Addenda: This video isn't meant to be a complete history of the speedrun. In some cases, I missed some interesting details. I'd like to give credit where it's due, and offer corrections when necessary. 03:41 bulbipop's run was the first to feature the trick with the wizard. 05:02 rtrger discovered that, if you mess this trick up, you can quickly enter and exit the menu to get the dialog going again. 08:22 gimlao contributed a lot to the guide as well.
At the start of the game, you really should go to the waterfall first, and then the wizard. You can go to the portal during the first conversation with the wizard, and then to the knight's tomb. You can also get some more items along the way, including a basket of mushrooms in a hut, the dagger, and the shield potion and the Elixir of Life in the alchemist's hut. Items in huts can be grabbed through the window. You can get the candle, three baskets of mushrooms, and the rope and hook during the second conversation. To do this, you have to go out of range at the start of the first conversation. There is just barely enough time to get out of range before Connor finishes his initial segment. Although none of the runners have done this, it really is much better.
My mom finished this game. I remember there was a puzzle she couldn't do. She got in contact with Sierra and found out that it was coded wrong so it was unsolvable. So they gave her a code to use so she could skip it.
Presumably the monsters were sealed up after the mask was restored, since I THINK the lore implies they were all unleashed by the breaking of the mask.
@@Dark_Jaguar But Chuck didn't get all the mask pieces, which means it isn't fully restored! Maybe 4/5ths of the monsters are sealed, but the other 20% are still enough to cause lots of problems to depetrified people.
Wizard: "Come closer lad, I cannot hear you from such a distance" when 10ft away Also wizard: *carries on entire conversation while player is literally in another dimension*
"They put a sliding puzzle at the end of the game" The best part about it is when you enter the room of the puzzle, Connor will say "I will establish ORDER" like it's gonna do something badass, but he just pushes blocks.
@@ZorotheGallade It's not about the fact that he does it or not, it's the presentation, he enters the room like a total badass with his shiny armor and he exclaims out loud the phrase to a bunch of blocks. That's like if i was yelled "I am going to rid this place of filth!!!" and then i just grab a broom and a mop.
@@DarkOmegaMK2 Tbh everyone should do that whenever they are about to do something. "YOU SHALL BE TEMPERED IN THE FIRES OF HELL" --me to my pizza as I turn on the oven.
It all makes sense. He was also turned to stone, but was able to simply clip through the petrification. That is why he was able to survive the curse and save the kingdom.
i had this as a kid growing up. i found the first level terrifying, between the low visibility, the creepy ex-people statues, and the monsters, i was too scared to play the game. but the box came with a manual that had a monster glossary. i remember just reading it over and over again and marveling on the art and (now bad) poly renders, trying to imagine what the game is like. when i was like 18 or so, i reinstalled it on a newer machine, but the game ran poorly and would crash during a major puzzle on the 2nd level (land of the dead). i didnt know about the river skip and thought thats just where my journey ends. i never played it again and forgot all about it. im 30 now and i find this. thanks for the memories!
great video! i liked how one sees the game from beginning to end, like watching a normal speedrun, but inbetween you get these speedrunstrats-history. very interesting mix I didn't knew I need/want more of^^
Glad you enjoyed it! I stole / borrowed the format from Tomatoanus, if you want more of this style. Searching for "tomatoanus speedrun explained" should do it. Fair warning, his videos focus more on the current strats, and less on the history, but are nonetheless very detailed.
I was laughing for a good 30sec. I don't know why i found this comment soooo funny XD. I guess it's because I only realised just how true this observation is after reading this and not after finishing the game even for the 3rd time.
Imagine if the games had played into that deliberately, making Connor someone who desperately wants to be a cool badass hero, but can't figure out what to say until it's too late.
@@timothymclean that whole thing where you replay arguments in your head while showering thinking about what you could've said instead of what you originally did?
I remember being so anxious to get this game that I ordered it directly from Sierra but it was on Backorder for I think a month or two. But when I ordered it I also included a little unknown game called Half-Life, which I wasn't really expecting much from. Lets just say I didn't really care much about this game after playing Half-Life.
@@antipsychotic451 Yeah it was kind of tongue in cheek. I did hear about the game before, but I definitely wasn't expecting much from it. I remember there was an article about how fungus would grow on the walls and such if you travel back to an earlier location.
"You may notice he doesn't have a weapon equipped. That's because what he equipped is his fist." Those wristbands really coming in handy keeping him together.
I gotta say, considering the time period and the hardware involved, this is a pretty well animated game. the characters have good flow and it's pretty smooth overall, all things considered.. most games around this time didn't have it. oh and the textures for their mouths moving actually lip-sync to fit what they're pronouncing. most games had that "muppet" animating or 2 frames of textures for talking.
Well that's the problem they went for the graphics and animations (PC allowed that) instead of gameplay, and first Tomb Rider looks like ass but still VERY playable. This looks smooth but... well. And even then TR had stand-out animations, though stuff. Most 3D third person games of PS1 era are animated horribly.
I love how theatrical Connor’s animations are. The slinky way he presents the axe after obtaining it, his heroic poses after some sequences, energy making his body uncontrollable until he wills himself together. So much of this is still in my memory.
@@KasumiRINA It's more tragic than that, they didn't "go for the graphics over gameplay". They had this LOONY-ASS CHURCH COMPANY they partnered with to finance this game (and the loonies didn't SAY they were going to pull their crap off), and those guys basically tried to neuter KQ to kingdom come and turn it into this crazy propaganda bible game. By the time Ken and Roberta finally wrestled their IP back from these a-holes they had almost no time left to complete the game. Basically what they shipped was what they could fix up of an alpha build with what remaining budget they had, and at a loss at that. IIRC Space Quest Historian is friends with the dude who deep-dove into why this King's Quest was what it is on his featured channels or linked in one of his interviews' descriptions.
It was pretty impressive back then. Controls were awful, though. And it took FOREVER to load. I think if you went to a different level, it would install it to the hard drive from the cd and delete the previous area. It would take well over 10 minutes.
