game time doesn't advance in the star map... You could of flown manually to the portal!

@SweynFork I disagree, but mostly in the case of QuasiSpace music, the Remix for that is really awesome.

Actually the Precursors remix's all around arn't that bad, most of them are in my music library!

[Bisqwit]

@oEQjet You are right, I could have flown manually to the portal. There are two reasons why I did that: One being that I wanted to present the starmap (it's part of the game's entertainment to _see_ it) , and the other is that the autopilot can fly in a perfect straight line whereas with manual steering you're limited to certain coarse angles. I was afraid that the fuel will not last if I manual-pilot, because my fuel budget was very strict. (Turns out I was wrong about fuel.)

[lordjavathe3rd]

Cool upload. I really enjoy the atmosphere and feeling I get from playing this game, but I'd rather just watch someone else do it. Now I can!

[starsiegeplayer]

Out of curiousity, why did you use the old dos version of the game instead of the newer open source version?

[Bisqwit]

@starsiegeplayer Because 1) the DOS version is the one I'm familiar with, 2) the DOS version is not going to change and thus make my accomplishments void upon the next release; 3) I had a system upon which to create a TAS for the DOS version (DOSBox), but not a system for doing one for UQM (no PC emulator that could run UQM, and hacking a game to add rerecording into it is somewhat too specific for my tastes). For the concept of rerecording, read the FAQ on TASVideos.

[dmcmLIVE]

you know ive noticed that all my favorite sci-fi games are the second in the series star control 2, space rangers 2, galactic civilizations 2, mass effect 2, and master of orion 2 i wonder why that is.

[xWookiee]

Mass Effect 2 has a feature just like this where you send probes into planets for resources.

[Bisqwit]

@xWookiee Yeah, by now the idea is not exactly new. Indeed you can read from Wikipedia about "Von Neumann machines" and "Von Neumann probes", named after a scientist who studied this idea in the 40s and the 50s. The "examples in fiction" section lists both Star Sontrol II and Mass Effect 2, along with a dozen or so other games and TV series.

[Lolita1982]

How did you get so much RUs just from Sol? I couldn`t afford even half of what you bought even though I went through more planets than you did in Sol. :(

[Bisqwit]

@Lolita1982 Because I selectively picked the planets/moons that have the most precious resources and only picked those resources. If you fill your cargo bays with worthless minerals, you don't have time/fuel/room remaining to pick up the precious ones. The rare & radioactive ones are precious. The ones I picked on Luna were common, and I think I could have possibly skipped them.

[Bisqwit]

@Bisqwit Oh, and also, I sold Fwiffo's ship and the Earthling Cruiser. This amounted to a comparatively very large sum of RUs.

[TheCottonTop]

The music in this game was and is kick ass.

[jheftorium]

You sold Fwiffo. :-( Correct SC2 play demands winning with Fwiffo still in your fleet and destroying all Ur-Quan ships encountered with the StarRunner!

[Bisqwit]

Sorry about selling Fwiffo. I needed the fuel that I could not afford otherwise. Even if I collected absolutely everything from Sol and sold all my spare crew, I would only have 5981 RU. To complete the first tour, I need at least 2800 for fuel and 4500 for thrusters (7300 total), which comes 1319 RU short. Fwiffo's Eluder, StarRunner, sells for 1800 RU, solving the financial problem. So sorry, captain. I only hope they fed him adequate food in Starbase cafeteria after I downsized him.

[Bisqwit]

Theoretically this could be solved by killing a few Slylandro probes before embarking on the journey, but then I would need a clever investment plan in turning & thrust jets (otherwise I lose a dozen days trying to navigate out and back from/to Sol), which I would then need to sell and refit the Sis ship before going on the actual journey. In any case, this would make a considerably longer video, and it might still be impossible to make it to the Quasispace portal in time and have enough fuel.

[Jebu911]

I cant belive how the old games had such a badass soundtrack

[Vantazzy]

This is like Mass Effect 2, but not evolving with walking through space stations and shooting handguns to enemies, but this game had the big pieces what made it so awesome! :)

[Bisqwit]

Glad you watched the whole thing. Thank you for all the feedback.

This is a tool-assisted speedrun. No cheats were used; simply the fact that there were infinite save+load chances at disposal at _any_ particular moment available. This enabled me to appear to predict the future and to perfect the battle and other strategies.

TASVideos FAQ has more information about this concept.

Incidentally, the Ilwrath battle was one of my least favourites. The Druuge ones were worse.

[Theroguesunit6]

i used to play this game all the time

[MegamanZ4]

@Bisqwit "...No cheats were used"

That explains why the lander exploit wasn't used, despite the fact that it may actually remove later visits to starbase (a lot of people classify it as a cheat, but the source of it is an integer underflow bug that only occurs on the original DOS version - both the 3DO version and UQM have it fixed, as it wasn't an intentional cheat)

[Holinyx]

After playing this game for nearly 17 years, i have the locations for nearly every Treasure/Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald world, also the top 20 Bio systems in the game. You should get the Portal Spawner then hit all the rainbow worlds, use the credits to buy fuel and sell the fuel at your home for like 40k RUs, now go hit all the good stuff and Bio worlds then bam, in a years game time you have all technology and 70k RUs. email me at Holinyx05@hotmail for any questions

[rebelanarch]

if you can make it work on dosbox and use frameskip, you can also wait for the kohr-ah to kill off half of the sector space, so you can spend less time fighting enemy ships for plot items.

