Doom 2 For Weenies

[Linguica]

If you enjoy Doom but the idea of getting hurt makes you cry like a little baby, then you might want to check out this DW forums thread where "RamboBones" has posted a 32-level runthrough of Doom 2 in 24:40 without getting hurt. That's right, he doesn't lose a single health point the entire time, so all you pansies who get scared when the Doom guy makes his "ouch" face can watch secure in the knowledge that he is going to be OK.

[Cyb]

so many medkits that didn't live up to their life-purpose :(

[Searcher]

It is a pretty astounding run. Great to watch the demo.

[DooMBoy]

Just watched it, very nice indeed! I still don't see how RamboBones did some of those levels without taking any damage.

[Sporku]

I didn't think it would be possible to complete certain maps without taking at least a little bit of damage (Map31 for example).

Very impressive indeed!

[Schneelocke]

DooMBoy said:

Just watched it, very nice indeed! I still don't see how RamboBones did some of those levels without taking any damage.

Linguica unfortunately failed to mention that this is a TAS demo.

[cyber-menace]

And so, the glory has been removed. Somebody go do that without some sort of cheat/hack/game manipulating device.

[Udderdude]

Why does he call it a 'reality' demo? In reality the Doomguy would have gotten his ass kicked and barely survived. Nice demo anyway :p

[Schneelocke]

udderdude said:

Why does he call it a 'reality' demo? In reality the Doomguy would have gotten his ass kicked and barely survived. Nice demo anyway :p

Ask Thomas Pilger.

[Fredrik]

AgentSpork said:

I didn't think it would be possible to complete certain maps without taking at least a little bit of damage (Map31 for example).

Map31? What the?

[dsm]

I'm sure he meant map 30 and accidentally wrote '1' instead of '0' - that or he made probably the funniest joke I've read within these boards for quite a while.

[Grazza]

If anyone wants to know more about the background of "Reality" style, Panter's original page can still be viewed here.

The table on that page shows the highest skill level for which a Reality demo was achieved on each map (from a pistol start) back then. As you can see, map31 was one of those for which nothing higher than skill 1 was done (map25 was the only one for which nothing better than -nomonsters was achieved). Panter's rules were a little stricter, in that plasma weapons couldn't be used.

There's really no chance of a no damage 30uv run through the whole of Doom2 being done without tool assistance. The random number generator needs to smile upon you throughout, and the odds just stack up against you too quickly. The "best" you might hope for is a run where saves are only used at the end of each level, but with maps like 25 and 29, even that is perhaps asking for too much. In any case, the result wouldn't be a terribly entertaining demo.

In short, this is a very good TAS demo, and it uses TAS in the way it was intended: to do something that is very good to watch and that wouldn't be feasible without it. Just one criticism from me: the text-file should make it a lot clearer that it is a TAS demo, and which TAS methods were used (i.e. slow motion, joining {-recordfrom}, permanent strafe-50, and editing via LMPC).

[myk]

Grazza said:
Just one criticism from me: the text-file should make it a lot clearer that it is a TAS demo, and which TAS methods were used (i.e. slow motion, joining {-recordfrom}, permanent strafe-50, and editing via LMPC).

Absolutely... the confusion above shows why. And then the ZIP file shows up in other DOOM related sites where fewer people know enough about demos to point out how it was done. The text file doesn't even mention what modified version of GLBoom was used (which also means not crediting the coder who altered the engine.)

[Xenaero]

dsm said:

I'm sure he meant map 30 and accidentally wrote '1' instead of '0' - that or he made probably the funniest joke I've read within these boards for quite a while.

On american keyboards the 0 is by the 9 and the -

I have not a clue about euro keyboards.

[Linguica]

dsm said:

I'm sure he meant map 30 and accidentally wrote '1' instead of '0' - that or he made probably the funniest joke I've read within these boards for quite a while.

Why? There's lots of bullet guys in Map31, and unless you are willing to wait for them all to stream through a door and kill them one by one, the probability of getting hurt just running straight through seems like it would be very close to 100%.

[Bashe]

Incredible demo. If I tried to pull something like that, it would be total pwnzage.

[Fredrik]

Linguica said:

Why? There's lots of bullet guys in Map31, and unless you are willing to wait for them all to stream through a door and kill them one by one, the probability of getting hurt just running straight through seems like it would be very close to 100%.

Note that he didn't say anything about completing it quickly. Taking it slowly is exactly what I was thinking of.

Now map25...

[Sporku]

Fredrik said:

Note that he didn't say anything about completing it quickly.

Well gee, I assumed that I wouldn't have to mention such a thing in a thread about a speedrun.

Of course it's easy to beat Map31 without taking damage if you're not trying to beat it as fast as you possibly can. Speedrunning a map full of hitscan enemies without taking damage, however, can be a tough thing to accomplish.

[Grazza]

A speedrun just means that you try to achieve the stated goal as quickly as you can. If cautious play is essential to achieve that goal, then so be it. It's still a speedrun.

Not that much caution is necessary on map31 in this run though, with a BFG, plenty of ammo, and tool assistance. Without one of those ingredients, it would be a different story (thus the old map31 Reality demo being only on skill 1).

[Linguica]

Fredrik said:

Note that he didn't say anything about completing it quickly. Taking it slowly is exactly what I was thinking of.

Well duh, if you slowly move through and kill every enemy cautiously, then pretty much ANY level barring ones with monster spawners or big acid pits can be done reality style, but I hardly call that a "speedrun".

[Fredrik]

Exactly, there are levels (e.g. map25) for which there exists no safe way to get through at all without taking damage. That's why one that's simply hard to get through quickly is a poor example.

Oh, and in addition to obstacles like monster spawners and acid pits there are many maps in which cautious play doesn't save you from the enemies (mostly PWADs -- think HR, but there are examples from the IWADs as well).