It took my watching this speedrun for me to appreciate this style. These designers were trying in such an earnest way to create the most immersive experience. I love it.
I mean, look at cutscene at 28:44 a body splash countered into backflipping Canadian Destroyer through the floor onto the spikes, yay! And 27:28 has those camera angles for a leg drop into a rear chokehold neck snap. I miss when action heroes in videogames casually did pro wrestling moves xD
The models and textures are very PS1, but the animations...well, the _rigs_ are also PS1, but it's clear that skilled animators did what they could within their technical constraints.
It's funny: I bought this game at full retail price when it first came out, and I still have the original CD. But I only played it briefly, and hated it so much that I don't even recognize any of the early puzzles in this video. I'm pretty sure I just ran around Daventry fighting monsters for a few minutes, then uninstalled the game in disgust.
I know I at least got to the dimension of death, because I remember activating some of the easter eggs there. I'm not entirely sure we made it beyond that.
"Who are you, Sir... Snail?" lmao this was, I think, the first ever 3D game I ever played, because my mom assumed it was suitable for kids my age based on King's Quest VII, with its deceptively childish animation style. I actually loved how dark and violent it was, and how distinct each of the different worlds were.
I remember my Mum playing this game and her struggling for months at a time as she tried to map things out, take notes and basically brute force her way through to completing it. If only she knew the magic of the wall clips, with a couple of well timed backflips 🤷♀️ Also Speedrun!Connor is the most madlad character I’ve ever seen. Zounds! None are as powerful as he.
I got this game from my dads collection, it’s surreal, even playing through casually I glitched through big portions of the game, partly because a coding error that is forever engraved in my mind and has become a family meme. “Lo, a feather!”. The game is so wonky Most damage dealing Barriers can be brute forced by spamming healing items mid jump, and backflips can get you over almost anything. I think I also read that for some reason Connors long jump is 10 feet up and 15 feet forward, human grasshopper.
In addition to his incredible leaps, at 27:33 he breaks the guard's neck without breaking a sweat. He even pauses a bit before snapping it, as if to savor the moment. He's a monster.
My fav part of the game was Connor stealing the townsfolk's money and then apologizing to the statues or telling them how he needs it to save them, or that the money won't go to waste etc.
I'm so happy there's a video explaining these stuff. I've been following KQ8 for a while and it's really cool to have more details about the speedrun progression of the game
I played this game when I was a child. Couldn't get pass the mill at the starting region. A friend asked to borrow the cd and see if he could solve the problem. In reality, he just stole it, and I never got to see that copy again. Years later, I remembered that torrent was a thing, downloaded mask of eternity and finally completed it. Such a broken, ugly, glorious game! I still get chills from the noises and the darkness in Daventry. Greetings from Brazil.
Alternative titles to the game. King's Quest 8: Stoners Makes the Wall Clipping So Much Stronger. King's Quest 8: Clipping of Eternity. King's Quest 8: Connor Punches Mummies Barehanded. King's Quest 8: The Last Boss thru' Punch Loading King's Quest 8: The Four Pieces of RNG.
8:16 "By the way, if you don't like glitches and want to see a glitchless run, you're going to have to do it yourself" So what you're saying is, I could become a World Record speedrunner?
Got to love the humor: 14:25 "I see you slew that vile witch"....yet the witch is standing right in front of him, even clipping through him. And then Connor says he did slay her...LIAR! lol.
2:07 This quote really sums up the failure of late '90s Sierra. I hated the switch from beautiful, evocative, thought-provoking 2D adventure games to ugly, blocky, action-based 3D.
I mean, Gabriel Knight 3 and Quest for Glory 5 stuck their landings - because they didn't have the oh-so brilliant idea of completely changing genres. But Sierra had FOUR 3D engines for three games. The KQ9 engine, the GK3 engine, the QFG5 engine, and the QFG5 Demo engine. You know, the one that actually had the planned multiplayer? (For the best that fell through - how would you put Magnum Opus and Elsa Von Spielburg on the same footing as Devon Aidendale when the latter has four classes and as many games?)
@@KopperNeoman I have to tell you, as a huge fan of the QfG series who beat 1-4 multiple times back in the day, I could not finish QfG 5. I just thought it didn't look nearly as good or play as well as QfG 4 despite coming out almost five years later. Also, while Gabriel Knight 3 is a fine game, take a look at it now compared to the first game. While I grant you that tastes vary, I'd argue that the hand-drawn pixel art of 1993 is vastly superior to the low-res 3D of 1999.
i feel like it was an awkward but unavoidable time for games. I loved my N64 when i got it but i always felt the SNES looked better. Playing arcade games from the 90’s just before 3D took off shows the height of pixel art
@@91Vault I remember hating early 3rd graphics as a kid. I thought they looked awful even when brand new. All my older brother and anyone could go on about was that it was "3d wow!" It was a case of the new and exciting thing sugarcoating everything, but I was too young to be impressed by the tech.
On that note, I should also come clean: I've been playing it for four hours so far on stream, and didn't realize first-person mode was a thing until watching this.
This is a great video - great explanation and everything~ I especially liked when you put in little overlays from the "normal way" so it was easier to see what the trick really was. Thank you 💜
Jabo! Thanks for the kind words. I saw you uploaded a speedrun history on Dead Money. I look forward to watching that, and I'd love to see more Fallout speedrun history. I also miss watching your stream as much as I used to. About a year ago my work blocked Twitch, so I can only catch you on the weekends. Hope you're well.
Me too. When i saw that skip i was litterally all like "Shut up! It really is that simple?!". That level was so big and had so much stuff in it that it probably shouldve been the final level. After finishing it, imaging my surprise how much shorter each level was after. Maybe the devs did intend for the rest of the game to be much longer but couldn't for whatever reason.
Adventure gamers like to blow things up by finding five hidden Snipes, feeding thdm to the wizard's pet gerbil so he turns into gunpowder, then stuffing the hollowed-out wheelchair with said powder and rolling it off the sleeping dragon's back.
