Neglected categories

Some demo categories become popular while others don't. For the most part it is clear why, but in some cases it isn't obvious why they are neglected. Here are a few categories where AFAIK there are very few demos:

All HMP (skill 3) categories.
All HNTR (skill 2) categories.
ITYTD -fast -respawn ("Nightmare Lite")
ITYTD Speed (maybe too similar to -nomonsters on a lot of maps?)
Lemmings (no kills/as few kills as possible)
NM Max (too difficult and messy to verify on most maps)
-fast Pacifist (skills 1-4 - odd that there are more NM Pacifist demos)
Tyson Speed (only weapons 1 & 2; no need to kill everything)
UV -respawn Speed (no need for 100% kills/secrets)
"No ammo" Speed (only weapon 1; no need to kill everything)

Feel free to add, and speculate why they haven't caught on, or to recommend ones that seem like fun.

Reality! Take 1% damage and you can start again, heh.

I've only recorded a few of those. There was a reality demopack for doom2. Not sure where to find it though.

Other much neglected categories are:
* Max/speed without strafing (name for this?)
* Speedfighter(?) (-respawn and maximum % kills within par time)
* fist/shotgun/SSG/chaingun/etc. only

EDIT: Oh, and of course "super-max" (finishing with 100% kills/items/secrets and maximum possible health/armour).

And, the hardest possible category of them all: NM pacifist Tyson reality. ;-D

...

Reality should be incredibly hard for all maps with chaingunners/former humans in them. Are you sure reality has been done for all maps in DooM II? I'm not saying it's impossible, but it seems much harder to me than e.g. pa02... ;-)

I mean, try map 29 UV reality, for example! Christ!

I've done map 18 without getting hit before, but it was a long time ago. (on a 386sx25, too)

The most extraordinary Reality demo I can recall was Xit Vono's Tyson Reality on E4M6. It was a TAS demo, but still unbelievable.

The map29 Reality referred to here was skill 2.

Kristian Ronge said:

* Max/speed without strafing (name for this?)

Dunno. 1994-style maybe? ;) Or in my case, 1994-97-style :(

"Stroller" was no running, no strafing, and Pacifist.

And, the hardest possible category of them all: NM pacifist Tyson reality. ;-D

Kind of like Pacifist Max. It's possible on some maps, I suppose - crushers are helpful, obviously. I once did a UV -fast Pacifist with 97% kills (on a map with no crushers).

UD: Map18 UV Speed Reality is quite easy. Or do you mean UV Max Reality?

UV Max Reality. On a 386sx25, too...

* NM 100% kills. Like NM Max but actually possible on most maps. Probably considered too similar to respawn.

* Hypocritical Pacifist. Kinda like that pacifist Max idea Grazza mentioned. I'll quote from the text file to p1m66514 for this one:

In Hypocritical Pacifist recordings, the aim is to kill as
many monsters on a level as possible - *without actually
kiling them yourself*. Like a cross between Tyson and
pacifist. So acceptable techniques would include:
* encouraging monsters to fight each other
* getting monsters to blow up barrels and kill themselves
* punching barrels that kill monsters ("How was I to know
it was explosive - I was just letting off steam!")
* luring monsters under crushers ("Honest officer, I
didn't know he was going to follow me there... pleez
officer, not the cuffs...")
* hitting switches that activate traps that kill monsters
("Don't look at me - *I* didn't wire up this place...")
* intentional telefrags ("I thought he got out of the way
in time... don't look at me like that")

You could have Hypocritical Grandmaster, which is just
Hypocritical Pacifist with -respawn: no records would be
absolute here.

There's already a WAD based around the Hypocritical
Pacifist idea - see Cyberdreams (and also Yonatan Donner's
lmp collection for same)

Certain levels lend themselves well to the style: e2m9,
lv16, lv18 etc. Levels with crushers are interesting: is it
possible to get 100% on e2m2, for instance?

It's interesting that Quake speedrunning has different categories for Easy skill and Nightmare skill, whereas we generally only have different categories for UV and NM. Sure, there's nomonster recordings, but that's a little different.

Yup. Actually it *would* be quite interesting to see how much difference there is in time between a nomo run and an ITYTD run. At least on some maps.

Grazza said:
Dunno. 1994-style maybe? ;) Or in my case, 1994-97-style :(

Yeah, "'94-style" is a good name. :-)

I actually developed the closest thing to strafing without strafing (because I didn't know you could strafe back in those days); I would make a rapid succession of e.g. turn slightly left--go forward--turn twice the amount right. This way, I'd be closer to the monster, facing it at an angle, and having avoided its shot(s). I think I still have some demos of me playing this way, it looks completely bizarre but it worked...

I've had an idea where the player is allowed to use nothing but the rocket launcher. Could be interesting. Unfortunately it would require cheating in most maps.

Someone should record a couple Tyson movie runs, it doesn't matter if it's for Doom, Doom2, or Final Doom, I've always wanted to see one and never have.

there are some Chainsaw/RL demos....
never seen a tyson movie, IIRC.

There are Tyson movies for Ultimate Doom:
- Adam Williamson's e1t-4449
- Patrick Martin's e2t-7951 and e3t10301

There is also a Doom2 12-level-tyson-speedrun from Jason Henry, where he skips Map07: 12uv-tys

These demos are not mentioned in the Compet-N database. Check the FTP.

EDIT: Sorry, I was wrong. You can find them in the database under Misc Movies (UDOOM Ep1, Ep2, Ep3 and Doom2 All).