[marRicardo]

@Holinyx yep thats what I used to do too.....you really need that map and write it all down to do it, but it can be done super quick that way.

[bubthegreat1]

Anyone know how to play the original star control, meaning the first one on the PC ?? I can't find it anywhere and have had the compulsion for a month!!!!!!!

[Holinyx]

lots of copies on Ebay. DOS though as its a DOS program. google the Pages of Now and Forever also.

[Freshbrood]

@bubthegreat1 I would download Star Control for the Sega Genesis emulator- it's far superior. Its basically a strategy/conquest game, and also a fighting game, there is no adventure or rpg element, but still excellent. Also, Starflight for Genesis, if you want Star Control 1.5. (Play it to see what I mean. Its by the same creators.)

[ArMANRazoR]

Bisqwit, your travel safe enough. Why? Usually aliens encounter us.

[Bisqwit]

The number of Slylandro probes increases throughout the game. In the beginning, it is quite low. Also, I can outrun them, thanks to the maximum speed thrusters.

I do need to evade some other ships once in a while though. You can see it e.g. in the second part when I'm at the Pkunk-Ilwrath region (lower-bottom area of the map).

[ArMANRazoR]

Do you that people still playing all Star Con series?

[Melleina]

video and sound sounds raped. Lol, this game usually takes me a coupld weeks at the most.

[Phantom2502]

However that may be a difference of me going for speed run by game clock time rather than actual time. However the extra RU's from ridding the Sol system of minerals helps with extra turning jets, and the Rainbow world means I can now refuel at a Melnorme saving time. I am going to watch the rest of these... see if there is anything else I can point out.

[Phantom2502]

Ah my favourite game of all time. I have the 3D0 version. I have also done a speed run, but more along game clock time than actual time.

My only comment is since the portal only opens on April 17th, why not do some more interesting stuff... like rid your Sol system of minerals(March 8th), get to Alpha Pavonis on (April 7th), then head down to Beta Pegasi I for the rainbow world(April 11th), then head down to the portal, you'll arrive just as it opens!

[Bisqwit]

Re: "More interesting stuff": I had no excess fuel. I had no idea how close it will be, since I was still only learning the things about efficiency of different ways of navigation). So I could not do any excess spatial movement. Rotation does not use fuel, so I did that. For the record, I had only 3 excess units.

And as for wasting the time somewhere else: Calendar is not accumulated when exploring a planet. And it accumulates slower in non-hyperspace, too.

[thaandiesel]

good stuff, i only read about the speed run, thanku for posting this :D

[DeeperBlueX16]

WTH!!! You killed that ilwrath so fast!!!!

[Bisqwit]

Note that this particular Ilwrath ship was somewhat undermanned compared to their normal setup.

But you'll see most things do get accomplished rather fast in this movie. That's the point of a speedrun :)

[ladystorykeeper]

I prefer the 6.0 version

[Bisqwit]

What 6.0 version?

There's no such version numbering on this game.

Unless you're talking about The Ur-Quan Masters (UQM), which is a port of this game for modern operating systems. It has some differences to the original game, which is what this movie is about. And, there's no 6.0 version of UQM. The newest one is 0.6.2.

Or maybe you're talking about DOSBox versions? But DOSBox does not have a version 6.0. Its newest is 0.72.

[jjaacckkss]

sorry my mistake :) yea spathi eluder... earthling cruiser.. mycon podship.. my favourite tho the shofixti scout, breed like the shofixti what was the arilou ship called?

Actually now that its come up I think the traddesh torch was overpowered, with a right burst of the afterburners it could take anything out except the Utwig Jugger

[jjaacckkss]

trying to get the arilouailey portal spawner, i remember when i would use their eluder ships to blow up the mycons for a quick buck

[Bisqwit]

Except that it's the Spathi ships that are called Eluders, not Arilou nor the Pkunk that I used in this movie :)

[Fan0fGaming]

What was up with the spinning? lol

[Bisqwit]

Not sure what you are referring to. I'll try to guess.

When you start the game, the spaceship you have is a slow and cumbersome stellar vehicle that takes days to rotate around. By purchasing and installing some "turning jets" at the starbase, you can alleviate that problem, making the ship faster. At my first visit to the starbase engineering docks (4:20), I focus on speed upgrades ("fusion thrusters"); only later I also upgrade the remainder of the turning jets.

[Bisqwit]

Another possibility of what you may be referring to is how I land on planets butt-first. That's because the movement in this game is inertia-based, like in space. If you thrust in some direction, you start moving there, regardless of how you twist around; so you can turn around the ship without changing its moving direction.

By turning around the ship while landing (and while taking orbit) I can have the ship in an optimal position for takeoff when I do takeoff; allowing straight thrust.

[Fan0fGaming]

No, I meant how the ship randomly started stopping and doing about a 480 degree spin, I cant remember where now, but It was somewhere in there.

[oaktea]

Around 7:40, right?

Just to pass time until the portal opened, I think.

[Bisqwit]

Correct. > oaktea

I would have done something more interesting, but I was low on fuel (I didn't know whether I'll need that extra unit or not), so I couldn't move around. I could only rotate.

[jonathantu]

Maybe my favorite game of all time.

[JosephCollins]

Thank you for putting this up, Bisq! This'll hold me over until I can get the torrented AVI version... Of course, I'll probably be done watching this by the time that torrent gets some seeders. XD

[Bisqwit]

The torrent is automatically seeded on demand.

(Demand comes from the number of downloaders versus number of seeds).

[JosephCollins]

Your bot is HOT, in that case.