I know exactly what happened to the adventure game genre. I was a kiddo playing adventure games my dad bought for his old PCs (we're talking 286 and before). My dad saw PC games as a sort of novelty, but I LOVED them (and still do). He stopped playing them and I ended up getting a Nintendo. I still loved adventure games, but consoles kind of funneled my young purchases towards more action based games. I think that same thing happened with a lot of kids growing up with dads and moms who bought those earlier KQ and SQ games. Their parents never really became "gamers" but our generation did and missed our adventure games. So when they started making them again, we jumped at the chance to buy them. I think Sierra just suffered from consoles not really being advanced enough to handle the full speech and sVGA graphics of the era.
This game outsold Grim Fandango 2 to 1 in 1998 and was one of the best selling King's Quest games. Maybe adventure game fans didn't like it, but there isn't enough of them to make games profitable.
Except you've gotten to the point where games had evolved beyond absurd puzzle BS with logic that even the Mad Hatter would find hard to follow. Remember to disguise as a man who doesn't have a mustache you must create a mustache. And god help you if you didn't pass the pixel hunt or missed a QTE to nap a critical item or your game is unwinnable! Sierra adventure games looking back at it was a case of Stockholm syndrome. At least Lucas Arts didn't have a myriad of softlocks in every game.
Back when I got this game I was so disappointed that I cheated and used a saved game to see the ending furthering my disappointment but later on when I got older I respected the game for what it was rather than what I wanted it to be and I picked up the game much later and completed it from beginning to end and enjoyed it. Also from that same message boards that I mentioned in the history of KQ6 speedruns that Roberta said that she lost creative control of Mask of Eternity it was very different from what she had in mind and the game was different from what Roberta envisioned. The saddest part about this is what might have been if Roberta didn't lose creative control over KQ:MOE.
Agree to 99% of your commonent- but i (now 34 years old) started with that Game... and i really loved it, for as you mention what it was... I also cheated first time ^^
@theRealIK Well in Ken's defense the industry was changing and and people's tastes in games have also changed with Doom and Quake being very successful games in the Action genre and He thought no one would be interested in just Adventure games anymore. Also Roberta lost creative control of her game also the people who took over for her did a terrible job with the game and by the time she was able to regain control it was too late so she had to savage what she could. I agree they should have marketed the game as a KQ game set in the KQ Universe but not as a mainline game. Also It wasn't even called KQ8 Mask of Eternity it was just called King's Quest Mask of Eternity. How it got the KQ8 title was from other countries that marketed it as such and with fans it caught on. With me I never once called Mask of Eternity KQ8.
Not to be rude to the developers and fans or dismiss the impact Sierra's titles had but it's hard not to expect most players to choose more straightforward, but still challenging and highly replayable action games like Doom or Tomb Raider over KQ and other old-school adventure titles when they mask their relatively short length with some of the most dickish or frustrating design choices - things like instant death events, awkward platforming/action sequences, RNG-based events and item spawns, instant death events: now on a timer!, and occasional moon logic puzzles meant to either force you into buying a guide or calling a tip hotline. It's just a little hard to enjoy a game focused on problem-solving and storytelling over manual dexterity when it's actively looking to trip you up and prevent you from beating it too soon with some of the cheapest tricks in the book, especially when it's the 80s or 90s and loading up a save or catching up on lost progress takes a hot minute due to slower hardware, and tip hotlines aren't cheap.
I played through and beat this whole game the "proper" way back in the day. I remember even finding one or two easter eggs (hidden dialogue bloopers and such). I had forgotten how obnoxiously nasal Conner's voice was!
Must say, I do like the animations in this game, this is my first time seeing it. It requires more skill to animate models with such a low poly count and make it look presentable
It's an action RPG with no real story. It's also an action RPG with no tactics. It also is a game with almost no music. It also barely works with constant crashing and absurd load times. It was always going to be a bad game.
I played this game when I was a kid. I remember I couldn't pass the first stage because I thought that was a demo, so I usually collect every single item and destroyed every single enemy. After some years, I installed it again and discovered how to advance to the other stage. I know that this is not a great King's Quest game, but I think it is indeed a great game overall for it's time. And it brings back so much memories!
XD, "if you don't like this run, your gonna have to do it yourself" has to be my favorite line in one of these types of videos in a loooong time lol. Thanks for documenting and sharing
Can we talk about how good the animations are in the cutscenes for a minute? For their time anyway; you can feel the weight and personality in much of the movement of the main character. Far and away ahead of its time.
My man borrowed a move from Terry Bogard at 9:00 to kill the Shadow Bane, lol. POWER WAVE! I've never played any of these games but these videos are so comfy. And informative too, even if it's probably not something I will ever use. Thank you for making them.
My ex from over 2 decades ago liked this game, but didn't really have gaming skill, so she made me sit down and play it so she could watch it. Surprisingly, that's not what had us break up, but would have been a good reason considering how tortuous it was for me. Excellent video as usual.
This game gave me nightmares when i was like 8 years old. The depressing and dark setting, everyone being turned to stone.. It did a good job at delivering emotions. Also the puzzles were really hard, never made it over the river in the underworld.
This is one of the games that got me into gaming. My dad used to play it while my siblings and I watched. Still one of my favorite nostalgic games. I replay it at least once a year
Man I've somehow never heard of this entry before but can I just say I LOVE the character animations in it. So fun and expressive, kind of in contrast to the general dour atmosphere actually.
Another excellent video! You do such a good job of making these accessible to those who don’t already know the games, without sacrificing any cool details. Well done!
Final boss: "FOUL SWINE" The jojo protagonist that is the player: "With my stand [CHILD IN TIME] I can surpass barriers of space AND time, which I am using to PUNCH YOU TO DEATH!"
your channel is incredible, man. i really appreciate how you explain not only the techniques, but the game as well as if the viewer knows absolutely nothing about the game.
Thanks! While the games were pretty well-known when they came out, I work on the assumption that most people today aren't familiar with them (or don't remember them).
The comments about how amazing the game is over layered on top of someone completely busting it to bits made me smile lol I don't think that was the desired effect but it was very funny to me.
This is more than a speedrun, this is an art of deconstructing the game, debugging it and reverse engineering some concepts, building incredibly complex algorithms, optimizing them and training your skills so that everything is executed perfectly. I am amazed!
Great video! I love speedrun explanations that explain what should have happened and what tech is being used to skip around the game. I’ve lots of nostalgia for the old Sierra games, not so much to want to play them again myself, so it’s fun to see people so good play them.
never played the full game, but I remember having a demo of it ages back. Always wondered what it was, since I only had vague memories, and had no idea what a 'kings quest' was. That said, the cutscenes are actually really impressive given the era, by my understanding, since everything else seems to rely on canned animations. you can really tell the game was built by adventure game specialists
I remember being completely taken aback by this preposterous installment. I still barely believe it existed, even after watching the video. Yet, even this is better than King's Quest VII. Oh yeah, I particularly appreciate you showing some of the skipped bits. I haven't seen anyone doing this before! NICE.
Never heard of this before, but it looks mighty appealing. Some form of modern engine port or full on remake, or at least some bug reducing and stability patches, and this seems fun to play through for a first time even today.
Man, this game was my childhood. I understand why long times fans were severely disappointed, but this is a great game in its own right. Wish we could have seen a more finished version.
For years, I could not get past Dimension of Death as a kid because the part where you weigh the heart against the feather of truth would dashboard my game. This was the OG disk version, not the GOG version.
I'd love it if your channel did these in depth breakdowns for games of other series as well, the evolution of the speed run and speaking to the runners involved. I've never played these games but I've binged all of the videos on your channel because they're so well made
I was thinking I would never use any of the knowledge I gain from these videos no matter how much I enjoy them. But now I know what a varlet is. And calling names to my foes that annoy me within a fantasy setting has never been easier.
Kinda love the format. I appreciate the narration on a good run, but this kind of straighforward stuff is amazing. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy some drama from time to time, but this is better.
Its interesting how the community gases eachother up and supports eachother and its really just an evolution more than a competition . You legit cant keep Your secrets You find from the community because it has to be shared on the saved video xD
Back in 1999, I used to jump backflips towards the corner walls in "Dimension Of Death" trying to climb over them, and somehow managed to get to the other side and walk along the far bank of the river right into the portal to the "Swamp"
Addenda: This video isn't meant to be a complete history of the speedrun. In some cases, I missed some interesting details. I'd like to give credit where it's due, and offer corrections when necessary.
03:41 bulbipop's run was the first to feature the trick with the wizard.
05:02 rtrger discovered that, if you mess this trick up, you can quickly enter and exit the menu to get the dialog going again.
08:22 gimlao contributed a lot to the guide as well.
You should pin your comment, editing it may have unpinned it
At the start of the game, you really should go to the waterfall first, and then the wizard. You can go to the portal during the first conversation with the wizard, and then to the knight's tomb. You can also get some more items along the way, including a basket of mushrooms in a hut, the dagger, and the shield potion and the Elixir of Life in the alchemist's hut. Items in huts can be grabbed through the window. You can get the candle, three baskets of mushrooms, and the rope and hook during the second conversation.
To do this, you have to go out of range at the start of the first conversation. There is just barely enough time to get out of range before Connor finishes his initial segment.
Although none of the runners have done this, it really is much better.
Lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllpllllppppl
My mom finished this game. I remember there was a puzzle she couldn't do. She got in contact with Sierra and found out that it was coded wrong so it was unsolvable. So they gave her a code to use so she could skip it.
That's hilarious! I'd be curious what it was. I'm guessing a console command.
Omg
Fuckin quality shit right there lol
If that's a true story, I wonder if they fixed it in later versions?
What a legend
I've never heard of anyone contacting the company when they get stuck in a game... except for moms playing Sierra games.
“What ho! A solid wall. Perchance I can phase my body through as an apparition would. Then I could complete my journey with great haste!”
Unfortunately, since the monsters roaming the land hadn't been slain, the people of the kingdom didn't survive long after their depetrification.
Presumably the monsters were sealed up after the mask was restored, since I THINK the lore implies they were all unleashed by the breaking of the mask.
@@Dark_Jaguar Na. People all ded. Dat why no KQ9, heh.
learn to speak, gorrila@@richardmahn7589
@@Dark_Jaguar But Chuck didn't get all the mask pieces, which means it isn't fully restored! Maybe 4/5ths of the monsters are sealed, but the other 20% are still enough to cause lots of problems to depetrified people.
@@timothymclean Hmm... would only 4/5ths of the people be depetrified, or it's everyone, but only 4/5ths of each individual person?
so we really just gonna ignore how metal it is that you backflip onto the head of a skeleton to get over the gates of hell
Wizard: "Come closer lad, I cannot hear you from such a distance" when 10ft away
Also wizard: *carries on entire conversation while player is literally in another dimension*
Yes, the wizard couldn't hear, but he can most certainly yell!
Probably yelled himself deaf.
My grandma was an early PC gamer and I used to watch her play this game and others like it for hours, miss her a lot
Your grandma was awesome.
"They put a sliding puzzle at the end of the game"
The best part about it is when you enter the room of the puzzle, Connor will say "I will establish ORDER" like it's gonna do something badass, but he just pushes blocks.
Well he IS putting the blocks in order...
@@ZorotheGallade It's not about the fact that he does it or not, it's the presentation, he enters the room like a total badass with his shiny armor and he exclaims out loud the phrase to a bunch of blocks. That's like if i was yelled "I am going to rid this place of filth!!!" and then i just grab a broom and a mop.
@@DarkOmegaMK2 Tbh everyone should do that whenever they are about to do something.
"YOU SHALL BE TEMPERED IN THE FIRES OF HELL" --me to my pizza as I turn on the oven.
@@ZorotheGallade That would seriously be awesome! "I WILL OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES!!" and then it's just doing the school homework.
It all makes sense. He was also turned to stone, but was able to simply clip through the petrification. That is why he was able to survive the curse and save the kingdom.
All I can think of whenever Conner does a jump is the Super Mario 64 long jump sound effect. That "Wahoo!"
WAHOOOO!
i had this as a kid growing up. i found the first level terrifying, between the low visibility, the creepy ex-people statues, and the monsters, i was too scared to play the game.
but the box came with a manual that had a monster glossary. i remember just reading it over and over again and marveling on the art and (now bad) poly renders, trying to imagine what the game is like.
when i was like 18 or so, i reinstalled it on a newer machine, but the game ran poorly and would crash during a major puzzle on the 2nd level (land of the dead). i didnt know about the river skip and thought thats just where my journey ends. i never played it again and forgot all about it.
im 30 now and i find this. thanks for the memories!
Similar experience here! I watched my mother play it for and the death dimension unnerved me quite a bit.
I find the music kinda disquieting even just watching this video
great video! i liked how one sees the game from beginning to end, like watching a normal speedrun, but inbetween you get these speedrunstrats-history. very interesting mix I didn't knew I need/want more of^^
Glad you enjoyed it! I stole / borrowed the format from Tomatoanus, if you want more of this style. Searching for "tomatoanus speedrun explained" should do it. Fair warning, his videos focus more on the current strats, and less on the history, but are nonetheless very detailed.
@@OneShortEye Your tone of commentary is perfect. Made me laugh a lot.
Love how all of Connor’s badass comeback lines boil down to “no u”
I was laughing for a good 30sec. I don't know why i found this comment soooo funny XD. I guess it's because I only realised just how true this observation is after reading this and not after finishing the game even for the 3rd time.
He hasn't skilled his Comeback abilities yet.
Imagine if the games had played into that deliberately, making Connor someone who desperately wants to be a cool badass hero, but can't figure out what to say until it's too late.
@@timothymclean that whole thing where you replay arguments in your head while showering thinking about what you could've said instead of what you originally did?
no u
I remember being so anxious to get this game that I ordered it directly from Sierra but it was on Backorder for I think a month or two. But when I ordered it I also included a little unknown game called Half-Life, which I wasn't really expecting much from. Lets just say I didn't really care much about this game after playing Half-Life.
It wasn't unknown, it was widely and extensively previewed in media
@@HYPERMASCULINE They were joking. Obviously they don't think that Half Life was legitimately an unknown game.
I found a demo disk of Half Life the other day with a Sierra logo on it, had no idea Sierra was involved.
@@antipsychotic451 Yeah it was kind of tongue in cheek. I did hear about the game before, but I definitely wasn't expecting much from it. I remember there was an article about how fungus would grow on the walls and such if you travel back to an earlier location.
"You may notice he doesn't have a weapon equipped. That's because what he equipped is his fist."
Those wristbands really coming in handy keeping him together.
I gotta say, considering the time period and the hardware involved, this is a pretty well animated game. the characters have good flow and it's pretty smooth overall, all things considered.. most games around this time didn't have it. oh and the textures for their mouths moving actually lip-sync to fit what they're pronouncing. most games had that "muppet" animating or 2 frames of textures for talking.
Well that's the problem they went for the graphics and animations (PC allowed that) instead of gameplay, and first Tomb Rider looks like ass but still VERY playable. This looks smooth but... well. And even then TR had stand-out animations, though stuff. Most 3D third person games of PS1 era are animated horribly.
It's absolutely insane. It's fully voiced. Has great cutscene animations. The devs really did great work there. The graphics just couldn't keep up.
I love how theatrical Connor’s animations are. The slinky way he presents the axe after obtaining it, his heroic poses after some sequences, energy making his body uncontrollable until he wills himself together. So much of this is still in my memory.
@@KasumiRINA It's more tragic than that, they didn't "go for the graphics over gameplay". They had this LOONY-ASS CHURCH COMPANY they partnered with to finance this game (and the loonies didn't SAY they were going to pull their crap off), and those guys basically tried to neuter KQ to kingdom come and turn it into this crazy propaganda bible game. By the time Ken and Roberta finally wrestled their IP back from these a-holes they had almost no time left to complete the game.
Basically what they shipped was what they could fix up of an alpha build with what remaining budget they had, and at a loss at that.
IIRC Space Quest Historian is friends with the dude who deep-dove into why this King's Quest was what it is on his featured channels or linked in one of his interviews' descriptions.
It was pretty impressive back then. Controls were awful, though. And it took FOREVER to load. I think if you went to a different level, it would install it to the hard drive from the cd and delete the previous area. It would take well over 10 minutes.
A small thing, I really enjoy this games animation style
The bouncy animation with the low poly look has a nice charm to it.
Yeah, its quite well animated for a game that old, even more the cutscenes.
It took my watching this speedrun for me to appreciate this style. These designers were trying in such an earnest way to create the most immersive experience. I love it.
I get like RuneScape vibes from it
I mean, look at cutscene at 28:44 a body splash countered into backflipping Canadian Destroyer through the floor onto the spikes, yay! And 27:28 has those camera angles for a leg drop into a rear chokehold neck snap. I miss when action heroes in videogames casually did pro wrestling moves xD
The models and textures are very PS1, but the animations...well, the _rigs_ are also PS1, but it's clear that skilled animators did what they could within their technical constraints.
It's funny: I bought this game at full retail price when it first came out, and I still have the original CD. But I only played it briefly, and hated it so much that I don't even recognize any of the early puzzles in this video. I'm pretty sure I just ran around Daventry fighting monsters for a few minutes, then uninstalled the game in disgust.
I know I at least got to the dimension of death, because I remember activating some of the easter eggs there. I'm not entirely sure we made it beyond that.
@@OneShortEye I played the whole thing and beat it. If it had been finished it would have been an... okay game, maybe.
I don't even know why anyone would bother speed running this game.. it's shit. Lol
@@mrburns366 I believe that's the point my friend. lol
@@bobby2turnt they're trying to get it over with because it sucks so bad. 😂
"Who are you, Sir... Snail?" lmao this was, I think, the first ever 3D game I ever played, because my mom assumed it was suitable for kids my age based on King's Quest VII, with its deceptively childish animation style. I actually loved how dark and violent it was, and how distinct each of the different worlds were.
Also there was a cheat code to make Connor naked, which as a little gay nerd... Never mind.
I remember my Mum playing this game and her struggling for months at a time as she tried to map things out, take notes and basically brute force her way through to completing it. If only she knew the magic of the wall clips, with a couple of well timed backflips 🤷♀️
Also Speedrun!Connor is the most madlad character I’ve ever seen. Zounds! None are as powerful as he.
I got this game from my dads collection, it’s surreal, even playing through casually I glitched through big portions of the game, partly because a coding error that is forever engraved in my mind and has become a family meme. “Lo, a feather!”.
The game is so wonky Most damage dealing Barriers can be brute forced by spamming healing items mid jump, and backflips can get you over almost anything. I think I also read that for some reason Connors long jump is 10 feet up and 15 feet forward, human grasshopper.
In addition to his incredible leaps, at 27:33 he breaks the guard's neck without breaking a sweat. He even pauses a bit before snapping it, as if to savor the moment. He's a monster.
My fav part of the game was Connor stealing the townsfolk's money and then apologizing to the statues or telling them how he needs it to save them, or that the money won't go to waste etc.
"Oh no, I left my key inside!"
"Anyway,"
>turns to the side and starts clipping the wall
I'm so happy there's a video explaining these stuff. I've been following KQ8 for a while and it's really cool to have more details about the speedrun progression of the game
I played this game when I was a child. Couldn't get pass the mill at the starting region. A friend asked to borrow the cd and see if he could solve the problem. In reality, he just stole it, and I never got to see that copy again.
Years later, I remembered that torrent was a thing, downloaded mask of eternity and finally completed it. Such a broken, ugly, glorious game! I still get chills from the noises and the darkness in Daventry.
Greetings from Brazil.
24:07 Freeza: Finally, a noble knight has come to my rescue.. wait.. where are you going
King Snail: "Well done, you've slained the witch!"
Witch: *"Am I a joke to you?"*
14:39: "Hello, I can hear you, lads!"
King Snail: "Wonderful. I couldn't tolerate that old biddy"
Witch: ( ಠ_ಠ)
“Sometimes I think I can still hear her voice… 😔 “
Oh man this is such a nostalgia trip. I watched my dad play this as a kid and loved every minute of it.
Alternative titles to the game.
King's Quest 8: Stoners Makes the Wall Clipping So Much Stronger.
King's Quest 8: Clipping of Eternity.
King's Quest 8: Connor Punches Mummies Barehanded.
King's Quest 8: The Last Boss thru' Punch Loading
King's Quest 8: The Four Pieces of RNG.
8:16 "By the way, if you don't like glitches and want to see a glitchless run, you're going to have to do it yourself"
So what you're saying is, I could become a World Record speedrunner?
Door: *asks question
Connor: Clipping is always the answer
Got to love the humor: 14:25 "I see you slew that vile witch"....yet the witch is standing right in front of him, even clipping through him. And then Connor says he did slay her...LIAR! lol.
2:07 This quote really sums up the failure of late '90s Sierra. I hated the switch from beautiful, evocative, thought-provoking 2D adventure games to ugly, blocky, action-based 3D.
I mean, Gabriel Knight 3 and Quest for Glory 5 stuck their landings - because they didn't have the oh-so brilliant idea of completely changing genres.
But Sierra had FOUR 3D engines for three games. The KQ9 engine, the GK3 engine, the QFG5 engine, and the QFG5 Demo engine. You know, the one that actually had the planned multiplayer?
(For the best that fell through - how would you put Magnum Opus and Elsa Von Spielburg on the same footing as Devon Aidendale when the latter has four classes and as many games?)
@@KopperNeoman I have to tell you, as a huge fan of the QfG series who beat 1-4 multiple times back in the day, I could not finish QfG 5. I just thought it didn't look nearly as good or play as well as QfG 4 despite coming out almost five years later.
Also, while Gabriel Knight 3 is a fine game, take a look at it now compared to the first game. While I grant you that tastes vary, I'd argue that the hand-drawn pixel art of 1993 is vastly superior to the low-res 3D of 1999.
i feel like it was an awkward but unavoidable time for games. I loved my N64 when i got it but i always felt the SNES looked better. Playing arcade games from the 90’s just before 3D
took off shows the height of pixel art
@@91Vault I remember hating early 3rd graphics as a kid. I thought they looked awful even when brand new. All my older brother and anyone could go on about was that it was "3d wow!"
It was a case of the new and exciting thing sugarcoating everything, but I was too young to be impressed by the tech.
Personally, I wish Connor would have also turned to stone. Then the frame rate would have made sense.
On that note, I should also come clean: I've been playing it for four hours so far on stream, and didn't realize first-person mode was a thing until watching this.
This is a great video - great explanation and everything~ I especially liked when you put in little overlays from the "normal way" so it was easier to see what the trick really was. Thank you 💜
4:00 very funny to see the wizard asking the player to come closer while the player is running away
YOOOO ShortEye, this is amazing - Keep making content like this man, I LOVE to see it
Jabo! Thanks for the kind words. I saw you uploaded a speedrun history on Dead Money. I look forward to watching that, and I'd love to see more Fallout speedrun history.
I also miss watching your stream as much as I used to. About a year ago my work blocked Twitch, so I can only catch you on the weekends. Hope you're well.
@@OneShortEye its nice to see you've stepped into the content market, Im so excited for your future man
"And that was the dimension of death, one of the shortest levels in the speedrun" Oh, that was painful...
Me too. When i saw that skip i was litterally all like "Shut up! It really is that simple?!". That level was so big and had so much stuff in it that it probably shouldve been the final level. After finishing it, imaging my surprise how much shorter each level was after. Maybe the devs did intend for the rest of the game to be much longer but couldn't for whatever reason.
I really appreciate the overlaid footage of the skipped portions of the game especially since I haven't played it before
Nobody who wanted to play a "King's Quest" game wanted to play a 3D tomb raider-style adventure, let alone "blow something up".
Adventure gamers like to blow things up by finding five hidden Snipes, feeding thdm to the wizard's pet gerbil so he turns into gunpowder, then stuffing the hollowed-out wheelchair with said powder and rolling it off the sleeping dragon's back.
I know exactly what happened to the adventure game genre. I was a kiddo playing adventure games my dad bought for his old PCs (we're talking 286 and before). My dad saw PC games as a sort of novelty, but I LOVED them (and still do). He stopped playing them and I ended up getting a Nintendo. I still loved adventure games, but consoles kind of funneled my young purchases towards more action based games.
I think that same thing happened with a lot of kids growing up with dads and moms who bought those earlier KQ and SQ games. Their parents never really became "gamers" but our generation did and missed our adventure games. So when they started making them again, we jumped at the chance to buy them. I think Sierra just suffered from consoles not really being advanced enough to handle the full speech and sVGA graphics of the era.
This game outsold Grim Fandango 2 to 1 in 1998 and was one of the best selling King's Quest games. Maybe adventure game fans didn't like it, but there isn't enough of them to make games profitable.
Except you've gotten to the point where games had evolved beyond absurd puzzle BS with logic that even the Mad Hatter would find hard to follow. Remember to disguise as a man who doesn't have a mustache you must create a mustache.
And god help you if you didn't pass the pixel hunt or missed a QTE to nap a critical item or your game is unwinnable! Sierra adventure games looking back at it was a case of Stockholm syndrome. At least Lucas Arts didn't have a myriad of softlocks in every game.
@@EmergencyChannel that's so sad, but then again nobody remembers this game and grim fandango is still being played today thanks to the remaster
Back when I got this game I was so disappointed that I cheated and used a saved game to see the ending furthering my disappointment but later on when I got older I respected the game for what it was rather than what I wanted it to be and I picked up the game much later and completed it from beginning to end and enjoyed it. Also from that same message boards that I mentioned in the history of KQ6 speedruns that Roberta said that she lost creative control of Mask of Eternity it was very different from what she had in mind and the game was different from what Roberta envisioned. The saddest part about this is what might have been if Roberta didn't lose creative control over KQ:MOE.
This is the perfect End-to-End experience that we could all wish to unlock
Agree to 99% of your commonent- but i (now 34 years old) started with that Game... and i really loved it, for as you mention what it was...
I also cheated first time ^^
@theRealIK 👍🏼
@theRealIK Well in Ken's defense the industry was changing and and people's tastes in games have also changed with Doom and Quake being very successful games in the Action genre and He thought no one would be interested in just Adventure games anymore. Also Roberta lost creative control of her game also the people who took over for her did a terrible job with the game and by the time she was able to regain control it was too late so she had to savage what she could. I agree they should have marketed the game as a KQ game set in the KQ Universe but not as a mainline game. Also It wasn't even called KQ8 Mask of Eternity it was just called King's Quest Mask of Eternity. How it got the KQ8 title was from other countries that marketed it as such and with fans it caught on. With me I never once called Mask of Eternity KQ8.
Not to be rude to the developers and fans or dismiss the impact Sierra's titles had but it's hard not to expect most players to choose more straightforward, but still challenging and highly replayable action games like Doom or Tomb Raider over KQ and other old-school adventure titles when they mask their relatively short length with some of the most dickish or frustrating design choices - things like instant death events, awkward platforming/action sequences, RNG-based events and item spawns, instant death events: now on a timer!, and occasional moon logic puzzles meant to either force you into buying a guide or calling a tip hotline.
It's just a little hard to enjoy a game focused on problem-solving and storytelling over manual dexterity when it's actively looking to trip you up and prevent you from beating it too soon with some of the cheapest tricks in the book, especially when it's the 80s or 90s and loading up a save or catching up on lost progress takes a hot minute due to slower hardware, and tip hotlines aren't cheap.
I played through and beat this whole game the "proper" way back in the day. I remember even finding one or two easter eggs (hidden dialogue bloopers and such). I had forgotten how obnoxiously nasal Conner's voice was!
Must say, I do like the animations in this game, this is my first time seeing it. It requires more skill to animate models with such a low poly count and make it look presentable
It's an action RPG with no real story. It's also an action RPG with no tactics. It also is a game with almost no music. It also barely works with constant crashing and absurd load times. It was always going to be a bad game.
I played this game when I was a kid. I remember I couldn't pass the first stage because I thought that was a demo, so I usually collect every single item and destroyed every single enemy.
After some years, I installed it again and discovered how to advance to the other stage.
I know that this is not a great King's Quest game, but I think it is indeed a great game overall for it's time. And it brings back so much memories!
I love how the snail fricking roasts the witch while she's litreally just standing there
I love this blend of game facts and speedrun history. Very enjoyable format
the way you edit these to keep dead time to a minimum and keep us interested is really well done. even the long videos move along nicely.
The graphics, color pallet, and animation are surprisingly good. This was fun to watch
XD, "if you don't like this run, your gonna have to do it yourself" has to be my favorite line in one of these types of videos in a loooong time lol. Thanks for documenting and sharing
The juxtaposition of watching this man made of 12 polygons snap another guy's neck made my jaw drop
This is a great video. I really enjoyed the narration, sense of personality, explanations, and humour.
24:05 (glances over at Supernova charging)
Before you knock this game for the clipping glich, Breath of the Wild speedrunners use a similar clipping bug 30 years later.
The low draw-distance honestly gives this Silent Hill vibes, especially with that low dark ambient in the BG.
Was not prepared for Connors 8ft vertical.
Can we talk about how good the animations are in the cutscenes for a minute? For their time anyway; you can feel the weight and personality in much of the movement of the main character. Far and away ahead of its time.
26:30 startled me so bad. I thought the bow was an enemy from behind and the weird sounds just gave me a sudden panic response. Great video overall.
My man borrowed a move from Terry Bogard at 9:00 to kill the Shadow Bane, lol. POWER WAVE!
I've never played any of these games but these videos are so comfy. And informative too, even if it's probably not something I will ever use. Thank you for making them.
12:17 it's so uncanny how real the floors in the swamp look where as the walls look like...like that
My ex from over 2 decades ago liked this game, but didn't really have gaming skill, so she made me sit down and play it so she could watch it.
Surprisingly, that's not what had us break up, but would have been a good reason considering how tortuous it was for me.
Excellent video as usual.
lolololol
This game gave me nightmares when i was like 8 years old. The depressing and dark setting, everyone being turned to stone.. It did a good job at delivering emotions. Also the puzzles were really hard, never made it over the river in the underworld.
Love how there's timing of when Connor says, "Zounds!" to get a warp!
This is one of the games that got me into gaming. My dad used to play it while my siblings and I watched. Still one of my favorite nostalgic games. I replay it at least once a year
Man I've somehow never heard of this entry before but can I just say I LOVE the character animations in it. So fun and expressive, kind of in contrast to the general dour atmosphere actually.
Another excellent video! You do such a good job of making these accessible to those who don’t already know the games, without sacrificing any cool details. Well done!
12:45 you’re telling me this man can jump to the damn moon like that, but that little drop kills him?
"In fact, the game crashed so much that every run-" *Random Ads play*
I may hate ads in videos, but I actually enjoyed that timing xD
Final boss: "FOUL SWINE"
The jojo protagonist that is the player: "With my stand [CHILD IN TIME] I can surpass barriers of space AND time, which I am using to PUNCH YOU TO DEATH!"
this kinda makes me want to see a new entry in the series as a souls-like
There was another entry after this but it went back to the more traditional style of gameplay.
I love this game, big Sierra and big KQ fan. This is probably my second or third favorite King’s Quest overall.
I'm absolutely blown away by the animation work in this game!
I have bad memories of games from this dark era, when everybody decided that "Ugly 3D is better than Beautiful 2D"
They were dark days, indeed.
and now we're in "beautiful 3d is better than making a good game" (w a lot of triple A companies)
@@MintyArisato seriously the obsession with hyper realistic graphics is so stupid and so bad for games
@@somedragonbastard No.
your channel is incredible, man. i really appreciate how you explain not only the techniques, but the game as well as if the viewer knows absolutely nothing about the game.
Thanks! While the games were pretty well-known when they came out, I work on the assumption that most people today aren't familiar with them (or don't remember them).
The comments about how amazing the game is over layered on top of someone completely busting it to bits made me smile lol I don't think that was the desired effect but it was very funny to me.
The thing is though you really couldnt discover these glitches during a casual playthrough.
This is more than a speedrun, this is an art of deconstructing the game, debugging it and reverse engineering some concepts, building incredibly complex algorithms, optimizing them and training your skills so that everything is executed perfectly. I am amazed!
Great video! I love speedrun explanations that explain what should have happened and what tech is being used to skip around the game. I’ve lots of nostalgia for the old Sierra games, not so much to want to play them again myself, so it’s fun to see people so good play them.
the animation at 7:50 cracks me up. There's so much expression in it and yet it still looks like a sock puppet being flailed around
This was silly! Loved the other KQ episodes but I've never even seen this janky mess before. Great video!
"Janky" is exactly the word for it.
This is the game, and probably the run, that drove Berta to drink 3 boxes of Franzia and scream at her husband all day.
Oh boy, i forgot how good for the time cutscene animations were in this
Love how you show us what gets skipped with those overlay videos. Keep up the good work
never played the full game, but I remember having a demo of it ages back. Always wondered what it was, since I only had vague memories, and had no idea what a 'kings quest' was. That said, the cutscenes are actually really impressive given the era, by my understanding, since everything else seems to rely on canned animations. you can really tell the game was built by adventure game specialists
I remember being completely taken aback by this preposterous installment. I still barely believe it existed, even after watching the video. Yet, even this is better than King's Quest VII. Oh yeah, I particularly appreciate you showing some of the skipped bits. I haven't seen anyone doing this before! NICE.
Great video,as a person who didnt play any kings quest games , i still enjoyed the video a ton . Thanks for making it
Never heard of this before, but it looks mighty appealing. Some form of modern engine port or full on remake, or at least some bug reducing and stability patches, and this seems fun to play through for a first time even today.
This video is so well made. I love that you show the parts that were skipped. Was a really nice watch.
Man, this game was my childhood. I understand why long times fans were severely disappointed, but this is a great game in its own right. Wish we could have seen a more finished version.
This 100% needs a remake
8:15 there is a glitchless run now submitted by ChuckGrody himself.
For years, I could not get past Dimension of Death as a kid because the part where you weigh the heart against the feather of truth would dashboard my game. This was the OG disk version, not the GOG version.
'Twas beyond your reach. :(
@@OneShortEye oh my god stoppit 🤣
2:09 fucking hell that’s a toxic mindset, no wonder the game turned out the way it did
I'd love it if your channel did these in depth breakdowns for games of other series as well, the evolution of the speed run and speaking to the runners involved. I've never played these games but I've binged all of the videos on your channel because they're so well made
never even played a kings quest in my life, and i already watch you talk about the 3rd and 6th installment
I was thinking I would never use any of the knowledge I gain from these videos no matter how much I enjoy them.
But now I know what a varlet is. And calling names to my foes that annoy me within a fantasy setting has never been easier.
This video was informative, funny, and entertaining. Commenting so the algo knows how I feel.
Kinda love the format. I appreciate the narration on a good run, but this kind of straighforward stuff is amazing. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy some drama from time to time, but this is better.
I like this video style, it's like an actual documentary, but also merged with a typical youtube analysis video
Its interesting how the community gases eachother up and supports eachother and its really just an evolution more than a competition . You legit cant keep Your secrets You find from the community because it has to be shared on the saved video xD
Back in 1999, I used to jump backflips towards the corner walls in "Dimension Of Death" trying to climb over them, and somehow managed to get to the other side and walk along the far bank of the river right into the portal to the "Swamp"
Mask of Eternity was awesome